It was the object of the witnesses, when examined, to prove two things:  first, that regulations were unnecessary, because the present mode of the transportation was sufficiently convenient for the objects of it, and was well adapted to preserve their comfort and their health.  They had sufficient room, sufficient air, and sufficient provisions.  When upon deck, they made merry and amused themselves with dancing.  As to the mortality, or the loss of them by death in the course of their passage, it was trifling.  In short, the voyage from Africa to the West Indies “was one of the happiest periods of a Negro’s life.”

Secondly, that if the merchants were hindered from taking less that two full sized, or three smaller Africans, to a ton, then the restrictions would operate not as the regulation, but as the utter ruin of the trade.  Hence the present bill, under the specious mask of a temporary interference, sought nothing less than its abolition.

These assertions having been severally made, by the former of which it was insinuated that the African, unhappy in his own country, found in the middle passage, under the care of the merchants, little less than an Elysian retreat, it was now proper to institute a severe inquiry into the truth of them.  Mr. Pitt, Sir Charles Middleton, Mr. William Smith, and Mr. Beaufoy, took a conspicuous part on this occasion, but particularly the two latter, to whom much praise was due for the constant attention they bestowed upon this subject.  Question after question was put by these to the witnesses; and from their own mouths they dragged out, by means of a cross-examination as severe as could be well instituted, the following melancholy account:—­

Every slave, whatever his size might be, was found to have only five feet and six inches in length, and sixteen inches in breadth, to lie in.  The floor was covered with bodies stowed or packed according to this allowance:  but between the floor and the deck or ceiling were often platforms or broad shelves in the mid-way, which were covered with bodies also.  The height from the floor to the ceiling, within which space the bodies on the floor and those on the platforms lay, seldom exceeded five feet eight inches, and in some cases it did not exceed four feet.

The men were chained two and two together by their hands and feet, and were chained also by means of ring-bolts, which were fastened to the deck.  They were confined in this manner at least all the time they remained upon the coast, which was from six weeks to six months as it might happen.

Their allowance consisted of one pint of water a day to each person, and they were fed twice a day with yams and horsebeans.

After meals they jumped up in their irons for exercise.  This was so necessary for their health, that they were whipped if they refused to do it; and this jumping had been termed dancing.

They were usually fifteen and sixteen hours below deck out of the twenty-four.  In rainy weather they could not be brought up for two or three days together.  If the ship was full, their situation was then distressing.  They sometimes drew their breath with anxious and laborious efforts, and some died of suffocation.