And whither shall we go now? the night is approaching fast.  Let us find some friendly hut, where sleep may make us forget for a while the sorrows of the day.  Behold a hospitable native ready to receive us at his door! let us avail ourselves of his kindness.  And now let its give ourselves to repose.  But why, when our eyelids are but just closed, do we find ourselves thus suddenly awakened?  What is the meaning of the noise around us, of the trampling of people’s feet, of the rustling of the bow, the quiver, and the lance?  Let us rise up and inquire.  Behold! the inhabitants are all alarmed! a wakeful woman has shown them yon distant column of smoke and blaze.  The neighbouring village is on fire:  the prince, unfaithful to the sacred duty of the protection of his subjects, has surrounded them.  He is now burning their habitations, and seizing, as saleable booty, the fugitives from the flames.

Such then are some of the scenes that have been passing in Africa, in consequence, of the existence of the Slave Trade; or such is the nature of the evil, as it has shown itself in the first of the cases we have noticed.  Let us now estimate it as it has been proved to exist in the second; or let us examine the state of the unhappy Africans reduced to slavery in this manner, while on board the vessels, which are to convey them across the ocean to other lands.  And here I must observe at once, that, as far as this part of the evil is concerned, I am at a loss to describe it.  Where shall I find words to express properly their sorrow, as arising from the reflection of being parted for ever from their friends, their relatives, and their country?  Where shall I find language to paint, in appropriate colours, the horror of mind brought on by thoughts of their future unknown destination, of which they can augur nothing but misery from all that they have yet seen?  How shall I make known their situation, while labouring, under painful disease, or while struggling in the suffocating holds of their prisons, like animals enclosed in an exhausted receiver?  How shall I describe their feelings as exposed to all the personal indignities, which lawless appetite or brutal passion may suggest?  How shall I exhibit their sufferings as determining to refuse sustenance and die, or as resolving to break their chains, and, disdaining to live as slaves, to punish their oppressors?  How shall I give an idea of their agony when under various punishments and tortures for their reputed crimes?  Indeed, every part of this subject defies my powers, and I must, therefore, satisfy myself and the reader with a general representation, or in the words of a celebrated member of Parliament, that “Never was so much human suffering condensed in so small a space.”