crew is armed to watch the sleepers.

Handcuffs are rarely used on shipboard. It is the common custom to
secure slaves in the _barracoons_, and while shipping, by chaining
_ten_ in a gang; but as these platoons would be extremely inconvenient
at sea, the manacles are immediately taken off and replaced by
leg-irons, which fasten them in pairs by the feet. Shackles are never
used but for _full-grown men_, while _women_ and _boys_ are set at
liberty as soon as they embark. It frequently happens that when the
behavior of _male_ slaves warrants their freedom, they are released
from all fastenings long before they arrive. Irons are altogether
dispensed with on many _Brazilian_ slavers, as negroes from Anjuda,
Benin, and Angola, are mild; and unaddicted to revolt like those who
dwell east of the Cape or north of the Gold Coast. Indeed, a knowing
trader will never use chains but when compelled, for the longer a
slave is ironed the more he deteriorates; and, as his sole object is
to land a healthy cargo, pecuniary interest, as well as natural
feeling, urges the sparing of metal.

My object in writing this palliative description is not to exculpate
the slavers or their commerce, but to correct those exaggerated
stories which have so long been current in regard to the _usual_
voyage of a trader. I have always believed that the cause of humanity,
as well as any other cause, was least served by over-statement; and I
am sure that if the narratives given by Englishmen are true, the
voyages they detail must either have occurred before my day, or were
conducted in British vessels, while her majesty's subjects still
considered the traffic lawful.[C]

FOOTNOTES:

[B] As the reader may scarcely credit so large a profit, I subjoin an
account of the fitting of a slave vessel from Havana in 1827, and the
liquidation of her voyage in Cuba:--

1.--EXPENSES OUT.

Cost of LA FORTUNA, a 90 ton schooner, $3,700 00
Fitting out, sails, carpenter and cooper's bills, 2,500 00
Provisions for crew and slaves, 1,115 00
Wages advanced to 18 men before the mast, 900 00
" " to captain, mates, boatswain,
cook, and steward, 440 00
200,000 cigars and 500 doubloons, cargo, 10,900 00
Clearance and hush-money, 200 00
-----------