DEMONSTRATIONS OF JOY. oL 
capable of accommodating a small portion at 
once, they are soon returned to the confined 
and pestilential atmosphere below. One third 
of the human cargo, as a necessary consequence, 
generally perishes on the voyage, and the re- 
mainder reach their place of destination in a 
state of miserable suffering. 'The decks of the 
ships I have just mentioned, were crowded 
with these unfortunate creatures, naked, fetter- 
ed, and diseased. Even mothers with infants 
at their breasts had not been spared by these 
speculators! What still greater misery might 
not be concealed beneath the decks ! 
The darkness, which at once closed from our 
view all that had delighted and disgusted us, 
rendered visible an almost incessant flight of 
rockets, and we heard occasionally, throughout 
the night, the discharge of guns and musketry 
from the town. These demonstrations of re- 
Joicing led to the supposition that some import- 
ant festival was celebrating, or that a great 
victory had probably been gained; we after- 
wards learnt, however, that they were occasion- 
ed only by the arrest of three ministers, accused 
of a conspiracy against the Emperor. 
