Mr. Falconbridge, agent to the Company, sitting one evening in Sierra
Leone, heard a shout, and immediately afterwards the report of a gun.
Fearing an attack, he armed forty of the settlers, and rushed with them to
the place from whence the noise came. He found a poor wretch, who had been
crossing from a neighbouring village, in the possession of a party of
kidnappers, who were tying his hands. Mr. Falconbridge, however, dared not
rescue him, lest, in the defenceless state of his own town, retaliation
might be made upon him.
At another time a young woman, living half a mile off, was sold, without
any criminal charge, to one of the slave-ships. She was well acquainted
with the agent's wife, and had been with her only the day before. Her cries
were heard; but it was impossible to relieve her.
At another time a young lad, one of the free settlers who went from
England, was caught by a neighbouring chief, as he was straggling alone
from home, and sold for a slave. The pretext was, that some one in the town
of Sierra Leone had committed an offence. Hence the first person belonging
to it, who could be seized, was to be punished. Happily the free settlers
saw him in his chains; and they recovered him, before he was conveyed to
the ship.
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