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(Translation.)

(Inclosure.)-Portaria.

Palace of Government at Loanda,
January 28, 1856.

The Governor-General of the Province of Angola, &c., decrees as follows:

It being expedient to regulate the power of establishing factories on the coast of this province in such manner as that, whilst permitted for the lawful purposes of trade, they may not cover and aid the reprobated speculations of the traffic in slaves, I think it right, in virtue of the special authority which I hold from His Majesty's Government for this object, to decree as follows:

ART. I. From henceforward no person shall have the power of establishing factories on any points of this coast where no public administrative authorities exist, without the previous consent of the General Government of the province. Application for this privilege shall be made by means of a petition, declaring the purposes for which the factory is destined. It rests with the Governnent to exact, or not, a bond against any contravention of the laws for the suppression of the traffic in slaves which may either be committed or aided by the owner of such factories.

II. The proprietors of factories already existing in such localities are required to apply, within the term of 60 days, for authority from the Government to maintain them.

III. According to Articles I and IV of the Decree of the 14th December, 1854,* no slaves or libertos can be allowed in the said factories who shall not have been registered. The document in proof of this legal sanction shall be the certificate of registry. In default of the presentation of this document, the authorities charged with the superintendence of the requirements of the present Portaria shall at once apprehend the slaves, or libertos, who shall all of them be then considered as being, in this latter character, at the disposal of the respective Board of Protection, should the owners not prove within 60 days that they had registered them before their apprehension. In default of the production to the same authorities. of the licence of the General Government for the establishment of the factory, the same shall be destroyed.

IV. The original prohibition against keeping slaves in chains, or in any way confined with irons, such as fetters or handcuffs, is renewed. Transgressors of this rule shall incur a fine of 20 milreis, or imprisonment for 30 days, for each slave that they shall have put in irons. If the slaves found in chains shall be in factories on the coast where there are no public authorities, they shall be considered by this fact as intended for shipment, and their owners shall be subjected to the loss of them, besides the other legal penalties, on proof of the attempt to export them.

• Vol. XLV. Page 1073.

V. Every slave who shall give information of any other slaves being placed in irons on any point of the coast shall, on such information being verified, be redeemed at the public expense, according to the mode established by the Decree of the 14th December, 1854. If the slave should belong to the same owner as those who may be found in irons, his liberty shall be granted him without indemnification to the said owner.

any

The authorities, &c.

JOSE RODRIGUES COELHO DO AMARAL,
Governor-General.

No. 81.-Her Majesty's Commissioners to the Earl of Clarendon. (Received October 13.)

MY LORD,

Loanda, July 14, 1856. WE have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's despatch of the 8th March last, transmitting to us, for our information, a copy of a despatch from Her Majesty's Minister at Lisbon with reference to the late proceedings of the Municipal Chamber of Loanda respecting the execution in this province of the Portuguese Decree of the 14th December, 1854, for the registration and partial emancipation of slaves, as reported in our despatch of the 12th November, 1855, to which your Lordship's despatch of the above date is in reply.

From the statement made by Viscount d'Athoguia to Mr. Howard it would seem that his Excellency had authorised the GovernorGeneral to reduce the registration fee. We are not aware, however, of any such reduction having been made, and the only modification we have heard of as being to be introduced refers to the 3rd Article of the Portaria inclosed in our despatch of the 29th January last, requiring a certificate of the registry of each slave, for which a further payment, over and above the 500 reis, would have been to be made. To this point we adverted in that despatch, and, in future, this certificate will be given gratis, on presentation of the receipt for the payment of the registry itself; and no additional expense will henceforward be incurred, except in the case of the loss of the register, when the same may, and must, be supplied by a certificate of its having been made, for which the competent fee will then be exacted.

A Portaria to this effect, signed by Viscount d'Athoguia on the 23rd January, 1856, was published in the Angola "Offical Boletim" of the 17th May, and, though your Lordship may, probably, already be in possession of it, we think it right now to inclose it herewith in translation. We have, &c.

The Earl of Clarendon.

GEORGE JACKSON.
EDMUND GABRIEL.

(Translation.)

(Inclosure.)-Portaria.

Palace, January 23, 1856Ir having been made known to His Majesty the King that in the execution of the Decree, having the force of law, of the 14th December, 1854,* which provided for the manumission of the slaves, doubts have arisen respecting the title by which the owner of a slave can prove that he has made the registry spoken of in the 1st Article of that Decree, the same august Lord orders, through the Department of the Secretary of State of Marine and Ultra-mar, that the Governor-General of the Province of Angola do take the necessary measures, in order that a title may be given, once for all, to each owner, and for each slave that he may register, which may be either printed or in manuscript, as may be most convenient, in the form of certificate and conformably to the annexed model, with the declarations necessary to effect the object of the 5th Article of the said Decree, without exacting for the same any further fee than that fixed in the 1st Article thereof for the registration of each individual, which registration shall constitute the above-mentioned title.

And since similar doubts may possibly arise respecting the other registry prescribed by the 4th Article of the same Decree, His Majesty orders that in such case, the same course be pursued, without any difference whatever, it being understood, however, that in future the loss of the aforesaid document, either as regards the one registry or the other, can only be supplied by a certificate granted in the usual form, which cannot be refused to whoever shall demand it.

REPORTS FROM NAVAL OFFICERS.

WEST COAST OF AFRICA.

No. 118.-Lieutenant De Robeck to the Senior Officer of the Northern Division, West Coast of Africa.

SIR,

Myrmidon, off the Rio Pongas, May 21, 1856. I BEG to acquaint you, for the information of Commodore Adams, that on the 16th May I visited the town of Tintimar, and there found a schooner without colours or papers. On inquiry, the natives informed me that she was the property of a Spaniard, named José de Berrir, whom they believed to be waiting an opportunity to ship slaves for conveyance to Bissam, there to be shipped for Cuba. I seized the schooner, and, as she was unseaworthy, destroyed her. The Chiefs of the town presented me with a request to act as directed in the Vth Clause of the Pongas Treaty, with respect to a

* Vol. XLV. Page 1073.

large barracoon situated on the opposite side of the river. I, therefore, with an armed party marched to a spot three miles inland and well concealed, where stood a large barracoon, capable of accommodating 500 or 600 slaves; the natives informed me that this was the property of José de Berrir, and that he had, six days previous to my visit, removed the casks and cooking coppers, and sent the slaves up the country, having had information that I was about to visit the river. I caused my party to level, with poles, every wall, roof, or door belonging to and forming the barracoon and its attached offices. I beg to inclose the request of the Chiefs of Tintimar. José de Berrir is, I am informed, about to quit the Pongas. I have, &c.

H. S. DE ROBECK.

(Inclosure.)-The Chiefs of Tintimar to Lieutenant De Robeck. Tintimar, May 17, 1856.

WE do not wish Señor de Berrir to remain here any longer, as we suspect his object to be to ship slaves. You are, therefore, authorized by us to act as directed in Clause V of the Pongas Treaty.

their

CANNIBALE AMARRAH >

BENJAMIN SAMUEL

PHA SANGHY

marks.

EAST COAST OF AFRICA STATION.

No. 130.-Commodore Trotter to the Secretary to the Admiralty. (Received February 16, 1857.)

SIR,

Castor, Port Louis, Mauritius, November 30, 1856.

I REQUEST you will lay before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty the inclosed copy of a letter which I have received from Acting Commander Peyton, of Her Majesty's ship Frolic, dated 1st July, 1856, reporting his not having been able to procure any information respecting the Slave Trade during the half-year ending 30th June, 1856.

There still appear to be no slaves carried round the Cape of Good Hope, and no attempt to revive that trade. It is therefore the more to be regretted that the system of emigration from the East Coast of Africa to the Island of Réunion, carried out in French vessels, as reported in the letter of Mr. Sunley, Her Majesty's Consul at Johanna, of which I inclose a copy, should be persisted in by the Government of Bourbon, even, there is reason to believe, up

to the present time, inducing the Chiefs, as it naturally does, in order to supply the labour market on the coast, to bring slaves instead of natural productions from the interior.

I hope, in my intended cruize in the Mozambique, to be able to collect additional intelligence on the subjects suggested by the information which Mr. Sunley has given, and more particularly respecting labourers having been purchased at the Portuguese I have, &c.

Settlements

The Secretary to the Admiralty.

H. D. TROTTER.

(Inclosure 1.)—Acting Commander Peyton to Commodore Trotter. Frolic, off Quillimane, July 1, 1856.

SIR,

I HAVE the honour to report to you that, during the last halfyear, I have had no opportunity of collecting any information on the subject proposed in the Slave Trade Instructions, page 7, Article III.

I arrived here yesterday direct from the Cape of Good Hope, and, as yet, I have been unable to communicate with the shore. I have, &c.

Commodore Trotter.

L. W. PEYTON.

(Inclosure 2.)-Consul Sunley to Commodore Trotter.

SIR, Port Louis, November 14, 1856. FROM the information which I received from the officers in command of Her Majesty's ship Dart in March last, I was led to expect the arrival of Her Majesty's ship Castor at Johanna in the month of June or July, and I therefore deemed it unnecessary to address you upon subjects connected with the Slave Trade in the Comoro Islands, and I now make the following report for your information.

Occasionally vessels from Bourbon have been reported to me as having visited Comoro in search of labourers, but to my inquiries. the Chief of the place where these vessels were said to have gone denied ever having sent any people away in them.

In the month of June last the French barque Aurélie, Captain Durand, arrived at Johanna from Comoro with about 120 negroes on board, which had been embarked at Maroni, the chief port of the Island, and under the rule of Sultan Amadi or Achmet.

The Aurélie had been despatched from Bourbon with a Government Agent on board to seek for labourers at the Comoro Islands, and not being able to complete her complement of persons at Comoro, she came to Johanna for the purpose of doing so. Johanna about 80 persons were embarked, and the vessel sailed at the end of June for Bourbon.

At

On the 7th June, the French steamer Mascareignes called at

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