Also kaffle. [ad. Arab. qāfilah caravan, travelling company; see CAFILA.] A train of men or beasts fastened together; spec. a gang of slaves chained and driven along together.
1799. Mungo Park, Trav. Africa, 190. A coffle of fourteen asses loaded with salt. Ibid., 192. I was met by a coffle of slaves about seventy in number.
1849. Whittier, Poems, Chr. Slave, xiv. The black slave-ship’s foul and loathsome hell, And coffle’s weary chain.
1873. Hale, In His Name, vi. 60/1. Andre came leading along the coffle of horses.
1880. Life Livingstone (L. M. S.), vi. 59. One who drove his coffle of slaves from the interior to the Portuguese settlements.
