But I will not trouble the reader with any further account of my water-expeditions, while attempting to perfect my knowledge on this subject.  I was equally assiduous in obtaining intelligence wherever it could be had; and being now always on the watch, I was frequently falling in with individuals, from whom I gained something.  My object was to see all who had been in Africa, but more particularly those who had never been interested, or who at any rate were not then interested, in the trade.  I gained accordingly access very early to General Rooke; to Lieutenant Dalrymple, of the army; to Captain Fiddes, of the engineers; to the reverend Mr. Newton; to Mr. Nisbett, a surgeon in the Minories; to Mr. Devaynes, who was then in parliament, and to many others; and I made it a rule to put down in writing, after every conversation, what had taken place in the course of it.  By these means things began to unfold themselves to me more and more, and I found my stock of knowledge almost daily on the increase.

While, however, I was forwarding this, I was not inattentive to the other object of my pursuit, which was that of waiting upon members personally.  The first I called upon was Sir Richard Hill.—­At the first interview he espoused the cause.  I waited then upon others, and they professed themselves friendly; but they seemed to make this profession more from the emotion of good hearts, revolting at the bare mention of the Slave-trade, than from any knowledge concerning it.  One, however, whom I visited, Mr. Powys (the late Lord Lilford), with whom I had been before acquainted in Northamptonshire, seemed to doubt some of the facts in my book, from a belief that human nature was not capable of proceeding to such a pitch of wickedness.  I asked him to name his facts.  He selected the case of the hundred-and-thirty-two slaves who were thrown alive into the sea to defraud the underwriters.  I promised to satisfy him fully upon this point, and went immediately to Granville Sharp, who lent me his account of the trial, as reported at large from the notes of the short-hand writer, whom he had employed on the occasion.  Mr. Powys read the account.—­He became, in consequence of it, convinced, as, indeed, he could not otherwise be, of the truth of what I had asserted, and he declared at the same time that, if this were true, there was nothing so horrible related of this trade, which might not immediately be believed.  Mr. Powys had been always friendly to this question, but now he took a part in the distribution of my books.

Among those, whom I visited, was Mr. Wilberforce.  On my first interview with him, he stated frankly, that the subject had often employed his thoughts, and that it was near his heart.  He seemed earnest about it, and also very desirous of taking the trouble of inquiring further into it.  Having read my book, which I had delivered to him in person, he sent for me.  He expressed a wish that I would make him acquainted with some of my authorities for the