inquiring
for him, they heard he was in the country, but that he would be home at
noon; that, finding he had not then arrived, they acquainted his clerk with
the nature of their business, and opened my letter to show him the contents
of it; that the clerk went with them to consult some other person on the
subject, when he conveyed them to the Old Bailey; but that, on inquiring at
the proper place about the introduction of the witnesses, he learnt that
the chief mate had been brought to the bar in the morning, and, no person
then appearing against him, that he had been discharged by proclamation.
Such was the end of all my anxiety and labour in this affair. I was very
ill when I received the letter; but I saw the necessity of bearing up
against the disappointment, and I endeavoured to discharge the subject from
my mind with the following wish, that the narrow escape which the chief
mate had experienced, and which was entirely owing to the accidental
circumstances now explained, might have the effect, under Providence, of
producing in him a deep contrition for his offence, and of awakening him to
a serious attention to his future life[A].

[Footnote A: He had undoubtedly a narrow escape, for Mr. Langdale's clerk
had learnt that he had no evidence to produce in his favour. The
slave-merchants, it seems, had counted most upon bribing those, who were to
come against him, to disappear.]

I was obliged to remain in Bristol a few days longer in consequence of my
illness; but as soon as I was able I reached London, when I attended a
sitting of the commitee after an absence of more than five months. At this
commitee it was strongly recommended to me to publish a second edition of
my Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, and to insert
such of the facts in it, in their proper places, out of those collected in
my late travels, as I might judge to be productive of an interesting
effect. There appeared also an earnest desire in the commitee, that,
directly after this, I should begin my Essay on the Impolicy of the
Slave-trade.

In compliance with their wishes, I determined upon both these works. But I
resolved to retire into the country, that, by being subject to less
interruption there, I might the sooner finish them. It was proper, however,
that I should settle many things in London, before I took my departure from
it; and, among these, that I should find out George Ormond and Patric
Murray, whom I had sent from