82.] [Footnote 16: William Snelgrave, _A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea and the Slave Trade_ (London, 1734), pp.

8-32.] [Footnote 17: Moore, p.

157.] Instead of jogging along the coast, as many had been accustomed to do, and casting anchor here and there upon sighting signal smokes raised by natives who had slaves to sell,[18] the separate traders began before the close of the colonial period to get their slaves from white factors at the "castles," which were then a relic from the company regime.

So advantageous was this that in 1772 a Newport brig owned by Colonel Wanton cleared L500 on her voyage, and next year the sloop _Adventure_, also of Newport, Christopher and George Champlin owners, made such speedy trade that after losing by death one slave out of the ninety-five in her cargo she landed the remainder in prime order at Barbados and sold them immediately in one lot at L35 per head.[19] [Footnote 18: Snelgrave, introduction.] [Footnote 19: Massachusetts Historical Society _Collections_, LXIX, 398, 429.] In Lower Guinea the Portuguese held an advantage, partly through the influence of the Catholic priests.

The Capuchin missionary Merolla, for example, relates that while he was in service at the mouth of the Congo in 1685 word came that the college of cardinals had commanded the missionaries in Africa to combat the slave trade.