Travels In The United States Of America; Commencing In The Year 1793, And Ending In 1797. With The Author's Journals Of His Two Voyages Across The Atlantic By William Priest
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It Is Said, That, Owing To The Cruel Usage They
Received From The Captain, Such As Being Put On A _Very Scanty_ Allowance
Of Water[Footnote:
By a law of the United States, the quantity of water
and provision every vessel is obliged to take (in proportion to the length
of the passage and persons on board) is clearly defined.
A master of a
vessel violating this law forfeits five hundred dollars.] and provision, a
contagious disorder broke out on board, which carried off great numbers;
and, to add to their distress, when they arrived in the Delaware, they
were obliged to perform quarantine, which, for some days, was equally
fatal.
The disorder was finally got under by the physicians belonging to the
Health Office. We had several of the survivors on board, who confirmed all
I had heard: indeed their emaciated appearance was a sufficient testimony
of what they had suffered. They assured me, the captain sold the ship's
water by the pint; and informed me of a number of shocking circumstances,
which I will not wound your feelings by relating.
It is difficult to conceive how a multitude of witnesses can militate
_against_ a fact; but more so, how three hundred passengers could
tamely submit to such cruelties, from a bashaw of a captain.
I am happy to inform you the Philadelphia Hibernian Society are determined
to prosecute this _flesh butcher_ for _murder_; As the manner of
carrying on this _trade_ in human flesh is not generally known in
England, I send you a few particulars of what is here emphatically called
a _white Guinea man_. There are vessels in the trade of Belfast,
Londonderry, Amsterdam, Hamburgh, &c., whose chief _cargoes_, on
their return to America, are passengers; great numbers of whom, on their
arrival, are _sold_ for a term of years to pay their passage; during
their servitude, they are liable to be _resold_, at the death or
caprice of their masters.
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