ns linked
together, trying to get rid of each other, crammed in a close vessel
with every object that was nauseous and disgusting, diseased, and
struggling with all the varieties of wretchedness. It seemed impossible
to add anything more to human misery. Yet shocking as this description
must be felt to be by every man, the transportation had been described
by several witnesses from Liverpool to be a comfortable conveyance. Mr.
Norris had painted the accommodations on board a slave-ship in the most
glowing colours. He had represented them in a manner which would have
exceeded his attempts at praise of the most luxurious scenes. Their
apartments, he said, were fitted up as advantageously for them as
circumstances could possibly admit: they had several meals a day; some
of their own country provisions, with the best sauces of African
cookery; and, by way of variety, another meal of pulse, according to the
European taste. After breakfast they had water to wash themselves, while
their apartments were perfumed with frankincense and lime-juice. Before
dinner they were amused after the manner of their country; instruments
of music were introduced; the song and the dance were promoted; games of
chance were furnished them; the men played and sang, while the women and
girls made fanciful ornaments from beads, with which they were
plentifully supplied. They were indulged in all their little fancies,
and kept in sprightly humour. Another of them had said, when the sailors
were flogged, it was out of the hearing of the Africans, lest it should
depress their spirits. He by no means wished to say that such
descriptions were wilful misrepresentations. If they were not, it proved
that interest or prejudice was capable of spreading a film over the eyes
thick enough to occasion total blindness.

Others, however, and these men of the greatest veracity, had given a
different account. What would the house think, when by the concurring
testimony of these the true history was laid open? The slaves who had
been described as rejoicing in their captivity, were so wrung with
misery at leaving their country, that it was the constant practice to
set sail in the night, lest they should know the moment of their
departure. With respect to their accommodation, the right ancle of one
was fastened to the left ancle of another by an iron fetter; and if they
were turbulent, by another on the wrists. Instead of the apartments
described, they were placed in ni