The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-06 00:00:00

THE SLAVE TRADE.

A statement made by one of the crew of the
slaver City of Norfolk, stranded on the Cuban coast,
respecting the voyage of that vessel, is interesting.
He says :
" The City of Norfolk saileap from the port of
New York on the sth day of June last, for the
purpose, as we were informed, of entering the
service of the Government of Venezuela as a trans-
port. The steamer arrived at St. Thomas's, the
passage occupying 10 days, where we remained six
days, and discharged a part of the cargo, consisting
of tobacco and packages of merchandise apparently,
the contents of which were unknown to us. While
lying at this port we received on board the steamer
200 tons of coal and 18 large casks, the contents of
which were not known by us at the time. We
sailed thence for Barcelona, the passage occupying
three days, where we took in a quantity of fresh
provisions (for the cabin) and an enormous quantity
of fresh water for ship's use. Suspicions of wrong
(vere aroused, but again allayed, on account of the
nature of our voyage, as a transport, necessarily
requiring a larger quantity than as a trader. On
the fifth day out of St. Thomas the seamen were
ordered below to open the casks abovementioned,
and found them to contain rice, beans, Sc., besides
a number of kegs of spoons, small tin cups, razors,
and combs. This circumstance was made the theme
of conversation forward, and, after mature delibera-
tion,. we went to the captain in a body, roe:se to
:tgi o
be informed of his intentions, and the destination
n
Of the ship, upon which he frankly Africa for the
admitted that
he was bound for the coast of f slaves. ex_
purpose of procuring a cargo
pressed to him our decided unwillingness We
go,
to
informed us of that
and that he should
have
lied that he wished to
fact while in port.
hear no more from us to go to our
work, and threatening
te:ll:sdetepLiNn-egus into compliance
in case of refusal. iVe made the coast in 36 days,
August 12, and embarked 770 slaves,
on Sunday,
sailed on day for a place called San
and 8 the tenth day out discovered the
Marino, °
be out of order, one of the body pins
propeller t°l. d out. We succeeded in repairing
having rr"eeane of a cable taken round the pen_
damages rood
on under canvass only for 23 days,
peller, and 9
moved the cable and started the engi
we re_ nes,
when
which worked as well as usual, excepting that we
them. On the
feared to reverse morning of Oct. 1
.
we disembarked and landedthe negroes on a small
quay,. about 18 miles from San Marino, where the
tam was persuaded by a fisherman to
cap do so, on
account of two or three steamers of war which were
on the look out for him. After landing all the
negroes the captain, engineers, firemen, and some
of the sailors took the steamer and stood out to sea
for the purpose of sinking and removing all vestiges
of her. They removed the pipe of the fresh water
condenser and the bottom of the delivery valve,
secured the wheel in a certain position, and aban-
doned her, standing out to sea under a full head of
steam. At daylight the next morning we found
the steamer hnd rounded to and run ashore on the
same quay that we had landed on the previous day.
The captain, being alarmed, proposed to convey the
negroes to the main land in lighters, and, the plan
appearing the most feasible, his proposal was at
Once carried into effect. We had succeeded in re-
moving 108 negroes when a Spanish cruiser hove
in sight, and the captain and officers fled to parts
unknown, leaving us to look out for ourselves. The
cruiser came to anchor, manned her boats and
pulled to
pulled in for the quay. Our party endebaVur
irriecon-
effect their escape in one of our boats,.
. boot were
sequence of the overloaded state of _the
onaining
overhauled, and, together with tti