Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
near Findo and Furo--Every body shuns me--A walk through Timbo--A
secret expedition--I watch the girls and matrons as they go to
the stream to draw water--Their figures, limbs, dress--A splendid
headdress--The people of Timbo, their character, occupation,
industry, reading--I announce my approaching departure--Slave
forays to supply me--A capture of forty-five by Sulimani-Ali--The
personal dread of me increases--Abdulmomen and Ahmah-de-Bellah
continue their slave hunts by day, and their pious discourses on
Islamism by night--I depart--The farewell gifts--two pretty
damsels 176
CHAP. XXV.--My home journey--We reach home with a caravan near a
thousand strong--Kambia in order--Mami-de-Yong and my clerk--The
story and fate of the Ali-Mami's daughter BEELJIE 183
CHAP. XXVI.--Arrival of a French slaver, LA PEROUSE, Captain
Brulot--Ormond and I breakfast on board--Its sequel--We are made
prisoners and put in irons--Short mode of collecting an old debt
on the coast of Africa--The Frenchman gets possession of our
slaves--Arrival of a Spanish slaver 190
CHAP. XXVII.--Ormond communicates with the Spaniard, and arranges
for our rescue--LA ESPERANZA--Brulot gives in--How we fine him
two hundred and fifty doubloons for the expense of his suit, and
teach him the danger of playing tricks upon African factors 196
CHAP. XXVIII.--CAPT. ESCUDERO of the Esperanza dies--I resolve
to take his place in command and visit Cuba--Arrival of a Danish
slaver--Quarrel and battle between the crews of my Spaniard and
the Dane--The Dane attempts to punish me through the duplicity of
Ormond--I bribe a servant and discover the trick--My conversation
with Ormond--We agree to circumvent the enemy--How I get a cargo
without cash 200
CHAP. XXIX.--Off to sea--A calm--A British man-of-war--Boat
attack--Reinforcement--A battle--A catastrophe--A prisoner 206
CHAP. XXX.--I am sent on board the corvette--My reception--A
dangerous predicament--The Captain and surgeon make me
comfortable for the night--Extraordinary conveniences for
escape, of which I take the liberty to avail myself 214
CHAP. XXXI.--I drift away in a boat with my servant--Our
adventures till we land in the ISLES DE LOSS--My illness and
recovery--I return to the Rio Pongo--I am received on board a
French slaver--Invitation to dinner--Monkey soup and its
consequences 218
CHAP. XXXII.--My greeting in KAMBIA--The FELIZ from
Matanzas--Negotiations for her cargo--Ormond attempts
to poison me--Ormond's _suicide_--His burial according
to African customs 222
CHAP. XXXIII.--A visit to the MATACAN river in quest of
slaves--My reception by the king--His appearance--Scramble
for my gifts--How slaves are sometimes trapped on a hasty
hunt--I visit the MATACAN WIZARD; his cave, leopard, blind
boy--Deceptions and jugglery--Fetiches--A scale of African
intellect 227
CHAP. XXXIV.--What became of the Esperanza's officers and
crew--The destruction of my factory at Kambia by fire--I lose
all but my slaves--the incendiary detected--Who instigated the
deed--Ormond's relatives--DEATH OF ESTHER--I go to sea in a
schooner from Sierra Leone--How I acquire a cargo of slaves
in the Rio Nunez without money 233
CHAP. XXXV.--I escape capture--Symptoms of mutiny and detection
of the plot--How we put it down 240
CHAP. XXXVI.--A "white squall"--I land my cargo near St. Jago de
Cuba--Trip to Havana on horseback--My consignees and their prompt
arrangements--success of my voyage--Interference of the French
Consul--I am _nearly_ arrested--How things were managed, of old,
in Cuba 244
CHAP. XXXVII.--A long holiday--I am wrecked on a key--My
rescue by salvors--New Providence--I ship on the SAN PABLO,
from St. Thomas's, as sailing master--Her captain and
his arrangements--Encounter a transport--Benefit of the
small-pox--Mozambique Channel--Take cargo near QUILLIMANE--How
we managed to get slaves--Illness of our captain--The
small-pox breaks out on our brig--Its fatality 248
CHAP. XXXVIII.--Our captain _longs_ for calomel, and how I get
it from a Scotchman--Our captain's last will and testament--We
are chased by a British cruiser--How we out-manoevred and
crippled her--Death of our captain--Cargo landed and the San
Pablo burnt 255
CHAP. XXXIX.--My returns from the voyage $12,000, and how I apply
them--A custom-house encounter which loses me LA CONCHITA and
my money--I get command of a slaver for AYUDAH--LA ESTRELLA--I
consign her to the notorious DA SOUZA or CHA-CHA--His history
and mode of life in Africa--His gambling houses and women--I
keep aloof from his temptations, and contrive to get my cargo
in two months 260
CHAP. XL.--All Africans believe in divinities or powers of
various degree, except the Bagers--Iguanas worshipped in
Ayudah--Invitation to witness the HUMAN SACRIFICES at the court
of DAHOMEY--How they travel to ABOMEY--The King, his court,
amazons, style of life, and brutal festivities--Superstitious
rights at LAGOS--The JUJU hunts by night for the virgin to be
sacrificed--Gree-gree bush--The sacrifice--African priest and
kingcraft 265
CHAP. XLI.--My voyage home in the ESTRELLA--A REVOLT OF THE
SLAVES during a squall, and how we were obliged to suppress
it--Use of pistols and hot water 272
CHAP. XLII.--Smallpox and a _necessary murder_--Bad luck every
where--A chase and a narrow escape 276
CHAP. XLIII.--The AGUILA DE ORO, a Chesapeake clipper--my race
with the Montesquieu--I enter the river Salum to trade for
slaves--I am threatened, then arrested, and my clipper seized by
French man-of-war's men--Inexplicable mystery--We are imprisoned
at GOREE--Transferred to San Louis on the Senegal--The Frenchmen
appropriate my schooner without condemnation--How they used her
The sisters of charity in our prison--The trial scene in court,
and our sentence--Friends attempt to facilitate my escape, but
our plans detected--I am transferred to a guard-ship in the
stream--New projects for my escape--A jolly party and the nick
of time, but the captain spoils the sport 280
CHAP. XLIV.--I am sent to France in the frigate FLORA--Sisters
of charity--The prison of Brest--My prison companions--Prison
mysteries--CORPORAL BLON--I apply to the Spanish
minister--Transfer to the civil prison 286
CHAP. XLV.--MADAME SORRET and my new quarters--Mode of life--A
lot of Catalan girls--Prison boarding and lodging--Misery of
the convicts in the coast prisons--Improvement of the central
prisons 292
CHAP. XLVI.--New lodgers in our quarters--How we pass our
time in pleasant diversions by aid of the Catalan girls and
my cash--Soirees--My funds give out--Madame Sorret makes a
suggestion--I turn schoolmaster, get pupils, teach English
and penmanship, and support my whole party 295
CHAP. XLVII.--MONSIEUR GERMAINE, the forger--His trick--Cause of
Germaine's arrest--An adroit and rapid forgery--Its detection 300
CHAP. XLVIII.--Plan of escape--Germaine's project against
Babette--A new scheme for New Year's night--Passports--PIETRO
NAZZOLINI and DOMINICO ANTONETTI--Preparations for our "French
leave"--How the attempt eventuated 304
CHAP. XLIX.--Condition of the sentinel when he was found--His
story--Prison researches next day--How we avoid detection--Louis
Philippe receives my petition favorably--Germaine's philosophic
pilfering and principles--His plan to rob the SANTISSIMA CASA OF
LORETTO--He designs making an attempt on the Emperor Nicholas--I
am released and banished from France 310
CHAP. L.--I go to Portugal, and return in disguise to Marseilles,
in order to embark for Africa--I resolve to continue a slaver--A
Marseilles hotel during the cholera--DOCTOR DU JEAN and MADAME
DUPREZ--Humors of the _table d'hote_--Coquetry and flirtation--A
phrenological _denouement_ 316
CHAP. LI.--I reach Goree, and hasten to Sierra Leone, where I
become a coast-pilot to GALLINAS--Site of that celebrated
factory--_Don_ PEDRO BLANCO--His monopoly of the Vey
country--Slave-trade and its territorial extent prior to
the AMERICAN SCHEME OF COLONIZATION--Blanco's arrangements,
telegraphs, &c. at Gallinas--Appearance and mode of life--Blanco
and the Lords' prayer in Latin 324
CHAP. LII.--Anecdotes of Blanco--Growth of slave-trade in
the VEY country--Local wars--AMARAR and SHIAKAR--Barbarities
of the natives 330
CHAP. LIII.--I visit LIBERIA, and observe a new phase of negro
development--I go to NEW SESTROS, and establish trade--Trouble
with Prince FREEMAN--The value of gunpowder physic 335
CHAP. LIV.--My establishment at New Sestros, and how I created
the slave-trade in that region--The ordeal of SAUCY-WOOD--My
mode of attacking a superstitious usage, and of saving the
victims--The story of BARRAH and his execution 339
CHAP. LV.--No river at New Sestros--Beach--Kroomen and
Fishmen--Bushmen--Kroo boats--I engage a fleet of them for
my factory--I ship a cargo of slaves in a hurry--My mode
of operating--Value of rum and mock coral beads--Return
of the cruiser 344
CHAP. LVI.--I go on a pleasure voyage in the Brilliant,
accompanied by GOVERNOR FINDLEY--Murder of the Governor--I
fit out an expedition to revenge his death--A fight with
the beach negroes--We burn five towns--A disastrous retreat--I
am wounded--Vindication of Findley's memory 349
CHAP. LVII.--What Don Pedro Blanco thought of my
Quixotism--Painful effects of my wound--Blanco's
liberality to Findley's family--My slave _nurseries_
on the coast--Digby--I pack nineteen negroes on my launch,
and set sail for home--Disastrous voyage--Stories--I land
my cargo at night at MONROVIA, and carry it through the
colony!--Some new views of commercial Morality! 356
CHAP. LVIII.--My compliments to British cruisers--The BONITO--I
offer an inspection of my barracoons, &c., to her officers--A
lieutenant and the surgeon are sent ashore--My reception of them,
and the review of my slaves, feeding, sleeping, &c.--Our night
frolic--Next morning--A surprise--The Bonito off, and her
officers ashore!--Almost a quarrel--How I pacified my guests over
a good breakfast--Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander 362
CHAP. LIX.--Ups and downs--I am captured in a Russian vessel,
and sent to Sierra Leone--It is resolved that I am to be despatched
to England--I determine to take French leave--Preparation
to celebrate a birthday--A feast--A martinet--CORPORAL
BLUNT--Pleasant effects of cider--A swim for life and liberty
at night--My concealment--I manage to equip myself, and depart
in a Portuguese vessel--I ship thirty-one slaves at Digby--A