. The governor, however, continues his arbitrary
arrestations. It is curious how ancient authority awes men; for surely
it is the accustomed obedience to the name of the king, and the dread of
the name of rebellion, that prevents the Brazilians, armed as they are,
from resisting these things.

_Tuesday, November 6th._--The Morgiana, Captain Finlaison, came in from
Rio de Janeiro. She belongs to the African station, and came to Brazil
about some prize business connected with the slave trade. Captain
Finlaison tells me tales that make my blood run cold, of horrors
committed in the French slave ships especially. Of young negresses,
headed up in casks and thrown overboard, when the ships are chased. Of
others, stowed in boxes when a ship was searched; with a bare chance of
surviving their confinement. But where the trade is once admitted, no
wonder the heart becomes callous to the individual sufferings of the
slaves. The other day I took up some old Bahia newspapers, numbers of
the Idade d'Ouro, and I find in the list of ships entered during three
months of this year,

Alive. Dead.

1 slave ship from Moyanbique, 25th March, with 313 180

1 do. 6th March 378 61

1 do. 30th May 293 10

1 do. 29th June from Molendo, 357 102

1 do. 26th June 233 21
____ ___
1574 374
____ ___

So that of the cargoes of these five ships reckoned thus accidentally,
more than one in five had died on the passage!

It seems the English ships of war on the African coast are allowed to
hire free blacks to make up their complements when deficient. There are
several now onboard the Morgiana, two of whom are petty officers, and
they are found most useful hands. They are paid and victualled like our
own seamen.[73]

[Note 73: The negroes of the _Cru_ nation come to Sierra Leone from
a great distance, and hire themselves out for any kind of labour, for
six, eight, or ten months, sometimes for a year or two. They have then
earned enough to go home and live like idle gentlemen, for at least
twice that time, and then return to work. When their en