Captain Canot

Canot, by Brantz Mayer and
Theodore Canot

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Title: Captain Canot or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
Author: Brantz Mayer Theodore Canot
Release Date: October 14, 2007 [EBook #23034]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CANOT ***

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[Illustration:

CAPTAIN CANOT
OR
TWENTY YEARS OF AN AFRICAN SLAVER
D. APPLETON & CO.]

CAPTAIN CANOT;
OR,
TWENTY YEARS OF AN AFRICAN SLAVER
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF
HIS CAREER AND ADVENTURES ON THE COAST, IN THE
INTERIOR, ON SHIPBOARD, AND IN THE WEST INDIES.
WRITTEN OUT AND EDITED FROM THE
Captain's Journals, Memoranda and Conversations,
BY
BRANTZ MAYER.
NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 846 & 848
BROADWAY. LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN. M.DCCC.LIV.

[Illustration: MANDINGO CHIEF AND HIS SWORD BEARER.]

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
BRANTZ MAYER,

in the Clerk's Office of the United States District Court for the District
of Maryland.

TO
N. P. WILLIS,
OF IDLEWILD.
MY DEAR WILLIS,
While inscribing this work with your name, as a testimonial of our long,
unbroken friendship, you will let me say, I am sure, not only how, but
why I have written it.
About a year ago I was introduced to its hero, by Dr. James Hall, the
distinguished founder and first governor of our colony at Cape Palmas.
While busy with his noble task in Africa, Dr. Hall accidentally became
acquainted with Captain Canot, during his residence at Cape Mount,
and was greatly impressed in his favor by the accounts of all who knew
him. Indeed,--setting aside his career as a slaver,--Dr. Hall's
observation convinced him that Canot was a man of unquestionable
integrity. The zeal, moreover, with which he embraced the first
opportunity, after his downfall, to mend his fortunes by honorable
industry in South America, entitled him to respectful confidence. As
their acquaintance ripened, my friend gradually drew from the
wanderer the story of his adventurous life, and so striking were its
incidents, so true its delineations of African character, that he advised
the captain to prepare a copious memorandum, which I should write out
for the public.
Let me tell you why I undertook this task; but first, let me assure you
that, entertaining as the story might have been for a large class of
readers, I would not have composed a line for the mere gratification of
scandalous curiosity. My conversations with Canot satisfied me that his
disclosures were more thoroughly candid than those of any one who
has hitherto related his connection with the traffic. I thought that the

evidence of one who, for twenty years, played the chief part in such a
drama, was of value to society, which, is making up its mind, not only
about a great political and domestic problem, but as to the nature of the
race itself. I thought that a true picture of aboriginal Africa,--unstirred
by progress,--unmodified by reflected civilization,--full of the
barbarism that blood and tradition have handed down from the
beginning, and embalmed in its prejudices, like the corpses of
Egypt,--could not fail to be of incalculable importance to
philanthropists who regard no people as beyond the reach of
enlightenment.
The completed task rises before me like a moving panorama whose
scenery and background are the ocean and tropics, and whose principal
actor combines the astuteness of Fouché with the dexterity of Gil Blas.
I have endeavored to set forth his story as plainly as possible, letting
events instead of descriptions develope a chequered life which was
incessantly connected with desperate men of both colors. As he
unmasked his whole career, and gave me leave to use the incidents, I
have not dared to hide what the actor himself displayed no wish to
conceal. Besides the sketches of character which familiarize us with the
aboriginal negro in Africa, there is a good moral in the resultless life,
which, after all its toils, hazards, and successes leaves the adventurer a
stranded wreck in the prime of manhood. One half the natural capacity,
employed industriously in lawful commerce, would have made the
captain comfortable and independent. Nor is there much to attract in the
singular abnegation of civilized happiness in a slaver's career. We may
not be surprised, that such an animal as Da Souza, who is portrayed in
these