Page:Benezet's A caution and warning to Great Britain and her colonies.pdf/20

[ 18 ] Negroes, so that we fear this war will be unsuccessful.

The 2d January. Last night we saw a prodigious fire break out about eleven o'clock, and this morning see the town of Sestro burnt down to the ground, (it contained some hundreds of houses) so that we find their enemies are too hard for them at present, and consequently our trade spoiled here; so that about seven o'clock we weighed anchor, as did likewise the three other vessels to proceed lower down.

The second relation, also taken from the original manuscript journal of a person of credit, who went Surgeon on the same account, in a vessel from New-York to the Coast of Guinea, about eighteen years past, is as follows, viz. "'Being on the coast at a place called Basalia, the Commander of the vessel, according to custom, sent a person on shore with a present to the King, acquainting him with his arrival, and letting him know, they wanted a cargo of slaves. The King promised to furnish them with slaves, and in order to do it, set out to go to war against his enemies, designing also to surprize some town, and take all the people prisoners: Sometime after, the King sent them word, he had not yet met with the desired success, having been twice repulsed, in attempting to break up two towns; but that he still hoped to procure a number of slaves for them; and in this design he persisted till he met his enemies in the field, where a battle was fought, which lasted three days, during which time the engagement was so bloody, that four thousand five hundred men were slain on the spot."

The person, that wrote the account, beheld the bodies as they lay on the field of