I had last seen Bahia in August, 1836, on the homeward voyage of the Beagle; and it was then in anything but a satisfactory condition; the white population divided among themselves, and the slaves concerting by one bloody and desperate blow to achieve their freedom.  It did not appear to have improved during the intervening period:  a revolutionary movement was still contemplated by the more liberal section of the Brazilians, though at the very period they thus judiciously selected for squabbling with one another, they were living in hourly expectation of a rising, en masse, of the blacks.  That such an insurrection must sooner or later take place—­and take place with all the most fearful circumstances of long delayed and complete revenge—­no unprejudiced observer can doubt.

Slave trade.

That selfish and short-sighted policy which is almost invariably allied with despotism, has led to such constant additions by importation to the number of the slave population, that it now exceeds the white in the ratio of ten to one, while individually the slaves are both physically and in natural capacity more than equal to their sensual and degenerate masters.  Bahia and its neighbourhood have a bad eminence in the annals of the Brazilian slave-trade.  Upwards of fifty, some accounts say eighty cargoes, had been landed there since the Beagle’s last visit:  nor is the circumstance to be wondered at when we bear in mind, that the price of a slave then varied from 90 to 100 pounds, and this in a country not abounding in money.

The declining trade, the internal disorganization, and the rapidly augmenting slave population of Bahia, all tend to prove that the system of slavery which the Brazilians consider essential to the welfare of their country, operates directly against her real interests.  The wonderful resources of the Brazils will, however, never be fully developed until the Brazilians resolve to adopt the line of policy suggested in Captain Fitzroy’s interesting remarks upon this subject.  To encourage an industrious native population on the one hand, and on the other to declare the slave-trade piratical, are the first necessary steps in that march of improvement, by which this tottering empire may yet be preserved from premature decay.

Results of slavery.

It would, however, be a vain imagination, to suppose that this wiser and more humane determination will be spontaneously adopted by those most implicated in this debasing and demoralizing traffic.  Indeed it appears from the best information obtained on the subject, that since the vigilance of our cruizers has comparatively put a stop to the trade on the west coast of Africa—­where it has received a great discouragement—­it has been greatly extended on the east.  Could it but have been foreseen by our Government that their efforts upon the west coast, would in proportion as they were successful, only tend to drive the traders in human flesh to the