“The slaves were all inclosed under grated hatchways between decks. The space was so low that they sat between each other’s legs, and stowed so close together that there was no possibility of their lying down or at all changing their position, by night or day. As they belonged to, or were shipped on account of, different individuals, they were all branded like sheep, with the owners’ marks, of different forms. These were impressed under their hearts, or on their arms, and as the mate informed me, with perfect indifference, “burnt with the red-hot iron.” Over the hatchways stood a ferocious-looking fellow, with a scourge of many-twisted thongs in his hand, who was the slave-driver of the ship; and whenever he heard the slightest noise below, he shook it over them, and seemed eager to exercise it. I was quite pleased to take this hateful badge out of his hand; and I have kept it ever since as a horrid memorial of the reality, should I ever be disposed to forget the scene I witnessed. “As soon as the poor creatures saw us looking down at them, their dark and melancholy visages brightened up. They perceived something of sympathy and kindness in our looks, which they had not been accustomed to; and feeling instinctively that we were friends, they immediately began to shout and clap their hands. One or two had picked up a few Portuguese words, and cried out, Viva! viva! The women were particularly excited. They all held up their arms, and when we bent down and shook hands with them, they could not contain their delight: they endeavored to scramble up on their knees, stretching up to kiss our hands, and we understood they knew we were coming to liberate them. Some, however, hung their heads in apparently hopeless dejection; some were greatly emaciated, and some, particularly children, seemed dying. But the circumstance which struck us most forcibly was, how it was possible for such a number of human beings to exist, packed up and wedged together as tight as they could cram, in low cells, three feet high, the greater part of which, except that immediately under the grated hatchways, were shut out from light and air; and this, when the thermometer, exposed to open sky, was standing in the shade on our deck at 89°. The space between decks, divided into two compartments, was three feet three inches high; the size of one was 16 feet by 18, and of the other 40 by 21; into the first were crammed the women and the girls, into the second the men and boys. Two hundred and twenty-six fellow-creatures were thus thrust into one space of 288 square feet, and three hundred and thirty into another space of 800 square feet, giving the _whole an average of 23 inches; and to each of the women not more than 13 inches_. We also found manacles and fetters of different kinds; but it appeared that they all had been taken off before we boarded. The heat of these horrid places was so great, and the odor so offensive, that it was quite impossible to enter them, even had there