e knew concerning it, either publicly or
privately, and at any time when he should be called upon to do it. This
answer produced such an effect upon me, after all my former
disappointments, that I felt it all over my frame. It operated like a
sudden shock, which often disables the impressed person for a time. So the
joy I felt rendered me quite useless, as to business, for the remainder of
the day.

I began to perceive in a little time the advantage of having cultivated an
acquaintance with Thompson of the Seven Stars. For nothing could now pass
in Bristol, relative to the seamen employed in this trade, but it was soon
brought to me. If there was any thing amiss, I had so arranged matters that
I was sure to hear of it. He sent for me one day to inform me that several
of the seamen, who had been sent out of Marsh-street into the Prince, which
was then at Kingroad, and on the point of sailing to Africa for slaves,
had, through fear of ill-usage on the voyage, taken the boat and put
themselves on shore. He informed me at the same time that the seamen of the
Africa, which was lying there also and ready to sail on a like voyage, were
not satisfied, for that they had been made to sign their articles of
agreement, without being permitted to see them. To this he added that Mr.
Sheriff, one of the mates of the latter vessel, was unhappy also on this
account. Sheriff had been a mate in the West India trade, and was a
respectable man in his line. He had been enticed by the captain of the
Africa, under the promise of peculiar advantages, to change his voyage.
Having a wife and family at Bristol, he was willing to make a sacrifice on
their account. But when he himself was not permitted to read the articles,
he began to suspect bad work, and that there would be nothing but misery in
the approaching voyage. Thompson entreated me to extricate him, if I could.
He was sure, he said, if he went to the Coast with that man, meaning the
captain, that he would never return alive.

I was very unwilling to refuse any thing to Thompson. I was deeply bound to
him in gratitude for the many services he had rendered me, but I scarcely
saw how I could serve him on this occasion. I promised however, to speak to
him in an hour's time; I consulted my friend Truman Harford in the interim;
and the result was, that he and I should proceed to Kingroad in a boat, go
on board the Africa, and charge the captain in person with what he had
done, and desire him t