had sailed with Captain Cook, with great credit to himself, round the
world. It was also remarkable that my brother, on seeing him in London,
when he went to deliver his evidence, recognised him as having served on
board the Monarch man-of-war, and as one of the most exemplary men in that
ship.

I returned now in triumph. I had been out only three weeks, and I had found
out this extraordinary person, and five respectable witnesses besides.
These, added to the three discovered in the last journey, and to those
provided before, made us more formidable than at any former period; so that
the delay of our opponents, which we had looked upon as so great an evil,
proved in the end truly serviceable to our cause.

On going into the committee-room of the House of Commons on my return, I
found that the examinations were still going on in the behalf of those, who
were interested in the continuance of the trade; and they went on beyond
the middle of April, when it was considered that they had closed. Mr.
Wilberforce moved accordingly on the twenty-third of the same month, that
Captain Thomas Wilson, of the royal navy, and that Charles Berns Wadstrom
and Henry Hew Dalrymple, esquires, do attend as witnesses on the behalf of
the abolition. There was nothing now but clamour from those on the opposite
side of the question. They knew well, that there were but few members of
the House of Commons, who had read the privy council report. They knew
therefore, that, if the question were to be decided by evidence, it must be
decided by that, which their own witnesses had given before parliament. But
this was the evidence only on one side. It was certain therefore, if the
decision were to be made upon this basis, that it must be entirely in their
favour. Will it then be believed that in an English House of Commons there
could be found persons, who could move to prevent the hearing of any other
witnesses on this subject; and, what is more remarkable, that they should