THE BRAZILS. m 
• 
same ; and thej all unite in asserting that the English are 
the most cruel to their slaves. People, however, are ^pt to 
differ in their notions of humanity, as well as on less import- 
ant points ; and, where the whole system is bad, the degrees 
of atrocity may perhaps be the less discernible. Bad as our 
countrymen are, I am still inclined to hope that few are to 
be found among them who would act, on a similar occasion, 
in the same mamier as I am about to relate. An officer in 
the French army, having discovered that dealing in slaves 
w^as a more lucrative profession than fighting, was transport- 
ing a cargo, consisting of about three hundred, from Mosam- 
bique to the Isle of France. They had scarcely put to sea 
when the small-pox broke out among them. On three or 
four the pustules appeared in sv»ch a manner as to leave no 
doubt as to the nature of the disease ; and about a dozen of 
the rest w^ere considered to be infected. As it was pretty 
evident that none of the cargo had gone through the disease, 
and equally so that they could not escape infection ; and as 
the chances were, in this event, that the mortality would 
greatly exceed seven per cent., tl'ie slave merchant resolved to 
throw the fifteen or sixteen infected persons immediately 
overboard. This man afterwards wrote an account of his 
voyage to the East Indies, in which he talks a great deal 
about humanity, but carefully avoids the mention of this 
transaction. At the Cajje of Good Hope, however, he made 
no secret of, but assumed a degree of merit in, what he had 
done. He knew well enough that the good people of this 
settlement had proper notions on the value of blacks. By 
the French part of the inhabitants he was applauded for his 
