ce about the
introduction of the witnesses, he learnt that the chief mate had been
brought to the bar in the morning, and, no person then appearing against
him, that he had been discharged by proclamation. Such was the end of
all my anxiety and labour in this affair. I was very ill when I received
the letter; but I saw the necessity of bearing up against the
disappointment, and I endeavoured to discharge the subject from my mind
with the following wish, that the narrow escape which the chief mate had
experienced, and which was entirely owing to the accidental
circumstances now explained, might have the effect, under Providence, of
producing in him a deep contrition for his offence, and of awakening him
to a serious attention to his future life[A].

[Footnote A: He had undoubtedly a narrow escape; for Mr. Langdale's
clerk had learnt that he had no evidence to produce in his favour. The
slave-merchants, it seems, had counted most upon bribing those who were
to come against him, to disappear.]

I was obliged to remain in Bristol a few days longer in consequence of
my illness; but as soon as I was able I reached London, when I attended
a sitting of the committee after an absence of more than five months. At
this committee it was strongly recommended to me to publish a second
edition of my _Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_,
and to insert such of the facts in it in their proper places, out of
those collected in my late travels, as I might judge to be productive of
an interesting effect. There appeared, also, an earnest desire in the
committee, that, directly after this, I should begin my _Essay on the
Impolicy of the Slave Trade_.

In compliance with their wishes, I determined upon both these works; but
I resolved to retire into the country, that, by being subject to less
interruption there, I might the sooner finish them. It was proper,
however, that I should settle many things in London before I took my
departure from it; and, among these, that I should find out George
Ormond and Patrick Murray, whom I had sent from Liverpool on account of
the information they had given me relative to the murder of Peter Green.
I saw no better way than to take them before Sir Sampson Wright, who was
then at the head of the police of the metropolis. He examined and
cross-examined them several times, and apart from each other. He then
desired their evidence to be drawn up in the form of depositions, copies
of which h