EUROPEAN COLONIES—PORTUGUESE—REMAINING INFLUENCE OF THE PORTUGUESE—SLAVE FACTORIES—ENGLISH COLONIES—TREATIES WITH THE NATIVE CHIEFS—INFLUENCE OF SIERRA LEONE—DESTRUCTION OF BARRACOONS—INFLUENCE OF ENGLAND—CHIEFS ON THE COAST—ASHANTEE—KING OF DAHOMEY.
The Portuguese commercial discoverers having succeeded those of France, and founded trading establishments on the coast of Africa, were driven from the sea-shore by the rivalry and power of the Dutch and the English, about the year 1604. They retired into the interior, and commingled with the negroes. From their intermarriages arose a race of mulattoes, who have long exercised considerable influence. As early as 1667, this influence had become detrimental to commerce and discovery. They closed against others the entrances to the great region of more elevated lands, and carried on trade, without rivals, from Benin to Senegambia, over two thousand miles. They had generally little chapels near their houses, and spared no pains to make proselytes.
How much might these men have done for the good of Africa and the progress of the world! Following their lines of commerce, and cresting the high lands, which feed, with rains and rivulets, the Gambia and the Niger, as well as the streams by which they dwell, they might have saved two centuries of doubt and hazardous attempts, and much sacrifice of good and talented men. They might earlier have let in Christian civilization to repel the Moslem and redeem the negro. Portuguese influence is gone, and has left the world little reason to regret its extinction. On the rising and almost impervious forest-lands which are at the distance of from twenty to fifty miles back from the coast, these Portuguese mulattoes are still found, watching for their monopoly, with the same jealous exclusiveness as of old. These forests thus inhabited, form, at present, a serious obstacle to the extension of the influence of Liberia. An enterprising people, however, occupying the great tracts of cleared lands along the coast, which constitute the actual territories of the republic, will, with the progress of the settlements, and the increase of their power, soon be enabled, notwithstanding the short navigable distance of the rivers, to open communication with the far interior.
The Portuguese founded cities and missions. A more extensive authority was gained by them over great and populous regions, both on the eastern and western shores, than has been attained by any other people. The title of “Lord of Guinea” was fairly claimed for the King of Portugal, by the establishment of this sovereign’s supremacy over various native kingdoms. But Portugal wanted the light and strength of a nation—a righteous and intelligent policy.
The establishments on the east coast now scarcely keep their ground, ever shrinking before the barbarian and the Arab. St. Paul de Loando, on the southwest coast, is shrivelled down from its former greatness. Both regions have rich capabilities; both might have extended a useful influence, until they met and embraced in the centre, uniting these vast regions with the great movements of human progress; but they clung to the slave-trade, and its curse has clung to them.
They misunderstood human nature, and overlooked its high destiny. Of the Spaniards and Portuguese concerned in slaving, Captain Dunlop, of the British Navy, long attached to the English squadron on the African coast, says: “They speak of the African as a brute, who is only fit to be made a slave of, and say that it is quite chimerical and absurd in us to attempt to put down the trade, or to defend men who were only born to be slaves.”
Other nations only founded slave factories. Every thing peculiar to this influence was bad. Compared with the ounces of gold and tusks of ivory which drew the cupidity of early navigators, there arose everywhere a traffic, far more rapid, but it was that of cruelty, bringing with it vice. Brandy and arms, drunkenness and war, followed as the remuneration of rapine and slaving. The gross vices of Europe added to the mischief. Legitimate trade, which might have flourished for centuries, withered; and the rank which the white man held among the natives, made him a source of wide corruption. Little good could come out of the state of society in Europe during the last century, for little good was in it. This state of things has improved.
The three nations whose interference seems likely to have a conspicuous effect upon the interests of Africa in the future, are France, England, and the United States.
France will have all the Mediterranean shore, and the caravan trade across the deserts. But this will diminish in activity and value, as the trade of the other shores extends, and as the way across from them to the interior becomes easier. No great influence can, therefore, be in this way exercised over the prosperity of the African people.
England holds the south; but the natives around the Cape of Good Hope are greatly isolated from the interior by deserts and climates hostile to European life. Democracy has a footing there, inasmuch as Dutch colonists have retired from under English jurisdiction, and formed a government for themselves, which has been acknowledged by England. After suffering, and trial, and privation shall have taught independence of thought and patriotism, a respectable confederacy of states may be formed in these regions.
Every effort that is just and suitable, is made to extend English influence along the shores of negro lands. The expenditure in endeavoring to extirpate the slave-trade is very great; and great devotedness and heroism have been seen in attempts to explore the interior. Both objects are drawing towards completion; but the permanently beneficial influence of England rests on the establishment of Sierra Leone and the extended coasting trade, arising from the semi-monthly line of English steamers which touch there.
England has established twenty-four treaties with native kings, chiefs, or powers, for the suppression of the slave-trade; seventeen of these are with chiefs whose territories have fallen under the influence of the Republic of Liberia and Cape Palmas. The influence of these governments has now replaced that of England, by sweeping the slave-trade from their territory of about six hundred miles. The great proportion of recaptured slaves, chiefly men and boys, who have been thrown into the population of Sierra Leone, has loaded it heavily. Of these, altogether not less than sixty thousand have, at different times, been introduced; yet, with the original colonists—the Novascotians, Canadians and the Maroons from Jamaica—the whole do not now extend beyond forty-five thousand; still, Sierra Leone has long been a focus of good emanations. It embraces a territory small compared with Liberia. The government is repressive of native energy, on account of the constant superintendence of white men, and the subordination of the colony to a distant and negligent government.
One momentous effect of its influence, however, has come permanently forward, tending to carry rapid improvement widely over the western regions of Africa. These recaptured slaves, and their descendants, many of them, are returning to their native lands, elevated in character by the instruction they have received. Three thousand of them are now settled among their brethren of the Yoruba tribe, near the mouth of the Niger, and there, superintended by two or three missionaries, are sending abroad, by their influence and example, the light of Divine truth.
Sierra Leone and the naval squadrons have rendered great service to Liberia. It is perfectly obvious that the colony could not have existed if left to itself under the old system of pirating and slave-trading. Those who did not spare European forts, would have had no scruple at plundering and extinguishing such opponents of their traffic. It must in justice be admitted, that a fair surrender of what might, in reality, be considered as conquered territory, has been made by England to Liberia. The instances of such transactions show a greatly advanced state of morality in the public dealings of nations, and in this, even, the African has begun to partake.
Sierra Leone was founded on the 9th of May, 1787, by a party of four hundred negroes, discharged from the army and navy. They were joined by twelve hundred from Nova Scotia in 1792.
In 1849, the country around the river Sherboro, intervening between Sierra Leone and Monrovia, had been carrying on a war for about seven years, and at length commenced plundering the canoes of the Sierra Leone people. The acting governor soon brought them to terms. This vexed the slavers at the Gallinas, who had long been an annoyance to the Liberian authorities. It was the slavers’ policy to keep up the excitement and strife, that they might in the mean time drive a brisk trade unmolested.
The English cruisers at length blockaded the Gallinas. They ascertained that, notwithstanding the blockade, abundance of goods were received by the enemy. The mystery was at length solved by discovering that the slave-traders, through small creeks and lagoons, had received what they wanted from Sierra Leone. The case was referred to the governor to have this prevented, and by the governor it was referred to the lawyers. They shook their wigs solemnly over the complaint, and decided that nothing within the compass of the law suited the case, and therefore nobody could interfere.
Captain Dunlop, in command of the cruisers, a good naval diplomatist, ready in the cause of justice and humanity to make precedents where none could be found, informed the Sherboro chiefs, that a treaty existed between them and his government for the suppression of the slave-trade; and suggested to them the virtue and the profit of seizing the goods brought from Sierra Leone. The chiefs had the smallest possible objections which honest men could have, to appropriate the slavers’ goods to themselves. On the principle of employing a thief in office for the moral benefit of his companions, this matter was easily settled. The goods were seized in their transit. It was also stipulated with these chiefs, that they should stop all trade and intercourse between their own people and the slave barracoons. Having now no chance of sending off slaves, and no means of getting any thing from Sierra Leone or elsewhere, the slavers, established at the Gallinas—regarded for the present as no man’s land—were obliged to come to terms.
Captain Dunlop landed to receive their surrender. But to spare his own men in the sickliest season of the year, he applied to a chief for one hundred and fifty hands; these he obtained, and soon after three hundred more joined him, and remained for the five or six weeks, while the affair was being settled. These men behaved as well as disciplined troops, or rather better, for although among an enemy’s property, there was no drunkenness or plunder.
An idea of the extent of the slave-establishment may be had from the fact that sixty foreigners were made prisoners. They hailed from everywhere, and were sent to Sierra Leone to find passage to Brazil, Cuba and other places.
The chiefs who had been in partnership with them, found themselves none the worse for this summary breaking up of the firm. They cleared off their national debt. In the way of trade they had come under obligations to this establishment to the extent of seven thousand slaves, and they found themselves at liberty honestly to “repudiate,” or rather their obligation was discharged, as slaves were no longer a lawful tender. The chiefs, however, were required to set at liberty all slaves collected but not delivered. These amounted to about a thousand. A preparation was here made for the extension of Liberia, and afterwards, as will be seen, that government came into possession of this territory, and thus secured a still greater extent of coast from the intrusion of the slaver.
English influence is extending by means of factories and agents all along the coast, from Cape Palmas to the Gaboon (about twelve hundred miles), for commercial purposes and for the suppression of the slave-trade. These establishments are supported by the government. Commissioners proceed from them to enter into negotiations on the subject of the slave-trade with the powerful chiefs of the interior, and curious results sometimes occur from the prestige thus gained.
One of the great Ashantee chiefs came over to the English, during the war in which Sir Charles McCarthy was killed, and retained his independence on the borders of the two powers. Governor McLean, at Cape Coast Castle, learnt that this chief had offered human sacrifices as one of his “customs.” A summons, in a legal form, was dispatched to him by a native soldier, citing him to appear for trial for this offence. Agreeably to the summons, he marched to the court in great state, surrounded by his chiefs and attendants. He was tried, convicted, and heavily fined. He was then dismissed, with an order to remit the money. This he immediately did, although there was no force, except moral supremacy, to constrain him to obey. There has been no slaving at Cape Coast Castle since the trade was abolished forty years ago.
There are only forty British officers’ and soldiers in all the line of forts, with one hundred of the West India regiment, and about fifty native militia-men. The annual expense of the establishments is about twenty thousand dollars; although, as the government has lately purchased, for fifty thousand dollars, the Danish forts, the expense will be materially increased.
The interior is improving. Captain Winniet visited Ashantee in October, 1849. He found on the route large thriving additional villages, as far as English protection extended. He was received at Kumassi with the usual display of African music, musketry, and marching. He was led for a mile and a half through a lane at heads and shoulders, clustered thick on both sides. There were here and there diverging branches of a like character, as thick with heads and shoulders; and at the end of each, a chief sitting in his chair of state. To and by each chief, a hand was waved as a salutation, until the monarch himself was reached. He rose, came forward, and, with heavy lumps of gold dangling at his wrists, exhibited his agility in dancing. When this act of state ceremony had been properly done up, he offered his hand to shake, and thus completed the etiquette of a reception at court. The houses, with piazzas projecting to shelter them from the sun—public-rooms in front, and dwelling-rooms behind, nicely plastered and colored—were greatly admired.
The pleading about the slave-trade was the main business and the main difficulty; but the nature of such negotiations appears, in its most impressive aspect, in the case of Dahomey.
This chief professes great devotedness to England. In consequence of some difficulty, he gave notice to European foreigners, “that he was not much accustomed to cut off white heads, but if any interfered with an agent of the English government, he would cut off their heads as readily as those of his black people.” By murderous incursions against his neighbors, he seized about nine thousand victims annually. He sold about three thousand of these directly on his own account, gave the rest chiefly away to his troops, who sold them: a duty of five dollars being paid on each slave exported, afforded him altogether a revenue of about three hundred thousand dollars.
This was a serious matter to argue against. He stated the case strongly: “The form of my government cannot be suddenly changed without causing such a revolution as would deprive me of my throne, and precipitate the kingdom into anarchy.... I am very desirous to acquire the friendship of England. I and my army are ready, at all times, to fight the queen’s enemies, and do any thing the English government may ask of me, except to give up the slave-trade. No other trade is known to my people. Palm-oil, it is true, is engaging the attention of some of them, but it is a slow method of making money, and brings only a very small amount of duties into my coffers. The planting of cotton and coffee has been suggested, but that is slower still. The trees have to grow, and I shall probably be in my grave before I reap any benefit from them; and what am I to do in the mean time? Who will pay my troops in the mean time? Who will buy arms and clothes for them? Who will buy dresses for my wives? Who will give me supplies of cowries, rum, gunpowder and cloth, for my annual ‘customs?’ I hold my power by the observance of the time-honored customs of my forefathers. I should forfeit it, and entail on myself a life full of shame, and a death full of misery, by neglecting them. The slave-trade has been the ruling principle of my people. It is the source of their glory and wealth. Their songs celebrate their victories, and the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery. Can I, by signing such a treaty, change the sentiments of a whole people? It cannot be!”
The case was a puzzling one for this intelligent, open-hearted, and ambitious barbarian. He had trained an army of savage heroes, and as savage heroines, thirsting for distinction and for plunder. This army cowers at his feet as long as he satiates its appetite for excitement, rapine and blood. But woe to him if it turn in disappointed fury upon him! Such is military despotism; perilous to restrain, and perilous to let loose. Blessed is that people which is clear of it!
There is this strange incident in the affair, that the English power, which sent an ambassador to plead the case with him in this peaceful mode, was at the same time covering the sea with cruisers, and lining the shore with factories, and combining every native influence to extinguish the sole source from which flowed the security and splendor of his rule. He knew this, and could offer no moral objection to it, although complaining of the extent to which it reduced his authority, and crippled his resources.
The urgency to which the King of Dahomey was subjected, ended, in 1852, in his yielding. England had proposed to pay him some annual sum for a time, as a partial compensation for the loss of his revenue: it may therefore be presumed that he is a stipendiary of the British government; and as the practices given up by him can scarcely, in any circumstances, be suddenly revived, his interest will retain him faithful to the engagement. It is a strange, bold, and perilous undertaking, that he should direct his disciplined army, his hero and his heroine battalions, to the arts of peace! But to these he and they must henceforward look as the source of their wealth, security, and greatness.
Queen Victoria, it is said, has lately sent the King of Dahomey two thousand ornamental caps for the Amazon soldiers.