All these I visited with the utmost dispatch.
I was absent only three weeks. I had travelled a thousand miles in
this time, had conversed with seventeen persons, and had prevailed
upon three to be examined.
I had scarcely returned with the addition of these witnesses to my list,
when I found it necessary to go out again upon the same errand. This second
journey arose in part from the following circumstances. There was a matter
in dispute relative to the mode of obtaining slaves in the rivers of
Calabar and Bonny. It was usual, when the slave-ships lay there, for a
number of canoes to go into the inland country. These went in a fleet.
There might be from thirty to forty armed natives in each of them. Every
canoe also had a four- or a six-pounder (cannon) fastened to her bow.
Equipped in this manner they departed; and they were usually absent from
eight to fourteen days. It was said that they went to fairs, which were
held on the banks of these rivers, and at which there was a regular show of
slaves. On their return they usually brought down from eight hundred to a
thousand of these for the ships. These lay at the bottom of the canoes;
their arms and legs having been first bound by the ropes of the country.
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