Page:An Act for Extending and improving the Trade to Africa (1750).djvu/13

 liament, lay before the parliament a copy of such annual account, audited as aforesaid, and of all orders and regulations made by them in the preceding year, relating to the said forts and settlements, or the government of their officers or servants employed therein; and copies of every such annual account, orders, and regulations, shall be annually laid before a general meeting of the members of the said company, to be had in London, Bristol, and Liverpool respectively; of which fourteen days notice shall be previously given in the London Gazette.

XXVI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no officer, or any other person to be employed by the said committee, at any of the forts or settlements built or to be built in Africa, shall at any time hereafter, in any manner, or on any pretence, obstruct or hinder any of his Majesty's subjects in trading; and that the forts, warehouses, and buildings, already erected, or which shall hereafter be erected, by the said company, shall and may at all times hereafter be free and open to all his Majesty's subjects, to be used as warehouses for depositing gunpowder, gold, elephants teeth, wax, gums, and drugs, and no other goods.

XXVII. Provided nevertheless, That the said forts, warehouses, and buildings, may and shall, in case of necessity or danger, be free and open to all his Majesty's subjects, for the safety of their persons, and security of all their effects whatsoever.

XXVIII. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it all and may be lawful for any of his Majesty's subjects trading to Africa, for the security of their goods or slaves, to erect houses and warehouses, under the projection of the said forts, or elsewhere in any other part of Africa within the limits aforesaid, for the better carrying on of his or their trade there; which houses and warehouses shall be the property of the person or persons who shall build the same; but shall not be disposed of, or lett, to any foreigner whatsoever.

XXIX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no commander or master of any ship trading to Africa, shall by fraud, force, or violence, or by any other indirect practice whatsoever, take on board, or carry away from the coast of Africa, any negro or native of the said country, or commit, or suffer to be committed, any violence on the natives, to the prejudice of the said trade; and that every person so offending, shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds of lawful money of Great Britain; one