consisting of boys, young men, and girls. I will sell at all times at a small advance on cost, to suit purchasers. I have comfortable rooms, with a jail attached, for the reception of the negroes; and persons coming to this place to sell slaves can be accommodated, and every attention necessary will be given to have them well attended to; and, when it may be desired, the reception of the company of gentlemen dealing in slaves will conveniently and attentively be received. My situation is very healthy and suitable for the business.

"LEWIS A. COLLIER."

From the nature of the foregoing evidence, all of it being necessarily in some measure indefinite, the actual extent of the internal slave trade can be arrived at only by approximation. The precise number annually exported from each of the slavebreeding states, and also the number imported into each slaveconsuming state can be found on no statistical records; and as we have no data for an estimate more specific than the preceding facts, we present them as the best reply to the foregoing query which we are able to furnish.

FIFTH QUESTION. Are there any slaves imported into the United States from Africa or any other country; and what is the extent of such importation?

There are frequent importations of slaves into the United States from Africa, and occasional importations from the West Indies. The extent cannot be stated with precision. Indeed, our information on this point is necessarily more indefinite than upon the foregoing, arising from the clandestine manner of conducting the foreign trade, in consequence of its being contraband. In presenting the evidence under this head, we would recur to the fact that when in 1831 England and France made efforts to induce all the maritime powers to adopt effectual measures for the extinction of the African slave trade, the United States was the only nation that positively rejected those overtures. After repeated evasions of the proposition, and despite the urgent solicitations of the British and French governments, it was finally resolved that, "Under no condition, in no form, and with no restriction will the United States enter into any convention, or treaty, or combined efforts of any sort or kind, with other nations for the suppression of this trade."

A full history of this transaction is contained in a late work of the Hon. William Jay, entitled a "View of the Action of the Federal Government in behalf of Slavery."

From this work we extract the following testimonies, commencing on page 107 of the second edition:

"Judge Story, of the Supreme Court of the United States, in a charge to a grand jury, in the year 1820, thus expresses himself:

"We have but too many proofs, from unquestionable sources, that it (the African trade) is still carried on with all the implacable ferocity and insatiable rapacity of former times. Avarice has grown more subtle in its evasions, and watches and seizes its prey with an appetite quickened rather than suppressed by its guilty vigils. American citizens are steeped to their very mouths (I can hardly use too bold a figure) in this stream of iniquity.''

“On the 22nd January, 1811, the Secretary of the Navy wrote to the commanding naval officer at Charleston, 'I hear, not without great concern, that the law prohibiting the importation of slaves has been violated in frequent instances near St. Mary's, since the gun-boats have been withdrawn from that station.'

These

"On the 14th March, 1814, the collector of Darien, Georgia, thus wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury: 'I am in possession of undoubted information, that African and West India negroes are almost daily illicitly introduced into Georgia, for sale or settlement, or passing through it to the territories of the United States for similar purposes. facts are notorious, and it is not unusual to see such negroes in the streets of St. Mary, and such, too, recently captured by our vessels of war, and ordered for Savannah, were illegally bartered by hundreds in that city; for this bartering (or bonding as it is called, but in reality selling) actually took place before any decision was passed by the court respecting them. I cannot but again express to you, sir, that these irregularities and mocking of the laws by men who understand them, are such that it requires the immediate interposition of congress to effect the suppression of this traffic; for as things are, should a faithful officer of the government apprehend such negroes, to avoid the penalties imposed by the laws, the proprietors disclaim them, and some agent of the (state) executive demands a delivery of the same to him, who may employ them as he pleases, or effect a sale by way of bond for the restoration of the negroes when legally called on so to do, which bond is understood to be forfeited, as the amount of the bond is so much less than the value of the property. After much fatigue, peril, and expense, eighty-eight Africans are seized, and brought to the surveyor at Darien; they are demanded by the

governor's agent. Notwithstanding the knowledge which his excellency had that these very Africans were some weeks within six miles of his excellency's residence, there was no effort, no stir made by him, his agents, or subordinate state officers, to carry the laws into execution; but no sooner was it understood that a seizure had been effected by an officer of the United States, than a demand is made for them; and it is not difficult to perceive that the very aggressors may, by a forfeiture of the mock bond, be again placed in possession of the smuggled property.”

It has already been seen how little reason there is to hope that the Federal government would ever interfere to prevent the introduction of foreign slaves. The foregoing communication demonstates that, if possible, there is still less reliance to be placed upon the executives and other authorities of the slaveholding states. It is manifest that if the general government were ever so desirous to arrest the foreign trade, the connivance of the state authorities would be an ample security to the slave merchant.

"On the 22nd May, 1817, the collector at Savannah wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury, 'I have just received information, from a source on which I can implicitly rely, that it has already become the practice to introduce into the state of Georgia, across St. Mary's River, from Amelia Island and East Florida, Africans who have been carried into the port of Fernanda. It is further understood that the evil will not be confined altogether to Africans, but will be extended to the worst classes of West India slaves.'

Captain Morris, of the navy, informed the Secretary of the Navy (18th June, 1817), 'Slaves are smuggled in through the numerous inlets to the westward, where the people are but too much disposed to render every possible assistance. Several hundred slaves are now at Galveston, and persons have gone from New Orleans to purchase them.'"

"On the 17th April, 1818, the collector at New Orleans wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury, 'No efforts of the officers of the customs alone can be effectual in preventing the introduction of Africans from the westward; to put a stop to that traffic, a naval force suitable to those waters is indispensable; and vessels captured with slaves ought not to be brought into this port, but to some other in the United States, for adjudication.'”

We may learn the cause of this significant hint, from a communication made the 9th of July, in the same year, by the collector at Nova Iberia:

"Last summer I got out state warrants, and had negroes seized to the number of eighteen, which were part of them stolen out of the custody

of the coroner; the balance were condemned by the district judge, and the informers received their part of the nett proceeds from the state treasurer. Five negroes that were seized about the same time were tried at Opilousa, in May last, by the same judge. He decided that some Spaniards, that were supposed to have set up a sham claim, stating that the negroes had been stolen from them on the high seas, should have the negroes, and that the persons who seized them should pay half the costs, and the state of Louisiana the other. This decision had such an effect as to render it almost impossible for me to obtain any assistance in that part of the country."

Further testimony under this head is taken from the work lately published by the American Anti-Slavery Society, entitled "American Slavery as it is" (page 139).

"Mr. Middleton, of South Carolina, in a speech in congress, in 1819, declared that thirteen thousand Africans are annually smuggled into the southern states.'

"Mr. Mucu, of Virginia, in a speech in congress about the same time, declared that cargoes' of African slaves were smuggled into the south to a deplorable extent.

"Mr. Wright, of Maryland, in a speech in congress, estimated the number annually at fifteen thousand. Miss Martineau, in her recent work ('Society in America'), informs us that a large slaveholder in Louisiana assured her, in 1835, that the annual importation of native Africans was from thirteen to fifteen thousand.

“The President of the United States, in his message to congress, December, 1837, says,

"The large force under Commodore Dallas (on the West India station,) has been most actively and efficiently employed in protecting our commerce, in preventing the importation of slaves."

"The New Orleans Courier,' of 15th February, 1839, has these remarks:

"It is believed that African negroes have been repeatedly introduced into the United States. The number and the proximity of the Florida ports to the Island of Cuba, make it no difficult matter; nor is our extended frontier on the Sabine and Red rivers at all unfavorable to the smuggler.'

"The 'Norfolk (Virginia) Beacon,' of June 8th, 1837, has the following: "Slave Trade.-Eight African negroes have been taken into custody at Apalachicola, by the United States deputy marshal, alleged to have been imported from Cuba, on board the schooner 'Emperor,' Captain Cox. Indictments for piracy, under the Acts for the Suppression of the

Slave Trade, have been found against Captain Cox, and other parties implicated. The negroes were bought in Cuba by a Frenchman named Malherbe, formerly a resident of Tallahassee, who was drowned soon after the arrival of the schooner.'

"The following testimony of Rev. Horace Moulton, now a member of the Methodist episcopal church, in Marlborough, Massachusetts, who resided some years in Georgia, reveals some of the secrets of the slavesmugglers, and the connivance of the Georgia authorities at their doings. It is contained in a letter, dated February 24th, 1839:

"The foreign slave trade was carried on to some considerable extent when I was at the south. Were you to visit all the plantations in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, I think you would be convinced that the horrors of the traffic in human flesh have not yet ceased. I was surprised to find so many that could not speak English among the slaves, until the mystery was explained. This was done, when I learned that slave cargoes were landed on the coast of Florida. They could, and can still, in my opinion, be landed as safely on this coast as in any part of this continent. When landed on the coast of Florida, it is an easy matter to distribute them throughout the more southern states. The law which makes it piracy to traffic in the foreign slave trade is a dead letter. I will notice one fact which came under my own observation. It is as follows:-A slave-ship, which I have reason to believe was employed by southern men, came near the port of Savannah with about five hundred slaves, from Guinea and Congo; and the crew ran the ship into a bye place, near the shore, between Tylee Light and Darien. Well, as Providence would have it, the revenue cutter, at that time taking a trip along the coast, fell in with this slave-ship, took her as a prize, and brought her up into the port of Savannah. The cargo of human chattels was unloaded, and the captives were placed in an old barrack, in the port of Savannah, under the protection of the city authorities, they pretending that they should return them all to their native country again, as soon as a convenient opportunity presented itself. The ship's crew were arrested, and confined in jail. Now for the sequel of this history. About onethird part of the negroes died in a few weeks after they were landed, in seasoning, so called. Those who did not die in seasoning must be hired out a little while to be sure, as the city authorities could not afford to keep them on expense doing nothing. As it happened, the man in whose employ I was when the cargo of human beings arrived, hired some twenty or thirty of them, and put them under my care. They continued with me until the sickly season drove me off to the north. I soon returned, but could not hear a word about the crew of pirates. They had something like a mock trial, as I should think, for no one, as I ever learned,