l on this great question: and when this was perceived
to be the case, it was the opinion of Mr. Pitt, Mr. Grenville, and the
Bishop of London, that we should send three or four of our own evidences
for examination, who might help to restore matters to an equilibrium.
Accordingly, Mr. Falconbridge, and some others, all of whom were to
speak to the African part of the subject, were introduced. These
produced a certain weight in the opposite scale. But soon after these
had been examined, Dr. Andrew Spaarman, professor of physic, and
inspector of the museum of the royal academy at Stockholm, and his
companion, C.B. Wadstrom, chief director of the assay-office there,
arrived in England. These gentlemen had been lately sent to Africa by
the late king of Sweden, to make discoveries in botany, mineralogy, and
other departments of science. For this purpose the Swedish ambassador at
Paris had procured them permission from the French government to visit
the countries bordering on the Senegal, and had insured them protection
there. They had been conveyed to the place of their destination, where
they had remained from August 1787, to the end of January 1788; but
meeting with obstacles which they had not foreseen, they had left it,
and had returned to Havre de Grace, from whence they had just arrived in
London, on their way home. It so happened, that by means of George
Harrison, one of our committee, I fell in unexpectedly with these
gentlemen. I had not long been with them, before I perceived the great
treasure I had found. They gave me many beautiful specimens of African
produce. They showed me their journals, which they had regularly kept
from day to day. In these I had the pleasure of seeing a number of
circumstances minuted down, all relating to the Slave Trade, and even
drawings on the same subject. I obtained a more accurate and
satisfactory knowledge of the manners and customs of the Africans from
these, than from all the persons put together whom I had yet seen. I was
anxious, therefore, to take them before the committee of council, to
which they were pleased to consent; and as Dr. Spaarman was to leave
London in a few days, I procured him an introduction first. His evidence
went to show, that the natives of Africa lived in a fruitful and
luxuriant country, which supplied all their wants, and that they would
be a happy people, if it were not for the existence of the Slave Trade.
He instanced wars which he knew to have been mad