Moges, Alphonse Louis Théodore , Comte de Moges

Manuscript 'Notes relatives à la station de la cote d'Afrique. Gorée. July 1820', partly written by Alphonse Louis Théodore Moges, Comte de Moges, and comprising an account of the French colony of Senegal, with special reference to Gorée Island and Albréda, their products, inhabitants and trade. Particular attention is given to the slave trade, and means of suppressing it are suggested. The author makes his observations after a two-year sojourn in the area begun, therefore, soon after Gorée had been restored to France in 1816. He passes antagonistic comments on the English and their trade. The first two paragraphs and the corrections throughout are in the hand of the signatory, Alphonse de Moges; the remainder of the manuscript is in another hand.

Senegal, West Africa, was a French colony until its independence in 1960. The French established a trading port at the mouth of the Senegal river in 1638 and founded Saint-Louis in 1659. Gorée Island, which had previously been occupied by the Portuguese and the Dutch, was claimed by the French in 1677, and served as an outpost for slave trading until the abolition of slavery in 1848. Slaves, gum arabic, ivory and gold were exported from Senegal by Europeans throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Albréda was a trading settlement founded by the French on the north bank of the Gambia river in 1681.

Single item.

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Bought from F. Roux-Devilles in 1957.

Collection level description.

13½" x 8¾"

Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

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