Havana. Sierra Leone. Havana. Sierra Leone.

* This vessel was not brought before the Court. The numbers are given on the authority of Mr. Commissary Judge Macleay. † The same of the Fama da Cadiz.

Showing a loss on these selected cases of 44 per cent.!

In 1830, the Committee of the House of Commons came to the following resolution: that captured vessels are, on an average, upwards of five weeks on their passage from the place of capture to Sierra Leone, occasioning a loss of the captured slaves amounting to from one-sixth to one-half of the whole number, while the survivors are generally landed in a miserable state of weakness and debility.'*

I have not adverted to Rio de Janeiro, or the Ha* Sierra Leone Report, 1830, p. 4.

vana, on this head, because there are very few cap tures on the American side of the Atlantic, and when captures do occur, the time consumed in the passage to either of these ports is little, if at all, more than what would have been required for completing the voyage.

But it appears to be demonstrated, by evidence which cannot be impugned, that the loss after capture on the African side of the Atlantic, varies from onesixth to one-half of the whole number.

LOSS AFTER LANDING AND IN THE SEASONING.

The last head of mortality, is that which occurs after landing from the slave vessel, and in the seasoning.

We are here again obliged to go back, for informa tion, to the evidence at the end of the last century; but in this branch of the subject, so far as can be ascertained, there has been no improvement; on the contrary, the slaves are now subjected to greater hardships, in their being landed and concealed as smuggled goods, than they were in former times, when a slave-vessel entered the ports of Rio Janeiro and Havana as a fair trader, and openly disposed of her cargo.

Mr. Falconbridge, whose evidence has already been largely quoted, tells us, that on being landed the negroes are sold, sometimes by what is termed a scramble; "but previous thereto," he adds, "the sick or refuse slaves, of which there are frequently many, are usually conveyed on shore, and sold at a tavern by public auction. These, in general, are purchased by the Jews and surgeons, but chiefly upon speculation, at so low a price as five or six dollars a-head.

"I was informed," he says, " by a Mulatto woman, that she purchased a sick slave at Grenada upon speculation, for the small sum of one dollar, as the poor wretch was apparently dying of the flux. It seldom happens that any who are carried ashore in the emaciated state to which they are generally reduced by that disorder long survive their landing. I once saw sixteen conveyed on shore, and sold in the foregoing manner, the whole of whom died before I left the island which was within a short time after." Various are the deceptions made use of in the disposal of the sick slaves, and many of these such as must excite in every humane mind the liveliest sensations of horror. I have been well informed that a Liverpool captain boasted of his having cheated some Jews by the following stratagem: "A lot of slaves afflicted with the flux, being about to be landed for sale, he directed the surgeon to

Thus prepared, they were landed and taken to the accustomed place of sale, where, being unable to stand, unless for a very short time, they are usually permitted to sit. The Jews, when they examine them, oblige them to stand up

and when they do not perceive this appearance, they consider it as a symptom of recovery. In the present instance, such an appearance being prevented, the bargain was struck, and they were accordingly sold. But it was not long before a discovery ensued. The excruciating pain, which the prevention occasioned, not being to be borne by the poor wretches, was removed, and the delud

ed purchasers were speedily convinced of the imposition."*

In the report of the African Institution for 1818, the case of the Joachim, a Portuguese slave-vessel, is noticed; and Lieutenant Eicke, after stating the wretched condition of the slaves at and subsequent to the time of capture, says, "That between the nineteenth and twenty-fourth day of their being landed, thirteen more died, notwithstanding good provisions, medical aid, and kind treatment, and thirty more died between the 24th of February and 16th instant; all occasioned, as he in his conscience is firmly persuaded, by the cruel and inhuman treatment of the Portuguese owners; that more than 100 of them were at the time of their landing just like skeletons covered with skin, and moving by slow machinery, hardly maintaining the appearance of animated human beings. That the remainder of them were all enervated, and in a sickly state."†‡

In an official medical report as to the health of the liberated Africans at the Gambia, of date 31st of December, 1833, and drawn up by Mr. Foulis, Assistant-Surgeon of the Royal African Corps, and Dr. James Donovan, Acting Colonial Surgeon, it is stated, that the greater part of those, who are weak and emaciated on arrival, soon afterwards die: many, after a longer or shorter residence, fall into the same state, linger, and also perish from causes not very dissimilar. For this mortality, the medical board assigned, as probable causes, the long confinement in slave-houses previous to embarkation, want of cleanliness and ventilation while on board the slave-ships,

* Falconbridge, p. 33. † Afr. Inst. Report, 1818, p. 28. ‡ Appendix to Part I., C., p. 236.

alterations in dress, food, and habits, and, not the least, change of climate. These act directly, simultaneously, and banefully, on the system in a very great number of instances. But when the sad recollection of perpetual expatriation; the lacerated feelings of kindred and friendship; the rude violation of all the sacred and social endearments of country and relationship; the degrading anticipation of endless unmitigated bondage, are added to those, they act still more injuriously on the constitution, although exerted through the medium of mind. The moral and physical combination of such extraordinary circumstances, concentrated with such fearful intensity, conjunctly creates disease in such a redoubtable shape, as to induce a belief that nothing similar has yet appeared in the annals of physic."*

Mr. Rankin, in his work on Sierra Leone, says,t "To the King's Yards I paid frequent visits, and found an interest awakened on behalf of the people. Of the women, many were despatched to the hospital at Kissey, victims to raging fevers. Others had become insane. I was informed that insanity is the frequent fate of the women captives, and that it chiefly comes upon such as at first exhibit most intellectual development, and greatest liveliness of disposition. Instances were pointed out to me. The women sustain their bodily sufferings with more silent fortitude than the men, and seldom destroy themselves; but they brood more over their msfortunes, until the sense of them is lost in madness."‡