Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
choose!"--but at the same moment, a wink to my interpreter sufficed,
and the Bushman returned to the forest with tobacco and rum, while
Soma was saved from slaughter. It is by no means improbable that the
gambler is now playing _monte_ on some plantation in Cuba.
* * * * *
I continued my labors at New Florence without intermission for several
months, but when I cast up my account, I found the wages and cost of
building so enormous, that my finances would soon be exhausted.
Accordingly, by the advice of my friend Seagram, as well as of Captain
Tucker, who commanded on the station, I petitioned Lord Stanley to
grant me one hundred recaptured Africans to till my grounds and learn
the rudiments of agricultural industry. Some time elapsed before an
answer was sent, but when it came, my prospects were dashed to the
earth.
"GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SIERRA LEONE,
"_28th October, 1843_.
"SIR:
"I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated August last,
inclosing the copy of a petition, the original of which you had
transmitted to the acting Lieutenant Governor Ferguson, for the
purpose of having it forwarded to her Majesty's Government.
"In reply, I have to acquaint you, that by the receipt of a despatch
from the Rt. Hon. Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for the Colonies,
bearing date 8th April 1842, his Lordship states that he cannot
sanction a compliance with your request to have a number of liberated
Africans, as apprentices, in tilling your grounds; and further, that
he could not recognize the purchase of Cape Mount, as placing that
district under the protection and sovereignty of the British crown.
"I beg to add, that I am glad to be informed by Captain Oake that the
vessel, alluded to in your letter, which you had been unable to
despatch for want of a license, had obtained one for that purpose from
the governor of Monrovia.
"I am, sir, your obedient servant,
"G. MAC DONALD,
"_Governor_.
"_To_ MR. THEODORE CANOT."
The picture that had been painted by my imagination with so many
bright scenes and philanthropic hopes, fell as I finished this
epistle. It not only clouded my future prospects of lawful commerce,
but broke off, at once, the correspondence with my generous friend
Redman in London. As I dropped the missive on the table, I ordered the
palm-tree on which I had first unfurled the British flag to be cut
down; and next day, on a tall pole, in full view of the harbor, I
hoisted a tri-colored banner, adorned by a central star, which I
caused to be baptized, in presence of Fana-Toro, with a salvo of
twenty guns.
I am not naturally of a mischievous or revengeful temper, but I can
scarcely find language to express the mortification I experienced when
Lord Stanley thwarted my honest intentions, by his refusal to protect
the purchase whereon I had firmly resolved to be an ally and friend,
in concentrating a lawful commerce. I was especially disgusted by this
mistrust, or mistake, after the flattering assurances with which my
design had, from the first, been cherished by the British officers on
the station. I may confess that, for a moment, I almost repented the
confidence I had reposed in the British lion, and was at a loss
whether to abandon Cape Mount and return to my former traffic, or to
till the ground and play waterman to the fleet.
After proper deliberation, however, I resolved to take the plough for
my device; and before Christmas, I had already ordered from England a
large supply of agricultural implements and of every thing requisite
for elaborate husbandry. After this, I purchased forty youths to be
employed on a coffee plantation, and to drag my ploughs till I
obtained animals to replace them. In a short time I had abundance of
land cleared, and an over-seer's house erected for an old
barracoonier, who, I am grieved to say, turned out but a sorry
farmer. He had no idea of systematic labor or discipline save by the
lash, so that in a month, four of his gang were on the sick list, and
five had deserted. I replaced the Spaniard by an American colored man,
who, in turn, made too free with my people and neglected the
plantations. My own knowledge of agriculture was so limited, that
unless I fortified every enterprise by constant reference to books, I
was unable to direct my hands with skill; and, accordingly, with all
these mishaps to my commerce and tillage, I became satisfied that it
was easier to plough the ocean than the land.
Still I was not disheartened. My trade, on a large scale, with the
interior, and my agriculture had both failed; yet I resolved to try
the effect of traffic in a humble way, combined with such _mechanical_
pursuits as would be profitable on the coast. Accordingly, I divided a
gang of forty well-drilled negroes into two sections, retaining the
least intelligent on the farm, while the brighter youths were brought
to the landing. Here I laid out a ship-yard, blacksmith's shop, and
sawpit, placing at the head of each, a Monrovian colonist to instruct
my slaves. In the mean time the neighboring natives, as well as the
people some distance in the interior, were apprised by my runners of
the new factory I was forming at Cape Mount.
By the return of the dry season our establishment gave signs of
renewed vitality. Within the fences of New Florence there were already
twenty-five buildings and a population of one hundred, and nothing was
wanting but a stock of cattle, which I soon procured from the Kroo
country.
Thus, for a long time all things went on satisfactorily, not only with
the natives, but with foreign traders and cruisers, till a native war
embarrassed my enterprise, and brought me in contact with the enemies
of King Fana-Toro, of whose realm and deportment I must give some
account.
CHAPTER LXXI.
The Africans who cluster about the bold headland of Cape
Mount,--which, in fair weather, greets the mariner full thirty miles
at sea,--belong to the Vey tribe, and are in no way inferior to the
best classes of natives along the coast. Forty or fifty families
constitute "a town," the government of which is generally in the hands
of the oldest man, who administers justice by a "palaver" held in
public, wherein the seniors of the settlement are alone consulted.
These villages subject themselves voluntarily to the protectorate of
larger towns, whose chief arbitrates as sovereign without appeal in
all disputes among towns under his wardship; yet, as his judgments are
not always pleasing, the dissatisfied desert their huts, and,
emigrating to another jurisdiction, build their village anew within
its limits.
The Veys of both sexes are well-built, erect, and somewhat stately.
Their faith differs but little from that prevalent among the Soosoos
of the Rio Pongo. They believe in a superior power that may be
successfully invoked through _gree-grees_ and _fetiches_, but which is
generally obstinate or mischievous. It is their idea that the good are
rewarded after death by transformation into some favorite animal; yet
their entire creed is not subject to any definite description, for
they blend the absurdities of Mahometanism with those of paganism, and
mellow the whole by an acknowledgment of a supreme deity.
The Vey, like other _uncontaminated_ Ethiopians, is brought up in
savage neglect by his parents, crawling in perfect nakedness about the
villages, till imitation teaches him the use of raiment, which, in all
likelihood, he first of all obtains by theft. There is no difference
between the sexes during their early years. A sense of shame or
modesty seems altogether unknown or disregarded; nor is it unusual to
find ten or a dozen of both genders huddled promiscuously beneath a
roof whose walls are not more than fifteen feet square.
True to his nature, a Vey bushman rises in the morning to swallow his
rice and cassava, and crawls back to his mat which is invariably
placed in the sunshine, where he _simmers_ till noontide, when another
wife serves him with a second meal. The remainder of daylight is
passed either in gossip or a second _siesta_, till, at sundown, his
other wives wash his body, furnish a third meal, and stretch his
wearied limbs before a blazing fire to refresh for the toils of the
succeeding day. In fact, the slaves of a household, together with its
females, form the entire working class of Africa, and in order to
indoctrinate the gentler sex in its future toils and duties, there
seems to be a sort of national seminary which is known as the
Gree-gree-bush.
The Gree-gree-bush is a secluded spot or grove of considerable extent
in the forest, apart from dwellings and cultivated land though
adjacent to villages, which is considered as consecrated ground and
forbidden to the approach of men. The establishment within this
precinct consists of a few houses, with an extensive area for
exercise. It is governed chiefly by an old woman of superior skill and
knowledge, to whose charge the girls of a village are intrusted as
soon as they reach the age of ten or twelve. There are various
opinions of the use and value of this institution in the primitive
polity of Africa. By some writers it is treated as a religious
cloister for the protection of female chastity, while by others it is
regarded as a school of licentiousness. From my own examination of the
establishment, I am quite satisfied that a line drawn between these
extremes will, most probably, characterize the "bush" with accuracy,
and that what was originally a conservative seclusion, has degenerated
greatly under the lust of tropical passions.
As the procession of novices who are about to enter the grove
approaches the sanctuary, music and dancing are heard and seen on
every side. As soon as the maidens are received, they are taken by the
_gree-gree_ women to a neighboring stream, where they are washed, and
undergo an operation which is regarded as a sort of circumcision.
Anointed from head to foot with palm-oil, they are next reconducted to
their home in the gree-gree bush. Here, under strict watch, they are
maintained by their relatives or those who are in treaty for them as
wives, until they reach the age of puberty. At this epoch the
important fact is announced by the gree-gree woman to the purchaser or
future husband, who, it is expected, will soon prepare to take her
from the retreat. Whenever his _new_ house is ready for the bride's
reception, it is proclaimed by the ringing of bells and vociferous
cries during night. Next day search is made by females through the
woods, to ascertain whether intruders are lurking about, but when the
path is ascertained to be clear, the girl is forthwith borne to a
rivulet, where she is washed, anointed, and clad in her best attire.
From thence she is borne, amid singing, drumming, shouting, and
firing, in the arms of her female attendants, till her unsoiled feet
are deposited on the husband's floor.[9]
I believe this institution exists throughout a large portion of
Africa, and such is the desire to place females within the bush, that
poor parents who cannot pay the initiatory fee, raise subscriptions
among their friends to obtain the requisite slave whose gift entitles
their child to admission. Sometimes, it is said, that this _human
ticket is stolen_ to effect the desired purpose, and that no native
power can recover the lost slave when once within the sacred
precincts.
The gree-gree-bush is not only a resort of the virgin, but of the
wife, in those seasons when approaching maternity indicates need of
repose and care. In a few hours, the robust mother issues with her
new-born child, and after a plunge into the nearest brook, returns to
the domestic drudgery which I have already described.
* * * * *