After some further conversation, Miller requested permission to see the ’tween decks, upon which the muster accompanied him below, and pointed out the manner of securing his cargo, which was by shackling each negro by one leg to an iron bar running a midships from stem to stern, so as to form a double row, lying feet to feet.  The air was so oppressively nauseating, that Miller could not remain below for more than two minutes.  There was hardly a slave in the whole number who was free from festering sores, produced by constant friction from lying on the hard and unwashed decks.  Some of them were bruised so dreadfully, that it was wonderful that they continued to exist.  Their emaciated appearance might have led to the supposition that they had been nearly starved during the passage, did not the varied miseries to which they were subjected, sufficiently account for their fleshless forms.  A great number of them were now upon deck, and clad in long woollen shirts, in order to be sent to the warehouses on shore.  Miller, heartily sick of this disgusting scene, took leave of the master; but, unable to control the indignation he felt, he inveighed with great bitterness against all wretches concerned in so iniquitous a traffic, letting him know at the same time that he was not in the service of the emperor.  The master, though at first taken aback by the violence of the general’s invectives, soon recovered himself, and retorted in the most insolent terms of defiance, abusing the English for meddling in what he styled the legitimate commerce of Brazil.  The state of the vessel was such as cannot be described, and the fetid effluvia, arising from it, offended the senses on approaching her within fifty yards.  Although Miller took a warm bath immediately upon getting on shore, the stench of the slave ship haunted his nostrils for many days.

There is a long narrow street in Rio Janeiro exclusively appropriated to the negro stores.  It is, in fact, the slave-bazaar.  The fronts of the shops are open, and the objects for sale are seated on benches, where, strange to say, they often pass their time in singing.  People wishing to become purchasers lounge up and down until they see a subject likely to suit their purpose.  Miller one day put on a broad-brimmed straw hat, and walked into several of the stores, as if with a view of making a purchase.  The slave venders came forward with eagerness to show off their stock, making their bipeds move about in every way best calculated to display their good points, and in much the same manner that a jockey does in showing off a horse.  Those who appeared to be drowsy were made to bite a piece of ginger, or take a pinch of snuff.  If these excitements did not prove sufficient to give them an air of briskness, they were wakened up by a pull of the ear, or a slap on the face, which made them look about them.  Miller was so inquisitive, and his observations were so unlike those of a bona fide purchaser, that