The committee at Plymouth had been the first to suggest
the idea; but that in London had now improved it. As this print seemed
to make an instantaneous impression of horror upon all who saw it, and
as it was therefore very instrumental, in consequence of the wide
circulation given it, in serving the cause of the injured Africans,
I have given the reader a copy of it in the annexed plate, and I will
now state the ground or basis, upon which it was formed.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
It must be obvious that it became the committee to select some one ship,
which had been engaged in the Slave-trade, with her real dimensions, if
they meant to make a fair representation of the manner of the
transportation. When Captain Parrey, of the royal navy, returned from
Liverpool, to which place Government had sent him, he brought with him the
admeasurement of several vessels, which had been so employed, and laid them
on the table of the House of Commons. At the top of his list stood the ship
Brookes. The committee therefore, in choosing a vessel on this occasion,
made use of the ship Brookes; and this they did, because they thought it
less objectionable to take the first that came, than any other.
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