The National Register.
London, England, 1822-05-13 00:00:00

No. 1,369.—V0L. XV.]

SL AVE TRADE.

On Friday the 15th Annual Meeting of the African
Institution was held at Freemasons'-hall; the attendance
was numerous; several ladies (particularly of the Society
of Friends) were present.

At half-past one o'clock his Royal Highness the Duke
of Glocesier took the chair, and opened the business of
the meeting by calling upon Mr. Harrison, the him.
secretary, to read the lath annual report, which that
gentleman did, and the following are the principal ex-
tracts:a—After alluding to the Altering continuance of
the slave trade by the subjects of severalEuropeau powers:
the report proceeded to allude to the increase of the slave
trade within the last year. The chief seat of this traffic
on the west coast, is the rivers Bonny and Calabar • and
it ha.' been ascertained on good authority, that in fifteen
months front Judy, 18'10, to October 1821, 190 ships.
under different flags had eivered the former river, and
that Of had entered the latter, for the purpose of pur-
chasing slaves—a fact which may afford some idea of
what must be the dreadful aggregate of misery inflicted
during the last year, on this unhappy portion of the
glohe. In this work of irrquity Portugal still takes a
pre-eminent part. Portugal, it will be recollected, is I
the only European Power that has refused entirely to
prohibit' her subjects from trading in slaves; she retains
the guilty distinatiots of still legalizing a traffic which
she acknowledges at the same dine to be a crime of the
worst description. An active slave trade has been car-
ried on between the adjoining continent and the islands
of Biscao and the Cape de Verde, with the view of the
slaves being afterwards shipped to the Havatinalt. or to
the French West India Islands. But the rivers which
run into the Bight of Benin, and into that of Malta,
are chiefly frequented by the Portuguese slave ships.
—Thy report then goes on to notice, in terms of the
warmest approbation, the fact, that throughout the
whole range of Spanish America, now become indepen-
dent, nut only has the slave trade been effectually prohi-
bited, but the very incentive to the crime been removed
by the gradual abolition of slavery itself, and the decla-
ration that colour is to constitute no bar to the attain-
Iliel4t of rank honours. In allusion to the proceedings
of the King of the Netherlauds, the report complains
of the lame introduction of slaves into Surinam, to the
number of several thousands, ever since the sitting of
the mixed commission there. In allusion to France,
the report is as follows :—Tne directors will now advert
to the slave trade carried nu under the ffig of France,
which has maintained under the last, as in some for-
mer years, its guilty pre-eminence. It will appear from
the documents inserted in the appendix, that almost
every part of the African coast, whether oil its western
or eastern shores, is crowded with French contrabandists.
The coast appears literally to swarm with theist: as one
instance, iii October, 1821, Lieut. Wright of the Sassp-
per, durtitg a cruise of only IN days in the neighbour-
hood of Cape Mount, fell in with nine slave ships ; tine
was a Dutch vessel, full of slaves, which escaped; the
oilier eight were French, several of them full of slaves.
But the tavages (tithe French slave trailers are not con-
fined to the western shores of that devoted continent.
The eastern coast, and especi-lly the island of Zanque-
bar, have recently attracted the citaidity of these lawless
adventurers; and an extensive traffic has been carrying
on thence for the supply, not only of the Isles of Bour-
bon, but even of the island of Cuba. A vessel with 344
chives on talon', named Le Succes, was detained in April
I tra I, by his Majesty's ship Menai, Capt. Moresby, and
carried into the Isle of France, where no claim of pos-
session or property being preferred, she was 1.011(lehilled,
and the slaves liberated. The correspondence and other
daciiittents found on board this vessel throw a flood of
light an the enormities of this traffic, and it is now car-
red oar by the 'injects of Fiance. Ii will be sufficient to
mention. that it appears from these papers that this very
teasel. Ls •S*l4ca, had already made a successful slave
voyage from Zampichar to the Isle of Bourbon, where
she had safely landed 248 slaves; that the Governor, M.
having been in untied of the tratisaction, iini
instituted jittliClJl proceedings ag.iiiisther; but that the
judges whose office it was to try the collie, baring them-
seises participated m the crime by purchasing some of
her slates, cm:curled tit acquitting her; acid that, encou-
raged by this impunity, she was immediately despatched
for another cargo of Attica:is, and was returning with
them to the Isle of Bourbon, when site was detained by
the Aleuti. A variety of other prooi will be found in
the Appetidix, of the pertinacity with which the slave
trade is prosecuted outlet. the French flog, as well as of
the impunity with which its prosecution is commonly
attended The report then details the unsuccessful ctr,rt
of the DutLe de Broglie ill the French Cliamber of Peera,
last March, to render the laws of France mote eilieaciotts
against this trade; but the greatest SUCCeSso was
panel (rout the diffusion of information upon the hil bpet
on the Continent. Most flattering rllusioni were aisu
Ilia le to the conduct of the United Stres of America,
whirls had made a:is traffic piracy; and a reftreuee is