640 Dr. PetrivaPs Notes and Illujlrationu 



and ftealing men and cWldren. * Piracy is an offence againft 

 the univerfal law of fociety ; a pirate being, according to Sir 

 Edward Coke, hops humani generis. And, by ftatute 8 Geo. I. 

 the trading with known pirates, or furniftiing them with ftorcs 

 or ammunition is deemed piracy ; and all acceffories to piracy 

 are declared to be principal pirates, and felons without benefit 

 of clergy, f Surely the crime of piracy, in its effence and de- 

 gree, is die fame, to an enlightened mind, on the coafts of 

 Africa, as on thofe of Europe : And we condemn, with as full 

 conviftion of their enormity, the depredations of the knights of 

 Malta on the peafants, filhermen, and failors of Barbary, as we 

 do thofe of the Corfairs of Tunis, and Algiers, on the ftate of 

 Italy. 1 



Servitude is founded, by thofe civilians who deem it lawful, 

 on voluntary compafl ; on captivity ; on debt ; and on the 

 power of the magiftrate in the punifhment of crimes. 



Slavery, founded on 'voluntary compaii^ muft in itfelf be void ; 

 becanfe man, being an accountable creature, has not in himfelf 



• Blackftone's Comment, book IV. chap. 15. 



The extent of this crime, as pra£lifed on the coaft of Guinea, over- 

 powers the fenfe of its enormity, and of the miferics produced by it. 

 Of tbefe miferies we may form an eftimate, by the following affefting 

 account of the fufferings of a few natives of another part of the globe, 

 on being forced away from their country, their families, and friends. 

 Chriftiern IV. king of Denmark, fent three ftiips to make difcoverles 

 on the coaft of Greenland, The commanders of thefe veflels carried off 

 feveralof the natives, who, when firft captured, " rent the air with their 

 " cries and lamentations. They leaped into the fea ; and when taken 

 *' again on fliip-boarJ, for fonie time refufed all fuflenance. Their eyes 

 '< were continually turned towards their dear country, and their faces 

 «' always bathed in tears. Even the countenance of his Dani/h majefty, 

 " and the carefTes of the court and people could not alleviate their grief. 

 «* One of them was perceived to flied tears always when he faw an infant 

 " in the mother's arms; a circumftance from whence it was naturally 

 «< concluded, that he had left his wife with a young child in Greenland." 

 See Encyclop.. Britan, Art. Greenland. 



f Blackftone's Comment, book IV. chap, 5, 

 I Howard on Lazarettos, p. 58, 



a right 



