first class of forerunners and
coadjutors, as it has been before described. The five next, of whom Samuel
Hoare was chosen as the treasurer, were they who had been the commitee of
the second class, or of the Quakers in England, with the exception of Dr.
Knowles, who was then dying, but who, having heard of our meeting, sent a
message to us, to exhort us to proceed. The third class, of that of the
Quakers in America, may be considered as represented by William Dillwyn, by
whom they were afterwards joined to us in correspondence. The two who stand
next, and in which I am included, may be considered as representing the
fourth, most of the members of which we had been the means of raising.
Thus, on the twenty-second of May 1787, the representatives of all the four
classes, of which I have been giving a history from the year 1516, met
together, and were united in that commitee, to which I have been all along
directing the attention of the reader; a commitee, which, labouring
afterwards with Mr. Wilberforce as a parliamentary head, did, under
Providence, in the space of twenty years, contribute to put an end to a
trade, which, measuring its magnitude, by its crimes and sufferings, was
the greatest practical evil that ever afflicted the human race.

After the formation of the commitee[A], notice was sent to Mr. Wilberforce
of the event, and a friendship began, which has continued uninterruptedly
between them, from that to the present day.

[Footnote A: All the members were of the society of the Quakers, except Mr.
Sharp, Sansom, and myself. Joseph Gurney Bevan was present on the day
before this meeting. He desired to belong to the society, but to be excused
from belonging to the commitee.]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XI.

_The preceding history of the different classes of the forerunners and
coadjutors, to the time of the formation of the commitee, collected into
one view by means of a map--Explanation of this map--and observations upon
it._

As the preceding history of the different classes of the forerunners and
coadjutors, to the time of their junction, or to the formation of the
commitee, as just explained, may be thought interesting by many, I have
endeavoured, by means of the annexed map, so to bring it before the reader,
that he may comprehend the whole of it at a single view.

The figure beginning at A and reaching down to X represents the first class
of forerunners and coadjutors up to th