The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade | Page 4

own made a respectable body: but we had sent no
more than four or five of these to the council when the King's illness
unfortunately stopped our career. For nearly five weeks between the
middle of November and January the examinations were interrupted or

put off so that at the latter period we began to fear that there would be
scarcely time to hear the rest; for not only the privy council report was
to be printed, but the contest itself was to be decided by the evidence
contained in it, in the existing session.
The examinations, however, went on, but they went on only slowly,
being still subject to interruption from the same unfortunate cause.
Among others I offered my mite of information again. I wished the
council to see more of my African productions and manufactures, that
they might really know what Africa was capable of affording instead of
the Slave-trade, and that they might make a proper estimate of the
genius and talents of the natives. The samples which I had collected,
had been obtained by great labour, and at no inconsiderable expense:
for whenever I had notice that a vessel had arrived immediately from
that continent, I never hesitated to go, unless under the most pressing
engagements elsewhere, even as far as Bristol, if I could pick up but a
single new article. The Lords having consented, I selected several
things for their inspection out of my box, of the contents of which the
following account may not be unacceptable to the reader.
The first division of the box consisted of woods of about four inches
square, all polished. Among these were mahogany of five different
sorts, tulip-wood, satin-wood, cam-wood, bar-wood, fustic, black and
yellow ebony, palm-tree, mangrove, calabash, and date. There were
seven woods of which the native names were remembered: three of
these, Tumiah, Samain, and Jimlaké, were of a yellow colour; Acajoú
was of a beautiful deep crimson; Bork and Quellé were apparently fit
for cabinet work; and Benten was the wood of which the natives made
their canoes. Of the various other woods the names had been forgotten,
nor were they known in England at all. One of them was of a fine
purple; and from two others, upon which the privy council had caused
experiments to be made, a strong yellow, a deep orange, and a
flesh-colour were extracted.
The second division included ivory and musk; four species of pepper,
the long, the black, the Cayenne, and the Malaguetta: three species of
gum; namely, Senegal, Copal, and ruber astringens; cinnamon, rice,

tobacco, indigo, white and Nankin cotton, Guinea corn, and millet;
three species of beans, of which two were used for food, and the other
for dyeing orange; two species of tamarinds, one for food, and the other
to give whiteness to the teeth; pulse, seeds, and fruits of various kinds,
some of the latter of which Dr. Spaarman had pronounced, from a trial
during his residence in Africa, to be peculiarly valuable as drugs.
The third division contained an African loom, and an African spindle
with spun cotton round it; cloths of cotton of various kinds, made by
the natives, some white, but others dyed by them of different colours,
and others, in which they had interwoven European silk; cloths and
bags made of grass, and fancifully coloured; ornaments made of the
same materials; ropes made from a species of aloes, and others,
remarkably strong, from grass and straw; fine string made from the
fibres of the roots of trees; soap of two kinds, one of which was formed
from an earthy substance; pipe-bowls made of clay, and of a brown red;
one of these, which came from the village of Dakard, was beautifully
ornamented by black devices burnt in, and was besides highly glazed;
another, brought from Galàm was made of earth, which was richly
impregnated with little particles of gold; trinkets made by the natives
from their own gold; knives and daggers made by them from our
bar-iron; and various other articles, such as bags, sandals, dagger-cases,
quivers, grisgris, all made of leather of their own manufacture, and
dyed of various colours, and ingeniously sewed together.
The fourth division consisted of the thumb-screw, speculum oris, and
chains and shackles of different kinds, collected at Liverpool. To these
were added, iron neck-collars, and other instruments of punishment and
confinement, used in the West Indies, and collected at other places. The
instrument, also, by which Charles Horseler was mentioned to have
been killed, in the former volume, was to be seen among these.
We were now advanced far into February, when we were alarmed by
the intelligence that the Lords of the Council were going to prepare
their report. At this time we had sent but few persons to them to
examine,