CHAPTER XIII.

Author returns to his History—­commitee formed as before mentioned—­its proceedings—­Author produces a summary view of the Slave-trade and of the probable consequences of its abolition—­Wrongs of Africa, by Mr. Roscoe, generously presented to the commitee—­Important discussion as to the object of the commitee—­Emancipation declared to be no part of it—­commitee decides on its public title—­Author requested to go to Bristol, Liverpool, and Lancaster, to collect further information on the subject of the trade.

I return now, after this long digression, to the continuation of my History.

It was shown in the latter part of the tenth chapter, that twelve individuals, all of whom were then named, met together, by means which no one could have foreseen, on the twenty-second of May 1787; and that, after having voted the Slave-trade to be both unjust and impolitic, they formed themselves into a commitee for procuring such information and evidence, and for publishing the same, as might tend to the abolition of it, and for directing the application of such money, as had been already and might hereafter be collected for that purpose.  At this meeting it was resolved also, that no less than three members should form a quorum; that Samuel Hoare should be the treasurer; that the treasurer should pay no money but by order of the commitee; and that copies of these resolutions should be printed and circulated, in which it should be inserted that the subscriptions of all such, as were willing to forward the plans of the commitee, should be received by the treasurer or any member of it.

On the twenty-fourth of May the commitee met again to promote the object of its institution.

The treasurer reported at this meeting, that the subscriptions already received, amounted to one hundred and thirty-six pounds.

As I had foreseen, long before this time, that my Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species was too large for general circulation, and yet that a general circulation of knowledge on this subject was absolutely necessary, I determined, directly after the formation of the commitee, to write a short pamphlet consisting only of eight or ten pages for this purpose.  I called it A Summary View of the Slave-trade, and of the probable Consequences of its Abolition.  It began by exhibiting to the reader the various unjustifiable ways in which persons living on the coast of Africa became slaves.  It then explained the treatment which these experienced on their passage, the number dying in the course of it, and the treatment of the survivors in the colonies of those nations to which they were carried.  It then announced the speedy publication of a work on the Impolicy of the Trade, the contents of which, as far as I could then see, I gave generally under the following heads:—­Part the first, it was said, would show, that Africa was