band Trade, which it is not to be supposed they will attempt, from the certainty that they will be punished with the utmost rigour of the Law. Moreover, that His Majesty The Emperor, far from desiring to encourage the Traffick in Slaves, quite on the contrary, desires to repress it as much as possible, and he would certainly have abolished it already, did not the actual circumstances of Brazil render this measure very pernicious to her Agriculture. On this occasion, &c. Henry Chamberlain, Esq. VISCONDE DE INHAMBUPE.

(Enclosure 3.)—Mr. Consul-General Chamberlain to the Viscount de Inhambupe.

M. LE VICOMTE,

Rio de Janeiro, July 18, 1826.

I SHALL not fail to communicate to my Government, by the earliest opportunity, your Excellency's Office of the 13th instant, in reply to my Letter of the 20th ultimo, requesting to be informed whether the Brazilian Schooner Arsenia, which had cleared out from this Port for Molembo and the Islands of St. Thomas and Princes, had really received permission to touch at these Islands.

Your Excellency acquaints me, that the Arsenia had this permission, and that Licences, authorizing Slave-vessels to touch at Places North of the Line, will continue to be granted.

It is in my power to assure your Excellency, that the British Government hailed with the sincerest satisfaction the assurance contained in the Office of His Excellency the Viscount de S°. Amaro, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, dated the 4th of January last, that the Imperial Brazilian Government had directed that no more Licences should be granted, authorizing Slave-vessels to touch at Places North of the Line.

That Resolution was in direct conformity with the clear sense, nay with the very words, of the existing Treaty and Convention for putting down the illicit Slave-trade; but since it has given way (after the short lapse of only 6 Months) before the interested Representations of the Slave Merchants, whose illicit and fraudulent Commerce it shackled and repressed, it is hopeless to expect success from the repetition of an Appeal, founded upon the Stipulations or the faith of Treaty.

I shall, therefore, leave to my Government to express, in the terms they may think fit, the disappointment they will naturally feel when they learn this change of conduct and principle on the part of His Imperial Brazilian Majesty's Government: a change which plainly indicates that the Representations of private Individuals are held by this Government to be paramount to the Engagements of Treaty.

But I cannot hesitate respecting the course it behoves me to take upon the announcement of this determination, nor delay to protest against it in the strongest and most solemn manner, on the part of my

Government, as a clear and direct breach of the Treaty of Vienna of the 22d January, 1815, and the Additional Convention of London of the 28th July, 1817.

The argument which your Excellency employs, founded upon the Treaty between Portugal and Brazil, I humbly consider not to be applicable to an infringement of a Treaty and Convention no wise connected therewith; but I refrain from troubling your Excellency with any further remark on the subject. I have, &c.

H. E. the Viscount de Inhambupe.

H. CHAMBERLAIN.

No. 45.-Mr. Consul-General Chamberlain to Mr. Secretary Canning. (Received October 4.)

SIR,

Rio de Janeiro, July 21, 1826. HAVING discovered that a Brig, called the Primorozo Divino, which lately arrived in this Port with a Cargo of 472 Slaves from Angola, 18 having died during the Voyage, is the property of a Portuguese Merchant, residing at Angola, to whom also belongs the greater part of the Negroes; I lost no time in laying these circumstances before the Government, with the view of inducing them to take legal measures against her, in the event of her not being duly authorized to carry on the Trade.

I have no doubt of her real character.

It would have been more satisfactory, had the Minister's Answer contained a promise that the Primorozo Divino should be legally proceeded against, in the event of its turning out that she is not duly licensed to carry on the Slave-trade. The Right Hon. George Canning.

I have, &c.

H. CHAMBERLAIN.

(Enclosure 1.)—Mr. Cons.-Gen. Chamberlain to the Visct. de Inhambupe. M. LE VICOMTE, Rio de Janeiro, July 17, 1826.

HAVING full confidence in the constantly repeated assurances of the Imperial Brazilian Government, that Persons concerned in the contraband Slave-trade shall be punished with all the rigour of the Law, which are again renewed in your Excellency's Office of the 13th instant, with the additional most satisfactory declaration, that His Imperial Majesty desires to repress the Trade as much as possible, I hasten to communicate to your Excellency that a Slave-vessel, lately arrived in this Harbour, has been denounced to me as illegally engaged in this Traffick.

This Vessel is called the Primorozo Divino; she arrived from Angola on the 11th instant, with 472 Slaves, 18 having died during the passage, consigned to the Merchant Joaquim Ferreira dos Santos. It is to be remarked that in the List of Maritime Arrivals her Nation is not mentioned.

After a very careful enquiry, I can find no trace of this Vessel having cleared from this Port, although this might be readily ascertained through the Ministry of Marine, where the Registry of her Passport, and her Licence, will of course be found, if she was furnished with them, as she ought to have been, to enable her legally to engage in the Trade.

My information, however, goes to the fact, that this Vessel is owned, and the greater part of the Cargo also owned, by a Portuguese resident in the Portuguese Colony of Angola.

I lay this information before your Excellency, under the conviction, that the necessary enquiries will be made, and steps taken to enforce the Law against the Primorozo Divino, her Cargo and Crew, in the event of its appearing that she is not legally authorized to carry on this Trade. I beg to renew, H. E. the Viscount de Inhambupe.

&c.
H. CHAMBERLAIN.

(Enclosure 2.)-The Visct.de Inhambupe to Mr. Cons.-Gen. Chamberlain.

SIR,

(Translation.)

Rio de Janeiro, July 20, 1826. ACKNOWLEDGING the Office that you addressed to me, under date of the 17th of the present Month, relative to the Ship Primorozo Divino that has just arrived from Angola with a Cargo of Slaves, which is said to be illicitly made, I have to acquaint you, that a Copy of your said Office has been transmitted to the Ministry of Marine, in order that I may receive the necessary explanations to be able to reply suitably to you. And on this occasion, &c.

Henry Chamberlain, Esq.

VISCONDE DE INHAMBUPE.

No. 46. Mr. Consul-General Chamberlain to Mr. Secretary Canning. (Received October 4.)

SIR,

Rio de Janeiro, August 1, 1826. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of this Series, dated the 14th of June of the present Year, upon the subject of the detention of the Slave Schooner Amizade de Santos by the Transport Thetis, and instructing me, under the particular circumstances of the Case, not to remonstrate further on the irregularities discovered in consequence of the detention of that Schooner.

I have the honour to be, &c.

The Right Hon. George Canning.

H. CHAMBERLAIN.

No. 47.-Mr. Consul-General Chamberlain to Mr. Sec". Canning. (Received Oct. 4.)

SIR,

Rio de Janeiro, August 2, 1826. IN consequence of information, transmitted by His Majesty's Consul at Maranham, that fictitious Passports had been granted, autho

rizing 2 Schooners, the Donna Maria Felicia and the Amizade, to proceed from thence on Slave-trading Voyages, no such Schooners being in that Port; I shortly stated to M. Inhambupe these facts, in the words they had been stated to me, leaving to him to take such measures, with respect to the Vessels which might sail with these Documents, as the execution of the existing Treaty, and the enforcement of the Law, should authorize.

I also requested that Orders might be issued to the Local Authorities at Maranham, not to grant Passports for Slave-vessels, unless these actually clear out from that Port, and observe all the forms required by Law and Treaty.

I have the honour to enclose a Translation of the Minister's Answer, signifying, that the President of that Province has been written to for his Report upon the circumstances stated in my Representation.

Nine Months will probably elapse before that Report is received, so that the Schooners will have concluded their speculations before any Order respecting them can reach Maranham.

As the Answer mis-states part of the contents of my Letter to M. de Inhambupe, I have pointed out the error into which he had fallen, and which is corrected in His Excellency's Reply. I have, &c. The Right Hon. George Canning. H. CHAMBERLAIN.

(Enclosure 1.)-Mr. Consul-Gen. Chamberlain to the Visct.de Inhambupe. M. LE VICOMTE, Rio de Janeiro, July 15, 1826.

By information received from Maranham, it appears that the Acting President of that Province, His Excellency Sr. Manoel Telles da Silva Lobo, granted, on the 4th of July last Year, a Passport for a Brazilian Schooner, called the Donna Maria Felicia, of 120 tons measurement, Jose Dias de Carvalho, Master, and Sebastiao Pinto, Owner, to proceed from Maranham to the Ports of Molembo, Cabinda, Zayre, and Ambar (probably Ambriz,) on the Coast of Africa, and to return to Maranham with 300 Slaves. And that His Excellency Sar. Patricia Joze d'Almeida e Silva, Vice-President of that Province, granted, on the 13th of August, a Passport for another Brazilian Schooner, called the Amizade, of 200 tons measurement, Manoel Joaquim dos Santos, Master, and Manoel Francisco da Silva, Owner, to proceed from Maranham to the same Ports on the Coast of Africa, and to return to Maranham with 500 Slaves. Each of these Passports was numbered one.

So far there appears nothing unusual or improper. But what opinion will your Excellency form of both Transactions, as affecting respectively the Governor and Vice-Governor, when your Excellency learns, that neither of the Schooners mentioned in the Passports were at Maranham at the time; that no such Vessels had ever been known

to be there, or even to be in existence; and that the Passports were procured by Sebastiao Pinto, and Manoel Francisco da Silva, (the former a Resident in Lisbon,) notoriously for the purpose of being sent to other Ports, where Vessels answering to the measurement could be purchased and fitted out for the Voyage. Such, M. le Vicomte, is the Statement transmitted to me as a correct relation of the facts. And I send your Excellency an Extract of that part of His Britannick Majesty's Consul's Letter which relates them.

I feel that His Imperial Majesty's Government, whose desire to keep this wretched Traffick strictly within the limits and regulations established by Treaty and by Law, has been so repeatedly expressed, cannot fail to see, in both these cases, manifest infractions of the latter, which makes it requisite for every Brazilian Vessel, bound upon a Slaving-voyage to the Coast of Africa, to go through certain forms before she is allowed to sail; and that her Passport should bear upon its face a Certificate that she has duly complied therewith.

What steps it may be proper to take, with respect to these 2 Vessels, I leave entirely to the decision of your Excellency, after denouncing them as not having conformed to the Stipulation of the existing Treaty, and therefore acting in violation of the Law. But I cannot forbear soliciting, in the most urgent manner, that no time may be lost in prohibiting the President, or other Local Authority at Maranham, competent to grant such Passports, to issue Passports for Slave-trading Voyages, unless the Vessel, her Master, and Crew, actually clear out from that Port, and go through all the Forms required by Law and Treaty.

I beg your Excellency to accept the assurance, &c. H. E. the Viscount de Inhambupe.

H. CHAMBERLAIN.

(Enclosure 2.)-The Viscount de Inhambupe to Mr. Consul-General Chamberlain.-(Translation.)

SIR,

Rio de Janeiro, July 27, 1826. I ACKNOWLEDGE the receipt of the Note that you addressed to me, under date of the 15th instant, in which you complain of there having been given, in the Province of Maranham, two Passports, for Ships not existing there, whose Proprietors are Portuguese residing in Lisbon, to go and engage in the Slave-trade; and I have to acquaint you that, under this day's date, it has been ordered, that the President of that Province do report whatever may be known in this respect, taking upon myself the charge of replying to you, categorically, in due time on this subject.

On this occasion I renew to you, &c. Henry Chamberlain, Esq.

VISCONDE DE INHAMBUPE.