of Africa to a state of slavery, he handled it in the following
manner:--

He would begin, he said, with the first boundary of the trade. Captain
Wilson and Captain Hills, of His Majesty's navy, and Mr. Dalrymple, of
the land service, had concurred in stating, that in the country
contiguous to the river Senegal, when slave-ships arrived there, armed
parties were regularly sent out in the evening, who scoured the country,
and brought in their prey. The wretched victims were to be seen in the
morning bound back to back in the huts on shore, whence they were
conveyed, tied hand and foot, to the slave-ships. The design of these
ravages was obvious, because, when the Slave Trade was stopped, they
ceased. Mr. Kiernan spoke of the constant depredations by the Moors to
procure slaves. Mr. Wadstrom confirmed them. The latter gentleman showed
also that they were excited by presents of brandy, gunpowder, and such
other incentives; and that they were not only carried on by one
community against another, but that the kings were stimulated to
practise them in their territories, and on their own subjects: and in
one instance a chieftain, who, when intoxicated, could not resist the
demands of the slave merchants, had expressed, in a moment of reason, a
due sense of his own crime, and had reproached his Christian seducers.
Abundant also were the instances of private rapine. Individuals were
kidnapped, whilst in their fields and gardens. There was an universal
feeling of distrust and apprehension there. The natives never went any
distance from home without arms; and when Captain Wilson asked them the
reason of it, they pointed to a slave-ship then lying within sight.

On the windward coast, it appeared from Lieutenant Story and Mr. Bowman,
that the evils just mentioned existed, if possible, in a still higher
degree. They had seen the remains of villages, which had been burnt,
whilst the fields of corn were still standing beside them, and every
other trace of recent desolation. Here an agent was sent to establish a
settlement in the country, and to send to the ships such slaves as he
might obtain. The orders he received from his captain were, that "he was
to encourage the chieftains by brandy and gunpowder to go to war, to
make slaves." This he did. The chieftains performed their part in
return. The neighbouring villages were surrounded and set on fire in the
night. The inhabitants were seized when making their escape; and, being
brough