Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/136

 when his traders were slack, he fired a gun into or over the town, to freshen their way. Captain Vicars told this to him and other people there at the time, but he has seen no instance of it himself.

Mr. Isaac Parker says the Guinea captains lying in Old Calabar river, fixed on a certain price, and agreed to lie under a £50 bond, if any one of them should give more for slaves than another; in consequence of which, the natives did not readily bring slaves on board to sell at those prices; upon which, the captains used to row guard at night, to take the canoes as they passed the ships, and so stopping the slaves from getting to their towns, prevent the traders from getting them. These they took on board the different ships, and kept them till the traders agreed to slave at the old prices.

Lieutenant Storey says that Captain Jeremiah Smith, in the London, in 1766, having a dispute with the natives of New Town, Old Calabar, concerning the stated price which he was to give for slaves, for several days stopped every canoe coming down the creek from New Town, and also fired several guns indiscriminately over the woods into the town, till he brought them to his own terms.

Captain Hall says, in Old Calabar river there are two towns, Old Town and New Town. A rival ship in trade produced a jealousy between the towns; so that, through fear of each other, for a considerable time, no canoe would leave their towns to go up the river for slaves. This happened in 1767. In this year, seven ships, of which five were the following — Duke of York, Bevan; Edgar, Lace; Indian Queen, Lewis; Nancy, Maxwell; and Canterbury, Sparkes, — lay off the point which separates the towns. Six of the captains invited the people of both towns on board on a certain day, as if to reconcile them: at the same time they agreed with the people of New Town to cut off all the Old Town people who should remain on board the next morning. The Old Town people, persuaded of the sincerity of the captains' proposal, went on board in great numbers. Next morning, at eight o'clock, one of the ships fired a gun, as a signal to commence hostilities. Some of the traders were secured on board, some were killed in resisting, and some got overboard, and were fired upon. When the firing began, the New Town people, who were in ambush behind the Point, came forward and picked up the people of Old Town, who were swimming, and had escaped the firing. After the firing was over, the captains of five of the ships delivered their prisoners (persons of consequence) to the New Town canoes, two of whom were beheaded alongside the ships. The inferior prisoners were carried to the West Indies. One of the captains, who had secured three of the king's brothers, delivered one of them to the chief man of New Town, who was one of the two beheaded alongside; the other brothers he kept on board, promising, when the ship was slaved, to deliver them to the chief man of New Town. His ship was soon slaved on account of his promise, and the number of prisoners made that day; but he refused to deliver the king's two brothers, according to his promise, and carried them to the West Indies, and sold them. It happened in process of time that they escaped to Virginia, and from thence, after three years, to Bristol, where