living early in the sixteenth century, have been ignorant of what had taken
place in the twelfth; or that, by the latter end of this latter century,
Christianity had obtained the undisputed honour of having extirpated
slavery from the western part of the European world.

From Spain and Italy I come to England. The first importation of slaves
from Africa by our countrymen was in the reign of Elizabeth, in the year
1562. This great princess seems on the very commencement of the trade to
have questioned its lawfulness. She seems to have entertained a religious
scruple concerning it, and, indeed, to have revolted at the very thought of
it. She seems to have been aware of the evils to which its continuance
might lead, or that, if it were sanctioned, the most unjustifiable means
might be made use of to procure the persons of the natives of Africa. And
in what light she would have viewed any acts of this kind, had they taken
place, we may conjecture from this fact,--that when captain (afterwards Sir
John) Hawkins returned from his first voyage to Africa and Hispaniola,
whither he had carried slaves, she sent for him, and, as we learn from
Hill's Naval History, expressed her concern lest any of the Africans should
be carried off without their free consent, declaring that "It would be
detestable, and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertakers."
Captain Hawkins promised to comply with the injunctions of Elizabeth in
this respect. But he did not keep his word; for when he went to Africa
again, he seized many of the inhabitants and carried them off as slaves,
which occasioned Hill, in the account he gives of his second voyage, to use
these remarkable words:--"Here began the horrid practice of forcing the
Africans into slavery, an injustice and barbarity, which, so sure as there
is vengeance in heaven for the worst of crimes, will sometime be the
destruction of all who allow or encourage it." That the trade should have
been suffered to continue under such a princess, and after such solemn
expressions as those which she has been described to have uttered, can be