Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
excessive anxiety to acquire more profound knowledge of the Koran,
before I made so solemn a pledge.
* * * * *
It came to pass that, out of the forty slaves brought in the caravan,
the Mongo rejected eight. After some altercation, Ahmah-de-Bellah
consented to discard seven; but he insisted that the remaining veteran
should be shipped, as he could neither _kill_ nor send him back to
Footha-Yallon.
I was somewhat curious to know the crime this culprit had committed,
which was so heinous as to demand his perpetual exile, though it
spared his life. The chief informed me that the wretch had slain his
son; and, as there was no punishment for such an offence assigned by
the Koran, the judges of his country condemned him to be sold _a slave
to Christians_,--a penalty they considered worse than death.
Another curious feature of African law was developed in the sale of
this caravan. I noticed a couple of women drawn along with ropes
around their necks, while others of their sex and class were suffered
to wander about without bonds. These females, the chief apprised us,
would have been burnt in his father's domains for witchcraft, had not
his venerable ancestor been so much distressed for powder that he
thought their lives would be more valuable to his treasury than their
carcasses to outraged law.
It was a general complaint among the companions of Ahmah-de-Bellah
that the caravan was scant of slaves in consequence of this
unfortunate lack of powder. The young chieftain promised better things
in future. Next year, the Mongo's barracoons should teem with his
conquests. When the "rainy season" approached, the Ali-Mami, his
father, meant to carry on a "great war" against a variety of small
tribes, whose captives would replenish the herds, that, two years
before, had been carried off by a sudden blight.
I learned from my intelligent Fullah, that while the Mahometan courts
of his country rescued by law the people of their own faith from
slavery, they omitted no occasion to inflict it, as a penalty, upon
the African "unbelievers" who fell within their jurisdiction. Among
these unfortunates, the smallest crime is considered capital, and a
"capital crime" merits the profitable punishment of slavery. Nor was
it difficult, he told me, for a country of "true believers" to acquire
a multitude of bondsmen. They detested the institution, it is true,
among themselves, and among their own caste, but it was both right and
reputable among the unorthodox. The Koran commanded the "subjugation
of the tribes to the true faith," so that, to enforce the Prophet's
order against infidels, they resorted to the white man's cupidity,
which authorized its votaries to enslave the negro! My inquisitiveness
prompted me to demand whether these holy wars spoken of in the Koran
were not somewhat stimulated, in our time, at least, by the profits
that ensued; and I even ventured to hint that it was questionable
whether the mighty chief of Footha-Yallon would willingly storm a
Kaffir fortification, were he not prompted by the booty of slaves!
Ahmah-de-Bellah was silent for a minute, when his solemn face
gradually relaxed into a quizzical smile, as he replied that, in
truth, Mahometans were no worse than Christians, so that it was quite
likely,--if the white elect of heaven, who knew how to make powder
and guns, did not tempt the black man with their weapons,--the
commands of Allah would be followed with less zeal, and implements not
quite so dangerous!
I could not help thinking that there was a good deal of quiet satire
in the gossip of this negro prince. According to the custom of his
country, we "exchanged names" at parting; and, while he put in my
pocket the gift of a well-thumbed _Koran_, I slung over his shoulder a
_double-barrelled gun_. We walked side by side for some miles into the
forest, as he went forth from Bangalang; and as we "cracked fingers"
for farewell, I promised, with my hand on my heart, that the "next dry
season" I would visit his father, the venerable Ali-Mami, in his realm
of Footha-Yallon.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] As it may be interesting to learn the nature of trade on this
coast,--_which is commonly misunderstood at consisting in slaves
alone_,--I thought it well to set down the inventory I made out of the
caravan's stock and its result, as the various items were intrusted to
my guardianship. The body of the caravan itself consisted of seven
hundred persons, principally men; while the produce was as follows:
3,500 hides $1,750
19 large and prime teeth of ivory, 1,560
Gold, 2,500
600 pounds small ivory, 320
15 tons of rice, 600
40 slaves, 1,600
36 bullocks, 360
Sheep, goats, butter, vegetables, 100
900 pounds bees-wax, 95
-------
Total value of the caravan's merchandise, $8,885
-------
Our profits on this speculation were very flattering, both as regards
sales and acquisitions. Rice cost us one cent per pound; hides were
delivered at eighteen or twenty cents each; a bullock was sold for
twenty or thirty pounds of tobacco; sheep, goats or hogs, cost two
pounds of tobacco, or a fathom of common cotton, each; ivory was
purchased at the rate of a dollar the pound for the best, while
inferior kinds were given at half that price. In fact, the profit on
our merchandise was, at least, one hundred and fifty per cent. As gold
commands the very best fabrics in exchange, and was paid for at the
rate of sixteen dollars an ounce, we made but seventy per cent. on the
article. The slaves were delivered at the rate of one hundred "_bars_"
each. The "_bar_" is valued on the coast at half a dollar; but a pound
and a half of tobacco is also a "bar," as well as a fathom of ordinary
cotton cloth, or a pound of powder, while a common musket is equal to
twelve "bars." Accordingly, where slaves were purchased for one
hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, only eighteen dollars were, in
reality, paid; and when one hundred pounds of powder were given, we
got them for twenty dollars each. Our _British_ muskets cost us but
three dollars apiece; yet we seldom purchased negroes for this article
alone. If the women, offered in the market, exceeded twenty-five years
of age, we made a deduction of twenty per cent.; but if they were
stanchly-built, and gave promising tokens for the future, we took them
at the price of an able-bodied man. The same estimate was made for
youths over four feet four inches high; but children were rarely
purchased at the factories, though they might be advantageously traded
in the native towns.
CHAPTER X.
I was a close watcher of Mongo John whenever he engaged in the
purchase of slaves. As each negro was brought before him, Ormond
examined the subject, without regard to sex, from head to foot. A
careful manipulation of the chief muscles, joints, arm-pits and groins
was made, to assure soundness. The mouth, too, was inspected, and if a
tooth was missing, it was noted as a defect liable to deduction. Eyes,
voice, lungs, fingers and toes were not forgotten; so that when the
negro passed from the Mongo's hands without censure, he might have
been readily adopted as a good "life" by an insurance company.
Upon one occasion, to my great astonishment, I saw a stout and
apparently powerful man discarded by Ormond as utterly worthless. His
full muscles and sleek skin, to my unpractised eye, denoted the height
of robust health. Still, I was told that he had been medicated for the
market with bloating drugs, and sweated with powder and lemon-juice to
impart a gloss to his skin. Ormond remarked that these jockey-tricks
are as common in Africa as among horse-dealers in Christian lands; and
desiring me to feel the negro's pulse, I immediately detected disease
or excessive excitement. In a few days I found the poor wretch,
abandoned by his owner, a paralyzed wreck in the hut of a villager at
Bangalang.
When a slave becomes useless to his master in the interior, or
exhibits signs of failing constitution, he is soon disposed of to a
peddler or broker. These men call to their aid a quack, familiar with
drugs, who, for a small compensation, undertakes to refit an impaired
body for the temptation of green-horns. Sometimes the cheat is
successfully effected; but experienced slavers detect it readily by
the yellow eye, swollen tongue, and feverish skin.
After a few more lessons, I was considered by the Mongo sufficiently
learned in the slave traffic to be intrusted with the sole management
of his stores. This exemption from commerce enabled him to indulge
more than ever in the use of ardent spirits, though his vanity to be
called "king," still prompted him to attend faithfully to all the
"country palavers;"--and, let it be said to his credit, his decisions
were never defective in judgment or impartiality.
After I had been three months occupied in the multifarious intercourse
of Bangalang and its neighborhood, I understood the language well
enough to dispense with the interpreter, who was one of the Mongo's
confidential agents. When my companion departed on a long journey, he
counselled me to make up with Unga-golah, the _harem's_ Cerberus, as
she suspected my intimacy with Esther, who would doubtless be
denounced to Ormond, unless I purchased the beldame's silence.
Indeed, ever since the night of warning, when the beautiful
_quarteroon_ visited my hovel, I had contrived to meet this charming
girl, as the only solace of my solitude. Amid all the wild,
passionate, and savage surroundings of Bangalang, Esther--the
Pariah--was the only golden link that still seemed to bind me to
humanity and the lands beyond the seas. On that burning coast, I was
not excited by the stirring of an adventurous life, nor was my young
heart seduced and bewildered by absorbing avarice. Many a night, when
the dews penetrated my flesh, as I looked towards the west, my soul
shrank from the selfish wretches around me, and went off in dreams to
the homes I had abandoned. When I came back to myself,--when I was
forced to recognize my doom in Africa,--when I acknowledged that my
lot had been cast, perhaps unwisely, by myself, my spirit turned,
like the worm from the crashing heel, and found nothing that kindled
for me with the light of human sympathy, save this outcast girl.
Esther was to me as a sister, and when the hint of her harm or loss
was given, I hastened to disarm the only hand that could inflict a
blow. Unga-golah was a woman, and a rope of sparkling coral for her
neck, smothered all her wrongs.
The months I had passed in Africa without illness,--though I went
abroad after dark, and bathed in the river during the heat of the
day,--made me believe myself proof against malaria. But, at length, a
violent pain in my loins, accompanied by a swimming head, warned me
that the African fever held me in its dreaded gripe. In two days I was
delirious. Ormond visited me; but I knew him not, and in my madness,
called on Esther, accompanying the name with terms of endearment.
This, I was told, stirred the surprise and jealousy of the Mongo, who
forthwith assailed the matron of his harem with a torrent of inquiries
and abuse. But Unga-golah was faithful. The beads had sealed her
tongue; so that, with the instinctive adroitness peculiar to ladies of
her color, she fabricated a story which not only quieted the Mongo,
but added lustre to Esther's character.