NETHERLANDS SLAVE TRADE BILL— SIERRA LEONE. (Hansard, 19 March 1819)

Mr. Marryat

said:—Mr. Speaker; before this bill passes through its last stage, I cannot but express my concern, that all the beneficial results expected from it, and from the conventions between this country and the other powers of Europe, to which this and similar bills are intended to give effect, are likely to be frustrated, by the choice of Sierra Leone as the place of residence of the commissary judges and the commissioners of arbitration. The total unfitness of Sierra Leone as the place of adjudication for captured Negroes, has been so strongly stated by that gallant and lamented officer, the late sir James Lucas Yeo, in his official dispatches to the lords of the Admiralty, that I shall give it in his own words: "Another great objection to Sierra Leone, arises from its being at Such a distance directly to the windward of where 1106 the slave vessels are captured, which is generally in the right of Benin, and Beaffra; the vessels are always crowded and sickly, and the mortality in making the passage, exceeds one-tenth: added to this, the climate is detestable, the rain commencing the end of April, and continuing to the middle of October: it proves the grave of most Europeans who go there, and even those who escape the grave, linger out a painful and miserable existence." He then points out the superior advantages of the Gold Coast, as a settlement for captured Negroes and in a subsequent passage repeats, that "Sierra Leone is in every respect the most unfit, and worst situation on the whole Coast." If any confirmation of this authority were wanting, I might state that 240 white troops of the York rangers, were sent there in 1815; and that in the spring of the following year only 14 or 15 of them were alive and doing duty, the rest being either actually dead, or dying in the hospital. I have had occasion to send out two of three monitions from the court of Admiralty, to be served in Sierra Leone; and in none of these cases, did the parties to whom they were addressed live to receive them, but they fell into the hands of their executors, administrators, or assigns. The impression produced by the fatal effects of the climate of Sierra Leone, was strongly illustrated by the declaration lately made by the king's advocate in this House, that a delay of more than twelve months in carrying these conventions into effect had been occasioned by the impossibility of finding any person who would accept the appointment of commissary judge there; even with a salary of 3,000l. per annum, although the appointments at the other stations, (the Brazils, and the Havannah), with half that salary, were objects of great competition. I wish the House seriously to consider the consequences of sending the captured slave ships to Sierra Leone for adjudication. The Bann sloop of war, according to the dispatch of sir James Lucas Yeo, wad five weeks beating up there from the Gold Coast, and the Brisk sloop of war, was ten weeks making the passage from Cape Formosa. In the crowded state of slave ships, the mortality on board them must of course be dreadful; and would be almost wholly avoided, by their being seat to Cape Coast Castle, where they might run down in fewer days, than it requires weeks to beat up to Sierra Leone. But, Sir, 1107 dreadful as this waste of human life is, the mischiefs of the present arrangement do not end here. A great mortality must also be expected to take place among the commissary judges, and commissioners of arbitration, who are to be appointed by the different powers with whom we have made conventions, as well as by our own government, to reside at Sierra Leone. The act of parliament passed last year to carry these conventions into effect, and the conventions themselves, recite, that when a slave-trading vessel is Brought in, the two commissary judges appointed by Great Britain and by the power to which the vessel belongs, shall take the depositions of the master and Crew, and in case they do not agree whether the vessel is subject to confiscation, they shall call in one of the commissioners of arbitration to be chosen by lot from the two commissioners, nominated by the same powers; and that the decision of the majority of the three judges and commissioners so chosen, shall be final. This arrangement proceeds upon the presumption, that all the judges and commissioners will at all times be alive, and able to perform the duties of their office. I am aware that, in case of the death of those appointed by Great Britain, the governor of Sierra Leone has power to nominate others; but in case of the death of those appointed by the power to whose subjects the captured vessel belongs, no person at Sierra Leone has such an authority, and no such tribunal as the conventions require can possibly be constituted. To this state of things, what is to be done? Are the captured Negroes to remain on board, till new judges and commissioners are appointed in Europe, and arrive at Sierra Leone?—Or is the vessel to proceed with them to some of the other stations where the judges and commissioners reside? In either case the mortality among them must be dreadfully aggravated, and this will perpetually be the calamitous consequence of sending these unfortunate creatures to Sierra Leone for adjudication. On looking over the papers relative to the Slave Trade, that were lately printed by order of the House, I am not however surprised at the determination of the allied sovereigns upon this point, for I find among them a string of answers to questions put by the noble lord on the Treasury bench, which were laid before the assembled sovereigns at Aix-la-Chapelle, and which recommend 1108 Sierra Leone in the strongest manner. One of these answers maintains that, "Sierra Leone and its immediate neighbourhood, may be considered as the only part of the African coast, where plans of improvement can be pursued, without encountering the malignant influence of the slave trade;" but another answer shows that the slave trade rages all around Sierra Leone; for it states, that the coasting trade in the vicinity of that settlement can no longer be carried on, because, the slave trade has increased to such an extent, "that the slave traders who frequent the part of the coast near Sierra Leone, destroy every vessel they meet;" and a letter signed by Mr. Zachary Macaulay states, that the missionaries beyond the precincts of Sierra Leone have been obliged to abandon the exercise of their functions; "so great is the demoralizing effect of the slave trade, and so inveterate the evil habits which it generates.". Facts show, in opposition to these answers, that attempts for the civilization of Africa made from Sierra Leone fail, while those made from other quarters succeed. An expedition to explore the interior of Africa, proceeded from Sierra Leone near three years ago, under the direction of major Peddie. He and most of the officers with him died; the command was afterwards taken by captain Campbell, who shared the same fate; neither of them being able, from various obstacles, to penetrate far into the interior. A third attempt has lately been made by major Gray, and the last accounts of him, according to the public papers, are, that he had lost most of the white people who accompanied him, most of his beasts of burthen was in great distress for want of provisions, unable to continue his intended route through the territories of some hostile chief, and had written to the French governor, at Goree for assistance. An, expedition was also fitted out last year, from Cape Coast Castle, to the dominions of the king of Ashantee; which perfectly succeeded. The deputies matte a treaty with him, which promises the happiest results; and have fixed a permanent resident at his capital. So encouraging is the opening thus made to the interior of Africa, that in order to follow it up with effect, his majesty's government have lately sent out Mr. Dupuis, who resided many years as British consul at Mogadore, and is well acquainted with the Moorish language, to proceed Train Cape Coast 1109 Castle on another mission; and we shall probably obtain more real knowledge of the internal state of Africa from that quarter in the course of two years, than has been obtained for a century past: while from Sierra Leone, we obtain none Whatever. In another of these answers, we are told that Sierra Leone presents the gratifying spectacle "of a community of black men, living as freemen, maintaining themselves by the ordinary pursuits of agriculture, commerce, or some mechanical art;" but, unfortunately for the veracity of this statement, within a few days after it was printed, some papers respecting the deficiencies of the civil list were also laid before the House, in which appeared among other items, bills to the amount of more than 30,000l. drawn from Sierra Leone, for the maintenance of those very captured negroes who are said to maintain themselves. Not to detain the House with more comments upon these answers, I shall only state that I have seldom met with more misrepresentations, fallacies, and falsehoods, within the same compass than they contain; and it does seem extraordinary that they should be received and acted upon as official documents, at the conferences at Aix-la-Chapelle, without being authenticated by the signature of any individual, but described merely as answers from the African Society in London, and from Sierra Leone: who the African society are, I know not. We have indeed an African Company; but these certainly are not their answers; for I understand they gave answers of a very different nature, and which were not laid before the plenipotentiaries at Aix-la-Chapelle. We have also an African institution, who may perhaps now be denominated a society; but I do think that some persons should have made themselves responsible for the truth and correctness of these answers, which have been permitted, in this anonymous Character, to influence the minds of the assembled ministers and sovereigns of Europe. I can allow for the partiality which gentlemen who have long taken an interest in Sierra Leone may feel for their own favorite bantling; and for their wish to nurse it up into that maturity and consequence which it never can attain; but this partiality ought not to be indulged at the risk of sacrificing those laudable and important objects, which the bill now before the House, and the convention on which it is founded, are intended to ac- 1110 complish. I hope, therefore, to hear from the noble lord either a contradiction of the objections I have stated, on the authority of sir James Lucas Yeo, to making Sierra Leone the destination of the captured negroes, and the place of residence of the commissary judges, and the commissioners of arbitration; or an assurance that he has it in contemplation to remove them all to some other situation, more eligible both in point of geographical position, and salubrity of climate.