354 THE PRIZE ESSAY. 



question referred. He borrowed the papers of a de- 

 ceased friend who bad been in the trade, and con- 

 versed with officers who bad been stationed in the 

 West Indies. He read Benezet's Historical Account 

 of Guinea, and was thence guided to the original 

 authorities, which are contained in the large folios of 

 Hakluyt and Purchas. These old voyages, written by 

 men who were themselves slavers, contain admirable 

 descriptions of native customs, and also detailed ac- 

 counts of the way in which the man-trade was carried 

 on. Clarkson possessed a vivid imagination and a 

 tender heart : these narratives filled him with horror 

 and alarm. The pleasure of research was swallowed 

 up in the pain that was excited by the facts before 

 him. It was one gloomy subject from morning to 

 night. In the day-time he was uneasy ; at night he 

 had little rest. Sometimes he never closed his eyes 

 from grief. It became not so much a trial for aca- 

 demical reputation as for the production of a work 

 which might be useful to injured Africa. He always 

 slept with a candle in the room that he might get up 

 and put down thoughts which suddenly occurred to 

 him. At last he finished his painful task, and ob- 

 tained the prize. He went to Cambridge, and read 

 his essay in the Senate House. On his journey back 

 to London the subject continually engrossed his 

 thoughts. " I became," he says, " very seriously 

 affected upon the road. I stopped my horse occa- 

 sionally, and dismounted and walked. I frequently 

 tried to persuade myself, in these intervals, that the 

 contents of my essay could not be true. Coming in 

 sight of Wades Mill, iu Hertfordshire, I sat down 

 disconsolate on the turf by the road-side and held my 

 horse. Here a thought came into my mind, that if 



