nds
in the House of Commons, and this from day to day, to procure their favour
towards it. Lord Newhaven was applied to, and distributed some. Lord
Balgonie (now Leven) took a similar charge. The late Lord Hawke, who told
me that he had long felt for the sufferings of the injured Africans,
desired to be permitted to take his share of the distribution among members
of the House of Lords, and Dr. Porteus, now bishop of London, became
another coadjutor in the same work.
This distribution of my books having been consigned to proper hands, I
began to qualify myself, by obtaining further knowledge, for the management
of this great cause. As I had obtained the principal part of it from
reading, I thought I ought now to see what could be seen, and to know from
living persons what could be known, on the subject. With respect to the
first of these points, the river Thames presented itself as at hand. Ships
were going occasionally from the port of London to Africa, and why could I
not get on board them and examine for myself? After diligent inquiry, I
heard of one which had just arrived. I found her to be a little
wood-vessel, called the Lively, captain Williamson, or one which traded to
Africa in the natural productions of the country, such as ivory, beeswax,
Malaguetta pepper, palm-oil, and dye-woods. I obtained specimens of some of
these, so that I now became possessed of some of those things of which I
had only read before. On conversing with the mate, he showed me one or two
pieces of the cloth made by the natives, and from their own cotton. I
prevailed upon him to sell me a piece of each. Here new feelings arose, and
particularly when I considered that persons of so much apparent ingenuity,
and capable of such beautiful work as the Africans, should be made slaves,
and reduced to a level with the brute creation. My reflections here on the
better use which might be made of Africa by the substitution of another
trade, and on the better use which might be made of her inhabitants, served
greatly to animate, and to sustain me amidst the labour of my pursuits.
The next vessel I boarded was the Fly, captain Colley:--Here I found myself
for the first time on the deck of a slave-vessel.--The sight of the rooms
below and of the gratings above, and of the barricade across the deck, and
the explanation of the uses of all these, filled me both with melancholy
and horror. I found soon afterwards a fire of indignation kindling within
me.
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