Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/155

 while on the coast in a man-of-war, complained of their ill treatment, bad feeding, and cruel usage. They all wanted to enter on board his ship. It was likewise the custom for the seamen of every ship he saw at a distance, to come on board him with their boats; most of them quite naked, and threatening to turn pirates if he did not take them. This they told him openly. He is persuaded, if he had given them encouragement, and had had a ship-of-the-line to have manned, lie could have done it in a very 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.

That the above are not the only instances of barbarity contained in the evidence, and that this barbarous usage was peculiar to, or springing out of the very nature of the trade in slaves, may be insisted on the following accounts: 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 in the Iris, a vessel trading for wood, gums, and ivory, near which the Nautilus lay for some weeks.

Lieutenant Simpson says that on his first voyage, when lying at Fort Appolonia, the Fly Guineaman was in the roads. On the return of the Adventure's boat from the fort, they were hailed by some seamen belonging to the Fly, requesting that they might be taken from on board the Guineaman, and put on board the man-of-war, for that their treatment was such as to make their lives miserable. The boat, by the direction of Captain Parry, was sent to the Fly, and one or two men were brought on board him. In his second voyage, he recollects that on first seeing the Albion Guineaman, she carried a press of sail, seemingly to avoid them, but finding it impracticable, she spoke them; the day after which the captain of the Albion brought a seaman on board the Adventure, whom he wished to be left there, complaining that he was a very riotous and disorderly man. The man, on the contrary, proved very peaceable and well-behaved, nor was there one single instance of his conduct from which he could suppose he merited the character given him. He seemed to rejoice at