That at Bristol, under Mr.Joseph Harford as chairman, and Mr.Lunell as secretary, had been the first: and that at Manchester, under Mr.Thomas Walker as chairman, and Mr.Samuel Jackson as secretary, had been the second.
As Poole was a great place for carrying on the trade to Newfoundland, I determined to examine the assertion of the Earl of Sandwich in the House of Lords, when he said, in the debate on Sir William Dolben's bill, that the Slave Trade was not more fatal to seamen than the Newfoundland and some others.

This assertion I knew at the time to be erroneous, as far as my own researches had been concerned: for out of twenty-four vessels, which had sailed out of the port of Bristol in that employ, only two sailors were upon the dead list.

In sixty vessels from Poole, I found but four lost.

At Dartmouth, where I went afterwards on purpose, I found almost a similar result.

On conversing, however, with Governor Holdsworth, I learnt that the year 1786 had been more fatal than any other in this trade.