Our Passage Down The River Was Tedious And Fatiguing; And The
Weather Was So Hot, Moist, And Unhealthy, That Before Our Arrival At
Goree Four Of The Seamen, The Surgeon, And Three Of The Slaves Had
Died Of Fevers.
At Goree we were detained, for want of provisions,
until the beginning of October.
The number of slaves received on board this vessel, both on the
Gambia and at Goree, was one hundred and thirty, of whom about
twenty-five had been, I suppose, of free condition in Africa, as
most of those, being bushreens, could write a little Arabic. Nine
of them had become captives in the religious war between Abdulkader
and Damel, mentioned in the latter part of the preceding chapter.
Two of the others had seen me as I passed through Bondou, and many
of them had heard of me in the interior countries. My conversation
with them, in their native language, gave them great comfort; and as
the surgeon was dead I consented to act in a medical capacity in his
room for the remainder of the voyage. They had in truth need of
every consolation in my power to bestow; not that I observed any
wanton acts of cruelty practised either by the master or the seamen
towards them, but the mode of confining and securing negroes in the
American slave-ships (owing chiefly to the weakness of their crews)
being abundantly more rigid and severe than in British vessels
employed in the same traffic, made these poor creatures to suffer
greatly, and a general sickness prevailed amongst them. Besides the
three who died on the Gambia, and six or eight while we remained at
Goree, eleven perished at sea, and many of the survivors were
reduced to a very weak and emaciated condition.
In the midst of these distresses the vessel, after having been three
weeks at sea, became so extremely leaky as to require constant
exertion at the pumps. It was found necessary therefore to take
some of the ablest of the negro men out of irons and employ them in
this labour, in which they were often worked beyond their strength.
This produced a complication of miseries not easily to be described.
We were, however, relieved much sooner than I expected, for, the
leak continuing to gain upon us, notwithstanding our utmost
exertions to clear the vessel, the seamen insisted on bearing away
for the West Indies, as affording the only chance of saving our
lives. Accordingly, after some objections on the part of the
master, we directed our course for Antigua, and fortunately made
that island in about thirty-five days after our departure from
Goree. Yet even at this juncture we narrowly escaped destruction,
for on approaching the north-west side of the island we struck on
the Diamond Rock and got into St. John's Harbour with great
difficulty. The vessel was afterwards condemned as unfit for sea,
and the slaves, as I have heard, were ordered to be sold for the
benefit of the owners.
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