Page:Trials of the Slave Traders Samo, Peters and Tufft (1813).pdf/50

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regular interposition of the law. But there are still other discoveries to be made, and other punishments to be inflicted, before this business can be made complete. There is ground to believe, that in England there are persons who have promoted the slave trade by their connexion in the neighbourhood of this colony, while they professed to abhor it. When these characters shall have been brought to light, we shall have many strange and wicked facts to contemplate ; and Africa will know its real enemies in the exposure of certain of its hypocritical friends. But all that England can do to break up the trade in human flesh will be of no avail, if her allies be allowed to carry it on. Portugal, it is true, is confined by treaty to trade for slaves only within her own dominions on the coast; but this is not the case with Spain. The subjects of this nation still send their vessels for cargoes of slaves; and they affect astonishment at being told, that they are not at liberty to ship them off from every part of Africa. In the island of Teneriffe, both British and American vessels are put under Spanish colours, and then they imagine they may trade in slaves with impunity. At St. Jago, the Portuguese flag is supplied to English and American vessels for the same purpose. Among the variety of places which I visited on the coast of Africa was that of the Portuguese settlement of Bissao. From this place was once shipped a great number of slaves; and thongh its commerce is now much reduced, it still obstructs the benevolence of the British Government, in putting down the slave commerce. The inhabitants at Bissao have been habituated from infancy to slaving, and from the local situation of the country it is evident, that so long as it continues in the same hands, the trade on the windward coast cannot be totally abolished. This subject I shall resume at a future occasion.

To omit the praise due to the navy on this coast would be