Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/47

( 17 ) Mr. Falconbridge thinks crimes are falsely imputed, for the sake of selling the accused. On the second voyage at the river Ambris, among the slaves brought on board was one who had the craw craw, a kind of itch. He was told by one of the sailors, that this man was fishing in the river, when a king's officer, called Mambooka, wanted brandy and other goods in the boat, but having no slave to buy them with, accused this man of extortion in the sale of his fish, and after some kind of trial on the beach, condemned him to be sold. He was told this by the boat's crew who were ashore when it happened, who told it as of their own knowledge.

Besides the accounts just given, from what the above witnesses saw and heard on the coast of Africa, as to the different methods of making slaves, there are others contained in the evidence, which were learnt from the mouths of the slaves themselves, after their arrival in the West-Indies.

Some of these have informed several of the witnesses on this occasion, that they were taken in war, (Hall and Woolrich) others, that they were taken by surprise in their towns, or while at work in their fields, (Hall) or as they were straggling from their huts, or cultivating their lands, (Dalrymple) or tending their corn: (Woolrich) others, that they were taken by armed canoes up the rivers, (Douglas) others, by stratagem, (Cook) or kidnapped, (Rev. Mr. Davies, Dean of Middleham, Mr. Fitzmaurice) which kidnapping prevailed in the inland parts at a great distance from the shore, (Dr. Harrison) and was with some a professed occupation, and a common practice (Falconbridge and Clappeson.) CHAP,C