Alexander, George William.... not attended with those happy consequences which were predicted by the London. Miscellanea. His Extract of a private letter from the Prometheus steam-sloop, Commander Hay, engaged in the suppression of the slave-trade on the coast of Africa, dated February 12th, 1846:-" We have taken twelve prizes since we have been upon the coast, but in consequence of having to divide our crew so often to put on board the prizes hands to navigate them, we have often been left in a very helpless condition. We have had the fever on board, which has carried off six of our men a day. The coast is very sickly at the present time."-Times. • * * * ANTI-SLAVERY LODGINGS.-On taking a stroll through Leith Links the other day, we observed a notice exhibited from a window of a house at the east end, of "Furnished Lodgings;" and underneath, the following rather novel caveat-viz., "None need apply who is a member of a church which encourages slavery."—Caledonian Mercury. Two slaves belonging to a gentleman residing in Andrew County in this State, endeavoured to escape to Iowa on the 2nd inst. They were pursued, and, resisting the efforts of their captors, were killed. The Savannah Empire says they had with them a written pass and directions how to reach Iowa, which had been furnished to them by a citizen of that county, heretofore highly respected.-St. Louis Reporter, May 20th. Allen, John Geach, Edward Todd, Rev. J. F. Fox, Ann Southampton.-Lindoe, Robert Clark, Mr. Clark, Joseph, Jun. Allen, J. M. Barling, Mr... Brenwen, Mr. Kelloe, Mr. Newman, W. H. 22 0 2 2 0 Doncaster.-Anti-Slavery Society. 6 16 0 2 2 0 Calne.-Gundry, William 100 Tucker, Joseph 1 1 0 Maidstone.-Smith, George 2 0 Post, Jacob 0 0 10 Lushington, Charles 0 Charlbury.-Sessions, James.. 0 10 6 900 Foster, Robert Ball, William 2 2 0 Wimborne, Dorset.-Carr, John Glyn, Rev. Norwich.-Forster, Wm. Tregelles, E. O. Fox, Elizabeth Fox, Miss.. .... 2 2 Bristol.-Burder, Rev. J. 1 1 0 Swansea.-Price, Joseph T. 112550000 0 050 0 0 10 6 500 1 1 0 Woodbridge.-Ladies' Negro Friend Society 3 0 0 1 1 0 Derby.-Ladies' Auxiliary 26 0 0 1 1 0 Liverpool.-Ladies' Auxiliary 10 10 0 North Shields.-Procter, Joseph Sheffield.-Smith, Edward.. Hitchin.-Sharples, Joseph. Dublin.-Bewley, Henry Bewley, Samuel Malone, William Bewley, Thomas 10 0 0 50 0 0 50 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Barrett, Richard 2 2 0 Pim, Jonathan 1 0 0 100 1 1 0 10 0 0 500 Crawford, Wm. 3 3 0 10 0 Haughead Mauchline.-Stewart, James, on be- Printed by JACOB UNWIN, of 33, Dowgate Hill, in the City of London, at his Printing Office, 31, Bucklersbury, in the parish of St. Stephen Walbrook, in the City of London, and published by PETER JONES BOLTON, of No. 8, Kennington Terrace, Kennington Lane, in the county of Surrey, at No. 27, New Broad Street, in the Parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, in the City of London. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1846. 25 0 0 Sold by W. Everett, 14, Finch Lane, and 17 Royal Exchange. PROTEST AGAINST THE PROPOSED INTRODUCTION OF SLAVE-GROWN SUGARS INTO THE BRITISH MARKETS. A crisis has arisen in the history of the Anti-slavery cause of so grave a nature as to require the instant attention, and the prompt and vigorous action of every friend of liberty and humanity throughout the United Kingdom. It is understood that the first great measure which the new Government intend to submit to the consideration of Parliament will have for its object the introduction of slave-grown sugars into the British markets. The grounds on which this step is attempted to be justified, are those of political expediency and commercial advantage. It is intended thereby to augment the quantity of sugar for home consumption, to increase the revenue from the duties leviable thereon, and to complete the series of free-trade measures which have already received the sanction of the Legislature and of the Crown, These grounds would be perfectly legitimate did not the plan contemplated by Government injuriously affect the rights of millions of mankind; and involve the violation of those high moral considerations which should always influence the conduct of Governments and Legislatures as well as that of individuals. That the measure proposed by Government will have the effect of strengthening the system of slavery, of stimulating the slave-trade, and of adding to the horrors of both, admits of no doubt with most, if not all, who have maturely studied the question. And it is because, in the deliberate judgment of the undersigned, that the proposed measure would lead to these dreadful results that they enter their solemn protest against it; and call most urgently on the friends of the Anti-slavery cause, in every part of the country, to follow their example. First:-With respect to slavery.-It is assumed by those who advocate the proposed measure for the equalization of the duties on foreign sugars, without regard to origin or country, that from 70,000 to 80,000 tons of slave-grown sugars will be annually required to meet the increased demand in the British markets. These sugars will come principally from the Spanish West India colonies and Brazil, where, it is notorious, slavery assumes its most degrading and terrific forms. Of the slaves employed in the cultivation of the sugars in Cuba, one-tenth perish annually, and the whole are killed off in ten years. In Brazil the mortality on the sugar estates is admitted to be five per cent. per annum, in some cases more, which would destroy the population in twenty years. Now this takes place under the present demand for sugar. But with the increased demand contemplated by the new arrangement of the sugar duties, that murderous mortality will be fearfully increased, or new slaves must be imported to meet the exigency. At present neither the Brazilian nor the Cuban planters possess more labourers than they require. They have no unemployed slaves, no hands in want of work, no superabundance of population. On the contrary, all hands are now worked to excess. It follows, therefore, that the very same people who are thus murdered by wholesale to make the quantity of sugar now exported from Cuba and Brazil will have to make more—that is to say, they must be forced by the lash to a new excess of labour, at which they will be more wretched while they live, and under which they will more rapidly die. Where the labourer is free, every augmentation in the demand for the produce of his toil increases his means of subsistence and comfort; where the labourer is a slave it as certainly diminishes them, and destroys him. That slavery will be strengthened must be obvious from the fact that additional capital will be directly employed in sustaining it, PRICE 5d. and thereby rendering it more profitable than it is at present. A great mercantile House at the Havana whose authority is quoted in the last slave-trade papers, states that whilst "they had no expectation of the price of sugar being improved, except by having the English market open to the produce of the island," they were convinced that "if this could be effected even at a rate of 50 per cent. above the duty-on English colonial sugar, still they could obtain for their produce double the amount they can obtain at present." If such be the fact, who can reflect on the consequences without a shudder? believe for a moment that the Brazilian and Cuban planters will Secondly:-With respect to the slave trade.-No one can let their stock of slaves diminish. To fill up the gaps created by the vast mortality which is incessantly going on among them, they have recourse to the African slave-trade. By this horrid means they recruit and increase their gangs; and, beyond all doubt, this traffic will be pursued with greater desperation and atrocity in proportion to the growing urgency of the demand and the eagerness of planters to purchase. At present, the enormous tible stimulus to the traffickers in men; but it will receive an profits derived from the contraband slave-trade present an irresisadditional and enormous stimulus should the proposed measure take effect. Under existing circumstances the slave-trade cannot perpetuated, but increased. If more sugar is to be made in Cuba be put down; under the additional incentive, it must be not only and Brazil, there must be more hands to make it; and these hands On the supposition that these countries will supply 50,000 tons of must be fetched by slavers from desolated and bleeding Africa. the assumed quantity of sugar, 50,000 new slaves at least must be mortality that will be occasioned by the severity of the system obtained to prepare it for exportation; and to meet the wastes of under which they are placed, a large additional number of Africans must be imported, to join that host of human beings who are every year torn from their native homes by the slave-traders, and compelled to surrender up their liberty to the tyrant task masters of Brazil and Cuba. The proposed measure will, in the opinion of the undersigned, as certainly, and almost as directly increase the slave-trade as if this country had given a premium for every kidnapped negro forced on board the slavers, and carried from Africa through the unutterable horrors of the middle passage, to interminable bondage. It is unnecessary to dwell on the accumulated horrors of slavery and the slave-trade. They are too well known, and too sorely lamented by the friends of humanity to need specification. Yet it should be remembered that the slave populations of the Spanish colonies and Brazil, are innocent men, women, and children, who have been despoiled of their most precious rights, and subjected to the most atrocious discipline, to satiate, if it were possible, the spirit of Mammon. It should be recollected also that the murderous system of slavery prevalent in Cuba and Brazil, is preceded by one still more terrible in Africa and during the middle passage. It may be asserted that for every African slave landed in these countries, two perish in the original capture, and during the subsequent stages of the infernal traffic. And, further, it should be borne in mind that the greater portion of the slaves in Cuba and Brazil are entitled to freedom by virtue of the treaties of those countries with Great Britain, and are only debarred from the enjoyment of liberty by the disgraceful violation of solemn compact. But instead of demanding their liberty, a splendid bribe is about to be offered in order that commercial intercourse may be facilitated with people whose crimes against humanity merit the execration of all men, and cry aloud for the vengeance of Heaven. But besides the increased sacrifice of human life, and the augmen tation of crime and suffering which will, undoubtedly, be the fruits of this measure, the undersigned contemplate, with the deepest sorrow, its destructive effects upon all that is done, and is doing, for the civilization of Africa. The noble efforts which have been made, and are making, for the introduction of Christianity into that continent, will be paralyzed by the increased impetus given to the slavetrade. The enlightenment of men, and the spread of the gospel, cannot co-exist where the crimes of the slave-trade are perpetrated and fostered. It is the chief glory of this country, that in the exercise of a high and noble policy, it has, through its legislature, declared the slave-trade to be piracy and felony; and the system of slavery to be inherently and essentially unjust. It has, moreover, sanctioned a vast outlay of the national treasure in the attempt to suppress the former, and for the abolition of the latter. To promote, then, their extension in foreign countries, either directly or indirectly, or to countenance such enormous crimes, or to seek to increase the revenue from sources so polluted, will be flagrantly inconsistent with its own solemn decisions embodied in acts of Parliament, In 1840, a measure similar in principle to that under review was proposed to Parliament. Then the Government gave it a decided negative. The President of the Board of Trade (Mr. Labouchere), said:"No one could entertain a doubt, (in the event of the motion being carried), that the great mass of foreign sugar imported into this country would be from the Brazils. In Brazils no sugar was produced, except by slave-labour. He felt it to be a painful duty to oppose the motion, but the question he had to ask himself was this, whether he would consent to give such a stimulus to slave-labour in the Brazils as would be produced by throwing open the market of this country to the reception of their sugar. He was not able to make up his mind, that this was a course which he ought to recommend to the house. He did not believe that it would be agreeable to their constituents, WHEN THEY UNDERSTOOD THE FACTS OF THE CASE." He would not be a party to a measure which, he added “would inundate the British market with sugar the produce of slave-labour." The introduction of slave-grown sugar, opposed by such reasons, was at that time successfully resisted by those who now propose to introduce it. In seeking the exclusion of slave-grown sugars from the British market, the friends of the anti-slavery cause design to uphold no monopoly, to strengthen no class interests, to promote no sordid or selfish views, much less any party purpose; but their aim is to lessen the sum of human misery and degradation, and to advance the sacred cause of freedom throughout the world. Thomas Clarkson, Playford-hall Benjamin Teebohn Bradford Stephen Lushington, London Alfred Harris Edward N. Buxton Colchester Her Majesty's Commissioners to the Earl of Aberdeen.—The number of vessels adjudicated was 27, of which 14 were prosecuted in the British and Brazilian Court, 12 in the British and Spanish Court, and one in the British and Portuguese Court. Twenty-six were cases of condemnation, and one of restoration to the claimant. Two thousand three hundred and fifty-one slaves were emancipated during the year, of whom 2327 were registered. The total number of vessels prosecuted before the Mixed Commissions since their establishment in this colony, in June, 1819, up to the present date, is 498, whereof 473 were cases of condemnation, and 25 were either withdrawn, or restored to the claimant. During the same period there have been emancipated by these courts 63,436 slaves, Kingsbridge of whom 55,748 have been registered here. Of the vessels adjudicated during 1844, 10 had slaves on board when chased, but one unfortunately landed her cargo before capture; of these, five were Brazilians, four Spanish, and one Portuguese. The Portuguese craft had shipped her slaves at Cape Lopez, and was returning with them to St. Thomas, to which island she belonged. The Spaniards had obtained their living cargoes at the Sherbro, Ambriz, Cabinda, and Loanda, and were all bound to Havana. Four of the Brazilian vessels had embarked their slaves in the Bight of Benin, the fifth on the coast of Benguela; and they were bound respectively, one for Pernambuco, two for Bahia, one for Macahé, and one for San Francisco do Sul. The destinations on the coast of the other 17 vessels were, four for Gallinas or Sherbro, five for the Bight of Benin, one for the Bight of Biafra, one for Cape Lopez, five for Cabinda, Angola, and Benguela, and one for Quilimane, on the eastern coast; and, had they not been captured, their return voyages, so far as can be ascertained, would have been, seven for the Island of Cuba, three for Bahia, three for the neighbourhood of Rio, two for Espirito Santo, one for Campos, and one for San Francisco. Newcastle John Crofts Dublin Bristol " was concerned in Brazilian slave-trade. The number, in the present report, of vessels so employed is 15, one of which was Spanish; but in addition to these, there have been 11 condemned for being engaged in supplying the markets of Cuba, and one Portuguese employed in the same traffic between St. Thomas and the main land. From this it would seem that the Cuban slave-trade, which, under the honourable administration of General Valdez had been almost annihilated, has been latterly revived to a very lamentable extent, owing no doubt, in a great measure, to the protection and encouragement afforded to the slave-traders by his less scrupulous successor, General O'Donnell. One of the captures was made on the eastern coast, where it would seem the traffic with Brazil is still pursued. The actual export of negroes from all points of the coast appears to be now chiefly carried on under the flags of Brazil and Spain; there can be no question, however, that, indirectly, the flags of other nations continue to be used in aid of the traffic. In respect to that of America indeed, though possibly not employed so openly as formerly, in consequence of the more effective surveillance of the United States cruizers, still the most effectual assistance is rendered by it to the slave-dealer; not only are vessels built expressly for him at New Orleans and other American ports, but they are frequently brought to the coast, and there transferred to him, the American flag being retained until the slaves are embarked. American vessels are also now regularly chartered by some of the principal slave-dealers for a period, say two years, during which they are bound to go whithersoever they may be sent by the charterers, and to ship such freight as may be procured for them; the only stipulation 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 being, that they are not to be required to take any cargo which will subject them to seizure. In this way goods of all descriptions suitable for the traffic are taken direct to the slave-factories from the places of manufacture, and also staves, hoops, deals, and other articles necessary for slave equipment, but which may be safely carried by American vessels under the name of "lumber." From the following list of cases adjudicated in this colony, it is apparent that the Spanish slave-trade had been gradually falling off during the three years preceding 1844, whilst that of Brazil had Auctuated. 20 10 11 10 ་་ 461 12 11 14 1 7 And although this abstract necessarily affords but an imperfect view of the matter, in the absence of any information respecting the proceedings of other Vice-Admiralty Courts, or of the new British and Portuguese Mixed Courts now in active operation, it is yet certain that the number of vessels engaged in Brazilian slavetrade which have been prosecuted here during 1844 exceeds that in any previous year since this British and Brazilian Mixed Court came into operation. It is probable, also, that the list of Spanish vessels would have been even larger than it is, but for the temporarily depressing effect which the recent disturbances amongst the slave population of Cuba has had in creating a want of confidence on the part of the slave factors (especially the Portuguese and Brazilians) on this coast, and deterring them from making large shipments to the West Indies on speculation. The activity of the increased squadron, and especially the addition of effective steam vessels to the British cruizers on this coast, has without doubt had a considerable effect upon the number of captures; in point of fact, more than one-half of the whole number of vessels actually detained within the year have been prizes to four of those steamers, and to three of the sloops of war removed to this station from the other side of the Atlantic. Still, however, we believe that the slave-trade is increasing, and that it is conducted perhaps more systematically than it has ever been hitherto. Nearly all the formerly noted slave haunts appear to be still frequented, and notwithstanding the stringent measures adopted by the British Commodore with the powerful force under his command, there can be no question but that there has been a very large number of slaves transported both to Cuba and Brazil. We learn that the Cape Verd Islands are still the rendezvous of slave-vessels waiting for the collection of their human freights, in the rivers to the northward of this place, or in the Sherbro or Gallinas. At Bissano the trade is still carried on, though possibly partially checked by the quarrels between the Portuguese and the natives; and we have heard of some cargoes having been lately carried off from the Pongas and its neighbourhood. At Sherbro and Gallinas we regret to state very large numbers of slaves have been collected by the factors, and in spite of the strictest and apparently most judicious measures adopted in watching the different outlets of these places, some slavers have got clear off with their cargoes. In the Bight of Benin, and especially at Lagos, our return shows that the traffic is largely carried on; there has been, however, only one capture in the Bight of Biafra; but the vessels taken to the southward of the Line are more than usually numerous, and on that line of coast, and especially in the neighbourhood of Benguela, extensive barracoons are reported to be maintained by the traders. The houses of Pedro Blanco, and of Zulueta and Co., are reported to employ American vessels in this manner; but] French, Tuscan, and other European bottoms are also concerned extensively in conveying goods for the slave market. Articles of equipment are sometimes supplied to the factories on a large scale in a different manner. We lately heard of the arrival upon the coast of a crazy old brig, which had been bought in Brazil by the slave dealers for a very small sum, being unseaworthy; she was then laden with as great a quantity of slave shackles, boilers, casks, slave provisions, &c., as she could carry; and a small crew being put into her, she was despatched to Lagos, where she arrived safely, and afterwards proceeded to other slave ports. Had she been captured, her loss would have fallen lightly upon the speculators, as the whole value of both vessel and cargo was comparatively small. The impulse given to the Spanish trade by the conduct of th government of Cuba, appears to have induced some of the principal dealers to use larger vessels than had been customary; of this class are the barques "Andulasia,” (or “Crawford,") and “ Melvira, and the felucca "Huracan," all three connected with the abovementioned houses of Blanco and Zulueta. These two barques are American built, and have taken away cargoes of 800 slaves each; the felucca is stated to have carried off four cargoes of 700, but on her last trip (in October) she got aground near the mouth of the Sherbro, and received so much damage that she was obliged to return to Havana empty. This vessel is both heavily armed and manned, and was built at Barcelona under the direction of a Senor Negri, reported to be a captain in the Spanish navy, formerly employed in the revenue service on the coast of Spain, but now residing at Barcelona; his son, a lieutenant in the same service, commands the felucca. These three vessels have hitherto unfortunately evaded capture; but, on the other hand, the records of this year note the capture and final destruction of the "Volador" and the "Jacinto," two of the most successful slave vessels that have ever sailed from Havana; these brigantines had for many years carried on the trade with impunity, and had taken an extraordinary number of slaves from this coast. The vigilance of her Majesty's cruizers has certainly compelled an unusual number of slave vessels to quit the coast without cargoes, and in consequence an accumulation of slaves is reported to have occurred in several barracoons, occasioning much disease and mortality, from the crowded state of these places, and a scarcity of food. Slave-trade Papers, 1846, Class A., pp. 3-6. From a report made to the Lords of the Admiralty by the late Commodore Jones, it appears that the squadron of cruizers placed under his command on the western coast of Africa, captured between the 1st of April, 1844, and the 26th of August, 1845, no less than 75 slavers, 59 of which were seized under the equipment article, and 16 with about 5,200 slaves on board. The flags under which they were captured were as follows:-38 Brazilian, 19 Spanish, 3 Portugese, 1 Sardinian, 1 Liberian, and 13 no colours. It is a remarkable fact that one of these slavers had been captured 11 times, one 10 times, one 9 times, one 8 times, three 7 times, four 6 times, five 5 times, nine 4 times, twelve 3 times, fourteen twice. Thus it appears out of the 75 slavers captured by the cruizers, only 23 were captured for the first time, and that all the others were vessels which had been previously employed in the infamous traffic, and had passed through the Mixed Commission Courts in such cases many times! HAVANA. fodder; and they had often to be driven two, or even three leagues for water; and in October the island was visited by a most tremendous hurricane, which destroyed the crops so much that many estates do not grind at all this season, and few expect to make near the usual quantity. Thus, then, as in the last few years the quantities of sugar exported from this place and Matanzas have been returned at the custom house as in 1840, 1841, .. 1842, 1843, 1844, 712,543 boxes. 712,914 do. 700,267 do. 715,495 do. 847,000 do. The number of boxes estimated as to be obtained during this season will not exceed 650,000. With this diminished production no increase of price is expected; and in fact the price kept up last year with the astonishingly increased amount was ascribed to the sugar crop of the United States having failed, occasioning a market there for the surplus, which would otherwise have overloaded the markets of Europe. Her Majesty's Commissary Judge to the Earl of Aberdeen. From the lists enclosed your lordship will perceive that the fears expressed in the report of the 1st January, 1844, respecting an active continuance of the trade to be expected, have been confirmed; one list of arrivals in the year 1843 showing only 19 vessels, while that of 1844 enumerates 25. But of the 19 in 1843, it should be further observed, that we could only point out 16 as having brought cargoes; while of those in 1844 there are accounts of 21. Thus, then, in the year 1843, we estimated that about 8,000 unfortunate Africans had been introduced into this island as slaves, including a supposed addition of one-third to our numbers reported, on account of those that had not come to our knowledge; whereas the enclosed list gives, in round numbers, a total of 7,280, of cargoes actually known, together with three other arrivals, of which the numbers were not given, and a remaining conviction that several vessels have come to the other parts of the island, of which the particulars could not be ascertained. Adding, therefore, one-third to our numbers, as before, on these accounts, I have, with much regret, to express an opinion, that about 10,000 un-nation, which might easily at first have been taken for evidences happy beings have been brought here into slavery during the last year. Great, however, as this number may be considered, I regret to have to state that, if it has not amounted to the average of the importations in the years previous to the administration of General Valdez, the cause must be ascribed to the smaller demand for slaves rather than to the diminished activity of the dealers, or prohibitory measures of the government. It is true that the vessels that have been lately sent have been fitted out in some of the smaller outports in the neighbourhood, rather than in this harbour; but it is impossible that this could have been done without the full knowledge of the government; and it is equally impossible to discredit the statements, universally believed here, of the captain-general having renewed the system of receiving the payments per head for the negroes introduced. Thus, of the two cargoes landed in November last, I learn that the negroes of one were taken to a plantation near Bejucal; and the captain of the Partido having claimed an exorbitant fee on their arrival, which was refused, he wrote a denunciation of them to the captaingeneral, who replied, that "he was aware of the circumstances, and had given account of them to the Supreme Government at Madrid, as an affair of state." If the Supreme Government have given, as is believed here, very stringent orders for the prohibition of the trade, it is clear that General O'Donnell finds reasons for the allowance of exceptions; and although it is said that several vessels have been positively prohibited from being fitted out, as, for instance, the "Agdeluza," of which I gave your lordship the details in the despatches reporting my denunciations, dated the 7th October and 9th November last, yet others have been fitted out "under special favour," as publicly stated, and those that have arrived have been received without molestation. Consequent upon this course of conducting the government, there is no report to be made in this year, as in the two years preceding, of the seizure of any recently introduced Africans during the past year. List No. 2 gives account of 23 vessels having sailed in 1843, and No. 3 of 18 vessels in 1844, from which it would appear that some check had been given during the year to the trade. I am inclined to think that this has been the case, though the criterion was not one to be relied on, of the number of vessels despatched hence, inasmuch as the traders have been in the habit of sending vessels from other places, when it better suited their purposes, that we might apprehend this course also to have been recently followed. If it suited their interests to send vessels, I doubt whether they would be deterred by the fear of the blockading squadron, and we may therefore look for the cause of the diminution in number elsewhere. A sufficient reason appears to be the less demand, owing to the low price of sugars, and the difficulties in which the planters find themselves involved. At the beginning of the year the season was singularly unpropitious, on account of a long continuance of dry weather, so that it was calculated that upwards of 200,000 head of cattle had perished in the island for want of As another cause of depression, must be considered the unsettled state of the island. Whatever may be the real truth as to the extent of the combinations formed by the coloured people against the whites, it is unquestionable that there was, about a twelvemonth since, evinced a peculiar unquiet spirit and tendency to insubordi of a general conspiracy, though as no proofs whatever of such a fact have transpired, beyond confessions extorted by torture and the lash, I have long since come to a different conclusion. I believe, on the best consideration I can give to the subject, that the several insurrections were only ascribable to local causes; for they broke out at different times, at considerable distances from each other, and among negroes of isolated estates. When thus the slaves of one of these estates broke out, and overran those in the neighbourhood, it does not appear that they were ever received as if expected or prepared for; but on the contrary, with surprise, and sometimes even with opposition. As the country had been long in quietness, I suspect that the conduct of the masters and overseers had been becoming more arbitrary, and as new importations from Africa had been lately so extensively effected, and of those very many from the Lucumi nation, one notorious for its desperate character, it is very probable that natural feelings might have prompted them to deeds which I cannot believe even the most ignorant of the coloured race on consideration could have expected to find crowned with success. I have entered into these details to show, that the unsettled state of the island, if originating in one cause, has been kept up by another; and the planters, in distress and distrust, are not inclined to enter into any new purchases or speculations. Thus, then, I conclude, that the expeditions to the coast for slaves have not been more numerous, only because the demand was not greater. And although I believe that I am not overstating the truth, when I estimate about 3,000 negroes to have died under the hands of the military during the year; and about another 1,000 to have been banished, or gone away voluntarily, to say nothing of the usual waste of lives in the estates, yet the price of slaves has not increased. The usual price for bozales used to be from 300 to 350 dollars per head, for the cargo, as they arrived; and of those that came in November last, as before referred to, I learned that a picked lot, of 40 of the best, was bought at 440 dollars per head, which has been considered a large sum given for them. Ib. 378-380. The communications of H.M. Commissioners to the British Government up to the end of October, 1845, show that there had been no real abatement of the slave-trade with the Island of Cuba. No information whatever is given relating to the traffic with Porto Rico. The British Government has no Consul there. RIO DE JANEIRO. Her Majesty's Commissioners to the Earl of Aberdeen. Analysis of the traffic between Rio de Janeiro and Africa, during the year 1844, taken from the custom house official returns :— Departures to Africa.-Under the Brazilian flag 16 vessels, Portuguese 4, American 8, French 4, Hamburguese 2,-34. Arrivals from Africa. -Under the Brazilian flag 6 vessels, Portuguese 3, American 2, French 3, Hamburguese 1,—15; in all 49 vessels. It would appear, then, that 49 are all the ventures which took place to and from Africa during the year, and that these were all |