But, With All These Drawbacks,
The Americans Carry On A Brisk And Profitable Trade In Calico, Biscuit,
Flour, Butter, Etc., Etc.
The Portuguese home government has not generally received the credit
for sincerity in suppressing the slave-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, appear to be valid. Religion seems to have no connection
with the change. Perhaps the climate may have some influence in subduing
their turbulent disposition, for the inhabitants generally are a timid race;
they are not half so brave as our Caffres.
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