The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-06-03
From the London News, April H.
REVIVAL OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE
BY FRANCE.

The great irregulsrity of the West African
mail steamers has of late interrupted the cur
rent OF the history Of the notorious Regis con-
tract for supplying the French West Indies
with purchased Africans. The last arrivals.
however, put US in possession of some addition.
al facts, quite conclusive es to the character of
this traffic. Subsequently to the news that the
Portuguese authorities had refused to allow the
French purchase Of negroes within the limits
of the province of Angola, our readers may
recollect that advices from the West Indies an.
nounced the arrival in the French Antilles of
one of M. Regis's ships, with cargo of 800
Africans, 100 of whom lost their lives in an
attempt to land them. But hitherto there has
been nothing positively known as to where this
unhappy batch of negroes was obtained. The
African mail just arrived fills up this hiatus in
the melancholy and miserable tale.
1t seems that the Stella, after being Joined
by another ship, the Clara, proceeded beyond
the territorial limits of Angola, and there found
barracoons filled with slaves belonging to the
Cuban charterers of various American vessels
which have been seized, equipped for traffic,
but without national papers on board.) and
sent to the Vice Admiralty Court of Sierra
Leone for adjudication. A bargain was soon
struck with the agents in charge of the barra.
coons. Eight hundred of these slaves, who had
been captured in the regular course of the in.
ternal slave trade, and brought down to the
coast for expectation, were bought for the
Stella, and 400 for the Clara. OF the 800
purchased for the Stella, 600 were shipped in
one day; so hurried and unscrupulous were
the French agents engaged in this disgusting
and cruel transaction. The only thought or
care they had was whether the negroes they
drove from the barracoons on board the shin
we're in physical plight to bear voyage across
the Atlantic. That ascertained, into the hold
| and between decks they were thrust, with an
expedition that defes all Spanish competition
or rivalry, .
Aud from the slave barracoons southwark
of Angola, on the west coast of Africa, these
ZOO negroes were carried by the contractors
of the Imperial Government of France to
Martinique and Guadaloupe. What may have
been the mortality of the middle passage is
| not stated. But it is known from other sources
that 100 of the Africans 30 bought were
swamped, and persisted on the coast of one of
those islands. Let us therefore assume that
OF the l,2O0 thus bought, only 1000 safely
reached the French colonies. On their arrival,
the contractor would, by the terms of his ar.
rangement with the Imperial Government, be-
come entitled to 100000. I.I
Now, IN what one single particular, we ask,
NSOc sA'o SpSAoeAoA oiuCE AQ OrQl08IY slave
trade adventure, punishable as felony BY the
laws of every civilized country, and denounced
as a crime against God and man By the Con.
crosses of Vienna and Veronas Wherein can
it be distinguished from these transactions Of
the Portuguese, Spanish, and American slave
dealers, for the repression of which We have
accumulated treaty on treaty, and to cooperate
in the final extinction of which France still re.
mains bound to England by the solitary article
OF the Convention of lS45, that still remains in
forcef
There can be no pretence here that the
French agents merely paid premium to in
duce these 200 negroes to emigrate, or that
the operation simply amounted to. the transfer
of the surplus labor of West Africa to their
colonies, or that it did not involve any connec-
ton with the internal slave trade Of Africa.
The facts OF this case dispel and scatter to the
winds all these miserable and fraudulent de.
lusions. Here VIGOROUSLY, the sources of
eupply were barraccons filled by slave hunts
and slave wars from the interior here the
human beings had been collected for the pur-
pose OF sale and expectation here the whole