Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/61

( 31 ), in the hearing of Willy Honesty, who immediately exclaimed, "Captain, if you will give me that man, to cut off his head, I will give you the best man in my canoe, and you shall be slaved the first ship." The captain upon this looked into Willy Honesty's canoe, picked his man, and delivered the other in his stead, when his head was immediately struck off in Mr. Millar's sight.

Mr. Millar believes, that some other cruelties, besides this particular act, were done, because he saw blood on the starboard side of the mizen-mast, though he does not recollect seeing any bodies from whence the blood might come; and others in other ships, because he heard several muskets or pistols fired from them at the same time. This affair might last ten minutes. He remembers a four-pounder fired at a canoe, but knows not if any damage was done.

As to other acts of injustice on the part of the Europeans, some consider frauds, (says Mr. Newton) as a necessary branch of the slave trade. They put false heads into powder casks; cut off two or three yards from the middle of a piece of cloth; adulterate their spirits, and steal back articles given. Besides these, there are others who pay in bottles, which contain but half the contents of the samples shewn (Wadstrom), use false steelyards and weights, (Bowman) and sell such guns as burst on firing, so that many of the natives of the Windward coast, are without their fingers and thumbs on this account, (Lieut. Storey) and it has become a saying, " That these guns kill more out of the butt than the muzzle," (Falconbridge).

Mr. Dalrymple, while at Goree, remembers a ship attempting to sail out of the bay with a number of slaves, without paying for them, but she was stopped by the guns of the fort. C H A P.