With respect to evidence, which was the great object of this tour, I found
myself often very unpleasantly situated in collecting it. I heard of many
persons capable of giving it to our advantage, to whom I could get no
introduction. I had to go after these many miles out of my established
route. Not knowing me, they received me coldly, and even suspiciously;
while I fell in with others, who, considering themselves, on account of
their concerns and connexions, as our opponents, treated me in an uncivil
manner.
But the difficulties and disappointments in other respects, which I
experienced in this tour, even where I had an introduction, and where the
parties were not interested in the continuance of the Slave-trade, were
greater than people in general would have imagined. One would have thought,
considering the great enthusiasm of the nation on this important subject,
that they, who could have given satisfactory information upon it, would
have rejoiced to do it. But I found it otherwise, and this frequently to my
sorrow. There was an aversion in persons to appear before such a tribunal
as they conceived the privy council to be. With men of shy or timid
character this operated as an insuperable barrier in their way.
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