[The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the by Thomas Clarkson]@TWC D-Link bookThe History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the CHAPTER XXII 19/49
Mr.Norris himself, when certain prisoners of war were offered to him for sale, declined buying them because they appeared unhealthy; and though the king then told him that he would put them to death, he could not be prevailed upon to take them but left them to their hard fate; and he had the boldness to state afterwards, that it was his belief that many of them actually suffered. [Footnote A: This was also the case with another witness, Mr.Weuves.
He had given me accounts, before any stir was made about the Slave Trade, relative to it, all of which he kept back when he was examined there.] [Footnote B: Being a religion custom, it would still have gone on, though the Slave Trade had been abolished: nor could the merchants at any time have bought off a single victim.] These considerations had the effect of diminishing the prejudices of some of the council on this great question: and when this was perceived to be the case, it was the opinion of Mr.Pitt, Mr.Grenville, and the Bishop of London, that we should send three or four of our own evidences for examination, who might help to restore matters to an equilibrium. Accordingly, Mr.Falconbridge, and some others, all of whom were to speak to the African part of the subject, were introduced.
These produced a certain weight in the opposite scale.
But soon after these had been examined, Dr.Andrew Spaarman, professor of physic, and inspector of the museum of the royal academy at Stockholm, and his companion, C.B.Wadstrom, chief director of the assay-office there, arrived in England.
These gentlemen had been lately sent to Africa by the late king of Sweden, to make discoveries in botany, mineralogy, and other departments of science.
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