ts.--Examines the
construction and admeasurement of slave ships; of the Fly and
Neptune.--Difficulty of procuring evidence.--Case of Gardiner, of the
Pilgrim; of Arnold, of the Ruby; some particulars of the latter in his
former voyages.

Having heard by accident that the inhabitants of the town of Bridgewater
had sent a petition to the House of Commons, in the year 1785, for the
abolition of the Slave Trade, as has been related in a former part of
the work, I determined, while my feelings were warm, to go there, and to
try to find out those who had been concerned in it, and to confer with
them as the tried friends of the cause. The time seemed to me to be
approaching when the public voice should be raised against this enormous
evil. I was sure that it was only necessary for the inhabitants of this
favoured island to know it to feel a just indignation against it.
Accordingly I set off. My friend George Fisher, who was before mentioned
to have been of the religious Society of the Quakers, gave me an
introduction to the respectable family of Ball, which was of the same
religious persuasion. I called upon Mr. Sealey, Anstice, Crandon, Chubb,
and others. I laid open to those whom I saw, the discoveries I had made
relative to the loss and ill treatment of seamen; at which they seemed
to be much moved; and it was agreed that if it should be thought a
proper measure, (of which I would inform them when I had consulted the
committee,) a second petition should be sent to Parliament from the
inhabitants, praying for the abolition of the Slave Trade. With this
view I left them several of my _Summary View_, before mentioned, to
distribute, that the inhabitants might know more particularly the nature
of the evil, against which they were going to complain. On my return to
Bristol, I determined to inquire into the truth of the reports that
seamen had an aversion to enter, and that they were inveigled, if not
often forced, into this hateful employment. For this purpose I was
introduced to a landlord of the name of Thompson, who kept a
public-house called the Seven Stars. He was a very intelligent man, was
accustomed to receive sailors when discharged at the end of their
voyages, and to board them till their vessels went out again, or to find
them births in others. He avoided, however, all connexion with the Slave
Trade, declaring that the credit of his house would be ruined if he were
known to send those, who put themselves under his c