ntained to the Lords of the Council, who, on receiving it, read it
throughout, and then questioned him upon it.

At this time, also, my brother returned with accounts and papers relative
to the Slave-trade, from Havre de Grace; but as I had pledged myself to
offer no other person to be examined, his evidence was lost. Thus, after
all the pains we had taken, and in a contest, too, on the success of which
our own reputation and the fate of Africa depended, we were obliged to
fight the battle with sixteen less than we could have brought into the
field; while our opponents, on the other hand, on account of their superior
advantages, had mustered all their forces, not having omitted a single man.

I do not know of any period of my life in which I suffered so much both in
body and mind, as from the time of resuming these public inquiries by the
privy council, to the time when they were closed. For I had my weekly duty
to attend at the committee for the abolition during this interval. I had to
take down the examinations of all the evidences who came to London, and to
make certain copies of these. I had to summon these to town, and to make
provision against all accidents; and here I was often troubled by means of
circumstances, which unexpectedly occurred, lest, when committees of the
council had been purposely appointed to hear them, they should not be
forthcoming at the time. I had also a new and extensive correspondence to
keep up; for the tables of questions which had been sent down to our
correspondents, brought letters almost innumerable on this subject, and
they were always addressed to me. These not only required answers of
themselves, but as they usually related to persons capable of giving their
testimony, and contained the particulars of what they could state, they
occasioned fresh letters to be written to others. Hence the writing of ten
or twelve daily became necessary.

But the contents of these letters afforded the circumstances, which gave
birth to so much suffering. They contained usually some affecting tale of
woe. At Bristol my feelings had been harassed by the cruel treatment of the
seamen, which had come to my knowledge there: but now I was doomed to see
this treatment over again in many other melancholy instances; and
additionally to take in the various sufferings of the unhappy slaves. These
accounts I could seldom get time to read till late in the evening, and
sometimes not till midnight, when the letter