OUR COMMERCE WITH AFRICA. 375 



Is the life-blood of an Englishman of less value on 

 the coast of Africa than on the coast of Kent ? 

 it would certainly appear so, as the blood of 

 many a brave man has been shed with impunity 

 in these encounters. 



In the last few years nearly twenty actions 

 have been fought between slavers and British 

 cruisers : in every one, doubtless, English blood 

 has flowed, and yet there is no instance of any 

 punishment following. If the slaver had a right 

 to resist, the cruiser had no right to take him ; 

 if he had not, he committed an act of piracy in 

 firing into a British vessel, and ought to have 

 suffered as a pirate. A man is hung for taking 

 a few stores out of a vessel on the high seas ; his 

 more fortunate comrade fires upon the English 

 flag, kills and wounds British subjects, and swag- 

 gers back to the Havanna with impunity. 



Before visiting the coast of Africa, I had always 

 supposed that some punishment was meted out 

 to the crews of the slave-vessels, and was much 

 surprised to find that they were turned ashore 

 generally at Prince's Island with their clothes 

 and personal property. This lenity acts in two 

 ways ; it affords a slaver who has lost a part 

 of his crew an opportunity to re-man his vessel ; 



