MEMBERS PRESENT.
Sir T. D. Acland.
Mr. Aldam.
Viscount Courtenay.
Captain Fitzroy.
Mr. Forster.
Mr. W. Hamilton.
Sir R. H. Inglis.
Mr. Milnes.
Viscount Sandon in the chair.
Captain Henry Worsley Hill, R.N., called in; and further examined.
7150. Chairman.] When you were last examined, you were stating the cases in which you conceived that British merchants had given assistance to the slave trade?—Yes; I stated the case of the Augusta having been detained by me.
7151. Are there other cases which have come to your knowledge?—Not of vessels being engaged in the slave trade.
7152. Are there any other instances in which you have ascertained that English merchants had aided or abetted the slave trade?—A representation in a private way was made to me by the governor of Liberia, that an English vessel had supplied Mr. Canót at New Cestos, with goods and arms. He mentioned among other things, two or three pieces of brass ordnance, with which Mr. Canót was supposed to be fortifying his slaving establishments.
7153. Was that case investigated?—No, I could not gain sufficient proof. I went on board the vessel, and the master of the vessel did not deny having landed goods at Theodore Canót’s establishment, but I could find nothing amongst her papers or her custom-house cockets that went to convince me that guns and things had been taken out from England consigned to Mr. Canót. It did not come to any thing, it was merely a representation made by the governor of Liberia, as a set-off to the complaints that were daily made of the American flag covering the slave trade upon the coast; but I could find nothing whatever that justified me in supposing that that vessel came out with her cargo consigned to Mr. Canót.
7154. Do you know of any other case?—No, I know of no other case.