extracted, according to Mr. Hill, but the corruption of that which remains, by the foul rags which they dip into the casks to obtain it.

"Friday, May 5.-The Capitao Pequenino,' who bears also the Portuguese name of 'Luiz,' came quietly to me this evening, and said, 'Senhor, estao roubando aguardiente abaxo.'-'They are stealing brandy below.' I could not comprehend how this could be, as all the brandy in the hold had been started at the commencement of the voyage, to prevent mischief. Having reported it to the Lieutenant, I accompanied the two Spaniards to the slave-deck, and surprised a large party of the negroes, busily drawing up, by means of old rags, as usual, the contents of two barrels. One of these proved to be of water, and another smaller one, which Luiz supposed to be aguardiente, contained vinegar. Summary punishment was inflicted on eight, who were taken in the fact. They received by moonlight about eighteen lashes each, and were coupled in shackles previously to being sent back into the hold. Thus, as in many other fine beginnings, the end but ill corresponds with the 'early promise.' The sound of knocking off their irons, which thrilled so musically on the ear when we boarded the prize, terminates in the clank of riveting them on again, with the accompaniment of flogging. The result of their offence is certainly highly provoking, when, as is sometimes the case, instead of pure water, we draw up from the casks their putrid rags; on the other hand, none can tell, save he who has tried, the pangs of thirst which may excite them in that heated hold, many of them fevered by mortal disease."

A venial theft, enforced no doubt by stern physical necessity; for, in the article of food, they appear to be strictly conscientious, with a touch of the natural gentleman-if, indeed, the first gentleman in the world was not a negro, as is maintained, we believe, by Adam Black of Edinburgh, and others.

"There is a natural good breeding frequently to be remarked among the negroes, which one might little expect. They sometimes come aft, on seeing us first appear on deck in the morning, and bend the knee by way of salutation. Their manner of returning thanks for any little present of food or water is by a stamp on the deck, and a scrape of the foot backwards, and they seldom fail, however weak, to make this acknowledgment, though it cost them an effort to rise for the purpose. The women make a curtsey, bowing their knees forwards so as nearly to touch the ground. In the partition of the small pieces of beef in their tubs of farinha, the most perfect fair dealing is always observed. One of each little party takes the

whole into his hands, and distributes two or three bits, as the number allows, to each, and, should there be any remainder after the division, pulls it into yet smaller pieces, and hands them round with equal impartiality. After a meal they express general satisfaction by a clapping of hands; a mode also used by some among them of asking a favour, or begging pardon for a fault."

And, now, let it not be set down to the discredit of the savage race and natural good manners, if their best black behaviour relaxes under trials which would probably disturb the good conduct of even white civilisation. Morals may well change colour in an atmosphere which tarnishes the purest metals.

"At the outset of our voyage, it was comparatively trifling, and I suffered little inconvenience from venturing down on the slave-deck, to see what the matter was, when any extraordinary noise or outcries occurred. It is superfluous now to make this descent, in order to inhale its atmosphere, which pervades every part of the vessel, and in our after-cabin is almost intolerable. Gold lace and silver articles, though kept in drawers or japanned cases, have turned quite black, through this state of the air.

"Disorder, I think, in every sense, is on the increase among the unhappy blacks. During the late fine weather, they have spent the sunny hours of the day on deck, but when below, their cries are incessant day and night. Thinned as their numbers are by death, there is no longer narrowness of room, but increasing sickness and misery make the survivors more hard and unfeeling, and they fight and bruise one another more than formerly. Little Catula, the finest among them, who received a bite in the leg about six weeks since, getting continual blows and knocks, the wound has now become a deep-spreading ulcer. lad has been lately severely bitten in the head. great toe, the ankle-joint, nearly bitten through; these, too savage to mention, have been inflicted. of despair, seems to possess them."

Another fine intelligent Others have the heel, the and worse injuries than Madness, the distraction

The number of deaths, during the voyage of fifty days, appears to have been 163, but the real number who died on board was 175, besides 14 more who expired on shore, out of a total of 397-a fearful waste of human life. As a set-off, however, the crew of the Slaver escaped with as much im

punity as if they had only committed a literary piracy; and certainly a very white fate was reserved for the skipper.

"The captain, whom they reported to have perished in the surf near Quilimane, but who was concealed among them, embarked for Rio, with four of his companions, in an English brig, having obtained money, as has been since discovered, from an English mercantile house in Cape Town."

That the Slave Trade should exist at all in the nineteenth century is a great fact, to the disgrace of civilisation. No Christian nation ought to accredit a representative of human nature to a Court that connives at such a detestable traffic ; or to acknowledge, even as foreign relations, those repudiators, who disown their brotherhood to any of the sons of Adam!

1844.

[Continued.]

THE HOUSE OF MOURNING.

A FARCE.

SCENE.-A street at the west end of London. Enter SQUIRE HAMPER and his Lady, personages rather of the rustic order, recently come up from the family seat in Hampshire.

Squire. WELL, Ma'am, I hope you've had shopping enough. Lady. Almost. Only one more-O! there it is, over the way.

Squire. What, the one yonder? Why, it's all raven gray, picked out with black; and a hatchment over the door. What can you want at an undertaker's?

Lady. An undertaker's !-no such thing. Look at the goods in the window.

Squire. O, shawls and gowns! A foreign haberdasher's, I suppose, and that's the French for it. Mason de Dool?

Lady. Hush! Don't expose your ignorance in the street ; everybody knows French at the West End. It means the House of Mourning.

Squire. What, the one mentioned in the Bible?

Lady. No-no-dear me !-no. I tell you it's a mourn

ing establishment.

Squire. O, I understand.

The master's dead, and the

shop's put into black for him. The last new-fangled mode, suppose, instead of the old-fashioned one of putting up the

I shutters.

Lady. Nonsense! It's a shop to buy black things at.

Spuire. Humph! And pray, Ma'am, what do you want with black things? There's nobody dead belonging to us, as I know of, nor like to be.

Lady. Well; and what then? Is there any harm in just looking at their things-for I'm not going to buy. What did we come up to town for ?

Squire. Why, for a bit of a holiday, and to see the sights, to be sure.

Lady. Well, and that black shop is one of them, at least for a female. It's quite a new thing, they say, just come over from Paris; and I want to go in and pretend to cheapen something, just out of curiosity.

Squire. Yes, and pay for peeping. For in course you must buy after tumbling over their whole stock.

Lady. By no means-or only some trifle-a penn'orth of black pins-or the like. If I did purchase a black gown, it is always useful to have by one.

Squire. Yes-or a widow's cap. Perhaps, Ma'am, you're in hopes ?

Lady. La, Jacob, don't be foolish! Many ladies wear black for economy, as well as for relations. But I only want to inspect for they do say, what with foreign tastiness, and our own modern refinements, there's great improvements in mourning.

Squire. Humph-and I suppose a new-fashioned way of crying.

VOL. IX.

11