14 
RIO JANEIRO. 
lection of that liberty and that home from which he had been impiously 
and for ever torn. * 
The number of slaves imported into Rio Janeiro has greatly 
increased during the last year, in consequence of the abolition which 
is to take place in five years, according to the treaty between the 
British and Portuguese governments. But although this effect of 
British interference in behalf of suffering humanity is much to be 
deplored, the great and beneficial alteration which it has produced 
in the treatment of its unfortunate objects more than compensates 
the temporary evil. With the view of obtaining a stock of slaves 
that may supply the wants of the colony when the trade in them 
shall have become unlawful, the Portuguese have adopted the 
measure of selecting from the market the most vigorous and hand- 
some of the two sexes, and establishing them in pairs in different 
parts of their estates. The object of this plan is sufficiently obvious, 
and it will probably be obtained. Promiscuous and unrestrained 
intercourse has been much allowed among the slaves in Rio Janeiro, 
and experience has of course shown that it is unfavourable to popu- 
lation. Whilst a ready, cheap, and exhaustless supply was open, slave- 
owners cared very little about the best means of keeping up their 
stock by breeding ; but they have been induced by the apprehension 
that the trade will become contraband at the expiration of five years, 
to attempt every possible method of increasing the number of their 
human cattle ; and as this cannot be accomplished without attention 
to good feeding and general comfort, they will, probably, (without 
any better feelings on the score of humanity,) render the state of 
slavery more tolerable amongst them. I blush to observe the 
phraseology I use in writing of my fellow men, but I can in no other 
* On the subject of the slave-trade in South America, I had collected some facts 
during my short continuance at Rio, which I had intended to give as illustrative of its 
extent, increase, cruelty, and impolicy; but I find in the lucid and ample details of 
Mr. Koster, so complete a developement of every circumstance which it involves, that any 
detail from me respecting it, would be equally useless and impertinent. 
