The time seemed to me to be
approaching when the public voice should be raised against this enormous
evil. I was sure that it was only necessary for the inhabitants of this
favoured island to know it to feel a just indignation against it.
Accordingly I set off. My friend George Fisher, who was before mentioned
to have been of the religious Society of the Quakers, gave me an
introduction to the respectable family of Ball, which was of the same
religious persuasion. I called upon Mr. Sealey, Anstice, Crandon, Chubb,
and others. I laid open to those whom I saw, the discoveries I had made
relative to the loss and ill treatment of seamen; at which they seemed
to be much moved; and it was agreed that if it should be thought a
proper measure, (of which I would inform them when I had consulted the
committee,) a second petition should be sent to Parliament from the
inhabitants, praying for the abolition of the Slave Trade. With this
view I left them several of my _Summary View_, before mentioned, to
distribute, that the inhabitants might know more particularly the nature
of the evil, against which they were going to complain. On my return to
Bristol, I determined to inquire into the truth of the reports that
seamen had an aversion to enter, and that they were inveigled, if not
often forced, into this hateful employment.
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