This distribution of my books having been consigned to proper hands, I began to qualify myself, by obtaining further knowledge, for the management of this great cause.  As I had obtained the principal part of it from reading, I thought I ought now to see what could be seen, and to know from living persons what could be known on the subject.  With respect to the first of these points, the river Thames presented itself as at hand.  Ships were going occasionally from the port of London to Africa, and why could I not get on board them and examine for myself?  After diligent inquiry, I heard of one which had just arrived.  I found her to be a little wood-vessel, called the Lively, Captain Williamson, or one which traded to Africa in the natural productions of the country, such as ivory, bees’-wax, Malaguetta pepper, palm-oil, and dye-woods.  I obtained specimens of some of these, so that I now became possessed of some of those things of which I had only read before.  On conversing with the mate, he showed me one or two pieces of the cloth made by the natives, and from their own cotton.  I prevailed upon him to sell me a piece of each.  Here new feelings arose, and particularly when I considered that persons of so much apparent ingenuity, and capable of such beautiful work as the Africans, should be made slaves, and reduced to a level with the brute creation.  My reflections here on the better use which might be made of Africa by the substitution of another trade, and on the better use which might be made of her inhabitants, served greatly to animate and to sustain me amidst the labour of my pursuits.

The next vessel I boarded was the Fly, Captain Colley.  Here I found myself for the first time on the deck of a slave-vessel.  The sight of the rooms below and of the gratings above, and of the barricado across the deck, and the explanation of the uses of all these, filled me both with melancholy and horror.  I found soon afterwards a fire of indignation kindling within me.  I had now scarce patience to talk with those on board.  I had not the coolness this first time to go leisurely over the places that were open to me.  I got away quickly.  But that which I thought I saw horrible in this vessel had the same effect upon me as that which I thought I had seen agreeable in the other, namely, to animate and to invigorate me in my pursuit.

But I will not trouble the reader with any further account of my water-expeditions, while attempting to perfect my knowledge on this subject.  I was equally assiduous in obtaining intelligence wherever it could be had; and being now always on the watch, I was frequently falling in with individuals, from whom I gained something.  My object was to see all who had been in Africa, but more particularly those who had never been interested, or who at any rate were not then interested, in the trade.  I gained accordingly access very early to General Rooke; to Lieutenant Dalrymple, of the army; to Captain Fiddes, of the engineers; to the reverend Mr. Newton; to Mr. Nisbett, a surgeon in the Minories; to Mr. Devaynes, who was then in parliament, and to many others; and I made it a rule to put down in writing, after every conversation, what had taken place in the course of it.  By these means, things began to unfold themselves to me more and more, and I found my stock of knowledge almost daily on the increase.