beyond the bounds of
truth on this occasion. He gave me a melancholy confirmation of all the
three cases. He told me also that one Joseph Cunningham had been a severe
sufferer, and that there was reason to fear that Charles Horseler, another
of the crew, had been so severely beaten over the breast with a knotted end
of a rope (which end was of the size of a large ball, and had been made on
purpose) that he died of it. To this he added, that it was now a notorious
fact, that the captain of the Alfred, when mate of a slave-ship, had been
tried at Barbadoes for the murder of one of the crew, with whom he had
sailed, but that he escaped by bribing the principal witness to
disappear[A].

[Footnote A: Mr. Sampson, who was surgeon's mate of the ship, in which the
captain had thus served as a mate, confirmed to me afterwards this
assertion, having often heard him boast in the cabin, "how he had tricked
the law on that occasion."]

The reader will see, the further I went into the history of this voyage,
the more dismal it became. One miserable account, when examined, only
brought up another. I saw no end to inquiry. The great question was, what
was I to do? I thought the best thing would be to get the captain
apprehended, and make him stand his trial either for the murder of Thomas
or of Charles Horseler. I communicated with the late Mr. Burges, an eminent
attorney and the deputy town-clerk, on this occasion. He had shown an
attachment to me on account of the cause I had undertaken, and had given me
privately assistance in it. I say privately; because, knowing the
sentiments of many of the corporate body at Bristol, under whom he acted,
he was fearful of coming forward in an open manner. His advice to me was,
to take notes of the case for my own private conviction, but to take no
public cognizance of it. He said that seamen, as soon as their wages were
expended, must be off to sea again. They could not generally, as landsmen
do, maintain themselves on shore. Hence I should be obliged to keep the
whole crew at my own expense till the day of trial, which might not be for
months to come. He doubted not that, in the interim, the merchants and
others would inveigle many of them away by making them boatswains and other
inferior officers in some of their ships; so that, when the day of trial
should come, I should find my witnesses dispersed and gone. He observed
moreover, that, if any of the officers of the ship had any notion of going