I determined to take this journey on horseback, not only on account of the relaxed state in which I found myself, after such close and constant application, but because I wished to have all my time to myself upon the road, in order the better to reflect upon the proper means of promoting this great cause.  The first place I resolved to visit was Bristol.  Accordingly I directed my course thither.  On turning a corner, within about a mile of that city, at about eight in the evening, I came within sight of it.  The weather was rather hazy, which occasioned it to look of unusual dimensions.  The bells of some of the churches, were then ringing; the sound of them did not strike me, till I had turned the corner before mentioned, when it came upon me at once.  It filled me, almost directly, with a melancholy for which I could not account.  I began now to tremble, for the first time, at the arduous task I had undertaken, of attempting to subvert one of the branches of the commerce of the great place which was then before me.  I began to think of the host of people I should have to encounter in it.  I anticipated much persecution in it also; and I questioned whether I should even get out of it alive.  But in journeying on, I became more calm and composed.  My spirits began to return.  In these latter moments I considered my first feelings as useful, inasmuch as they impressed upon me the necessity of extraordinary courage, and activity, and perseverance, and of watchfulness, also, over my own conduct, that I might not throw any stain upon the cause I had undertaken.  When, therefore, I entered the city, I entered it with an undaunted spirit, determining that no labour should make me shrink, nor danger, nor even persecution, deter me from my pursuit.

My first introduction was by means of a letter to Harry-Gandy, who had then become one of the religious society of the Quakers.  This introduction to him was particularly useful to me, for he had been a seafaring man.  In his early youth he had been of a roving disposition; and, in order to see the world, had been two voyages in the Slave-trade, so that he had known the nature and practices of it.  This enabled him to give me much useful information on the subject; and as he had frequently felt, as he grew up, deep affliction of mind for having been concerned in it, he was impelled to forward my views as much as possible, under an idea that he should be thus making some reparation for the indiscreet and profane occupations of his youth.

I was also introduced to the families of James Harford, John Lury, Matthew Wright, Philip Debell Tucket, Thomas Bonville, and John Waring; all of whom were of the same religious society.  I gained an introduction, also, soon afterwards, to George Fisher.  These were my first and only acquaintance at Bristol for some time.  I derived assistance in the promotion of my object from all of them; and it is a matter of pleasing reflection, that the friendships then formed have been kept alive to the present time.