ser of their ill
usage, Matthew Pyke not only showed him his arm and his back, but
acquainted him with the murder of Charles Horseler, stating that he had
the instrument of his death in his possession. The purser seemed more
alive to this than to any other circumstance, and wished to get it from
him. Pyke, however, had given it to me. Now what will the reader think,
when he is informed that the purser, after all this knowledge of the
captain's cruelty, sent him out again, and that he was the same person
who was purser of the Brothers, and who had also sent out the captain of
that ship a second time, as has been related, notwithstanding his
barbarities in former voyages!]

This advice, though it was judicious, and founded on a knowledge of law
proceedings, I found it very difficult to adopt. My own disposition was
naturally such, that whatever I engaged in I followed with more than
ordinary warmth. I could not be supposed, therefore, affected and
interested as I then was, to be cool and tranquil on this occasion. And
yet what would my worthy friend have said, if in this first instance I
had opposed him? I had a very severe struggle in my own feelings on this
account. At length, though reluctantly, I obeyed; but as the passions
which agitate the human mind, when it is greatly inflamed, must have a
vent somewhere, or must work off, as it were, or in working together
must produce some new passion or effect, so I found the rage which had
been kindling within me subsiding into the most determined resolutions
of future increased activity and perseverance. I began now to think that
the day was not long enough for me to labour in. I regretted often the
approach of night, which suspended my work, and I often welcomed that of
the morning, which restored me to it. When I felt myself weary, I became
refreshed by the thought of what I was doing; when disconsolate, I was
comforted by it. I lived in hope that every day's labour would furnish
me with that knowledge which would bring this evil nearer to its end;
and I worked on under these feelings, regarding neither trouble nor
danger in the pursuit.

CHAPTER XV.

Author confers with the inhabitants of Bridgewater relative to a
petition to parliament in behalf of the abolition; returns to Bristol;
discovers a scandalous mode of procuring seamen for the Slave Trade,
and of paying them; makes a comparative view of their loss in this and
in other trades; procures imports and expor