Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/31



Manner of making Slaves from the River Senegal to the River Gambia.

HE Trade for Slaves, (says Mr. Kiernan) in the River Senegal, was chiefly with the Moors, on the Northern banks, who got them very often by war, and not seldom by kidnapping; that is, lying in wait near a village, where there was no open war, and seizing whom they could. He has often heard of villages, and seen the remains of such, broken up by making the people slaves.

That the Moors used to cross the Senegal to catch the negroes was spoken of at Fort Louis as notorious; and he has seen instances of it where the persons so taken were ransomed.

General Rooke says, that kidnapping took place in the neighbourhood of Goree. It was spoken of as a common practice. It was reckoned disgraceful there, but he cannot speak of the opinion about it on the Continent. He remembers two or three instances of negroes being brought to Goree, who had been kidnapped, but he could not discover by whom. At their own request he immediately sent them back. Mr. DalrympleA