But besides these
draw-backs from the weight of the testimony which had been given, it began
to be perceived by some of the lords of the council, that the cruel
superstitions which, had been described, obtained only in one or two
countries in Africa, and these of insignificant extent; whereas at the
time, when their minds were carried away as it were by their feelings, they
had supposed them to attach to the whole of that vast continent. They
perceived also, that there were circumstances related in the evidence by
the delegates themselves, by means of which, if they were true, the
inhumanity of the trade might be established, and this to their own
disgrace. They had all confessed that such slaves as the White traders
refused to buy were put to death; and yet that these, traders, knowing that
this would be the case, had the barbarity uniformly to reject those whom it
did not suit them to purchase. Mr. Matthews had rejected one of this
description himself, whom he saw afterwards destroyed. Mr. Penny had known
the refuse thrown down Melimba rock.
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