TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 177 



Sky-rockets, crackers, serpents, and the like, were 

 let off in front of the church, and near the calm 

 surface of the sea, to add to the splendour of the 

 solemnity. 



Two very different feelings are excited in the 

 observer when he beholds the children of Africa 

 placed amidst the more exalted relations of Euro- 

 pean civilisation ; on the one hand he remarks 

 with joy the traces of humanity which gradually 

 develop in the negro by his intercourse with the 

 whites, while on the other hand he cannot but grieve 

 that means so cruel, so contrary to the rights of 

 mankind as the slave trade, were required to afford 

 to that unhappy race, degraded even in their own 

 native country, the first school of moral education. 

 These feelings affected us still more deeply when 

 we were obliged to go to the slave-market to look 

 for, and purchase, a young negro for ourselves. 

 The greater part of the negro slaves who are now 

 brought to Rio de Janeiro, come from Cabinda 

 and Benguela. They are made prisoners in their 

 own country by command of their chiefs, and bar- 

 tered by them in exchange for European goods. 

 Before they are delivered to the slave-merchant, 

 the chief has them branded with a certain mark 

 in the back or on the forehead. With no other 

 covering than a piece of woollen stuff about the 

 hips, they are then packed into ships, often in far 

 too great numbers for the size of the vessel, and 

 carried to their new destination. As soon as such 



VOL. I. N 



