He expressed his
surprise that such witnesses as those against the bill should have been
introduced at all. He affirmed that their oaths were falsified by their own
log-books; and that from their own accounts the very healthiest of their
vessels were little better than pestilential gaols. Mr. Robert Hume, one of
these witnesses, had made a certain voyage. He had made it in thirty-three
days. He had shipped two hundred and sixty-five slaves, and he had lost
twenty-three of them. If he had gone on losing his slaves, all of whom were
under twenty-five years of age, at this rate, it was obvious, that he would
have lost two hundred and fifty-three of them, if his passage had lasted
for a year. Now in London only seventeen would have died, of that age, out
of one thousand within the latter period.
After having exposed the other voyages of Mr. Hume in a similar manner, he
entered into a commendation of the views of the Sierra Leone company; and
then defended the character of the Africans in their own country, as
exhibited in the Travels of Mr. Mungo Park. He made a judicious
discrimination with respect to slavery, as it existed among them. He showed
that this slavery was analogous to that of the heroic and patriarchal ages;
and contrasted it with the West Indian in an able manner.
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