Observations on the slave trade and a description of some part of the coast of Guinea, during a voyage, made in 1787, and 1788, in company with Doctor A. Sparrman and Captain Arrehenius — John Shaqi
Observations on the slave trade and a description of some part of the coast of Guinea, during a voyage, made in 1787, and 1788, in company with Doctor A. Sparrman and Captain ArreheniusWadström, Carl Bernhard
History
Observations on the slave trade and a description of some part of the coast of Guinea, during a voyage, made in 1787, and 1788, in company with Doctor A. Sparrman and Captain Arrehenius
Wadström, Carl Bernhard
Guinea -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Slave trade -- Africa, West -- Early works to 1800
In speaking of these sloops, I cannot refrain from mentioning an
instance which came under my own eye. A trading mulattoe of Goree,
whose name was Martin, had obtained from the king of Sallum, by means
of the publick _Pillage_ before described, a sloop full of captives.
The greater part of them were women and children. Notwithstanding
this, they had been thrown into the sloop as if they had been articles
of lumber, and devoid of feeling. Obliged, moreover, from too close
a stowage, to lie on the inequalities and protuberances of the bare
planks, without being able to change their position, they had in the
course only of eight days (which I stated to be the time of the passage
from Sallum to Goree) been very materially hurt: for, when I saw them
brought out of the sloop, they had several contusions on various parts
of their bodies, and in others their flesh was severely cut. A poor
child in particular, about two years old, had a very deep wound in his
side, made in the manner above stated. He lay afterwards, upon being
landed, with the wound contiguous to the ground, so that the sand
getting into it, put him to exquisite pain. I mention this instance,
only to give an idea of what are thought to be rooms of accommodation
for slaves, and of that inhumanity, which naturally springs out of the
prosecution of this trade.
Before I close my account of the publick _Pillage_, I must not forget
to mention, that the kings of those parts, (except the king of Sallum)
never openly profess the right, which they thus unjustly usurp over
the lives and liberties of their subjects. For this reason they plan
their expeditions in such a manner, that they must arrive at the place
they intend to _Pillage_, in the dead of the night. It is impossible,
therefore, for their subjects, in such a case, to discover who are the
instruments of those acts of violence; and they may with greater reason
suppose, that they were perpetrated by a roving banditti, than by the
direction of their own kings.
I come now to the private _Pillage_. This is practiced by individuals,
who, tempted by the merchandize brought by the Europeans, lie in wait
for one another. For this purpose they beset the roads, and other
places, so that a travelling negro can hardly ever escape them. To
enumerate the many instances of this private depredation that happen,
would be an endless task. I shall therefore select but one, which, on
account of the circumstances that followed, may strike the reader as
singular.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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