This was his own account of
himself; and he affirmed, in his deposition before me, that he had never
had any purpose of shipping for Liverpool, or anywhere else; but that,
going on board the ship to bring a man's trunk ashore, he was compelled
to remain and serve as a sailor. This was a hard fate, certainly, and a
strange thing to happen in the United States at this day,--that a free
citizen should be absolutely kidnapped, carried to a foreign country,
treated with savage cruelty during the voyage, and left to die on his
arrival. Yet all this has unquestionably been done, and will probably go
unpunished.
The seed of the long-stapled cotton, now cultivated in America, was sent
there in 1786 from the Bahama Islands, by some of the royalist refugees,
who had settled there. The inferior short-stapled cotton had been
previously cultivated for domestic purposes. The seeds of every other
variety have been tried without success. The kind now grown was first
introduced into Georgia. Thus to the refugees America owes as much of
her prosperity as is due to the cotton-crops, and much of whatever harm
is to result from slavery.
May 22d.--Captain J------ says that he saw, in his late voyage to
Australia and India, a vessel commanded by an Englishman, who had with
him his wife and thirteen children. This ship was the home of the
family, and they had no other. The thirteen children had all been born
on board, and had been brought up on board, and knew nothing of dry land,
except by occasionally setting foot on it.
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