I had now scarce patience to talk with those on board. I had not the
coolness this first time to go leisurely over the places that were open to
me.--I got away quickly.--But that which I thought I saw horrible in this
vessel had the same effect upon me as that which I thought I had seen
agreeable in the other, namely, to animate and to invigorate me in my
pursuit.

But I will not trouble the reader with any further account of my
water-expeditions, while attempting to perfect my knowledge on this
subject. I was equally assiduous in obtaining intelligence wherever it
could be had; and being now always on the watch, I was frequently falling
in with individuals, from whom I gained something. My object was to see all
who had been in Africa, but more particularly those who had never been
interested, or who at any rate were not then interested, in the trade. I
gained accordingly access very early to General Rooke; to Lieutenant
Dalrymple, of the army; to Captain Fiddes, of the engineers; to the
reverend Mr. Newton; to Mr. Nisbett, a surgeon in the Minories; to Mr.
Devaynes, who was then in parliament, and to many others; and I made it a
rule to put down in writing, after every conversation, what had taken place
in the course of it. By these means things began to unfold themselves to me
more and more, and I found my stock of knowledge almost daily on the
increase.

While, however, I was forwarding this, I was not inattentive to the other
object of my pursuit, which was that of waiting upon members personally.
The first I called upon was Sir Richard Hill.--At the first interview he
espoused the cause. I waited then upon others, and they professed
themselves friendly; but they seemed to make this profession more from the
emotion of good hearts, revolting at the bare mention of the Slave-trade,
than from any knowledge concerning it. One, however, whom I visited, Mr.
Powys (the late Lord Lilford), with whom I had been before acquainted in
Northamptonshire, seemed to doubt some of the facts in my book, from a
belief that human nature was not capable of proceeding to such a pitch of
wickedness. I asked him to name his facts. He selected the case of the
hundred-and-thirty-two slaves who were thrown alive into the sea to defraud
the underwriters. I promised to satisfy him fully upon this point, and went
immediately to Granville Sharp, who lent me his account of the trial, as
reported at large from the notes of the short-hand writer, wh