Page:Trials of the Slave Traders Samo, Peters and Tufft (1813).pdf/47

 that the proprietors of Bance island had written to Mr. Wheeler, their acting agent, expressing their desire that their black people should be no longer treated us slaves,and should be allowed to live at liberty on any of the islands around Bance island, and to subsist by their industry on lands, and to live in the houses belonging to their late masters. It was given in evidence that this letter had been read to Peters and Tufft, but they had kept it secret from the negroes, which clearly manifested their intention of treating them and disposing of them as slaves.

Sierra Leone, August 18, 1812.

If my former letter excited expectation, I hope it may not be disappointed by this. You have now before you the novel trials recently concluded in this colony; many important reflections will very naturally be suggested to you on this subject; but as I out on the spot, and have had my mind attentively occupied on the present condition of this part of Africa, you will not consider the remarks which I am about to make either obtrusive or out of time.

It seems to me, that no person in England of common curiosity, or habits of thinking, can pass over these trials without pleasing and serious sensations. We are here presented with a scene interesting in an unusual degree. In the case of the pardoned slave trader, we see the apprehension of a man, who had for upwards of sixteen years been in the constant practice of bartering and transporting his fellow-creatures for rum, tobacco, and gun powder. This is an object that cannot be indifferent to the coldest heart. Figure to yourself this man brought to the tribunal of justice. and there pleading innocence. Observe the progress of the evidence, and hear how slave