THE SLAVE SUPPLY. 



pieces of calico/ and whose profits were estimated 

 at 200 per cent. As long as sugar, tobacco, and 

 dollars increase, so long will the desire for more 

 support the means by which the supply may be 

 increased. Of old one cargo run home out of 

 three paid : presently one in four was found suffi- 

 cient. The losses, however, added greatly to the 

 misery of the slave; ships were built with 18 

 inches between decks, one pint of water ahead 

 was served out per diem, and five wretches were 

 stowed away instead of two. With curious con- 

 tradiction and £ wrong-headedness,' these evils, 

 caused by an abolitionary squadron, were quoted 

 against the slaver, as if the diabolical malignity 

 of the latter could be gratified only by destroying 

 his own property. 



It was soon discovered that the slaves, being 

 often condemned criminals, 1 could not be returned 

 under pain of death to their homes. The natural 

 result was to disembark them free upon English 

 ground, and thus certain British colonies were 

 amply supplied with the hands of which their 



1 I regret to read such statements as the following in the 

 Journal of the Anthropological Society : ' It may be asserted, 

 without fear of exaggeration, that it is to this demand for slaves 

 that are to be attributed the desultory and bloody wars which 

 are waged in Central Africa.' (On the Negro Slaves in Turkey, 

 No. 29, April, 1870.) 



