one who stands by, a calm unconcerned spectator,
to observe men hurried on by the violence of faction to their own certain
destruction, and to behold them so entirely blinded by party spirit as
not to see that danger which stares them so openly in the face, that a
child could scarcely fail to detect it.

The Slave Trade, though nominally abolished, is actively pursued here,
eighty-three slaves having been landed just before my arrival, and
another cargo during my stay.

The slaves are not only a very superior race of men in point of physical
powers, but, as far as my experience of their habits went, I found them
very moral and honest. Their notions of religion were however curious.
Several were Christians nominally, but their Christianity consisted in
wearing a string of beads round the neck; and they seriously assured me
that those who wore beads went up to heaven after death, and that those
who did not went down under the waters.

I talked to many of them about their own land. None had forgotten it, but
they all expressed the most ardent desire to see it again. They call
themselves captives, not slaves, and are very punctilious upon this
point. They labour very hard here, generally in the town, paying their
masters eighteen-pence a day, and keeping the rest of their earnings for
themselves. The rate of labour must therefore be high; but they wear
scarcely any clothes, and their subsistence, which is jerked beef and
beans, costs but little. The slaves in the country are however all
obliged to work on their owners' plantations.

All the principal people in the town are concerned in the slave trade,
and their chief wealth consists in the number of slaves they possess;
therefore there is little chance of the trade being, for many years,
totally abolished.

With regard to the execution of the laws this country is much in the same
state as certain parts of Ireland. Homicide, and attempts at homicide, by
shooting, are frequent; but it is difficult, if not impossible, to
convict the offenders, for he who renders himself conspicuous in
prosecuting parties concerned in a murder assuredly gets shot at in his
turn.

IMPRESSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS AT SEA. REMARKS ON VOYAGE FROM BAHIA TO THE
CAPE.

August 25.

Re-embarked in the Beagle and sailed for the Cape of Good Hope.

September 10.

We had yesterday and all last night a gale of wind, succeeded this day by
a heavy fall of rain. The wind had raised a very high sea,