Hugh Crow

Captain Hugh Crow (or Crowe; 1765–1829) was an English (Manx) sea voyager, privateer, and slaver. He was captain of several merchant vessels in the African trade; and his Memoirs, posthumously published, are notable for their descriptions of the west coast of Africa.

Quotes

Memoirs of the Late Hugh Crow, of Liverpool (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1830)

• While we lay in the river Mersey a number of men one day came on board, and amongst them was a prepossessing young sailor of apparently about eighteen years of age, named Jack Koberts. This youth drank grog, sang songs, chewed tobacco, enjoyed a yarn, and appeared in all respects, saving the slenderness of his build, like one of ourselves. In a few days, however, we discovered that Jack's true name and designation was Jane Roberts, and a very beautiful young woman she was. She was landed with all possible gentleness, and, I was informed, soon after married a respectable young man. It is remarkable, that about this time several handsome young women committed themselves in the same way, and some probably succeeded in eluding all discovery of their sex, and made a voyage or two to sea.
  • p. 60
• We arrived at Bonny after a pleasant passage, and I found my old friend King Pepple rejoiced to see me. To gratify his majesty I brought him a beautiful figure of a female, about five feet in height, a present with which he was much delighted.
  • pp. 92–93
• Our informant states, that he had the misfortune to witness several human sacrifices during his stay at Calabar, the only part of the coast which he visited, where he was horrified by such barbarous exhibitions. To his credit for humanity, (although he candidly confesses that he has, by fortuitous circumstances, been engaged, as was the author of the foregoing pages, in the slave trade) he on several occasions interfered, but in vain, to save the lives ot the innocent victims thus consigned to a fearful destruction. On seeing a beautiful young female brought down to the beach for execution, he became deeply interested in her fate; and, after all arguments to forbear were found to be unavailing, although he was then poor, he eagerly inquired if the girl might be purchased; in hopes of concluding a bargain, and thus saving her life. The Duke and the populace were, however, headstrong in their purpose, telling him, "No can sell — you no savey we country fash." The poor creature was instantly decapitated. At these executions the sufferers are pinioned, and tied in a sitting posture to a stake driven in the ground; and round their heads, so as to cross their eyes, is fixed a rope, the end of which is held by some bystanders who participate in the sacrifice. The executioner comes up with a leaden-handled sword, and generally at one blow severs the head from the body; when it is instantaneously pulled away by the rope, and; while yet warm, is tossed up in the air, and played with like a ball. If the executioner fail to strike off the head at a blow, the spectators set up a laugh of scorn and disappointment. On another occasion, he witnessed the inhumation of two men alive, and two women from the upcountry. They were put in couples, male and female, into separate holes, and covered with earth. "These terrible sights," he remarks, "put me in a horrible state of feeling. I was nearly fainting. I thought I should have died, and was not myself again for a long time."
  • pp. 279–280