[ 21 ]
lay hold upon one of the most obstinate, and chopt the poor creature into small pieces, forcing some of the others to eat a part of the mangled body; withal swearing to the survivors, that he would use them all, one after the other, in the same manner, if they did not consent to eat.'
This horrid execution he applauded as a good act, it having had the desired effect, in bringing them to take food.
A similar case is mentioned in Astley's Collection of Voyages, by John Atkins, Surgeon on board Admiral Ogle's squadron,
'Of one Harding, master of a vessel, in which several of the men-slaves, and a woman-slave, had attempted to rise, in order to recover their liberty; some of whom master, of his own authority, sentenced to cruel death; making them first eat the heart and liver of one of those he killed. The woman he hoisted by the thumbs; whipped and slashed with knives before the other slaves, till she died.'
As detestable and shocking as this may appear to such, whose hearts are not yet hardened by the practice of that cruelty, which the love of wealth, by degrees, introduceth into the human mind; it will not be strange to those who have been concerned or employed in the Trade. Now here arises a necessary query to those who hold the ballance and sword of justice; and who must account to God for the use they have made of it. Since our English law is so truly valuable for its justice, how can they overlook these barbarous deaths of the unhappy Africans without trial, or due proof of their being guilty, of crimes adequate to their punishment? Why are those masters of vessels (who are often not the most tender and considerate of men) thus suffered to be the sovereign arbiters of the lives
of
