their condition. But
this had nothing to do with the question then before them. The manner of
procuring slaves in Africa was the great evil to be remedied. Africa was
to be stripped of its inhabitants to supply a population for the West
Indies. There was a Dutch proverb, which said, "My son; get money,
honestly if you can--but get money:" or, in other words, "Get slaves,
honestly if you can--but get slaves." This was the real grievance; and
the two honourable gentlemen, by confining their observations to the
West Indies, had entirely overlooked it.

Though this evil had been fully proved, he could not avoid stating to
the House some new facts, which had come to his knowledge as a director
of the Sierra Leone Company, and which would still further establish it.
The consideration, that they had taken place since the discussion of the
last year on this subject, obliged him to relate them.

Mr. Falconbridge, agent to the Company, sitting one evening in Sierra
Leone, heard a shout, and immediately afterwards the report of a gun.
Fearing an attack, he armed forty of the settlers, and rushed with them
to the place from whence the noise came. He found a poor wretch, who had
been crossing from a neighbouring village, in the possession of a party
of kidnappers, who were tying his hands. Mr. Falconbridge, however,
dared not rescue him, lest, in the defenceless state of his own town,
retaliation might be made upon him.

At another time a young woman, living half a mile off, was sold, without
any criminal charge, to one of the slave-ships. She was well acquainted
with the agent's wife, and had been with her only the day before. Her
cries were heard; but it was impossible to relieve her.

At another time a young lad, one of the free settlers who went from
England, was caught by a neighbouring chief, as he was straggling alone
from home, and sold for a slave. The pretext was, that some one in the
town of Sierra Leone had committed an offence. Hence the first person
belonging to it, who could be seized, was to be punished. Happily the
free settlers saw him in his chains; and they recovered him, before he
was conveyed to the ship.

To mark still more forcibly the scenes of misery, to which the Slave
Trade gave birth, he would mention a case stated to him in a letter by
King Naimbanna. It had happened to respectable person, in no less than
three instances, to have some branches of his family kidnapped, and
carried off to the West I