RIO JANEIRO. 15 
way express the relation which exists between the master and his 
slave. 
It is affirmed that three-fourths of the population of St. Sebastian 
are blacks ; and, indeed, their visible number is so great, that a 
stranger unacquainted with the slave-trade, and visiting this city, 
might imagine that the slaves were its proper inhabitants, and their 
masters its casual dwellers. He would also be liable to conclude 
that its municipal laws were not very effective, as he could scarcely 
traverse a street without meeting troops of Africans chained together, 
dragging heavy clogs, or exhibiting on their shoulders the marks of 
lashes. 
It was stated that within the last year, twenty thousand had been 
imported into the province of Rio Janeiro through the port of St. 
Sebastian, a part of whom filled the markets, and others had not yet 
disembarked. A ship-load of them was one of the first objects which 
met our sight on reaching the harbour. They were arranged upon 
deck, tier above tier, and their bare heads and uniform countenances, 
(uniform from equal expression of despondence,) exhibited a frightful 
picture of aggregate misery. It may be thought, perhaps, that since 
the slave-trade is diminishing, and the state of slavery ameliorating, 
these remarks are unnecessary ; but, in my opinion, the subject is 
not an exhausted one. Those countries that have consented through 
o 
the interference of England to its abolition, have done so most reluc- 
tantly, and in no instance from principle. They all carry it on in a 
smuggling manner ; and unless the good sense and humanity of the 
enlightened part of mankind be constantly on the watch against the 
sordid views of those persons whose immediate interest and opinions 
favour this bloody traffic, it will rise to all its former capabilities 
of inducing human misery, although its practices may not be so 
flagrantly displayed to the world. I much fear, from what I have 
heard, that in some of our own colonies, human bondage yet exists 
in its worst form, and still operates in producing its peculiar effect 
that of hardening the heart of man against the sufferings of his fellow- 
creatures. 
