The mystery, however, was soon cleared up, when I told him from whom I had received my intelligence: for Mr.Arnold, the last-mentioned person in the last chapter, had been surgeon's mate under Mr.
Falconbridge in the same vessel.
There was one circumstance of peculiar importance, but quite new to me, which I collected from the information which Mr.Falconbridge had given me.

This was, that many of the seamen, who left the slave-ships in the West Indies, were in such a weak, ulcerated, and otherwise diseased state, that they perished there.

Several, also, of those who came home with the vessels were in the same deplorable condition.

This was the case, Mr.Falconbridge said, with some who returned in the Alexander.

It was the case, also, with many others; for he had been a pupil for twelve months in the Bristol Infirmary, and had had ample means of knowing the fact.