RIO JANEIRO. 
55 
wander very far, before they are brought back to its reality, by some 
one of the many sights that obtrude themselves. 
The slave population is stated at five times the number of that 
of the whites, and notwithstanding the existing danger of capture, 
the supply still seems equal to the demand. Although many 
captures are made by the English cruisers, brought in and tried 
by the mixed commission, agreeably to treaty; yet they still find 
means to pass them in. Two slavers were lying in charge of the 
English squadron while we were there. On board of them, though 
quite small vessels, were two and three hundred negroes. It is 
difficult to imagine more emaciated, naked, and beastly-looking 
creatures, and it is not a little surprising that they should be kept 
thus confined by those who affect to establish their freedom and 
ameliorate their condition. These slavers it is understood had 
obtained their slaves on the eastern coast of Africa. 
Slaves are almost the only carriers of burdens. They go almost 
naked, and are exceedingly numerous. They appear to work with 
cheerfulness, and go together in gangs, with a leader who carries a 
rattle made of tin, and filled with stones, (similar to a child's rattle). 
COFFEK-C AR H IER S. 
With this he keeps time, causing them all to move on a dogtrot. 
Each one joins in the monotonous chorus, the notes seldom varying 
above a third from the key. The words they use are frequently 
relative to their own country ; sometimes to what they heard from 
