ttle knowledge of it. He had also his doubts, which
he expressed openly, on many points. He was at a loss to conceive how
private interest should not always restrain the master of the slave from
abusing him. This matter I explained to him as well as I could; and if
he was not entirely satisfied with my interpretation of it, he was at
least induced to believe that cruel practices were more probable than he
had imagined. A second circumstance, of the truth of which he doubted,
was the mortality and usage of seamen in this trade; and a third was the
statement by which so much had been made of the riches of Africa, and of
the genius and abilities of her people; for he seemed at a loss to
comprehend, if these things were so, how it happened that they should
not have been more generally noticed before. I promised to satisfy him
upon these points, and an interview was fixed for this purpose the next
day.

At the time appointed, I went with my books, papers, and African
productions. Mr. Pitt examined the former himself. He turned over leaf
after leaf, in which the copies of the muster-rolls were contained, with
great patience; and when he had looked over above a hundred pages
accurately, and found the name of every seaman inserted, his former
abode or service, the time of his entry, and what had become of him,
either by death, discharge, or desertion, he expressed his surprise at
the great pains which had been taken in this branch of the inquiry; and
confessed, with some emotion, that his doubts were wholly removed with
respect to the destructive nature of this employ; and he said, moreover,
that the facts contained in these documents, if they had been but fairly
copied, could never be disproved. He was equally astonished at the
various woods and other productions of Africa, but most of all at the
manufactures of the natives in cotton, leather, gold, and iron, which
were laid before him. These he handled and examined over and over again.
Many sublime thoughts seemed to rush in upon him at once at the sight of
these, some of which he expressed with observations becoming a great and
a dignified mind. He thanked me for the light I had given him on many of
the branches of this great question. And I went away under a certain
conviction that I had left him much impressed in our favour.

My next visit was to Mr. (afterwards Lord) Grenville. I called upon him
at the request of Mr. Wilberforce, who had previously written to him
from Ba