Negro melodies still spring up on the plantations of the South as they did in the days of slavery. The Negro is, like the Italian, an improviser, but the songs he produces today have not, so far as my knowledge goes, the quality of those he sang in slavery. The schools have introduced reading, and this, with the reflection which writing enforces, is destroying the folk songs of the Negro, as it has those of other races.

Not only are the Negro folk songs more primitive—in the sense I have indicated—than the folk songs of other peoples with which we are familiar but the themes are different. The themes of the Scotch ballads are love and battles, the adventures and tragedies of a wild, free life. The Negro songs, those that he has remembered best, are religious and other worldly. "It is a singular fact," says Krehbiel, "that very few secular songs—those which are referred to as 'reel tunes,' 'fiddle songs,' 'corn songs' and 'devil songs,' for which slaves generally expressed a deep abhorrence, though many of them no doubt were used to stimulate them while in the fields—have been preserved while 'shout songs' and other 'speritchils' have been kept alive by the hundred."[11]

If it is the plantation melodies that, by a process of natural selection, have been preserved in the traditions of the Negro people, it is probably because in these songs they found a free and natural expression of their unfulfilled desires. In the imagery of these songs, in the visions which they conjure up, in the themes which they again and again renew, we may discern the reflection of dawning racial consciousness, a common racial ideal.

The content of the Negro folk songs has been made the subject of a careful investigation by Howard Odum in his Study of the Social and Mental Traits of the Negro. He says: "The Negro's fancies of 'Heaven's bright home' are scarcely exceeded by our fairy tales. There are silver and golden slippers, crowns of stars, jewels and belts of gold. There are robes of spotless white and wings all bejeweled with heavenly gems. Beyond the Jordan the Negro will outshine the sun, moon and stars. He will slip and slide the golden street and eat the fruit of the trees of paradise.... With rest and ease, with a golden band about him and with palms of victory in his hands and beautiful robes, the Negro will indeed be a happy being.... To find a happy home, to see all the loved ones and especially the Biblical characters, to see Jesus and the angels, to walk and talk with them, to wear robes and slippers as they do, and to rest forever, constitute the chief images of the Negro's heaven. He is tired of the world which has been a hell to him. Now on his knees, now shouting, now sorrowful and glad, the Negro comes from 'hanging over hell' to die and sit by the Father's side."[12]

In the imagery which the Negro chooses to clothe his hopes and dreams, we have, as in the musical idiom in which he expresses them, reflections of the imagination and the temperament of Africa and the African. On the other hand, in the themes of this rude rhapsodical poetry—the House of Bondage, Moses, the Promised Land, Heaven, the apocalyptic visions of Freedom—but freedom confined miraculously and to another world—these are the reflections of the Negro's experience in slavery.

The Negro's songs of slavery have been referred to by Du Bois in his Soul of Black-Folk as sorrow songs, and other writers have made the assertion that all the songs of the slaves were in a plaintive minor key. As a matter of fact, investigation has shown that actually less than twelve per cent of Negro songs are in a minor.[13] There are no other folk songs, with the exception of those of Finland, of which so large a percentage are in the major mood. And this is interesting as indicating the racial temperament of the Negro. It tends to justify the general impression that the Negro is temperamentally sunny, cheerful, optimistic. It is true that the slave songs express longing, that they refer to "hard trials and great tribulations," but the dominant mood is one of jubilation, "Going to sing, going to shout, going to play all over God's heaven."

Other worldliness is not peculiar to the religion of the slave. It is a trait which the slave encountered in the religion of his master. But in the Negro's conception of religion it received a peculiar emphasis. In fact, these ecstatic visions of the next world, which the Negro slave songs portrayed with a directness and simplicity that is at once quaint and pathetic, are the most significant features of the Negro's songs of slavery.

It is interesting to note in this connection that nowhere in these songs do we discover the slightest references to Africa. They reflect no memories of a far off happier land. Before the Negro gained his emancipation Africa had, so far as he was concerned, almost ceased to exist. Furthermore, the whole tone and emphasis of these songs and of all other religious expressions of the American Negro are in marked contrast with the tone and emphasis of African religious ideas. The African knew of the existence of another world, but he was not interested in it. The world, as the African understood it, was full of malignant spirits, diseases and forces with which he was in constant mortal struggle. His religious practices were intended to gain for him immunity in this world, rather than assurance of the next. But the Negro in America was in a different situation. He was not living in his own world. He was a slave and that, aside from the physical inconvenience, implied a vast deal of inhibition. He was, moreover, a constant spectator of life in which he could not participate; excited to actions and enterprises that were forbidden to him because he was a slave. The restlessness which this situation provoked found expression, not in insurrection and rebellion—although, of course, there were Negro insurrections—but in his religion and in his dreams of another and freer world. I assume, therefore, that the reason the Negro so readily and eagerly took over from the white man his heaven and apocalyptic visions was because these materials met the demands of his peculiar racial temperament and furnished relief to the emotional strains that were provoked in him by the conditions of slavery.

So far as slavery was responsible for the peculiar individuality of the Negro's religion we should expect that the racial ideals and racial religion would take on another and a different character under the influence of freedom. This, indeed, is what seems to me is taking place. New ideals of life are expressed in recent Negro literature and slowly and imperceptibly those ideas are becoming institutionalized in the Negro church and more particularly in the cultural ideals of the Negro school. But this makes another chapter in the history of Negro culture in America.

I have sought in this brief sketch to indicate the modifications, changes and fortune which a distinctive racial temperament has undergone as a result of encounters with an alien life and culture. This temperament, as I conceive it, consists in a few elementary but distinctive characteristics, determined by physical organization and transmitted biologically. These characteristics manifest themselves in a genial, sunny and social disposition, in an interest and attachment to external, physical things rather than to subjective states and objects of introspection; in a disposition for expression rather than enterprise and action. The changes which have taken place in the manifestations of this temperament have been actuated by an inherent and natural impulse, characteristic of all living things, to persist and maintain themselves in a changed environment. Such changes have occurred as are likely to take place in any organism in its struggle to live and to use its environment to further and complete its own existence.

The general principle which the Negro material illustrates is that the racial temperament selects out of the masses of cultural materials, to which it had access, such technical, mechanical and intellectual devices as meet its needs at a particular period of its existence. It clothes and enriches itself with such new customs, habits, and cultural forms as it is able, or permitted to use. It puts into these relatively external things, moreover, such concrete meanings as its changing experience and its unchanging racial individuality demand.

Everywhere and always the Negro has been interested rather in expression than in action; interested in life itself rather than in its reconstruction or reformation. The Negro is, by natural disposition, neither an intellectual nor an idealist like the Jew, nor a brooding introspective like the East Indian, nor a pioneer and frontiersman like the Anglo-Saxon. He is primarily an artist, loving life for its own sake. His metier is expression rather than action. The Negro is, so to speak, the lady among the races.

In reviewing the fortunes of the Negro's temperament as it is manifested in the external events of the Negro's life in America, our analysis suggests that this racial character of the Negro has exhibited itself everywhere in something like the role of the wish in the Freudian analysis of dream life. The external cultural forms which he found here, like the memories of the individual, have furnished the materials in which the racial wish, that is, the Negro temperament, has clothed itself. The inner meaning, the sentiment, the emphasis, the emotional color which these forms assumed as the result of their transference from the white man to the Negro, these have been the Negro's own. They have represented his temperament—his temperament modified, however, by his experience and the tradition which he has accumulated in this country. The temperament is African, but the tradition is American.

I present this thesis merely as a hypothesis. As such its value consists in its suggestion of a point of view and program for investigation. I may, however, suggest some of the obvious practical consequences. If racial temperament—particularly when it gets itself embodied in institutions and in nationalities, that is, social groups based upon race—is so real and obdurate a thing that education can only enrich and develop it but not dispose of it, then we must be concerned to take account of it in all our schemes for promoting naturalization, assimilation, Americanization, Christianization, and acculturation generally.

If it is true that the Jew, as has been suggested, just because of his intellectuality is a natural born idealist, internationalist, doctrinaire, and revolutionist, while the Negro, because of his natural attachment to known, familiar objects, places and persons, is preadapted to conservatism and to local and personal loyalties: if these things are true, we shall eventually have to take account of them practically. It is certain that the Negro has uniformly shown a disposition to loyalty, during slavery to his master, and during freedom to the South and the country as a whole. He has maintained this attitude of loyalty, too, under very discouraging circumstances. I once heard Kelly Miller, the most philosophical of the leaders and teachers of his race, say in a public speech that one of the greatest hardships the Negro suffered in this country was due to the fact that he was not permitted to be patriotic.

Of course, all these alleged racial characteristics have a positive as well as a negative significance. Every race, like every individual, has the vices of its virtues. The question remains still to what extent so-called racial characteristics are actually racial, that is, biological, and to what extent they are the effect of environmental conditions. The thesis of this paper, to state it again, is: (1) That fundamental temperamental qualities, which are the basis of interest and attention, act as selective agencies and as such determine what elements in the cultural environment each race will select, in what region it will seek and find its vocation, in the larger social organization; (2) that, on the other hand, technique, science, machinery, tools, habits, discipline and all the intellectual and mechanical devices with which the civilized man lives and works, remain relatively external to the inner core of significant attitudes and values which constitute what many call the will of the group. This racial will is, to be sure, largely social, that is modified by social experience, but it rests ultimately upon a complex of inherited characteristics, which are racial.

It follows from what has been said that the individual man is the bearer of a double inheritance. As a member of a race, he transmits by interbreeding a biological inheritance. As a member of society or a social group, on the other hand, he transmits by communication a social inheritance. The particular complex of inheritable characters, which characterizes the individuals of a racial group constitutes the racial temperament. The particular group of habits, accommodations, sentiments, attitudes and ideals transmitted by communication and education constitute a social tradition. Between this temperament and this tradition there is, as has been generally recognized, a very intimate relationship. My assumption is that temperament is the basis of the interests; that as such it determines in the long run the general run of attention, and this, eventually, determines the selection in the case of an individual of his vocation, in the case of the racial group of its culture. That is to say, temperament determines what things the individual and the groups will be interested in; what elements of the general culture, to which they have access, they will assimilate; what, to state it in pedagogical terms, they will learn.

It will be evident at once that where individuals of the same race and hence the same temperament are associated, the temperamental interests will tend to reinforce one another, and the attention of members of the group will be more completely focused upon the specific objects and values that correspond to the racial temperament. In this way racial qualities become the basis for nationalities, a nationalistic group being merely a cultural and eventually a political society founded on the basis of racial inheritances. On the other hand, when racial segregation is broken up and members of a racial group are dispersed and isolated, the opposite effect will take place. This explains the phenomena which have frequently been the subject of comment and observation, that the racial characteristics manifest themselves in an extraordinary way in large homogeneous gatherings. The contrast between a mass meeting of one race and a similar meeting of another is particularly striking. Under such circumstances characteristic racial and temperamental differences appear that would otherwise pass entirely unnoticed.

When the physical unity of a group is perpetuated by the succession of parents and children, the racial temperament, including fundamental attitudes and values which rest on it, are preserved intact. When however, society grows and is perpetuated by immigration and adaptation, there ensues, as a result of miscegenation, a breaking up of the complex of the biologically inherited qualities which constitute the temperament of the race. This again initiates changes in the mores, traditions and eventually in the institutions of the community. The changes which proceed from modification in the racial temperament will, however, modify but slightly the external forms of the social traditions but they will be likely to change profoundly their content and meaning. Of course, other factors, individual competition, the formation of classes, and especially the increase of communication, all cooeperate to complicate the whole situation and to modify the effects which would be produced by racial factors working in isolation. All these factors must be eventually taken account of, however, in any satisfactory scheme of dealing with the problem of Americanization by education. This is, however, a matter for more complete analysis and further investigation.

ROBERT E. PARK

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This address was delivered before the American Sociological Society convened in annual session at Richmond in 1918.

[2] "The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the City Environment," American Journal of Sociology, V, 44, March, 1915, p. 589.

[3] Rivers, "Ethnological Analysis of Cultures," Nature, Vol. I, 87, 1911.

[4] W. J. McGee, Piratical Acculturation.

[5] There is or was a few years ago near Mobile a colony of Africans who were brought to the United States as late as 1860. It is true, also, that Major R. R. Moton, who has succeeded Booker T. Washington as head of Tuskegee Institute, still preserves the story that was told him by his grandmother of the way in which his great-grandfather was brought from Africa in a slave ship.

[6] Domestic Manners and Social Condition of the White, Coloured and Negro Population of the West Indies, by Mrs. Carmichael, Vol. I. (London, Wittaker, Treacher and Co.), p. 251.

"Native Africans do not at all like it to be supposed that they retain the customs of their country and consider themselves wonderfully civilized by being transplanted from Africa to the West Indies. Creole Negroes invariably consider themselves superior people, and lord it over the native Africans."

[7] The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was founded in 1701 and the efforts to Christianize the Negro were carried on with a great deal of zeal and with some success.

[8] JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY, Vol. I, 1916, p. 70.

[9] Afro-American Folksongs: A Study in Racial and National Music, by Henry Edward Krehbiel. (New York and London, G. Schirmer), p. 37. From a letter of Lafcadio Hearne.

[10] Army Life in a Black Regiment, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Boston, Fields, Osgood and Co., 1870.

[11] Krehbiel, Afro-American Folksongs, p. 16.

[12] Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, edited by The Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University, Vol. 37, New York, 1910, No. 3—Social and Mental Traits of the Negro, by Howard W. Odum, Ph.D., p. 91.

[13] Krehbiel, Afro-American Folksongs.



THE COMPANY OF ROYAL ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND TRADING INTO AFRICA, 1660-1672

INTRODUCTION

The English commercial companies trading to the west coast of Africa during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have practically escaped the attention of historical students. Doubtless this neglect is the result of the little importance which has until recently been attached to African territory since the abolition of the slave trade. Previous to that time the west coast of Africa vied with the East Indies for popular attention, and the English African companies often appeared to be but little less important than the great East India Company.

The cause for the popular esteem of the African coast during the earlier centuries was the intimate connection which the slave trade had with the development of the English plantations in the West Indies. About the middle of the seventeenth century the growing of sugar cane and other products in the West Indies began to open up enormous possibilities which, it was universally agreed, could be realized only by the extensive use of Negro slaves. At the restoration of Charles II in 1660 the English commercial class directly supported and assisted by the king's courtiers determined to secure as large a portion of the West African coast as possible. To reach this end they organized that year The Company of the Royal Adventurers into Africa. This decision at once brought the company into conflict with the Dutch West India Company, which, during the twenty years of domestic trouble in England, had all but monopolized the desirable portion of the West African coast.

It happened therefore that the Company of Royal Adventurers played a very important part in the events which led up to the Anglo-Dutch war of 1665-67. The war resulted in the financial ruin of the company which was in existence only about eleven years, at the end of which time it was succeeded by the much larger and better organized Royal African Company.

It has seemed to the author as if the English African companies were a very profitable field of historical investigation. Therefore, the present dissertation on the Company of Royal Adventurers will be followed shortly by a history of the Royal African Company, 1672-1752.

For assistance in writing the history of the Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the librarians, and officials of the British Record Office, the British Museum, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Rijks Archief at The Hague, and the Cornell University Library. To Professor R. C. H. Catterall, now deceased, I am greatly indebted for reading the manuscript of this book, and for many valuable suggestions. Above all, I wish to express my deep appreciation to my wife, Susie Zook, for her unfailing inspiration and her constant assistance in the writing of this book.

CHAPTER I

EARLY DUTCH AND ENGLISH TRADE TO WEST AFRICA

In 1581 the seven United Provinces of the Netherlands declared their independence of Spain. As the intrepid Dutch sailors ventured out from their homeland they met not only the ships of their old master, Philip II, but those of the Portuguese as well. Since the government of Portugal had just fallen into the hands of Philip II the Dutch ships could expect no more consideration from Portuguese than from Spanish vessels. Notwithstanding the manifest dangers the prospects of obtaining the coveted products of the Portuguese colonies inspired the Dutch to such a great extent that in 1595 Bernard Ereckson sailed to the west coast of Africa, at that time usually called Guinea. There he and the Dutch who followed him discovered that the Portuguese had long occupied the trading points along the coast, and had erected forts and factories wherever it seemed advisable for the purpose of defense and trade. The Dutch merchants and sailors turned their dangerous situation into an opportunity to despoil the weakened Portuguese of their forts and settlements in Africa.

On August 25, 1611, the Dutch made a treaty with a native prince by which a place called Mauree was ceded to them. In the following year they erected a fort at that place which they named Fort Nassau.[1] Shortly after this, in 1617, they bought the island of Goree at Cape Verde from the natives in that region. Four years later the West India Company was formed, its charter including not only the West Indies and New Amsterdam but also the west coast of Africa. This new organization found much in the new world to occupy its attention but it did not neglect the Guinea coast. The Dutch realized that the African trade was indispensable to their West India colonies as a means of supplying slave labor. Hostilities, therefore, were continued against the Portuguese who still had possession of the principal part of the African trade. In 1625 the Dutch made a vigorous attempt to capture the main Portuguese stronghold at St. George d'Elmina which had been founded on the Gold Coast in 1481.[2] They were unsuccessful at that time but in 1637 Prince Maurice of Nassau with 1,200 men succeeded in capturing this base of the Portuguese trade.[3] In 1641 a ten years' truce was signed between Portugal and the United Provinces, but before the news of the truce had reached the coast of Guinea the Dutch had taken another of the Portuguese strongholds at Axim which, according to the terms of the treaty, they were permitted to retain. From these various places factories were settled along the coast, and treaties made with the native rulers. Furthermore, in the treaty of peace, August 6, 1661, the Dutch retained the forts and factories which they had conquered from the Portuguese on the African coast.[4] After the truce of 1641 and the peace of 1661, therefore, the Dutch regarded themselves as having succeeded to the exclusive claims of the Portuguese to a large portion of the west coast of Africa including a monopoly of the trade to the Gold Coast.[5]

Although it was the Dutch who succeeded in depriving the Portuguese of the most important part of the West African coast, the interest shown by the English in this region can be traced back to a much earlier date. In 1481, when two Englishmen were preparing an expedition to the Guinea coast, John II, king of Portugal, despatched an ambassador to the English king, to announce the overlordship of Guinea which he had recently assumed, and to request that the two Englishmen should refrain from visiting the Guinea coast. Edward IV complied with this request.[6] Thereafter no English expedition to Guinea was attempted until 1536 when William Hawkins, father of the famous John Hawkins, made the first of three voyages to Africa during which he also traded to Brazil. Again in 1553 Hawkins sent an expedition to the Gold Coast. Near Elmina the adventurers sold some of their goods for gold, and then proceeded to Benin where they obtained pepper, or "Guinea graines," and elephants' teeth. After losing two-thirds of the crew from sickness the expedition returned to England.[7] In the following year another expedition under Hawkins' direction secured several slaves in addition to a large amount of gold and other products.[8] Also, in the years 1555, 1556, 1557, William Towrson made three voyages to the Guinea coast in which his ships were harassed by the Portuguese, who attempted to prevent them from trading. English cloth and iron wares were in such demand, however, that notwithstanding this opposition a lucrative trade was obtained.[9]

Beginning with 1561 Queen Elizabeth lent her influence and assistance 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 ships succeeded in returning to England with a quantity of elephants' teeth and Guinea grains.[11] In 1564, an expedition composed of three ships, one of which belonged to Queen Elizabeth, was particularly unfortunate. One of these ships 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 ships, 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 ships 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 fashion 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 Oorsprong 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, Oorsprong 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 Principal 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 ships should be subtracted from the one thousand pounds which she received. Scott, W.R., The Constitution and Finance of English, Scottish and Irish Joint Stock Companies to 1720, II, 6.

[11] Hayluyt, Principal 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, Principal Navigations, VI, 266-284.

[17] Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, VI, 443-450, patent of Queen Elizabeth, May 3, 1588.

[18] Scott, Joint Stock Companies, II, 10.

[19] Hakluyt, Principal 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 title 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 assumed 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 L250 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 ships. 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 circumstances 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 ships 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 ships, 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 L1,567.8s.,[8] whereas the outlay for the expedition was probably between L4,000 and L4,500.[9]

This sum does not include L2,640.8s.8d. expense which was incurred to send another of the king's ships, 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 L1,l01.2s.ld.[11] Later in the year the three ships, "Charles," "James" and "Mary," were sent to the Gold Coast at an expense of about L5,000.[12] By September, 1662, L17,400 had been subscribed by various persons to obtain the cargoes for the ships which had been dispatched to the coast of Guinea. Of this amount L800 had been promised by the king; L3,600 by the duke of York; L400 by the queen Mother; L400 by the duchess of Orleans; L800 by Prince Rupert; and L800 by the duke of Buckingham. Of the L17,400 subscribed all but about L1,000 had been paid by October 20, 1662. From this investment the company had received no returns except the L1,567.8s. 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]

Up to this time there had been no uniformity about the amounts invested, and no definite times at which the several amounts subscribed, were due. It was assumed that money would be forthcoming from the members whenever it was needed to dispatch ships to the coast. About the middle of September, 1662, it was decided to pursue a more businesslike policy. A list of subscribers for shares at four hundred pounds each was opened, and by the 15th of January, 1663, the amount of this second subscription was L17,000.[14] The stimulus for obtaining this added subscription was the fact that, at the same time, the company was agitating for a new charter, which was granted by the king, January 10, 1663.[15]

Experience had shown that the previous charter was inadequate, not only respecting the means of raising funds to carry on the company's business, but also on account of the lack of any other officers to direct its affairs than the committee of six. By general consent of the patentees, and those who had later subscribed to the stock, it had been decided to surrender the charter of 1660 for one conferring more extensive privileges on the corporation. The charter obtained January 10, 1663, answered these requirements. The name was changed to "The Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa." The territory included in the charter reached to the Cape of Good Hope as in the previous patent, but the northern limit was extended from Cape Blanco to Cape Sallee on the coast of Morocco.

The new charter contained the same provisions in regard to the discovery of gold mines as the charter of 1660. By this time, however, the adventurers had discovered that the Negro trade could be made very lucrative. In this charter, therefore, they obtained "the whole, entire and only trade for the buying and selling bartering and exchanging of for or with any Negroes, slaves, goods, wares and merchandises whatsoever to be vented or found at or within any of the Cities" on the west coast of Africa. The charter provided that there should be no trading on the African coast except by the company in its corporate capacity, and that any one guilty of transgressing these rules should be liable to forfeiture of his ship and goods.[16]

The charter also required the shareholders to elect a governor, subgovernor, deputy governor and a court of assistants; but that the routine business of the company should be conducted by a smaller committee corresponding to the committee of six of the previous company. The duke of York was elected governor, in which capacity he continued to serve during the company's entire existence. Thirty-six men were chosen annually to compose the court of assistants. There was also an executive committee of seven which was responsible to the court of assistants.[17]

While the company was endeavoring to obtain this new charter an unsuspected difficulty arose. It will be remembered that in 1631 Sir Nicholas Crispe and others had received a patent to a portion of the west coast of Africa for thirty-one years. The first charter of Charles II to the Royal Adventurers in December, 1660, had been granted a year and a half previous to the expiration of Crispe's patent. In recognition of this fact the charter of the Royal Adventurers provided that if the former patent was not void, the new charter was not to be effective until its surrender or expiration. At first Crispe made no complaint about the transgression of his rights, probably because the first expedition under Captain Holmes had gone to the Gambia region in which place Crispe had no interests. When it became apparent that the company intended to carry its activities further south, however, he appeared before the Privy Council on November 22, 1661, and asked to have his interest confirmed in the trade and settlements at Kormentine and in the region of the Sierra Leone and Sherbro rivers.[18] On December 20, 1661, his case was heard before the Privy Council, at which time the case was referred to the Lord High Treasurer.[19] The matter was neglected and finally dropped.

Crispe found it impossible to prevent the ships of the Royal Company from transgressing the regions mentioned in his charter. About the time at which his charter expired (June 25, 1662), he agreed to transfer all his interests in the fortifications at Kormentine and elsewhere to the Royal Adventurers. Although this agreement has not been found, there was apparently nothing in it which bound the company to remunerate Crispe and his associates, because later, August, 1662, he petitioned the king for compensation for the forts and lodges which had been transferred to the Royal Adventurers. At first the king was favorable to Crispe's request in view of the service which he had rendered in building up the Guinea trade.[20] Later, neither the king nor the Royal Adventurers seem to have paid any attention to Crispe's plea for compensation.[21]

In later years the report was persistently spread that at the time when the agreement was made with Crispe the Privy Council had ordered the Royal Adventurers to pay him L20,000 in lieu of all his interests on the coast, and that the company had "seemed to acquiesce" in the order.[22] It does not seem possible that this assertion can be true in view of the foregoing facts, and of the absolute lack of mention of any such thing in the books of the company. Over a year later, August 15, 1664, Crispe presented a paper of an unknown character to which the court of assistants refused to give any notice.[23] It seems likely that this paper had nothing to do with the African forts, but that it was submitted in connection with a controversy over some African goods, which were said to belong to the members of Crispe's company[24]. The entire lack of any other evidence of trouble between Crispe and the company leads one to think that no contract for such compensation was ever made[25]. Moreover, that he was not averse to the success of the Royal Adventurers is shown by the fact that he himself subscribed L2,000 in 1663 to the stock of the company[26].

It is unnecessary to follow in detail the number of ships which were fitted out for the company's trade after it received its second charter in January, 1663. Suffice it to say that very active measures were undertaken, especially by the duke of York, who faithfully attended the weekly meetings of the court of assistants which were held in his apartments at Whitehall. The earl of Clarendon voiced the sentiments of these enthusiastic courtier-merchants when he said that, providing all went well, the Company of Royal Adventurers would "be found a Model equally to advance the Trade of England with that of any other company, even that of the East-Indies[27]."

If this prediction was to be realized it was necessary to have a greater stock than the first and second subscriptions had provided. Therefore a public declaration was issued inviting any of the king's subjects in England to subscribe for shares of not less than four hundred pounds each, one-half of each share to be paid by December 1, 1663, and the other one-half by March 1, following. The conditions of subscription provided that seven years after the first date, a committee from the adventurers should be chosen to make a fair valuation of the stock of the company. Each shareholder was then to be allowed to receive the value of his stock in money if he so desired. Thereafter this action was to be repeated every three years with the same privileges of withdrawal from the company.[28] Later, as a means of inducing those with smaller means to subscribe for stock, the company permitted subscriptions as small as fifty pounds, providing they were paid within eight days. Whenever any person subscribed more than four hundred pounds, he was allowed to pay the excess in eight quarterly payments beginning with the 24th of June, 1663.[29] By offering these inducements the third subscription amounted to L34,000 divided among about forty-five shareholders.[30]

On the 25th of August of the same year, however, it was necessary to seek for a fourth subscription which amounted to L29,000,[31] payment of which could be made in eight quarterly sums if desired. For all those who would pay the third and fourth subscriptions promptly, a discount of ten per cent, was offered. By these four subscriptions the stock of the company appeared on September 4, 1663, to be L102,000.[32] Of this amount it is probable that about L57,425 had been paid, which left unpaid subscriptions amounting to L44,775.[33] In addition to the money obtained by the sale of shares the company had borrowed about L21,000. With the money obtained from these two sources approximately twenty-five ships were sent to the coast of Africa from December, 1662, to September, 1663.[34] From these voyages there were very unsatisfactory returns, and the company again found itself in a critical financial condition.

This unfortunate situation was largely the result of opposition, which its ships and factors had encountered from the Dutch West India Company on the coast of Guinea. For a long time this opposition bade fair to prevent the company from obtaining a share in the African trade. In view of this situation the king dispatched Sir Robert Holmes upon a second expedition to Africa in 1663 with orders to protect the company's rights. As a further means of encouragement Charles II ordered all gold imported from Africa by the Royal Company to be coined with an elephant on one side, as a mark of distinction from the coins then prevalent in England.[35] These coins were called "Guineas"; they served to increase the reputation and prestige of the company. Moreover, the king with many of his courtiers made important additions to their stock in the third and fourth subscriptions.[36]

From September 4, 1663, to the following March there are no records of the company, but a petition of the adventurers to the king in March, 1664,[37] shows that notwithstanding its financial difficulties the company had during the previous year sent to Africa forty ships and goods to the value of L160,000.[38] To follow the company's financial history from this time on is a difficult task in view of inadequate sources. In the balance sheet of September 4, 1663, the company's stock was entered as L102,000 and its debts as about L21,000. When the news of Holmes' great success on the Gold Coast began to arrive in England, the company increased its preparations to open an extensive African trade. Therefore on May 10, 1664, an attempt was made to collect the unpaid stock subscriptions, and an invitation was extended to all members to lend one hundred pounds to the company for each share of four hundred pounds which they held. Notwithstanding the bright prospects which the company had at this time, its strenuous attempt to raise the loan produced only L15,650.[39]

In September, 1664, an attempt was made to increase the stock of the company by L30,000. Although the duke of York and many others added to their shares on this occasion,[40] only L18,200 was subscribed.[41] By this addition the stock of the Royal Adventurers amounted to L120,200 at about which sum it remained during the remainder of the company's history.[42]

Although the company had not obtained as much money as had been hoped for in the last subscription, it anticipated great success in its trade, until vague rumors began to circulate that Admiral DeRuyter had been sent to Africa to undo the conquest made by Captain Holmes. In the last part of December, 1664, these rumors were confirmed. In a petition to the king of January 2, 1665[43], the company declared that its trade had already increased to such an extent that over one hundred ships were employed, and that a yearly return of from two to three hundred thousand pounds might reasonably be expected[44].

On account of the injuries inflicted by DeRuyter on the African coast much of the anticipated loss of goods and vessels was realized. In all, the company lost the cargoes of eight ships; of the forts only Cape Corse remained. Under these ruinous circumstances it was not thought advisable to dispatch at once the goods which had been accumulated at Portsmouth[45]. Accordingly the company's vessels were unloaded and several of them were taken into the King's service.[46] The duke of York used what little money was on hand to apply on the company's debt in order that the company's expenses from interest might be reduced.[47] Because of the Anglo-Dutch war and the fact that the company had no money, it could do nothing but send an occasional ship to Africa loaded with some of the goods left at Portsmouth. From this time on the company's trading activity was confined to such scattered voyages.[48]

On January 11, 1666,[49] the court of assistants discussed the proposition of granting trading licenses to private individuals. While no action seems to have been taken at that time, it ultimately became the practise of the company to grant such a freedom of trade. On April 9, 1667, a resolution was adopted empowering the committee of seven to issue trading licenses in return for a payment of three pounds per ton.[50] These licenses were obtained by those who desired to carry on trade in their own ships, and also by officers of the company's ships who wished to engage in private adventures. During the course of the war one hears of many such grants to various individuals, among whom was Prince Rupert.[51]

The practise of issuing licenses was interrupted for a short time at the conclusion of the Anglo-Dutch war by a feeble attempt to revive the company's activities. An effort was made to collect arrears on the subscriptions,[52] and on August 21, 1667, the general court ordered that an additional subscription should be opened, and that no more trading licenses should be granted.[53] The only result of this effort was that the duke of York and several others accepted stock of the company in lieu of the bonds which they held.[54] In view of this fact it was decided, January 20, 1668, to resume the policy of granting licenses.[55]

In comparison with the trade conducted by the private adventurers that of the company became quite insignificant. Since the company had much difficulty in supporting its agents on the African coast it ordered, August 28, 1668, that in the future those who received licenses should agree to carry one-tenth of their cargo for the company's account.[56] It was difficult for the company to raise the small sum of money necessary to buy this quota of goods. No one was willing to invest money in the stock of a bankrupt company, and certainly few were desirous of making loans to it when there seemed practically no chance of repayment. In the latter part of 1668 and in the year 1669, several attempts were made to collect the early subscriptions which remained unpaid.[57] This effort was attended with very little success, because the company had ceased to be of importance.[58]

One of the reasons why the company's business was practically neglected during these last years was because many of its members began to trade to Africa as private individuals. A number of men even went so far as to project an organization entirely separate from the company. Finally, in 1667, several members offered to raise a stock of L15,000 to carry on trade to the region of the Gambia River.[59] This proposal was debated by the general court and finally referred to a committee with the stipulation that if adopted the company should be concerned in the stock of the new organization to the extent of L3,000.[60] This arrangement could not be consummated in 1667,[61] but on November 27, 1668, a similar proposition was adopted.[62]

An organization to be known as the Gambia Adventurers was to have the sole trade to northern Africa for a period of seven years, beginning with January 1, 1669. For this privilege they were to pay the Company of Royal Adventurers L1,000 annually, and to be responsible for the expense of the forts and settlements in that region. These places were to be kept in good repair by the Gambia Adventurers, who were to receive compensation from the Royal Company for any settlements.[63] A suggestion for carrying on the trade to the Gold Coast in a similar way received no attention from the general court. The Gambia Adventurers occupied the same house in London with the company, and there seems little doubt but that its members consisted largely of those stockholders of the Royal Adventurers who belonged primarily to the merchant class.[64] It is extremely difficult to estimate the success of the Gambia Adventurers, since their records, if any were kept, have not been preserved. In all probability their trade was largely confined to the important products of the Gambia region, namely elephants' teeth, hides and wax, although several of their ships are known to have gone to the West Indies with slaves.

Since many of the company's stockholders were interested in the Gambia venture the company's business on the Gold Coast was greatly neglected. During the year 1669 the company's trade became so insignificant that, at the suggestion of the king, Secretary Arlington asked the company if it intended to continue the African trade.[65] In answer the company recounted the losses incurred in the Anglo-Dutch war which, it declared, had made it necessary to grant licenses to private traders in order to maintain the forts and factories in Africa. It asked the king to assist the company by paying his subscription, by helping to recover its debts in Barbados, and by granting royal vessels for the protection of the African coast. With such encouragement the company declared that it would endeavor to raise a new stock to carry on the African trade.[66] Receiving no answer to their appeal the members of the company considered various expedients, one of which was to lease the right of trade on the Gold Coast;[67] another was to endeavor to obtain new subscriptions to the company's stock, which seemed impossible because of the fear that the money would be used toward paying the company's debts, and not for the purpose of trade.[68] In fact, it had been only too evident for several years that no additions could be made to the present worthless stock of the company. If the company desired to continue its activities, it would be necessary to have an entirely new stock unencumbered with the claims of old creditors. The main problem confronting the company therefor e was to make an agreement with its clamorous creditors.

On May 18, 1671, a general court of the adventurers approved of a proposition to form a new joint stock under the old charter.[69] The stock of the shareholders, which at this time amounted to L120,200, was to be valued at ten per cent and so reduced to L12,020; this was to form the first item in the new stock. In regard to the company's debts, which amounted to about L57,000, rather severe measures were attempted. Two-thirds of the debts, or L38,000, was, as in the case of the stock, reduced to one-tenth, or L3,800, which was to form the second item in the new stock. The other one-third of the debts, or L19,000, was to be paid to the creditors in full out of the money subscribed by the new shareholders.[70] Adding the cash payment of L19,000 and estimating at par the L3,800 which they were to have in the new stock, the creditors were to receive a little less than thirty-five per cent, of their debts. If they did not accept this arrangement it was proposed to turn over the company's effects to them, and to secure an entirely new charter from the king. As anticipated the plan was unsatisfactory to many of the creditors, because the company proposed to pay the L19,000 in six monthly installments after the subscription for the new joint stock was begun.[71] On October 28, 1671, the preamble and articles under which the new subscription was to be made were approved by the general court, and notice was given to the refractory creditors that they must accept the arrangement within ten days or the king would revoke the company's patent.[72] Although the trouble with the creditors had not been adjusted, subscriptions on the new stock began November 10, 1671. A few weeks later there was held a general court of the new subscribers, at which Sir Richard Ford, one of the most important members of the company and also of the new subscribers, declared that "they should not differ for small matters."[73] Thereupon it was resolved to grant the creditors forty per cent on their debts and the shareholders, as in the previous plan, ten per cent, on their stock.[74] This made a total payment of L34,000 divided as follows: L22,800, forty per cent of the company's debts, which amounted to L57,000; and L11,200, ten per cent of the paid subscriptions, which amounted to about L112,000.[75] In lieu of this payment the stockholders were to cede to the new subscribers the forts and other property in Africa and all the payments due from the Gambia Adventurers during the four remaining years of their contract.

As has been said the articles of subscription were adopted October 28, 1671. They provided for a stock of L100,000 under the old charter, which should be paid to the treasurer of the company in ten monthly payments ending September 25, 1672. As a matter of fact the subscription reached the sum of L110,100. It was also provided that every new subscriber should have one vote in the general court for each one hundred pound share, but that no one should be an officer of the company, unless he had subscribed for four hundred pounds in shares. The subgovernor and the deputy governor were to be aided by a court of assistants, reduced to twenty-four in number, and by a select committee of five instead of the committee of seven as formerly. On January 10, 1672, there was held a general court of the new subscribers, at which the duke of York was elected governor; Lord Ashley, subgovernor; and John Buckworth, deputy governor.[76] The duke of York and Lord Ashley were well known for their interest in colonial affairs. According to the terms of the subscription the deputy governor was to be a merchant and a member of the committee of five, which provision indicated plainly that the company expected Buckworth to manage its business affairs.

Although the new subscription had been made to replace the stock of the old adventurers, there is little evidence that it was regarded as necessary to obtain a new charter. Since the creditors still refused to be satisfied with the concession of forty per cent on their debts, however, the new subscribers hesitated to pay their money which might be used to pay off the old debts.[77] It therefore became necessary to carry out the previous threat against the creditors to induce the king to grant a new charter to the present subscribers, which was done September 27, 1672.[78] This action finally convinced the creditors that they could obtain no better terms than had been offered, and therefore they agreed to accept them and also to surrender all their rights to the patentees of the new charter which was being issued. That the attitude of the creditors was not the only moving force toward a new charter is probable, because the old charter was not adequate to meet the needs of the Royal African Company which was to follow.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] At one time Prince Rupert had been governor of the African company founded in 1631. Jenkinson, Hilary, "The Records of the English African Companies." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Third Series, VI, 195.

[2] Pepys, Diary (The Diary of Samuel Pepys, edited by Henry B. Wheatley), I, 253.

[3] That some expense attached to the procuring of such charters appears from an item of L133.10s.3d. which the company incurred for this charter. A. C. R., 1221, April 12, 1661. Wherever possible the volume and page of the company's books will be given, but since they have not all been paged the only other method of reference is by dates.

[4] Carr, Cecil T., "Select Charters of Trading Companies, 1530-1707," Publications of the Selden Society, XXVIII, 172-177.

[5] According to the charter of 1660 the former patent had been granted June 25, 1631. It would therefore expire June 25, 1662, if it was not surrendered before that time.

[6] A. C. R., 309, 1221. The records of the first few ventures are to be found in these two volumes of the company's books. Number 309 is the original book, the other being practically a copy of it. In some cases, however, the latter is more complete. These two books have been practically overlooked in the cataloging of the company's records, one of them being labelled, "Ship's Journal." They contain the only information we have of the financial condition of the first company as kept by Thomas Holder, treasurer of the company. The greater part of the two books is taken up with lists and costs of various goods which were sent to Africa.

[7] Admiralty Papers, Navy Board, In-Letters, 6, loose leaf order of the factors of the Royal Adventurers on the Gambia River, July 19, 1661. With this order there is a certificate dated January 3, 1661/2, to the effect that thirty-eight of the crew of the "Amity" had died on the way to Guinea and during the time they were on the Gambia River.

[8] A. C. R., 1221, October 20, 1662.

[9] It is impossible to determine the exact amount which was invested in goods, etc.

[10] A. C. R., 1221, June 20, 1661.

[11] Ibid., April 30, 1662.

[12] Ibid., 309, September 26, 1662

[13] A. C. R., 309, September 26, October 20, 1662. Only L560 of the king's subscription of L800 was paid, according to the list found under the first of the above dates. This may be a slight error, as warrants were issued for the payment of L580 at various times in 1661 and 1662. C.S.P., Treas. Bks. (Calendar of State Papers, Treasury Books), 1660-1667, pp. 312, 314, 383. This does not include a warrant for L300, which was probably used in the first expedition under Captain Holmes, but which for some reason is omitted in the company's books. C. S. P., Treas. Bks., 1660-1667, p. 107.

[14] A. C. R., 309, October 20, 1662, January 15, 1663. Afterward L3,200 was added to this, making L20,800 in all in the second subscription. A. C. R., 309, August 25, 1663.

[15] Carr, Select Charters of Trading Companies, pp. 178-181.

[16] There were also provisions similar to those contained in the first charter for the government of the company's "plantations" (factories) in Africa. The clause allowing the king to subscribe one-sixteenth of the stock was omitted, but he could become a shareholder at any time.

[17] The charter had provided that the executive committee should be composed of seven men if twenty-four assistants were elected and thirteen if thirty-six were chosen. A.C.R., 75: 29, 31, 41, 44, 49, 51, 68, 72, 93.

[18] P.C.R. (Register of the Privy Council), Charles II, 2: 451.

[19] Ibid., 2: 502.

[20] Egerton MSS., 2538, f. 109, C. C. to Secretary Nicholas, August 11, 1662. Folio 110 contains a note without date or signature saying that the matter was referred to the Lord High Treasurer and others.

[21] The earl of Clarendon declares in his History of Charles II that, upon the return of the ships from the first expedition, the company "compounded" with Sir Nicholas Crispe for his "propriety" in the fort at Kormentine. This is untrue, since it has just been shown that it was not until the middle of 1662 that he agreed to transfer his property to the Royal Adventurers and that it was afterward that Crispe endeavored to get the king's approval to grant him compensation. Clarendon may have remembered that the king was favorable to the proposition and therefore assumed that such a contract had been made. Hyde, Edward, First Earl of Clarendon. The History of the Reign of King Charles the Second, from the Restoration to the end of the year 1667 (edited by J. Shebbeare), p. 197.

[22] This charge was put forward in a pamphlet, probably published in 1709, called Sir John Crispe's Case in Relation to the Forts in Africa. In this pamphlet the assertion is made that the Privy Council had a full hearing of the matter on July 29, 1662, and ordered the Royal Adventurers to pay Crispe L20,000 by an export duty of 2-1/2 per cent on goods sent to Africa. An examination of the Privy Council Register shows no order of that kind on that date or at any subsequent time.

[23] A.C.R., 75, August, 15, 1664.

[24] In January, 1663, the Royal Adventurers made an agreement with several members of Crispe's company providing for the transfer to England of their merchandise and personal effects which were still on the coast of Africa. Whether this second contract contained anything about compensation for the forts it is impossible to say, since this agreement also has not been preserved. Admiralty High Court, Examinations 134. Answers of Edward M. Mitchell and Ellis Leighton, May 10, 20, 1664.

[25] That Sir Nicholas Crispe felt the losses he had incurred in Guinea appears from his will of 1666, in which he directed the following inscription to be erected to his memory: "first discovered and settled the Trade of Gold in Africa and built there the Castle of Cormentine," and thus "lost out of purse" more than L100,000. Crisp, Frederick A., Family of Crispe, I, 32.

[26] A. C. R., 309, June 25, September 4, 1663. Upon the latter date it appears that only L1300 of his subscription was paid.

[27] Clarendon, History of the Reign of Charles II, p. 198.

[28] The Several Declarations of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading into Africa, January 12, 1662 (O. S.).

[29] Ibid.

[30] A. C. R., 309, June 25, August 25, 1663.

[31] Ibid., 309, August 25, 1663.

[32] Ibid., 309, the balance of the company's books on September 4, 1663.

[33] These figures are arrived at by a careful examination of the various sums paid to Thomas Holder, the treasurer. As it is not always possible to be sure that the payments were made for stock, too much dependence cannot be put in the figures, especially when the sum arrived at by adding the items which appear to be owing the company for stock in the balance of September 4, 1663, amount to L52,000. This is of course several thousand pounds more than the sum arrived at by the former computation, but here again it is not possible to estimate exactly the money owing the company for stock and for other things.

[34] This number is arrived at by a careful perusal of the first book kept by the company, number 309. Sometime in 1664 the company submitted a petition to the king in which it speaks of having sent over forty ships to the coast during the previous year and of supplying them with cargoes amounting to more than L160,000. C.O. (Colonial Office) 1: 17, f. 255, petition of the Royal Adventurers to (the king, 1664).

[35] C. S. P., Col. (Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and West Indies), 1661-1668, p. 175, warrant to officers of the king's mint, December 24, 1663. Another evidence of special favor was a grant made by the king in 1664 giving the Royal Company the sole privilege of holding lotteries in the king's dominions for three years. The company does not seem to have used it. C. S. P., Dom. (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic), 1666-1667, pp. 531, 532, Blanquefort and Hamilton to the king, February 25, 1667.

[36] In the third subscription the king's share was L5,200; in the fourth, L2,000. A. C. R., 309, June 25, August 25, 1663. The king's subscription with that of the queen for L400 seem never to have been paid, although a warrant was issued to the Lord High Treasurer, June 27, 1663, to pay the amount from the customs receipts.

[37] Upon this date, book number 309 was balanced and the items carried to another volume, which has been lost. In March, 1664, the resolutions of the general court and the court of assistants begin in number 75 of the company's books. While it is fortunate that these resolutions for the remaining history of this company have been preserved, they do not furnish adequate information regarding the company's financial condition at various times.

[38] C. O. 1: 17, f. 255, petition of the Royal Adventurers to (the king, March, 1664).

[39] A. C. R., 75: 7, 8, orders of the general court, May 10, 20, 1664.

[40] C. S. P., Dom., 1664-1665, p. 7, Robert Lye to Williamson, September 13, 1664.

[41] A. C. R., 75: 21, 22.

[42] The total of the stock is shown by adding the five subscriptions:

October, 1660, to September, 1662, first subscription L17,400 October, 1662, to January, 1663, second subscription 20,800 June, 1663, to August, 1663, third subscription 34,600 August, 1663, fourth subscription 29,200 September, 1664, fifth subscription 18,200 Total L120,200

[43] S. P., Dom. (State Papers, Domestic), Charles II, 110, f. 18; C. O. 1: 19, ff. 7, 8.

[44] The financial status of the company at this time was as follows:

Assets: L s d Ships and factories in Africa 125,962.6.2 Debts owing to the company in the colonies 49,895.0.0 Goods, ammunition, etc., at Portsmouth 48,000.0.0 Total 223,857.6.2 Stock of the company: Amount subscribed 120,200.0.0 Amount paid (about) 103,000.0.0 Amount unpaid (about) 17,200.0.0 Debts, owing on bonds, etc. (about) 100,000.0.0 Losses: From DeRuyter at Cape Verde 50,000.0.0 Anticipated from DeRuyter at other places 125,912.6.2 Total 175,912.6.2

[45] A. C. R., 75: 37, John Berkley and others to ——, November 4, 1665.

[46] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 186: 1.

[47] A. C. R., 75: 37, Berkley and others to ——, November 4, 1665.

[48] On April 6, 1666, the king, in response to a petition from the Royal Adventurers, granted to the company a ship called the "Golden Lyon" which had been captured from the Dutch by Sir Robert Holmes in 1664. C. S. P., Col., 1661-1668, p. 370, the king to duke of York, March 28, 1666.

[49] A. C. R., 75: 40.

[50] Ibid., 75: 52.

[51] Ibid., 75: 57. A part of the debts had been incurred on the common seal of the company and part on the personal security of the committee of seven.

[52] A. C. R., 75: 56, 58. An attempt was made to induce the king to pay his subscription. On the other hand, the company owed the king a considerable sum for the ships which it had used from time to time. S. P., Dom., Charles II, 199: 14.

[53] A. C. R., 75: 58.

[54] Ibid., 75: 59.

[55] Ibid., 75: 70.

[56] Ibid., 75: 77.

[57] Ibid., 75: 85, 88.

[58] The duke of Buckingham, however, paid his arrears, which led the duke of York to remark, "I will give the Devil his due, as they say the Duke of Buckingham hath paid in his money to the Company." Pepys, Diary, VIII, 142.

[59] A. C. R., 75: 61.

[60] Ibid., 75: 62, 63.

[61] It seems certain, however, that these men who were interested in the Gambia trade made some other arrangements at that time by means of which a certain amount of goods was sent to that place. A. C. R., 75: 82, 83.

[62] A. C. R., 75: 83.

[63] Ibid., 75: 82.

[64] As opposed to those who were from the king's court.

[65] A. C. R., 75:90, 91.

[66] O. S. P., Dom., 1668-1669, p. 459, August 25, 1669.

[67] A. C. R., 75: 94.

[68] C. O. 268: I, charter of the Royal African Company, September 27, 1672.

[69] In the previous April a bill had been introduced into the House of Lords to incorporate the company by act of Parliament. On account of the various plans under consideration there was no procedure with the bill. L. J. (Journal of the House of Lords), XII: 480; H. M. C. (Historical Manuscripts Commission), report 9, pt. 2, p. 9b; H. L. MSS. (House of Lords, Manuscripts), draft act to incorporate the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa, April 6, 1671.

[70] A. C. R., 75: 101, 102. See also the proposals for a resettlement of the company's affairs in S.P., Dom., Charles II, 67, ff. 341, 342.

[71] A. C. R., 75: 106, 107.

[72] Ibid., 75: 108.

[73] British Husbandry and Trade, II, 14.

[74] A. C. R., 76: 52, the preamble under which the subscriptions were made as amended December 19, 1671, article 4; ibid., 75: 111.

[75] Ibid., 76, October 22, 1674. A report of a committee says that there was about L22,000 of the old subscriptions which had not been paid.

[76] Ibid., 100: 50.

[77] C. O. 268: 1, charter of the Royal African Company, September 27, 1672.

[78] Ibid.

CHAPTER III

ON THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA

In 1660 all the colonial powers of Europe held the west coast of Africa in great esteem, not only because it produced gold, but also because it was regarded as a necessary adjunct to the colonies in the West Indies for the supply of Negro slaves. During their long war with Spain and Portugal the Dutch acquired a large portion of the West African coast, including the main fortress of St. George d'Elmina. This fact led them to regard themselves as having succeeded to the exclusive claims of the Portuguese on the Guinea coast[1]. With this end in view the Dutch agreed in the treaty of August 6, 1661, to return Brazil to the Portuguese as compensation for the forts and settlements which they had seized on the coast of Guinea[2]. Although the Dutch played the most prominent part in depriving the Portuguese of the trade to Guinea, the English, French, Swedes, Danes, and Courlanders, all obtained a minor commerce to Africa which they very jealously guarded. In a country so remote from the laws and civilization of Europe personal quarrels often arose among the subjects of these different nations, who were inclined to obtain what they could by fair means or foul. They magnified these petty quarrels[3] to such an extent that they continually led to international complication.

The European trade in Africa was confined mainly to the regions of the Gold Coast and the Gambia Iver. Near the mouth of the Gambia River the subjects of the duke of Courland had bought an island from the natives in 1651. On this island they built a small fort, called St. Andre, from which they traded to several factories up the river[4]. Besides the Courlanders, the French and the Dutch carried on a very precarious trade on the river. In the early part of 1659, as a result of the war in the northern part of Europe, the duke of Courland became a prisoner of the king of Sweden. Under these circumstances the Amsterdam chamber of the Dutch West India Company[5] induced the Duke's commissioner, Henry Momber, to enter into a contract turning over to it all the duke's possessions in the Gambia River. The Dutch were to maintain the factories and to enjoy the trade until the duke was able to resume possession. The contract was of very doubtful value, since Momber himself admitted that he had no power to make it, but notwithstanding this fact he undertook to carry out its terms[6]. Shortly after the Dutch took possession of the island belonging to the duke of Courland it was surprised and plundered by a French pirate who, in return for a consideration, handed it over to a Groeningen merchant of the Dutch West India Company. The Groeningen chamber of this company was not anxious to retain the island and therefore signified to Momber its willingness to return it to Courland. Momber, who feared to have caused the displeasure of the duke by his contract, was glad to regain the island in June, 1660. Notwithstanding this fact, several ships belonging to the Amsterdam chamber of the West India Company entered the Gambia River and took possession of the island, keeping the Courlanders prisoners for a month. The natives, however, interfered in behalf of the Courlanders and the Dutch were finally compelled to retire to Cape Verde, leaving Otto Steele, the duke's commander, in possession[7].

It was during this state of affairs on the African coast that the Company of Royal Adventurers was organized in England. It received its charter December 18, 1660. In the same month, Captain Robert Holmes sailed from England in command of the five royal ships which composed the first expedition. In March, 1661, he arrived at Cape Verde where he at once informed the Dutch commander that he had orders from Charles II to warn all persons of whatsoever nation that the right of trade and navigation from Cape Verde to the Cape of Good Hope belonged exclusively to the king of England. Holmes ordered the Dutch to vacate their forts and to abandon the coast within six or seven months[8]. Thereupon he seized the island of Boa Vista, one of the Cape Verde group claimed by the Dutch since 1621. Later he sent a frigate into the mouth of the Gambia. Otto Steele, the Courland commander of Fort St. Andre, unable to discern whether friend or foe was approaching, fired upon the frigate. Holmes considered this an insult[9], and two days later sent a note to Steele requiring him to surrender the island to the English within ten days. At first Steele refused to obey, maintaining that the fort was the rightful possession of the duke of Courland. Thereupon Holmes threatened to level the fort to the ground. Steele realized that with so few men and supplies resistance was useless, and therefore he complied with Holmes' demands.[10] The English assumed possession of the island, but after a fire had destroyed nearly all the fort and its magazine,[11] they chose to abandon it, and to settle on two other islands which they named Charles Island and James Island respectively in honor of their royal patrons. In this way the English gained their first possessions in the Gambia River.

When Captain Holmes left England the Dutch ambassadors in London informed the States General that he had gone to the "reviere Guijana" where he would build a fort, establish a trade and search for gold mines. This announcement was immediately sent to the West India Company which had received the more authentic advice that the English ships were on the way to the Gambia River. The West India Company urged that the Dutch ambassadors in London be instructed to inquire more fully as to the purposes of the expedition, and to prevent if possible anything being done to the prejudice of the company.[12] The ambassadors learned that the English maintained that all nations had a right to trade on the Gambia River, and that other nations than the Dutch had forts there.[13] On the other hand, the West India Company maintained that it had traded on the Gambia River ever since its formation and that, since the contract with the duke of Courland, it had been in complete possession of the river.[14] After receiving this statement the States General requested their ambassadors in London to see that the company's forts and lodges in the Gambia River were not disturbed.[15] When the news of Holmes' exploit and his reported warning to the Dutch commander to evacuate the entire African coast reached the United Netherlands, the West India Company at once lodged a complaint with the States General.[16] At their suggestion the Dutch ambassadors obtained an audience with Charles II, who assured them that neither he nor his officers had given any order for the injury which had been done to the subjects of the United Netherlands, much less to possess any of their forts. The king also assured them that, if Holmes had committed any unjust action, he and his officers should be exemplarily punished.[17] Sir George Downing, the English envoy extraordinary at The Hague, further declared that Holmes had very strict instructions not to disturb the subjects of the United Netherlands or those of any other nation, and that, if anything to the contrary had been done, it was without the least authority.[18] Finally on August 14, 1661, Charles II declared to the States General that their friendship was very dear to him and that he would under no circumstances violate the "Droit de Gens."[19] With all this extravagant profession of good will no definite assurance was given the Dutch that the islands of St. Andre and Boa Vista would be restored to them. On August 16, Downing wrote to the earl of Clarendon that the island of St. Andre did not belong to the Dutch at all, but to the duke of Courland, and that an answer to this effect could be returned to the Dutch ambassadors if they objected to Holmes' actions. Furthermore, Downing intimated that the duke could probably be induced to resign his claims to the English.[20]

Meanwhile, Captain Holmes, who was responsible for this unpleasant international complication, had returned from Guinea. Since he suffered no punishment for his violent actions on the African coast except the loss of his salary,[21] the Dutch ambassadors in London reminded the king that on August 14, 1661, he had absolutely disclaimed the proceedings of Holmes.[22] They requested, therefore, that Holmes be called to account for his actions, that Fort St. Andre be restored, that reparation for damages be made, and that in the future the king's subjects observe the laws of nations more regularly.[23] Holmes was ordered before the Privy Council to answer to the charges of the ambassadors,[24] but no effort was made to force him to respond. The duke of York kept him busy with the fleet where he incurred some official displeasure, by failing to require a Swedish ship to strike colors to his Majesty's ships in English seas, and was therefore required to be detained until further order.[25] Having extricated himself from this trouble Holmes finally appeared before the Privy Council in January, 1662,[26] where he offered "many reasons" in justification of his actions in Guinea.[27] He easily satisfied the king and the members of the Privy Council, which is not surprising since many of these men had helped to organize and finance the expedition.

By this time it had become apparent that Charles II did not intend to make immediate restitution of St. Andre to the Dutch. This was in accordance with Downing's advice "to be 6 or 8 months in examining the matter" before making a decision.[28] The longer the English retained possession of the island the less likely the Dutch were to regain it. Finally, the duke of Courland sent a representative, Adolph Wolfratt, to London to insist upon the restitution of his possessions. Originally the English had apparently supported the claims of the duke of Courland, but it developed that they were no more inclined to return St. Andre to the duke of Courland than to the Dutch. The matter dragged on until November 17, 1664, when a contract was made between Charles II and the duke whereby the latter surrendered all his rights on the Gambia River. In return he received certain trading privileges there and the island of Tobago in the West Indies.[29]

When one proceeds from the Cape Verde region to the Gold Coast one finds that Dutch influence was especially strong. From Elmina and other forts the Dutch commanded the largest portion of the trade along this coast. However, the Danes, Swedes and English had long maintained a commerce on the Gold Coast where they also had established a number of factories. In 1658, Hendrik Carloff, an adventurer carrying a Danish commission, attacked and made himself master of Cape Corse which had been in the possession of the Swedes since 1651. After entering into friendly relations with the Dutch at Elmina,[30] Carloff returned to Europe, leaving his lieutenant, Samuel Smits, in charge of the fort. Fearing that the Swedes and the English, who had entered into an alliance, might endeavor to regain Cape Corse, Carloff advised Smits to surrender the fort to Jasper van Heusden, director general of the West India Company on the Gold Coast. The instructions were unnecessary, as Smits had surrendered Cape Corse to the Dutch on April 15, 1659. In return for this fort Smits and one of his compatriots received 5,000 and 4,000 gulden respectively.[31]

At the time when Hendrik Carloff seized Cape Corse the English had there[32] a factory to which they traded from their main fort at Kormentine.[33] On May 1, 1659, very soon after the Dutch obtained possession of the place, the English factory with all its goods was burned by the natives, perhaps at the instigation of the Dutch. The Hollanders, however, were not without misfortunes of their own, for after disavowing Smits' contract, the Danes sent a new expedition to Guinea which seized a hill commanding Cape Corse, on which they built the fort of Fredericksburg. Furthermore, the Swedes who had been dispossessed of Cape Corse by the Danes with the assistance of natives, toward the end of 1660, drove the Dutch out of Cape Corse. Since the Swedes were insignificant in number the fort very shortly fell into the control of the vacillating Negro inhabitants.