They asked the reason why Englishmen had abandoned the Slave-Trade, and how we obtained people to perform labour. I told him that Englishmen were now disgusted with the conduct of their forefathers in making a property of the poor black man, who, because he was uneducated, was sold like sheep, and sent to a far country, and there compelled to labour for the remainder of his life in bondage; that Englishmen had paid an enormous sum of money for the liberation of their slaves, and were determined that the black man should be considered on an equality with a white man, and were endeavouring to teach them “sense,” the term he used for education. He had reminded me, that he had sent some boys and girls to the Mission-school at Cape Coast to learn _sense_, like white men, saying that he could (when they returned) communicate directly with the English governor at Cape Coast without sending his messages through the Spanish or Portuguese. To the next question, I replied, we could get plenty of labourers to work voluntarily, by paying them sufficient to keep them in food and clothing; but he declared that unless a slave, black man would never do any work except on his own plantation. However, he expressed his high opinion of Englishmen for condescending to put themselves upon the same level as black men, at the same time remarking that it was no wonder his father always taught him to respect an Englishman. He admitted our principles to be very humane and just, but remarked, that it would be difficult to abolish slave-holding in his country, as the children of all slaves were the property of the owner of the parent, and were treated as one of his own family; and that if a king were to interfere and abolish this law, it would cause a revolution in the kingdom, as it would affect all his head men and half heads, besides rendering those domestic slaves homeless and destitute. I told him it was not domestic slavery that we so much objected to, as the forcing them from their homes and kindred, separating them for ever from all relatives, and dooming them to incessant labour all their lives. He asked me whether, when parents voluntarily sold their children, they would then feel any regret. I replied, if the parents did not, they were unnatural, and I was sure that the children would; and to illustrate this, I pointed out a she-goat with two kids, and asked him if one were taken away, whether the young would not show symptoms of regret as well as the mother. At this he laughed heartily, but remarked, that the he-goat, the father of the kids referred to, would feel quite indifferent. I could not help smiling in return.