The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade | Page 6

during
this interval. I had to take down the examinations of all the evidences
who came to London, and to make certain copies of these. I had to
summon these to town, and to make provision against all accidents; and
here I was often troubled by means of circumstances, which
unexpectedly occurred, lest, when committees of the council had been

purposely appointed to hear them, they should not be forthcoming at
the time. I had also a new and extensive correspondence to keep up; for
the tables of questions which had been sent down to our correspondents,
brought letters almost innumerable on this subject, and they were
always addressed to me. These not only required answers of themselves,
but as they usually related to persons capable of giving their testimony,
and contained the particulars of what they could state, they occasioned
fresh letters to be written to others. Hence the writing of ten or twelve
daily became necessary.
But the contents of these letters afforded the circumstances, which gave
birth to so much suffering. They contained usually some affecting tale
of woe. At Bristol my feelings had been harassed by the cruel treatment
of the seamen, which had come to my knowledge there: but now I was
doomed to see this treatment over again in many other melancholy
instances; and additionally to take in the various sufferings of the
unhappy slaves. These accounts I could seldom get time to read till late
in the evening, and sometimes not till midnight, when the letters
containing them were to be answered. The effect of these accounts was
in some instances to overwhelm me for a time in tears, and in others to
produce a vivid indignation, which affected my whole frame.
Recovering from these, I walked up and down the room. I felt fresh
vigour, and made new determinations of perpetual warfare against this
impious trade. I implored strength that I might proceed. I then sat down,
and continued my work as long as my wearied eyes would permit me to
see. Having been agitated in this manner, I went to bed: but my rest
was frequently broken by the visions which floated before me. When I
awoke, these renewed themselves to me, and they flitted about with me
for the remainder of the day. Thus I was kept continually harassed: my
mind was confined to one gloomy and heart-breaking subject for
months. It had no respite, and my health began now materially to
suffer.
But the contents of these letters were particularly grievous, on account
of the severe labours which they necessarily entailed upon me in other
ways than those which have been mentioned. It was my duty, while the
privy council examinations went on, not only to attend to all the

evidence which was presented to us by our correspondents, but to find
out and select the best. The happiness of millions depended upon it.
Hence I was often obliged to travel during these examinations, in order
to converse with those who had been pointed out to us as capable of
giving their testimony; and, that no time might be lost, to do this in the
night. More than two hundred miles in a week were sometimes passed
over on these occasions.
The disappointments too, which I frequently experienced in these
journeys, increased the poignancy of the suffering, which arose from a
contemplation of the melancholy cases which I had thus travelled to
bring forward to the public view. The reader at present can have no
idea of these. I have been sixty miles to visit a person, of whom I had
heard, not only as possessing important knowledge, but as espousing
our opinions on this subject. I have at length seen him. He has
applauded my pursuit at our first interview. He has told me, in the
course of our conversation, that neither my own pen, nor that of any
other man, could describe adequately the horrors of the Slave-trade,
horrors which he himself had witnessed. He has exhorted me to
perseverance in this noble cause. Could I have wished for a more
favourable reception?--But mark the issue. He was the nearest relation
of a rich person concerned in the traffic; and if he were to come
forward with his evidence publicly, he should ruin all his expectations
from that quarter. In the same week I have visited another at a still
greater distance. I have met with similar applause. I have heard him
describe scenes of misery which he had witnessed, and on the relation
of which he himself almost wept. But mark the issue again.--"I am a
surgeon," says he: "through that window you see a spacious house. It is
occupied by a West Indian. The medical attendance upon his family is
of considerable importance to the temporal interests