Report of the Committee of the African Institution

"There is another still larger class of contraband slave ships, consisting of American vessels, which have assumed a Portuguese or Spanish disguise, and which, if the genuineness of their Portuguese or Spanish character, should be disproved, are equally liable to seizure and condemnation, under the authority of solemn decisions which have taken place in the supreme courts of prize in this country; particularly those in the cases of the Amedie and Fortuna, detailed above.

"The principles on which these decisions proceed appear to be no less applicable to the ships of any other neutral nation, whose laws do not sanction the Slave Trade, than to those belonging to subjects of the United States.

"In all such cases also, it is decreed, that the right of seizure is conferred not merely by the circumstance of a ship having actually traded in slaves, but by the manifestation of an intention to trade in slaves.

"It matters not,' says Sir William Scott, in what stage of the employment (viz. the Slave Trade), whether in the inception or the prosecution, or the consummation of it, the vessel is taken: the court must pronounce a sentence of confiscation.'

"What are the precise circumstances which may prove an intent to trade in slaves, it may not be easy always to define. The direct testimony of persons on board would of course be decisive. So would testimony arising from letters of instruction to the captain or supercargo, or from other documents found on board. But, independently of these direct and undeniable proofs, there may be many other grounds of strong suspicion, which, though they may not amount to satisfactory proof in the first instance, would nevertheless justify the forcible seizure and examination of papers, and the detention of the ship.

"The grounds of suspicion alluded to are of the following kind, viz.

"1. A quantity of water casks wholly disproportioned to the ordinary consumption of the ship's crew, and which can only be wanting for a living cargo.

"2. A quantity of provisions, as rice or beans, likewise far exceeding the wants of the crew. This, however, is not a necessary criterion, because it happens in many cases that rice, instead of being taken from England, is purchased on the coast, for the purpose of feeding the slaves.

"3. Barricadoes and bulk-heads to confine the slaves, either erected, or prepared with a view to future erection.

"4. Small tubs for messing the slaves, commonly known by the name of Mess Kitts, in the proportion of one for every eight or ten slaves.

"5. Chains and fetters for the slaves: though these, in order to avoid suspicion, may have been shipped under the general name of Ironmongery, and put up in casks till wanted for

use.

"6. Main-deck gratings, used almost exclusively on board slave ships. It generally happens, that, to escape detection, these are boarded over at top, so as not to be visible to a person standing on deck; but the fraud may be discovered by holding up a light beneath the deck, as then the gratings will

be seen.

"Where several of these circumstances are found to exist, a strong ground of suspicion is furnished-such a ground as would justify the captain of a man of war in pursuing his investigation further. Indeed, were they all to be found united, it is apprehended that there would be no room to hesitate about detaining the vessel.

"In October 1808, a case of this kind occurred in London, in which the above circumstances being found to exist, the vessel was seized; and the intention to trade in slaves was considered as so clearly made out, that the parties who were interested did not choose to stand the issue of a contest, but permitted condemnation of both ship and cargo to take place without any opposition. This vessel, the Commercio de Rio, had a cargo on board for the purchase of from seven to eight hundred slaves, with whom she was to proceed from the coast of Africa to the Havannah.

"Many other cases, both of foreign vessels fitted out from

an English port with intent to trade in slaves, and of American vessels, under Spanish or Portuguese colours, intending to engage in that trade, have been condemned either in the high court of admiralty at home, or in the vice-admiralty courts abroad. The case of the Fortuna is directly in point.

"It may be proper to add, that if it should be discovered, on stopping and examining a ship at sea, that any papers had been destroyed on the approach of the man of war, this would of itself form a sufficient ground of seizure and condemnation."

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

TO THE

AFRICAN INSTITUTION.

THOSE MARKED THUS (*) ARE ANNUAL.

L. S. d.

His Royal Highness the DUKE of GLOUCester,

Patron and President ............105 0 0