mall irons
fashioned into the merchant's initials, heated just hot enough to
blister without burning the skin. When the entire cargo is the venture
of but one proprietor, the branding is always dispensed with.

On the appointed day, the _barracoon_ or slave-pen is made joyous by
the abundant "feed" which signalizes the negro's last hours in his
native country. The feast over, they are taken alongside the vessel in
canoes; and as they touch the deck, they are entirely stripped, so
that women as well as men go out of Africa as they came into
it--_naked_. This precaution, it will be understood, is indispensable;
for perfect nudity, during the whole voyage, is the only means of
securing cleanliness and health. In this state, they are immediately
ordered below, the men to the hold and the women to the cabin, while
boys and girls are, day and night, kept on deck, where their sole
protection from the elements is a sail in fair weather, and a
_tarpaulin_ in foul.

At meal time they are distributed in messes of ten. Thirty years ago,
when the Spanish slave-trade was lawful, the captains were somewhat
more ceremoniously religious than at present, and it was then a
universal habit to make the gangs say grace before meat, and give
thanks afterwards. In our days, however, they dispense with this
ritual, and content themselves with a "_Viva la Habana_," or "hurrah
for Havana," accompanied by a clapping of hands.

This over, a bucket of salt water is served to each mess, by way of
"finger glasses" for the ablution of hands, after which a
_kidd_,--either of rice, farina, yams, or beans,--according to the
tribal habit of the negroes, is placed before the squad. In order to
prevent greediness or inequality in the appropriation of nourishment,
the process is performed by signals from a monitor, whose motions
indicate when the darkies shall dip and when they shall swallow.

It is the duty of a guard to report immediately whenever a slave
refuses to eat, in order that his abstinence may be traced to
stubbornness or disease. Negroes have sometimes been found in slavers
who attempted voluntary starvation; so that, when the watch reports
the patient to be "shamming," his appetite is stimulated by the
medical antidote of a "cat." If the slave, however, is truly ill, he
is forthwith ticketed for the sick list by a bead or button around his
neck, and dispatched to an infirmary in the forecastle.

These meals occur twice daily,--at ten in th