8. Cannibalism was described in The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1736
According to the July, 1736 edition of The Gentleman’s Magazine, published in London, the slave ship Mary was lost at sea in late 1735, and eight survivors in a ship’s boat were gradually reduced to but two. The ship spent several months in African waters and the Cape Verde Islands before sailing for Lisbon, laden with slaves and ivory, with its first officer in command following the death of the captain at Cutchoe in Guinea. The ship sank while underway to Portugal, and eight survivors escaped in the boat, minimally provisioned, with little idea of where they were and less of which direction to sail. They drifted for several days.
According to the account, they decided by vote to kill one of the company, “whom we accordingly killed out of pure necessity, and cut his flesh into small pieces dipped it in salt water, and hung it up to dry in the sun”. It wasn’t enough. “And thus we were forced to do with four more of the crew out of eight”. The sixth victim was killed to prevent him from killing one of the two men who survived and reported the incident to the authorities. The last two men were rescued by a vessel which put them ashore in Barbados, where they delivered the tale to local authorities. The Gentleman’s Magazine did not recount what happened to the two survivors who delivered the harrowing tale beyond their arrival at Barbados.