(C.) In a report from the Sierra Leone Commissioners, I find the following passage ;-Unfortunately their sufferings do not terminate here, for the ill effects of their privations and hardships, during their detention on board the slave vessels, continue to be felt long after the cause that produced them has ceased. In proof of this we beg to refer to the returns of the Mixed Courts, which show in the case of the Portuguese vessel " Uniao," that besides 112 out of 361 slaves having died prior to, 35 died after emancipation (but before it was possible to have them registered), owing to the wretched state to which they had been reduced by dysentery and small-pox. In the General Return of Liberated Africans (Appendix), it is stated of the same slaves, that the total number which died of small-pox after landing was 55, of whom 40 were men, five women, eight boys, and two girls. That this is not an isolated fact is shown by the returns from the villages of Leopold and Waterloo (Appendix A., 6 and 7). By the first of these it appears, that of 73 children received at Leopold in 1822, 54 died during the year; and that of 243 children received in 1825, 58 died in that year, which mortality is accounted for in the return as arising" from the debilitated state in which they were received from the slave vessels." By the return from the village of Waterloo it appears that of 221 of different ages, who were received in 1922, 72 died in the same year, of whom 26 were men, 6 women, and 40 children; and the explanatory remark is, "that the deaths are not to be ascribed to local circumstance, but to the deplorably emaciated state in which the men, women, and children were when sent to the village, having been afflicted with a dysentery which proved incurable." In addition to these facts, it is stated by Mr. Reffel, chief superintendent, in his reply to the queries wich were addressed to him, as well as by Mr. Cole, assistant chief superintendent, in his evidence (Appendix B., 9 and 10), as their opinion, that even in ves. sels where there has been no infectious disease, full one-half, on an average, arrive " in a sick or debilitated and weak state." PREFACE TO THE REMEDY. As the remedy I contemplate is now, for the first time, published, it is necessary to explain the reason why it has hitherto been withheld. In the spring of 1838, I stated to several members of the cabinet my views as to the suppression of the Slave Trade. I could not reasonably expect, that, in the extreme pressure of business during the sitting of Parliament, they would be able to find time to give it the consideration it required, I therefore prepared for the press and printed a few copies of my work-describing the horrors of the Slave Trade, and proposing a remedy, for the private use of the members of the administration, and placed these in their hands on the day that the session closed. At the latter end of the year (December 22), after various communications with Lords Glenelg and Palmerston, I was officially informed that the Government had resolved to embrace and to adopt the substance of the plan. A question then arose as to the propriety of printing the whole work. It was thought highly desirable that the public should be put in possession of the facts which showed the extent of the Slave Trade, and the waste of human life which accompanied it. But as a negotiation had been commenced with Spain for the cession to Great Britain of the sovereignty of Fernando Po, it was not deemed advisable to give publicity to the intelligence I had obtained as to that island, and the importance I attached to its 1 possession. It was therefore resolved that I should publish the first part, withholding the Remedy till the fate of the negotiation was determined; in consequence of which my first volume was put into circulation in the commencement of the year 1839. The negotiation has not, I regret to say, been as yet brought to an issue; but it is in that state, that a definitive answer must speedily be received, and I am assured that there is no occasion for any further delay. There is another point upon which I wish to make myself clearly intelligible. Some of my most valuable associates have given me a friendly intimation that they "hold themselves wholly distinct from any measure the Government may adopt with respect to the defence of the Colonies, or the suppression of the Slave Trade by armed force; and that they are not to be considered responsible for the recommendations that any member of our committee may make, in connection with such measures." This is a protest against those passages in my Remedy in which I advise that our squadron may for the present be rendered more efficient, and that our settlements should be protected by the British Government. I entirely feel, that the gentlemen who have made the protest cannot be considered as parties to this recommendation. It was a suggestion of my own-it was offered to Government before they had seen itand Government will take its own course upon the subject. In my book I propose two distinct courses; and I couple them together in the same work, because the arguments employed bear upon each of these separate questions. In other words, I apply to the Government to do one thing for the suppression of the Slave Trade, viz. to strengthen our squadron; and I apply to individuals to join me in measures having the same object, but of a character totally different. Such, for example, as an attempt to elevate the mind of the people of Africa, and to call forth the capabilities of her soil. I have no wish to disguise my sentiments about armed force. I deprecate, as much as any man, resorting to violence and war. These are against the whole tenor of my views. It will be ad |