No. 3.-Sir Charles Mac Carthy to Earl Bathurst. (Extract.) SIR ROBERT MENDS has this moment anchored in these Roads after a short, but extraordinary and successful, Cruize, having, since we parted at Accra, taken six Vessels with 1,656 Slaves, which, added to the number he took near the Bissagos and Afam, make a total number of 1,838, and eight Vessels taken by that Ship, last in company with His Majesty's Ship Myrmidon, which he ordered to cruize to Calabar. The Morgiana has also made two Prizes in her Cruize to the Ascension, with about 180 Slaves, since March, thus proving that this abominable Traffic is now carried on beyond former precedent, and with more audacity. The Vessels in the River Bonny were so moored as to present a most formidable battery, from which they kept up an incessant and tremendous fire upon the Boats, until they were conquered by the undaunted gallantry of our tars. It is to be regretted that two men of the Iphigenia were killed in action, and several wounded. The piratical ruffians suffered very severely, many of them jumped overboard and were drowned; and in the conflict the friends of humanity will lament that several of the unfortunate victims of the insatiable cupidity of those villains were also dangerously wounded; one poor female lost both her legs, another an arm. Earl Bathurst, K.G. Cape Coast Castle, May 22, 1822. C. MAC CARTHY. No. 4.-Sir Charles Mac Carthy to Earl Bathurst. (Extract.) Sierra Leone, June 21, 1822. I FOUND on my return the inhabitants generally healthy, although I fear, from the quantity of rain which has fallen since my arrival, that the rainy season has already begun, nearly a month before the usual period; a circumstance I regret exceedingly, from the considerable accession we have had, of about 1,800 liberated Africans, since January last, and the difficulty of placing them comfortably and advantageously to the public during the rains; that is, in encouraging their clearing the ground and planting, and more so, from the necessity which will devolve upon me of purchasing clothing for these unfortunate Beings, unless the requisition which I had the honour of addressing to your Lordship on the 12th January last, No. 264, is immediately forwarded here. Feeling as I do, my Lord, the enormous responsibility which, in these times of economy, falls upon an Officer who incurs expense, I own that under no other circumstances, but that of relieving that class of individuals whom the benevolence of our Country has rescued from Slavery, should I be found disposed to order any purchases, or incur expenses, without a regular approved Estimate. I shall, however, con tinue in the performance of what I consider a paramount duty, that of preventing the perishing from wretchedness, these, either adopted children of our Country, or otherwise outcasts from the human race, and devoted to misery. Earl Bathurst, K.G. C. MAC CARTHY. No. 5.-Sir Charles Mac Carthy to Earl Bathurst. (Extract.) Sierra Leone, June 26, 1822. COMMODORE Sir Robert Mends proposes taking his departure this day, on his return to Europe, by the West Indies; the short period he has been employed on the Coast has been attended with more success than I believe has hitherto been known in the same space of time. The loss of a Spanish Vessel upset in a tornado, as mentioned in the Return I had the honour of transmitting in my Letter No. 283, 19th instant, will be lamented by those who so anxiously wish for the Abolition of that Traffic. Sir Robert Mends has sent to Europe the three French Vessels he took in the River Bonny, for firing on his Boats: their arrival will, perhaps, convince those Persons in France who are so unwilling to believe that the Subjects of His Most Christian Majesty are buying Slaves on the Coast of Africa. The Vessels left to cruize on the Coast are the following: the Driver, gone down, I understand, as far as Calabar; the Bann, to the Ascension, and from thence to cruize to the Bight of Biafra and neighbourhood. His Majesty's gun Brig Thistle is at present cruising in those parts, and expected with Prizes shortly here. The Gun Brig Snapper is to sail on a cruize this day to leeward and return shortly. The Myrmidon is waiting for the arrival of the Cyrene by whom she is to be relieved: but should not the latter appear soon, she will cruize to windward. The Pheasant is on her way home by St. Thomas and the Brazils, having Captain Sabine on board making important observations. The Morgiana sailed four days past, on her passage home by the Ascension. Тио Brigs are expected to relieve those at present on this Station; and as Sir Robert Mends proposes returning to the Coast in November or December, it can be reasonably expected that a great number of Vessels will be taken; may these Captures at last induce Foreign Powers to engage warmly in the suppression of that Traffic! Having understood that the outcry against the horrid climate of Sierra Leone had not only been renewed at home, but given out by Foreign Powers as one of the causes for their not keeping complete their respective Members of the Mixed Commission; without making myself an advocate for any tropical climate, I beg leave to observe, that not only the whole of the Persons who were Commissaries in that Commission, but even those who were attached to it, have either returned to Europe to suit their own convenience, and not from ill-health, (although they may have been indisposed and paid a seasoning) or are here at present enjoying health. Earl Bathurst, K.G. C. MAC CARTHY. No. 6.-Sir Charles Mac Carthy to Earl Bathurst. MY LORD, Sierra Leone, August 3, 1822. REFERRING to the Letter I had the honour of addressing to your Lordship on the 26th June, No. 286, I beg leave to inform you that His Majesty's Gun Brig Thistle, Lieutenant Hagan Commander, whom I had mentioned as cruizing in the Bight of Benin, arrived in this Harbour on the 19th last, with a Portuguese Slave Brig, having on board 309 Slaves. I understand that at the time she was detained several of the unfortunate Slaves were ill with the Small-pox; but from the care of them by that Officer, and his ordering those infected with that disorder to be separated from those in health; and the quickness of the passage, viz. 20 days in the whole from the bottom of the Bight of Benin, and only 9 days from off Princes Island, it affords me great pleasure to state that one individual only died of the small-pox during the voyage, and 7 from extreme weakness and disease. On these unfortunate Africans being landed here, they were so judiciously disposed of under the direction of Dr. Nicoll, Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, and Chief of the Civil and Military Medical Establishment, that only one died (a little girl of 7 years) out of 23 cases; the others are recovering fast, and we have no apprehension of this loathsome and fatal disorder spreading. Vaccination has confined the range of the small-pox to those only who brought in the disease, not another individual has been affected. The humane and skilful exertions of the Medical Department have in that, as in all cases that daily occur, been unbounded. No less than 3,000 Persons have been successfully vaccinated since April last in the Peninsula; and vaccine matter has been sent to all the distant Settlements. The Natives around have derived the same advantage. Measures are pursued to extend this great benefit far and wide of our Establishments. I inclose herewith a Memorandum of the Vessels taken by Lieutenant Hagan in his last Cruize, and of those he visited; and it is painful to observe, that the whole of these Vessels trading to the North of the Line were provided with Royal Passports for the South ward, one excepted. I will not expatiate on the horrors and cruelties which continue to be inflicted on this devoted race of Beings. The Case of the San José Hallaxa, is of the same description as that of the Schooner reported in my Letter of the 24th August 1819, No. 212, noted in the Papers laid before Parliament in February 1821; and I cannot but declare it as the painful conviction of my mind, that so long as such Persons as Gomez, who was removed from the situation of Governor of Princes, and rewarded by a Situation of greater emolument, and those Governors of the Portuguese Establishments from Cape de Verd to St. Thomas, who have shamefully and openly either carried on that Traffic themselves, or participated in its criminal profits, are not only permitted to retain the price of the blood of Africans, but continue in Offices of trust and power, the laudable exertions of His Majesty's Government, and the unabated zeal of His Navy, will not extirpate that horrid Commerce. Earl Bathurst, K.G. I have, &c. C. MAC CARTHY. (Inclosure 1.)-Memorandum. THE inclosed List proves most incontestibly the existence of the Slave Trade to an enormous extent on this Coast; and the particular circumstances of atrocity which have come to light respecting the San José Hallaxa, also prove that its attendant horrors are not diminished. This Vessel affords a striking display of the cold-blooded villainy of those who are engaged in the Slave Trade, and of the wretchedness and misery which their unfortunate victims are doomed to suffer. The San José Hallaxa, a Schooner under seven tons burthen, was captured by His Majesty's Brig Thistle in the River Calabar, and it appears by the acknowledgment of the Master, that he shipped at Duke Ephraim's Town, on that River, 30 Slaves; that he had gone to Sea with that number on board, intending to proceed to Princes Island, but not having been able to make that Port, he had returned to Calabar, having his provisions and water nearly expended after having been at sea five or six weeks. During this voyage ten unfortunate objects of his avarice, not being able to procure sufficient nourishment to satisfy the cravings of nature, had been released from further sufferings by starvation! One poor female, in the absence of food, had existed on salt water until her faculties were destroyed, and she became raving mad; but even the deplorable and affecting state of insanity did not shield her from the brutal outrage of her oppressors, who with a view of stifling her cries by frequent repetition of the lash, literally flogged her to death. The Owner of this Vessel and the Purchaser of these Human Beings is a Woman! Donna Maria de Cruz, daughter of the notorious Gomez, formerly Governor in the name of His Most Faithful Majesty of Princes Island, and now holding the Appointment of Fiscal and Member of Council. This woman is known to the Mixed Commission Court, having been under their cognizance some time since as Proprietor of the Conceição, condemned by the British and Portuguese Judges. Lieutenant Hagan, with the greatest humanity, removed the surviving Slaves on board His Majesty's Brig; and having found the San José not sea-worthy, ordered her to be destroyed. The Estrella, captured in the Bight of Benin, had on board 298 Slaves. She had been visited by Lieutenant Hagan and a Detachment of the Colonial Corps, when passing Cape Coast Castle at the time of my being there. The Master declared that he had been to Elmina for provisions and water; but it is now proved that his object was to obtain Canoes, which continue to be furnished up to this period, under the sanction or connivance of the Officers of the Dutch Government. At the time Lieutenant Hagan detained the Estrella there were two Vessels in the River Benin with Slaves on board; but owing to the Thistle having supplied a number of men to navigate the Estrella, and having eight men short of her complement, she was considered too weakly manned to proceed after them. It may be remarked, that a Ship and Brig mentioned in the List were found at Whydah, the former fitted for 650 Slaves, and the latter for 200; but Lieutenant Hagan's anxiety to proceed in chase of a Vessel a few miles to leeward, prevented him ascertaining any further particulars. He, however subsequently learnt, that the Slaves were confined in the old and nearly destroyed Portuguese Fort of Whydah, ready for embarkation. The Ship had been boarded by His Majesty's Ship Iphigenia when cruizing on the Coast. The particulars relating to the sufferings of the Slaves of the San José Hallaxa, and the number of persons who died from starvation, are grounded on Affidavits in the Mixed Commission Court. C. MAC CARTHY. |