GENERAL HISTORY. 



[163 



count of the owners or freighters 

 of such vessel, and the owners of 

 such slaves. The officers of such 

 vessel, to wit, the captain or 

 master, the pilot and supercargo, 

 shall be banished for five years 

 to Mosambique, and each shall 

 pay a fine equivalent to the pay 

 or other interests which he was 

 to gain by the adventure. Policies 

 of insurance cannot be made on 

 such vessels, or their cargoes ; 

 and if they are made, the assurers 

 who shall knowingly make them 

 shall be condemned in triple the 

 amount of the stipulated pre- 

 mium, 



2. The same penalty of the 

 loss of the slaves shall attach to 

 persons of whatever rank or con- 



' dition who shall import slaves 

 into Brazil in foreign vessels. 



3. Declares that one half of 

 the confiscated property shall be 

 given to the informer, and the 

 other brought into the royal trea- 

 sury. If there is no informer, 

 the whole produce of the cargo, 

 and the whole sum of the fine, 

 shall go to the royal treasury. 



4. Regulates the mode of 

 proceeding in cases where infor- 

 mation is given, fixes the authori- 

 ties before whom the prosecution 

 is to be brought, and appoints the 

 manner in which the sentence is 

 to be executed. 



5. The slaves consigned to the 

 royal treasury, and all those 

 declared free by the above article 

 (as it would be unjust to abandon 

 them without support), shall be 

 delivered up to the judge of the 

 district before whom the condem- 

 nation shall take place (whose 

 powers shall be enlar^red with that 

 jurisdiction), to serve as freed 

 men for 14* years, in any public 



service of the navy, the fortresses, 

 agriculture, or public offices, as 

 may be thought most convenient, 

 being for that purpose enrolled 

 in the- respective stations ; or 

 shall be hired out to individuals 

 of known property and probity, 

 who shall be bound to support, 

 clothe, and instruct them, teach- 

 ing them some handicraft or 

 labour that may be agreed upon, 

 during the stipulated period ; the 

 terms and the conditions of which 

 shall be renewed as often as 

 necessary, till the 14 years are 

 expired ; the time of servitude 

 may be shortened by two or more 

 years, according as the good 

 conduct of these persons may 

 entitle them to the enjoyment of 

 full freedom. In case these freed 

 men are destined for the public 

 service, the officer who shall have 

 authority in the respective station 

 to which they are assigned, shall 

 nominate a person capable of 

 fixing their term, who shall be 

 responsible for their education 

 and treatment. They shall have 

 as curator a person of known 

 probity, who shall be nominated 

 every three years by the judge, 

 and approved of by the judicial 

 council or governor and captain- 

 general of the province. To him 

 it shall belong to provide every 

 thing which may contribute to 

 their well-being, to rectify abuses 

 that may affect them, to procure 

 them release after their proper 

 term of service, and enforce 

 generally for their benefit the ob- 

 servance of the laws 'prescribed 

 for the protection of orphans, in 

 as far as those laws are applicable 

 to them, to the end that whatever 

 is ordered concerning them may 

 be strictly executed. 

 [m 2] 6. In 



