THE CONFERENCE. 
221 
Wish, for our Queen has many war-ships at the mouth 
of the river, and Spaniards are afraid to come and buy 
there. 
Obi . — I understand. 
He seemed to be highly amused on our describing 
the difficulties the slave-dealers have to encounter in 
the prosecution of the trade ; and on one occasion, he 
laughed immoderately when told that our cruizers often 
captured slave-ships, with the cargo on board. We 
suspected, however, that much of his amusement arose 
from his knowing that slaves were shipped off at parts 
of the coast little thought of by us. The abundance of 
Brazilian rum in Aboh, shewed that they often traded 
with nations who have avowedly no other object. 
The interpreter, Simon Jonas, was a practical illus- 
tration of the advantages which the Commissioners 
wished the King to assist in procuring for his country. 
He was, therefore, told to state how he came to be 
with us; he said: — “I was once taken from my 
country and parents, and sold as a slave; but an 
English man-of-war captured the ship 1 was sent in, 
and, after having been well treated, and taught how to 
write and read at Sierra Leone, I am as free as a white 
man.” 
Commissioners . — Wicked white men come and buy 
slaves ; not to eat them as your people believe, but to 
make them work harder than they can bear, by flogging 
and ill-using them. The English Queen wishes to 
prevent such cruelty. 
