416 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



which any distress which might be 

 occasioned by the loss of the ori- 

 ginals is provided against, for the 

 copy of course holds good in law. 

 A slave who has brought into the 

 world, and has reared ten children, 

 ought to be free, for so the law 

 ordains ; but this regulation is 

 generally evaded ; and besides, 

 the number of children is too 

 great for many women to be en- 

 abled to be benefited by it. TI12 

 price of a new-born child is 5/. 

 (20;000 mil-reisj and the master 

 is obliged to manumit the infant 

 at the baptismal font, on the sum 

 being presented. In this manner 

 a considerable number of persons 

 are set at liberty, for the smallness 

 of the price enables many freemen 

 who have connections with female 

 slaves to manumit their offspring; 

 and instances occur of the spon- 

 sors performing this most laudable 

 act. Not unfrequently female 

 slaves apply to persons of consider- 

 ation to become sponsors to their 

 children, in the hopes that the 

 pride of theSe will be too great to 

 allow of their god-child remaining 

 in slavery. Thus by their own 

 exertions, by the favour of their 

 masters, and by other means, the 

 individuals who gain their fieedom 

 annually are very numerous. 



The comforts of slaves in dif- 

 ferent situations are widely dis- 

 proportionate J whilst soiiie are 

 doomed to an existence of exces- 

 sive toil and misery, from the 

 natureof their occupations and the 

 Cliaracters of their masters, others 

 lead a comparatively easy life. It 

 is true, that in countries of which 

 the workmen are free, the daily 

 labour is unequally divided, but 

 their wages are proportioned ac- 

 cordingly, and as each man is a 



free agent he seeks that employ- 

 ment to which his bodily and 

 mental powers are befitted. The 

 slave is purchased for a certain 

 purpose, and is to follow the line 

 of life which his master has chalk- 

 ed out for him ; be is not to be 

 occupied in that which he Would 

 himself prefer, or at any rate his 

 wishes are not consulted upon the 

 subject. The price for which a 

 slave is to be obtained, and the 

 convenience of the purchaser, are 

 oftener consulted than the fitness 

 of his bodily strength to the la- 

 bour which it is his lot to be 

 ordered to perform. Besides the 

 obligation of following an unsuit- 

 able trade, or at any rate of fol- 

 lowing one which he has not 

 chosen, he has to endure the still 

 incomparably greater grievance of 

 bearing with a tyrannical, an in- 

 considerate, or a peevish master, 

 whose commands are not to be 

 called in question, whose will is 

 absolute, and from whom the pos- 

 sibility of appeal is far removed, 

 and that of redress placed at a still 

 greater distance. Masters are 

 punished by the payment of fines, 

 for cruelty to their slaves, if any 

 accoimt of such behaviour should 

 reach the ear of the Ouvidor of the 

 pi ovince ; but I never heard of 

 punishment having been carried 

 farther than this trifling manner 

 of correction. The emoluments 

 which proceed from this mode of 

 chastising the offenders weigh 

 heavily in its favour ; the injury 

 Which the slave has received is not, 

 I am afraid, the only cause which 

 urges the exaction of the stipulated 

 penalty ; of this the slave does net 

 receive any part. 



AH slaves in Brazil follow the 

 religion of their masters ; and 



not- 



