346 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
these unhappy beings stood nearly motionless, 
though we did not perceive that they were 
chained; some directed towards us a look of 
seeming indifference; others, with their arms 
folded, appeared pensive in sadness; while se¬ 
veral, leaning on the ship’s side, were gazing on 
the green islands of the bay, the rocky mountains, 
and all the wild luxuriance of the smiling land¬ 
scape ; which probably awakened in their bo¬ 
soms thoughts of “ home and all its pleasures,” 
from which they had so recently been torn; and, 
judging of the future by the past short period of 
their wretched bondage, their minds were perhaps 
distressed with painful anticipations of the toils and 
sufferings that would await them on the foreign 
shore they were approaching ! 
Circumstances detained us at Rio Janeiro above 
six weeks. I feel it would be injustice to the 
parties not to state, that although we were perfect 
strangers, we experienced the greatest hospitality 
and kindness from the English merchants and 
other residents there. During the whole of our 
stay, two of these gentlemen accommodated us at 
their country houses, a few miles distant from the 
city, where all that friendship could devise for our 
comfort was generously furnished. 
While detained here, we came, for the first 
time, into actual contact with slavery. There are, 
perhaps, few places where the slaves meet with 
milder treatment; but it was most distressing, on 
passing the slave market, to observe the wretched 
captives there bought and sold like cattle; or to 
see two or three interesting looking youths, wear¬ 
ing a thin dress, and having a new red cotton 
handkerchief round their heads, led through the 
streets by a slave-dealer, who, entering the dif- 
