they being very convenient sometimes as temporary slave depots."
To protect these panders it was provided in the conventions between England and various continental governments for the suppression of the trade that "no visit or detention can take place, except by a commissioned officer having express instructions and authority for the same; nor can he detain or carry into port any vessel so visited, except on the single and simple fact of slaves found on board."
In like fashion it was held for a time in our courts that the presence of slaves on a ship was necessary to secure her conviction as a slaver. Eventually the presence of slave-goods was sufficient to convict, and in English courts the slave-goods were also considered good evidence as to an English slaver, but it appears that when a slaver under any other flag was to be tried there it was always necessary to show that the slaves were on board lest some harm be done to the "lawful trader."
As to the effect of the laws on the slavers — the men in the trade — there is one feature of this effect that seems to have been overlooked by the writers who have considered the subject. It is a most interesting fact that from the moment it was outlawed the slave-trade became more attractive to certain adventurous spirits of the age. For it need not be doubted that men lived in those days whose souls as eagerly sought the thrill of a fight for life — whose souls more eagerly sought for the smell of burned gunpowder and the sight of blood-splashed decks than for the gold doubloons that rewarded the successful voyage. Thesea was alive with men who had served in
