Wesley Corpus

Others are stolen. Abundance of little Blacks, of both sexes, are stolen away by their neighbours, when found abroad on the road, or in the woods, or else in the corn-ficlds, at the time of year when their parents keep them there all day to scare away the devouring birds.” That their own parents sell them is utterly false: Whites, not Blacks, are without natural affection! 3. To set the manner wherein Negroes are procured in a yet stronger light, it will suffice to give an extract of “Two Voyages to Guinea” on this account. The first is taken verbatim from the original manuscript of the Surgeon’s Journal:-- “Sestro, Dec. 29, 1724.--No trade to-day, though many traders came on board. They informed us, that the people are gone to war within land, and will bring prisoners enough in two or three days; in hopes of which we stay. “The 30th.--No trade yet; but our traders came on board to-day, and informed us the people had burnt four towns; so that to-morrow we expect slaves off. “The 31st.--Fair weather; but no trading yet. We sce each night towns burning. But we hear many of the Sestro men are killed by the inland Negroes; so that we fear this war will be unsuccessful. “The 2nd of January.--Last might we saw a prodigious fire break out about eleven o’clock, and this morning see the town of Sestro burned down to the ground.” (It contained some hundred houses.) “So that we find their enemies are too hard for them at present, and consequently our trade spoiled here. Therefore about seven o’clock we weighed anchor, to procecd lower down.” 4. The second extract, taken from the Journal of a Surgeon, who went from New York on the same trade, is as follows: “The commander of the vessel sent to acquaint the King, that he wanted a cargo of slaves. The King promised to furnish him; and, in order to it, set out, designing to surprise some town, and make all the people prisoners. Some time after, the King sent him word, he had not yet met with the desired success; having attempted to break up two towns, but having been twice repulsed; but that he still hoped to procure the number of slaves. In this design he persisted, till he met his enemies in the field. A battle was fought, which lasted three days.