In my first movements about this city, I found that people talked very
openly on the subject of the Slave-trade. They seemed to be well acquainted
with the various circumstances belonging to it. There were facts, in short,
in every body's mouth, concerning it; and every body seemed to execrate it
though no one thought of its abolition. In this state of things I perceived
course was obvious for I had little else to do, in pursuing two or three of
my objects, than to trace the foundation of those reports which were in
circulation.
On the third of July I heard that the ship Brothers [A], then lying in
King-road for Africa, could not get her seamen, and that a party which had
been put on board, becoming terrified by the prospect of their situation,
had left her on Sunday morning. On inquiring further, I found that those
who had navigated her on her last voyage, thirty-two of whom had died, had
been so dreadfully used by the captain, that he could not get hands in the
present. It was added, that the treatment of seamen was a crying evil in
this trade, and that consequently few would enter into it, so that there
was at all times a great difficulty in procuring them, though they were
ready enough to enter into other trades.
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