THE SLAVE QUESTION. 
409 
number, in order that there may be enough to spare 
for death on the long and ^Yeary way to the coast, 
enough to die while waiting for shipment, or in the 
of 5^ vessels with 450 slaves or slave-cargo (1,350Z.) for that numher 
in each ; and no less than 12^ empty vessels, items 2, 4, 5, being 
saved. 
Let ns take the case mentioned by Lord Howden in his 
Lordship’s letter to Viscount Palmerston, dated Rio Janeiro, 9th 
February, 1848 ; in wliich he says : “ It is a well known fact that a 
vessel belonging to this port, made five voyages to the coast duiiiig 
the last year, and landed in safety all her cargoes ; at a moderate 
computation, this single ship must have brought from 2,000 to 
3,000.” 
Now we will suppose 2,500 were landed, each of them valued at 
the average price 50^., realize 126,000^., equivalent to loss of 45^ 
vessels full of slaves or slave-cargo; and equivalent to loss of 89^ 
empty vessels ; items 1, 3, 6, 7, 8 only, being lost. 
We must also refer to the case given by Viscount Palmerston before 
the Select Committee on the Slave Trade, 21 March, 1848, wherein 
his Lordship says, “I have before me a communication made by Sir 
Charles Ilotham to the Admiralty, dated the 7th April, 1847, in 
which he states, ‘On rounding Cape Lopez, the character of the 
slave trade changes, and the speculation on the part of the Brazilian 
is founded on the principle of employing vessels of little value, to be 
crowded to excess with slaves. It is said that one arrival in four, 
pays the adventure, here it is, therefore, that the traffic assumes its 
most horrid form ; at this moment the ‘ Penelope’ (that was the 
vessel on board which he was,) has in tow a slaver, of certainly not 
more than 60 tons, in which 312 human beings were stowed ; the 
excess of imagination cannot depict a scene more revolting.’” 
Now we do not hesitate to say that the total cost of such a vessel, 
and her equipments, wages of captain and crew, provisions for them 
and the slaves, would not exceed the sum of 1,050/., at very outside, 
and take the 312 slaves at rather more than 
3/. each, that makes another 1,000 
Total outlay £2,050. 
