Chapter 6 No.6

Return to Bance Island.-General Observations on the Commerce, Religion, Customs, and Character of the Natives upon the Windward Coast.-An Account of the requisite Merchandize for Trade, the best Mode of introducing natural Commerce and Civilization into Africa, &c.

The morning after my last arrival at Miffaré I returned to Bance Island; before I leave it, it may not perhaps be considered as inexpedient at this stage of my narrative, to submit to my readers an account of the present state of commerce upon the Windward Coast of Africa, the merchandize used therein, a general outline of the religion, customs, and character of its natives, and the system I conceive eligible, and consistent with the claims of humanity, by which their intellectual powers may be improved, and their enslaved state ameliorated; while our commercial ascendency may be preserved with this region of the earth, and our enemies excluded from those important advantages, which it only requires intelligence and enterprise to unfold.

In accomplishing this important part of my duty I beg leave to state, that my reflections are the result of much deliberation upon the subject, derived from manifold sources of information, and that I am the zealous advocate of the radical abolition of the slavery of the human kind. The motives by which I am actuated are, a philanthropic feeling for my species, Christian principles, humanity, and justice: however I may differ, in the means I shall propose, from many truly benevolent characters, yet I trust that they will do me the justice to consider that my intentions are congenial with theirs in the cause of humanity.

I shall confine myself to a digested summary of actual observations on the trade, laws, customs, and manners of the people I have had occasion to visit; nor shall I attempt to enter into a minute detail on subjects already ably delineated to British merchants, and with which they are intimately conversant; but I shall treat of those branches of commerce which have been hitherto confined to local knowledge, and not generally known; submitting to the superior powers of the legislature, the incalculable advantages to be derived by their interference to promote the agricultural and commercial establishments upon the maritime districts of Africa, as the only appropriate measure to attain a facility of intercourse with the interior, and to enlarge the circle of civilised society.

If my endeavours tend to increase the commerce of my country, and eventually to emancipate the African, my design will be accomplished, and my fondest hopes will be gratified.

In pursuance of my plan, I shall first detail the present number of slaves, and dead cargo, annually exported, upon an average, from the Windward Coast of Africa, &c. from the information acquired from the traders of most intelligence in respective rivers, and from my own observation.

Amount

Sterling

NAMES OF PLACES A B C D E F ￡

----------- ---- -- -- --- -- -- -----

River Gambia, and

Island of Goree . . . 2,000 15 - - 150 - 60,250

Rio Noonez. . . . . . 600 20 - - - - 19,000

Rio Pongo . . . . . . 2,000 30 60 - - - 52,000

River Sierra Leone,

adjacent Rivers,

and Isles de Loss, 3,200 15 200 800 - - 82,250

inclusive . . . . . .

River Sherbro . . . . 500 - 200 300 - - 18,000

-- Gallunas. . . . 1,200 - 80 - - - 26,000

Cape Mount to

Cape Palmas . . . . . 2,000 20 - - - 100 48,000

---- -- -- --- -- -- ----

11,500 100 540 1,100 150 100 305,500

A-Slaves, B-Ivory, C-Camwood, D-Rice, E-Bees Wax, F-Malaguetta Pepper

[**Note: table reformulated with labels below to fit in 70 spaces width]

Estimating slaves at 20l. each; ivory, 350l.; camwood, 25l.; rice, 10l.; wax, 100l.; and Malaguetta pepper, 10l. per ton, at first cost upon the coast of Africa; the whole produces the sum of 305,500l. sterling; to which may be added a three-fold export to leeward, which will make an aggregate amount of nearly one million sterling. In addition to the foregoing exemplification, we have to contemplate the great multiplicity of natural productions, abounding in this extent of region, namely, indigo, numerous plants for staining, cotton in wild exuberance, cocoa, coffee, and aromatic plants, &c. &c. Wild bees are so extremely numerous, that wax forms an important article of trade which might be considerably increased; substances proper for making soap are also to be found in great abundance, raw hides, more especially in the Gambia, and the countries insular to the Rio Noonez and Rio Pongo; gold is procured from Bambouk, and tobacco is found in every direction, which might be greatly increased by cultivation and an improved soil; cattle, poultry, Guinea hens, different species of game, fish, with other animals; fruits, and a variety of vegetable productions, calculated to satisfy every luxurious want and desire. To these objects of commerce may be added, the now important article of sugar, which might be raised to a great amount, in various districts of Africa, as the climate is propitious to the growth of the sugarcane, which, under proper cultivation, might be raised in great perfection.

The lands upon the banks of the Gambia, the Rio Noonez, the Rio Grande, the Rio Pongo, in the Mandingo country, Sierra Leone, Sherbro, &c. are universally allowed to be extremely fertile in many places, and abundant in vegetation and population.

These countries produce various hard woods, well adapted to cabinet work and ship building, and are singular in their qualites and properties.

The most remarkable are, 1st. the cevey, or kinney wood, which grows about the size of the oak, in England, and may be cut into planks of 20 feet by 15 inches. Its texture is something of the ash grey and mahogany, variegated with stripes, fancifully disposed, and is therefore adapted to cabinet work; its qualities for ship building are peculiar, having the virtue of resisting the worm and vermis, so destructive to shipping in tropical climates, and corroding iron; it grows in great abundance. Any quantity of this wood put into water sufficient to cover it, will, in a few hours, produce an unctuous substance floating on the top, resembling verdigrise, and of a poisonous quality.

Secondly, the dunjay wood, rather coarser in the grain, but harder in quality than the Spanish Bay mahogany. It possesses the same peculiarities as the cevey or kinney, in resisting the worm in salt water, and corroding iron. It may be procured in any quantity. And, Thirdly, the melley wood, or gris-gris tree, another species of mahogany, abundant in growth, having a more rare quality than the foregoing, resisting the worm in both salt and fresh water; it is extremely hard, and its juices so poisonous, in the premature state, as to cause instant death.

The manifold and neglected productions of this extraordinary continent require only to be developed, and when the useful arts of Europe are introduced here, ample recompense will attend the benevolent undertaking, natural history will be much enlarged, and mankind be greatly benefited. The claims of humanity, the distinguished part it has taken in an unnatural and much to be deplored commerce, loudly unite with a wise policy, in one impressive appeal to the feelings of the more refined inhabitants of Europe, and to none more than those of Englishmen.

The goods adapted to African commerce are,

East India goods-consisting of bafts, byrampauats, chilloes, romals, neganipauts, niccanees, red and blue chintz, Guinea stuffs, bandanoes, sastracundies, &c.

Manchester goods.-Cotton chilloes, cushtaes, neganipauts, photaes, romal handkerchiefs, silk handkerchiefs, &c. Linen Britanias, slops, spirits, tobacco, guns, swords, trade chests, cases, jars, powder, umbrellas, boats, canvas, cordage, pitch, tar, paints, oil, and brushes, empty kegs, kettles, pans, lead basons, earthenware, hardware, beads, coral, iron bars, lead bars, common caps, Kilmarnock ditto, flints, pipes, leg and hand manilloes, snuff boxes, tobacco boxes, cargo hats, fine ditto, hair trunks, knives, looking glasses, scarlet cloth, locks, shot, glass ware, stone ware, provisions, bottled ale and porter, &c. &c.

The foregoing general enumeration may serve to convey a just conception of the various manufactures requisite in the African trade, and the different branches to which it is allied, yeilding support to a numerous body of merchants, manufacturers, artizans, and many of the labouring class of the community.

Generally speaking, the Africans are unacquainted with specie as a circulating medium of commerce, although they form to themselves an ideal standard, by which they estimate the value of the commodities in barter; this, however, fluctuates on various parts of the coast.

From Senegal to Cape Mesurado, the medium of calculation is termed a bar; from thence to the eastward of Cape Palmas, the computation is in rounds; and on the Gold Coast in ackies of gold, equal to 4l. sterling, and of trade only half that value.

At Goree the bar, under the French, was 4, pieces of 24 sous, and 1 of 6; but at present the bar is considered a dollar.

The bar is by no means a precise value, but subject to much variation; the quantity and quality of the articles materially differing in many parts of the coast, and frequently on rivers of a near vicinity; for example, six heads of tobacco are equal in trade to a bar, as is a gallon of rum, or a fathom of chintz.

A piece of cloth which, in one place, will only pass for 6 bars, will in others fluctuate to 10; hence the trader must form an average standard, to reduce his assortment to an equilibrium.

The following are the barter prices now established throughout a considerable extent of the Windward Coast; but it is to be observed, they are subject to fluctuation from locality of situation and other circumstances.

1 blue baft 6 bars

1 bonny chintz & stripe 8

1 white baft 6

1 byrampaut 6

1 chilloe 6

1 bijudapaut 6

1 cushtae 5

1 bonny blue romal 5

1 niccanee 5

1 sastracundie 4

1 India cherridery 6

1 taffety 15

1 cottanee 12

1 dozen britannias 8

1 piece of bandanas 6

1 barrel of powder 60

1 fowling gun 8

1 burding 6

1 soldier's gun 5 bars

1 buccanier ditto 6

1 dozen of cutlasses 8

1 sword blade 2

1 iron bar 1

1000 arangoes 30

1 bunch of point beads 1

1 bunch of mock coral 1

Red pecado 3lb. for 1

Seed beads, ditto 1

Battery ditto 1

1 Mandingo kettle 1

1 dozen of hardware 3

1 bason 1

1 ton of salt 60

1 fine hat 3

Tobacco, 6lb. to 1

Rum, per gallon 1

Prime ivory is procured at a bar per lb, and escrevals, or pieces under 20lb. 1 bar for each 1-1/2lb.

As the natives are unacquainted with arithmetic, their numerical calculations are carried on by counters of pebbles, gun-flints, or cowries.

After the number of bars is decided upon, a counter, or pebble, &c. is put down, representing every bar of merchandize, until the whole is exhausted, when the palaver is finished; and, as they have very little idea of the value of time, they will use every artifice of delay and chicane to gain a bar.

In matters of less consequence they reckon with their fingers, by bending the little finger of the right hand close to the palm, and the other fingers in succession, proceeding to the left hand, concluding the calculation by clapping both the hands together; and if it requires to be extended, the same process is repeated.

Among the Foulahs in particular, commercial transactions are carried on with extreme tardiness; a palaver is held over every thing they have for barter. The season in which they chiefly bring their trade to the coast is during the dry months, and they generally travel in caravans, under the control of a chief or head man. The head man of the party expects to be lodged and accommodated by the factor, and before they enter upon business, he expects the latter to give him service, or a present of kola, Malaguetta pepper, tobacco, palm oil, and rice; if they eat of the kola, and the present is not returned, the head man begins the trade, by making a long speech, in which he magnifies the difficulties and dangers he has had to surmount, &c.; mutual interpreters report this harangue. The trade for rice is settled with little delay, but every tooth of ivory requires a new palaver, and they will dispute for a whole day for a bar with the most determined firmness.

When the palaver and trade is gone through, they again expect a present, and if they are pleased with the factor, they march off singing his praises, which they communicate to all they meet on the road.

The annual return from this commerce in colonial productions, has been from two to three millions sterling; for although large remittances have been made in bills to the African merchants, yet these bills have been provided for in produce by the planters. Politically considered, it will appear, that its regeneration might have been more appropriately the progressive work of time; and humanely viewed, it will also appear, from my subsequent remarks, that by those means alone the African can be freed from his shackles, and his condition efficaciously improved.

But to proceed with the intention of this chapter, I shall next make some remarks on the religion, customs, and character of the natives of the Windward Coast.

The natives on this part of the coast, and indeed throughout Africa, are in general extremely superstitious; they believe in witchcraft, incantations, and charms, and in certain Mahomedan doctrines, adopted from itinerant devotees and priests of that persuasion, who are numerous among them, and make a trade of selling charms. The Baggoes, Nellos, Susees, Timinees, &c. occasionally worship and offer sacrifices to the Devil, and are equally confused in their conception of the Supreme Being, of whose attributes they entertain an assemblage of indistinct ideas, of which it is impossible to give any clear description. They will tell the traveller with great apathy, "they never saw him, and if he live he be too good to hurt them." Their acts of devotion are the consequence of fear alone, and are apparently divested of any feelings of thankfulness or gratitude for the blessing they receive from the good Spirit which they suppose to exist. The Devil, or evil spirit, which they suppose to exist also, claims their attention from the injury they suppose him capable of inflicting, and is worshipped under a variety of forms; at one time in a grove, or under the shade of a large tree, consecrated to his worship, they place, for the gratification of his appetite; a country mess, a goat, or other offering of this nature, which they may conceive to be acceptable to his divinity, who, however, is often cozened out of the offering by some sacreligious and more corporeal substance, to whose nature and wants it is more congenial; at some periods great faith is attached to their fetish, as an antidote against evil; and at others the alligator, the snake, the guava, and a number of other living animals and inanimate substances are the objects of their worship. Like other unenlightened nations, a variety of external beings supply the want of the principles of Christianity; hence the counterfeit adoption and substitution of corporate qualities as objects of external homage and reverence.

Fetish, derived from the word Feitico, denotes witchcraft among the majority of the maritime nations of Africa: this superstition is even extended to some Europeans after a long residence in that country, and is an expression of a compound meaning, forming an arrangement of various figures, which constitute the objects of adoration, whether intellectually conceived, or combined with corporeal substances; even the act of devotion itself; or the various charms, incantations, and buffoonery of the priests and fetish makers, who abound among them. In short, it is an incongruous composition of any thing dedicated to the purpose; one kind of fetish is formed of a piece of parchment containing an expression or sentence from the Koran, which is associated with other substances, sewed up in a piece of leather, and worn upon several parts of their bodies. Another kind is placed over the doors of their huts, composed of distorted images besmeared with palm oil, and stuck with feathers, some parts are tinged with blood, and the whole is bedaubed with other preposterous applications.

Ghresh, or Gresh, is an expression in the Arabic tongue, meaning to expel or drive away, and, as I apprehend, by the repetition of the word, is the expression from which the African gris-gris is derived, consisting of exorcised feathers, cloth, &c., short sentences from the Koran, written on parchment, and enclosed in small ornamented leathern cases, worn about their persons, under the idea that it will keep away evil spirits, and is a species of fetish.

The Mandingos, or book-men, are great fetish makers, many of them being well versed in the Arabic tongue, and writing it in a neat character. From the impression of their superior learning and address, their influence and numbers daily increase, many of them having become rulers and chiefs in places where they sojourned as strangers, The religion they profess in common with the Foolahs, Jolliffs, and other Mahomedan tribes, is peculiarly adapted to the sensual effiminacy of the Africans: the doctrines of Mahomet contained in their book I have procured from a very intelligent chief in the Rio Pongo, and when I compare his account with others of his nation on this part of the coast, the Foolahs, and the Mahomedan tribes in the vicinity of the Island of Goree, I am persuaded the following is the portion of the Islam faith believed by them.

1st. That God is above all, and not born of woman.

2d. That Mahomet stands between God and man, to intercede for him; that he is superior to all beings born of woman, and is the favorite of God. And,

3d. That he has prepared for the meanest of his followers and believers seventy-two bouris, or black-eyed girls of superior beauty, who are to administer to all their pleasures, and participate with them in the enjoyment of the fountains and groves of paradise, and in the gratification of those appetites congenial to their nature and existence in this world. This nearly amounts to the entire belief of Mahomet's doctrine, which is nothing but a compound of this eternal truth and necessary fiction; namely, "that there is only one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God:" from hence, in the idiom of the Koran, the belief of God is inseparable from the apostolic character of Mahomet. The fertile and politic imagination of this impostor admirably adapted his tenets to the prevailing and established customs; he tolerates polygamy, &c. and to add to the sanctity of his pernicious doctrines, he represents himself as having been visited by the angel Gabriel, in the cave of Hera, where he communicated to him the precepts of the Koran, in the month of Ramadan, which he enjoins as a fast; he interdicts wine, and inculcates the necessity of praying five times a day, facing the holy city, &c.; forming together a system of the most insidious character towards the establishment of pure Christianity. In the performance of the duties of their belief, the Mahomedan nations of Africa, upon the coast, are exact and scrupulous, but they have no idea of the intellectual doctrines of the Islam faith, or the happiness described by Mahomet as enjoyed by superior saints in the beatitude of vision; they are as perplexed on this subject as they are in their conceptions of the divine nature, and discover a surprising contraction of mental powers, when considered as human beings endowed with reason.

The nations, upon the Windward Coast, are in general little influenced by belief in their actions. Forgiveness of injuries they conceive incompatible with the nature of man; and a spirit of retaliation is very prevalent and hereditary, descending in succession from father to son. They are extremely jealous of white men, designing, ferocious, and cowardly; but there are, notwithstanding, a great variety of localities existing among them, and it will be found that their climate and habits are closely assimilated.

To the Africans, the indispensible articles of life are reduced to a very narrow compass, and they are unacquainted with the insatiate wants of Europeans. The heat of the climate renders cloathing an incumberance, and occasions a carelessness with regard to their dwellings: for the former, they require only a stripe of linen, and their gris-gris; while a building of mud, covered with an interwoven and thatched roof, forms the latter, which is reared with little labour, and, when circumstances require it, is abandoned without much regret.

The food of the Negro consists chiefly of rice, millet, &c. seasoned with palm oil, butter, or the juices of the cocoa-nut tree mixed with herbs of various kinds. They frequently regale themselves with other dishes, kous-kous, and country mess, to which they sometimes add fowls, fish, and flesh, heightened in the flavour by a variety of savory applications.

A contracted system of agriculture, conducted by their women and slaves, in a very few days prepares the lugars, or cultivated fields; and the harvest is distributed by the elders of the community, according to the portion and wants of the society of the village, or is stored up to be portioned out as circumstances may require.

Water is the ordinary drink of the Negroes; they, however, regale themselves with a wine extracted from the palm tree, as before described, which, in the luxury of indulgence, they frequently suck through a very small kind of cane, until inebriety and stupidity absorb them in a perfect state of apathy. They have also a very pleasant beverage, extracted from the cocoa nut and banana tree, besides several descriptions of beer, fermented from various roots and herbs. In the Rio Pongo, and adjacent countries, especially in the Bashia branch of that river, the Soosees extract a fermented and intoxicating liquor from a root growing in great abundance, which they call gingingey, something similar to the sweet potatoe in the West Indies. The distillation is commenced by forming a pit in the earth, into which a large quantity of the root is put, and covered with fuel, which is set on fire, and kept burning until the roots are completely roasted: the roots are then put into paloons, and beat, exposed afterwards in mats to the sun, by which they acquire a taste similar to honey; and are afterwards put into hampers for distillation. This is performed by making a funnel of sticks in a conical form, interwoven together like basket-work; the funnel is filled with the material, and water poured upon it; the succulent moisture therefrom passes through a tube, and yields a liquid similar in colour to coffee, and of a violent purgative quality. It remains in this state about twenty-four hours, and is then incorporated with a quantity of the ashes of rice-straw, which excites a bubbling fermentation like boiling water, after which it becomes fit for use. In forty-eight hours it returns again to its purgative state, which interval is employed in drinking most copiously, until overtaken by insensibility and intoxication. The root, in its roasted state, is an excellent medicine for colds.

Indigo and cotton grow in wild exuberance almost every where, without culture, and the women collect such quantities as they consider requisite for their families, which they prepare and spin upon a distaff; the thread is woven, by an apparatus of great simplicity, into fillets, or pieces from six to nine inches broad, which are sewed together to any width, required for use. The indigo, in its indigenous state, and a variety of other plants, colour these cloths, an ell of which will serve as a dress for a Negroe of the lower class.

They manufacture cloths, of a very fanciful pattern, from various substances. I have some from the rind of the cocoa-nut, of great beauty, and a fine texture; also cloth, fine mats, baskets, hats, ornaments, quivers, arrows, &c. which all prove the taste and ingenuity of the natives.

The Negro is attached by love about his thirteenth year, and from sixteen to twenty he seeks the object of his affection. This choice generally continues in his confidence during life; and in proportion as he acquires wealth, he associates with her several concubines, who generally live cordially together. From this acquisition to his household, he is considered rich; and it is a common expression with the Negro to say, "such a man be rich, he have much woman." When an object excites his desire, he consults his head woman, who, without any apparent suspicion of rivalry, gives her assent, and forwards his suit; but she is displeased when not consulted; and it is not uncommon that the object falls a victim to her jealousy. Celibacy is a state almost unknown in Africa; and when it does occur, it is considered as a degradation.

The Negroe's existence is almost a gratuitous gift of nature; his wants are supplied without laborious exertion, his desires are gratified without restraint, his soul remains in peaceful indolence and tranquillity, and his life glides on in voluptuous apathy and tranquil calm: he has few solicitudes or apprehensions, and he meets the stroke of fate with perfect resignation.

In the countries which I have visited, and, as I understand from others, every principal village or town has its bantaba, or palaver-house, which I have before described. In this house, or under the shade of some venerable tree, all ranks occasionally assemble in groups, from sun-rising to sun-set, and pass the time in chit-chat, or in conversation on public affairs. Their subjects are inexhaustible, and their tittle-tattle is carried on with surprising volubility, gaiety, and delight; their time thus occupied is so seducing, that they separate with great reluctance, sometimes passing the entire day in this, pratling, smoaking, and diversion: night, however, terminates these amusements: They assemble in the open air during the dry season, and under the palaver-houses in the wet, where they form themselves into dancing companies, generally during half the night, and not unfrequently the whole of it. Their instruments of music are upon a very rude construction, consisting of a tabila, or drum, hollowed out from a piece of wood, and covered at each end with a bull's hide, producing a most barbarous noise, accompanied by a baba, or rattle, loud shouts, palaver, songs, and violent gesticulations, forming a system of confused uproar, unmusical, and ungraceful. Their motions are irregular, sometimes in violent contortion, and at others voluptuous and slow. Nothing can be done without a palaver; and at the change of every dance, he from whom the proposition originates, makes a solemn harangue over the musical instruments, which is generally descriptive of some warlike action or exploit, when they again give themselves up with rapture to the pleasures of the dance, the females in particular, whose actions and shew of luxuriant pleasure are highly offensive to delicacy, exhibiting all the gradations of lascivious attitude and indecency. At this period of unusual delight, they are applauded by the men with rapturous ardour; but suddenly a feeling of shame strikes the minds of the young creatures with a humiliating sense of their display, and amidst these plaudits they hastily retire to the matrons, who are spectators of the scene, and hide their blushes in their bosoms. So strongly implanted is this ingenuous and amiable modesty in youth, which is frequently laid aside when engaged in the vortex of pleasure, that it is one of the highest charms of beauty; and wretches only, degraded by debauchery and systematic vice, are capable of insulting this sentiment. A scrupulous regard to modesty and truth will not permit me to pursue the description of these amusements farther than observing, that they prepare them for a profound and tranquil sleep on their mats, from whence they arise at the dawn of day cheerful and easy. Thus infancy and youth are singularly happy, and mothers attend their offspring with maternal feeling and delight; they are neither disturbed by painful commands or restraint; and it is a picture of perfect happiness to see these children of nature in sportive groups and infantine diversion. This happy infancy and gay youth is peculiarly calculated to organise a vigorous manhood, and a firm old age; and, I am persuaded, that these are the physical causes why the Negro race are so muscular in body, and procreative of their species. In some countries innoculation is practised; but the small pox is not so common, or dreadful in its effects, in these countries as in Europe. The greatest term of their lives may be computed at from sixty to seventy years, it seldom or ever happening that life is prolonged beyond that period in this part of Africa. They retain their vigour, and enjoy a permanent and regular state of health until the last; and I have observed a venerable chief of advanced years having the possession of a dozen of young handsome wives, and the father of a young progeny, whose legitimacy was never disputed or suspected. In Europe the last stage of man is a daily anticipation of dissolution; but in Africa, declining years are only insensible approaches to the termination of a journey, the event of which he considers as the end of life, unconscious of the future, but as a fatality equally attached to all the creation.

The picture I have endeavoured to delineate may serve to convey an idea to the mind of the moral and physical state of Africa, which, undisturbed by ferocious barbarism, fierce hostilities, and horrid customs, convey a blissful and happy state of being; but, alas! we must now take another view, and contemplate these beings in the most degrading state, absorbed in superstitious idolatry, inhuman customs, and shut out from the civil arts of life, and the mild principles of Christianity. Their customs, their hostilities, slavery, and the mode I have conceived requisite to infranchise this unhappy race of men, I shall attempt to represent in the following chapter; and happy shall I feel if the description excites the attention and interference of more capacious minds on this subject, interesting to so large a portion of the human race, and to the claims of humanity.

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