126 A Visit to Banza Chisalla. 
The slave-traders in the Congo look upon their 
employment as did the contrabandist in the 
golden days of smuggling ; the “ free sailor ” 
whom Marryatt depicts, a law-breaker, yet not 
less a very pleasant, companionable fellow. The 
unhappy differences between the late British Com¬ 
missioner for Loanda and the Judge of the mixed 
Court, Sr. Jose Julio Rodriguez, who followed his 
enemy to the grave on April 12, 1863, rendered 
Sao Paulo anything but a pleasant place to an 
English resident; but the rancour had not ex¬ 
tended to the Congo, and, so far from showing 
chagrin, the agents declared that without the 
“ coffin squadron,” negroes would have been a 
mere drug in the market. The only dSplaisir is 
that which I had already found in,a Gaboon fac¬ 
tory, the excessive prevalence of petty pilfering. 
The .Moleques or house-boys steal like magpies, 
even what is utterly useless to them; these young 
clerks of St. Nicholas will scream and writhe, and 
confess and beg pardon under the lash, and repeat 
the offence within the hour: as they are born 
serviles, we cannot explain the habit by Homer’s, 
“ Jove fixed it certain that whatever day 
Makes man a slave takes half his worth away/' 
One of our watches was found in the pocket of a 
noble interpreter, who, unabashed, declared that 
he placed it there for fear of its being injured ; 
and the traders are constantly compelled to call in 
