Perhaps he could not give a better proof of the sufferings of
these injured people during their passage, than by stating the mortality
which accompanied it. This was a species of evidence, which was
infallible on this occasion. Death was a witness which could not deceive
them; and the proportion of deaths would not only confirm, but, if
possible, even aggravate our suspicion of the misery of the transit. It
would be found, upon an average of all the ships, upon which evidence
had been given, that, exclusively of such as perished before they sailed
from Africa, not less than twelve and-a-half per cent died on their
passage: besides these, the Jamaica report stated that four and-a-half
per cent died while in the harbours, or on shore before the day of sale,
which was only about the space of twelve or fourteen days after their
arrival there; and one-third more died in the seasoning: and this in a
climate exactly similar to their own, and where, as some of the
witnesses pretended, they were healthy and happy. Thus out of every lot
of one hundred shipped from Africa, seventeen died in about nine weeks,
and not more than fifty lived to become effective labourers in our
islands.
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