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Show xxiv P R E F A C E. relate to tile colonial flavery. I reply, that I have had the means of the very bell: of information on the fubject; having the pleafure of being acquainted with many, both in the naval and military depar-tments, as well as with feveral others, who have been long acquainted with America and the IVdf-Indian ifhnds. The facts therefore which I have related, are compiled from the difintcrefled accounts of thefe gentlemen, all of whom, l have the happinefs to fay, have coincided, in the mi .. nuteil: manner, in their defcriptions. It mull: be remarked too, that they were compiled, not from what thefe gentlemen heard, while they were rcfident in thofe parts, but from what they actually ja·w. Nor has a fingle inflance been taken from any book whateverupon the fubject, except that which i' mentioned in the 235th page; and th .• book was publifl1ed in France, in the year 1777, by authorit)'. I have now the pl e~fure to fi1y, that the accounts of thefe difintereil:ed gentlemen, whom I confulted on the occafion, are confirmed by all the books which I have ever perufed upon Gavery, except thofe which h ave P R E F A C E. XXV have been written by merchmzts,plmzters, &c. They are confirmed by Sir Hans Sloane's Voyage to Barbarloes; Griffith Hughes's Hiil:ory of the fame iGand, printed 1750; an Account of North America, by 'I'homas Jifferies, 1761 ; all Benezet's works, &c. &c. and particularly by Mr. Ramfoy's Effay on the Treatment and Converfion of the African Slaves in the Britifh Sugar Colonies; a work which is now firmly eil:ablifhed; and, I may add, in a very extraordinary manner, in confequence of the controverfy which this gentleman has fuil:ained with the Curfory Remarker, by which feveral facts which were mentioned in the original copy of my own work, before the controverfy began, and which had never appeared in any work upon the fubj etl:, have been brought to light. Nor has J., received lefs fupport from a letter, publifl1ed only lafl week, from Capt. ] . S. Smith, of the Royal Navy, to the gev. Mr. Hill; on the former of whom too high encomiums cannot be beil:owed, for il:anding forth in that noble and difinterefled manner, in behalf of an injured character. I have |