HISTORY OF AFRICAN SLAVERY

THE inability of the aborigines of America to bear the burdens imposed upon them by their European masters in the American plantations gave occasion for resort to be had to Africa for a supply of labourers in the shape of slaves: hence African slave traffic. The slave trade, however, only assumed a regular form in the sixteenth century. In 1503 a few slaves were sent from the Portuguese settlements in Africa to Spanish colonies in America, and in 1511 Ferdinand V. of Spain permitted slaves to be carried in great numbers; and soon afterwards, at the instance of Las Casas, Bishop of Chiapha, in the interest of the native Indians of America, it was proposed to Cardinal Ximenes to establish a regular system of Negro importation into Hispaniola to relieve the native Indians. But the Cardinal poohpoohed the idea and disregarded the proposal, on the ground that it was inconsistent with humanitarian principles to relieve the inhabitants of one country at the expense of those of another.

The assumption of the crown of Spain by Charles V. introduced a new order of things. Representations were made to him of the threatened extinction of the Indians on the several Spanish islands and of the superior hardihood of the Negroes

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of Africa; and on the plea "Porque era mas util el trabajo de un Negro que de quartro Indios" (because the work of one Negro was more than equal to that of four Indians), he was prevailed upon to allow a further importation of Negroes into Spanish colonies.

In 1517 the Emperor Charles, by a patent to his Flemish favourites, granted them the monopoly of an annual importation of 4,000 Africans to work in the mines and plantations in Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Porto Rico; and thus Africans were preferred and went into slavery on account of their docility and hardihood.

The discovery of the Island of Magaritia by Columbus in 1498 afforded another inducement for procuring the hardy Negroes from Guinea to dive to the bottom of the seas in search of pearls, in accordance with the injudicious proposal of Las Casas which was put into effect by the Emperor Charles V. Both of them, however, lived to regret their folly: Las Casas in having made an inhuman suggestion in the cause of humanity, and Charles in having adopted that suggestion; he, however, granted a patent for the importation into Europe of Negroes as slaves. Thus much for Spanish African slavery.

British African slavery has the ignominy of dating itself from Captain John Hawkins in 1562, in the same manner as entire African slavery dates itself from Gonzalez Baldeza in 1435. At the death of Prince Henry of Portugal in 1580, Portugal was taken possession of by Spain, and all Portuguese possessions in Asia, Africa, and America fell into

Spanish hands. But the Emperor Philip II. who controlled Spanish affairs was too much engrossed to give attention to colonial matters. England, France, and Holland, therefore, took possession of all Portuguese possessions in Africa.

A patent was granted in 1588 by Queen Elizabeth to certain merchants to trade in Senegal and on the Gambia. The Declaration of Rights of 1688 annulled the monopoly previously enjoyed by the Royal African Company; and a broad highway was thereby opened to British commerce in Africa, and various agreements were entered into by British companies to supply Negroes to the West Indies. The Gambia was again revisited, and Captain Stibbs was commissioned by the Earl of Chandos, as Director of the Royal African Company, to lead an expedition into the heart of the Gambia. He scoured the falls of the Barraconda, and, after much difficulty, returned just as he was within a short distance off Tenda.

In 1617, the Dutch purchased the Island of Gori, evidently from the Portuguese, and also became possessed of El' Mina, and made it their capital. In 1618, King James I. granted a patent to a "Company of merchants in London adventuring in the Golden Trade." This Company entrusted its concerns to George Thompson, a Barbary merchant, who ascended the Gambia as far as Tenda, which had not been previously reached by any European. In 1626 a company of French merchants at Rouen participated in the West African trade and made Senegal their head-quarters. Another chartered company was formed in England in 1631, composed

of Sir B. Young, Sir K. Digby and others. This company was said to have been connected with the slave trade and supplied slaves to the West Indian colonies. This was during the reign of Charles I. Under Charles II., in 1662, "The Company of Royal Adventurers" of England trading to Africa was favoured with a patent. It was so called from the fact of King James II. having an interest in it. Its main object was to protect British trade from Dutch aggressions, as the Dutch had threatened to monopolise the entire African trade, having ousted the Portuguese from their forts on the Gold Coast, and were seriously damaging British ships and forts. War was, in consequence, declared against Holland, and as resources had failed the "Royal Adventurers," they surrendered their charter, and were succeeded, in 1672, by the Royal African Company of England, which succeeded in restoring British interests on the coast, enlarged Cape Coast Castle, built a fort at Akra, one at Dixcove, a third at Wineba, one at Sekondi, and a fifth at Anamabo. The forts and buildings on Bance Island on the Sierra Leone River were among the possessions of this Company. The Company likewise purchased Fredericksborg from the Danes.

M. Brue, agent-general of the French Company at Senegal, embarked on an expedition to the King of the Fulas, some 400 miles from Senegal; he reached Fort Ghiorel, passed it and pushed forward to Gumel, the terminus of the expedition, and then returned to St. Louis. In 1698, M. Brue embarked on another expedition, whose terminus was Gallam,

and passed the following places: Dramanet, where he erected Fort St. Joseph, and Felu; and, failing to cross the cataracts of Felu, he returned to head-quarters.

In 1720, the Duke of Chandos, as Director of the Royal African Company, was determined upon retrieving the affairs of that Company, which were then on the decline. Three years later, Captain Stibbs started on a second expedition in this service, and on the 7th October, 1723, he arrived at St. James' Island, thirty miles from the Atlantic, where already was an English fort by that name and a factory. Here he found that a Mr. Glyn, the Governor, had been dead six months previous, and his successor, a Mr. Willy, was too indisposed to be interested in the expedition. A few days after, Mr. Willy died, and was succeeded by Mr. Orfeur, who manifested every interest in the expedition, and furnished Stibbs with a crew of forty-nine persons, consisting of nineteen Europeans and thirty Natives. They were accompanied by a balafeu, or native minstrel, to cheer up the expeditionary party. Stibbs succeeded, but only after much difficulty, and got to about sixty miles above the Barraconda, which had hitherto been deemed the boundary of the universe.