I procured also an account of the exports and imports for the year 1786, by
means of which I was enabled to judge of the comparative value of this and
the other trades.
In pursuing another object, which was that of going on board the
slave-ships, and learning their construction and dimensions, I was greatly
struck, and indeed affected, by the appearance of two little sloops, which
were fitting out for Africa, the one of only twenty-five tons, which was
said to be destined to carry seventy; and the other of only eleven, which
was said to be destined to carry thirty slaves. I was told also that which
was more affecting, namely, that these were not to act as tenders on the
coast, by going up and down the rivers, and receiving three or four slaves
at a time, and then carrying them to a large ship, which was to take them
to the West Indies, but that it was actually intended, that they should
transport their own slaves themselves; that one if not both of them were,
on their arrival in the West Indies, to be sold as pleasure-vessels, and
that the seamen belonging to them were to be permitted to come home by what
is usually called the run.
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