278 NUMBER OP NEGEOES CONVEYED FROM AFRICA. 



that of the United States, to the sale of 15,000? It w 

 pretty well ascertained that the English islands received in 

 the 106 years preceding 1786, more than 2,130,000 negroes, 

 forcibly carried from the coast of Africa. At the period of 

 the French revolution, the slave-trade furnished (according 

 to Mr. Norris) 74,000 slaves annually, of which the English 

 colonies absorbed 38,000, and the French 20,000. It would 

 be easy to prove that the whole of the West Indian archi- 

 pelago, which now comprises scarcely 2,400,000 negroes and 

 mulattoes (free and slaves), received, from 1670 to 1825, 

 nearly 5,000,000 of Africans. These revolting calculations 

 respecting the consumption of the human species, do not 

 include the number of unfortunate slaves who have perished 

 in the passage, or have been thrown into the sea as damaged 

 merchandize.* By how many thousands must we have 

 augmented the loss, if the two nations most distinguished 

 for ardour and intelligence in the development of commerce 

 and industry, the English and the inhabitants of the United 

 States, had continued, from 1807, to carry on the trade as 

 freely as some other nations of Europe ? Sad experience 

 has proved how much the treaties of the 15th July, 1814, 

 and of the 22nd January, 1815, by which Spain and Portugal 

 reserved to themselvesf "the trade in blacks" during a 

 certain number of years, have been fatal to humanity. 



The local authorities, or rather the rich proprietors, form- 

 ing the Ayuntamiento of the Havannah, the Consulado, and 

 the Patriotic Society, have on several occasions shown a 

 disposition favourable to the amelioration of the condition 

 of the slaves.f If the government of the mother-country, 

 instead of dreading the least appearance of innovation, had 



Vol. vii, p. 151. See also the eloquent speech of the Duke de Broglie 

 (March 28th, 1822), pp. 40, 43, 96. 



+ " Dicen nuestros Indies del Rio Caura cuando se confiesan que ya 

 entienden que es pecado comer carne humana ; pero piden que se les 

 permita desacostumbrarse poco a poco ; quieren comer la carne humana 

 una vez al mes, despues cada tres raeses, hasta que sin sentirlo pierdan la 

 costumbre." Cartas de los Rev. Padres Observantes, No. 7 M.S. 

 [ " Our negroes of the River Caura say, when they confess, that they 

 know it is sinful to eat human flesh ; they beg to be permitted to break 

 themselves of the custom, little by little : they wish to eat human flesh 

 once a month, and afterwards once every three months, until they feel 

 they have cured themselves of the practice.] 



