Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-06-19
CHE Anti- 5laperp Buele.
From the London News April 18th. 1858.
REVIVAL OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE
TRADE BY FRANCE,

The great irregularity of the West African
mnil steamers has of late interrupted the current
of the history of the notorious Regis contract fof
supplying the French West Indies with purchased
Africans. The last arrivals, however, put us in
possession of some additional facts, quite conclu.
sive to the character of this traffic. Subse.
Queutly to the news that the Portuguese authori.
ties had refused to allow the French purchase of
negroes within the limits of the province Of AngoA
Ia our readers may recollec that advices from the
West Indies announced the arrival in the French
Antilles of one of M. Regis ships, with cargo of
800 Afrcans, 100 of whom lost their lives in an
attempt to land them But hitherto there has
been nothing positively known us to where this
unhappy batch of negroes was obtained. The Af-
rican mail just arrived fills up this hiatus in the
melancholy and miserable tale
1t seems that the Stella, after being Joined bv
another ship, the Clara, proceeded beyond the ter
ritoral limits of Angola, and there found barra'
coons filled with slaves belonging to the Cuban
characters 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 tho agents in
charge of the barracoons. Eight hundred of
these slaves, who had been captured in the regu-
lar of the internal slave trade. and brought
down to the coast for expectation, bought for
the Stella, and 400 Tor the Clara. OF the 800
purchased for the Stella. 600 were shipped in one
day; so hurried and INSCRIPTIONS were the
cruel transaction. The only thought they
had was whether the negroes they drove from the
barracoons on board the ship were in physical
plight to bear voyage across the Atlantic. That
ascertaired, into the hold and between decks they
were thrust, with an expedition that dehes all
Spanish competition of rivalry.
And from the slave barracoons southwark OF
Angola, on the coast of Africa these l.200 negroes
were carried by the contractors of the Imperial
Government of France to Martinique and Gaada
hot, hava haan fbar oil nf ,aI
middle passage is not stated. But it is known
from other sources that 100 of the Africans so
bought were swamped and perished on the coast
of one Of those islands. Let therefore assume
that Of the 200 thus bought, only 1000 safely
reached the French colonies. On their arrival, the
contractor would. by the terms of his cement
with the Imperial Government, become entitled to
100000.
Now, in what one single particular, we ask,
does this operation differ from ordinary slave
trade adventure, punishable as felony by the laws
Of every civilized country, and denounced as a
crime against God and man by the Congresses of
Vienna and Verona2 Wherein can it be distin,
puished from those transactions Of the Portuguese,
Spanish and American slave dealers, for the re.
pression of which we have accumulated treaty on
treaty, and to co operate in the final extinction of
which France still remains bound to England by
the solitary article of the Convention of 1885, that
still remens in force?
There can be no pretence here that the French
agents merely paid premium to induce these
1900 negroes to emgrate or that the operation sim
DIV amounted to the transfer of the surplus labor
of West Africa to their colonies, or that it did not
involve any connection with the internal slave
trade of Africa. The facts of this dispel and
scatter TO the winds all these miserable and fraud
ulsnt delusions. Here notoriously, the sources of
supply where barracoons filled by slave hunts and
slaye wars from the interior here the human be-
ines had been collected for the purpose of sale
and exportation here the whole operation was
6ne not of emigration, hut Of commerce. The
Spaniards had outbd the French at Whydah; but
here the French carried off the sSyes crammed
into barracoons for Spanish account. III lhis RI
valry the French are surely the greater delin'
uuents. What the Spaniards did was at all events
breach of their municipal law, it was the crime
of private citizens outragng the laws of the their
own country But in the other case, it is the
French Government that, clothed with all the mo
raj and yscal force of the foremost OF European
Powers, appealed the west coast of Africa to re
yive q slave trade which for thirty years previous
ly had been suppressed, SO far regarded French
men. If for no other fault than this, the French
Empire merits the execration of Christendom.
For mark the result, even when NJ. Regis fail
ed because the Spanards outbid him. Tho King
of Dahomey-wAo, since the blockade of his
coast and the expulsion Of his creature Kosoca
from Lagoa, had confined his annual sacrifices of
human lives to some 25 or 80, many Of whom he
purchased with cowries-excited by the demand
for negroes at Whydah, has this year sailed forth
in person, and at the head of considerable force
has surprised town on the confines of the Yor-
nba country, and carried of thence between l400
and l500 of its inhabitants, either to sell or to
slaughter This horrible success will still further
stimulate Gazo to the recovery, If that be possible
OF bis former greatness, which rested on the trade
Already, it seems, he has despatched messengers
Offering assistance to dcpoSed Yoruba chief, and