the difficulty to Don Edward, he proposed to send the
Havanas to his Hebrew friend in Sierra Leone, where, he did not doubt,
they would be readily exchanged for Manchester merchandise. That
evening a canoe was dispatched to the English colony with the cigars;
and, on the tenth day after, the trusty Israelite appeared in the Rio
Pongo, with a cutter laden to the deck with superior British fabrics.
The rumor of five hundred doubloons disturbed his rest in Sierra
Leone! So much gold could not linger in the hands of natives as long
as Manchester and Birmingham were represented in the colony; and,
accordingly, he coasted the edge of the surf, as rapidly as possible,
to pay me a profit of four dollars a thousand for the cigars, and to
take his chances at the exchange of my gold for the sable cargo! By
this happy hit I was enabled to pay for the required balance of
negroes, as well as to liquidate the schooners expenses while in the
river. I was amazingly rejoiced and proud at this happy result,
because I learned from the captain that the invoice of cigars was a
malicious trick, palmed off on the Areostatico's owners by her
captain, in order to thwart or embarrass me, when he heard I was to be
intrusted with the purchase of a cargo on the coast.

At the appointed day, La Fortuna sailed with 220 human beings packed
in her hold. Three months afterwards, I received advices that she
safely landed 217 in the bay of Matanzas, and that their sale yielded
a clear profit on the voyage of forty-one thousand four hundred and
thirty-eight dollars.[B]

As I am now fairly embarked in a trade which absorbed so many of my
most vigorous years, I suppose the reader will not be loth to learn a
little of my experience in the alleged "cruelties" of this commerce;
and the first question, in all likelihood, that rises to his lips, is
a solicitation to be apprised of the embarkation and treatment of
slaves on the dreaded voyage.

An African factor of fair repute is ever careful to select his human
cargo with consummate prudence, so as not only to supply his employers
with athletic laborers, but to avoid any taint of disease that may
affect the slaves in their transit to Cuba or the American main. Two
days before embarkation, the head of every male and female is neatly
shaved; and, if the cargo belongs to several owners, each man's
_brand_ is impressed on the body of his respective negro. This
operation is performed with pieces of silver wire, or s