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Hall. James, M.D. "Dr. Hall's Report as Trustee of the Ship M.C. Stevens,"The African Repository, vol. 33 (Nov. 1857), 338-340.
[From the Maryland Colonization Journal.]
Dr. (James) Hall's Report as Trustee of the Ship M. C. Stevens.
Baltimore, Dec. 4th, 1856.
To John H. B. Latrobe, and Elisha Whittlesey, Esqs., Trustees of the Stevens fund.
GALLINAS.
We could not be content with a mere deck view of this remarkable spot, this modern
Tyre, this den of iniquity, but took our glass, ascended to the masthead and, and
made a comfortable seat for an hour's observation and reflection. Our observation
resulted in nothing, literally nothing; it was even difficult to make out the old
land-marks of the place. We could barely designate the northern bank of the river,
within the bar mouth, broken and abrupt, and opposite, a low sand spit, being a continuation
of the southern sea beach. A small, dirty colonial craft of some 20 tons was lying
in the offing, and one little black canoe was paddling from it through the bar. Not
even the old lookout station in the tree top, or any other land-mark, was visible,
to indicate fuit of Gallinas. Of the history of this place prior to our first
visit to Liberia in 1831, we know but little; probably, like Cape Mesurado, the Bassas,
Trade Town, and other points on the Liberia coast, it had been a place for shipping
slaves for many years. There was nothing, however, to render it remarkable, or give
it the prominence it obtained, until the advent and settlement of a Spaniard, named
PEDRO BLANCO, about the year 1825 or 1826. This man, we understand, had been engaged
in one or two ventures for slaves as a partner with others, which proving unfortunate
rendered him nearly or quite bankrupt. He considering himself an injured,
as well as a ruined man, cursed the English for their interference with his lawful
traffic, and determined to have satisfaction, if not of them, of those whom they
had endeavored to screen from his rapacity. Being a man of strong will, and great
energy, he fitted out a vessel and embarked in her himself, determined upon retrieving
his shattered fortunes. He was successful in his first voyage, and made sufficient
to enable him to go to work on a more extended scale. He established himself at Gallinas,
opened an extensive correspondence, received consignments of vessels and cargoes,
and loaded and despatched cargoes of Humanity in return. A few successful voyages
made him a man of wealth and placed him at the "head of his profession."
There soon gathered around him other adventurers of a like character, and Gallinas
soon became, not only the centre of an extensive and lucrative traffic, but the theatre
of a new order of society and a novel form of government, of all of which his excellency,
Don Pedro Blanco, was the head, the autocrat. Over all, his authority was absolute,
acquired and maintained, not by his wealth alone, but by his will, energy, ability
and address; for Pedro Blanco was no common man. He was a well-born, high-bred, Spanish
gentleman, and in all save his profession, a man of honor–yea, of strict integrity,
whose word was his bond.
In the palmy day of Gallinas, at all seasons of the year, vessels might always be
seen in the offing, not unfrequently [sic] many at a time, and of different classes.
First those chartered by Blanco and others to land staple articles of slave goods;
next, transient trading vessels, American, English, French, and Dutch, calling in
to supply those in want of stores or trade goods for the factories. Then the English
men-of-war, generally under way, cruising for the slave vessels, which seldom appeared,
except in the distance, then quickly disappearing on signals from the shore. In the
river, too, the indications were not less evident of active commercial operations.
Long stockade warehouses were filled with merchandise; the barracoons were swarming
with slaves of all ages and characters, from the sullen stalwart warrior chained
by the leg, who may have defended his town to the last, down to the infant at the
mother's breast; the aged and decrepid [sic] grandfather and toddling younker [sic],
some coupled together, others strung on poles, or if helpless, at loose in the wattled
yards. The river, too, was filled with canoes, shooting from point to point, and
hosts of straggling armed natives were lounging and prowling about the factories,
either engaged in selling slavery, or receiving their outfit for another foray.
The manner of obtaining and shipping slaves at Gallinas may be described in a
few words. Intelligence is sent abroad,through the country, that "slave money
lives on the beach;" that is, that merchandise is offered for slaves. The "mercenary"
chiefs and the head-men of all the tribes are made such by the fact that money awaits
the production of slaves, at once fit out expeditions to the nearest defenceless
towns which they surround and fire in the night time, making prisoners of all fugitives.
These, without exception, are now slaves, and are brought down to Gallinas and sold.
Nine-tenths of all slaves are thus obtained. They are put into barracoons and await
the arrival of a vessel. When one appears in the offing, she is signalized either
to come in or clear out to sea, or go to windward or leeward, and near the shore,
according to the danger from the cruisers. If none of the latter are visible from
the lookout, (a kind of rookery box in a high tree, where a man is always stationed
with a good telescope,) the slaver runs in and prepares to receive her cargo immediately.
All the canoes and boats, of which there are always enough in the river to carry
at least five hundred slaves at once, are placed in requisition, and the vessel is
not unfrequently ready for sea again in twelve hours, with her cargo of human beings
under circumstances too shocking to detail.
In case the port is well guarded, the clipper stands off and on, or up and down the
coast, not unfrequently provoking a chase, by which she too often leads the cruiser
to a good distance from port, then tacking in the night, runs in, receives her freight
and is off, while the man-of-war is wondering where his prize may be. When two cruisers
are watching, one only goes on the chase, and the slaver is often nabbed on his return.
Perhaps he may be telegraphed to go up to She-Bar, or down to Cape Mount, and lie
close till night, when the slaves are marched along the beach or run through the
bar and put on board, outside. Thus they played at fast and loose for years, the
slavers always the gainers, even at the loss of three vessels out of four, the only
real sufferers, the slaves.
Such was Gallinas, and such was the slave trade, when Liberia was our home. But
her days were numbered, the fiat had gone forth: DELENDA EST GALLINAS was
proclaimed in Downing Street. The British Government, at last, saw the utter folly
of this game of tag, this attempt to catch them on the run, and wisely and
humanely directed that this nest of pirates should be broken up. Accordingly, in
1849, Admiral Hotham landed, with some two or three hundred sailors, seized a vast
quantity of merchandise, set at liberty what slaves were to be got hold of, and burned
down all the stockades and barracoons, not leaving a vestige, a slime-trail of the
reptiles who had polluted even the mangrove marshes of Gallinas.
One hour's scanning the now desolate coast, from She-Bar to Solyma Point, and one hour's sickening, sad recollections of the scenes of agony and horror which have transpired within their limit, was quite sufficient, and with no little pleasure we hailed that most beautiful of all head-lands,
GRAND CAPE MOUNT.
This mountain, generally estimated as 1,000 or 1,500 feet high, rises abruptly, although
not precipitiously, from the sea-beach. It is the highest land on the northwest coast,
south of Sierra Leone, and is uniformly made, in seaman's phrase, by all African
coasters. From sea, it appears a broad-based, perfectly pyramidal hill, covered with
the richest verdure to the very top, not a rock, slide, or break in its outline to
mar the symmetry. Probably few emigrants ever yet landed in Liberia without having
first greeted this beautiful mountain. It always seems a harbinger or pledge of a
charming home. But heretofore it was seen, only to be passed by, for it was long
under the influence of the slavers and Gallinas chiefs; now and hereafter it is to
be greeted as a part and parcel of the free Republic of Liberia, and many of our
emigrants were to find on it their future home.
As we neared it, we could distinctly see that the axemen had been at work; the carpenter, too, had not been idle:–the rich dense forest on the northwest had given place to the hamlets and gardens of the settlers; and we were soon able to discern near the beach a long dark building, the grand Receptacle of the new-comers; directly in front of which, less than a mile distant, we came to anchor at sundown on the 20th of January, forty-three days from Cape Henry; and a more thankful ship's company, we venture to say, never arrived in port. All our cares and troubles, our long passage, our head winds, our anxiety on account of water, all were forgotten and swallowed up in joy, at lying so quietly and securely in front of this beautiful mountain, and this infant town of Robertsport. A boat soon came off to welcome the new ship and the new people, and the last shadow of apprehension, which emigrants always entertain, that all is not exactly right, was dissipated by sight of a people like themselves, speaking their own tongue, enquiring of their old American home, and welcoming them to this new world. The night closed in, and for the last time our two hundred emigrants raised the hymn and the prayer from the steerage of our good ship; and many a one, doubtless, experienced a new sensation of thankfulness and a hope for the morrow never before kindled.
[Maryland Col. Journal. ]
