Note 12 — Chapter XXI · PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT RELATING TO THE WAR.

When Clarkson wanted evidence respecting the manner in which slaves were obtained up the rivers Calabar and Bonny, he heard, by accident, that there was one person who could give it, but he neither could obtain his name, nor learn the place of his abode: ... all that was known was, that he belonged to some ship of war in ordinary. That indefatigable and admirable man immediately set out in search of him: he went on board every ship in ordinary at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, and Sheerness, ... above an hundred and sixty vessels, ... but in vain. He boarded above an hundred more at Portsmouth, equally in vain, and fifty-six at Plymouth, with as little success. In the fifty-seventh he found his man, after a labour of three weeks; obtained the knowledge which he wanted; and established by that evidence a point of main importance to the abolition of the slave trade.