service. It is not a creation of fancy to add, as these have done, to the hideous tale, that the ravenous animals of the deep are aware of their prey; when the Slave-ship makes sail, the shark follows in her wake, and her course is literally to be tracked through the ocean by the blood of the murdered, with which her enormous crimes stain its waters. I have read of worse than even this! But it will not be believed! I have examined the particulars of scenes yet more hideous, while transfixed with horror, and ashamed of the human form that I wore-scenes so dreadful as it was not deemed fit to lay bare before the public eye! scenes never surpassed in all that history has recorded of human guilt to stain her pages, in all that poets have conceived to harrow up the soul! scenes, compared with which the blood-stained annals of Spain -cruel and sordid Spain-have registered only ordinary tales of avarice and suffering-though these have won for her an unenvied pre-eminence of infamy! scenes not exceeded in horror by the forms with which the great Tuscan poet peopled the hell of his fancy, nor by the dismal tints of his illustrious countryman's pencil, breathing its horrors over the vaults of the Sistine chapel! Mortua quin etiam jungebat corpora vivis! On the deck and in the loathsome hold are to be seen the living chained to the dead-the putrid carcase remaining to mock the survivor with a spectacle that to him presents no terrors-to mock him with the spectacle of a release which he envies! Nay, women have been known to bring forth the miserable fruit of the womb surrounded by the dying and the dead-the decayed corpses of their fellow victims. Am I asked how these enormities shall be prevented? First ask me, to what I ascribe them? and then my answer is ready. I charge them upon the system of head-money which I have described, and of whose tendency no man can pretend to doubt. Reward men for preventing the Slaver's voyage, not for interrupting it-for saving the Africans from the Slave-ship, not for seizing the ship after it has received them; and then the inducement will be applied to the right place, and the motive will be suited to the act you desire to have performed. But I have hitherto been speaking of the intolerable aggravation which we superadd to the traffic. Its amount is another thing. Do all our efforts materially check it? Are our cruisers always successful? Are all flags and all the slavers under any flag subject to search and liable to capture? I find that the bulk of this infernal traffic is still undiminished; that though many Slave-ships may be seized, many more escape and reach the New World; and that the numbers still carried thither are as great as ever. Of this sad truth the evidence is but too abundant and too conclusive. The premium of insurance at the Havannah is no higher than 12 per cent. to cover all hazards. Of this 4 per cent. is allowed for sea risk and underwriter's profits, leaving but 8 for the chance of capture. But in Rio it is as low as 11 per cent. leaving but 6 for risk of capture. In the year 1835, 80 Slave-ships sailed from the Havannah alone; and I have a list of the numbers which six of those brought back, giving an average of about 360; so that above 28,000 were brought to that port in a year. In the month of December of that year, between 4000 and 5000 were safely landed in the port of Rio, the capital of our good friend and ally, the Emperor of Brazil. It is frightful to think of the numbers carried over by some of these ships. One transported 570, and another no less than 700 wretched beings. I give the names of these execrable vessels-the Felicidad and the Socorro. Of all Slave-traders, the greatest-of all the criminals engaged in these guilty crimes, the worst-are the Brazilians, the Spaniards, and the Portuguese-the three nations with whom our commerce is the closest, and over whom our influence is the most commanding. These are the nations with whom we (and I mean France as well as ourselves) go on in lingering negotiation-in quibbling discussion-to obtain some explanation of some article in a feeble inefficient treaty, or some extension of an ineffectual right of search, while their crimes lay all Africa waste, and deluge the seas with the blood of her inhabitants. Yet if a common and less guilty pirate dared pollute the sea, or wave his black flag over its waves, let him be of what nation he pleased to libel by assuming its name, he would in an instant be made to pay the forfeit of his crimes. It was not always so. We did not in all times, nor in every cause, so shrink from our duty through delicacy or through fear. When the thrones of ancient Europe were to be upheld, or their royal occupants to be restored, or the threatened privileges of the aristocracy wanted champions, we could full swiftly advance to the encounter, throw ourselves into the breach, and confront alone the giant arm of republics and of emperors wielding the colossal power of France. But now when the millions of Africa look up to us for help-when humanity and justice are our only clients-I am far from saying that we do not wish them well: I can believe that if a word could give them success-if a wave of the hand sufficed to end the fray--the word would be pronounced the gesture would not be withholden; but if more be wanted,-if some exertion is required-if some risk must be run in the cause of mercy-then our tongue cleaves to the roof of our mouth; our hand falls paralysed; we pause and falter, and blanch and quail before the ancient and consecrated monarchy of Brazil, the awful might of Portugal, the compact, consolidated, overwhelming power of Spain ! My lords, I trust-I expect-we shall pause and falter, and blanch and quail no more! Let it be the earliest, and it will be the most enduring glory of the new reign, to extirpate at length this execrable traffic! I would not surround our young Queen's throne with fortresses and troops, or establish it upon the triumphs of arms and the trophies of war-no, not I! Οὐ γὰρ λίθοις ἐτειχίσα τὴν πόλιν οὐδὲ πλίνθοις ἐγώ, οὐδ ̓ ἐπὶ τούτοις μέγιστον τῶν ἐμαυτοῦ φρονῶ· ἀλλ' ἐὰν τὸν ἐμὸν τειχισμὸν, κ. τ. λ. * I would build her renown neither upon military nor yet upon naval greatness; but upon rights secured, upon liberties extended, humanity diffused, justice universally promulged. In alliance with such virtues as these I would have her name descend to after ages. I would have it commemorated for ever, that in the first year of her reign, her throne was fortified, and her crown embellished, by the proudest triumph over the worst of crimes the greatest triumph mortal ever won, over the worst crime man ever committed! ΔΗΜ. Περὶ Στέφ. |