The Journal of Negro History Volume IV Part 15

Beginning with 1561 Queen Elizabeth lent her influence and a.s.sistance to a series of voyages to the African coast. Not only did she permit the use of four royal vessels for the first expedition but she spent five hundred pounds in provisioning them for the voyage. The value of the goods sent to Africa in these vessels was five thousand pounds.

According to the arrangement Queen Elizabeth received one-third of the profits, which amounted to one thousand pounds.[10] In the year 1563 similar arrangements were made with the queen for another voyage to the Gold Coast, during which there was considerable trouble with the Portuguese. Notwithstanding this opposition the s.h.i.+ps succeeded in returning to England with a quant.i.ty of elephants' teeth and Guinea grains.[11] In 1564, an expedition composed of three s.h.i.+ps, one of which belonged to Queen Elizabeth, was particularly unfortunate. One of these s.h.i.+ps was blown up, while the other two were attacked by the Portuguese and probably had to return without obtaining any African products.[12]

In these voyages to Guinea the English trade had been in exchange for gold, elephants' teeth and pepper. Trading for slaves had scarcely occurred to these early adventurers. Nevertheless, as early as 1562, John Hawkins sailed for Sierra Leone with three vessels, and there captured three hundred Negroes whom he sold to the Spaniards in Hispaniola.[13] The success of this voyage was so great that in 1564 there was fitted out a second slave raiding expedition in which one of the queen's s.h.i.+ps, the Jesus, was employed. As before, Hawkins sold his slaves in the West Indies, this time with some difficulty, because the Spanish officials, who were forbidden to have any trade with foreigners, regarded the Englishmen as pirates.[14]

Again, in 1567, Hawkins was on his way to Guinea. By playing off one set of natives against another he procured about 450 slaves and once more set out for the Spanish Indies. Although at first the voyage promised to be successful, he was later set upon by a number of Spanish s.h.i.+ps and barely escaped with his life and one badly wrecked vessel.[15]

Hawkins' voyages to Africa are worthy of note because he was the first Englishman to engage in the slave trade. To be sure, his piratical seizure of free Negroes broke all the rules of honorable dealing long recognized on the African coast. As a result of his actions the natives held all Englishmen in great distrust for a number of years.[16] The unregulated method of carrying on the African trade, pursued up to this time, ceased to a certain extent when Queen Elizabeth granted the first patent of monopoly to the west coast of Africa, May 3, 1588.

The charter of 1588 gave to certain merchants of Exeter, London and other places in England for ten years an exclusive trade to that portion of West Africa lying between the Senegal and Gambia rivers.

The great slave and gold producing country of the Gold Coast remained open to all traders. It was therefore evident that, instead of continuing the slave raiding projects of Hawkins, the company intended to resume the exchange of English manufactures for African products.

According to its charter the company was not required to pay duties in England either on imports or exports.[17] Although nothing is known of the success of this company, the patent was regarded as of sufficient importance for the earl of Nottingham and others to obtain a continuation of the monopoly.[18]

Since the charter of these Senegal adventurers did not prevent anyone from resorting to the Gold Coast and the regions to the east thereof, two voyages were made to Benin, one in 1588 and another in 1590.[19]

In 1592 certain English merchants received a patent from the queen authorizing them to trade to certain specified portions of Africa.[20]

The trade to Africa continued in this desultory fas.h.i.+on until 1618. At that time a patent comprising the whole explored western coast of Africa south of the territory of the Barbary Company was granted to some thirty persons, among whom the most important was Sir William St. John, who was said to have built the first English fort in Africa.[21] The early years of their trade, which consisted in the exchange of English for African products, was especially unfortunate.

Vessels were either lost or brought back small returns. After 1621 it was difficult to procure fresh additions of capital. To add to this trying situation, the House of Commons attacked the company's monopoly and, later, voted it to be a grievance. Thereafter, although the company sometimes issued licenses for the African trade, the interlopers who resorted to Africa quite freely, usually did not deem it necessary to obtain them.[22]

The moving spirit of the next company, which received a patent in 1631, was Sir Nicholas Crispe, who had been a successful interloper during the life of the previous company. In 1624 he had built the first permanent English settlement at Kormentine. Although not incorporated, this company enjoyed for thirty-one years a monopoly of trade to all the region lying between Cape Blanco and the Cape of Good Hope. Just previous to the Civil War Charles I confirmed the charter for twenty years. The company's monopoly was looked on with disfavor by the leaders of the Puritan party, however, and in 1649 the company was summoned before the Council of State, where it was accused of having procured its charter by undue influences. Later, the company's case was considered by the committee of trade, and finally, on April 9, 1651, the Council of State recommended that the company's monopoly to that part of West Africa extending from a point twenty miles north of Kormentine to within twenty miles of the Sierra Leone River be continued for fourteen years.[23]

This company also suffered numerous misfortunes on the African coast.

A factory which the English had set up at Cape Corse in April, 1650, was seized the following year by some Swedes who for several years thereafter made it the seat of their trade in Guinea.[24]

Notwithstanding this fact the Swedes permitted the English to retain a lodge at Cape Corse with which the agents at Kormentine sometimes traded.[25] Even after the place was seized by Hendrik Carloff, a Danish adventurer, in 1658, the English seem to have been allowed to remain at Cape Corse. By this time, however, the English African Company had become unable to support its factories on the coast of Guinea. Therefore they were turned over to the English East India Company, and became occasional stopping places for its vessels on their way to and from the East Indies.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Jonge, Johan Karel Jakob de, _De Oorsp.r.o.ng van Neerland's Bezittingen op de Kust van Guinea_, p. 16.

[2] Gramberg, J. S. G., _Schetsen van Afrika's Westcust_, p. 12.

[3] Jonge, _Oorsp.r.o.ng van Neerland's Bezittingen_, pp. 18, 19, 20.

[4] In return for this concession the Dutch evacuated Brazil. Dumont, J., _Corps Universel Diplomatique du Droit des Gens_, VI, part 2, p.

367.

[5] De Gids, "Derde Serie," _Zesde Jaargang_, IV, 385.

[6] Hakluyt, Richard, _The Princ.i.p.al Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, & Discourses of the English Nation_, VI, 123, 124.

[7] _Ibid._, VI, 145-162.

[8] _Ibid._, VI, 154-177.

[9] _Ibid._, VI, 177-252.

[10] Queen Elizabeth's profit may have been only five hundred pounds, as it seems likely that the five hundred pounds which she spent in provisioning the s.h.i.+ps should be subtracted from the one thousand pounds which she received. Scott, W.R., _The Const.i.tution and Finance of English, Scottish and Irish Joint Stock Companies to 1720_, II, 6.

[11] Hayluyt, _Princ.i.p.al Navigations_, VI, 258-261.

[12] _Ibid._, VI, 262.

[13] _Ibid._, X, 7, 8.

[14] _Ibid._, X, 9-63.

[15] _Ibid._, X, 64-74.

[16] For example, the expedition of George Fenner to Africa in 1566.

He had a great deal of trouble with the natives. Hakluyt, _Princ.i.p.al Navigations_, VI, 266-284.

[17] Hakluyt, _Princ.i.p.al Navigations_, VI, 443-450, patent of Queen Elizabeth, May 3, 1588.

[18] Scott, _Joint Stock Companies_, II, 10.

[19] Hakluyt, _Princ.i.p.al Navigations_, VI, 450-458, 461-467.

[20] _Ibid._, VII, 102.

[21] Scott, _Joint Stock Companies_, II, 11.

[22] _Ibid._, II, 12, 13.

[23] _Ibid._, II, 14-16.

[24] S. P. (State Papers), Holland, 178, f. 123, undated paper concerning the t.i.tle of the English to Cape Corse; A. C. R. (Records of the African Companies), 169: 69, deposition of Thomas Crispe, February 5, 1685/6; Dammaert, Journal (Journal gehouden bij Louijs Dammaert ungewaren met 't schip Prins Willem), September 19, 1652 (N.

S.).

[25] Remonstrantie, _aen de Ho. Mo. Heeren de Staten Generael der Vereenighde Nederlanden_, p. 18; Dammaert, _Journal_, September 19, 1652, May 18, 1653, December 7, 19, 1655, April 22 1656 (N. S.).

CHAPTER II

THE ROYAL ADVENTURERS IN ENGLAND

On account of the collapse of the king's cause at the death of Charles I, Prince Rupert, with his small fleet of royal vessels, was driven about from one part of the world to another. In 1562 he sought refuge in the Gambia River,[1] where he listened to stories told by natives of rich gold mines in that region. For a number of years the Negroes had brought gold from the inland of Africa to the Dutch on the Gold Coast. There seemed every reason to believe that the source of this gold supply was none other than that described by the natives of the Gambia River, and that it might be discovered somewhere in that region. Prince Rupert was so much impressed with the possibility of finding these mines that his voyage to Guinea was still vivid in his memory when Charles II a.s.sumed the throne in 1660. In the duke of York and other royal courtiers he found a group of willing listeners who determined to form a company for the purpose of sending an expedition to the Gambia to dig for gold. As early as October 3, 1660, the plans were formulated. Each member was required to invest at least 250 in the undertaking[2]. On December 18, 1660, the king, who was pleased with the adventurers for having "undertaken so hopeful an enterprise,"

granted them a charter[3] under the name of "The Company of the Royal Adventurers into Africa."[4]

By this charter the Royal Adventurers received the land and the adjacent islands on the west coast of Africa from Cape Blanco to the Cape of Good Hope, for a period of one thousand years beginning with "the making of these our Letters Patents if the ... grant (made to Crispe's company in 1631) be void and determined." If, however, the former charter was still regarded as in force, the grant to the Royal Adventurers was to be effective upon the surrender or the expiration of the former company's privileges.[5] A committee of six men, the earl of Pembroke, Lord Craven, Sir George Carteret, William Coventry, Sir Ellis Leighton and Cornelius Vermuyden, was named to have charge of the company's affairs. No mention was made of the office of governor or of any court of directors. Apparently it was thought that the committee of six could direct all of the company's affairs. In Africa, this committee was empowered to appoint the necessary agents and officials and to raise and maintain whatever soldiers were necessary to execute martial law. The company had the right to admit new members if it desired. The king himself reserved the privilege of becoming an adventurer at any time and to invest an amount of money not exceeding one-sixteenth of the company's stock.

Furthermore, it was provided that the king "shall have, take and receive two third parts of all the gold mines which shall be seized possesed and wrought in the parts and places aforesaid, we ... paying and bearing two third parts of all the charges incident to the working and transporting of the said gold." The company was to have the other third and bear the remainder of the expense. That this provision was not a matter of mere form, as in so many of the royal charters, is evident from the stimulus which had led to the formation of the company. Indeed in one part of the charter the purpose of the company is presented as "the setting forward and furthering of the trade intended (redwood, hides, elephants' teeth) in the parts aforesaid and the encouragement of the undertakers in discovering the golden mines and setting of plantations there." The trade in slaves was not mentioned in the charter.

Even before they had obtained this charter the organizers of the new company induced the king to lend them five of his Majesty's s.h.i.+ps.

These vessels, the "Henrietta," "Sophia," "Amity," "Griffin" and "Kingsale," were loaded with goods, tools and chemicals necessary for the working of the projected gold mines. Captain Robert Holmes, who had been with Prince Rupert in 1652, was given charge of the expedition; but the goods and necessities were consigned to William Usticke and two other factors of the company.[6] In December, 1660, the five vessels set out on their voyage to the Gambia River, where they arrived in the following March. There Holmes seized the island of St. Andre, then occupied by a feeble number of the subjects of the duke of Courland. Since the latter place was protected by a small fort the English began preparations to make it the seat of their operations in that region. Not long after they arrived, however, a fire destroyed the fortification and a large part of the goods which had been brought from England. Under these circ.u.mstances they chose to abandon that island, and to settle on two others which were better situated for defense and trade. These they named Charles Island and James Island in honor of their royal patrons. The latter was by far the most advantageously situated, and became the main stronghold of the English in the northern part of Africa during all the history of the African companies. Holmes probably remained on the Gambia until about the first of May when he departed with one or two of the s.h.i.+ps for England. In July as much of a cargo as possible was loaded on the "Amity" which finally arrived in England, after its crew had been depleted by disease.[7]

Information regarding the success of the mining project of this expedition is almost totally lacking, but it seems certain that nothing was done to discover the hoped-for gold mines. The climate affected the men so adversely, that it is altogether unlikely that they even attempted to look for the mines. The small cargo carried back by the various s.h.i.+ps, most of which seems to have been on the "Amity," probably represents the only tangible results of the expedition. These goods, consisting of elephants' teeth, wax and hides sold for 1,567.8s.,[8] whereas the outlay for the expedition was probably between 4,000 and 4,500.[9]

This sum does not include 2,640.8s.8d. expense which was incurred to send another of the king's s.h.i.+ps, the "Blackamoor," to the Gold Coast, in June, 1661.[10] The "Blackamoor" was followed in April, 1662, by the "Swallow" which, together with its cargo, cost the Royal Adventurers 1,l01.2s.ld.[11] Later in the year the three s.h.i.+ps, "Charles," "James" and "Mary," were sent to the Gold Coast at an expense of about 5,000.[12] By September, 1662, 17,400 had been subscribed by various persons to obtain the cargoes for the s.h.i.+ps which had been dispatched to the coast of Guinea. Of this amount 800 had been promised by the king; 3,600 by the duke of York; 400 by the queen Mother; 400 by the d.u.c.h.ess of Orleans; 800 by Prince Rupert; and 800 by the duke of Buckingham. Of the 17,400 subscribed all but about 1,000 had been paid by October 20, 1662. From this investment the company had received no returns except the 1,567.8s. from the first expedition, while the three last vessels, the "Charles," "James"

and "Mary" had not yet arrived at the Gold Coast on their ill-fated voyage.[13]