the attempt, in consequence of a representation having been made to me that the King of Bonny had very ill-treated our Merchants trading with him for palm oil, detaining them unnecessarily six or seven months, while the Slave Vessels received their Cargoes in the short space of one, and they felt satisfied that the appearance of a Man of War would be of the greatest importance to their Trade. Having, therefore, taken every possible precaution of sounding repeatedly upon the two bars, laying buoys down and waiting for the advantage of clear weather, the proper time of tide, and a fair wind, which necessarily in the rainy season on this Coast caused much delay, I am happy to say I crossed the bar in safety, carrying three and a half fathoms, and anchored in the road of Bonny a little after sunset, on the 31st August. The Spaniards, upon seeing the Ship, immediately escaped on shore, and sent me a joint Letter acknowledging that they had done wrong by firing into the Boats, and entreated I would take their Vessels and spare their lives. To this, of course, I made no reply; but finding that all the Slaves had been sent on shore, and that the Natives had taken away all their Cargo and provisions, much time was lost previous to our taking possession, in making the King deliver them up again, which, however, I at length effected by threats and intimidation. On boarding them we found 154 Slaves in the Brig, and 130 in the Schooner; the former is a remarkably fine Vessel of 254 tons, mounting 12 carriage guns, and at the time she fired upon our Boats had a complement of 75 men, 30 of whom had been taken from the Schooner. Commodore Sir Robert Mends. HENRY J. LEEKE. [See the remainder of this Letter, page 538.] No. 2.-Lieutenant Mildmay to Commodore Sir Robert Mends. On board the Conde de Villa Flor. (Extract.) I HAVE the honour to inform you, that owing to the strong southerly current I made but little progress for the first two or three days after I left the Ship, and being afterwards set between two of the Islands in the Channel of the Rio Grande, with which the Pilot was unacquainted, I did not reach Bissao before the 21st February, about half past eleven A. M., when I found lying there a Vessel answering the description of the one of which you had previously received information. I pulled up towards her with the Boats, and when close under her quarter was received by a discharge from one of her stern chasers, as well as several small arms. I immediately boarded, and, after a slight resistance, took possession of her. She proved to be the Portuguese Hermaphrodite Schooner Conde de Villa Flor, mounting 1 long eighteenpounder on a sweep amidships, 6 nine-pounder carronades, and 2 long one-pounder guns on swivels astern, and otherwise well armed with muskets, &c. and manned with 35 Sailors and 5 black Soldiers, of whom there were 1 killed and 3 wounded, having on board 172 Slaves, men, women, and children, who were taken on board at Bissao, principally on the day before and on the afternoon of the day of Capture. It is with particular gratification I announce to you, Sir, the Capture of this Vessel, as the circumstance of the Governor of Bissao, having 8 Slaves on board, with more expected had she remained, and his sending on board 5 black Soldiers instead of as many of her Crew who had died there, will show the intimate connexion existing between him and the Slave Dealers who frequented the Port. I regret at the same time, the Commander of the Schooner, by name Manoel Antonio de Silva Brandao, (a Portuguese, and a man who for several years has been engaged in this disgraceful Traffic), should have been on shore; I thought, at first, of sending a requisition demanding him, but on reflection I did not deem it prudent to do so, as there appeared but little probability of its being attended with success, and I did not know what might be the result to the Officer and Boats Crew sent, from the open and avowed manner in which the Governor was concerned in the loading and protecting this Vessel. On the morning following the Capture, at day-light, I liberated about 80 Slaves, who were in irons, amongst whom were children of 12 and 14 years of age. Commodore Sir R. Mends. SIR, GEO. W. ST. JOHN MILDMAY. No. 3.-Captain B. M. Kelly to John Wilson Croker, Esq. Free Town, Sierra Leone, March 8, 1822. I BEG leave to inclose, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the narrative taken on oath before His Majesty's Advocate at Sierra Leone, of Quashie Sam, late one of the Prize Crew of the Portuguese Slaving Brig Vulcano, detained by the Pheasant; detailing the melancholy events attending the re-capture from, and subsequent murder of, the Prize Master and Crew put on board to navigate her to Sierra Leone. Their Lordships will observe that there is another of the Native Africans (one of the Prize Crew) still alive, and in Slavery in the Brazils. Quashie Sam has been discharged from the Pheasant, and gone down in His Majesty's Ship Iphigenia to Cape Coast, his Native Town. I have mentioned to Commodore Sir R. Mends, that it would be advisable to place him under the eye of the Governor of Cape Coast Castle, in order that he may be forthcoming should their Lordships be desirous of obtaining any further information from him. His Majesty's Advocate at Sierra Leone took Quashie Sam, previous to his departure, to the gaol, for the purpose of identifying the Portuguese Seaman Juan Antonio, alias Juan Antonio Bento, reported in my Letter of the 28th September last, as having confessed himself one of the murderers of the Prize Crew of the Vulcano; and in consequence of his stating, from a perfect recollection of the Persons of the Portuguese on board of her, that he was not one of them, he (the Advocate) has taken upon himself to order his discharge from custody. I have, &c. John Wilson Croker, Esq. B. MARWOOD KELLY. (Inclosure.)-Evidence of Quashie Sam. PERSONALLY appeared Quashie Sam, alias Sam Quashie, who being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists, deposeth and saith, That he is a Native of Cape Coast, lately employed in His Majesty's Ship Pheasant; that in the month of October 1819, he the Deponent, four white Seamen, two Kroomen, and another Native Sailor of the same Country as himself, were put on board a Slave Brig, the Vulcano, detained by the Pheasant; that Mr. Castles, a Midshipman of that Ship, was placed in charge of the said Brig to navigate her to Sierra Leone. Of the original Crew of the Vulcano there remained on board, the Captain, Boatswain, one white Sailor, and a black man as Cook; that about six weeks afterwards, on the passage to Sierra Leone, Deponent was in the fore-hatchway feeding the Slaves, that about the hour of two o'clock in the afternoon, when he heard a shot fired on deck; that on looking up out of the hold, he observed the Portuguese Captain in the act of cutting down Mr. Castles with a cutlass, and saw Mr. Castles fall bleeding overboard. Mr. Castles was fishing, and in the chains when attacked; the Portuguese Captain then fired at the two white Sailors who were in the fore-top, and they both fell overboard; the Quarter Master was lying dead at the helm, Deponent supposes he had been killed by the first shot, at the moment when the Captain killed Mr Castles; the Portuguese white Sailor and the black Cook ran forward and killed the white Sailor on the forecastle, and threw him overboard; the two Kroomen jumped into the Sea and were drowned; Deponent attempted to come up on deck, but was prevented by the Captain, who snapped a musket at him; they (the Portuguese) also fired at Deponent's Countryman who was at the main hatchway, and closed down the hatches: That at twelve o'clock at night the hatches were opened, and Deponent and his Countryman brought on deck; the Captain told them he would save their lives and sell them at Bahia, unless he fell in with an English Vessel, in which case he must kill them to prevent discovery. They then sailed for Bahia, and on arrival off that Port a Boat came off to the Brig from the shore; this Boat the Captain sent back again with a Letter, and some hours afterwards a supply of provisions came off, on receiving which they made sail and got out to Sea; they stood off and on for six days, and then returned off Bahia and came to anchor; That on the same day a Schooner with three masts came out to them, into which all the Slaves together with the Deponent and his Countryman, were removed from the Vulcano; the Portuguese Captain and his people then came on board the Schooner, having first scuttled the Brig, which sunk soon after: That the Schooner was then got under weigh, in which they ran past Bahia and came to anchor in a Bay about 20 miles distant from that place; here the Slaves, with Deponent and his Countryman, were landed, and all placed together in a house, in which they remained about two or three weeks, when a Merchant from Mina purchased Deponent and a number of the other Slaves: That immediately after, they were put in a Boat and taken to a place called Cachway, which is about two days sail from the neighbourhood of Bahia; at that place Deponent met a Cormantyne man, who told him that his (Deponent's) Master lived a great way up the Country at the mines; on hearing this, Deponent told the Cormantyne man to tell his said master, that he, Deponent, would not go with him; that in despair he refused food, and would not move when the other Slaves were about to march; he was then severely flogged, and tied on a horse, but still refusing food his master sold him five days afterwards, at the fair of Saint Ann, to a planter, named Francisco Manoel Secara : That through the interpretation of a Slave, whom Deponent had formerly known in Africa, he acquainted Senior Francisco with the particulars of the murders on board the Vulcano: That he lived with that Person for about 16 months, principally employed twisting tobacco: that at the end of this period Deponent heard that his master intended to sell and send him to the mines, upon which he ran away and got to San Thoma, on the water side: That he went from this place in a passage boat to Bahia; on coming into the Harbour he saw a Brig with English Colours, and went on board of her, when he told the Master his case, and remained all night: That in the morning the Master told him he must go on shore, as his was a Merchant Vessel; he then returned to San Thoma, where he remained in the Bush for two weeks: That at the end of that time Deponent heard a morning and evening gun fired in the Harbour of Bahia, and on inquiring heard that an English Man of War had arrived with a Slave Schooner; that he then purchased six fowls, and, under pretence of selling them, went to Bahia, and got on board the English Man of War the Morgiana, in which Ship he came to this Colony. Taken and sworn before me, at Free his Sam Quashie, mark. J. O. N. WALSH, M. C. and As Secretary. SIR, No. 4.-Commodore Sir Robert Mends to John Wilson Croker, Esq. H. M. Ship Iphigenia, off Bonny, April 17, 1822. HAVING sailed from Sierra Leone on the 11th ultimo, after receiving on board Governor Sir Charles Mac Carthy and suite, for the purpose of proceeding along the Coast to inspect the different Forts taken possession of by the Crown from the African Company, I now beg leave to acquaint you, for their Lordships information, that I visited Dix Cove, Cape Coast, Annamaboe, and Accra, in company with the General, and left him at the latter place, having settled to receive him on board at Cape Coast the latter end of the present or beginning of the next month, and proceeded, accompanied by the Myrmidon, to examine the different Stations where the Slave Ships principally resort. At a place called Appam we captured a Portuguese Brig with 12 Slaves on board, and part of her Cargo; a considerable number had been engaged for her on shore, but I did not find it practicable to get them off. At Whydah we took a Portuguese Schooner with three Slaves; her platforms and every thing ready for receiving 250 in a few days. I should have demanded the delivery of these from the King had not the surf been too heavy to land in our own Boats, and no Canoes would come nigh us. Having put Lieut. Mildmay and a party on board her, I directed him to make sail a-head as far as the River Lagos, where I had reason to apprehend there were some more Vessels engaged in this Traffic; and he was so fortunate as to Capture another Portuguese at that place, with 187 Slaves on board. There were four other Vessels there of the same Nation, but not having any on board they were not molested. Availing myself of the active zeal and thorough knowledge of this Coast of Captain Leeke of the Myrmidon, on the morning of the 15th I dispatched the Boats of both Ships, under the command of Lieutenant Mildmay, up the Rivers Bonny and New Calabar; and I beg leave to inclose for their Lordships information, a Copy of the Lieutenant's Letter to me, detailing the circumstances which took place on that occasion. There were lying there two large armed Spanish Schooners, four French Brigs (and an English Brig taking in palm oil) anchored in line, with springs on their cables. It was not until after eight o'clock in the morning that the Boats, with their Colours flying in them all, got within long range of shot of these Vessels, when the two Schooners first, and the French Brigs immediately afterwards, hoisted their ensigns, and commenced a very brisk fire on them with cannon and musketry, which was continued for nearly 20 minutes before the Boats succeeded in boarding and capturing the whole. Having heard the firing from this Ship, and seen the attack from our tops, I was a good deal surprised at its vivacity and continuance, and feel much real pleasure in having it once more in my power of |