I 
CHAP. IV.] WEST INDIES. 333 
trade, notwithstanding the precautions and provi¬ 
sions of the regulating act. But on examining the 
list, I find that eight of the 38 ships, were entitled to, 
and actually received, the full premium; two others 
received the half premium; and one other (a schoo¬ 
ner that sailed from Jamaica to the coast before the 
act took place) returned without the loss of a single 
negro. Of the 746 deaths, no less than 328 occur¬ 
red in four ships only, all of which, with five other 
vessels, comprehending the whole number of ships 
in which three-fifths of the mortality occurred, came 
from the same part of the coast, the Bight of Benin; 
a circumstance that gives room to conclude, (as un¬ 
doubtedly was the fact), that the negroes from that 
part of the country brought disease and contagion 
with them from the land; an epidemic fever and 
flux generally prevailing on the low marshy shores 
of the Bonny rivers, during the autumnal months, 
which sometimes proves even more destructive on 
shore than at sea. 
Perhaps the truest criterion by w r hich to estimate 
the beneficial effect of the regulating law, is the 
comparatively trifling loss that now occurs in the 
harbours of the West Indies before the Guinea 
ships open their sales. This mortality, which was 
formerly estimated at four and a half per cent, and 
was manifestly the consequence of sickness or im¬ 
proper treatment in the voyage, is now happily mi¬ 
tigated in so great a degree, that out of the whole 
number of 9,993 slaves imported into Montego-bay 
as before stated, the loss between the days of arrival 
