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H.M. brig Clinker also got under weigh at the same time, with the intention of accompanying us a short distance within the bar, where she was to have anchored; while her boats were to have gone with us, for the purpose of assisting in the capture of any slave-vessel that might be up the river, but it unfortunately fell calm about 9 o'clock, when Lieutenant Matson came on board and acquainted Lieutenant Badgeley that he was afraid the expedition up the river would detain him longer than he had expected, and he must therefore relinquish his intentions, and proceed direct for Fernando Po, in order to obtain a supply of provisions, of which they had much need.
And I rejoiced, sorrowful as I otherwise was, that I had visited Bristol, if it had been only to gain an accurate statement of this one fact. In pursuing my objects, I found that reports were current, that the crew of the Alfred slave-vessel, which had just returned, had been barbarously used, but particularly a young man of the name of Thomas, who had served as the surgeon's mate on board her.
These Kroomen keep no slaves themselves, neither do they allow any of their own tribe to be sold as slaves; and they become of so much importance to the slave-dealers on the coast, acting as a sort of brokers, negotiating among the tribes for slaves, that they themselves, knowing their own consequence, do not hesitate to board a slave-vessel, and there is no instance of their ever being kidnapped."
My reflections here on the better use which might be made of Africa by the substitution of another trade, and on the better use which might be made of her inhabitants, served greatly to animate, and to sustain me amidst the labour of my pursuits. The next vessel I boarded was the Fly, captain Colley: Here I found myself for the first time on the deck of a slave-vessel.
She was fortunately a very beautiful American pilot-boat schooner, that with the least breeze was as manageable as a boat. We scaled the guns, and otherwise prepared for action, for there was no doubt but that any slave-vessel would resist to the utmost, if there was the least chance of escape.
He returned to the knoll, and pouring out water into a tin pan from the breaker, brought it down to them. He offered it to one, who seized it eagerly; water was a luxury seldom obtained in the hold of a slave-vessel. The man drank deeply, and would have drained the cup, but Francisco prevented him, and held it to the lips of another.
Seamen also were boarded in these houses, who, when the slave-ships were going out, but at no other time, were encouraged to spend more than they had money to pay for; and to these, when they had thus exceeded, but one alternative was given, namely, a slave-vessel, or a gaol.
At three this morning, the same party returned; and, soon after daylight, we got the schooner under weigh, to beat up the river, and the Duke's head pilot came on board, when to prove the confidence that might be reposed in him, he brought a certificate from Lieutenant Corry, of H.M.S. North Star, which stated that he had piloted that ship's boats up the river, as well as conducted them down, with a slave-vessel that they had seized.
About one o'clock, a rakish-looking schooner made her appearance, which, from her manoeuvres, such as frequently altering her course, as if she wished to avoid us, we suspected to be a slave-vessel; we, therefore, made full sail in chase, and at three o'clock, had approached near enough to fire a gun at her, when she immediately hoisted English colours, brought to, and proved to be the African, Captain John Smith, twenty-five days from Sierra Leone, and seven from Cape Coast Castle, laden with provisions for the colony, and having on board Hospital-Assistant Cowen, of the Medical Staff, who had volunteered to join the establishment.
Of all the miserable objects, I know of none to be compared to the poor devils of slaves on board of a slave-vessel; the state of suffocation between decks the dreadful stench arising from their filth, which is hardly ever cleared away the sick lying without help, and looked upon by those who are stronger with the utmost indifference men, women and children, all huddled and crowded together in a state of nudity, worn to skin and bone from stench, starvation, and living in an atmosphere that none but a negro could exist in.
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