The western coast. 
they excited that investigation which they feared. 
In 1785, the University of Cambridge proposed a 
question concerning the slavery and commerce of 
the human species ; to a Latin Essay on which 
subject, by Mr T. Clarkson, the first prize was 
adjudged. An English translation of this Essay 
was soon after published, which was followed by 
other two, at different periods, " On the Impoli- 
" cy of the Slave-trade," and " On the Inefficacy 
of its Regulation.'* By means of these publica- 
tions, such horrid mysteries of iniquity were un- 
veiled, that the friends of human nature caught 
the alarm, the Society for the Abolition of the 
Slave-trade was formed, and Wilberforce in- 
troduced the subject into the British Parliament, 
and prosecuted his design with such disinterested 
zeal and indefatigable perseverance, as must not 
only endear his name to the virtuous of every age, 
but class him with the great benefactors of hu- 
man nature. During the American war, many 
negroes, (according to the humane maxims of 
war), who had been invited to take up arms and 
massacre their masters, had entered on board the 
British ships of war, or repaired to the British 
standard, where they had been formed into re- 
giments of rangers. At the termination of the 
war, in 1783, they were dispersed, with the white 
loyalists, among the Bahama Islands and Nova 
Scotia, while many were conveyed to Great Bri« 
