HORRORS OF THE MIDDLE PASSAGE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7626, 25 December 1886, Page 4

HORRORS OF THE MIDDLE PASSAGE.

John Newton, joint author with Cowper of tho " Olney Hymns," and composer of ' " How sweet the name of Jesus sounds," a hymn that lias expressed the faith and / hope of thousands, was for four years of liis life captain of a Liverpool slave shin— • so great aro the changes that true religion can make in the life and character ot a ' ' man ! He says :— " I hope it will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shud- . ders." The great object with the captains of these slave vessels, he says, was to bo lull; The cargo of a vessel of 100 tons, - ' or little more, was calculated at from 220 to 250 slaves. Their "lodging rooms" below the ilnck were three— for the men, the boys, and the women, besides a place for the sick. The space for these was sometimes live 'feet high and sometimes - less, and this height was divided towards the middle, for the slaves lay in two rows, one above the other, like books on a shelf. "I have known them so close that tlio • shelf could not easily contain one more. And I have known a white man sent down to lay them in those rows to the greatest advantage, so that as little space as " possible might be lost." The poor cieatures, thus' cramped for want of room, were also shackled with iron fetters, for the most part both hands and feet, and two together, so that it, was almost impossible for them to turn or move, much . less to attempt to rise up or lie down ■ ' withont hurting themselves. They were packed athwart or across the ship, and this increased tho misery of their condi- - • tion, especially of those who lay on the leeivard side of the vessel. They were kept down by the weather for sometimes a week at a time ; this added to the „ galling of their irons, and the despondency which seized their spirits when thus confined soon became fatal, and every morning instances were found of the living and the dead, like the captives of • Mezentius, fastened together.