The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-05-21

Ib0 Y400eo oSove Tvoo0.
Letters from Guadsloupe, ono Of the Frcrch
West India Islsnds, disclose some of tho
horrors of the new slave trade, under the |
name of "Africsn apprenticeship"
In November last, small French sea
steamer named the Stella, of about 400 tons
and so horse power, appeared on the Coast
Of Africa, near Cabcnda, and usder the pro-
lection of q French feet, took ON board q
cargo Of slaves. After they were shipped,
Com. Perote, agent of the French Imperial
Government, came on board and entered in
to contracts for service" with the wretchcd
"immigrants."
On the 4.h of December, the Stclls left
Longuebonne. having on board a cargo Of
mine hu sdred and fffy 1fricans, male and fe-
male, moot Of than sickly, and none older than
twenty-five, but ranging from the ages OF
eighteen and twenty. The crew numbered
thirty two, making a grand total Of nine
hundred and eighty-two human beings on
board u steamer of three hundred and eigh
ty three tons; though one account sets her at
six hundred. Let our readers but bear in
mind how much after ,abin passengers suffer
from the great heat Of the machinery on
board even the largest steamers, and they
may form faint idea Of the torments OF
these nine hundred and fifty wretched Atri-
cans, crammcd into the hold of the Stella
which might not appropriately be named
the ''Star Of Misfortune" pursued her weary
way across tho waste of waters, and nearly
every alternate hour during that CHASTITY
voyage, the corpse of human beings was
committed to the doep. Cast forth like so
much carrion, to be dcvoured by the obscene
monsters that people its depths, there to lie
till they shall arise ut the sound of tie last
trump, to bear u terrible testimony against
their mrrderers.
At length-that is, on the SCI of January
of the present year-the Stella and her pu-
trid cargo, reached Basseterrc, Guadaloupe,
and landed four hundred and ninety
males and one hundred and fifty females,
the miserable remnant Of the nine hundred
and fifty people kidnapped from their Afri-
can homes. One third had passed to rest
Asphyxia, dysentcry, fever, and exhaustion
| from fatigue and want of food, had done their
Office.
But all was not yet over. These six hun
6red and forty seven wretchcd beings, the
majority perfectly naked, few of the fc-
males only being slightly covered, md none
sufficiently 10 to save decency, were landed
at Basse-terre, remote point of the island
of Guadaloupe.
The place offered not the smallcs: accom-
mediation. 1t was mere quagmire. mud
hole, and the poor unfortunatcs who had
4 sutNlbcu Tic upTTOIs Vi ING pasou -
were now crowded together in n pen, pud-
ding in miro and filth like cattle at mark
ct. More than even this, the water Of Bassa-
tcrrc possesses chemical properties notorious
ly fatal to persons suffering from dysentcry
| and no other was obtainable. The place it.
self, too, was the most remote from Pointe
Pitre, in the immediate neighborhood o
which resided the planters to whom the sim
migrants" had been allotted. Consequently
the former had to convey their .'lots" acros.
the island, in the condition in which the,
were, without loss Of time. and in the bss
way thoy could. Some were driven over
land, others were crowded OH board OF small
coasters under the direction Of the firm o
NM. Monncrot IL Fillet, of La Moule.
| Amongst these coasters was q small schoon
er, called La Nouvelle Active, on board o
which one hundred and five Africans wer
crowded; eigh'ytwo in the hold, and TWEEN
ty-three, for want Of more room, on deck
She lett port Mt ten in the evening, but il
running down the crcek called La Canal de-
Saintes, she struck upon some rocks. the pc
sition of which was well known, aud foun
dsrcd. The e;ghty-two Africans in the hol,
were drowned. Only the twenty-three oil
deck escaped, with the crew. The local gov
eminent at once prohibited the newspaper
from publishing any account OF this catns
trophe, and the colony would have remained
ignorant OF il had not the corpses Of tb
victims been thrown upon the shore BY tb
waves, to tell the ghas1ly tale to the terrific,
population.