258 CONVICT SOhDiMSfi. 



merce has very much exceeded that on slaves. The infen 

 tions of the home Portuguese Government, however good, 

 cannot be fully carried out under the present system. 

 The pay of the officers is so very small that they are nearly 

 all obliged to engage in trade ; and, owing to the lucrative 

 nature of the slave-trade, the temptation to engage in it is 

 so powerful that the philanthropic statesmen of Lisbon 

 need hardly expect to have their humane and enlightened 

 views carried out. The law, for instance, lately promul- 

 gated for the abolition of the carrier-S} T stem (carregadores) 

 is but one of several equally humane enactments against 

 this mode of compulsory labor, but there is very little pro- 

 bability of the benevolent intentions of the legislature 

 being carried into effect. 



Loanda is regarded somewhat as a penal settlement, and 

 those who leave their native land for this country do so 

 with the hope of getting rich in a few years and then re- 

 turning home. They have thus no motive for seeking the 

 permanent welfare of the country. The Portuguese law 

 preventing the subjects of any other nation from holding 

 landed property unless they become naturalized, the country 

 has neither the advantage of native nor foreign enterprise, 

 and remains very much in the same state as our allies found 

 it in 1575. Nearly all the European soldiers sent out are 

 convicts, and, contrary to what might be expected from 

 men in their position, behave remarkably well. A few 

 riots have occurred, but nothing at all so serious as have 

 taken place in our own penal settlements. It is a remark- 

 able fact that the whole of the arms of Loanda are every 

 night in the hands of those who have been convicts. 

 Various reasons for this mild behavior are assigned by 

 the officers, but none of these, when viewed in connection 

 with our own experience in Australia, appear to be valid. 

 .Religion seems to have no connection with the change. 

 Perhaps the climate may have some influence in subduing 

 their turbulent disposition, for the inhabitants generally 

 are a timid race : they are not half so brave as our Caffrea. 



