Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/6

iv This Abstract then is made up from the evidence of the latter, in which little other alteration has been made than that of bringing things on the same point into one chapter, which before lay scattered in different parts of the evidence; and this has been done to enable the reader to see every branch of the subject in a clear and distinct shape.

The evidence for Africa and the Middle Passage, on the side of the Petitioners of Great Britain, is given by persons, who have been to almost all the conspicuous parts of Africa, from the River Senegal to Angola. Many of them have had great opportunities of information, from having been resident on shore, or having been up and down the different rivers, or from having made each of them several voyages. Among these, as well as among those who have only had the opportunity perhaps of a single voyage, are to be reckoned several respectable persons of education, observation, and leisure, and it is to be observed, that the information of the whole goes to things at different periods from the year 1754 to 1789. The evidences again for the West Indies and America are numerous and respectable. Many of them have had the advantage of being resident there for years, and the information which they have given, extends to things as they were at various times from 1753 to 1790. Of all these it must be said, that they are totally disinterested persons and therefore can have had nothing to biass [sic] them either one way or the other in the evidence they have given. The editor, on