IN 1766, the Vine , Captain Simmons, returned from a voyage to Bonny, on the coast of Africa, and Dominica, in the West Indies, with 400 slaves, having accomplished the round voyage in seven months and ten days, and apparently broken the record. The market value of the cargo could not have been less than, £13,000, as will be seen from the following table, showing the average price of negroes sold at Charleston, Jamaica, Grenada, Tortola, and Dominica, during seven years (1759, 1767-1772), and from the account sales of negroes imported in the ship
African .
In the year 1767, a terrible affair, which seems to be hinted at in the preceding letter, known as the massacre at Calabar, took place. The details are drawn from copies of the original depositions, in the case of the King against Lippincott and others, supplied to Mr. Clarkson by Mr. Henry Sulgar, a Moravian minister at Bristol. The originals were sworn before Jacob Kirby and Thomas Symons, commissioners at Bristol for taking affidavits, by Captain Floyd, of the city of Bristol, who had been a witness to the tragedy, and of Ephraim Robin John and Ancona Robin Robin John, two African chiefs, who had been sufferers by it. It appears from these documents, that in the year 1767, the ships, Indian Queen, Duke of York, Nancy, and Concord , of Bristol, the
Edgar , of Liverpool, and the Canterbury , of London, lay in Old Calabar river. A quarrel, originating in a jealousy respecting slaves, existed at this time between the principal inhabitants of Old Town, and those of New Town, Old Calabar. The captains of the vessels before mentioned joined in sending several letters to the inhabitants of Old Town, but particularly to Ephraim Robin John, who was at that time a grandee, or principal man of the place. The tenor of these letters was, that they were sorry that any jealousy or quarrel should subsist between the two parties; that if the inhabitants of Old Town would come on board, they would afford them security and protection; adding, at the same time, that their intention in inviting them was that they might become mediators and thus heal their disputes.
The inhabitants of Old Town joyfully accepted the invitation. The three brothers of the chief, Ephraim Robin John, the eldest of whom was Amboe Robin John, first entered their canoe, attended by twenty-seven persons, and being followed by nine canoes, directed their course to the Indian Queen . They were dispatched from thence the next morning to the Edgar, and afterwards to the Duke of York , on board of which they went, leaving their canoe and attendants alongside of the same vessel. In the meantime, the people on board the other canoes were either distributed on board, or lying close to the other ships.
But at this juncture, the inhabitants of New Town, who had concealed themselves in the bushes by the waterside, and between whom and the commanders of the vessels the plan had been previously arranged, came out of their hiding places, and, embarking in their canoes, made for such as were swimming from the fire of the ships. The ships' boats also were manned, and joined in the pursuit. They butchered the greatest part of those whom they caught. Many dead bodies were soon seen upon the sands, and others floating upon the water. Including those who were seized and carried off, and those who were drowned and killed, either by the firing of the ships, or by the people of New Town, the number lost to the inhabitants of Old Town on that day was three hundred souls. The carnage was scarcely over when a canoe, full of the principal people of New Town who had promoted the massacre, dropped alongside of the
Duke of York . They demanded the person of Amboe Robin John, the brother of the chief of Old Town, and the eldest of the three on board. The unfortunate man put the palms of his hands together, and beseeched the commander of the vessel that he would not violate the rights of hospitality by giving up an unoffending stranger to his enemies. But no entreaties could prevail. The commander received from the New Town people a slave, of the name of Econg, in his stead, and then forced Amboe Robin John into the canoe, where his head was immediately struck off in the sight of the crew, and of his afflicted brothers. As for them, they escaped his fate, but they were carried off, with their attendants, to the West Indies, and sold into slavery.
The action of the captains has never been defended; but we must not forget that they were dealing with a shifty, greedy, and treacherous lot of rascals, who made a practice of selling their own countrymen into slavery. The delays and subterfuges resorted to by the native chiefs to enhance the price of slaves, and to extract more "coomey," must have been extremely exasperating to the slave commanders, whose lives and cargoes were imperilled by a prolonged bargaining, owing to the climate, and the possible outbreak of disease among the slaves cooped up in the hold, before they left the coast and entered upon the horrors of the sea passage. The following copies of papers belonging to the commander of the Edgar , show that the chiefs were in his debt, and that they exonerated him from the charge of kidnapping a boy named Assogua. Moreover, certain letters from the chiefs of Old Town, Calabar, addressed to the captain, prove that they held him and his family in the highest esteem, notwithstanding the fact that the
Edgar was present in the unfortunate tragedy of 1767. Whether this is to be attributed to the innocence of the captain, who was at all events a worthy citizen of Liverpool, or to the abnormal development of Christian charity and forgiveness in the African chiefs and man-stealers of Old Calabar.....
Let the reader determine for Him or Her self....
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