t
previously to the meeting of the council, and to try to interest him, as
the first minister of state, in our favour. For this purpose Mr.
Wilberforce had opened the way for me, and an interview took place. We were
in free conversation together for a considerable time, during which we went
through most of the branches of the subject. Mr. Pitt appeared to me to
have but little knowledge of it. He had also his doubts, which he expressed
openly, on many points. He was at a loss to conceive how private interest
should not always restrain the master of the slave from abusing him. This
matter I explained to him as well as I could; and if he was not entirely
satisfied with my interpretation of it, he was at lease induced to believe
that cruel practices were more probable than he had imagined. A second
circumstance, of the truth of which he doubted, was the mortality and usage
of seamen in this trade; and a third was the statement, by which so much
had been made of the riches of Africa, and of the genius and abilities of
her people; for he seemed at a loss to comprehend, if these things were so,
how it had happened that they should not have been more generally noticed
before. I promised to satisfy him upon these points, and an interview was
fixed for this purpose the next day.

At the time appointed I went with my books, papers, and African
productions. Mr. Pitt examined the former himself. He turned over leaf
after leaf, in which the copies of the muster-rolls were contained, with
great patience; and when he had looked over above a hundred pages
accurately, and found the name of every seaman inserted, his former abode
or service, the time of his entry, and what had become of him, either by
death, discharge or desertion, he expressed his surprise at the great pains
which had been taken in this branch of the inquiry, and confessed, with
some emotion, that his doubts were wholly removed with respect to the
destructive nature of this employ; and he said, moreover, that the facts
contained in these documents, if they had been but fairly copied, could
never be disproved. He was equally astonished at the various woods and
other productions of Africa, but most of all at the manufactures of the
natives in cotton, leather, gold, and iron, which were laid before him.
These he handled and examined over and over again. Many sublime thoughts
seemed to rush in upon him at once at the sight of these, some of which he
expressed with observatio