AND A DESCRIPTION Of some Part of the COAST of GUINEA , DURING A VOYAGE, Made in 1787, and 1788, in Company with Doctor A. SPARRMAN and Captain ARREHENIUS , BY C. B. WADSTROM, Chief Director of the Royal Assay and Refining Office; Member of the Royal Chamber of Commerce, and of the Royal Patriotic Society, for Improving Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce in Sweden. LONDON: Printed and Sold by James Phillips , George-Yard, Lombard-Street, 1789....

IN communicating to the publick the result of my observations lately made in a voyage to the Coast of Guinea, with two of my countrymen, it is not my intention, without sufficient reason, to add to the number of publications which have lately enlightened Europe, on a subject so deserving her attention, and in the impartial investigation of which she is so zealously employed. Animated with a desire of defending the cause of suffering humanity, I have no other end in view, than that of contributin

AMONG the various sources, from whence the Europeans are supplied with slaves on the coast of Africa, I shall first reckon that of War . The Wars which the inhabitants of the interior parts of the country, beyond Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leona, carry on with each other, are chiefly of a predatory nature, and owe their origin to the yearly number of slaves, which the Mandingoes, or the inland traders suppose will be wanted by the vessels that will arrive on their coast. Indeed these predatory

A second source, from whence the Europeans are supplied with slaves on the coast of Africa, is Pillage , which is of two kinds; publick or private. It is publick, when practiced by the direction of the kings, private, when practiced by individuals. I must also make a further distinction, namely, as it is practiced by the blacks and the whites. This last I call Robbery, which will be the subject of the next article. The publick Pillage is, of all others, the most plentiful source, from which the

I have been hitherto describing the Pillage , as it is either publick or private. I have also considered it as practiced by the blacks upon one another. I come now to speak of it, as it is practiced upon these by the whites; and this I call Robbery . It is too well known, at least on some parts of the coast, that the Europeans have not failed, when opportunity presented itself, to seize the unsuspicious natives of Africa, and to carry them by force to their own colonies. This is usually practice

The various other ways in which slaves are obtained, may be included under the words Treachery or Stratagem , being only so many different modes of the same practice. One or two instances will, I hope, suffice, as I do not wish to take up the reader’s time more than is necessary, and as he will be enabled by them to judge of the rest. Besides, the stratagems which the traders daily practise to get slaves, are so numerous, that it would take a volume to recount them. A French merchant of Goree la

Self-interest, the principle of all commerce, appears in the very basest point of view, when considered, with a reference to the intercourse subsisting between the white and the black nations. The fraud and violence which the stronger generally imagine they have a right in trade to exercise towards the weaker, compel the latter in their turn to have recourse to practices equally base and cruel. Such is the true picture of the low cunning and barbarity which the whites practice towards the negroe

On the coast of Africa there are two descriptions of slaves, namely, the immediate descendants of slaves, and those who are reduced to slavery in the different ways I have described. The former are seldom sold, except for theft, but the most trivial transgression of this kind is often made a pretext for selling them. At Goree I was present at several publick sales of young women, [1] who were sold for acts of petty larceny, which scarcely deserved the name of crimes. The treatment these last exp

From several experiments made on different plantations in the West-Indies, it appears, that negroes, when working, not by the day, but by task, have given convincing proofs both of ability and industry. [3]...

As liberty and reason, the two grand springs of all human action, are not yet developed in these people, who have long remained in a state of infancy, solely because their faculties have not been cultivated, in consequence of which their wants have been but few, it may perhaps be concluded, that these raw nations are incapable of civilization, but this opinion will soon vanish on reflecting, that the effects produced must entirely depend on the manner of forming their intellect. New objects ough

The climate of the coast of Guinea, as of other countries, varies with the nature of the soil, its elevation or depression, the comparative state of its improvement, and other circumstances, perhaps not yet sufficiently investigated. The latitude of the place is by no means a certain criterion of its climate, since even in the midst of the torrid zone, we meet with all possible gradations of climate. The high lands of Camaroons in particular, though only between three and four degrees distant fr

The soil all along the coast is very unequal. From Cape Blanco down the coast, to the River Gambia, it is in general very sandy, but as the sand consists of broken shells, covered in many places with a rich black mould, it must be favourable to vegetation. The most barren places of this part of the country, except just on the sea shore, are covered with grass and bushes; and where the black mould is found, the vegetation is luxuriant, and the trees of vast dimensions. I have remarked, that the m

Animal. The cattle on the coast are smaller than those of Europe, and not so fat as those of England or Holland; yet their flesh is very nourishing, and they give milk in abundance. Their inferiority appeared to me to be the effect of the careless and unskillful management of the negroes. I once saw four oxen sold for eighteen livres. They must be raised on the coast, as foreign cattle do not thrive. Even those from the Cape de Verd Islands do not answer on the coast. The whole coast is abundant

The diminution of the value of the West Indian Islands will undoubtedly be the strongest objection against forming settlements on the coast of Guinea; but this objection, which is wholly resolvable into a narrow policy, founded on false and interested principles, might be easily obviated, if my necessary brevity would permit me to enter on the discussion. To suppose that the European nations, which have West Indian colonies, would be injured by forming others in Africa, is just as unreasonable,

The diseases to which the Europeans are subject from the climate of the coast, may be reckoned among the greatest inconveniences to establishments of white people in that part of the world. Fortunately, however, they may in general be obviated by making choice of elevated situations, and if possible by forming the first settlement on an island; by keeping up the spirits of the new colonists, so that their minds may be agreeably occupied to gratify the affections of the soul; by accustoming them,

The musketoes are generally very troublesome; but as they are only generated in stagnant and putrid water, it is easy to perceive that this evil is not without a remedy; because by draining the marshes, and by cultivating the land, the cause which produces them will in a great measure be removed. It is likewise certain, that it is not difficult to accustom one’s-self to them, and it is astonishing to see with what unconcern the negroes walk quite naked, surrounded by swarms of those insects, wit

The inconveniences of thorns and thistles that grow wild in very great abundance among the trees, bushes, and grass, are likewise an hindrance to the commencement of cultivation; but if the negroes were employed to pull them up, this obstacle would be of little consequence; for they are so used and accustomed to them, that they make no scruple of penetrating across the thickets which most abound with them. Besides, the cultivation of the country will soon exterminate these impediments, as well a

From all that has been said, as well as from many other particulars, unnecessary to be repeated here, as they are already laid before the publick, it is evident, that the slave trade is a Commerce , carried to the highest pitch of human depravity, and it is to be feared that its total suppression by all the Europeans nations is a thing more to be wished for than expected at once, unless some of the civilized nations were to unite in establishing colonies on the coast of Guinea. May therefore eve

The following Circumstance is related by Mr. de la Blancherie , from an Extract of the Journal of his Voyages , published at Paris, in 2 vols. 1775. [13] An inhabitant of St. Domingo had a negro, who for a long time had solicited for his liberty, and which he had fully merited by his services; but that which ought to have procured it for him, was precisely what prevented his master from granting it, namely, his being essentially useful to him. The more the negro pressed to obtain his freedom, wh

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