It so
happened that some youths were then on the shore with vegetables to sell.
The pilot beckoned to them to come on board; at the same time giving
Captain Hills to understand, that he might take his choice of them; and
when Captain Hills rejected the proposal with indignation, the pilot seemed
perfectly at a loss to account for his warmth; and drily observed, that the
slave-captains would not have been so scrupulous. Again, when General Rooke
commanded at Goree, a number of the natives, men, women, and children, came
to pay him a friendly visit. All was gaiety and merriment. It was a scene
to gladden the saddest, and to soften the hardest heart. But a
slave-captain was not so soon thrown off his guard. Three English
barbarians of this description had the audacity jointly to request the
general, to seize the whole unsuspicious multitude and sell them. For this
they alleged the precedent of a former governor. Was not this request a
proof of the frequency of such acts of rapine? for how familiar must such
have been to slave-captains, when three of them dared to carry to a British
officer of rank such a flagitious proposal! This would stand in the place
of a thousand instances.
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