I thought that my informants wished to impose upon me, in
order that I might make statements which would carry their own
refutation with them, and that thus I might injure the great cause which
I had undertaken. And I was much inclined to be of this opinion, when I
looked again at the least of the two; for any person, who was tall,
standing upon dry ground by the side of her, might have overlooked every
thing upon her deck. I knew also that she had been built as a
pleasure-boat for the accommodation of only six persons upon the Severn.
I determined, therefore, to suspend my belief till I could take the
admeasurement of each vessel. This I did; but lest, in the agitation of
my mind on this occasion, I should have made any mistake, I desired my
friend George Fisher to apply to the builder for his admeasurement also.
With this he kindly complied. When he obtained it he brought it me. This
account, which nearly corresponded with my own, was as follows:--In the
vessel of twenty-five tons, the length of the upper part of the hold, or
roof of the room, where the seventy slaves were to be stowed, was but
little better than ten yards, or thirty-one feet. The greatest breadth
of the bottom, or floor, was ten feet four inches; and the least five.
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