Of the troubles that came upon the slavers through the wars of the eighteenth century one might write a long and stirring chapter. For the slavers made good fighting, especially when it was viking blood in the slavers against Latin blood in naval ships. But of that nothing can be told here, because the losses. were not an outgrowth of the slave-trade as a special branch of commerce. But something may be told of the proportion of losing to paying voyages, even though no list of slavers has been or can be made. In the old papers already mentioned in connection with Captain Lindsay, we find the charges of underwriters set forth, and no better comment on the risks of a trade can be found than an insurance policy. A paragraph from such a policy reads:

"And touching the adventures and perils which we, the assurers are content to bear, and do take upon us in this voyage, they are of the seas, men of War, Fire, Enemies, Pyrates, Rovers, Thieves, Jettisons, Letters of Mart, and Countermart, Sarprizals, Taking at sea, Baratry of the Master, and Marines, and all the Perils, Losses, and Misfortunes that have or shall come to the hurt, Detriment or Damage of the said Goods and Merchandize, or of the said vessel, her Tackel, Apparel and Furniture, or any part thereof."

For assuming these risks the underwriters charged usually £20 in a hundred, but Mr. William Johnson got at least one policy of a hundred for £18 premium.

CHAPTER IV

THE SLAVER AND HER OUTFIT

There were Tiny Ships in the Trade-One Vessel had a Capacity of 5,000 Gallons of Molasses Only, and Even Open Row-Boats were used in the Nineteenth Century-Dimensions of a Slaver's Timbers-The Famous Venus, a Forerunner of the Yankee Clippers-Steamers that were in the Trade The Blubber Kettles of Whalers used for Boiling Rice and Yams-Rum, Guns, and Coin were the Favorite Articles of Traffic, but Silks, Laces, Parasols and Other Goods for the Use of Women of Education and Delicate Tastes were Wanted-A Naval Officer's Estimate for a Slaver's Outfit.

THE Desire, built at Marblehead, in 1636, was the earliest American slaver of which we have the size, and she, as already noted, was "a vessel of 120 tons." Another slaver of those days was the Oak Tree, "Jansen Eykenboom, from Hoorn, master under God." In a charter-party dated "in the year of the birth of our Lord and Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, 1659, the 25th of January," under which the Oak Tree was to "sail, with the first favourable wind and weather which God may vouchsafe, from the harbor [New York] direct toward the coast of Africa," the size of the ship is given: "In length 120 ft, in width 25 ft, draft 11 ft, above the waterline 5 to 6 ft, with a poop deck."

The average New England slaver was much smaller. The sloop Welcome that cleared from Newport for Barbadoes had a capacity of 5,000 gallons of molasses. The Fame, a noted slaver and privateer of Newport, had a keel seventy-nine feet long. She was just about as long on the water-line as the Newportbuilt defenders of the America's cup. Her beam was twenty-six and a half feet, which was about the width of the widest defender.

The brigantine Sanderson, in which Captain David Lindsay made fame, carried 10,000 gallons of molasses.

A contract made by Caleb Clapp and Stephen Brown, who were ship-builders at "Warren, in the County of Bristole, in the colony of Rhode Island," in 1747, gives some interesting dimensions of a brigantine they had on the stocks. She was to be "sixty feet length of keel, straight rabbet, and length of rake forward to be fourteen feet, three foot and onehalf of which to be put into the keel, so that she will then be sixty-three feet keel and eleven feet rake forward. Twenty-three feet by the beam, ten feet in the hold, and three feet ten inches betwixt decks, and twenty inches waste. Rake abaft to be according to the usual proportions, to have a sufficient false stern. Keel to be sided thirteen inches."

A vessel of 500 tons would have, in these days, a keel no larger than that. The "betwixt decks" space is worth remembering, because the slaves were stowed there.

In 1808 the trade was outlawed, while twelve years later it was declared piracy, and a few war-ships were sent out to suppress it. Two kinds of vessels

were used thereafter. One kind included slender schooners built for speed; the other kind included large ships, a few only of which were swift. The large ones were fitted out by men who meant to get rich at a single stroke. The small ones were used by men who found the trade congenial. These last would have been sneak-thieves in a criminal career ashore; the others, highwaymen.

We have definite figures regarding some of the vessels provided for the sneaking slavers, because some of them were captured and accurate measurements were made. In 1847 the Felicidade, of sixty-seven tons; the Maria, of thirty tons, and the Rio Bango, of ten tons, were captured, all loaded with slaves in a manner to be described further on; though it may be said here that the Maria, a vessel, say, fifty feet long and sixteen wide, had two hundred and thirty-seven on board when taken. Some New York oyster sloops are larger than she was.

The smaller vessels were built, in some cases, in such fashion that the crew could take down the masts and use oars. This gave them every advantage in escaping from the cruisers that must show sails above the horizon when ten miles or more away.

Even the ten-ton schooner was not the limit. Open row-boats no more than twenty-four feet long by seven wide landed as many as thirty-five children in Brazil out of, say, fifty with which the voyage began.

The finest ship of the large class was the Venus, a vessel of four hundred and sixty tons, built at Baltimore, at a cost of $30,000. So swift was this vessel that when chased on the coast of Africa her captain actually shortened sail in order to play with the man

o'-war. There was nothing under sail that could equal her in her day. She landed over eight hundred slaves on her first voyage, with a net profit not far from three hundred dollars per head.

A few steamers were known in the trade. The Providencia in four voyages landed 4,500 slaves in Brazil. Another one called the Cacique is better known. She was originally the Tigress, belonging to a Captain Sanford, and was plying between New York and Stonington. Sanford sold her to a Brazilian merchant named Sexias for $11,500. Sexias spent $13,500 in repairs and alterations. "In these transactions Mr. Gardner, an American resident in that city [New York], appears to have acted as agent, and he was looked upon then and afterward, by the Americans belonging to the vessel, as the consignee, and there is reason to believe he engaged in fitting out other steam vessels for the same purpose."

The Cacique took on 1,000 slaves at Cabenda and could have made a safe voyage with these, but Sexias waited for the local agents to collect five hundred more and was captured by a British cruiser in consequence.

The old whaler became a favorite slaver type, because her try-pots could cook yams and rice as well as try oil, and her barrels carry either oil or water.

One of the last and undoubtedly the most noted of the whaler-slavers was the bark Augusta, of New York. Gilbert H. Cooper testified, after the Augusta was seized, that he "purchased portions of the same vessel at the rate of $2,000 for the whole," and that he sold her to Appleton Oaksmith for $4,900, including $1,800 worth of outfittings for the voyage, or $3,100 for the