, then lying in
King-road for Africa, could not get her seamen, and that a party which had
been put on board, becoming terrified by the prospect of their situation,
had left her on Sunday morning. On inquiring further, I found that those
who had navigated her on her last voyage, thirty-two of whom had died, had
been so dreadfully used by the captain, that he could not get hands in the
present. It was added, that the treatment of seamen was a crying evil in
this trade, and that consequently few would enter into it, so that there
was at all times a great difficulty in procuring them, though they were
ready enough to enter into other trades.

[Footnote A: I abstain from mentioning the names of the captain of this or
of other vessels, lest the recording of them should give pain to relatives
who can have had no share in their guilt.]

The relation of these circumstances made me acquainted with two things, of
which I had not before heard; namely, the aversion of seamen to engage, and
the bad usage of them when engaged, in this cruel trade; into both which I
determined immediately to inquire.

I conceived that it became me to be very cautious about giving ear too
readily to reports; and therefore, as I could easily learn the truth of one
of the assertions which had been made to me, I thought it prudent to
ascertain this, and to judge, by the discovery I should make concerning it,
what degree of credit might be due to the rest. Accordingly, by means of my
late friend, Truman Harford, the eldest son of the respectable family of
that name, to which I have already mentioned myself to have been
introduced, I gained access to the muster-roll of the ship Brothers. On
looking over the names of her last crew, I found the melancholy truth
confirmed, that thirty-two of them had been placed among the dead.

Having ascertained this circumstance, I became eager to inquire into the
truth of the others, but more particularly of the treatment of one of the
seamen, which, as it was reported to me, exceeded all belief. His name was
John Dean; he was a Black man, but free. The report was, that for a
trifling circumstance, for which he was in no-wise to blame, the captain
had fastened him with his belly to the deck, and that, in this situation,
he had poured hot pitch upon his back, and made incisions in it with hot
tongs.

Before, however, I attempted to learn the truth of this barbarous
proceeding, I thought I would look into the ship's must