ake our leave of the _first receivers_. Their crime has
been already estimated; and to reason farther upon it, would be
unnecessary. For where the conduct of men is so manifestly impious,
there can be no need, either of a single argument or a reflection; as
every reader of sensibility will anticipate them in his own feelings.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 056: It is universally allowed, that at least one fifth of the
exported negroes perish in the passage. This estimate is made from the
time in which they are put on board, to the time when they are disposed
of in the colonies. The French are supposed to lose the greatest number
in the voyage, but particularly from this circumstance, because their
slave ships are in general so very large, that many of the slaves that
have been put on board sickly, die before the cargo can be completed.]

[Footnote 057: This instance happened in a ship, commanded by one
Collingwood. On the 29th of November, 1781, fifty-four of them were
thrown into the sea alive; on the 30th forty-two more; and in about
three days afterwards, twenty-six. Ten others, who were brought upon the
deck for the same purpose, did not wait to be hand-cuffed, but bravely
leaped into the sea, and shared the fate of their companions. It is a
fact, that the people on board this ship had not been put upon short
allowance. The excuse which this execrable wretch made on board for his
conduct, was the following, "_that if the slaves, who were then
sickly, had died a natural death, the loss would have been the owners;
but as they were thrown alive into the sea, it would fall upon the
underwriters_."]

[Footnote 058: This gentleman is at present resident in England. The
author of this Essay applied to him for some information on the
treatment of slaves, so far as his own knowledge was concerned. He was
so obliging as to furnish him with the written account alluded to,
interspersed only with such instances, as he himself could undertake to
answer for. The author, as he has never met with these instances before,
and as they are of such high authority, intends to transcribe two or
three of them, and insert them in the fourth chapter. They will be found
in inverted commas.]

* * * * *

CHAP. III.

When the wretched Africans are thus put into the hands of the _second
receivers_, they are conveyed to the plantations, where they are