282 Jean Fouchard1780Papers consulted: Affiches Américaines
and Supplément aux Affiches Amé-
ricaines Santo Domingo was still
feeling the effects of the war and of a
blockade which paralysed the arrivals
of slave ships. The gazette still kept
the heading 'Arrivals of shipping'.
Some escorted convoys were de-
scribed as 'coming from France or
'having called at Martinique', or
' coming from the Windward Islands',
but not a single ship is noted as
coming directly from the coasts of
Africa.
Group providing most runaways: Bantu
group (still the Kongos), And among
the runaways there are still more
Bossales than creóles. The number
of runaways noted for the year is
about 1,250.1781Papers consulted: Affiches Américaines
and Supplément aux Affiches Amé-
ricaines (reduced format).
Number of slave-ships: Hostilities con-
tinued and maritime transport still
encountered the same difficulties,
although many merchant ships com-
ing from France arrived under escort
at the Cape and At Port-au-Prince
—veritable caravans, with sometimes
as many as sixty-nine ships anchored
off the Cape at the same time.
The slave trade consisted of a few
ships that managed to get through the
blockade, and of a few neutral ships,
Danish or Spanish for example,
which called at Havana and brought
small consignments of Negroes to
Santo Domingo.
More new names occur among the
runaways: Mandingos, Minas, Mo-
zambicans, Nagos, Thiambas. This
suggests that it had become difficult
to supply slaves, and to provide them
in quantities adequate to the colony's
requirements. Such supply as there
was Santo Domingo owed to the
illicit trade rather than the official
traffic, which had become dangerous
if not impossible.
Kongos are still in the majority
among the runaways, followed by
creolized Bossales no longer labelled
as new Negroes; large numbers of
creóles belonging to Santo Domingo
itself or to the neighbouring West
Indies (Dutch and Spanish Negroes,
creóles from Curaçao and Marti-
nique); and Mississippi Negroes,
together with Nagos, Mandingos,
Ibos and other Bossales given to
escaping.
Another source of supply was the
occasional capture on the high seas.
It is also interesting to reproduce
the announcements in the Affiches
Américaines, which show better than
any commentary the small number
of Negroes arriving in 1781 :
Supplément aux Affiches Améri-
caines, 27 February 1781: 'On
28 February 1781, at the Cape, at the
request of Bernard Lavaud [agent
representing the captains responsible
for the capture], sale and auction of
202 new head from the Gold Coast,
taken from the Diamant of London,
captured from the enemies of the
State by the frigate Saratoga of the
United States of America together
with two frigates, a privateer brig-
antine of Philadelphia and the King's
brigantine the Chat^ Also sale and
auction of the ship Diamant, known
as the Duc de Laval, a slave-ship of
La Rochelle.^1