n countrymen, in
extreme want, or upon a famine, as also some as a punishment of heinous
crimes." So far Barbot's account; that given by William Bosman is as
follows:[E] "When the slaves which are brought from the inland countries
come to Whidah, they are put in prison together; when we treat
concerning buying them, they are all brought out together in a large
plain, where, by our surgeons, they are thoroughly examined, and that
naked, both men and women, without the least distinction or modesty.[F]
Those which are approved as good, are set on one side; in the mean while
a burning iron, with the arms or name of the company, lies in the fire,
with which ours are marked on the breast. When we have agreed with the
owners of the slaves, they are returned to their prisons, where, from
that time forward, they are kept at our charge, and cost us two pence a
day each slave, which serves to subsist them like criminals on bread and
water; so that to save charges, we send them on board our ships the very
first opportunity; before which, their masters strip them of all they
have on their backs, so that they come on board stark naked, as well
women as men. In which condition they are obliged to continue, if the
master of the ship is not so charitable (which he commonly is) as to
bestow something on them to cover their nakedness. Six or seven hundred
are sometimes put on board a vessel, where they lie as close together as
it is possible for them to be crowded."

[Footnote A: John Barbot, page 47.]

[Footnote B: Bosman, page 310.]

[Footnote C: Barbot, page 326.]

[Footnote D: When the great income which arises to the Negroe Kings on
the Slave-Coast, from the slaves brought thro' their several
governments, to be shipped on board the European vessels, is considered,
we have no cause to wonder that they give so great a countenance to that
trade: William Bosman says, page 337, "_That each ship which comes to
Whidah to trade, reckoning one with another, either by toll, trade, or
custom, pays about four hundred pounds, and sometimes fifty ships come
hither in a year." Barbot confirms the same, and adds, page 350, "That
in the neighbouring kingdom of Ardah, the duty to the King is the value
of seventy or eighty slaves for each trading ship_." Which is near half
as much more as at Whidah; nor can the Europeans, concerned in the
trade, with any degree of propriety, blame the African Kings for
countenancing it, while they continue to