Page 218: “It has been told us by many that the Eboe people are
confirmned Anthropophagi; and this opinion is more prevalent among the
tribes bordering on that kingdom than with the nations of more remote
districts.”
We shall close our extracts from Lander’s work, by the following,
showing that the Africans made slaves of the two Landers themselves.
Page 225: “The king then said, with a serious countenance, that there
was no necessity for further discussion respecting the white men, (the
two brothers Lander,) his mind was already made up on the subject; and
for the first time, he briefly explained himself, to this effect: That
circumstances having thrown us in the way of his subjects, by the laws
and usages of the country he was not only entitled to our own persons,
but had equal rights to those of our attendants. That he should take no
further advantage of his good fortune than by exchanging us for as much
English goods as would amount in value to twenty slaves.”
The following we transcribe from Stedman’s Narrative, vol. ii. page 267:
“I should not forget to mention that the Gingo negroes are supposed to
be Anthropophagi, or cannibals, like the Caribbee Indians, instigated by
habitual and implacable revenge. Among the rebels of this tribe, after
the taking of Boucore, some pots were found on the fire, with human
flesh, which one of the officers had the curiosity to taste; and
declared that it was not inferior to some kinds of beef or pork. I have
since been informed, by a Mr. Vaugils, an American, who, having
travelled a great number of miles inland in Africa, at last came to a
place where human arms, legs, and thighs hung upon wooden shambles, and
were exposed to sale like butcher’s meat. And Captain John Keen,
formerly of the Dolphin, but late of the Vianbana schooner, in the
Sierra Leone Company’s service, positively assured me that, a few years
since, when he was on the coast of Africa, in the brig Fame, from
Bristol, Mr. Samuel Briggs, owner, trading for wool, ivory, and
gold-dust, a Captain Dunningen, with the whole crew belonging to the
Nassau schooner, were cut in pieces, salted, and eaten by the negroes of
Great Drewin.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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