Concepto y características

should have been so imperfect, by the next opportunity we shall send such papers as were omitted.

17 The Felicity sailed.22 Some people came from the Turtle Islands to acquaint us that they had great quantities of stock on hand and wished us to send down to purchase them.23 We have frequent messages of this sort from various quarters, but we wish to encourage as much as possible the natives themselves to bring their stock &c. to market. It will save us much trouble and increase the intercourse of the natives with the people of this place, which is desirable on many accounts.

18 Mr. Clevland sent up his clerk from the Bannanas24 to agree with us for rice and camwood.25 We agreed with him for 50 tons of new rice at £12. The camwood I believe we will shall be obliged to give him £14 or £15 ton.

19 It has become a practice with slave traders to bring out guns for trade marked SLC

for which they get a rapid sale and a double price in the Rio Nunez. This practice will be followed by two bad effects. Our sale will be injured (but indeed we have no guns at teresting particulars’. Joseph Corry, Observations Upon the Windward Coast of Africa (London 1807, re- printed London, 1968), pp. 109-110. Macaulay’s decision to purchase rice from this slave trader was justified on the basis that it was intended ‘to prevent the renewal of the evils which the colony has already experienced from a want of provisions to guard against a disappointment in the hope of receiving a supply of flour from England’. Minutes of Council, PRO CO 270/2, p. 94.

20

Aspinall’s situation indicates how the slave trade was essential to the West Africans’ economy. Macaulay noted in his diary that Aspinall had ‘a great deal of money in the country, having lost two fortunes’. Diary, Monday 14 October 1793, f. 24.

21

For earlier references to Daniel Padenheim, see Schwarz, Journal, June – October 1793, ff. 13, 85.

22

Macaulay recorded in his diary that the ship ‘sails at night by the help of a tornado’. Diary, Thursday 17 October 1793, f. 25.

23

The Turtle Islands are located close to the mouth of the Sherbro estuary, approximately 60 miles south of Freetown.

24

The Banana Islands are located at the southern end of the Sierra Leone peninsula. See Schwarz, Journal,

June – October 1793, map 2, p. xxi. William Cleveland ran a slave factory at the Banana Islands and also had

rice plantations on the mainland. He inherited the business concerns of his uncle, James Cleveland, who died in 1791 and was the son of William Cleveland (died 1758), who had established himself as a slave trader on the Banana Islands. Alexander Peter Kup (ed.), Adam Afzelius Sierra Leone Journal 1795-6, Studia Ethno- graphica Upsaliensia XXVII (Uppsala, 1967), pp. 79-80. Fyfe, History, pp. 10, 54. Cleveland descendants in the United States are discussed in E. Louise, Elizabeth Clevland Hardcastle, 1741-1808: A Lady of Color in

the South Carolina Low Country (Columbia SC, 2001). 25

In a diary entry for 17 October 1793 Macaulay recorded a visit by ‘Graham from Bananas’ who ‘gets goods and contracts for 50 tons rice at £12’. Diary, Thursday 17 October 1793, f. 25.

Zachary Macaulay 6

present) and the character of our guns will be injured, as the guns sold with the colony’s mark are in no respect superior to the ordinary trade guns. The cloths /7/ marked SLC are also in such repute in that river that the traders will probably have recourse to a similar expedient with respect to them. It were to be wished the gentlemen who adopt this plan could be indicted for forgery. It certainly comes under the spirit if not under the letter of the law, which punishes a man for counterfeiting another’s signature.

20 Garvin preached.26

21 Captain Davis took charge of the Domingo which is preparing with all dispatch for

the Windward Coast to lay in a cargo of rice and pepper chiefly, and ivory if it falls in the way.27

22 The Duke of Clarence sailed to the Scarcies for rice.28 Poor Wallace is in a miser- able state always complaining. He is totally unfit for business.29 Mr. Graham was taken ill.

23 Graham better. Mr. Dawes went over to the Bullam Shore, partly on account of his

health, but chiefly with a view to sound the natives on the subject of forming a sub col- ony on that side of the river.

24 Mr. Clevland of the Bannanas sent up 4 tons of camwood by one of his craft.30

25 I was told today that the friends of young Nanybanna had disposed of all his books,

cloaths &c. at Bance Island and that they had made a present to Mr. Tilley of the picture of H.J. Granville which you sent out to his father some time ago.31 /8/ Seeley confined with a disorder in his bowels.

26

John Garvin, an English Baptist schoolmaster sent out by the Sierra Leone Company, arrived in Freetown in August 1793. See Schwarz, Journal, June - October 1793, ff. 115, 121, 168, 172, 181.

27

It was resolved on 12 October 1793 that Captain William Davies should be given command of the Do-

mingo. This was short-lived as he was dismissed from the Company’s service the following month for pur-

chasing two African boys during this voyage. Minutes of Council, PRO CO 270/2, pp. 93-4. See below f. 13.

28

The Governor and Council had resolved on 17 October 1793 that the Duke of Clarence was to ‘receive the rice which Mr. Aspinall has now on hand’. Minutes of Council, PRO CO 270/2, p. 94.

29

By August 1793 Zachary Macaulay had reached the conclusion that Wallace was extremely inefficient as a commercial agent. Schwarz, Journal, June – October 1793, ff. 114, 140-1. The Governor and Council re- solved on 29 October 1793 that he should be replaced immediately by Mr. Buckle. He was to receive instruc- tions to make ‘an immediate transfer’ of all Company goods in his possession to Mr. Buckle and to close his accounts with the Company as soon as possible. Minutes of Council, PRO CO 270/2, p. 95.

30

According to Macaulay’s diary, Cleveland ‘wants tobacco much’. Diary, Thursday 24 October 1793, f. 26.

31

In April 1792 Alexander Falconbridge had presented King Naimbana with a portrait of his son, John Frederic Naimbana, whom the Sierra Leone Company was educating in England. Anna Maria Falconbridge’s account recorded that the picture, a present from the directors, is ‘an admirable likeness, and the poor Father burst into tears when he saw it’. Christopher Fyfe (ed.), Anna Maria Falconbridge: Narrative of Two Voyages

to the River Sierra Leone During the Years 1791-1792-1793 and the Journal of Isaac DuBois with Alexander Falconbridge An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (Liverpool, 2000), p. 75. The title page of

26 A cutter came from Bance Island with an account that Mr. Tilley was dangerously

ill, accompanied by a request that one of our medical gentlemen might be permitted to visit him. Dr. Winterbottom accordingly went up.32

The Providence sailed for Sherbro.

27 Dr. Winterbottom returned from Bance Island where he left Mr. Tilley a good deal

recovered. His complaint had been a violent belly ache.

Captain Telford, Captain Woollis and Mr. Strand were taken ill.

28 All our sick convalescent, Strand excepted who continued to have a considerable

degree of fever. Two vessels appeared in sight, which proved to be the Harpy and

Speculator. We were at first a good deal alarmed by their appearance as we looked in

vain for the signal which was appointed for the Company’s vessels, but Mr. Lowes who had set off in the cutter as soon as the settlement appeared in sight and who got on shore before the vessels were abreast of the Cape dispelled our fears.33 The signal it appeared on inquirey notwithstanding a strict search was not to be found on board the vessels and Captains Devereux and Buckle supposed that by some mistake they had not been put on board at all. Lowes brought with him some cuttings of vines from Teneriffe34 which it is hoped may thrive.35 /9/