it has shown itself in the first of the cases we have
noticed. Let us now estimate it as it has been proved to exist in the
second; or let us examine the state of the unhappy Africans reduced to
slavery in this manner, while on board the vessels, which are to convey
them across the ocean to other lands. And here I must observe at once,
that, as far as this part of the evil is concerned, I am at a loss to
describe it. Where shall I find words to express properly their sorrow,
as arising from the reflection of being parted for ever from their
friends, their relatives, and their country? Where shall I find language
to paint, in appropriate colours, the horror of mind brought on by
thoughts of their future unknown destination, of which they can augur
nothing but misery from all that they have yet seen? How shall I make
known their situation, while labouring, under painful disease, or while
struggling in the suffocating holds of their prisons, like animals
enclosed in an exhausted receiver? How shall I describe their feelings
as exposed to all the personal indignities, which lawless appetite or
brutal passion may suggest? How shall I exhibit their sufferings as
determining to refuse sustenance and die, or as resolving to break their
chains, and, disdaining to live as slaves, to punish their oppressors?
How shall I give an idea of their agony when under various punishments
and tortures for their reputed crimes? Indeed, every part of this
subject defies my powers, and I must, therefore, satisfy myself and the
reader with a general representation, or in the words of a celebrated
member of Parliament, that "Never was so much human suffering condensed
in so small a space."

I come now to the evil, as it has been proved to arise in the third
case; or to consider the situation of the unhappy victims of the trade,
when their painful voyages are over, or after they have been landed upon
their destined shores. And here we are to view them, first under the
degrading light of cattle: we are to see them examined, handled,
selected, separated, and sold. Alas! relatives are separated from
relatives, as if, like cattle, they had no rational intellect, no power
of feeling the nearness of relationship, nor sense of the duties
belonging to the ties of life! We are next to see them labouring; and
this for the benefit of those to whom they are under no obligation, by
any law either natural or divine, to obey. We are to see them, if
refusing the