sickly or dying state, captured and brought into Rio Janeiro, (as in the case of the 'Rio de la Plata,') where the miserable slaves confined to the vessel, in a hot and close port, must await the tardy process of the Mixed Commission Court: and he goes on to say, that in such a case, "the stopping of the slave-vessel is only exposing the blacks to greater misery, and a much greater chance of speedy death, than if they were left to their original destination of slavery."*

In the 21st Report of the African Institution we have the case of the Pauleta, captured off Cape Formosa, in February, 1826, by "Lieutenant Tucker, H. M. Ship Maidstone, with 221 slaves on board. Her burden was only 69 tons, and into this space were thrust 82 men, 56 women, 39 boys, and 44 girls. The only provision found on board for their subsistence, was yams of the worst quality, and fetid water. When captured, both small-pox and dysentery had commenced their ravages; 30 died on the passage to Sierra Leone, and the remainder were landed in an extreme state of wretchedness and emaciation."†

In 1830, a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to consider the relative merits of Sierra Leone and Fernando Po. Captain Bullen stated in evidence before the Committee, that the Aviso, captured near Fernando Po, took five weeks to reach Sierro Leona, during which time forty-five of the slaves died, and that in the case of the Segunda Rosalia, the passage occupied eleven weeks, during which more than 120 of the slaves were lost.t

* Class B, 1835, p. 66. † Afr. Inst. Report for 1827, p. 9. † Sierra Leone Report, 1830, p. 8.

Lieutenant Tringham informed the Committee, that he carried a Spanish schooner up to Sierra Leone as prize-master. She had 480 slaves on board at the time of capture. The voyage to Sierra Leone occupied six weeks, and 110 slaves died on the passage. In answer to the question, " If you had had to have taken the vessel to Fernando Po for adjudication, instead of Sierra Leone, the lives of those persons would have been saved ?" he replied, "I think so." He afterwards said, that the average voyage of the vessels he had taken from the Bights of Benin and Biafra to Sierra Leone, was five weeks.*

Mr. Jackson stated to the Committee, that the condition of the slaves, at the time of capture, was "most deplorable, as to disease, and as to the mortality which has ensued: in one instance, 179 out of 448 slaves, on board of one vessel, died in their passage up: in another, 115 out of 271. In all, with only one exception, the numbers have been considerable."†

Mr. John McCormack, in his evidence, said, that on going aboard slave-vessels after capture and the passage to Sierra Leone, he generally found the slaves who had been any length of time on the voyage, " in a most miserable state of debility." And he adds, "They unavoidably must, from the description of the vessels, suffer very greatly; many of these vessels have not more than three feet between deeks, and no air can get to them except what comes down the hatchways. They are so low in the water, no air-ports can be cut in their sides."‡

In the Appendix to the Report of this Committee, a return is given for the period between 10th August, 1819, and 11th October, 1829,

Being nearly one-seventh, or about 14 per cent; and this almost entirely on the passage to Sierra Leone. Mr. Rankin, in his visit to Sierra Leone, tells us of a Portuguese schooner, the Donna Maria da Gloria, which he saw there, with a cargo of slaves on board. She had embarked them at Loando, in August, 1833, and was captured by H. M. B. Snake. The captor took the vessel to Rio; but the Brazilian Mixed Court would not entertain the case; he was therefore obliged to send her to Sierra Leone, where she arrived on February 4, 1834. On her arrival, it was ascertained that she had lost 95 out of 430 slaves. A long process ensued before the Mixed Commission Court, the result of which was the liberation of the vessel; and at this period, her state is thus described: "Notwithstanding the exertions of Mr. Thomas Frazer, assistant-surgeon of the capturing ship, who continued to administer to them while himself in a state of extreme suffering and danger, before reaching Sierra Leone, 104 had died, and 64 more (in a state that moved the heart even of the slave-crew) were voluntarily landed by the master, and taken charge of by the liberated African department. The miserable remnant, in a state impossible to describe, afflict

* Sierra Leone Roport, Ap. p. 122.

ed with ophthalmia, dysentery, and frightful ulcers, and showing, also, some symptoms of small-pox, left the harbor of Sierra Leone; the slaves having been then on board 165 days, 137 having elapsed since her capture: and of her original cargo of 430, 240 alone remained."*

Dr. Cullen, of Edinburgh, who lately returned from Rio de Janeiro, after a five years' residence there, thus writes to Lord Glenelg, of date 28th February, 1838, in reference to the Donna Maria having been released at Sierra Leone: "Some months after this, they were met by a Brazilian ship of war, near Bahia, in distress; and their numbers reduced to 170."+

Mr. Rankin visited La Pantica, another vessel which had been brought into Sierra Leone. "The ship," he says, "was thronged with men, women, and children, all entirely naked, and disgusting with disease: 274 were at this moment in the little schooner. When captured, 315 had been found on board, forty had died during the voyage from Old Calebar. Of the remainder, 8 or 10 died in the first week after liberation. The majority of the survivors were miserably persecuted by ophthalmia and dysentery, and 50 were sent to the hospital, for fever, at Kissey."‡

In a report of the Sierra Leone Commissioners, dated 4th February, 1835,§ it is stated that "the Sutil arrived in this harbor on the 23d ult., with 228 slaves on board, 79 having died on the passage to

this port, whilst the vessel was in charge of the captors, in addition to a frightful loss of life which had previously occurred on the first night of the voyage, owing to a ferocious scramble for room, amongst the densely-crowded negroes, and by which many were suffocated and killed. The surgeon to the courts immediately visited the slaves, and reported that there were 21 men and boys, and 8 girls, sick with dysentery, many of them being in an advanced stage of the disease."

In the Falmouth Packet of the 8th of December last, I find the following statement: "The Brilliant, captured by H. M. S. Rover, on the 11th April, 1838, had 289 negroes on board; but, owing to the delays which kept them in their horrible state of imprisonment on board, were daily dying, and from that time to the 16th September, 119 of these miserable creatures had died. When the Buffalo left, the small-pox and dysentery had broken out, and was sweeping them at the rate of 8 and 10 per day."*

The following list of seventeen vessels, most of which were captured in the Bights of Benin and Biafra, and brought for adjudication to Sierra Leone, will serve to exhibit the loss after capture in a forcible