The First Sixteen Submitted To Be Thrown Into The Sea,
But The Rest, With A Noble Resolution, Would Not Suffer The Offices
To Touch Them, But Leaped After Their Companions And Shared Their
Fate.
"The plea which was set up in behalf of this atrocious and
unparalleled act of wickedness was that the captain discovered, when
he made the proposal, that he had only two hundred gallons of water
on board, and that he had missed his port.
It was proved, however,
in answer to this, that no one had been put upon short allowance;
and that, as if Providence had determined to afford an unequivocal
proof of the guilt, a shower of rain fell, and continued for three
days, immediately after the second lot of slaves had been destroyed,
by means of which they might have filled many of their vessels with
water, and thus have prevented all necessity for the destruction of
the third.
"Mr. Granville Sharp (who after many years of struggle first
obtained the decision of a court of justice that there ARE no slaves
in England) was present at this trial, and procured the attendance
of a shorthand writer to take down the facts which should come out
in the course of it. These he gave to the public afterwards. He
communicated them also, with a copy of the trial, to the Lords of
the Admiralty, as the guardians of justice upon the seas, and to the
Duke of Portland, as principal Minister of state.
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