Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/136

( 102 ) Loss among such as are discharged or desert in the West Indies—horrid state of them there.

To confirm the assertion of Captain Hall, of the merchants service, that the crews of Guinea-men generally arrive at their destined ports of sale in a sickly, debilitated state, we may appeal to Captain Hall, of the navy, who asserts that in taking men (while in the West Indies) out of merchant ships for the king's service, he has, in taking a part of the crew of a Guinea ship, whose number then consisted of seventy, been able to select but thirty, who could have been thought capable of serving on board any ships of war, and when those thirty were surveyed by order of the admiral, he was reprimanded for bringing such men into the service, who were more likely to breed distempers than to be of any use, and this at a time when seamen were so much wanted, that almost any thing would have been taken. He adds also that this was not a singular instance, but that it was generally the case; for he had many opportunities between the years 1769 and 1773 of seeing the great distresses of crews of Guinea Ships, when they arrived in the West Indies.

We may appeal also to Captain Smith, of the navy, who asserts that though he may have boarded near twenty of these vessels in the West Indies, for the purpose of impressing men, he was never able to get more than two men. The principal reason was the fear of infection, having seen many of them in a very disordered and ulcerated state.

The assertion also of Captain Hall, of the merchants service, relative to their situation after their arrival at their destined ports of sale, is confirmed by the rest of the evidences in the minutest manner; for the seamen belonging to the slave-vessels are there described, as lying about the wharfs and cranes, or wandering about the streets or islands full of sores and ulcers, by Jeffreys, Dalrymple, Ellison, Morley, Davison, Baillie, Towne, Bowman, H. Ross, Douglas, Simpson, Thompson, and Forster. The epithets also of sickly, emaciated, abject,