Mr. Pitt, however, took care to send Captain Parrey, of the royal
navy, to Liverpool, that he might take the tonnage and internal dimensions
of several slave-vessels, which were then there, supposing that these, when
known, would enable the house to detect any misrepresentations, which the
delegates from that town might be disposed to make upon this subject.
It was the object of the witnesses, when examined, to prove two things:
first, that regulations were unnecessary, because the present mode of the
transportation was sufficiently convenient for the objects of it, and was
well adapted to preserve their comfort and their health. They had
sufficient room, sufficient air, and sufficient provisions. When upon deck,
they made merry and amused themselves with dancing. As to the mortality, or
the loss of them by death in the course of their passage, it was trifling.
In short, the voyage from Africa to the West Indies "was one of the
happiest periods of a Negro's life."
Secondly, that if the merchants were hindered from taking less than two
full-sized, or three smaller Africans, to a ton, then the restriction would
operate not as the regulation but as the utter ruin of the trade.
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