of the Institution, was determined in favour of the captors by Sir William Scott, expressly on the ground of the ship being really a British vessel, although at the time of the capture she was sailing under the Portuguese flag; and another vessel was lately captured at Goree, under Spanish colours, and condemned at Sierra Leone, as being really the property of British owners. His Majesty's ship the Kangaroo, Captain Lloyd, also captured and carried into Sierra Leone, two slave vessels, under Portugueze colours; one of them had two hundred and seventy slaves on board, and papers found concealed in a cask shewed her to be the property of a house at Liverpool. Thus, that which has been represented as a bond fide Spanish or Portugueze Slave Trade, has turned out upon strict examination to be, in many instances, a trade in slaves, illegally carried on by British capital and British subjects; or in some instances by American subjects, which, since the Slave Trade has been abolished by the United States, makes the vessel and property on board equally liable to condemnation.

The Directors have now to remark, that the Act of Parliament making it felony in British subjects to trade in slaves, has been carried into effect in several instances at Sierra Leone. Under that Act of Parliament Samuel Samo,

an old s'ave trader, resident near the Rio Pongas, was indicted before Mr. Thorpe, the Chief Justice of Sierra Leone in April 1812, for trading in slaves. He pleaded not guilty; and several witnesses having been examined, both on his behalf and against him, he was found guilty by the jury, after a short consultation. Several petitions were presented from native chiefs and others to Colonel Maxwell, the upright, intelligent, active, and benevolent Governor of Sierra Leone, praying for the pardon of Samo, upon condition of the petitioners abandoning the Slave Trade, and doing all in their power, in co-operation with Samo himself, to effect a total suppression of that execrable traffic. With these petitions thus urged, Governor Maxwell deemed it expedient to comply; and upon the conditions proposed in them, Samo was discharged from the verdict of felony which had been brought in against him.

Joseph Peters was also indicted before Mr. Justice Thorpe for a similar offence, in taking slaves from the island of Tasso, and re-selling them; and being found guilty, was sentenced to transportation for seven years.

William Tuft, an associate and accessory with Peters, was afterwards tried upon a similar charge, found guilty, and sentenced to three

years' hard labour on the public works at Sierra Leone, at which he is now kept.

These wholesome convictions upon the Slave Trade Felony Act, were calculated, in the opinion of Governor Maxwell, to produce a very salutary effect on the minds of the slave dealers in the neighbourhood; and it may reasonably be expected that their influence may be extended even beyond the limits of Africa.

The Directors must now proceed to a subject which they cannot state to the meeting, without the most painful feelings. Three vessels, named L'Eclair, Industry, and Prudent, all bound from the island of Madagascar to Port Louis in the Isle of France, were captured for having slaves on board, by his Majesty's ships the Astrea and Racehorse, in the month of SepThe first-mentioned vessel, tember, 1811. L'Eclair, was built at the Isle of France previously to its surrender to Great Britain in December 1810, and appeared to have been fitted out at a very considerable expence by the owners, who were merchants at Port Louis, since the capture of the colony, with the ostensible object of trading from that port to Madagascar for the supply of the Isle of France with cattle. There were found on board this vessel one hundred and twenty-six Negroes of both sexes, and of the most tender age. The

affidavit of the British seamen, who discovered the greater part of them concealed, proves the severe sufferings to which they must have been subjected, being crowded together indiscriminately in a very confined space almost without air, and without any regard to distinction of either sex or age. To the seamen who discovered these unfortunate beings, a bribe of two hundred dollars was offered not to disclose the discovery which they had made; but with manly hearts, alive to the sufferings of these unprotected beings, and strikingly characteris tic of British sailors, they rejected the bribe, and exposed this infamous transaction to their officer. These poor slaves were taught to expect, that the English on discovering them, would kill and eat them. Their complaints, therefore, nay almost their vital respirations, were thus suspended through fear, whilst the search after them in their concealed holes in the vessel was going on, lest, by reaching the ears of the British seamen, they should be discovered, and the dreadful fate which their mas ters had taught them to expect should be the consequence. About five or six days after the first search, another negro boy, about fourteen years old, was discovered concealed on board L'Eclair, by a seaman belonging to the Astrea, who was sent to do some duty below. This

boy was first bought at Madagascar by one of the crew of L'Eclair (who was very active in attempting to hide him) for sixty-five dollars, and was brought up, as the owner of the boy says, for sale, with the full knowledge and consent of the captain of L'Eclair.

The register burthen of the Industry, was only seventy-three tons: yet did the master, without remorse, crowd on board of her, to cross the ocean from Madagascar to the Isle of France, two hundred and eight slaves of both sexes, and of every age from infancy to manhood; independently of nineteen persons more, consisting of the officers, crew, passengers, and servants; making in all, two hundred and twenty-seven human beings crammed into a vessel scarcely larger than a Margate Hoy; and this in addition to a cargo of five or six hundred bags of rice.

The cargo of the vessel, called the Prudent, consisted apparently of one hundred and four bullocks' only; but it appeared, by the affidavit of two of the sailors belonging to the Racehorse, that, after a great deal of search they dicovered twenty negro slaves (nineteen males and one female) secreted under the cattle, in a place so contrived as almost to escape detection; that notwithstanding a considerable bribe was offered to these sailors, and much more promised,