Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/69

( 35 ) gratings, they would fly to the hatchway with all the signs of terror, and dread of suffocation. Many of them he has seen in a dying state, but some have recovered by being brought hither, or on the deck; others were irrecoverably lost, by suffocation, having had no previous signs of indisposition.

Mr. Falconbridge also states on this head, that when employed in stowing the slaves he made the most of the room and wedged them in. They had not so much room as a man in his coffin either in length or breadth. It was impossible for them to turn or shift with any degree of ease. He had often occasion to go from one side of their rooms to the other, in which case he always took off his shoes, but could not avoid pinching them; he has the marks on his feet where they bit and scratched him. In every voyage when the ship was full they complained of heat and want of air. Confinement in this situation was so injurious, that he has known them go down apparently in good health at night and found dead in the morning. On his last voyage he opened a stout man who so died. He found the contents of the thorax and abdomen healthy, and therefore concludes he died of suffocation in the night.

He was never among them for ten minutes below together, but his shirt was as wet as if dipt [sic] in water.

One of his ships, the Alexander, coming out of Bonny, got aground on the bar, and was detained there six or seven days, with a great swell and heavy rain. At this time the air ports were obliged to be shut, and part of the gratings on the weather side covered: almost all the men slaves were taken ill with the flux. The last time he went down to see them it was so hot that he took off his shirt. More than twenty of them had then fainted, or were fainting. He got, however, several of them hawled [sic] on deck. Two or three of these died, and most of the rest before they reached the West Indies. He was down only about fifteen minutes, and became so ill by it that he could not get up without help, and was disabled (the dysentery seizing him also) from doing duty the rest of the passage. On board the same ship he has known E 2