[The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Vol. I by Thomas Clarkson]@TWC D-Link bookThe History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Vol. I CHAPTER XV 22/29
It is not necessary to detail the particulars.
It is impossible, however, not to mention, that the treatment of the seamen on board this vessel was worse than I had ever before heard of.
No less than eleven of them, unable to bear their lives, had deserted at Bonny on the coast of Africa,--which is a most unusual thing,--choosing all that could be endured, though in a most inhospitable climate, and in the power of the natives, rather than to continue in their own ship.
Nine others also, in addition to the loss of these, had died in the same voyage.
As to the rest, he believed, without any exception, that they had been badly used. In examining him with respect to his second voyage, or that in the Little Pearl, two circumstances came out with respect to the slaves, which I shall relate in few words. The chief mate used to beat the men-slaves on very trifling occasions. About eleven one evening, the ship then lying off the coast, he heard a noise in their room.
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