Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Africans, you will excufe the liberty I have taken, under the circumftance now explained; and I muft intreat you to believe, that no encomium fhould ever have been paid you by me, unlefs I had believed it to have been previoufly earned. I have the Honour to be, Sir, Your fincere, And obedient Servant, THOMAS CLARKSON. PREFACE. chapter{Section 4Preface. IT majr be expefited, that, in offering fo many articles of information to the publick, and filch as will materially affect the policy of the flave trade, fomething fhould be faid of their authenticity, or the affurance the publick may have, that they are true; The productions of Africa are the: firft dbjedTfs of con- fideration in this work. Whatever I have faid relative to the exiftence of thefe, has been cfollefted from textit{livfag evidence, and of the greateft part of them I have now fpecimens textit{in my peffejjlon. The cruelties, practifed by the officers of flave veflels on the perfons of their unfortunate crews, (which textit{is, another object of confideration) has been ftated from various textit{depejitions voluntarily made laft year. I have had alfo textit{ocular demonftration, as far as a fight of their mangled bodies will be admitted as a proof, that fuch cruelties were exercifed upon them; and I have had the fatisfaftion of making fome of the perpetrators textit{acknowledge them, by the payment of a fine. The lofs of feamen, both in the flave trade and other trades, (which is a principal objeft of confideration in this work) is fo exact, that, though it was neceflary to have an account of no lefs textit{thanfevnn or textit{eight thoufand of them to afcertain the fact, yet the name of every individual can be given. The lift of plantations, that have been cited as having fupported themfel...