OCR Text |
Show 130 ON THE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCE of the recdvers, have carried their refolves into execution, to ll:arve themfelves to death, Others, when they have been brought upon deck for air, if the leall: opportunity has offered, have leaped into the fea, and terminated their miferies at once. Others, in a fit of defpair, have attempted to rife, and regain their liberty. But here what a fcene of barbarity has conll:antly enfued. Some of them have been inll:antly killed upon the fpot; fome have been taken from the hold, have been bruifed and mutilated in the moll: barbarous and flwcking man~ ner, and have been returned bleeding to their companions, as a fad example of refill: ance; while others, tied to the ropes of the !hip, and mangled alternately with the whip and knife, have been left in that horrid fituation, till they have expired. But this is not the only inhuman treatment which they are frequently obliged to undergo; for if there !hould be any neceffity, from tempell:uous weather, for lightening the !hip; or if it !hould be prefumed on the voyage, that the provifions will fall !hort before the port can be made, they are oF THE H uMAN SPECIEs. IJI are, many of them, thrown into the fea, without any compunCtion of mind on the part of the receivers, and without any other regret for their lois, than that which avarice infpires. Wretched furvivors ! what mull: be their feelings at fuch a fight! how mufl: they tremble to think of that fervitude which is approaching, when the very dogs of the receivers have been retained on board, and preferred to their unoffending countrymen. But indeed fo lightly are thefe unhappy people efl:eemcd, that their lives have been even taken away upon [peculation : there has been an infl:ance,* within the !all: five years, of one bundred and tbirty t ·wo of • This inftancc happened in :1. fhip, commanded by one Collingwood. On the 29th of November, 1]8 1, fifty-four of them were thrown into the fca alive ; on the 3oth fortytwo more; and in about three days afterwards, twenty-fix. Ten others, who were brought upon the deck for the fame purpofe, did not waif to be hand-cuffed. but bravely leaped into the fea, and !bared the fate of their companions. 1t is a faft, that the people on board this !hip hac! not been put upon lhort allowance. The excufe which this execrable wretch made on board for his conduCt, was the following, u that iftht.Jla·vu, wiNJ wtre then Jiddy, had died a natural u dtath, thtlofi wo1dd have 6un tht &<wntrs; hut as thry wtn " thr(!Wn ali'llt into tht fta, it 'I.VOII!d fall upcn tht undtrwriters.'' ' I 2 them ( .. |