On asking the seller of the instruments,
on what occasion it was used there, he replied, that the slaves were
frequently so sulky, as to shut their mouths against all sustenance, and
this with a determination to die; and that it was necessary their mouths
should be forced open to throw in nutriment, that they who had purchased
them might incur no loss by their death.
The town's talk of Liverpool was much of the same nature as that at Bristol
on the subject of this trade. Horrible facts concerning it were in every
body's mouth. But they were more numerous, as was likely to be the case,
where eighty vessels were employed from one port, and only eighteen from
the other. The people too at Liverpool seemed to be more hardened, or they
related them with more coldness or less feeling. This may be, accounted
for, from the greater number of those facts, as just related, the mention
of which, as it was of course more frequent, occasioned them to lose their
power of exciting surprise. All this I thought in my favour, as I should
more easily, or with less obnoxiousness, come to the knowledge of what I
wanted to obtain.
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