5105. In all cases it will answer the purpose of the merchant to give a larger price for those ships to be employed in the slave trade than for any other purpose?--Yes, probably. 5106. Viscount _Ebrington_.] Have you ever considered what the result would be of the British Government buying those ships in?--It would be impossible to buy them all in. 5107. All that are not liable to be broken up?--No. During last year, for instance, the number condemned was so large, that the Government, if they had bought them, could not have found a use for them. 5108. Mr. _Forster_.] Have you any doubt that those vessels have been sometimes knocked down by the auctioneer to agents of the slave traders on the coast?--It may have been so, and I have no doubt it has; I do not recollect a case at present, but I would have insisted upon it, as head of the court, that it should have been knocked down to any one who made the highest bid. 5109. It is your opinion also, that the prize goods have been frequently sold in the like manner?--Some portion of them, but certainly not the bulk of them. 5110. Was there any thing to prevent the whole of them being sold to the slave dealers, or the agent of the slave dealers?--Nothing whatever. 5111. Had you opportunities of observing, up to the time you left Sierra Leone, whether the agents of the slave dealers on the neighbouring coast frequently appeared in the market of Sierra Leone as purchasers of goods or vessels?--Not often; if the goods came into their hands it was through a third person generally. I have heard of Spaniards going down, and bidding for the vessels, but it was not an ordinary occurrence.