Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/43

( 13 ) out to allure the unwary, and that, if found to be connected with these, he would be seized, and made to pay the price of a man slave. As to fetiches [sic], consisting of pieces of wood, old pitchers, kettles, and the like, laid in the path-ways, he was warned to avoid displacing them, for if he should, the natives who were on the watch, would seize him, and, as before, exact the price of a man slave. These baits are laid equally for natives and Europeans; but the former are better acquainted with the law, and consequently more upon their guard.

Manner of making Slaves from the River Benin to the River Ambris

Mr. Ellison says, that while one of the ships he belonged to, viz. the Briton, was lying in Benin river, Capt. Lemma Lemma, a Benin trader, came on board to receive his customs. This man being on the deck, and happening to see a canoe with three people in it, crossing the river, dispatched one of his own canoes to seize and take it. Upon overtaking it, they brought it to the ship. It contained three persons, an old man and a young man and woman. The chief mate bought the two latter, but the former being too old, was refused. Upon this, Lemma ordered the old man into the canoe, where his head was chopped off, and he was thrown overboard. Lemma had many war canoes, some of which had six or eight swivels; he seemed to be feared by the rest of the natives. Mr. Ellison did not see a canoe out on the river while Lemma was there, except this, and if they had known he had been out, they would not have come. He discovered by signs, that the old man killed was the father of the two other negroes, and that they were brought there by force. They were not the subjects of Lemma.

At Bonny, says Mr. Falconbridge, the greatest number of slaves come from inland. Large canoes, some having a three or four pounder lashed on their bows, go to the up country, and in eight or ten days return with great numbers of slaves: he heard once, to the amount of twelve hundred at one time. The people in these canoes have generally cutlasses, and a quantity of muskets, but he cannot tell for what use. Mr.