, to propose an immediate abolition of
the Slave-trade, and an immediate amelioration of the state of slavery
also, with a view to its final abolition in fifteen years.

But time was flying apace, I had now been nearly seven weeks in Paris; and
had done nothing. The thought of this made me uneasy, and I saw no
consoling prospect before me. I found it even difficult to obtain a meeting
of the Friends of the Negros. The Marquis de la Fayette had no time to
attend. Those of the committee, who were members of the National Assembly,
were almost constantly engaged at Versailles. Such of them as belonged to
the Municipality, had enough to do at the Hotel de Ville. Others were
employed either in learning the use of arms, or in keeping their daily and
nightly guards. These circumstances made me almost despair of doing any
thing for the cause at Paris, at least in any reasonable time. But a new
circumstance occurred, which distressed me greatly; for I discovered, in
the most satisfactory manner, that two out of the six at the last committee
were spies. They had come into the society for no other reason, than to
watch and report its motions, and they were in direct correspondence with
the slave-merchants at Havre de Grace. This matter I brought home to them
afterwards, and I had the pleasure of seeing them excluded from all our
future meetings.

From this time I thought it expedient to depend less upon the committee and
more upon my own exertions, and I formed the resolution of going among the
members of the National Assembly myself, and of learning from their own
mouths the hope I ought to entertain relative to the decision of our
question. In the course of my endeavours I obtained a promise from the Duke
de la Rochefoucauld, the Comte de Mirabeau, the Abbe Syeyes, Monsieur
Bergasse, and Monsieur Petion de Villeneuve, five of the most approved
members of the National Assembly, that they would meet me, if I would fix a
day. I obtained a similar promise from the Marquis de Condorcet, and
Claviere and Brissot, as members selected from the committee of the Friends
of the Negros. And Messieurs de Roveray and Du Monde, two Genevese
gentlemen at Versailles, men of considerable knowledge and interest, and
who had heard of our intended meeting, were to join us at their own
request. The place chosen was the house of the Bishop of Chartres at
Versailles.

I was now in hope that I should soon bring the question to some issue; and
on the fo