NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



59S 



have no body to take care of us." I have copied here their exact expres- 

 sions ; they had often before asked me to send for their mothers, and 

 now concluded by requesting only that T would procure them situations 

 with English people. 



I am by no means advocating the cause of Negro Slavery, and have 

 already deliberately called the traffic in men a detestable one. Yet I should 

 exceedingly regret to witness the period when the communication may 

 cease between Brazil and her African Colonies, — when the means of volun- 

 tary emigration, into which T hope and believe the Slave Trade will ulti- 

 mately merge, shall be cut off. Nor can I approve of the artifices which 

 have been employed to blacken a traffic already black enough, and to 

 render more disgusting a state of society which, with all its possible 

 alleviations, is sufficiently painful to contemplate. Bad men, I am well 

 aware, will prove cruel masters ; and when uncivilized and barbarous 

 Negroes, with their passions all loose and uncontrouled, formed by 

 nature, and fitted by habit, to deeds of violence, are introduced to new 

 scenes, and compelled to a new degree of labour, though moderate, they 

 will become discontented and dangerous ; — they will require a strict and 

 resolute hand to govern them. Nor can I further think well of such an 

 interference as lately led the British Parliament to pay to the Brazilian 

 Government the sum of £300,000 for the wanton capture of its slave- 

 ships ; thus publicly avowing to the world that Ave had been neither 

 honest nor prudent, and were finally compelled to be just. I ask not 

 how these captured vessels were disposed of. I ask not who received 

 the Head-money upon their Condemnation, nor how much it amounted 

 to ; yet the British public ought to have been informed, Britain ought 

 to be sensible, that she requires with Brazil, and w^ith the whole of South 

 America, neither violence nor falsehood to render her respectable. 



The trade to Africa must long be of vast importance to Brazil, 

 principally because it furnishes her with hands for agriculture. It pro- 

 duces Wax, the consumption of which is intimately connected with the 

 religious service of every Church, Chapel, and private House. It 



pours into the Treasury a large amount of Taxes ; embraces the Royal 



4 F 



