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ceed on her voyage, provided there be exhibited the minute of presentation in the Custom-House of Loanda, in which minute is to be set forth the reasons of her having entered the port.

IX. As soon as any coasting-vessel shall arrive at this port, her master must present her passport in the office of the General Government, in order that the competent note of presentation may be made on the back of it.

X. If before the end of the year for which the passport avails, the back of it should be filled up with notes of presentation, it shall be exchanged for another in the office of the General Government without payment of emolument, in order to complete the year unexpired; but it shall have (that is, shall be charged with the duties of) the public seal.

XI. The Governor of Benguela, when any coasting-vessel is about to leave that place, shall write on the back of it, the respective passport, the pass, and on her arrival at that port, the competent note of presentation.

§ (single). In order to the departure from Benguela of coastingvessels whose owners reside in that city, the Governor of the same is to observe what is prescribed in Article V, and in the 2nd section of Article VI, which he will make correspondingly applicable, causing the matricula of the crew of the said vessels to be drawn up in the competent office. The authorities and other persons to whom a knowledge of this portaria belongs will so understand and obey it.

PEDRO ALEXANDRINO DA CUNHA.

No. 410.-Vice-Consul Brand to Viscount Palmerston.-(Rec. Mar. 31.)
MY LORD,
Loanda, January 13, 1851.

IN my despatch of the 26th September last, I referred to the probability of slaves being shipped in coasting-vessels, and also to the very depressed condition of the Slave Trade interest in this neighbourhood.

I am now desirous of making a few observations on each of these heads.

With regard to the former, events have fully verified what I then supposed would take place; for, besides the case of the Vintecinco de Setembro, the particulars of which are already known to your Lordship, 3 other attempts have been made to carry away slaves in vessels employed in coasting voyages.

The first is that of the Portuguese palhabote Oriente, of 26 tons, which, under different owners, had been employed in coasting voyages for upwards of 4 years.

This vessel sailed hence on the 14th August last for Novo Redondo and Quicombo, with a crew of 5 persons and 2 Cabenda

men, and a cargo consisting of powder, timber, provisions, and bale goods; carrying at the same time 2 Government despatches, and, like the Vinte-cinco de Setembro, also 2 slaves as passengers.

Some time after her departure, it became notorious here that she had escaped with a cargo of about 200 slaves; and a recent report gives it out that she was captured near Rio de Janeiro by the Brazilian authorities, if not by a Brazilian cruizer, with the slaves on board, and with all the correspondence addressed to the agent at Rio, said to be Joaquim Pinto da Fonseca, brother of the notorious Manoel Pinto da Fonseca, of that city.

The second case is that of a Portuguese schooner, called the Rival, of 39 tons, which was built in the River Dande, and brought here in June last. After making one or two coasting voyages, her last arrival being from Benguela on the 6th November, in ballast, she cleared out on the 15th of last month for the south, although her departure was not published; and there appears to be no doubt whatever that she was the vessel which was surprised in the act of preparing to embark slaves close to Quicombo, by Her Majesty's sloop Sealark, on the afternoon of the 25th ultimo, when she run herself on shore to avoid capture.

The third case referred to is that of the Portuguese patacho Veiga, of 109 tons, which arrived here from Oporto on the 2nd October last, after a passage of 38 days, sailed hence on the 18th November, ostensibly for Benguela, with a crew of 13 persons, and a cargo consisting of oil, ground-nuts, agoardente, and sundries; carrying, at the same time, 4 mails and one Government despatch; and was captured by Her Majesty's ship Cyclops on the morning of the 20th of the same month, to the southward of Ambriz, with 623 slaves on board.

This case, which has caused a good deal of sensation, and the particulars of which will come before your Lordship through other sources, was not strictly that of a coasting-vessel; but as the Veiga cleared out on a coasting voyage on the occasion of her capture, I have referred her to the same class as the two preceding.

These proceedings might at first sight appear as strong evidence of the activity of the traffic in this neighbourhood; such a view, however, I believe, would be both unsound and superficial, and the true cause, I am fully convinced is to be found in the depressed state of the trade, and the embarrassments of the traffickers, by which they have been goaded on to these daring and ruinous enterprises, with the desperation of men resolved to run all risks for the chance of obtaining a temporary relief from their present difficulties.

In favourable circumstances, the employment of coasting-vessels for the transport of slaves beyond the seas would not readily be

resorted to, as such vessels could be much more profitably engaged in facilitating the trade by carrying provisions, equipments, correspondence, and even slaves along the coast to the points of embarkation; and their employment for the transport of slaves has this additional inconvenience, that their non-appearance at this port within the period for which the bond given on their clearance extends, subjects their owners to the risk, at least, of having to pay the amount of that bond.

This inconvenience may indeed sometimes be got over in various ways, but is nevertheless felt, and will usually be avoided.

When the trade was brisk, and plenty of vessels coming over to carry the slaves away, the employment of these small craft was, I believe, seldom heard of, they were then much more profitably and safely used in aiding the traffic in the way I have indicated; and I believe it to be owing entirely to the vigorous operations of Her Majesty's squadron both on this and the other side of the Atlantic, conjoined with the stop which has been put to the use of vessels under the American flag for upwards of 2 years, the palladium of the slave-dealer, that such proceedings as I have reported have occurred, and that these small vessels have been resorted to as a last

resource.

The case of the Veiga tends to a similar conclusion.

Had that vessel cleared out for the Brazils, or for any distant port, her subsequent proceedings would have been less surprising; but that she should, with the intention of shipping slaves, clear out on a coasting voyage, carrying Government mails and despatches, with the certainty of thus being very soon detected, seems astonishing.

This might be adduced as a proof of the bold effrontery and activity of the slave-dealers here, and there is no doubt that they are capable, on an emergency, of doing anything; but my experience and observation convince me that they are as cautious as they are daring, and that unless hard-pressed (as is known to have been the case with the parties connected with the palhabote that escaped with slaves some years ago through the Bar of Corimba, and is also now known to be the case with others interested in the affair of the Veiga), such openly hazardous enterprises will not usually be attempted.

I am therefore disposed to deduce from these proceedings a proof of the second point to which I would now shortly refer, viz., the depressed condition of the Slave Trade interest in this neighbourhood. This is sufficiently apparent to those who are resident here, but I beg to mention a few particulars by way of

illustration.

I would refer first to the monetary and financial condition of

this place. This province, although now possessing a small and increasing legal export trade, which, curiously enough, almost dates its commencement from the period when Her Majesty's cruizers were first authorized to capture slavers south of the Equator, is yet unhappily so mixed up in its resources with the Slave Trade, that the state of the money market and the condition of the traffickers reciprocally influence each other, and thus the former may be regarded as a fair exponent of the prosperity of the latter.

Never, probably, within the memory of the oldest inhabitants, was the want of money so much felt here as at this moment.

Metals have almost totally disappeared, and our currency is, I may say, entirely a paper one, consisting of notes issued by the Provincial Treasury, and guaranteed by the public revenue, and Custom-House bills given by the merchants for duties on goods cleared out for consumption, guaranteed by real property mortgaged to the Government.

This disappearance of foreign metal from the market shows that the remittances from the Brazils for slaves landed there, and which used frequently to be made in gold, have ceased.

The older inhabitants who speak of the golden age, when the Slave Trade was in full vigour, refer always to the abundance of metal then in circulation, as a proof of the prosperity of the place, and to its present disappearance, as evidence of the ruin of that traffic.

The paper money formerly consisted chiefly of very large notes, sometimes of the value of 500,000 reis, but, as the metals have disappeared, these have all been withdrawn, and smaller ones issued.

Since my arrival, these notes have been twice reduced in value, and I hear, that as things are becoming daily worse and worse, we are soon to have a new issue of paper in notes, so low in value as 38. sterling

Turning to the body of slave-merchants, depression and distress are most apparent; the payments of debts by them are now almost hopeless, and the greatest distrust is felt in all transactions of a commercial character. Indeed it is pretty well known that one of the parties interested in the recent affair of the Veiga, and who has not hitherto been considered as a slave-dealer, was induced as a last resource to obtain payment of debts due for goods he had sold, to accept slaves and ship them in that vessel.

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Another party with whom I was lately conversing, and who has recently arrived from Lisbon with a cargo, stated that in what he termed the present paralysed state of the traffic," it would be folly to attempt sales, and that he had consequently freighted his vessel for a voyage to Rio de Janeiro for a sum sufficient to pay little more

than the expenses, and was endeavouring in the meantime to collect the debts already due to him.

In fact, among the body of slave-merchants, with the exception of two or three possessed of a little property, and who have withdrawn from and are not now solely dependent on the traffic, there is scarcely one believed to be in a state of solvency.

The debts of one of the largest, who on my arrival here was in prosperous circumstances, were calculated the other day at 250 contos of reis, whilst his assets, including doubtful debts, did not exceed 20 contos: and it is known to me that bills drawn by him on Rio for about 2,000l. were lately returned protested, there being no funds belonging to him there, that is, no slaves had been received.

The slave-dealers here, in fact, only hang on through the forbearance of their creditors, who probably entertaining faint visions of better times for the traffic, see that to push them at present would take away the last hope of receiving anything; and because they are so mixed up together in their affairs, that to press upon any one would bring down the whole body.

So little confidence is felt in the stability of this class, that the provincial Government is taking measures to increase the security of the Custom House bills, which form at present a very considerable part of our paper currency.

In connexion with this head it may be interesting to mention that, besides smaller concerns, the 3 largest slaving establishments, which on my arrival were in a state of great activity at this place, have since then been entirely broken up.

These were all Brazilian agencies, and were conducted on a large and expensive scale.

The first was that of Joze Bernardino da Sá, of Rio de Janeiro, the former agent of which is now living here in very reduced circumstances.

The second was that of Jorge Joze da Souza, also of Rio de Janeiro.

This establishment, described as one of the largest in Angola, is completely broken up; and the agent, who became a bankrupt some time ago, is living here as is believed in great poverty.

The third establishment referred to is that of Amaral and Bastos, likewise of Rio de Janeiro, a firm well known for their extensive slave-trading transactions, and more especially in connexion with the attempt to carry on the traffic by means of steamers.

Their large agency here and their subordinate one at Ambriz are both now broken up, and their principal agent, Francisco Antonio Flores, a Brazilian, left this place for Rio in July last, leaving only one of his clerks to wind up the business.

I may here notice that Flores, as is pretty well known, and as I

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