Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/146

( 112 ) he had given them encouragement, and had had a ship of the line to have manned, he could have done it in a short time, for they would all have left their ships. He has also received several seamen on board his ship from the woods, where they had no subsistence, but to which they had fled for refuge from their respective vessels.

This Usage peculiar to or springing out of the very Nature of the Trade in Slaves.

That the above are not the only instances of barbarity contained in the evidence, and that this barbarous usage is peculiar to, or springing out of the very nature of the trade in slaves, maybe insisted on from the following accounts:

Captain Hall, (of the merchants service) believes the seamen are in general treated with great barbarity in the slave-ships, and he does not know of their being ill treated in any other service.

Captain Thompson concludes, from the many complaints he received from seamen, while on the coast, that they are far from being well treated on board the slave-ships. One Bowden swam from the Fisher, of Liverpool, Captain Kendal, to the Nautilus, amidst a number of sharks, to claim his protection. Kendal wrote for the man, who refused to return, saying his life would be endangered. He therefore kept him in the Nautilus till she was paid off, and found him a diligent, willing, active seaman. Several of the crew, he thinks, of the Brothers, of Liverpool, Captain Clark, swam towards the Nautilus, when passing by. Two only reached her. The rest, he believes, regained their own ship. The majority of the crew had the day before come on board the Nautilus in a boat to complain of ill usage, but he had returned them with an officer to inquire into and redress their complaints. He received many letters from seamen in slave-ships, complaining of ill usage, and desiring him to protect them, or take them on board. He is inclined to think, that ships trading in the produce of Africa, are not so ill used as those in the slave-ships. Several of his own officers gave him the best accounts of the treatment