It is impossible for any one to reach this result, without suspecting, as well as hoping, that it must be an exaggeration; and yet there are those who think that this is too low an estimate. *

I have not, however, assumed any fact, without giving the data on which it rests; neither have I extracted from those data any immoderate inference. I think that the reader, on going over the calculation, will perceive that I have, in almost every instance, abated the deduction which might with justice have been made. If, then, we are to put confidence in the authorities which I have quoted, (most of them official,) we cannot avoid the conclusion,terrible as it is, that the Slave Trade annually dooms to the horrors of slavery (Christian) 120,000

(Mohammedan)

And murders (Christian)
(Mohammedan)

* Mr. Rankin says:

"The old and new Calebar, the Bonney, Whydah, and the Gallinas, contribute an inexhaustible supply for the French islands of the West Indies, Rio Janeiro, Havana, and the Brazils, where, notwithstanding every opposition and hindrance from the British cruisers, one hundred thousand are supposed to arrive in safety annually; five times that number having been lost by capture or death. Death thins the cargoes in various modes; suicide destroys many; and many are thrown overboard at the close of the voyage; for, as a duty of ten dollars is set by the Brazilian Government upon each slave upon landing, such as seem unlikely to survive, or to bring a price sufficiently high to cover this customhouse tax, are purposely drowned before entering port. only escape these wholsale murders, who will probably recover health and flesh when removed to the fattening pens of the slave. farmer, a man who contracts to feed up the skeletons to a market. able appearance." - Vol. ii. p. 71.

Those

+ It may perhaps be observed that this result disagrees with

CHAPTER 'II.

FAILURE OF EFFORTS ALREADY MADE FOR SUPPRESSION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

It is but too manifest that the efforts already made for the suppression of the Slave Trade, have not accomplished their benevolent object.

The people of England take a more lively and intense interest in this, than perhaps in any other foreign subject. The Government, whether in the hands of the one party or the other, cannot be accused of having, for a long series of years, been want. ing either in zeal, or exertion, for its suppression. Millions of money and multitudes of lives have been sacrificed; and in return for all, we have only the afflicting conviction, that the Slave Trade is as far as ever from being suppressed. Nay, I am afraid the fact is not to be disputed, that while we have thus

been endeavoring to extinguish the traffic, it has actualıy doubled in amount.

In the debate of 2d April, 1792, Mr. Fox rated the Slave Trade at -30,000 annually; he says, "I think the least disreputable way of accounting for the supply of slaves, is to represent them as having been convicted of crimes by legal authority. What does the House think is the whole number of these convicts exported annually from Africa? 80,000." In the same debate Mr. Pitt observed, "I know of no evil that ever has existed, nor can imagine any evil to exist, worse than the tearing of 80,000 persons annually from their native land, by a combination of the most civilized nations in the most enlightened quarter of the globe." The late Zachary Macaulay, than whom the African has had no better friend, told me a few days before his death, that upon the most acccurate investigation he was able to make as to the extent of the Slave Trade, he had come to the conclusion that it was 70,000 annually, fifty years ago. Twenty years ago the African Institution reported to the Duke of Wellington that it was 70,000. We will assume, then, that the number at the commencement of the discussion was 70,000 negroes annually transported from Africa. There is evidence before the Parliamentary Committees, to show that about one-third was for the British islands, and one-third for St. Domingo, so that strictly speaking, if the Slave Trade of other countries had been stationary, they ought only at the utmost to import 25,000; but I have already proved that the number annually landed in Cuba and Brazil, &c., is 150,000, being more than double the whole draught upon Africa, including the countries where it had ceased when the Slave Trade controversy began. Twice as many human beings are now its victims as when Wilberforce and Clarkson entered upon their noble task; and each individual of this increased number, in addition to the horrors which were endured in former times, has to suffer from being cribbed up in a narrower space, and on board a vessel, where accommodation is sacrificed to speed. Painful as this is, it becomes still more distressing if it shall appear that our present system has not failed by mischance, from want of energy, or from want of expenditure, but that the system itself is erroneous, and must necessarily be attended with disappointment.

Hitherto we have affected no other change than a change in the flag under which the trade is carried on. It was stated by our ambassador at Paris, to the French minister, in 1824, (I speak from memory), that the French flag covered the villains of all nations. For some years afterwards the Spanish flag was generally used. Now, Portugal sells her flag, and the greater part of the trade is carried on under it. Her governors openly sell, at a fixed price, the use of Portuguese papers and flag.

So grave an accusation ought not to be made without stating some of the authorities on which it is grounded. In a Parliamentary paper on the subject of the Slave Trade, presented in 1823, Sir Charles M'Carthy states, in his letter of the 19th June, 1822,* that "the case of the 'Conde de Ville Flor,' seized near Bissao, fully establishes that Signor Andrade, the governor, had shipped a number of slaves on his

* Papers, Slave Trade, 11th July, 1823.

1

own account." Sir Charles further states, that "he received repeated reports of the governors of Bissao and Cacheo having full cargoes of slaves in irons ready for all purchasers; and that the traffic is carried on openly at the Cape de Verd Islands, St. Thomas, and Prince's." This statement is confirmed by "Lieutenant Hagan, of Her Majesty's brig Thistle, who informed him that the traffic in slaves was carried on at Bissao and Cacheo in the most open manner, under the sanction of the governor, the latter of whom is the principal dealer in slaves."

The practice of 1822 has continued to the present time. On the 3d March, 1838, Lord Palmerston, in a spirited note, states to the Portuguese Minister, "that the Portuguese flag is lent, with the connivance of Portuguese authorities, to serve as a pro tection for all the miscreants of every other nation in the world, who may choose to engage in such base pursuits."*

The charge thus made, extends only to the lending of the flag of Portugal; it might have gone farther. In an enclosure in a letter from Lord Palmerston to our Ambassador at Lisbon, dated 30th April, 1838, it appears that "the Governor of Angola has established an impost or fee of 700,000 reis to be paid to him for every vessel which embarks slaves from thence, it being understood that upon payment of the abovementioned sum, no impediment to the illicit trade shall be interposed by the governor, nor any farther risk be incurred by the persons engaged in the trade."+ Nor is this all. In the same document we find that the governor, not content with lending and

* Class B. (Farther Series), 1837, p. 29, presented 1838.
+ Class B. (Farther Series), 1837, p. 35.