“they came swarming up, like bees from the aperture of a hive, till the whole deck was crowded to suffocation, from stem to stern; so that it was impossible to imagine where they could all have come from, or how they could all have been stowed away. on looking into the places where they had been crammed, there were found some children . . in the places most remote from light and air; they were lying nearly in a torpid state, after the rest had turned out. the little creatures seemed indifferent as to life or death, and when they were carried on deck, many of them could not stand. . when the poor creatures were ordered down again, several of them came and pressed their heads against our knees, with looks of the greatest anguish, at the prospect of returning to the horrid place of suffering below.
”notices of brazil(1820) quoted in rufus w. clark, the african slave trade boston: american tract society, [c1860], pp. 27-30.