the
service of Government, stated, that on the arrival of an order for slaves,
from Cape Coast Castle, while he was there, a native chief immediately sent
forth armed parties, who brought in a supply of all descriptions in the
night.

But he would now mention one or two instances of another sort, and these
merely on account of the conclusion, which was to be drawn from them. When
Captain Hills was in the river Gambia, he mentioned accidentally to a Black
pilot, who was in the boat with him, that he wanted a cabin-boy. 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. It would give credibility to every other act of
violence stated in the evidence, however enormous it might appear.

But he would now have recourse for a moment to circumstantial evidence. An
adverse witness, who had lived on the Gold Coast, had said that the only
way, in which children could be enslaved, was by whole families being sold
when the principals had been condemned for witchcraft. But he said at the
same time, that few were convicted of this crime, and that the younger part
of a family in these cases was sometimes spared. But if this account were
true, it would follow that the children in the slave-vessels would be few
indeed. But it had been proved, that the usual proportion of these was
never less than a fourth of the whol