spot, or some head man in their country within their recollection, with the utmost extacy they would say, “eh! you look that, massa?” I then assured them I had, and described the pullam, or palm tree, in their native town:  the effect of this remembrance was instantaneous, and demonstrated by the most extravagant expressions of delight.  Conceiving that I had attained my object, and being persuaded that the transportation of these people was an oppressive transgression against their natural rights, I added, “I had fine ship, I go back to their country, and obtain leave from massa, to let them go look their country;” a sudden transition from extravagance to grave reflection followed; “I, massa, me like that very well, me like much to look my country; but suppose, massa, they make me slave, me no see my massa again; all the same to me where I be slave, but me like my massa best, and I no look my country with you.”

Among every class with whom 1 have conversed on this subject, I have uniformly received a similar answer, and it is a convincing proof that, by humane treatment, the condition of the slave is improved, not only by his transportation to the colonies, but in his own estimation.

It may be interesting to notice, that at the island of Grenada, I had an opportunity of correctly ascertaining the truth of a statement, I had heard from a medical gentleman of respectability at Demerary, that, that ravager of the human species, the yellow fever, was first imported into this island from the island of Bulam, in the Rio Grande, upon the coast of Africa, by a ship called the Hankey, which brought away the sickly colonists from that unfortunate expedition.

On the 16th we arrived at Tortola, and on the 19th sailed with the fleet under convoy of the La Seine frigate, and landed at Liverpool on the 6th of January, 1806.

CHAPTER XI.

Conclusion.

I have endeavoured in the foregoing pages, to introduce to my readers, the substance of my diary of observations upon the Windward Coast of Africa.

Originally I only intended them for my own private satisfaction, and that of my intimate friends; but on my arrival in England, I found that the commerce of Africa was then a particular subject in agitation, among a large portion of my fellow subjects, and the legislature of my country.

Under these circumstances, I conceived it my duty as a British commercial subject, and as a friend to humanity, to communicate my sentiments to the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Howick, then one of his Majesty’s principal secretaries of state; which I did in the subjoined letter. (Appendix No.  I.) Upon further reflection, and by the express wish of respectable individuals, I have been induced to obtrude my narrative and sentiments upon the notice of the public.  I have avoided as much as possible to magnify my personal adventures, and dangers, nor have I had recourse to the flowing periods of description, preferring a simple narrative of facts formed upon grounds of personal observation.  From thence, if my endeavours tend to awaken a spirit of enterprise, to enlarge the trade of the united kingdom, and to increase the export of its manufactures, or lead to more intelligent interference in behalf of the enslaved African, my design will be accomplished.