murder belongs properly to the Admiralty department, and therefore I do not apply to your Grace on that account; but only wish, by the horrible example related in the enclosed papers, to warn your Grace, that there is an absolute necessity to abolish the Slave Trade and the West-India slavery; and that to be in power, and to 'neglect, as life (and I may add, the tenure of office) is very uncertain, even a day, in endeavouring to put a stop to such monstrous injustice and abandoned wickedness, must necessarily endanger a man's eternal welfare, 'be he ever so great in temporal dignity or office.' This was my warning to Lord North eleven years ago.

"With great respect, my Lord,

"Your Grace's most obedient," &c. &c.

Copy of a Letter from G. S. to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.

My Lords,

"Old Jewry, London, 2d July, 1783. "As the cognisance and right of inquiry concerning all murders committed on board British ships, belongs properly to the Admiralty department, I think it my duty to lay before your Lordships two manuscript accounts, wherein are stated, from unquestionable authority, the circumstances of a most inhuman murder, committed by Luke Collingwood the master, James Kelsal the mate, and other persons the mariners or crew, of the ship Zong, or Zung, a Liverpool trader, freighted with slaves, &c., from the coast of Africa: which master, mate, and crew, on pretence of necessity (lest there should be a want of water), wilfully and deliberately destroyed one hundred and twentytwo Negro slaves, by casting them alive (as it is deposed) into the sea, with their hands bound or fettered, to deprive them of all possibility of escaping. Having been earnestly

solicited and called upon by a poor Negro for my assistance, to avenge the blood of his murdered countrymen, I thought it my duty to spare neither labour nor expense in collecting all the information concerning this horrible transaction that I could possibly procure, for the sake of national justice, that the blood of the murdered may not rest on the whole kingdom, which already labours under too awful a load of guilt in tolerating the iniquitous Slavetrade, whereby, amongst other evils, this most inhuman and diabolical deed was occasioned. One of the manuscripts (marked Voucher No. 1) is an authentic copy, from the office of the Court of Exchequer, of a bill or petition, presented to that Court, last Hilary Term, in behalf of the underwriters and insurers of the said ship Zong, or Zung, plaintiffs, against Messrs. William, John, and James Gregson, and others, merchants of Liverpool, and owners of the said ship and cargo, who obtained a verdict in the Court of King's Bench, on the 6th of March last, against the said underwriters, for the value of the murdered slaves, rated at 301. per head, though alleged to be wilfully drowned by the agents and servants of the said owners: so that this most abominable iniquity has been notoriously favoured and encouraged in that solemn Court; but on what principle, is not easy to be conceived.

The other manuscript book (marked Voucher No. 2) contains a copy of minutes taken in short hand the last term, on the 22d and 23d May, 1783, of the proceedings in the Court of King's Bench, on a motion for a new trial of the cause of the same parties mentioned above, concerning the value of those murdered Negroes! Thus the contest between the owners and insurers of the ship, though a mere mercenary business amongst themselves about the pecuniary value, and not for the blood, of so many, human

persons wickedly and unjustly put to death, has, nevertheless, occasioned the disclosure of that horrible transaction, which otherwise, perhaps, might have been known only amongst the impious slave-dealers, and have never been brought to light.

"It will, however, be necessary for me to add to these vouchers a brief statement (which is enclosed*) of the principal circumstances of the case, because the two manuscripts are much too long for the perusal of your Lordships, except in the way of reference to particular parts, as to vouchers of the facts. As there is some variation in the two accounts respecting the number of persous murdered, it is necessary to remark, that it appears upon the whole evidence, that no less than one hundred and thirty-three of the unhappy slaves on board the Zong were inhumanly doomed to be cast into the sea-(Voucher No. 1, p. 2 and p. 3)-and that all the other numbers mentioned in the several accounts are to be included in that number-viz. the one hundred and twenty-two mentioned in the beginning of this letter, who were cast alive, as the owners and their witnesses assert, into the sea, with their hands fettered: also ten poor Negroes, who, being terrified with what they had seen of the unhappy fate of their countrymen, jumped overboard, in order to avoid the fettering or binding of their hands, and were drowned; and one man more, that had been cast overboard alive, but escaped, it seems, by laying hold of a rope which hung from the ship into the water, and thereby, without being perceived, regained the ship, secreted himself, and was saved. It is necessary also to add to the enclosed statement, some remarks, in answer to the arguments and doctrines of a very eminent and learned lawyer, who, to the dishonour

*The narrative delivered to the Lords of the Admiralty will be found in the Appendix.

of his profession, attempted to vindicate the inhuman transaction*.

"The reality of the fact, according to the evidence produced, was testified upon oath in one of our highest courts of justice, and was notoriously admitted by both the contending parties. Mr. Robert Stubbs, late Governor of Annamaboo, &c., is a living witness to a part of the transaction, and is now in town. He told me himself, that he saw several of the poor creatures plunging in the sea that had been cast overboard, though he alleges that he did not see who cast them over; for he says, he was only a passenger in the ship, and had nothing to do in the transaction, but remained below at the time they were cast over. Also, the officers and crew of the ship William (Richard Hanley, late master), and the owners of the said ship, viz. Messrs. Gregson, Cave, Wilson, and Aspinal of Liverpool, merchants (mentioned in Voucher No. 1), can probably give sufficient information where the guilty crew of the Zong, whom they employed, are to be found, as also their names, &c. And Mr. who defended the cause of the said owners, has attended their consultation, and was in possession of the evidence or deposition of James Kelsal, the chief mate of the Zong (Voucher No. 2, p. 44, cap. 29. orig.), will be able to confirm the notoriety of the fact; and so also will the attorneys employed in the cause on both sides the question,-viz. Messrs. Brograve and Lyon for the owners of the Zong, and Mr. Townley Ward for the insurers.

* I find the following note annexed to the original document at this place :

"Memorandum. John Lee, Esq. a Yorkshire man, who spoke very broad in the provincial dialect of that county, which has seldom been so grossly profaned as by this lawyer."

N. B. His name was not inserted in the letter sent to the Admiralty.

"Informed of all these particulars, your Lordships will now be enabled to judge whether there is sufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution of the murderers-viz. the chief mate and the rest of the crew of the said ship Zong, or Zung-before the Grand Jury at the next Admiralty sessions. Luke Collingwood, the master, is reported to be dead, as also Richard Hanley, the master of the ship William above mentioned.

"With the greatest respect, my Lords," &c. &c.

Although the powerful manner, in which the account alluded to in the foregoing letter was drawn up by Mr. Sharp, gave fresh force to the natural interest of the cause, he nevertheless failed in his endeavours to bring a further punishment on the perpetrators of the horrid tragedy. But the failure of his attempt, and the insult offered, in the expressions of the pleader, to feelings which the sense of mercy and justice had inspired, were doomed by the great Fountain of Mercy to be fatal to the wicked interests of slavery.

The deduction, that was to be formed from the scene that had passed, was too obvious not to suggest itself even to the dullest observer. A high court of English judicature had heard one of the great organs of the law avow the case, in which he asserted, that "so far from the guilt of any thing like a murderous act," in casting one hundred and thirty-three living and unoffending human creatures into the sea, to perish there; so far from "any shew or suggestion of cruelty;" there was not even a surmise of