The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-08

fifty wretched Africans, crammsd into the hold
OF the Stella, must have endured. For thirty
days the Stella--which might not insppropri.
ately be named the Star of Misfortune n-pur-
sued her weary way across the waste of waters,
and nearly every alternate hour, during that
CHASTITY voyage, the corpse Of human being
was committed to the deep. Not with the col.
emn ceremonies characteristic of Christian
burials, but without rite prayer, or tear of re-
greet, were those victims of cupidity consigned
to the bottomless ocean cast forth Ike 80 much
carrion, to be devoured by the obscene mon.
steers that people its depths there to lie till they
shall arise, at the sound of the last trump, 10
bear terrible testimony agsinst their murder
ers. AT length, that is, on the Sd of January
of the present year, the Stella and her putrid
cargo reahed Basse terre, Gaudsloupe, and
landed four hundred and ninety seven males
and one hundred and fifty females the miser.
able remnant of the nine hundred and fifty peo-
pie kidnapped from their African homes. One
third had passed to rest. Asphyxia, dysentsry,
fever, and exhaustion from fatigue and want OF
food, had done their Office.
But all was not yet over. These six hundred
and forty.seveu wretched beings, the majority
perfectly naked. few of the females only be-
ing slightly coversd, and none sufficiently so TO
save decency, were landed at Basss terre, q re-
mote point of tho island of Guadaloupe. These
were Captain Bernard instructions from Com
modore Prote, who appears to have been igno-
rant Of a certain previous arrangement with
the firm of Lahens, Collin, l. Co., of Pointe-a
Pitre, Guadaloupe, and of local ordinance,
signed Bonfls, which designated Pointe Pitre
as the only authorized port for the disembarka-
ton of immigrants" No arrangements had
been made at Base terre for the reception of
what our correspondents style ".the merchan-
disc" The place offered not the smallest &C.
eomnodation. 1t was mere quagmire, q mud
hole, aud the poor unfortunates who had sur.
vived the horrors of the middle passage were
crowded together in pen, pudding in mire
and filth like cattle at market. More than
even this, the water of Basse.terre possesses
chemical properties VIGOROUSLY fatal 70 persons
suffering from dysentery, and no other was OBJ.
tainable. The place itself, too was the most
remote from Pointe ,Pitre, in the immedi
ate neighborhood of which resided the plant
ers to whom the Immigrant" had been allot-
ted. Consequently, the former had to convey
their lots" across the island, in the condition
in which they were, without loss of time, and in
the best way they could. Some were driven
overland, others were crowded on board of
small coasters, under the direction of the firm
of MN. Monnerot & Filet, of La Moule.
Amongst these coasters was a small schooner
called La Nouvele Active, on board of which
one hundred and FIVE Africans were crowded;
eghty.two in the hold, and twepty-three, for
want of more room there, on deck. She left
port at ten in the evening, but, in running down
the creek called LIE Canal des Saintes, she
struck upon some rocks, the position of which
was we'll known, and foundered. The eighty.
two Africans in the hold were drowned. Only
the twenty-three on deck escaped, with the
crew. The local Government at once prohibit
ed the newspapers from publishing any account
of this catastrophe, and the colony would have
remained ignorant of it, had not the corpses of
| he victims been thrown upon the shore by the
waves, to tell the CHASTITY tale to the terrified
population. Various rumors are current as to
the casse of the calamity. Some allege that
the crew, composed chiefly of emancipated
slaves, were sverse to the task assigned them
Of conveying these people to the plantations
conspred to yfsakt eit TIE tfaPdasfSH
On the other hand, the captain is accused of
negligence. Meanwhile, the crew have been
apprehended and cast into prison, and at the
date of our advices were awaiting their trial.
The Stella was still at Pointe Pitre, and it
was not known when she would leave. Her Eu-
ropean crew had refused to return to Africa,
and demanded to be landed in the colony, so
humiliated were they reported to feel, in conse-
quence of the population having nicknamed
them SLAYER sailors"
The original letters, from which we have de-
rived the foregoing particulars, are iu our pos
session. They are dated the 18th and 9th of
January last, and are signed by several highly
respectable and perfectly trustworthy inhsbit-
ants of the colony whence they are dated. The
dreadful fact that, out of nine hundred and fifty
Africans shipped from the west coast, only two
hundred and twenty-one reached their ultimate
destination on the French plantations, tells its
own terrible tale. We would, however, further
direct the attention of our readers to the nature
of the transaction on the coast. The con
tracts" as they are called, we're entered into
with the immigrants after they were safe on
board the Stella that is, were in the power of
their owners. Previous arrangements had been
made for obtaining them. They were packed
together in the hold, not as passengers, but as
slaves usually are. The majority were sickly,
because the Spanish and Portuguese had out
hidden the French spectators, and carried off
the strong and the " likely" Can any doubt ex-
ist that--save in name-the expedition was
literally slave-trading one?