Ships
were going occasionally from the port of London to Africa, and why could I
not get on board them and examine for myself? After diligent inquiry, I
heard of one which had just arrived. I found her to be a little
wood-vessel, called the Lively, captain Williamson, or one which traded to
Africa in the natural productions of the country, such as ivory, beeswax,
Malaguetta pepper, palm-oil, and dye-woods. I obtained specimens of some of
these, so that I now became possessed of some of those things of which I
had only read before. On conversing with the mate, he showed me one or two
pieces of the cloth made by the natives, and from their own cotton. I
prevailed upon him to sell me a piece of each. Here new feelings arose, and
particularly when I considered that persons of so much apparent ingenuity,
and capable of such beautiful work as the Africans, should be made slaves,
and reduced to a level with the brute creation. My reflections here on the
better use which might be made of Africa by the substitution of another
trade, and on the better use which might be made of her inhabitants, served
greatly to animate, and to sustain me amidst the labour of my pursuits.
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