Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/73

( 39 ) for the sick slaves, but there are no accommodations for them, for they lie on the bare planks. He has seen frequently the prominent parts of their bones about the shoulder-blade and knees bare.

He says he cannot conceive any situation so dreadful and disgusting as that of slaves when ill of the flux: in the Alexander, the deck was covered with blood and mucus, and resembled a slaughter-house. The stench and foul air were intolerable.

The slaves, shackled together, frequently quarrel. In each apartment there are three or four tubs placed for their convenience: those however at a distance find it difficult to get over other slaves to these tubs: sometimes if one wants to go to them, his companion refuses to go with him; if relaxed, he exonerates while disputing over his neighbours. This causes great disturbance.

He has known several slaves on board refuse sustenance with a design to starve themselves. Compulsion was used in every ship he was in to make them take their food. He has known also many instances of their refusing to take medicines when sick, because they wished to die. A woman on board the Alexander, was dejected from the moment she came on board, and refused both food and medicine: being asked by the interpreter what she wanted, she replied, nothing but to die — and she did die. Many other slaves expressed the same wish.

The ships, he says, are fitted up with a view to prevent slaves jumping overboard; notwithstanding which he has known instances of their doing so. In the Alexander two were lost in this way. In the same voyage, near twenty jumped overboard out of the Enterprize, Capt. Wilson, and several from a large Frenchman in Bonny River.

In his first voyage he saw at Bonny, on board the Emilia, a woman chained to the deck, who, the chief mate said, was mad. On his second voyage, there was a woman on board his own ship, whom they were forced to chain at certain times. In a lucid interval she was sold at Jamaica. He ascribes this insanity to their being torn from their connections and country. Doctor