lave-trade which I conceive to be its due.
In 1839, my friend Mr. Gabriel saw 37 slave-ships lying in this harbor,
waiting for their cargoes, under the protection of the guns of the
forts. At that time slavers had to wait many months at a time for a
human freight, and a certain sum per head was paid to the government
for all that were exported. The duties derived from the exportation of
slaves far exceeded those from other commerce, and, by agreeing to
the suppression of this profitable traffic, the government actually
sacrificed the chief part of the export revenue. Since that period,
however, the revenue from lawful commerce has very much exceeded that on
slaves. The intentions of the home Portuguese government, however good,
can not be fully carried out under the present system. The pay of the
officers is so very small that they are nearly all obliged to engage
in trade; and, owing to the lucrative nature of the slave-trade, the
temptation to engage in it is so powerful, that the philanthropic
statesmen of Lisbon need hardly expect to have their humane and
enlightened views carried out. The law, for instance, lately promulgated
for the abolition of the carrier system (carregadores) is but one of
several equally humane enactments against this mode of compulsory labor,
but there is very little probability of the benevolent intentions of the
Legislature being carried into effect.

Loanda is regarded somewhat as a penal settlement, and those who leave
their native land for this country do so with the hope of getting rich
in a few years, and then returning home. They have thus no motive
for seeking the permanent welfare of the country. The Portuguese law
preventing the subjects of any other nation from holding landed property
unless they become naturalized, the country has neither the advantage of
native nor foreign enterprise, and remains very much in the same state
as our allies found it in 1575. Nearly all the European soldiers sent
out are convicts, and, contrary to what might be expected from men in
their position, behave remarkably well. A few riots have occurred,
but nothing at all so serious as have taken place in our own penal
settlements. It is a remarkable fact that the whole of the arms of
Loanda are every night in the hands of those who have been convicts.
Various reasons for this mild behavior are assigned by the officers,
but none of these, when viewed in connection with our own experience in
Australia, app