The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade | Page 5

in comparison with our opponents, and we had yet eighteen to
introduce: for answers had come into my tables of questions from

several places, and persons had been pointed out to us by our
correspondents, who had increased our list of evidences to this number.
I wrote therefore to them, at the desire of the committee for the
abolition, and gave them the names of the eighteen, and requested that
all of them might be examined. I requested also, that they would order,
for their own inspection, certain muster-rolls of vessels from Poole and
Dartmouth, that they might be convinced that the objection which the
Earl of Sandwich had made in the House of Lords, against the abolition
of the Slave-trade, had no solid foundation. In reply to my first request
they informed me, that it was impossible, in the advanced state of the
session (it being then the middle of March), that the examinations of so
many could be taken; but I was at liberty, in conjunction with the
Bishop of London, to select eight for this purpose. This occasioned me
to address them again; and I then found, to my surprise and sorrow, that
even this last number was to be diminished; for I was informed in
writing, "that the Bishop of London having laid my last letter before
their Lordships, they had agreed to meet on the Saturday next, and on
the Tuesday following, for the purpose of receiving the evidence of
some of the gentlemen named in it. And it was their Lordships' desire
that I would give notice to any three of them (whose information I
might consider as the most material) of the above determination, that
they might attend the committee accordingly."
This answer, considering the difficulties we had found in collecting a
body of evidence, and the critical situation in which we then were, was
peculiarly distressing; but we had no remedy left us, nor could we
reasonably complain. Three therefore were selected, and they were sent
to deliver their testimony on their arrival in town.
But before the last of these had left the council-room, who should come
up to me but Mr. Arnold! He had but lately arrived at Bristol from
Africa; and having heard from our friends there that we had been daily
looking for him, he had come to us in London. He and Mr. Gardiner
were the two surgeons, as mentioned in the former volume, who had
promised me, when I was in Bristol, in the year 1787, that they would
keep a journal of facts for me during the voyages they were then going
to perform. They had both of them kept this promise. Gardiner, I found,

had died upon the Coast, and his journal, having been discovered at his
death, had been buried with him in great triumph. But Arnold had
survived, and he came now to offer us his services in the cause.
As it was a pity that such correct information as that taken down in
writing upon the spot should be lost (for all the other evidences, except
Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom, had spoken from their memory only),
I made all the interest I could to procure a hearing for Mr. Arnold.
Pleading now for the examination of him only, and under these
particular circumstances, I was attended to. It was consented, in
consequence of the little time which was now left for preparing and
printing the Report, that I should make out his evidence from his
journal under certain heads. This I did. Mr. Arnold swore to the truth of
it, when so drawn up, before Edward Montague, esquire, a master in
chancery. He then delivered the paper in which it was contained to the
Lords of the Council, who, on receiving it, read it throughout, and then
questioned him upon it.
At this time, also, my brother returned with accounts and papers
relative to the Slave-trade, from Havre de Grace; but as I had pledged
myself to offer no other person to be examined, his evidence was lost.
Thus, after all the pains we had taken, and in a contest, too, on the
success of which our own reputation and the fate of Africa depended,
we were obliged to fight the battle with sixteen less than we could have
brought into the field; while our opponents, on the other hand, on
account of their superior advantages, had mustered all their forces, not
having omitted a single man.
I do not know of any period of my life in which I suffered so much
both in body and mind, as from the time of resuming these public
inquiries by the privy council, to the time when they were closed. For I
had my weekly duty to attend at the committee for the abolition