Veneris, 24º die Junii, 1842.
MEMBERS PRESENT.
Sir T. D. Acland.
Mr. Aldam.
Viscount Courtenay.
Mr. E. Denison.
Captain Fitzroy.
Mr. Forster.
Mr. W. Hamilton.
Sir R. H. Inglis.
Mr. Milnes.
Viscount Sandon, in the chair.
Captain the Honourable Joseph Denman, R. N. called in; and further Examined.
6742. Chairman.] You mentioned that there had been a considerable change in the means employed for putting down the slave trade, within the last two or three years: and you mentioned, in the first instance, a different system of cruizing pursued in consequence of the Equipment Treaty. Has there not been another means lately introduced, by means of destroying the slave factories upon the coast?—The slave factories of the Gallinas were not destroyed as a part of the powers with which I was invested. It was in consequence of peculiar circumstances, which I took advantage of for the purpose.
6743. What was it that entitled you to make that attack?—For a long series of months, the people upon the shore had been guilty of the most inhuman conduct towards my boats, conduct which a state of war would not justify, and which would be a fair subject of war if committed in any civilized country.
6744. You grounded your attack upon information received of the detention in slavery, by the son of the chief of the Gallinas, of two of Her Majesty’s subjects of the colony of Sierra Leone?—I did; but I had long previously intended to destroy the barracoons and the slave factories, if I found the case to be what I supposed it was, upon the grounds that I have before mentioned.