NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



591 



prohibited North of the Line, and in 1817, Spanish vessels were no 

 longer allowed to fit out for the Coast of Africa in Brazilian Ports. The 

 Government of the Country seemed, also, sincerely anxious to mitigate 

 the severity of the Passage and of Slavery itself. It did much to effect 

 this, by rendering the person and health of the slave valuable to the master, 

 by laying taxes upon every new negro and upon every transfer of pro- 

 perty, when the subject of it passed the frontiers of a Province ; and no 

 class of society received so much benefit from the common prosperity of 

 the country as the black part of its population. The misery of Negro 

 Slavery is undoubtedly great, but it no where appears so conspicuous 

 as among those poor wretches whose lot it is to fall into the hands of 

 indigent people, or into those of their own countrymen. 



The Laws likewise respecting Slavery are peculiarly mild in Brazil, 

 and if well administered, are calculated to do away with the evils of it, so 

 far perhaps, as is consistent with the good order of society. It is to be 

 regretted, that the administration of those laws is placed entirely in the 

 hands of one party, and hence it is almost impossible for the other to find 

 justice, and utterly impossible to enforce what is right. In Brazil, Slaves, 

 for instance, have the important privilege of being allowed to get themselves 

 valued by two established householders, and if they dislike their present 

 master, and can find another, who is willing to purchase them at the settled 

 price, they can demand a transfer of their persons. The theory of this 

 law is excellent ; but the oppressed find it difficult to get themselves 

 valued at a reasonable rate, and no less difficult to find a purchaser. No 

 one wishes to interfere with the domestic concerns of his neighbour, or 

 to promote discontent among his household. 



Another important privilege was intended to arise from a law, which 

 forbids any master to beat his slave privately, and requires that he be 

 sent to the public whipping-post, for the purpose of chastisement. But it 

 is found, in fact, that the punishments there are so dreadfully severe, 

 that no humane master will send any slave thither, who is not vicious 

 beyond all endurance. Here, as in many other cases, the Brazilians, and 

 even the Portuguese, show that they know very little about the oper- 



