measures, till intreaty and example had failed, and even then he used the cat sparingly, choosing rather to tempt them with a display of beads, &c. which with the women and girls was sometimes effectual. He paid in general a ready attention to their complaints, and seemed desirous of finding them out. But his efforts to render their situation agreeable to them were not attended with any success. An air of dejection appeared in the faces of most of them, and even of many of the young and he himself used to observe, with expressions of regret, that I could not have had a view of a slave ship under worse circumstances, for that he had never seen any so gloomy and dejected. The slaves were, in general, exceedingly thin, and all of them were covered with disagreeable eruptions. They were very averse to any kind of exercise; and when they danced their whole aim seemed to be to make noise enough to please the captain, who they perceived to favour those most who danced most and sung loudest. On this account the two men with the chain round their necks always exerted themselves very conspicuously in the dance, in the hope of being liberated they continued, however, to wear it till we got to the end of our voyage. The songs which accompanied their dancing consisted only of one stanza, constantly repeated and loudly vociferated, and had little music in them. Some of the women used to sing very sweetly, and in a plaintive tone, when left to themselves. The subject of their songs I could not learn. Many of the men had on their countenances a fixed gloom which nothing succeeded to remove, and which formed a melancholy contrast to the dance and song they were forced to practise. A few of the women appeared totally unconcerned, but many of them far otherwise. These kept themselves aloof, (at least as much as was possible,) from such as were more noisy, and when forced to join in the dance, or in the cheers, which preceded their meals, they seemed to feel an indignation which long continued habit could not repress, at being forced to behave so childishly. I was deprived of every opportunity of conversing with any of them, there being no one on board who could interpret any more of their language than was necessary to make CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 30.

known ordinary wants, and to prefer common requests. The state of slaves in a slave ship is necessarily wretched: and these appeared to feel its miseries with full force. Men loaded with irons, guarded by fire-arms, and ignorant of their destination, must have been more or less than men had they been cheerful. To expect that, subjected as they all were to the pain of sleeping, without covering of any kind, on a hard plank in a rolling ship; and in a place where the stench for three-fourths of the night was truly horrid: stung too as they must be by the bitter recollection of the country and connections from which they were violently separated, and tortured by doubts and fears of what might still befall them: even to expect, I say, that in such a state they should be otherwise than wretched, appears in the highest degree unnatural and absurd. An attempt at insurrection by the men, an attempt at suicide by one of the women, the precautions which are multiplied to keep them from injuring themselves or their keepers, the anxious search which is renewed day after day over their apartments for edged tools, would form a sufficiently strong evidence of the light in which Africans regard the hold of a slave ship, even if no indication of their feelings appeared in their looks; and, independent of every other circumstance, would sufficiently disprove the accounts which have been hardily brought forward respecting the delights of the middle passage.

The mortality on board was considerable. In the short space of seven weeks twelve slaves had died, of whom eight died during the three weeks I was on board and I left them in a very sickly state. This was a mortality of no less than five per cent. in seven weeks; and, thougn moderate in comparison of the mortality on board some ships, yet was it sufficient to unpcople the earth in less than three years, were it general. One cause of mortality was the badness of the water, which in conse quence of the casks having been badly cleaned had so nauseous a smell that I was obliged to confine myself to malt liquor as a beverage. The water was so putrid, that its being boiled and mixed with wine, or tea, or coffee, could not disguise its taste.

One of the slaves who died was the

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woman who had been delivered on board. This poor creature's state was pitiable beyond description, for she had the same disadvantages to struggle with as the other slaves. She pined away till she was worn down to a mere shadow; and the day on which she died, I observed them opening her mouth and pouring down her throat the nourishment which she had not strength nor inclination to take. The child survived its mother only a day, but I do not reckon it in the account of mortality. The medical practice on board was certainly very faulty, and probably contributed to the mortality; but it was plain that there was an indifference to life, or rather an absolute distaste for it in the patients themselves.

The captain's behaviour towards me was very civil and attentive; and during my illnesses he was constant in his inquiries and in his offers of service. He paid me the compliment never once to swear while I was on board, and he also repressed the practice among the officers and seamen. I say he paid me the compliment, because I observed, after we went ashore, that he was much addicted to that vice. He was extremely anxious to explain every transaction, as if I were sitting in judgment on what passed around me; and he was ready to construe a question, nay evenalook, into an act of accusation, which required that he should set himself on his defence. Though this extreme eagerness to justify himself was by no means pleasant to me, yet I believe that it proved a salutary restraint on his passions, which I had occasion.to know were not of the most placid kind; and was thus a mean of rendering the state both of slaves and seamen, on the whole, more comfortable than it would otherwise have been. A great part of the ill usage (perhaps the greatest part) which befals seamen in this trade, arises, I apprehend, not so much from a preconcerted system of tyranny and oppression, as from the sudden and violent ebullition of ungoverned passion.

I am confirmed in my belief, that my presence, during the three weeks I was on board, had a salutary influence on his conduct, because his behaviour towards his seamen is considered even by his brother slave traders as a great blot in his character, and also because the men who had mu

tinied a few days before I came on board shewed no disposition to make any concession even when in sight of a man of war. Nay, so eager were they to get from under his power, that eight of them swam on board a frigate, which lay in the harbour, at the risk of being devoured by sharks, and with a certainty of receiving only one-fourth of their present wages. Three seamen had died, and many more were sickly. The greatest disadvantage they had to struggle with, was the want of a proper place to sleep in. Their hammocks hung over the main-deck, below the longboat; to which was added on each side a piece of an awning. This might keep off dews in a calm night, but could not prevent the damp night air and rain from reaching them, particularly while the wind was high, as it almost always was at sea.

Captain Y, as I mentioned before, appeared on all occasions very eager to justify himself. But not content with justifying himself, he undertook also to justify the slave trade. On every thing, however, which respected even the African part of the business, he acknowledged himself to be almost entirely ignorant. He said it was next to an impossibility for a slave captain to procure correct infor mation as to the cause of the slavery of those whom he purchased. He could not speak the language of the slave, and were he to question the African trader about it, he would be thought to doubt the trader's right to sell; and the reply would be, "What you want to know for? You no come to buy slave? Suppose you no want to buy him, tell me; I must go t'other ship." Captain Ytold me, on one occasion, that he would prove the trade just. Slavery has existed almost since the beginning of the world." True. Murder is still more ancient, and of course more just. "Does not England send slaves to Botany Bay?" Yes; as a punishment justly incurred, for crimes clearly proved, and previously defined.

The African laws and African punishments are equally just with ours; besides, what right have we to make laws for Africa, or to try to alter those which now exist there?" Red water laws then are just? Punishments for witchcraft are just? The enslaving of wives and children for the crime of husbands and parents is

just? Kidnapping is just? &c. &c. Besides, the object of abolitionists is not to make laws for Africa, but to prevent Englishmen from exciting, encouraging, and abetting African injustice and African violence. "The slave trade is the happiest thing in the world for Africans. At home they are without natural affection, liars, and thieves; without a spark of honesty or gratitude; they live also in misery. By going to a christian country they acquire good dispositions, and come to know their duty. Besides you see how happy some of them are on board ship, and they are still happier in the West Indies." Allowing all this to be true, (though I know it to be most untrue,) it proves in no degree the justice of the trade, which was the point at issue. If the trade be unjust, no good effects will justify it. You express respect for the decisions of scripture. It says we are not to do evil that good may come. "It is a very good thing to be religious, but I have no notion of being righteous over much. My conscience does not reproach me, for my maxim always is to do unto others as I would be done by." It is a good maxim, and I think were you to follow it to its full extent, you would soon abandon the slave trade. He seemed sensible of this consequence and shifted his ground. "You allow the authority of scripture. How then can you say the trade is unjust, when God gives the Jews directions for the treatment of slaves, thereby giving slavery his sanction?" God may do as he pleases, and he is the only judge of his own actions. We are to imitate his moral perfections, not his particular actions. For instance, he puts to death whom he will; but will that justify the crime of murder? He saw fit judicially to punish some nations, but will that justify us in inflicting hardships on our fellow-creatures to gratify our avarice? Suppose the Almighty were in some specific instance to tell one man to put another to death, that particular injunction would not annul the positive precept against murder. "No, I allow it." Neither will any particular direction of the Almighty any more exonerate us from the obligation of obedience to general precepts, than the sentence of death pronounced by a judge will relieve us from the necessity of keeping the law which prohibits our taking a

way the life of our neighbour. "No, I allow it." The directions therefore given to the Jews will not exculpate slave traders from the guilt of violating those commands, the violation of which constitutes injustice. Aye, aye, but that is not our affair. Let the Africans themselves look to that: our part of the business is fair, and honest, and just." But you, at least, knowingly encourage and promote injustice, which is the same thing. The receiver is universally acknowledged to be as bad, nay, worse than the thief. "But I have no proof that the trade is unjust: I cannot, therefore, be sure that it is; if I were sure, I should give it up. I only doubt." Apply then those passages, 66 He that doubteth is damned if he eat,'" "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." "I say again, the justice or injustice is not my affair. If there be evil in the trade, let the parliament, who first encouraged it, bear the blame. I shall be content at least to wait their time, trusting that they are wiser men than me."

The above is almost verbatim one of many conversations which passed on this subject.

P. S. It may seem strange, Mr. Editor, that on a subject calculated to set in motion every feeling of huma nity, and to justify a more than ordinary degree of warmth, my narrative should be so coldly given. But it was written for the information of a great lover of plain matter of fact, who was already a zealous enemy to the slave trade and I thought it best not to alter it in any respect, on sending it to you.

FRAGMENTS.

COMPONENT PARTS OF A TRUE CHURCH. MR. DAUBENY, in his Appendix to the Guide to the Church, p. 404, thus expresses himself "I mean neither to disparage nor offend you, when I take upon me to assert, that you are but a sciolist in theology, if you are yet to learn that, however bold the position may seem, that may be a true Church in which the pure word of God is not preached.' Let this passage be compared with the following extracted from the Second Part of the Homily for Whit-Sunday, and it will evidently appear that Mr. Daubeny does not agree so exactly with