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LETTERS
ON THE
SLAVE-TRADE, See.
L    E     T    T    E    R S
ON THE
SLAVE-TRADE,
and the
STATE    OF    THE NATIVES
int h*0 sb   parts of
A      F     R      I     C A,
which are contiguous to
FORT   Sr.    LOUIS    AND    G 0 R E E,
WRITTEN      AT PARIS
In December  1789,  and January 1790.
, KTOg? K- \    By   T. CLARKSON,
I m Wiki \   ——
LONDON:
printed and sold by james phillips, george yard, lombard street.
JIDCCXCI,
T Q
SAMUEL TPHITBREAD, Esq.
THIS LITTLE TRACT, RELATING TO A SUBJECT OF PHILANTHROPY WHICH HAS LONG OCCUPIED HIS FEELINGS,
IS INSCRIBED,
BY   HIS SINCERE
AND  OBEDIENT SERVANT,
THOMAS C LARK SON.
P    R     E    F    A    C E.
Hap p E N iN G to be at Paris for a few months in the year 1789, i became acquainted with feveral gentlemen, who cxpreffed a wilh to be informed of the merits of the quellion of the Abolition, of the Slave-Trade. i defired fuch of them, as appeared to me to have that fubject. molt at heart, to propofe to me certain queries in writing, which i would anfwer at my leifure. Thefe queries were accordingly propofed, and my anfwers were given as i had promifed.
On my arrival in England, i accidentally (hewed what I had thus written to a friend. He was fo ftruck with the anfwers to the fir ft and fecond of thefe queries, but particularly the fecond, as to dell re me to publifh them. " i have read," fays he. " the Privy Council Report : i have read alfo the various publications on the fame fub-jec~t; and though i can collect very fatisfaclorily from thefe the different methods of making llaves on. the-continent of Africa, i have
never
never been able, till the perufal of thefe anfwers, to acquire any jufc idea of the ftate of fociety in which the natives live. I advife you therefore to publifh them; firlr, as I have jufl hinted, becaufe you will be giving information on a branch of the fubject that is but little known ; and, feccndly, becaufe I think you will prove the natives to have attained a flep in the fcale of civilization, far beyond what any people imagine.
This advice on the part of my friend I declined attending to for fome time; for I had hopes of feeing Mr. de Villeneuve in London, the gentleman, who furnifhed me with the matter for anfwering the questions alluded to; and I had no doubt but that he would have then given his own information in this country in a publick manner, and where it would have had its greatefl ufe. But when 1 found that Mr. de Villeneuve was in daily expectation of receiving orders to join his regiment abroad, and could not come to England, I confented to the requifition of my friend.
The following work then is compofed of fuch letters, as contain the anfwers to the firft and fecond of the queries propofed to me, as I have already ftated, during my refidence at Paris. The reft of the letters, written nearly at the fame time, it would be quite fuperfluous to publifti, for as the contents of them have been given to the publick in England in other works, they mufl be now generally known.
It may perhaps appear ftrange to the reader, that I fliould have occafion in the courfe of the work to defcribe countries not very far dlftant from thofe in the annexed map, and yet that thefe countries mould not be included in it. The Reader, however, will pleafc to obferve, that the annexed is a map only of Mr. de Villencuve's travels,
which
which he made himfelf, while refident in Africa. The fingle dotted lines reprefent the boundaries of diflincl: kingdoms: the double dotted lines defcribe his own route. As this map contained all the countries, which form the principal fubject of thefe letters, i thought there was but little occafion to extend it fo far as to take in others but Sightly mentioned ; and particularly, when there feemed to be no difficulty in making it appear plainly to the Reader where they lay.
London. May 16, 1791.
THOMAS CLARKSON.
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LETTER I
PjRiSy December 20. 1789,
SIR,
A
S you have done me the honour to propofe to me feveral quef-tions for a reply on the fubject. of the African Slave-Trade, I fhall begin with the two following : for they appear to me to have a natural claim to the firft place, as objects of conlideration, in thefe letters ;
I. What are the different methods of making llaves of fuch perfons
as come into the hands of the French, by means of their eftab-lilhments at Fort St. Louis and Goree.
II. What is the ftate of fociety, in which the natives bordering on
thefe eftablimments may be faid to live.
It has happened, Sir, very fortunately indeed for the gratification of your wilhes, that I have already had, fince my refidence at Paris, feveral communications with one of the beft informed men either in this, or
A perhaps
perhaps In any other, country, upon thefe two points of the fubjecT:. I mean Monf. Geoffrey de Villeneuve, who was aid-de-camp to the Chevalier de Boufflers, one of the members of your AfTembly, during his refidence as Governor of Goree.
M. de Villeneuve, who is a man of fortune and family here, accompanied the Chevalier to the coafr. of Africa, in the capacity now defcribed. As a young man, who had made great progrefs in the fludy of natural hi (lory, and who had a great curiollty to learn the cufroms and manners of a people who were but little known, he was confidered as peculiarly proper to accompany the Governor to thefe parts. He was accordingly often employed by the latter in embaffies and expeditions of obfervation in the interior of Africa, into which he penetrated a confiderabie way* In the map annexed you will find his route by the doubly dotted lines. At one time, as you will fee, he went by land from Dakard, a village
o
oppofite to the ifland of Goree, to Fort St. Louis: at another from Dakard through the interior of Cayor, from thence into the country of Oualof, and from thence through Baol into the Foreils of the Serreres, penetrating through which he came again to the fea-fhore. At another time he travelled through the whole 'kingdom of Sin ; and at another, into the kingdom of Sallum, though the latter route is not expreiTed like the former by dotted lines. Thefe, added to many petty excurfions not expreffed in the map, from the bulk of his travels in thefe parts. It may not be unneceflary here to mention that the annexed map is copied from one which he made himfelf on the fpot, with this difference only, that whereas in the original you would fee the names of almoft innumerable villages, you fee only the names of fuch in the prefent as there is occafion to mention for the illuflration of your queflions.
In
In thefe expeditions, as you have them now traced in the map, was Mr4 de Villeneuve employed during his refidence in Africa, which was in the whole about two years, ending in the beginning of the year 1789. As he was generally fent upon them for the fole purpofe of obfervation, he did not Fail to collect many fads, which it is probable that others, had they palled the fame tract of country with other views, would have never known. He had alfo better opportunities than moft other travellers in Africa of knowing the real fituation of things there, inafmuch as he was an eye-witnefs of what were in the interior parts, as well as of fearching into the truth of many accounts of things given him by the natives which he did not fee, inafmuch as he underflood their language, a grammar of which he made and retains by him at the prefent day* And as he kept a journal of all he heard and fawon the fpot, he cannot be charged with having mifreprefentcd any thing for want of memory, any more than he can be charged with having been biaffed by party, when you confider him to have been collecting his facts previoufly to any knowledge he could have of the agitation of the queftion of the Slave-Trade.
It is by means of this gentleman then that I am now enabled to give you a minute, accurate, and faithful anfwer to two of the questions which you have done me the honour to propofe to me for a reply. With his permiffion I have already attended him many times upon this fubject. What I have written down on one morning, though from his own mouth, I have fubmitted to his infpection on a fecond, and fometimes even on a third, fo fearful have I been of miftaking him in the leaft point. Nor has he himfelf been lefs anxious to convey to me the truth <t for if he has appeared on any occafion to have had a doubt rcfpecting the anfwer he was to give me, he has always confulted his journal in my prefence, and of fo much importance did he confider it that men fhould
A a be
be rightly informed upon this fubject, and fo necelTary that every one of his ftatements to me ihould be confirmed if poflible, that he gave me the other day directions to no lefs than four gentlemen now at Paris, fome of whom had accompanied him in one or two of his expeditions, and others had refided in Africa at the time, and he infifted that I fhould fee them and put to them the fame queftions as I had before put to him-felf. 1 his requifition I was obliged to comply with, by which means 1 had fome valuable opportunities of feeing all Mr. de Villeneuve's ob-iervations to me confirmed. To this I muit add, that having frequently mentioned the fubftance of Mr. de Villeneuve's information to Mr. Neckar, that gentleman has as repeatedly affured me that he has had precifely the fame information from General BoufHcrs himfelf on the fame points.
Having now prcvioufly ilatcd to you the authority upon which I propofe to anfwer the firh: and fecond of your queries, and that this anfwer will give you a knowledge of things as they were, fo late • as at the commencement of the year 1789, I have only to inform you that I fhall begin to-morrow with your nrfl queftion, to which 1 (hall keep clofe in a feries of letters till I think lhave anfvvercd it both to your fatisfaclion and my own.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient fervant,
T. CLARKSON.
LETTER II.
Paris, December it, 1789.
SIR,
X COME to-day to the confederation of your iirft queftion, which I beg leave to repeat here,
What are the different methods of making Haves of fuch perfons as come into the hands of the French by means of their eftablim,-ments at Fort St. Louis and Goree ?
To give you the cleareft anfwer to this queftion, I mall refer you to the map. At the bottom of it you will find the country of Sallum. This country begins at the river Gambia, which is lower down than is ex-preifed in the map, and extends upwards along the coafl to the dotted line of boundary, which you fee placed almoft, as high up as the river Palmarin. On palling this line of boundary, you get into the kingdom of Sin, which extends nearly along the fame coail: as high as Point de Serenes.
At
At Point de Serenes begins the prefent kingdom of Cayor under the dominion of Darnel. This country extends from thence along the Ihore to beyond the mouth of the river Senegal. In the year 1785, that part of this tract: of land, which lies between Point de Serenes and Rufifk, belonged to Tin, or the king of Baol, and was called the country of the Serreres of Baol, in contradiltinction to the Scrreres of Cayor, both of whom were undoubtedly once one people, but Darnel having afterwards routed Tin, he added this tract: to his dominions of Cayor.*
From thefe three countries then, extending along the Ihore from the mouth of the Gambia to that of the Senegal, the French are furnifhed annually, on an average of a few years, with about five hundred llaves; namely with about two hundred annually from Sallum, one hundred from Sin, and one hundred from Cayor j the various methods of whofe reduction to flavery being fimilar in each, the following def-cription may be confidcred as applicable to them all.
The grand mode of obtaining llaves in thefe countries is the Great Pillage, which is executed by the military at the command of their refpective kings. It is fo fyflematically practifed, and is a fource fo much more fertile than any other of fupplying llaves, that from the c'oriftant experience of thofe refidcnt on the coaft of Africa, into
* It may be proper to make a diftin&ion here, which appears not to be generally known. In feveral of the maps of thefe countries you find the words "Kingdom of Sallum, Kingdom of Sin," and in others the words««Kingdom of Burfallum or Barfallum, and Kingdom of Burfin, Bnrfin, or Bar-bafin." Nowthelaft of thefe two different kinds of expreflions is wrong. The words Bour, Bur, Bar, and Bourba or Barba, are fynonymous in thefe countries with the word King- Hence Sin and Sallum are the names of the countries themfelves, and Burfallum or Barfallum, and Burfin, Barfm or Baibafin, the names of their rcfpeclive kings, or the hereditary names of the kings of Sallum and Sin, and not of the countries which they feverally govern. In the fame manner Darnel is the hereditary name of the king of Cayor, though you fometimes fee abfurdly printed the "Kingdom of Darnel," and Tin is the hereditary name of the king of Baol, though you find the e-qually ridiculous cxpreffion of the "Kingdom of Tin."
whofe
whofe hands the Haves have ufually fallen, the following has palled into a rule.   About one hundred and twenty may be
coniidered as
pillaged out of the two hundred from Sallum, about forty out of the hundred from Sin, and about one hundred and twenty again out of the two hundred from Cayor ; that is to fay, out of the five hundred fent from thefe countries in one year, two hundred and eighty may be confidered as having been reduced to ilavery by means of the Great Pillage.
The way of praclifing the Great Pillage is as follows. When any of thefe kings are in want of Haves, and intend to procure them in this manner, they affemble their military confifling of horfe and foot. Thefe are armed with fabres, lances, bows and arrows, piflols and guns. The number they afFcmblc is proportionate to their own ftrength, and the ftrength of the village to be attacked. The hour of calling them together for this purpofe is uncertain. It depends on the diilance of the vilLge whofe inhabitants are deflined for the prey. This village is fometimes near. It is at other times far off", and perhaps at the dillance of a journey of four days. The rule however upon fitch occalions is, to fet out at fuch a time, as to come upon it in the dead of night. The villages in thefe countries are open, and have no breafl-work or defence.
: As foon as the military arrive at the deltined place, which is as before defcribed in the dead of night, they furround it, but never attack it at that time. They wait always till the dawn of day. It is then that the women rife, and employ themfelves in pounding millet for the purpofe of reducing it to cufcus*, to ferve as bread.   The found of the
* Millet powdered is called Cufcus. This Cufcus is of two forts, either for immediate or future ufe. When it is for immediate ufe, nothing more is done to it; when for future, it is mixed with the pulverized leaves of a certain tree, which have the quality of preferving it for a length of time. This preferved millet the negroes take with them on any journey or excurfion of a few days.
peftle
peftle is the fignal for the attack. The military dire&ly rufli in and feize all they can. There are many reafons why they make their attack at this hour : fir ft, becaufe being dawn of day, they can fee better : fecondly, becaufe though the women are up, the men are in bed, and the doors of the huts are opened : and thirdly, becaufe the negroes in this part of the world, never like to perform any enterprize in the night.
It fometimes happens that the kings accompany their troops in per-fon. It is cuftomary for them however, not to enter the village. They remain always on the outfide till the bufinefs is over.
As foon as the unfortunate inhabitants are captured, they are driven off. The men and women are made to walk. The children are put on horfeback. If the journey mould be two or three days long, as it fometimes happens to be, they are driven or carried to one of the king's villages which lie in the way at night. There they are made to lie. The inhabitants are obliged to turn out for them, or to find them room. The captives are always guarded. In the morning they fet off again. In this way they travel till they get to the king's refidence, which they enter with the found of drums, horns and other inftru-ments of their country-mufick, which the military take with them from home upon fuch occafions.
The Pillages, which I have been now attempting to defcribe, are prac-tifed as circumftances offer; either as the kings want money, or as they are tempted by the Europeans. For inftance, in the year 1785, Darnel owed money to one of the Mooriih kings for fome horfes, which the latter had fold him. The debt had been then {landing for three years. The Moorifli king, having frequently urged him for payment, preffed him at laft in fuch a manner, that Darnel was unable to delay it for a longer time. Thus fituated, he refolved on the Great Pillage, He affembled
accor-
accordingly about three thoufand foot and one thoufand horfe. With thefe he went to one of his villages, and returned with a booty confining of thirty Haves. It mud be remarked here that, though the Great Pillage is by far the moil fertile fource of fupplying (laves, yet very few are obtained by means of it at one time. Sometimes two or three captives only are made in an attack: at other times none, for the villagers are often apprized of it beforehand, and efcape. It fometimes even happens, that the king is refilled and beaten, and obliged to go back with lofs. It is rather then to the frequency of the Great Pillage, than to the number taken by means of it at any one time, that the Slave-Trade is indebted for fo confiderable a branch of its fupport.
As a fecond inltance, the king of Sallum was alked by fome merchants of Goree, who were there in 1786, to obtain them fome llaves by means of the Great Pillage. He did not like the merchandize which they brought him, and refufed therefore to comply with their requeft. Thus fituated they knew not what to do. One of them however, had the good fortune to recollect that he had fome new louis d'ors in his pocket, which glittered a good deal, and were limilar to fome which the king had admired, and bought at a former time. He immediately pulled thefe out of his pocket and prcfented them, when they llruck the king's fancy fo much, that he almoll inflantly ordered the Pillage.
As a third inftance. In the month of November 1787, the ufual pre-fents were fent by the French to Barbafin at Joal, which is one of his refidenccs, and which is fituated, as you will perceive, on the fea-ihore. He happened to have no llaves in his pofleffion at this time. The Mulatto merchants however, who attended the embaffy from Goree, were determined not to return home without fome llaves. They intreated the king to have recourfe to the Great Pillage. But he refufed them. They
B impor-
importuned him again. They made him intoxicated at length by means of mixed liquors. In the moments of inebriety they attacked with redoubled force, and continued to weary him in this manner, till they obtained his orders for the Pillage, which was at length executed four or five times with various fuccefs, in the courfe of the fame week. Thus, Sir, do the Europeans, or their partners, or agents, feize every opportunity they can find of accompliihing, at the expence of the eafe and happinefs of peaceful and innocent villagers, their diabolical delign.
It muft not be omitted in this account of the Great Pillage, that the parties, who are fent out to execute it, meet fometimes with negroes in the way. Thefe negroes are travelling about with their merchandize, or are going out on their ordinary hufinefs, or returning home. All fuch are immediately feized, and are made to accompany the expedition as llaves.
The Pillage, which I have been hitherto attempting to defcribe, may be called with propriety (as I have already termed it) the Great Pillage ; for Daniel, as I have already had occafion to obferve, once fent out about four thoufand of his military at a time ; and the kings of Sin and Sallum have employed twelve hundred each on the fame occa-fions. That then may be filled the Little, in contra-dillinction to the former, where only five or fix of the military are employed at a time. This happens when the king is in want of a fiflgle man or woman-Have, and when he does not chufe to alarm a whole village ; for the Great Pillage is attended with bad effects, inafmuch as there are many villages deferted in the dominions of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor on that account, whofe inhabitants have lied into the woods, or have gone farther into the country to refi.de.   Mr. de Villeneuve in his different
routes
routes, as already defcribed to you in the map, has paflcd by feveral of them in this deferted ftate. In the Small Pillage then, the king employs only five or fix of his guards. Thefe are ordered to conceal themfelves in the fkirts of a village. They lie there till a man or woman comes out, when they rulh from their hiding places, feize them and hurry them to the king.
If however none mould flir out, they go into the village itfelf. They have their proper military habits and accoutrements on. The circum-ftance of being armed procures them refpect. They pafs up and down as travellers, or as people whom curiofity had brought there. While in the village, they are obliged to behave with circumfpection. Were they to commit acts of violence there, they would be oppofed. They are always however on the watch. If a woman, for inftance, ftirs out, they perceive it, flip out after her, furprize her, and take her off.
For this kind of expedition, there was one perfon refident in Mr. de Villeneuve's time in the vicinity of Goree, who was particularly known. His name was Gannar, and he was the brother of the Marabou or the prieft of Dakard. To this man Darnel frequently applied to head thefe petty expeditions, and in confequence of his artful and audacious conduct, acquired in the courfe of repeated practice, many an innocent traveller was way-laid, and many an innocent neighbour betrayed or af-faulted, and fent into the regions of flavery.
Another mode practifed by the kings of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor to get Oaves, when they do not intend to alarm a village, is treachery or fraud. To give one inftance. The king of Sallum in the year 17B7, fent to a woman in a certain village at fome diflance from his own, to inform her that he wanted fome millet, of which he underflood flie had a fmall
B 2 quantity
( )
quantity to fell. The woman, flattered with the profped of felling it to advantage, came immediately to the king, who directly occafioned her to be feized and fold. This is one inftance of the acts of treachery made ufe of by the kings to fupply the place of the Pillage, and to ac-complifh their avaricious defigns. Thefe acts vary as occafion offers, or ingenuity contrives. Of this defcription there may be five or fix in e-very hundred of thofe that are fold for flaves in thefe parts in the courfe of a year.
The great bulk of the llaves then from thefe kingdoms are procured in the ways defcribed. The other ways by which they are reduced to the fame condition are thefe, either by private robbery, or by war, or by actual or fuppofed crimes.
The private robbers of the country, at lead in thefe parts of it, are but few. In the interior of them they can hardly exiil at all. If a fub-ject of Sallum, Sin, or Cayor, were to offer a negro for fale in a village to which he did not belong himfelf, he would be fufpected by the Gue-raff or principal officer of that village of having ftolen him, and in all probability would be flopped and fold. He could hardly fell him except he were to meet with an European there. If again one of the Gue-raff's own village were to attempt to fell a Have to-day, whom he was known not to have had in his polfeflion the day before, he would be called upon to fhew where he had gotten him, before the fale were allowed. Thefe robbers then do not exilt in the interior of thefe kingdoms. Theyexilt generally near the Ihore, or on the banks of fuch rivers as the craft of the Europeans or their agents frequent. In this cafe the difpofal of a kidnapped perfon is eafy, for he is purchafed without a queftion being afked. In thefe parts it is notorious at Goree that there are private ftealers of men.
As
As to wars, in the common acceptation of the word war, very few flaves are ever furniftied by means of them from thefe kingdoms. They happen very feldom. There was one of them however, in the year 1786. This was the war which Darnel of Cayor made again ft Tin of Baol, as mentioned in the beginning of this letter. It originated in the ambition of the former. In the grand battle, which decided the fate of the dominions of the latter, twenty-five prifoners only were taken, and feven killed. The wars in fhort in thefe countries are not deftrudrive. Few people are either killed or taken. As to the duration of them, they laffc feldom longer than ten or fifteen days. When both parties are tired, they go away. There is no treaty of peace. Thefe wars, confining them to the common acceptation of the word, arife generally, as other wars, from jealoufy, avarice, or ambition.
The crimes, real or fuppofed, for which perfons are fentenced to llavery in thefe countries, are adultery, murder, theft, and witchcraft. There is no crime in this part of the world for which they are punifhed with death.
Adultery, as has been jufl Hated, is a fource of llavery. The common people have in general two or three wives; the great, or people of condition, as many as they can maintain, perhaps from ten to twenty ; but in fuch cafes not more than three are confidered as legitimate; that is to fay, the children of not more than three are confidered in that light. If a man fufpects any of his wives to be guilty of adultery in a village where the king does not retide, he calls his neighbours together. They judge the cafe. They then make their report to the GuerafT, and the GuerafT afterwards to the king. The GuerafT has no power but to report;. he waits the determination of the king. If it happens, on the other hand, in any of the king's villages, that is, in any of them where he reft des,
fides, he is the judge himfelf. If the woman accufed be a perfon of condition, that is, if ihe has influence in the country by having a number of llaves or many relations, and is condemned, Ihe is allowed to find a Have in her place. If poor Ihe is fold herfelf. None but her hulband can be her accufer. She is fold, if condemned, for the king's profit. In . thefe countries women only are accufed. There are few llaves however from adultery.
Murder is diflinguifhed into two kinds, premeditated and accidental. If the murderer of the firffc kind be a man of condition, he mud immediately on the perpetration of the act repair to the king. He mull: then throw himfelf at his feet with the value of a Have, and he will make his peace. If poor, he is fure to be fold, and fometimes his family with him. The probability of his family being fold at the fame time depends on the poverty of the man, and the exigencies of the king; for it is for the benefit of the latter that he is fold. If the murderer fhould efcape by flight, the king will not lofe his profit, and therefore in this cafe comes univerfally on his family, whom he fells for llaves. *
In accidental cafes there are two diftin&ions, both with refpect to the rich and to the poor. If the man-llayer be a perfon of condition, he is not precifely in the fame predicament as before, for the king may ab-folve him wholly from the payment of any fine. The poor man, not being able to offer the value of a Have, has the alternative left him of flying into another village, which he mull immediately do on the com-million of the act. He mull then go to the houfe of one of the principal men there, and, drawing a Hake from his wall, throw himfelf at the owner's feet, and declare himfelf his voluntary Have. This is confidered as a good fituation for him, inafmuch as voluntary llaves are treated like the children of the mailer, and are never fold.
Theft
Theft is another fource of fupplying fubje&s for the Slave-Trade in thefe parts. The natives fometimes Ileal cloth, millet, and other articles from one another; but in general oxen, which they drive off to fell at another place. Any theft, fmall or great, if brought home to the robber is punilhed with llavery. When the robbers are taken and accufed in a village where the king does not refide, they are tried by the people, who are affembled for the purpofe in what is called the publick place of the village. Having determined the cafe, they report their fentence, as has been mentioned before, to the Gueraff, and the Gueraff afterwards to the king, who may reverfe it or not as he pleafes. If it happens in the king's own village, he tries them himfelf. The accufer muft be the perfon from whom the things have been Helen. The proof neceffary to convict the accufed mult be generally Itrong. If he be caught in the fact; if the value of an ox be found upon him, and fome circumftances mould concur in (hewing that he could have obtained the things fo found upon him in no other way ; if thefe or fimilar proofs appear, he is condemned to llavery. The circumltance of reimburfing the man for the lots of his ltolen property depends on its being fmall. When the money is paid for the criminal, the king has univerfally about three parts of it to himfelf, and the Gueraff to the value of about fix livres or two bars. If then the remaining part lliould be equivalent to the property which has been ltolen, an indemnification takes place. If not, the king will not give up his claim to three parts out of four of the criminal's value, and the man therefore muft abide by the lofs.
The latt fource of llavery in thefe countries is witchcraft. If a perfon fhould have a child or relation die, whofe death has been rather fudden, he may give out if he pleafes, and he mult be attended to if he does, that fuch death has been occafioned by fome wizzard. In this cafe he is obliged to fix upon his man, and this is generally one whom he
knows
knows to owe him a grudge, or whom he considers as a mifchievous man in the village. Having pointed out the fuppofed culprit, he accu-fes him publickly with having practifed the art of witchcraft on the deceafed, and begins his accufation always by pronouncing that " the " wizzard has eaten up his child's or relation's heart." Having lodged his accufation in this manner, the man is tried. The mode of trying him is as follows. He is bound to a tree. A red hot iron is then applied to his tongue. If the iron burns it the man is pronounced guilty, if not, innocent. It is faid that there is an herb in the country, which if pre-vioufly applied to the part to be burned, is an antidote for a moment againft the effects of the fire ; and it is believed that there is fuch an herb, becaufe fome, who have undergone the ordeal, have been known to efcape unhurt. The punifhment of llavery extends in this cafe to the culprit only and not to his children. The perfon, fuppofed to have been injured, has a fmall (hare out of the value of the flave, but the greater part as before goes into the hands of the king.
This then is, as I have faid before, the la ft fource of llavery in thefe kingdoms, the natives of which, having been reduced to this ftate by all the different methods now defcribed, are fold into the hands of the French by means of their eftablifhments on the illands of Fort St. Louis and Goree. All fuch, as are made llaves by any of the means defcribed in the kingdoms of Sin and Sallum, are fent univerfally to Goree, as being the neareft market, to be fold there. Thofe, on the other hand, who are reduced to llavery in Cayor, are fent, fome of them to Goree, and others to Fort St. Louis, for fale; for if you confult the map, you will find that Darnel's territories border upon both. Not more than fifty, however, out of the two hundred are fent to Fort St. Louis ; for at Fort St. Louis the Senegal company have an exclufive privilege of buying flaves, whereas at Goree any perfon may buy them who pleafes.
Now,
Now, where all can buy, there will be undoubtedly a competition, ana where there is a competition for any commodity, it will fetch the greater price. Hence only fuch of Darnel's flaves, to the number mentioned, are fent to Fort St. Louis for fale, as are made in thofe parts of his dominions which are clofe upon that ifland.
i have now concluded my account of the different methods of reducing people to llavery in the dominions of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor. On a recapitulation it will be found that about two hundred and eighty, fent annually from thefe countries, are fuch as have been taken by the Pillage, and that about five in every hundred may be fet down annually as flaves in confequence of the ftratagems of their reflective kings. Hence it is manifeft that three hundred and five out of five hundred, or more than three out of five from thefe kingdoms may be called the victims of violence and fraud, while not only others of them are entituled to the fame name, but the majority of the reft may be faid to owe the lofs of their liberty to a fyftem of laws not only partial and wicked in itfelf, but rendered flill more intolerable by being interpreted and enforced by a defpot, juft as his paflions call for new or additional gratifications, and as his fubjects are more or lefs able to refill the determination of his will.
i have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient fervant,
t. clarkson.
c
letter
LETTER III.
Pjris, DecembeR) 23, 1789,
SIR,
J N my lafl letter I gave you an ample defcription of the different methods by which the natives, to the amount of about five hundred annually, were reduced to flavery in the dominions of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor ; that is to fay, from the mouth of the river Gambia along the coaft to the Ifland of Fort St. Louis at the mouth of the river Senegal. At the mouth then of this latter river, I fhall refume my account, and tracing the ftream as far as Cor, which you will find in the map to be fituated a little above its confluence with the river Sagueray, I fhall continue it to that village, noticing whatever may relate to your nrft queftion within thefe limits.
The extent of territory then, which will be the fubjecT: of my pre-fent letter, comprehends two diftricts, namely, the kingdom of Oualo, and the I He of Biffeche.   Thefe countries I /hall defcribe by the
map,
(   ig )
map, before i give an account either of die number of perfons annually furniflied from them, or of the manner in which they become flaves.
The country of Oualo, beginning above Fort St. Louis, is bounded on the Weft by the river Senegal, on the North by the river Sagueray, on the Eaft by the country of the independent Poules, and on the South by Cayor. The Moors made incuriions into this country about five years ago, and killed the king. Deeming themfclves from this moment the lords and difpofers of the foil, they took the liberty of appointing to the throne. The perfon proclaimed by them was a Negro, a weak man, but a relation of the former king. This perfon, or Brae, (for Brae is the hereditary name of the king of Oualo, in the fame manner as Darnel of the king of Cayor), reigns at the pre-fent day, but he is tributary to the Moors, who, confidering him as a creature of their own, rob and plunder in his territories as often as they think proper.
The Ifland of Bifteche is formed by two rivers, by the Senegal on the one fide, and the Sagueray on the other. This ifland is in the pofTefhon of a certain Seignior or Lord, who is called Bequio. This Seignior holds it of Brae, and gives him a certain number of oxen annually, befides certain articles of merchandize, for the tenure.
From thefe two countries then, as now defcribed, come about two hundred and forty flaves in the courfe of the year; namely, about one hundred annually from Oualo (forty of whom are furniihed by Brae, and fixty by the Moors) and about one hundred and forty from Biffeche, the different methods of whofe reduction to llavery are as
follow ;
To
To begin fir ft with Oualo. Of the forty who are furnifhed annually from this country by Brae, about thirty are reputed criminals, and are made in the different ways, as in Sallum, Sin, and Cayor. The reft are taken by the king in a kind of pillage, as he has an opportunity of getting poffeffion of their perfons by treachery and force. The reafons why Brae does not pillage to a proportionable extent with the kings mentioned in the former letter, is that he has but little power to do it, and that his mafters, the Moors, would not fuffer him, if they knew it, to anticipate their prey. Thefe forty perfons then, fur-nifhed by Brae from Oualo, are fent directly to the French eftablifh-mcnt at Fort St. Louis, to be fold. They are marched by land, fome-times two, fometimes three or four, but feldom more of them at a time, and are conducted by the military of the king.
The other fixty, who are furmftied from Oualo, are fupplied by the Moors, and this generally but in one way. The Moors inhabit the Northern bank of the Senegal. They have no houfes or fixed habitations, but live in tents, which they ftrike as often as they choofe to remove to another place. Thefe people live almoft entirely by plunder-3 and if a few Negroes be excepted, whom they purchafe when they go trading over land into Sin and Cayor and whom they pay for in hor-fes, all that come out of their hands may be fet down ast he produce of treachery and force.
Thefe people go out in bodies of five or fix. They crofs the Senegal at Cor, and other places, when they purpofe to fteal the inhabitants from Oualo. This river they crofs by fwimming, both themfelves and their horfes. That their arms and ammunition may be kept dry, they make a fmall bed of itraw, in which they place their mufkets, pif-tols, and daggers, and pufh it before, or drag it after them acrofs the
ft ream. S
firearm When over, they mount their horfes, and, galloping acrofs a fmall part of the country of the independent Poules, they arrive in the kingdom of Oualo. They then advance into the country for two or three leagues, fometimes more, and fometimcs Jefs, according to the plan of their expeditions.
If thefe Barbarians meet with any Negroes in their way, they feize them ; if not, the following is the mode purfued. They conceal them-felves and their horfes in the woods near the different villages where they feek their prey. If folitary men, or if women and children fhould come out, they rnfh from their hiding places, feize them, and gallop off. If, on the other hand, five or fix men fhould come out mixed with women and children, they difcharge all their mufkets at once, kill the men, and gallop off with the red:. In the cafe of women and children, who are made captives, they'tie thefe behind them on horfe-back. The body of the woman or child touches the back of the Moor, to which it is fattened by one of their country cords. The Moor, while galloping, has always one of the hands of the woman or child in his own, the fingers of which he bites, either by way of pu-nifhment, or with a view of filencing them, fhould they attempt to create an alarm by noife. The men are often tied by the hands to the tails of the horfes, and pulled along, the riders on the one hand whipping the horfes on, and other Moors following the Negroes with a whip behind, on the other. At other times they are bound to the back of a camel, which thefe robbers take with them, when their in-curfions do not extend far from the river. Carrying off their booty in this manner, they repair as quickly as pofiible to the Moorifh tents.
This is the way ufually adopted by the Moors, when they go out in parties of five or fix.   It happens fometimcs, however, that they crofs
the
the Senegal in larger bodies, in which cafe they do not conceal them-felves as before. They contrive only to furprize a village in the night, when they attack it at once, and carry off all the inhabitants they can feize.
In thefe ways then, confiding of robbery by fmaller or larger bodies, are furnifhed the fixty from Oualo as before defcribed.    By the fame mode as thefe are furnifhed, the remaining one hundred and forty, to whom the account extends in the prefent letter, are fupplied from the ifland of Biffeche, fo that one defcription will do for the whole. The Moors make the fame incurfions into this ifland, and for the fame pur-pofe as into Oualo.   The marks of their devaflation there are but too evident.   It was faid that in confequence of the Pillages of Barfallum, Barbafin, and Darnel, feveral villages were deferted in Sallum, Sin, and Cayor, whofe inhabitants had either fled higher up into the interior country, or had retired into the woods.    Much more is it the cafe in thefe two countries, which are the fubject of this letter.   In the ifland of Biffeche a number of deferted villages are to be feen, and there are not fewer in Oualo.   Almoft every creek has been ranfacked, and mod of the villages disturbed in their turn, to get poffeflion of the bodies of men.   The miferable inhabitants know not what to do nor where to fly.   The lord of Biffeche and the king of Oualo are unable to protect them ; for the firfl is tributary to the fecond, and the fecond to the Moors.   In the time of feed and of harved, they are often obliged to remain in their villages to be near their lands for the purpofe of cultivation, and to fecure a crop.   At this time, therefore, they mull defend themfelves as well as they can.   When the feafon, however, is over, it is cuflomary for them to join (the inhabitants of two or three villages together) againfl the incurfions of the Moors.   On the return of feed time and harvefl they feparate again, and return to their reflective
tive lands. They live however continually, whether united or feparate, in a Itate of anxiety and alarm. It is impoffible adequately to defcribe the ideas which thefe miferable people have of the character of the Moors. The name, by which the Moors have been always known to them, is Nars, in the fame manner as they have been known by the appellation of Moors to us. Such a man belongs to the Nar nation. Now this word is not only now expreffive of the national name of thefe barbarians, but has become a word in the language of the Negroes, in confequence of the infamous conduct of the former, to convey to the hearer the united characters of a liar and of a thief. It is now confront iy ufed in familiar intercourfe in thefe two fenfes, and as frequently as Sakend, the original negio word to exprefs them both i fuch ideas have thefe poor people of the rapacious conduct and treachery of the Moors."*
But to return. The poor Negroes, who to the number of two hundred, if we reckon them altogether, are thus plundered annually by the Moors from Oualo and Biffeche, are conveyed immediately after their capture, in the manner before defcribed, to the Moorifh tents. From thefe tents, which are on the northern fide of the Senegal, they are made to travel to the ifland of Fort St. Louis, upon its Northern bank. The two hundred defcribed are never marched down at a time. They are generally fent in bodies of five or fix according to the num-
* Mr. de Villeneuve informs me, that the Moors are fo habituated to robbery, that fcarcely any perfon of any complexion can efcape without lofing fumething if long among them. They are even expert at thieving with their feet, which are always bare ; for if any thing mould have fallen upon the ground that is worth having, a Moor will look the owner of it in the face, and at the fame moment contrive to take it up with his toes, and convey it with wonderful dexterity by means of the fame to his companions, who are behind him. Their whole life, in fhort, is a fcene of robbery, and the Negroes have well applied their national name to denote the characters defcribed.
ber
•ber captured in any of the expeditions made.   To every five or fix are nine or ten Moors.    The reafon of fo large a number of the latter is, not becaufe nine or ten are ncceffary to guard five or fix miferable van-quifhed beings, fome of whom are frequently in a wounded flate, but becaufe the Moors are even fo diflruftful of one another as well as of the Europeans, that they will all be witneffes of the bargain made. If the place, from whence they begin their route with their captives be at no great alliance from Fort St. Louis, and other circumftances mould intervene, they drive the latter before them, and march on foot j if at four or five day's journey, they have moftly their camels with them. They put the women and children upon thefe, and frequently ride themfelves.    In this way they travel.    At night they contrive to get to fuch of the tents of their countrymen as they know to be fcattered in the way, where they fleep in fecurity with their plunder.   In the morning they let off again.    When they arrive at Fort St. Louis, they offer their prifoners for fale, but are fo avaricious, and fo fufpicious of being defrauded,  that, including the time of making their bargains, and of examining the goods to he given them in exchange, it is fometimes four days before a tingle Negro can be fold. Having difpofed of their booty they return home, and prepare for frelh ravages.
To fum up the whole. About two hundred and forty perfons, as I have before llated, may be faid to be annually reduced to llavery in the kingdom of Oualo and the Illand of Biffeche, as defcribed in the prefent letter, forty of whom have been faid to be furnifhed by Brae, and the reft by the Moors. Of thofe furnifhed by Brae, about thirty wTere faid to have been enflaved in confequence of crimes, and ten in confequence of the Pillage. Of thofe again brought in by the Moors, all except a few (as has been mentioned before) whom they buy when they trade
over
(   25 )
over land into Sin and Cayor, are ftolen from their refpective homes. Suppofe then that twenty mould be bought on thefe occafions in the courfe of the year. Of thefe, twelve will have been pillaged in their own country, according to the proportion given in the former letter. The balance then for Oualo and Birfeche will ftand thus. About forty in round numbers may be confidered as furnifhed in confequence of crimes, while two hundred are actually the produce of treachery and force.
i have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient fervant,
T. CLARKSON.
I)
LETTER
LETTER IV.
S I R, Paris, December 24, 1789,
J~JaVING in my laft letter explained to you the different methods of making llaves in thofe countries which are bounded by Cayor on the one hand and the Senegal on the other, following it from its mouth to the village of Cor, I fhall now take an adjoining portion of country for the fubjecl: of this letter, namely, fuch a portion of it as adheres to the fouthern fide of the Senegal from. Cor to Podor, and which contains the territories of the Independent Poules.
The people, the extent of whofe territories I am now going to defcribe, are named in fome maps as I have juft mentioned them, but in others are termed Phulis, Fulis, or Foules. They are called Independent, becaufe there is no one perfon who can call himfelf their king. They are broken into diftinci: and petty governments. To each tribe there is a petty Seignior or Chieftain, with 1 imited power \ and there are many fuch governments and tribes.   Their country,
as
as I faid before, is bounded on the north by a portion of the Senegal, which reaches from Cor to Podor. The latter place, which is a con-fiderable one for trade, is not laid down in the map, but is to be fuppofed at fuch a diftance up the river, as, if the windings of it were taken in, it would be fixty leagues from the Ifland of Fort St. Louis. On the weft it is bounded by Oualo, on the fouth by the empire of Oualoff, which is fometimes expreffed in maps under the titles of Jalloft and Walloff, and on the eaft by the Dependent Poules. This latter, country likewife is not exprelfed in the annexed map, but if a line were drawn at right angles to the Senegal at Podor, this line would (hew where it begins, and reprefent the boundary intended to be defcribed.
From the country then, contained within thefe limits, about five hundred flaves may be confidered annually to come. Of thefe the Moors furnifh three hundred to the Senegal company, and the Poules the reft.
The only way in which the Moors get pofleflion of the perfons of fuch of the Independent Poules, as they fell to the French, is by rapine. They do not hefitate to ravage the country of the latter as occafion offers. In the fame manner as they have been defcribed to rob in Biffeche and Oualo, croffing the river on horfeback, they extend their ravages along the fouthern banks of the Senegal from Cor to Podor, and attack the natives ; and to fuch a pitch of audacity have thefe ruffians arrived, as, when no objects of plunder have offered there, to have galloped on for the fame purpofes into the very territories of Oualof.
The remaining two hundred of the independent Poules, who are fold to the French Senegal company, are procured in the fame manner,
D 2 with
with this difference only, that depredations are made on their perfons by their own countrymen, whereas in the former cafe they were made Upon them by the Moors. The different tribes of the independent Poules are in a ftate of continual warfare with one another. There are no regular battles between them. There are fkirmimes only, for the whole is a fcene of robbery, and thefe fkirmifhes happen without any provocation on either fide. In fhort, they feize and plunder where they can. Not content with what they have gained in the courfe of thefe internal depredations, they fometirn.es imitate the example of the Moors, and make incurfions into OualofF, where they feize fuch of the inhabitants as they find defencelefs, and carry them off for fale. The two hundred then, who are furnifhed annually by the Poules, are principally Poules themfelves, and the reft (a very few) are from OualofF.* All thefe, originally free people, may be confidered as the effects of plunder, and this plunder to owe its origin to the Slave-Trade.
The way, in which the whole of the five hundred now mentioned to have been captured and fent annually from this quarter, are conducted to Fort St. Louis, is the fame. It differs, however, from that, in which all the others fpoken of in the former letters are conveyed to the place of fale ; for whereas it was cuftomary for thefe to be conveyed by land, it is ufual for thofe now under confederation to be fent by water. Their conveyance to the Senegal company is by means of the Podor fleet. This fleet con lifts of fmall veffels with decks, the fmallelt of which is of ten and the largeft of fixty tons. They are navigated by Negroes of the country. About five or fix of thefe are ufually employed in the veffels of the firft mentioned tonnage, and from five
* There are no convicts to flavery in the country of the independent Poules.
or
(     29 )
or fix to forty in the reft of them as far as thofe of the laft. This fleet confuting of fuch vtiTels, and thus manned, is called the Podor fleet; and it is fo called, becaufe it is conftantly employed for a feafon in going from Fort St. Louis to Podor, to fetch millet, ivory, gum, and fuch other articles the produce of the country as are there for fale. Flaving fhipped thefe, they in their way back take in fuch of the Negro flaves as the independent Poules have to dipofe of on the one fide of the river, and the Moors on the other. When they have landed their cargoes at Fort St. Louis, they go up again to Podor, and return as before, taking in the Negroes, more or lefs in number, as they are caught. The voyage up and down is generally about fifteen days, and the feafon is from January to July.
It is hardly neceffary to remind you here, that all the llaves, who are the fubjedts of this letter, are the produce of treachery and force.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient fervant,
t. clarkson.
letter
LETTER V.
Paris, December 26. iyBg,
S i r,
1 HE letters, which i have hitherto had the honour of writing to you, comprehend an account of no lefs than twelve hundred and forty perfons, who are annually made flaves from the mouth of the Gambia along the coaft to that of the Senegal, and from thence along the windings of the latter river to Podor. There is yet one other place, and but one more, from which the French Senegal company have been accuftomed to obtain their flaves.
At Podor, mentioned in my laft letter as a place of confiderable trade, begins the country of the Dependent Poules, and continues along the Southern banks of the river. It is called Dependent, becaufe all the people contained in it, contrary to the uiage of the Independent ones, are fubjed: to one king. Their late king, or Seratic (for that was the hereditary name of the king of the dependent Poules) died in the year 1785, when a perfon of the name of Almammy, who had been his Marabou or prieft, having feen by long experience the injuftice as well as impolicy of continuing things as they were in the late reign, ufurped the throne. In this adt he was fupported by his fellow citizens ;
zens; and he retains his fituation with the name of his family, having difcarded the title of Seratic, to the prefent day.
This prince began his reign by oppofing the ravages of the Moors, who in the time of his timid predecellor. were often fuffered with impunity to make incurfions into the country for the purpofe of getting ilaves. His oppofition was fo highly refehted by thefe barbarians, that they inftantly alfembled their tribes, and fwarmed into his territories with a view of dethroning him, and of taking away his life ; but Almammy, apprized of their coming, collected the force of the country, and, putting himfelf at the head of it, not only flew the king of the Moors with his own hand, but defeating his army with great flaughter, obliged them to fly with precipitation acrofs the Senegal to their former tents.
His next ftep was to prohibit the fale of the perfons of men, and to abolifh perfonal llavery in his own dominions, giving encouragement to agriculture and manufactures in their place.
Not fatisfied with thefe proceedings, he made a decree as a dif— couragement to the Slave Trade in the beginning of the year 1787, that whereas llaves made in other dillant countries had been ac-cuitomed to be palled, in their way to Fort St. Louis, through his dominions, no fuch paiTage fhould be allowed them in future, and accordingly, at the proper feafon of the year, he put his decree into execution by Hopping the paiTage of the flaves who were coming in the Galam fleet from Bambarra.
The French Senegal company, alarmed at the enforcement of this edict (for the negro veffels were then waiting in the Road for the return
turn of the Galam fleet) fent a remonftrance to the king, and demanded that the Bambarra flaves fhould be permitted to pafs. This re-monftrance, however, was ineffectual. They tried him next by many and rich prefents. But he fent all of them back, adding, that he would not only hinder the route of the flaves for that year, but as long as he fhould live; and that if the whites fhould attempt any depredations on his fubjfcis in confequence of his determination, he would retaliate. Plis conduct, was fo fpirited and ferious at the fame time, that three refpectable gentlemen fent by the Court of Sweden to make difcoveries in the interior parts of Africa, and who were then waiting at Fort St. Louis for the purpofe, but could not follow their intended route without pafling through the dominions of Almammy, were hindered from executing their defign. Thefe gentlemen returned foon afterwards to Europe, in confequence of the then fituation of things in that quarter, two of whom, Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wad-ftrom, (with whom Mr. de Villeneuve was intimately acquainted both at Fort St. Louis and Goree) coming to England in their way home, were examined by the Committee of Privy Council, which, as I have often informed you in the courfe of converfation, were appointed to investigate the fubject of the Slave Trade lafl year.
Such then was the determination of king Almammy, and fuch it continued to be, fo that the Senegal Company had no other profpect of filling the veffels then lying in the Road for the reception of the Bambarra flaves, than by application to the Moors. Thefe Barbarians, on receiving new bribes and a new afibrtment of arms and ammunition, made extraordinary ravages into Oualo and Biffeche, by means of which an extraordinary number of the miferable natives were torn from their refpedive habitations in that year.
But,
But, to return from this digreiTion. In the dominions of Almammy, which I have defcribed to begin at Podor, and to continue along the fouthern banks of the Senegal, there are no llaves ; and the chain of the trade not only continues broken along the banks of the Senegal in thefe domains, but till you come to Galam, which is about two hundred and fifty leagues from the ifland of Fort St. Louis ; fo that you have to conceive the river to run much farther than it is laid down in the map, before you come to another place from whence the French have been ufually furnifhed with any (laves.
When, however, you come to this place, which has two names, Galam and * Fort St. Jofeph, you come rather to a place, where llaves have been accultomed to be fhipped than to be procured j fo that to account for thofe to whom I allude in the beginning of my letter, it will be Hill necefTary to advance, that is, to leave Galam and the river Senegal, and, turning to the right hand, or fouth of them, to go overland about two months journey to Bambarra. From this region it was, that the French were furnifhed annually with about a thoufand flaves, till their paiTage was flopped by Almammy as before defcribed, and with which they continue to be furnifhed, if they have dif-covered for them another route.
Conformably with the plan, purfued in my former letters, I mould here give a defcription of Bambarra, but as Mr. de Villeneuve informs me that he has collected no information about it, I am obliged to re-linquifh my dcfign.
* The French had a fort about fifty years ago at Galam, which they called Fort St. Jofeph, and hence the name.
E
My
My next tafk would be to give an account of the methods of making fuch of the flaves, as have been ufually brought from that quarter ;—but here again I am obliged to be filent.   How the flaves are obtained, as  far as Podor, is accurately known :  for the daily traffick from Fort Sr. Louis to Podor for one feafon of the year, namely, as before faid from January to July, as well as afterwards from Fort St. Louis to Galam for the remaining, to which I now allude (which again cccafions a traverfe of the former parts) gives great opportunities of tracing the matter with precifion there.   In what manner, however, the Bambarra flaves, or the few who may have joined them from the neighbourhood of Galam have been ufually procured, is not fufficiently known for me to fay.   It was impoffible for Mr. de Villeneuve or his fellow-travellers to learn the hiflory of perhaps a thoufand perfons coming in at a time, even if he had had an inclination to have done it, fo eafily as of two or three when brought in from Cayor, or by the Moors.   The length of the way, and the paffing through a variety of hands, rendered the inquiry more difficult, than when a flave came directly from a known and lefsdiftant fpot, and was never in any other hands than of the perfons who brought him in.   Add to this, that the language of the Bambarra flaves was not underftood, whereas that of thofe from Cayor, Biffeche, and Oualo was known by many at Fort St. Louis, fo that even from their own mouths nothing of their hiftory could be gained.   For thefe and other reafons I am obliged to be filent as to the modes in which perfons have been ufually reduced to flavery in this quarter.
With refpect to the mode of bringing down the flaves from Bambarra to Fort St. Louis, as it was previoufly to the year 1787 (which will be the next topick according to the plan hitherto purfued) there is more light to conduct us on the way.   The route between
thefe
thefe places confifts but of two expeditions, namely, from Bambarra to Galam, and from thence to Fort St. Louis; and thefe have been long eftablilhed and are well known. There are but two defcrip-tions of people to be confulted on this occafion; namely, the two parties who conduct the llaves upon their way j and as thefe meet with each other personally at Galam, there is no difficulty in coming at a knowledge of the truth. The following is the account communicated to me by Mr. de Villeneuve, and which he believes to be the true.
The firfl route of the flaves, previoufly to 1787, was from Bambarra to Galam -y the former of which is not the name of a town, but of an extenfive country. The perfons, who conducted them from the former to the latter place, were always one defcription of Negroes, namely, the Mundingoes. Thefe Mundingoes were fcattered over Africa nearly in the fame manner as the Jews over Europe and other parts of the world j and they were in fact the principal flave merchants of the country, following that line of life as a di ft in it occupation or trade. Thofe of the Mundingoes, to whom I allude at prefent, were fuppofed to refide high in the interiour country, and not far from the river Gambia. From their habitations in thefe parts they travelled annually to Bambarra, fetting out at fuch a feafon of the year as they calculated would give them fufficient time to reach that region, to make their bargains for llaves there, and to arrive with their refpective purchafes in the month of October at Galam.
Having collected their llaves in this country, they began the fir ft of the routes defcribed. There were ufually eight or ten parties of thefe Mundingoes, confifling of from twelve to twenty each, and
E 2 each
eacli party marched down one hundred, or one hundred and fifty flaves at a time. The different ways, in which they marched them down to prevent any effectual oppofition or infurrection on the one hand, and efcape on the other, were faid to be the three following :
In the plate No. 2, and Fig. i, A A reprefents two feparate pieces of wood, which in the Fig. 2, 3. are made fait to the necks of two Negroes by means of cords, which are compofed of the roots of trees, and are in ufe in thofe countries. Many of the Negroes were ac-cuftomed to be driven before the Mundingoes, one by one, each with this initrument on his neck. It was found convenient for two reafbns : Firft, Becaufe the roads, which lay through the woods in' thefe parts, were often fo narrow, as not to admit three or four perfons to walk abreait; Secondly, Becaufe it was an infuperable obftacle to an efcape, for the trees were fo clofe to each other in the forefls, as not to fuffer any perfon to go between them, who had fuch an incumbrance on his neck.
The fecond manner of conducting them is defcribed in the fame plate. Fig. 4 reprefents an initrument, which is of wood. Within the crutches of this initrument, which are at each end of it, are placed the necks of two Negroes in Fig. 5, which are confined in it at the extremities X X by means of certain cords, which are in ufe in that part of the world. Thus confined, two at a time, others of the Negroes, who were annually brought from Bambarra to Galani are faid to have travelled.
The third way is defcribed in the plate No. 3. In Fig. r, B reprefents a large log of wood, X a crutch at one end of it, and A a twilled cord to which it is fallened at the other.   This log is made
fall
Plate //.
Plate ///
faft to a Negro's neck in Fig. 2. It is reported to be fo heavy and unmanageable, that it is extremely difficult for the perfon who wears it to walk, ■ much lefs to efcape or run away. In travelling it is faid to be neceflary to lift up the log, that is thus fattened to the neck of each, and to place the crutch of it on the moulder of every preceding flave. Burthenfome as this inftrument may appear to be, it is rendered more light and portable by thefe means. In this way then many of the Negro flaves from Bambarra to Galam have been made to travel as defcribed in Fig. 3 of the fame plate. When it has been neceffary to halt, the crutch has been taken from the flioulders of each, and the perfon, who has worn it, has remained then as in Fig. 2, as unable to walk or manage himfelf as before, and has become almott as fecure, as if he had been chained to the fpot in which, he had been made to halt. When it has been thought neceffary to proceed, the log has again been put on the neck of every preceding flave.
In thefe different ways then as above defcribed, fuppofing the route to be now as it was previoufly to 1787, the flaves are made to travel from day to day. At night their conductors endeavour to get to certain villages, which they know to be fcattered in the way, where they reft with their refpective trains. On their arrival at Galam, they fell them to the agents of the French Senegal Company, to whom alfo fuch other flaves, as may have been collected in the neighbourhood, are fold at the fame time. Having thus difpofed of their different lots, they return to their refpective homes (for they never come farther than Galam) and, when the proper feafon of the year returns, they recommence their expeditions.
The
The Haves then, pafTed in the ways defcribed from Bambarra to Galam, fiuifh the firft part of their route. The fecond, which they commence under the direction of their new maflers, is by water. Here they are put on board fmall vefTels, which are annually fent from Fort St. Louis to receive them. Thefe are the fame veffels, together with all others that can be muttered, which were mentioned in my laft letter to have been employed from Fort St. Louis to Podor in fetching gum, millet, and other productions of the country, as well as' bringing down fuch flaves as were furnifhed by the Poules on one fide of the Senegal, and the Moors on the other. This continued to be the mode of their employment, as was faid alfo at the fame time, from January to July; but from Augutt to December they are employed all of them to Galam, and become the means by which the Bambarra llaves make the fecond and laft part of their route along the Senegal to the ifland of Fort St. Louis.
This account, though it be not had immediately from thofe, who have gone from Fort St. Louis to Galam and have met the Mundingoes there, is yet derived from the next authority; for Mr. de Villeneuve, when at Fort St. Louis, has frequently converfed with thofe, who were employed in conveying the Bambarra flaves from Galam, upon this fubject. He has alfo, as a farther confirmation, feen fome of the inftruments defcribed, of which he has enabled me to give you the annexed fketches; fo that you may be af-fured, that the above defcription is as accurate and faithful a one as you can get from any European of the route of the Bambarra flaves.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
your obedient fervant,
THOMAS CLARKSON.
LETTER
LETTER VI.
Paris, December, 30,1789.
SIR,
J C O ME now to your fecond Queftion, which is, " What is «* the flate of fociety in which the natives of Africa, bordering 011 " the French eftablifhments there, may be faid to live?"
In anfwering this queftion I fhall confine myfelf to the inhabitants of Cayor, Sin, and Sallum, for the flate of fociety there is the beft known; and as this flate is nearly the fame in the three countries, I fhall fpeak of Cayor, as being the mod confiderable tract, for the whole; noticing of courfe any cuftom, if there fhould be any, different there from thofe in the other two.
And firfl, I fhall fpeak of the different ranks of life as they are found to exifl in thefe countries, for I conceive this to be the mofl natural topick to begin with in anfwer to the prefent queftion.
Thefe
Thefe ranks, as widely diflincT: from one another, may be reckoned four, comprizing the king, the blood royal, the people, and their refpective llaves. On each of thefe I fhall fay a few words in its proper turn.
In treating of the rank, which the Darnel holds as the king of Cayor (of which rank of life I intend to fpeak the firfl) it is evident that fome other fubjects mult be necefTarily involved, fuch as the fort of government he holds, the methods of fupporting it, and the military force and revenue, that are connected with the fame. I fhall therefore explain thefe, as naturally attached to the fituation to be defcribed, and fhall explain them in the order mentioned, before I proceed to the conlideration of the three other claffes of life, which I have before flated to exifl in thefe countries.
And firfl Darnel, or the king of Cayor (and the fame may be faid of the kings of Sin and Sallum) may be confidered as an abfolute monarch, if it be only from two circumfiances which have appeared in the former letters; firfl, Becaufe he can pillage.his fubjects and be not amenable to any laws; and fecondiy, Becaufe in all cafes of jurif-prudence he is the ultimate judge, having it in his power, whether right or wrong, to acquit or to condemn.
The methods, which he takes to govern the countries that belong to him, are the following. Cayor is divided firfl into provinces, and each province is ruled by an officer whom he appoints, and whom he calls Laman. This Laman ilTues out the king's orders through his own diflrict, and takes care that they mall be obeyed. It fometimes happens, however, that though a certain fpot be marked out which is called a Province, yet there is a fmall part of it for fome reafon or
other
(   4* )
other not fubjecT: to the Laman's orders. This fpot then is governed by another officer, whom the king appoints, and whom he calls Fara.
Each province then, which contains many villages, is governed either by a Laman, or by a Laman and a Fara together, and of courfe all the villages in each are fubjecl to their orders. There is belides in each village an officer, totally diftinct from the former. This officer is called the Gueraif. He may be confidered as the Mayor of the village, for it is his bufinefs to take cognizance of any violation of the laws, to bring the offenders to trial, and to report the cafe with the decifion upon it to the king.
The villages, which I have mentioned to have had each a Gueraff at their head for their more immediate adminiffration, are thofe, in which the natives only are found to dwell. There are villages however on the coaft, where the whites, with a view of enriching themfelves by trade, are fettled for a time, fuch as Gandlole at the mouth of the Senegal, and Rufifk and Dakar in the quarters oppofite to Goree. Flere the adminiffration is rather divided. There is a Gueraff or Mayor for the natives as before, but there are two additional officers, who were originally appointed on account of the Europeans refiding there. The firfl is called the Fitor, and was formerly the interpreter between the whites and the blacks; and the fecond the Alcaide, who, when fuch interpretation was made, ufed to tranfact all the bufinefs for the whites, and was confidered as the conful between the natives and them. The firfl of thefe perfons, though he (till holds the name of Fitor and the emoluments annexed to the fituation, * now bears the office only as a linecure place. The
F ' latter
* The office of Fitor was inftituted, when the Portugueze had commercial concerns with the people of Africa.   In thofe times therefore, the Fitor was obliged to understand the Portugueze
language
latter fr.il! difcharges it. Thus the king rules provinces and villages, executing fuch orders as relate to the nation at large by the Laman and Fara, fettling the private affairs of his fubje&s by the Gueraff", and, by means of the Alcaide, adjufting difputes between his fubjects and fuch of the whites as refide for a time in his territories, and fuperintending trade.
The orders of the king are executed in this country, as in the others, by his military. In Cayor the peace eftablifhment confifts of from fix to feven thoufand foot, but in Sin and Sallum it is much lefs. The king clothes all his military in uniform, giving to each foldier an orange-coloured vefl. Thefe vefts are manufactured at home, and made of the cotton, and coloured with the dyes, of the country.. He feeds them alfo at his own expenfe, and makes them fmall prefents of cloth and other articles from time to time. This is confidered as their pay. There is no great variety of officers among them as in the European armies. The Laman is confidered as one, the Gueraff as another, the Alcaide as a third. Thefe, as commanding under the king in provinces and villages, are the commanders alfo of his troops, fo that three or four hundred men are not broken into many little divifions, but are under the direction of one man.
Though the people, who are thus employed as foldiers, are military in point of habit, there is little or no difcipline among them. They are affembled, that is, parties of them, perhaps feven or eight times in the year, according to the number of the feafts of Mahomet, to be exercifed before the king.     On  thefe occafions the king fends
language, and to interpret between the two nations: but fince thefe commercial connexions have been diflblved, his fucceflbrs have held the name of interpreter, and the emoluments of the office, without understanding any other language than their own.
previoufly
previoufly to the Laman and fome of the other officers defcribed to come over, and to bring with them each a quota of their refpective provincial troops. Upon this they affemble. Their exercife is a fort of fham fight. They fire in the air, and run after one another. This is all, and it is done without any regularity or order.
To fupport thefe, and other expenfes of government, certain taxes are eftablifhed. In the interiour villages they confift of oxen, millet, and produce of every fort, and in thofe upon the coaft, of fiffi and of fuch goods as are brought there by the Europeans. In thefe villages the Gueraff collects them annually, and fends them to the king. In the villages, however, which border on the king's refidence, a different fort of tax prevails. Thefe are obliged to maintain the king, that is, to furnifh his table with wine, victuals, and whatever he may want. One village fupplies him one week, and another another, and fo on each in its turn. On the inhabitants of thefe there is no annual tax *.
Having now mentioned every thing that feems to be neceffary as relating to the king and the admin iftration of his government, i come to thofe of the blood royal. Of thefe it may be fuflicient to fay, that they live in different parts of the country, that they preferve the remembrance of their defcent, and that they poffefs the privilege, in confequence of it, of never being fold for flaves.
* This account will hold good except in the villages of the Serreres, who are efteemed a more wild people. The king is obliged to fend to thofe an officer called Sarfar, to collecl their taxes. This officer, or travelling collector, ftays perhaps fifteen days at a village, and then partes to another, and fo on, till he has made a colleftion from the whole. The Serreres have no Gueraff among them, nor the fame government as the relt of Cayor,
F 2 Thefe
The next order, of which I am to take notice, confifts of thofe who may be denominated the People. Among thefe there is no diftinclion in point of rights, except in the facerdotal villages, and the members of thefe while they flay there, like thofe of the blood royal, can never be vitited by the pillage y nor is there any one clafs, that is confidered above another, except it may be that of the different officers of the king. There are old and young, rich and poor. The old have no other advantage than that which is given them by age. That, which their years give them, is experience, and experience recommends to favour and refpect. As to the rich, who have flaves and cattle of their own, they are not confidered as forming another clafs. That they have advantages, however, there is no doubt, but then thefe advantages are the immediate confequences of their wealth, and not of any extraordinary right ; for, in the firfl place, they are not exempt from the pillage, but efcape being fold, by having it in their power to furnifh a ranfom flave. They are, again, as we have feen in a former letter, amenable to the fame laws as the reft, but fome-times efcape their decrees in confequence of their ability to compound in the fame manner. Thefe are the only diftinctions, which I have to make with refpeel: to the people of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor.
The flaves in thefe countries, who form the fourth rank of fociety, are exceedingly few. There is here and there a perfon of condition, who may have from five to ten, and perhaps another, who may have from ten to fifty of them. But there are but very few of this defcription of perfons, and of courfc but very few flaves. The flaves do not bear the proportion of more than one to fifteen hundred, if compared with the people. It was calculated by the befl cenfus which General Bou tilers and Mr. de Villeneuve could make, that there were fifteen hundred thoufand perfons in Cayor, and about a thoufand flaves.
Thefe
Thefe flaves then, fmall as their numbers are, are of two clafTes, namely, either fuch as have once known freedom but have loft it by means of the pillage, or in confequence of real or imputed crimes, and fuch as are flaves by birth.
Thefe flaves, both of the one and the other clafs, are allowed to marry. They choofe their own wives. A flave in one family may, by the mailer's content, marry one in another. In this cafe the two do not dwell together, but fee each other at times. A Have has often, like the mailer, more than one wife : the fame law, which has been faid to attach to the wife of a free man in the cafe of adultery, attaches alfo to a Have. And again, fuppoiing the proprietor of a Have fhould have a fon or a relation pillaged in the night, he would make a lacrifice of his (lave for the redemption of fuch relation or fon. Except in fuch extraordinary cafes, it may be fet down as an eftablifhed rule in this countiy, that a perfon born in llavery, whether delcended from perfons pillaged or convicted of crimes, or from perfons them-felves born llaves, are never fold.
The occupations of thefe llaves may be divided into domeltick and agricultural. The men in the former cafe do out of doors work, collect, and bring in wood, and fetch water. The women pound millet, fpin cotton, and do other things in the family way. In the latter cafe, the men cultivate the ground. They begin their labour at five in the morning, and leave off at eleven for the whole day : they feldom or ever work afterwards, except in harvefl, fo that their labour is not more than the ordinary exercife which men fhould take. The women flaves do little more than gather cotton at the proper feafon of the year, in which they are fometimes afTifted, but not often, by the men. In fliort both the men and the the women pafs whole days together and
do
do little or nothing. In refpect to the mode or fatigue of their labour while employed, there is no diftinclion between the mailer and the llave„ There are very few people, as has been faid before, who have any llaves at all 5 and thofe, who have a few, work in general with them in the field, nor can any one difcover the difference of their rank from their employments. As to whips, chains, or any other inflru-ments of torture for flaves in thefe countries, they are totally unknown.
The food, which is given to the llaves, confifts of millet, milk, nlli, and flelh, but of the latter little, except what may have been collected from the chacej for meat is not much ufed by any defcription of people whatever in thefe countries. But here alfo, as in the former cafe, we find llavery lefs a diftinclion in reality than in the name: for they eat in company with the children of their mailers, and partake of the fame repalt. It may not be amifs, perhaps, to add here, that they fometimes live in the fame houfe, and ileep in the fame room.
Having now faid all that I intended on the fubject of the four different orders of the king, the blood royal, the people, and their refpective flaves, I fhall beg leave only to add, as it appears to me to be a better place to do it in than any other, fomething relative to the religion of the country, before I clofe my letter.
The religion of thefe countries, if we except the two Serreres, who from their wild flate are confidered as having no religion at all, is Mahometanifm. There are whole villages, inhabited by the priefta of Mahomet and their relations, and by thefe alone. Thefe priells in their own tongue are called Serims, but Marabous by the French. The villages, which contain them, and which I have diflinguifhed
by
by the name of the facerdotal, have the privilege of never being mo-lelted by the pillage. It may happen, however, that a Serim may be in another village, when the pillage is executed, and if fo, it will be difficult for him to efcape being fold with the reft. In thefe villages the Serims perform their worfhip every day.
At Dakar there are two mofques, the one open and the other thatched, for the performance of the religion of Mahomet. To the open one the Serims in the neighbourhood repair and worfhip in a body, falling proftrate in one uniform pofition on the ground, and continuing ftedfaft and immoveable in it during the time of prayer. Among th^fe Serims there is no head. There is no other diftinclion than that which iuperiour knowledge may create, and this is fuperiour refpect. As for the bulk of the people, they feldom or ever affemble except for circumcifion. They know little about the religion of the country, and, a few external rites excepted, are little of Mahometans but by name.
i have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient fervant,
T. CLARKSON.
LETTER
LETTER VII.
Paris, January i, 1790.
s i r,
Jn my laft letter I defcribed the people of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor, in a civil capacity, and as diftinguifhable therefore into four bodies in confequence of the four claiTes of life to which they reflectively belonged. In the prefent I fhall confider them in the light of inhabitants of the foil. This will lead me to confider the difpofition and ftate of their villages, houfes, lands, and property they poffefs, a topick, which appears to me to follow the preceding, not only as naturally but as advantageouily as any other towards elucidating the points contained in your fecond queftion.
With refpect to the villages in thefe countries (which is the firfl part of the fubject to be purfued) all thofe, which may be called Marine, are built clofe on the fhore. In the interiour parts, however, many circumftances have contributed to fix them where they are found.   The natives in general wifh to be near the forefts,
as
as affording them a retreat in cafe of invasion, and therefore we generally find their villages fituated there : but if there fhould not be good water near the foot which they may fancy, or land fufnciently fertile to produce what they want to raife, they build them in other parts. Good water is a fufficient recommendation of itfelf to determine the lite of a village j good land another: hence there are many villages in the open country as well as among the trees. Hence there is a great variety of appearance in their fituations. The Serreres, however, who have been defcribed to be in a wilder Hate than the reft, are found almoft univerfally in the woods.
I come now to the houfes in thefe villages.   And firft, as to the exteriour of them, they are made of ftraw.   They are univerfally of a round form, and have one door only.   When built to a certain height, which is very moderate, the roof gradually tapers from thence to a point at the top.   There is no regularity in the fituation of thefe houfes, that is, there are no regular ftreets.   If a family be only fufficient in number to occupy one houfe, that houfe is built by itfelf, and furrounded by a fence of ftraw : if a family, confifling of fathers, mothers, children, coufins, or of an hufband and many wives, or of a mafter and many flaves, be fufficient to occupy two, three, four, or more houfes, thefe are built at a little diftance from each other, and encircled by a wall of ftraw.   Nor are the houfes of the families in thefe villages fituated according to any precedence.   The king's houfe is in the middle, or on one fide, as it happens.  There is no determined fpot appropriated to rank.  Care, however, is generally taken that a free fpace be left open for what is called the Publick Place of the village, a place where all publick confultations are held, and all matters of controverfy fettled.
G
The
The king's houfe is undoubtedly diftinguifhed from thofe of his fubjects by its fize. It is alfo furrounded in general by a hedge of thorns inftead of a fence of ftraw. It is diftinguifhed again by having a domeflick at each gate in the hedge or fence, but no military : for the military are ufed only on the feafts of Mahomet, as already defcribed, or for pillage, or when the king goes out publickly, or to war. The king's domeflick officers are however numerous. There is a captain of his gate, a captain of his dogs, and a variety of other tituled obfervants of his will.
As to the interiour of the houfes of thefe villages it is extremely fimple; their furniture confifls of a bed, and this is all, if we except one or two rude domeflick utenfils. The manner of conflructing the bed is as follows: Three large wooden flakes are driven down into the ground or floor of the hut in a row, about the diflance of three feet from each other. At a proper width, and exactly oppofite and parallel to thefe, three other flakes are driven down in the fame manner, all of which together with the former appear about a foot or a foot and an half above the floor of the hut. The heads of thefe flakes having been all of them previoufly notched, three flout poles are then laid in the notches from fide to fide, and upon thefe again other thin poles lengthways, fo as to crofs them and form a grated furface or floor capable of bearing a confiderable weight. Upon this the natives place a mat of ftraw and leaves intermixed, upon which they ileep.
This is the general and almofl only furniture of the people. Nor is the Gueraff much better off. He may have perhaps a rude chefl, in which he puts his brandy and other articles   and in this confifts
the
the only diftinction between the two. As to the king himfelf, he has but little more to diftinguifh the interiour of his houfe than the bed and cheft defcribed. He has certain ftools for the convenience of fitting down. Thefe ftools are nearly of the form of a common hour glafs, though of courfe much larger, that is, they are narrower in the middle than at the ends, which may be ufed alternately either as a fupporter or a feat. It is this piece of furniture which places the fovereign above the reft.
In order to give you a better idea of the houfes and villages of which I have been juft fpeaking, I have procured for you the annexed plan. It contains a fketch of the village of Portudal, as it was taken by Mr. de Villeneuve on the fpot. Fig. i reprefents the king's court, that is, his relidence when he comes to Portudal. Fig. 2, the Publick Place of the village before defcribed. Fig. 3 the place on each fide of the village where the natives keep their millet. The grain belonging to every family is thus brought together, and in certain balkets of their own manfaclure depolited in a common fpot. Fig. 4, the inclolj^res which contain the houfe or houfes belonging to each family in the village; each family, as has been faid before, occupying one or more houfes, and furrounding them with a fence of ftraw. Fig. 5, the houfe of the Alcaide, or Conful for the whites who tranfact bufinefs at Portudal. Fig. 6, a fort of fried called Calde, or a penthoufe, where the natives work to avoid the heat of the fun. Fig. 7, fties, detached from the houfes, in which they keep their pigs. Fig. 8, the canoes of the inhabitants in the manner they generally lie upon the beach.
Having now given you as good an idea as I am able of the houfes and villages of thefe countries, as occupied by the natives of them,
G 2 1 come,
I come, for my next point, to the lands, which they poffefs. Thefe are in general as near the villages as the fertility of the foil will permit; in fome places clofe to them, in others fometimes a quarter of a league, or half a league off, and in others more.
Their lands may be divided into three forts j lands for cotton and indigo; lands for the more immediate neceflaries of life, fuch as millet; and lands for pafture. In the diftribution of thefe lands, that is, fixing their fituation nearer to the villages in proportion as one is rich, or more remote in proportion as another is poor, no fuch diftinction prevails. Each family has occupied that, which it thought would anfwer its purpofe befl, or that which it pitched upon the firft. There are no difputes with refpedl; to land. If a man has not enough, he may take more, and as much more as he pleafes. There are thoufands of acres unfettled, fo that he has only to choofe a fpot, which is not occupied by another.
The land however, which is poffeffed in thefe countries, is not poffeffed by individuals but by whole families. All the relations in a village, fathers, mothers, brothers, fons, coufins, hold one fpot, which ferves them all, and which is as much as they can cultivate among them, or is adequate to their wants. The figure of this fpot is generally round. If it be laid out in indigo, cotton, or millet, it is inclofed with thorns, left the deer or other wild game getting into it fhould deftroy the crop. Thefe thorns are often fuch as the men have cut down, and afterwards worked into a fence, or fuch as in the clearing of new land they have left flanding in fuch parts as they determined fhould be the boundary of their lands. Thus are their lands like the places of their habitations.   They are encircled by a
fence 5
fence; they affume a round appearance like the fpot upon which the houfes ftand   and are poffeffed by whole families.
It may not be amifs to obferve here, that the portion of lanci, which I have defcribed to have been enclofed and occupied by a family, is allotted but to one fort of produce. The fame family, that wants millet for cufcus or bread, wants cotton for clothes, but in this cafe they never divide the fame inclofure for the production of the two. The indigo plantations are feparate from the cotton, and the cotton again from the millet. The indigo are the neareft in general to the town, the cotton next, and the millet the mod remote ; fo that there is neither a mixture of two forts of produce in one enclofure, nor are enclofures of different forts of produce in-terfperfed. Hence one family may have three feparate enclofures belonging to them, according to their induftry or their wants. With refpect to tobacco, there is but little of it, and there are no enclofures for that; and with refpect to the cultivation of indigo, one exception is to be made to the preceding account, which is, that the Serreres do not cultivate it at all.
As to the lands for pafture (the laft divifion to be fpoken of) they are not enclofed like the reft, but are all open. There are fome inhabitants of the villages, who have cattle, the ufe of which is rather for the milk than the meat, for in thefe countries meat is feldom eaten except on the feafts of Mahomet. The king has many cows, the Gueraff fome, and the rich fuch as they have inherited or acquired by trade. All thefe, however, feed in one herd. They are tended by two or three men and as many boys. Thefe take charge of them as well in the night as in the day, for which purpofe they fleep
in
(   5+ )
in fmall huts or cabins erected upon the lands where the cattle feed. The occupation of herdfmen is here followed as a trade.
In fpeaking of property it will be neceffary to make a diftinction here, which otherwife may not be thought to fubfifl. The lands or houfes, which have been defcribed to be within an enclofure, do not belong to any one individual, as I have ftated before, but to all the members conjointly of the family which occupies them. This, however, is not the cafe with property of another kind. Perhaps an induflrious man, by applying himfelf to fome commercial purfuit, becomes poffeffed of cattle. Perhaps another with great care and trouble has formed a palmery, with a view of fupplying the market with palm wine. Such cattle then and fuch palmery belong exclufively to thofe who acquired them. Thefe and other fimilar forts of property are diflincl: from the firfl. They are wholly at the difpofai of the proprietor during life, but at his death they defcend to the next heirs. The property which a father (for inftance) has of this kind, is divided equally, when he dies, among his legitimate children, who may, as has been faid in a former letter, be the offspring of three different wives.
Such, Sir, to conclude my letter, is the arrangement, as it is found to take place, of the villages, houfes, and lands, of the inhabitants of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor. To thefe original houfes and villages fo occupied, to thefe original lands fo laid out and poffeffed, and to the fimplicity of life fo necefTarily following fuch an arrangement, thefe inhabitants are fo extremely attached, as to confider it the greatefl evil in life to leave them. This is particularly obvious after any ferious pillage, which may have obliged them to betake themfelves to the woods; for in thefe woods they have been known to wait
with
with patience for years, till they have thought the danger entirely over, and then to feek their ancient habitations again. As one proof among many others the following may fuffice. Mr. de Villeneuve in his journey over land from Cape Verd to the ifland of Fort St. Louis, which journey is marked in the map, met with two villages, Tiockmat and Little Boro, which had been deferted by the inhabitants in confequence of the pillage. On palling by the former he obferved feveral of the natives at work, as if employing themfelves in repairing the ancient huts. This occalioned him to flop and to converfe with them, during which he learned that thefe were the ancient inhabitants of Tiockmat, from whence they had been driven by the pillage ; that after having lived for many moons in the forefts they had refolved upon coming out, and re-elfablilhing themfelves on their native fpot, and that they were then repairing their old habitations with a view of occupying them again. This was the fubftance of their converfation with Mr. de Villeneuve, and it was a fact, well known in the country, that Tiockmat had been pillaged by Darnel full five years before this event of the eltablilhment of the natives, as then refolved on and taking place.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient fervant,
T. CLARKSON.
LETTER
LETTER VIII.
sir, Paris, January 3, 1790.
J~JaVING defcribed to you in my two laft letters the different ranks of life among the people of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor, and having alfo brought them to your view as they live in their houfes and villages, and poffefs their lands, there remains but one more topick to fuggeft to your notice, before I confider myfelf to have replied fufficiently to your fecond queftion.
This topick will comprehend the different occupations of thefe people, or the various ways in which the inhabitants of thefe countries employ themfelves in the courfe of the year.
The occupations then to be found at Sallum, Sin, and Cayor, may be divided into ftationary and itinerant. The firft ftationary employment, according to my acceptation of the word, is agriculture. If
the
the natives with to clear new land, or fuch as has lain fallow (for they never cultivate the fame land but once in three years) they refort immediately to the fpot. There are two inflruments which they ufe upon thefe occafions. The firfl: of them is an axe, with which they chop the larger trunks of * underwood. This axe differs from our own, inafmuch as the wood paifes through the iron with us, while in this the iron paffes through the wood. The other is a kind of garden-fpud, with a fork at the handle. This is applied to the roots; that is, the end, which is of iron, cuts them through, and they are carried away by the fork at the other end, as before defcribed. The clearing of land is an occupation belonging to the men.
With thefe inftruments then the natives, before the -f rainy feafon begins, prepare their land. On the firfl of July, or thereabouts, they commence with their millet. Of this there are two fpecies, the fmall and the great. They begin with the former. To plant this, a man ufes a fort of fpade, which differs from our own as far as the iron work is of a femicircular inftead of an oblong form. His firfl procefs is that of digging a hole in the ground. Having made this, he advances about fifteen inches and digs another. In this way he continues in a flraight line till he comes to the end of his inclofure. Having made one flraight line of holes, at the diftance from each other defcribed, he makes another parallel to the former, and fo on till he has opened the whole of his land.   While he is engaged in this work
* There are thoufands of acres of champaign land in thefe countries, that have only a fort of underwood upon them. Thefe the inhabitants felecl when they want new land, for to clear the forefts for this purpofe would be an endlefs talk.
f The rainy feafon begins in June and ends in O&ober,
II
a woman
a woman follows him, and puts feeds into each of the holes which he has made, covering them afterwards with the earth.
The feed, thus lodged in each of the holes, is fuffered to remain without interruption for three weeks, when the perfon, who has fown it, vifits it again. He finds during his abfence that between thefe holes a number of weeds and roots have (hooted up. Thefe he clears away with the forked garden-[put! as before defcribed. Having done this, he makes new holes between each of thofe which he made in the beginning of July. A woman follows him as before, and puts into them the large millet. At the latter end of September, or beginning of October, the fmall millet fown in the firft of thefe holes is ready. The men cut it, and the women and children carry it away. In three weeks afterv/ards, or at the latter end of October, the large millet fown in the laft is ready alfo, and it is cut and taken away as before.   Thus they have two crops in the year,
"When the millet is thus gathered, it is carried to a place fixed upon at a fmall diftance from the village, where all the millet belonging to the inhabitants is kept, as was defcribed in the laft plate. Each family has a large bafket, made of twigs, of a conical form, about five feet high with a top to it, which takes off, in which it is depofited. Here each family depofits its own crop, fo that the millet of the whole village is kept together. Though it be often at a diftance from the villages and among the woods, and there be nobody to guard it, it is generally in perfect fecurity from theft.
The defcription of people, who work in the manner mentioned, arc the proprietors  of the lands.   Each family works for its own
fuftenance
fuftenance and fupport. Amidft the labourers a flave is fometimcs found, but not often, becaufe, as I have find before, the flaves in this country do not bear the proportion of more than one to fifteen hundred, if compared with the free men.
The millet then takes up the time of the natives from July till the beginning of November. In December they gather their crop of cotton, and their indigo in May.
The people, who thus cultivate their lands, and are employed (taking in the different forts of produce) for the months of July, Auguft, September, October, November, December, and May, are not idle for the other feafons of the year. They betake themfelves, in the interim, to other ftationary employments, fuch as the making of mats and foap. The former are made of leaves and the twigs of trees, the latter of certain infects and greafe. The former are made promifcuoufly by all, but the latter by women only.
According to the advantages or difadvantages, which the fituation of the country occafions, other ftationary occupations arife or are forbidden to exift. Thus, as an inftance of the firft, the villagers on the fea coaft employ themfelves in riming. They go out to fea for this purpofe, and are engaged in it, off and on the coaft, from February to June. The fifh which they catch, they preferve by drying in the fun. At the end of the fifhing feafon it begins to be time, from what I have faid before, to cultivate their lands. They betake themfelves therefore to this employment. Hence (including the fifhing feafon and the months already ftated to have been the months for hufbandry) this defcription of people have fufficient work for the year round.
As
As an example of the latter, the following may fuifice. It would be the mod natural to fuppofe that the boats, in which thefe fimermen follow their occupation, are built upon the ihore ; but it is not the cafe: Firfl, Becaufe there is but little wood upon that part of the coaft where they live; and, Secondly, Becaufe that little is not fo good as in the interiour parts. Hence arifes by ne-ceflity the bufinefs of boat-building at the diftance of thirty leagues from the fhore, and in a part of the country where there are no rivers to bring them down when made. The Serreres of Baol, who have been defcribed as living among the woods, are one deicrip-tion of people who follow this employment. Thefe are free men, and are not aided in their work by any flaves. They cut down the trees firft, they then fhape the canoes., but do not hollow them, left, in pulling them over land acrofs the country (for there is no other way of conveying them) they fhould break. When they have fhaped them they fallen to them the cords of the country, and by the afliftance of the village drag them about fix leagues. Here they are affifted by the next village, who drag them about fix leagues farther, and fo on, till they reach the fliore. They give the people, who afhft them, a dinner or repaft only for their pains, with which they are quite content. Notwithftanding the wonderful trouble and perseverance from the felling of the trees to the delivery of thefe boats upon the fliore, they fell them at a price which would be hardly credited by an European. A boat, that will hold two people, may be bought for about * twelve livres or four bars, and a large canoe of forty feet for an hundred livres only. Thofe, furnifhed by the Serreres of Baol, are dragged to different parts of the coaft between Point de Serenes and Gambarou, and are generally of the length of twenty-five feet; boats of thefe dimenfions only being in ufe between thefe limits.
Ten millings English.
Thofe
(   6i )
Thofe in ufe from Gambarou to Cape Rouge arc made in the vicinity of the Serreres of Cayor, and arc about twelve feet lono-
Thofe in ufe about Sallum are in length about forty feet, and are made by the natives up the Gambia. Of all thefe boatmakers it may be proper to add, that they follow this occupation only in the dry feafon; for in the rainy they cultivate their lands: fo that like the rifhermen before mentioned they are employed for the year round.
Among other ftationary occupations, I will mention but one more, which is the making of fait.
In the countries, to which this defcription extends, there are but three or four villages, from which the whole of the inhabitants are fupplied with fait. At the village of Bieurt, oppofite to Gandiole at the mouth of the Senegal, the inhabitants make this article, and fupply Cayor and the Moors. On the banks of the river Silif, which runs into the river Palmarin in the dominions of Barbaiin, there arc two or three villages, among which is Sangay, where the inhabitants are occupied in the fame manner. There are not lefs perhaps than rive or fix hundred of fhem, men and women together, who are thus employed in the latter. Thefe fupply the other two countries mentioned in thefe letters, namely, Sin, and Sallum.
I come now to what may be called the itinerant employments. Thefe may be divided into two kinds, namely, into fuch as arc exer-cifed either by the natives or by foreigners. Of thofe of the firft defcription may be confidered the occupation of working in gold. People, free men, who exercife the profefiion of goldfmiths, are found in the courts of the kings, where they principally get their bread.
When
When the kings have done with them (for they do not employ them the whole year round) they go about the villages, and work for fuch as can afford to pay them. Their work is exceedingly neat, and is often as good as is found among the Europeans in the fame line. Their profeffion, however, is a totally diftincl: one, for they neither cultivate land, nor meddle with any other trade.
A fecond itinerant occupation is that of frniths. There are two or three people in every village, who make the iron in the inftruments of hufbandry defcribed. Thefe make alfo the heads of lances and fpears, as well as ornaments in copper, for fuch as pleafe to employ them. Thefe are free people, and are never affifted by flaves; there being but few in this country, as I have faid before, and thefe being rather the appendages of luxury, than the inftruments of labour. Thefe people ftay perhaps a year or two in a village, and then go to another. They have no land, for they have no time to cultivate it. Were they to choofe to divide their time between agriculture and their profefhon, they might have as much of it as they pleafed, for there are thoufands of acres to fpare.
A third itinerant employment, which is exercifed as a trade, is that of dying. The fecret of dying in thefe countries is in the poffeffion of the women alone, nor is it in every village that it is known. There are only a few villages, in which thefe dyers are to be found. They of courfe go about the country from village to village, and perform the different commiffions, which the inhabitants may have for them in that line.
The fourth, fifth, and fixth itinerant employments, of which i intend next to fpeak, are not feparately purfued by individuals, like
the
the preceding, but undertaken and held together} to that he, who profefies any one of them, profeffes all of them jointly as a trade. The natives, who are brought up to thefe joint employments, are called Gueriotts in their own tongue. The iirft of their occupations is that of becoming drum-beaters or comedians to the king. They may be confidered as a fort of rfrolling players. When the kings do not employ them in this line, they try to gain their fubfiftence from the people. To amufe the latter they beat their drums, talk nonfenfe, rehearfe the feats of their anceitors, call them brave fellows, and, in fhort, do what is done by the fame defcription of people in Europe. When, however, neither the kings nor the people have any employment for them in this line, they fupport themfelves by their two other occupations. The firfh of thefe is that of working in cotton. For this purpofe they always travel with their looms, which are fhort, light, and portable. The art of making cloth is almoft wholly in their hands, and is fo well executed, that no European cloth is better fabricated. The fecond of their occupations is that of working in leather. Of this they make fcabbards for knives, daggers, and fwords, fmall faddles, pouches, fandals, * grifgris, and other articles. Following thefe employments they travel from village to village. Their countrymen, however, have fome fuperftitious notions about them, and will not fuffer them, when they die, to be buried near the fame fpot with themfelves.
A feventh itinerant occupation is that of conjurers. Thofe, who follow it, ramble up and down, like the Gueriotts, feldom or ever flaying more than four or five days in a place. On coming into a village they are frequently fent for, to amufe the Gueraff, as well as
* A fort of leathern ornament, which the natives wear as a charm, or prote&ion againil injury or mifchief.
the
the king, if he mould he then refident In it. If, befides playing before thefe, they can get into the houfe of a man of condition to fhew their tricks, fo much the better, for they are better paid. If not, they get as many of the people together as they can. They then exhibit their art. It confifis of flight of hand with balls, knives, and fuch other things as are belt adapted to their defign. Two only cf thefe conjurers travel or exhibit their profeflion together. When the exhibition is over, a collection is made, at which time the fpecta-tors contribute cloth, millet, and other articles in return for the di-verfion afforded them.
It is from thefe conjurers that the notion of witchcraft, or that there are perfons in every village capable of being acceffory to the death of others by fecret means (the punifhment for which as well as the lingular method of trial for it I defcribed in my fecond letter) may be confidered to be kept up. For the people behold thefe conjurers with furprize; they confider them as doing Supernatural things; and as they fee no reafon why they fhould not be capable of communicating their art, they believe on certain occafions that there are wizzards in their own villages.
It may not be improper to mention here, that the above occupation is fometimes attended with bad confequences to its followers. It has happened that they have been accufed of witchcraft and fold. Such inftances, however, are but rare; for there is not an equal, number of inducements to accufe thefe as other people, moft of them being crooked, lame, blind of an eye, or fuch as have fome bodily defect, fo that very little emolument is to be derived from the fale of them.
Having
Having now defcribed fome of the itinerant employments which are exercifed by the inhabitants of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor, I mall juft fpeak of one of the fame defcription, which is exercifed by-foreigners. This is the manufacturing of wood. In the empire of OualofF there are certain people who inhabit the forefts and are known by the name of Laobes. Thefe Laobes employ themfelves in their own country in making peftles, mortars, and every fort of wooden inftrument, that is in ufe either in Sallum, Sin, or Cayor: fo that almoft every wooden utenfil to be feen there is of their manufacture. When they have made a quantity they fend them away under the care of a party of their own people. Thefe have the patience to carry them in large bundles upon their heads, and to travel with them in this manner for many days. When they have difpofed of them, they return into the woods of OualofF, carrying back to their countrymen fuch commodities as they have received in exchange.
Thefe then are fome of the occupations, both ftationary and itinerant, exercifed in the countries which are the fubjects of thefe letters, by means of which each is enabled to obtain his refpective wants. The Gueriott, for inftance, can always furnifh himfelf with clothes, but having no land, he is obliged to derive part of his fuhfiftence from his occupation of Drum-beater or Comedian to the king. For another part of it he has recourfe to the hufbandman, who gives him a quantity of millet for working his crop of cotton into cloth. The hufbandman is thus fupplied with raiment, fufficient for himfelf, and with an overplus for trade; but as he mult have fifti (for this is deemed a neceffary part of his fuflenance) he has recourfe, in his turn, to the inhabitant of the fhore. The inhabitant of the fliore, befides following the occupation of a fiiherman, cultivates as i faid before his own millet, but he has often no time for the planting of cotton for his
I clothes.
clothes. For his ftfh then he receives the overplus of the hufband-man's cloth juft mentioned. The fmith, on the other hand, having no land, and but one occupation, muff be in want of both millet, fifh, and clothes. Thefe he gets from the former three in exchange for his fpears, and inftruments of agriculture in iron.
Thus is a great deal of bufinefs tranfacted by means of barter, both in the vicinity of the fhore, and in the interiour parts. There is a frequent communication between the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages for this purpofe, each offering for fale that which he poffeffes to procure that which he wants. In Sallum, many articles of merchandize are carried up and down the country in boats, for there are many rivers there. In Sin, where the fame advantages are not to be found, many of them are carried upon affes; and in Cayor, upon affes alfo, till you come near the mouth of the Senegal, where oxen are in ufe. Numbers, however, of the natives travel with large bundles of merchandize on their heads, and their perfeverance upon thefe occafions is aftonifhing, for they not only difregard the weight of them, but with this weight, enormous as it frequently is, they will travel fix French leagues in the courfe of a flngle day.
I have now, Sir, furnifhed you (in defcribing the different occupations of the people of Sallum, Sin, and Cayor) with the laft topick I propofed to myfelf as connected with your fecond queftion. On thofe points which I have already fpoken to, I have no more light to offer, nor can I conceive that there is any more that you can want. I have therefore fulfilled the tafk I undertook at the beginning of thefe letters. As, however, it may be of ufe to you that I fhould point out from the contents  of them certain pofitions,
which
which you may have it in your power to refort to on certain occasions, I fhall continue my correfpondence for another day. Nor will you be offended with this interference of mine as any impeachment upon your own underftanding and genius : for quick as your penetration is, yet as you are unacquainted with the various arguments adduced in defence of the Slave-Trade, it is but reafonable to fuppofe, that many obfervations will efcape you, as you may not in every inftance know the value of fome of the ground you pafs over, in furveying the contents of the preceding letters. It is this circumftance, and this alone, which has induced me to offer you my fervices on this new occafion, and I fhall be happy in realizing them, if I hear nothing from you to the contrary to-morrow.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
THOMAS CLARKSON.
LETTER
LETTER IX.
Paris, January 4, 1790.
S I R,
I PROMISED you yefterday, with your leave, to advert to certain parts of the foregoing letters. I fit down for this purpofe to-day, and fhall refer to thofe and thofe of them only, which, if applied to the different arguments advanced by the advocates for the Slave-Trade, would be anfwers to them, as far as the matter contained in thefe letters is capable of affording fuch.
Among the arguments ufed in juftification of the continuance of the trade, there are three, deduced from the fituation of the natives of Africa previoufly to their coming into the hands of the Europeans as flaves. It is afferted by fome (to mention the firfl: of them) that thefe flaves were originally prifoncrs of war: that, if they were not purchafed, they would be killed;  and that the Slave - Trade
therefore
therefore ought to be continued, inafmuch as by fuch a continuation of it there is a continual faving of human life.
Not to dwell on the very affectionate concern which all thofe mull: certainly have for the poor Africans, who viiit their coaft for this very humane purpofe, but who go to no other coaft where they know wars to exift, and the natives to be in a fimilar flate of fociety, let us fee what may be traced upon this fubjecl: in the preceding letters. It is faid firft, * that wars, in the common acceptation of the word, rarely happen : Secondly, that, when they do, they feldom laft longer than from ten to fifteen days, and that very few prifoners are ever made; fo few indeed, that in the great battle which determined the fate of a whole kingdom, twenty-five perfons only were taken.
It is urged by others, as a fecond argument, that thefe flaves were originally criminals; that the receiving of them into flavery is only executing the fentence awarded againft them by their own laws; and that the continuance of the trade therefore is but the completion of juftice by the hands of the Europeans.
Let us now go again as before to the preceding letters. In anfwer to this we fhall find that -J- out of twelve hundred and forty perfons, whofe fituation prior to their coming into the hands of the Europeans is accurately known, two hundred and thirty-five are to be fet down as having been convicted of crimes either fuppofed or real, and one thoufand and five as the produce of treachery and force.
We are enabled to ftate again from the fame authority, J that all crimes from the greateft to the leaft are alike punifhed with flavery;
* Page i3. f Page 17, 25, 29. 1 Page 13, 14, 15, 16.
that
that the king is the ultimate judge or arbiter of the fate of fuch reputed criminals, and that for his benefit they are fold; that in the cafe where he is not, namely, in the cafe of witchcraft, the effects of a red hot iron on the flefh are the the teft of their innocence or guilt ; and laftly, that in fome cafes it is not the offender only who is punifhed, but his innocent family, and that this is more or lefs likely to be the cafe hi proportion to his poverty or his wealth.
From thefe two ftatements then it evidently appears, firft, that the number of reputed criminals is but fmall; fecondly, that thefe are difproportionally punifhed; thirdly, that of this fmall number it may happen that fome of them are perfons totally innocent; and, fourthly, that it does frequently happen that others are, and hence that the continuation of the trade is not the completion of juftice, but of injustice, on the part of the Europeans.
It is infilled on by others, as the third argument, that thefe llaves were flaves in their own country previoufly to their coming into the hands of the Europeans; fo that thofe, who buy and tranfport them, occafion them only to change the place of their abode, and not their condition.
This argument alfo drops to the ground, if we examine the contents of the preceding letters; for it appears, firfl, * that the proportion of free men to flaves is about that of fifteen hundred to one.
It appears fecondly f that the Pillage and Crimes are the two grand means of furnifhing fupplies for the trade in queftion.
* Page 44. Letter II. Ill, IV.
Now,
(   7i )
Now, as the Pillage is made promifcuoufly upon all, as well upon free men as upon flaves, and as the latter may be fuppofed not to be more difpofed to vice than the former (for the mind cannot be fo broken, where the flate of llavery is neither burthenfome nor degrading, as to lofe all its virtue) it follows that the number of pillaged and condemned of the firfl clafs will be to the number of pillaged and condemned of the fecond, in the proportion in which they are found to exilt in fociety to one another : that is to fay, among every fifteen hundred and one perfons exported, there may be confidered to be fifteen hundred who were originally free.
This proportion would undoubtedly be the true one, if we could' take upon us to fay, that thofe, who were born flaves, were never fold by their matters. And this we are enabled to do nearly on the authority of the preceding letters. For we are informed, that if the proprietor of a Have fhould have a fon or relation pillaged in the night *, he would undoubtedly give a flave for the redemption of fuch relation or fon, and that, except in fuch a cafe, it may be fet down as an eflablifhed rule in thefe countries, that thofe who are born flaves are never fold. Suppofe then we were to fiiy that, for every fifteen hundred perfons exported, thirty of them were fuch as were Ranfom-flaves (a fufficient number to allow in a country where very few poffefs flaves at all) we fhould fee the abfurdity of the argument advanced; for we fhould fee that almofl all who are exported were originally free, and that they do change not only the place of their abode, but their condition alfo.
Having now ftated three arguments generally made ufe of, and all of them deduced from the fituation of the natives previouily
• Tage 45.
to
to their coming into the hands of the Europeans as flaves, I fhall mention one, which obtains equally, but which is ufually deduced from their fituation after the above period; for it is contended by the advocates for the trade, that their lives in the colonies are fo much happier than in the country they left, astojuflify the continuance of it.
That you may judge of the truth of the argument, I fhall fup-pofe, firfl, that all the perfons exported were originally free men. I fhall fuppofe afterwards that they were all of them ilaves. I fhall then fee in either cafe what the preceding letters furnifh us with to enable us to form an idea of the truth of the affertion, or whether, whichever of the two cafes we choofe to take as the true, the argument will not drop to the ground.
On a fuppofition then that they were free men, we are juflified in giving the following account of them.
In Africa * every native in his own village is confidered as a member of the community, and as a man. He knows no diflinclion of rank or privilege. He fees but one magiflrate over him, and this perfon no otherwife more powerful than himfelf, than by being able to bring offenders to trial with the confent of the people. Now, Sir, is this the cafe with him when exported to St. Domingo or your other colonies ? Is he not immediately expunged from the rank of men ? Is he not confidered as a mere initrument of labour, or put upon a level with the brute ?
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* In Africa every native is the cultivator of his own little farm, and the crop that follows is the reward of his labour. To place him beyond the reach of want, more land awaits him as his own, if more fhould be judged neceffary, and this to an extent equal to the fummit of his wifhes. But what is his fituation when exported to St. Domingo ? Several of your colonics now at Paris aifure me, that after having expended his finews in the fields of his matter, he has no fhare in the fruits of his Own labour; that he dares not touch the cane which his own hands have planted for fear of the application of the whip; that his meagre looks too often exhibit a proof of his fcanty fare; and that his little repeated thefts, not on the pageantry of his matter, but on the neceffaries of life (thefts of a kind + feldom or ever known in his own country) are but too many additional confirmations of his wants.
In his own country again, as a free man, it is evident that he goes to fleep when it fuits him. In the morning he rifes at his own hour. In the day he goes where he pleafes, feeking various amufements when unemployed, or vifiting his friends; and, when he comes to a good old age, he has the pleafure of finding himfelf an object of favour and refpect. In your colonies, on the other hand, as the fame gentlemen aver, his' numbers are daily broken by the found of the fhell. If nature tells him that he is not fufficiently refrefhed, but entices him again to fleep, he dares not obey her call. Sick or well he mufl rife to his toil. If he fhould range about to amufe himfelf in the day, he is feized as a runaway from the rod of defpotifm, and opprefTed with chains. If he vitits his friends he mufl viiit them in the night; and pay for his pleafure by the pain of encroaching upon his fleep; and when he comes to a good old age, all eflimation of him is gone;
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he is confidered as an ufelefs animal; as a dead weight on his owner; nay, he is fometimes even turned adrift, when his aged hands are incapable of procuring him a livelihood, to ileal or periih.
* In his own country again, he is fituated amidft his relatives and friends. Here the former for generations back are encircled by one fence. Here, if he be grown a man, he beholds on one fide of him his aged anceftors, and on the other, views with pleafure his riling progeny. But is this his fituation in St. Domingo ? Is he not a ftranger there? Is not his life rendered continually unhappy by the painful thought of being for ever feparated from all whom he efteemed in life : and if time fhould chance to erafe the remembrance of thefe, or render it faint, dare he even then frequently form any new connexion, or can he dwell with pleafure on the profpect of a progeny to come. Your colonifls tell me No. They have often heard him fay, " Thefe whites arc the moil mercilefs of men. They are not content with our bodies in this life, but they follow us after death. They perfecute our images by entailing upon our children their parental lot. I will not taffe the connubial flate. I will not bring an infant into the world to become a brute. If I do, I will fliile it, and be theirs the crime."
Now, Sir, if to the above considerations you fhould add a remarkable circumflance to be found in the preceding letters, namcly-f-, that his attachment to his native village is of fo extraordinary a kind, that though you chafe him from it with all the dogs of perfecution he will return to it again, or, in other words, that whatever fituation you put him into in the colonies, you make him miferable by taking him from his native fpot, you will form a decifive idea of the relative happinefs
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of his fituation as a free man on the continent of Africa, and as a Have in St. Domingo.
Having now confidered him as having been free before the time of his exportation, I (hall follow the plan I intended, and confider him to have been a Have in his own country. On fuch a fuppoiition the following comparifon may be made.
* In Africa, though a flave, he is not fubjecfed to ftripes or any other perfonal ill treatment. Whips, chains, and other inftruments of torture, are there unknown. But the gentlemen inform me from your colonies, that, after he has been exported, you trace on his back fuch marks of the whip as time can never deface; that chains and imprifonment, with various inftruments of torment await him, if he fhould have the virtue to tranfgrefs the colonial laws; and that, even if he fhould not tranfgrefs them, he is never fafe from the fallies of paflion and caprice.
-j- In his own country again, his work is eafy and light, not exceeding the ordinary exercife which health requires. In your colonies, when exported there, I am told from the fame authority as before, that it is hard and intolerable. In his own country he enjoys often whole days of leifure. In your colonies, days and years pafs alike without a refpite from his labours, and days and years are ftill to pafs till nature is exhauiled. In the former, he is cheered by the example of his mafter, who undertakes an equal portion of labour with him in the fame field. In the latter, he is rouzed to exertion by the lafh.   Vain and idle is the plea that difeafe has affailed and
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enfeebled him, find that he is weak. To fugged this he frequently dares not, and not to fuggeft it is to fall the victim of avarice and opprcffion.
.* In his own country again, he is led to confider that flavery is lefs a distinction in reality than in the name. He eats with the children of his mailer, and partakes of the fame repaft. He fleeps often in the fame room, and always in an apartment as commodious as theirs. When in company with his mafter, it is difficult often to know which of them is the Have. But I am informed that very unlike to this is his fituation at St, Domingo: that he is confidered as of a different order of creation : that the whip only is bafe enough to touch his body; and that, if ever admitted into the prefence of his owner, there is the immenfe diftance between them of a reptile and of a God.
This, Sir, is the fecond comparative view which I undertook to make, namely, between the fituation of a flave in Africa and a flave in your colonies. Now, if to this you add that which was made before, namely, that of a free man and a flave in the fame two countries, you will be able to reject the argument with difdain, fhould it ever be oppofed to you, that the lives of thofe annually exported to the colonies are fo much happier there than in their own country, as to juftify the continuance of the Slave-Trade.
Having now replied very fully to the fourth argument fuggefted to your notice, I fhall offer to your consideration a fifth, which has had fome influence, but which may be alfo anfwered from the contents of the preceding letters.
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It has been conflantly handed about, and this with fome fhare of fuccefs, that the natives of Africa have not the fame faculties as other men; by which it is infinuated, that they were born, or at leaft are fit only for flaves.
* As a proof of the contrary of this, we find them in their own country under a regular form of government, with divifions and fubdi-vifions of officers, fo that a large tradl is put into a fituation to be governed with eafe, and edicts, that are to travel to a confiderable extent, to be foon promulgated and obeyed.
f We fee alfo a certain fyftem of jurifprudence ihflituted. We fee property divided into two kinds ; laws not only relating to this but to other fubjects; offenders tried for tranfgreffing them, and this by their own Peers and upon the fpot. We fee alfo a fyftem of revenue, impofed with judgment, collected without difficulty, and equal to the exigencies of the flate. To which we may add the name and form of a religion known and acknowledged by them all.
If it fhould be objected to their fyftem of jurifprudence as a weak one J, that in the particular cafe of witchcraft the effects of a hot iron on the flefh are the tefl of innocence or guilt, let us remember how fhort a time it is, fince our own anceftors had recourfe to the boiling water and burning plough-mare for the famepurpofe; and that at this period they never demeaned their own understandings fo much, nor do we their defcendants think fo contemptibly of them, as to fuppofe that others had a right to enflave them on that account.
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If it fhould be objected again to their fyftem of government, * that the governours have too much power over the governed, and -f- that men of condition and wealth can efcape the penalties of the laws, let us fee whether we Europeans are perfect in thefe particulars.   It is but lately fince we have feen a Baftile, and we know of an Inquisition exifting at prefent in two kingdoms : and as to the other charge, if we look at home, we Shall fee how almoft impoffible it is for the poor man to obtain redrefs from the injuries of the rich, or, in other words, that the rich Should fuffer the punishment which the law prefcribes in cafes of injury to the poor.   In Short, we have no reaion to boaft. The fyftem of jurifprudence, belonging to the moft enlightened of us, is extremely defective and v/eak.   In civil actions fo little is the law understood, that the ilTue is never certain, and in criminal ones not only  are the punishments ridiculoufly difproportionate to the offences, but inadequate to the wiflied for end.
Though the above obfervations on the fy Stems of government, jurifprudence, revenue, and religion, to be found among the natives of Africa, are more than fufficient to eftablifh their capacities as men, yet I cannot help adding, that we have feen them to great advantage in other points of view J. We have feen them as farmers and hufbandmen. We have feen them as builders of boats. We have beheld them again as manufacturers in gold, iron, copper, wood, cotton, and this in a manner that would do no difcredit to Europeans.
A fixth and laft argument, which meets with its anfwer from the fame fource, is the following: " That you ought not to abolifh the trade in flaves, unlefs you can fubftitute another trade in fome
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other branch on the coaft of Africa, and to do the latter is impof-fible on account of the indolence of the natives, and their unwilling--nefs to engage in active life."
Let us now confult the preceding pages upon this point. We rind in the hrft place * a confulerable fpirit of commerce among the natives. In proportion as new markets have arifen, new trades have evidently fprung up, and new induftry has been exerted. They hold a continual intercourfe with each other for the purpofes of trade, and to fuch a degree has this fpirit of commerce rifen, that to procure a market for their commodities they will travel leagues with immenfe burthens on their heads, and be regardlefs of the weight.
Nor can we, in the fecond place, avoid noticing with lefs fatisfac-tion the conftant occupations of fome, and the intenfe labours of others, in the feveral departments which they profefs. Some -f- of the natives do not employ themfelves for a feafon only, but follow fome occupation or other for the year round. The labour of others again is equal to that which any Europeans undergo. J As a proof of this, we may adduce the employment of the boat-builders, from the time of cutting down the tree in the foreft to the time of delivering in the fhape of a boat upon the fliore, at the diftance of thirty leagues overland as before defcribed : an inftance of perfeverance,. which cannot fail of being urged fuccefsfully againft thofe, who fhould. call their induftry into queftion.
As a third circumftance of material importance in the cafe of the argument adduced, we may notice, from || the price of the boats
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above mentioned, compared with the toil defcribed to have been ex* pended upon them, the great cheapnefs of labour in thofe parts.
In fhort, Sir, if we reflect properly on the fpirit of commerce to be found among the natives of Africa, and if to this we fubjoin the confideration, firft, of the variety and fatigue of their feveral occupations ; and fecondly, of the low demand for the articles made in following the fame, the argument not only falls, but it appears on the other hand, that there are few people, from whom more is to be expected by the European merchant than from the natives in queftion, in the introduction of a new commerce in the place of the execrable trade in men.
I have now, Sir, communicated to you all the arguments in defence of the continuance of the Slave-Trade, to which any anfwer may be drawn from the contents of the preceding letters. I have therefore finimed my tafk, and fhall now conclude, observing only in addition to what I have faid before, that if the conduct of the Europeans and Africans were to be compared, I fear the former would have all the reafon to bluSli. The * Europeans are reprefented as flocking themfelves, or as fending their agents, to the courts of the African kings; as feducing thefe by intoxication and bribery to fubvert the juff. principles of government, and to become wolves inftead of Shepherds to their people; as fuggeSling fchemes of treachery and violence, and as being receivers of the prey. The Africans, on the other hand, though they have fome bad laws and cuffoms among them, may attribute them in a great meafure to the Europeans. Notwithftand-ing the ignorance and barbarity with which we often charge them,
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they are not devoid of virtues. * To the European mailer the African exhibits a noble leiTon ,in the mild and gentle treatment of his flave. •f- To the fovcreigns of Europe the wife and virtuous Almammy fets a no kfs illuftrious example in extirpating the commerce in the human race ; and when we confider this amiable man as having been trained up in a land of flavery, and as having had in the introduction of fuch a revolution all the prejudices of education and cuftom to Dppofe; when we confider him again as facrificing a part of his own revenue; as refufing the prefents of the Europeans; and as expofing himfelf in confequence of it to the vindictive ravages of the agents of the latter, he is certainly more to be refpected than any of the fovereigns of Europe, inafmuch as he has made a much nobler facri-fice than they, and has done more for the caufes of humanity, juffice, liberty, and religion.
I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient fervant,
T.   C L A R K S O N.
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