ong them, which
effectually checked their ardour, and obliged them to retire to a
distance from the shore; from whence a few round cannon shot soon
removed them into the woods. The whole river was black over with the
heads of the fugitives, who were swimming for their lives. These poor
wretches, fearing _us_ as much as their conquerors, dived when we
fired, and cried most lamentably for mercy. Having now effectually
favoured their retreat, we stood backwards and forwards, and took up
several that were wounded and tired. All whose wounds had disabled them
from swimming, were either butchered or drowned, before we got up to
them. With a justice and generosity, _never I believe before heard of
among slavers_, we gave those their liberty whom we had taken up,
setting them on shore on the Barbary side, among the poor residue of
their companions, who had survived the slaughter of the morning."

We shall make but two remarks on this horrid instance of African
cruelty. It adds, first, a considerable weight to the statements that
have been made; and confirms, secondly, the conclusions that were drawn
in the preceding chapter. For if we even allow the right of capture to be
just, and the principles of reparation and punishment to be applicable
to the individuals of a community, yet would the former be unjust, and
the latter inapplicable, in the present case. Every African war is a
robbery; and we may add, to our former expression, when we said, "that
thus have many thousands of men, in the most iniquitous manner, been
sent into servitude," that we believe there are few of this order, who
are not as much the examples of injustice, as the people that have been
kidnapped; and who do not additionally convey, when we consider them as
prisoners of war, an idea of the most complicated scene of murder.

The order of _convicts_, as it exists almost solely among those
princes, whose dominions are contiguous to the European factories, is
from this circumstance so inconsiderable, when compared with either of
the preceding, that we should not have mentioned it again, but that we
were unwilling to omit any additional argument that occurred against it.

It has been shewn already, that the punishment of slavery is inflicted
from no other motive, than that of gratifying the _avarice_ of the
prince, a confederation so detestable, as to be sufficient of itself to
prove it to be unjust; and that it is so disproportionate, from its
_nature_, to the