it is very difficult to prevail on them to come on board. _William Smith_ remarks,[B] "As we past along this coast, we very often lay before a town, and fired a gun for the natives to come off, but no soul came near us; at length we learnt by some ships that were trading down the coast, that the natives came seldom on board an English ship, for fear of being detained or carried off; yet last some ventured on board, but if those chanced to spy any arms, they would all immediately take to their canoes, and make the best of their way home. They had then in their possession one _Benjamin Cross_ the mate of an English vessel, who was detained by them to make reprisals for some of their men, who had formerly been carried away by some English vessel." In the Collection we are told,[C]_This villainous custom is too often practised, chiefly by the Bristol and Liverpool ships, and is a great detriment to the slave trade on the windward coast. John Snock, mentioned in Bosman_[D] when on that coast, wrote, "We cast anchor, but not one Negro coming on board, I went on shore, and after having staid a while on the strand, some Negroes came to me; and being desirous to be informed why they did not come on board, I was answered that about two months before, the English had been there with two large vessels, and had ravaged the country, destroyed all their canoes, plundered their houses, and carried off some of their people, upon which the remainder fled to the inland country, where most of them were that time; so that there being not much to be done by us, we were obliged to return on board.[E] When I enquired after their wars with other countries, they told me they were not often troubled with them; but if any difference happened, they chose rather to end the dispute amicably, than to come to arms."[F] He found the inhabitants civil and good-natured. Speaking of the _King of Rio Seftré_ lower down the coast, he says, "He was a very agreeable, obliging man, and that all his subjects are civil, as well as very laborious in agriculture, and the pursuits of trade," _Marchais_ says,[G] "That though the country is very populous, yet none of the natives (except criminals) are sold for slaves." _Vaillant_ never heard of any settlement being made by the Europeans on this part of _Guinea_; and _Smith_ remarks,[H] "That these coasts, which are divided into several little kingdoms, and have seldom any wars, is the reason the slave trade is not so good here as on _the Gold and Slave Coast_, where the Europeans have several forts and factories." A plain evidence this, that it is the intercourse with the Europeans, and their settlements on the coast, which gives life to the slave trade. [Footnote A: Collection, vol. 2, page 560.] [Footnote B: W. Smith, page 111.] [Footnote C: Astley's collection, vol. 2, page 475.] [Footnote D: W. Bosman's description of Guinea, page 440.] [Footnote E: W. Bosman's description of Guinea, page 429.] [Footnote F: Ibid, 441.]