The evils attendant on this inhuman traffick, are not confined to the purchased negroes. The sufferings of the seamen employed in the slave trade, from the unwholesomeness of the climate, the inconveniences of the voyage, the brutal severity of the commanders, and other causes, fall very little short, nor prove in proportion to the numbers, less destructive to the sailors than negroes.
     The sailors on board the Guinea ships, are not allowed always an equal quantity of beef and pork with those belonging to other merchant ships.  In these articles they are frequently much stinted, particularly when the negroes are on board; part of the stock laid in for the sailors, being, as before observed, appropriated to their use.
     With regard to their drink, they are generally denied grog, and are seldom allowed any thing but water to quench their thirst.  This urges them, when opportunity offers, at Bonny and other places on the coast, to barter their clothes with the natives, for English brandy, which the Africans obtain, among other articles, in exchange for slaves; and they frequently leave themselves nearly naked, in order to indulge an excess in spiritous liquors.  In this state, they are often found lying on the deck, and in different parts of the ship, exposed to the heavy dews which in those climates fall during the night; notwithstanding the deck is usually washed every evening.  This frequently causes pains in the head and limbs, accompanied with a

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fever, which generally, in the course of a few days, occasions their death.
     The temporary house constructed on the deck, affords but an indifferent shelter from the weather; yet the sailors are obliged to lodge under it, as all the parts between decks are occupied by, or kept for, the negroes.  The cabin is frequently full, and when this is the case, or the captain finds the heat and the stench intolerable, he quits his cot, which is usually hung over the slaves, and sleeps in the round-house, if there be one, as there is in many ships.
     The foul air that arises from the negroes when they are much crowded, is very noxious to the crew; and this is not a little increased by the additional heat which the covering over the ship occasions.  The mangrove smoke is likewise, as before observed, productive of disorders among them.
     Nor are they better accommodated after they leave the Coast of Africa.  During the whole of the passage to the West-Indies, which in general lasts seven weeks, or two months, they are obliged, for want of room between decks, to keep upon deck.  This exposure to the weather, is also found very prejudicial to the health of the sailors, and frequently occasions fevers, which generally prove fatal.  The only resemblance of a shelter, is a tar pawling thrown over the booms, which even before they leave the coast, is generally so full of holes, as to afford scarce any defence against the wind or the rain, of which a considerable quantity usually falls during this passage.
     Many other causes contribute to affect the health of the sailors.  The water at Bonny, which they are obliged to drink, is very unwholesome; and,

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together with their scanty and bad diet, and the cruel usage they receive from the officers, tends to impoverish the blood, and render them extremely susceptible of putrid fevers and dysenteries.
     The seamen, whose health happen to be impaired, are discharged, on the arrival of the ships in the West-Indies, and as soon as they get ashore, they have recourse to spiritous liquors, to which they are the more prone, on account of having been denied grog, or even any liquor but water, during their being aboard; the consequence of which is, a certain and speedy destruction.  Numbers likewise die in the West-India islands, of the scurvy, brought on in consequence of poverty of diet, and exposure to all weathers.
     I am now come to a part of the sufferings of the sailors who are employed in the slave-trade, of which, for the honour of human nature, I would willingly decline giving an account; that is, the treatment they receive from their officers, which makes no inconsiderable addition to the hardships and ailments just mentioned, and contributes not a little to rob the nation annually, of a considerable number of this valuable body of men.  However, as truth demands, and the occasion requires it, I will relate some of the circumstances of this kind, which fell under my own immediate observation, during the several voyages I made in that line.
     In one of these, I was witness to the following instance of cruel usage.  Most of the sailors were treated with brutal severity; but one in particular, a man advanced in years, experienced it in an uncommon degree.  Having made some complaint relative to his allowance of water, and this being construed into an insult, one of the officers seized

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him, and with the blows he bestowed upon him, beat out several of his teeth.  Not content with this, while the poor old man was yet bleeding, one of the iron pump-bolts was fixed in his mouth, and kept there by a piece of rope-yarn tied round his head.  Being unable to spit out the blood which flowed from the wound, the man was almost choaked, and obliged to swallow it.  He was then tied to the rail of the quarter-deck, having declared, upon being gagged, that he would jump overboard and drown himself.  About two hours after he was taken from the quarterdeck rail, and fastened to the grating companion of the steerage, under the half deck, where he remained all night with a centinel placed over him.
     A young man on board one of the ships, was frequently beaten in a very severe manner, for very trifling faults.  This was done sometimes with what is termed a cat, (an instrument of correction, which consists of a handle or stem, made of a rope three inches and a half in circumference, and about eighteen inches in length, at one of which are fastened nine branches, or tails, composed of log line, with three or more knots upon each branch), and sometimes he was beat with a bamboo.  Being one day cruelly beaten with the latter, the poor lad, unable to endure the severe usage, leaped out of one of the gun ports on the larboard side of the cabin, into the river.  He, however, providentially escaped being devoured by the sharks, and was taken up by a canoe belonging to one of the black traders then lying along-side the vessel.  As soon as he was brought on board, he was dragged to the quarter-deck, and his head forced into a tub of water, which

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had been left there for the negroe women to wash their hands in. In this situation he was kept till he was nearly suffocated; the person who held him, exclaiming, with the malignity of a demon, "If you want drowning, I will drown you myself.  "Upon my inquiring of the young man, if he knew the danger to which he exposed himself by jumping overboard, he replied," that he expected to be devoured by the sharks, but he preferred "even that, to being treated daily with so much "cruelty."
     Another seaman having been in some degree negligent, had a long chain fixed round his neck, at the end of which was fastened a log of wood.  In this situation he performed his duty, (from which he was not in the least spared) for several weeks, till at length he was nearly exhausted by fatigue; and after his release from the log, he was frequently beaten for trivial faults.  Once, in particular, when an accident happened, through the carelessness of another seaman, he was tied up, although the fault was not in the least imputable to him, along with the other person, and they were both flogged till their backs were raw.  Chian pepper was then mixed in a bucket, with salt water, and with this the harrowed parts of the back of the unoffending seaman were washed, as an addition to his torture.
     The same seaman having at another time accidentally broken a plate, a fifh-gig was thrown at him with great violence.  The fifh-gig is an instrument used for striking fish, and consists of several strong barbed points fixed on a pole, about six feet long, loaded at the end with lead.  The man escaped the threatening danger, by stooping his head, and the missile weapon struck in the barri-

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cado. Knives and forks were at other times thrown at him; and a large Newfoundland dog was frequently set at him, which, thus encouraged, would not only tear his cloths, but wound him.  At length, after several severe floggings, and other ill treatment, the poor fellow appeared to be totally insensible to beating, and careless of the event.
     I must here add, that whenever any of the crew were beaten, the Newfoundland dog, just mentioned, from the encouragement he met with, would generally leap upon them, tear their cloths, and bite them. He was particularly inveterate against one of the seamen, who, from being often knocked down, and severely beaten, appeared quite stupid, and incapable of doing his duty.  In this state, he was taken on board another ship, and returned to England.
     In one of my voyages, a seaman came on board the ship I belonged to, while on the coast, as a passenger to the West-Indies.  He was just recovered from a fever, and notwithstanding this, he was very unmercifully beaten during the passage, which, together with the feeble state he was in at the time, rendered him nearly incapable of walking, and it was but by stealth, that any medical assistance could be given to him.
     A young man was likewise beaten and kicked almost daily, for trifling, and even imaginary faults.  The poor youth happening to have a very bad toe, through a hurt, he was placed as a centry over the sick slaves, a station which required much walking.  This, in addition to the pain it occasioned, increased a fever he already had.  Soon after he was compelled, although so ill, to sit on the gratings, and being there overcome with illness and fatigue,

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he chanced to fall asleep; which being observed from the quarter-deck, he was soon awakened, and with many oaths, upbraided for neglect of duty.  He was then kicked from the gratings, and so cruelly beaten, that it was with great difficulty he crawled to one of the officers who was more humane, and complaining of the cruel treatment he had just received, petitioned for a little barley water (which was kept for the sick slaves) to quench the intolerable thirft he experienced.
     Another seaman was knocked down several times a day, for faults of no deep dye.  It being observed at one time, that the hen coops had not been removed by the sailors who were then washing the deck, nor washed under, which it was his duty to fee done, one of the officers immediately knocked him down, then seized and dragged him to the stern of the vessel, where he threw him violently against the deck.  By this treatment, various parts of his body was much bruised, his face swelled, and he had a bad eye for a fortnight.  He was afterwards severely beaten for a very trifling fault, and kicked till he fell down.  When he got on shore in the West-Indies, he carried his shirt, stained with the blood which had slowed from his wounds, to one of the magistrates of the island, and applied to him for redress; but the ship being consigned to one of them, all the redress he could procure, was his discharge.
     Many other instances of similar severity might be produced; but the foregoing will suffice, to give some idea of the treatment seamen are liable to, and generally experience, in this employ; the consequence of which usually is desertion or death.

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Of the former I will give one instance.  While a ship I belonged to lay at Bonny, early one morning near a dozen of the crew deserted in one of the long boats.  They were driven to this desperate measure, as one of them afterwards informed me, by the cruel treatment they had experienced on board.  Two of them, in particular, had been severely beaten and flogged the preceding day.  One of these having neglected to fee that the arms of the ship were kept fit for use, was tied up to the mizen shrouds, and after being stripped, very severely flogged on the back; his trowsers were then pulled down, and the floging was repeated.  The other seaman, who was esteemed a careful, cleanly, sober fellow, had been punished little less severely, though it did not appear that he had been guilty at that time of any fault.
     It is customary for most of the captains of the slave ships to go on shore every evening to do business with the black traders.  Upon these occasions many of them get intoxicated, and when they return on board, give proofs of their inebriation, by beating and ill using some or other of the crew.  This was the present case; the seaman here spoken of, was beaten, without any reason being assigned, with a knotted bamboo, for a considerable time; by which he was very much bruised, and being before in an ill state of health, suffered considerably.
     Irritated by the ill usage which all of them, in their turn, had experienced, they resolved to attempt an escape, and effected it early in the morning.  The person on the watch discovered, that the net-work on the main deck had been cut, and that one of the long-boats was gone; and,

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upon farther examination it was found, that near a dozen of the seamen were missing.  A few hours after, the captain went in the cutter in pursuit of the deserters, but without success.
     On my return to England, I received from one of them the following account of their adventures during this undertaking.
     When they left the vessel, they proposed going to Old Calabar, being determined to perish, rather than return to the ship.  All the provisions they took with them was, a bag containing about half a hundred weight of bread, half a small cheese and a cask of water of about 38 gallons.  They made a sail of hammock, and erected one of the boat's oars for a mast.  Thus slenderly provided, they dropped down the river of Bonny, and kept along the coast; but mistaking one river for another, they were seized by the natives, who stripped them, and marched them across the country, for a considerable distance, to the place to which they themselves intended going.  During the march, several were taken ill, and some of them died.  Those who survived, were sold to an English ship which lay there.  Every one of these deserters, except three, died on the coast, or during their passage to the West-Indies; and one of the remaining three died soon after his arrival there.  So that only two out of the whole number, lived to arrive in England, and those in a very infirm state of health.
     While I am upon the subject of the desertions among the sailors, I must add, that the captains in this trade generally take out with them tobacco and slops, which they fell at an exorbitant price to the sailors.  And in case of their desertion or decease, they have it in their power to charge to

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the seamens accounts, whatever quantity they please, without contradiction.  This proves an additional reason for cruel usage.  In case of desertion, the sailors forfeit their wages, by which the expences of the voyage are lessened, and consequently the merchants reap benefit from it.
     The relation just given of the barbarities exercised by the officers in the slave trade, upon the seamen under their command, may appear to those who are unacquainted with the method in which this iniquitous branch of commerce is conducted, to be exaggerated.  But I can assure them, that every instance is confined within the strictest bounds of truth.  Many others may likewise be bought to prove, that those I have recited are by no means singular.  Indeed, the reverse of this conduct would be esteemed a singularity.  For the common practice of the officers in the Guinea trade, I am sorry to say it, will, with a very few exceptions, justify the assertion, that to harden the feelings, and to inspire a delight in giving torture to a fellow creature, is the natural tendency of this unwarrantable traffic.  It is but justice however, that I except from this general censure, one captain with whom I sailed.  Upon all occasions I found him to be a humane and considerate man, and ever ready to alleviate the evils attendant on the trade, as far as they were to be lessened.
     The annual diminution of British seamen by all the foregoing causes, is what next claims attention, and upon due investigation will be found, I fear, to be much more considerable than it is generally supposed to be.  As this is a question of great national importance, and cannot sail to evince the necessity of an abolition of the

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slave trade; in order to convey to the public some idea of the destructive tendency of it, I will give an account of the statement of the loss of a ship, to which I belonged, during one of her voyages.  And though this statement may not be considered as an average of the loss upon each voyage, which I have before estimated, as I would not wish to exceed the mark, at one fourth, and oftentimes one third.  I have known instances where it has been greatly exceeded, as I shall presently shew.
     The crew of the ship I speak of, upon its departure from England, consisted of forty-six persons, exclusive of the captain, chief mate, and myself.  Out of this number, we lost on the coast eleven by desertion (of whom only two, and those in a very infirm state, ever arrived in England) and five by death.  Three perished in the middle passage, of whom one was a passenger.  In the West-Indies, two died, one of which was a passenger from Bonny.  Five were discharged at their own request, having been cruelly treated, and five deserted, exclusive of two who shipped themselves at Bonny; of these ten, several were in a diseased state; and probably, like most of the seamen who are discharged or desert from the Guinea ships in the islands, never returned to their native country.  One died in our passage from the West-Indies to England; and one, having been rendered incapable of duty, was sent on board another ship while we lay at Bonny.
     Thus, out of the forty-six persons before mentioned, only fifteen returned home in the ship.  And several, out of this small number, so enervated in their constitution, as to be of little service in future; they were, on the contrary, reduced to the mournful necessity of becoming

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burthensome to themselves and to others.  Of the ten that deserted, or were discharged in the West Indies, little account can be taken; it being extremely improbable that one half, perhaps not a third, ever returned to this country.
     From hence it appears, that there was a loss in this voyage of thirty- one sailors and upwards, exclusive of the two sailors who were passengers, and not included in the ship's crew.  I say a loss of thirty-one, for though the whole of this number did not die, yet if it be considered, that several of those who returned to England in the ship, or who might have returned by other ships, are likely to become a burthen, instead of being useful to the community, it will be readily acknowledged, I doubt not, that the foregoing statement does not exceed reality.
     How worthy of serious consideration is the diminution here represented, of a body of people so valuable in a commercial state!  But how much more alarming will this be, when it appears, as is really the cafe, that the loss of seamen in the voyage I am speaking of, is not equal to what is experienced even by some other ships trading to Bonny and Calabar; and much less than by those employed in boating on the Windward Coast; where frequently there happens such a mortality among the crew, as not to leave a sufficient number of hands to navigate the ships to the West Indies.  In the year 1786, I saw a ship, belonging to Miles Barber, and Co. at Cape Monserado, on the Windward Coast, which had lost all the crew except three, from boating; a practice that proves extremely destructive to sailors, by exposing them to the parching sun and heavy dews of Africa, for weeks together, while they

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are seeking for negroes up the rivers, as before described.
     It might naturally be asked, as such are the dangers to which the sailors employed in the slave trade are exposed from the intemperature of the climate, the inconveniencies of the voyage, and the treatment of the officers, how the captains are able to procure a sufficient number to man their ships.  I answer, that it is done by a series of finesse and imposition, aided not only by allurements, but by threats.
     There are certain public-houses, in which, for interested purposes, the sailors are trusted, and encouraged to run in debt.  To the landlords of these houses the captains apply.  And a certain number being fixed on, the landlord immediately insists upon their entering on board such a ship, threatening, in cafe of refusal, to arrest and throw them into prison.  At the same time the captain holds out the allurements of a month's pay in advance above the ships in any other trade, and the promise of fatisfying their inexorable landlords.  Thus terrified on the one hand by the apprehensions of a prison, and allured on the other by the promised advance, they enter.  And by this means a very great proportion of the sailors in the slave trade are procured; only a very small number of landmen are employed.  During the several voyages I have been in the trade, I have not known the number to exceed one for each voyage.  The few ships that go out in time of war, generally take with them, as other merchant ships do, a greater proportion of landmen.  And with regard to apprentices, we had not any on board the

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ships I failed in, neither to my knowledge have I ever seen any.  So far is this trade from proving a nursery for seamen.
     By their articles, on entering on board some Guinea ships, the sailors are restrained, under for feiture of their wages, from applying, in case of ill usage, to any one for redress, except to such persons as shall be nominated by the owners or the captain; and by others, to commence an action against the captain for bad treatment, incurs a penalty of fifty pounds.  These restrictions seem to be a tacit acknowledgment on the part of the owners and captains, that ill treatment is to be expected.
     Having stated the foregoing facts relative to the nature of this destructive and inhuman traffick, I shall leave those, whose more immediate business it is, to deduce the necessary conclusions; and shall proceed to give a few cursory observations on those parts of the coast of Africa already referred to; confining myself to such as tend to an elucidation of the slave trade, without entering minutely into the state of the country.

NEXT Page 51 - A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF SUCH PARTS OF THE COAST OF GUINEA, AS ARE BEFORE REFERRED TO.