We all met at the time appointed, and I determined to sit as near to the mayor as I could get.  The hall was unusually crowded.  One or two slave-merchants, and two or three others, who were largely concerned in the West India trade, were upon the bench.  For I had informed the mayor the day before of my intention, and he, it appeared, had informed them.  I shall never forget the savage looks which these people gave me; which indeed were so remarkable, as to occasion the eyes of the whole court to be turned upon me.  They looked as if they were going to speak to me, and the people looked as if they expected me to say something in return.  They then got round the mayor, and began to whisper to him, as I supposed, on the business before it should come on.  One of them, however, said aloud to the former, but fixing his eyes upon me, and wishing me to overhear him, “Scandalous reports had lately been spread, but sailors were not used worse in Guineamen than in other vessels.”  This brought the people’s eyes upon me again.  I was very much irritated, but I thought it improper to say any thing.  Another, looking savagely at me, said to the mayor, “that he had known captain Vicars a long time; that he was an honourable man[A], and would not allow such usage in his ship.  There were always vagabonds to hatch up things:”  and he made a dead point at me, by putting himself into a posture which attracted the notice of those present, and by staring me in the face, I could now no longer restrain myself, and I said aloud in as modest a manner as I could, “You, sir, may know many things which I do not.  But this I know, that if you do not do your duty, you are amenable to a higher court.”  The mayor upon this looked at me, and directly my friend Mr. Burges, who was sitting as the clerk to the magistrates, went to him and whispered something in his ear; after which all private conversation between the mayor and others ceased, and the hearing was ordered to come on.

[Footnote A:  We may well imagine what this person’s notion of another man’s honour was; for he was the purser of the Brothers and of the Alfred, who, as before mentioned, sent the captains of those ships out a second voyage, after knowing their barbarities in the former.  And he was also the purser of this very ship Thomas, where the murder had been committed.  I by no means, however, wish by these observations to detract from the character of captain Vicars, as he had no concern in the cruel deed.]

I shall not detain the reader by giving an account of the evidence which then transpired.  The four witnesses were examined, and the case was so far clear.  Captain Vicars, however, was sent for.  On being questioned, he did not deny that there had been bad usage, but said that the young man had died of the flux.  But this assertion went for nothing when balanced against the facts which had come out; and this was so evident, that an order was made out for the apprehension of the chief mate.  He was accordingly taken up.  The next day, however, there was a rehearing of the case, when he was returned to the gaol, where he was to lie till the Lords of the Admiralty should order a sessions to be held for the trial of offences committed on the high seas.