They are four times as numerous as the
latter, and if they ever become conscious of this superiority, the
whites might probably be placed in the position that the unhappy
blacks have hitherto occupied.
But I am losing myself in conjectures and reasonings which may,
perhaps, become the pen of a learned man, but certainly not mine,
since I assuredly do not possess the necessary amount of education
to decide upon such questions; my object is merely to give a plain
description of what I have seen.
Although the number of slaves in the Brazils is very great, there is
nowhere such a thing as a slave-market. The importation of them is
publicly prohibited, yet thousands are smuggled in every year, and
disposed of in some underhand manner, which every one knows, and
every one employs. It is true, that English ships are constantly
cruising off the coasts of Brazil and Africa, but even if a slaver
happen to fall into their hands, the poor blacks, I was told, were
no more free than if they had come to the Brazils. They are all
transported to the English colonies, where, at the expiration of ten
years, they are supposed to be set at liberty.
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