the Subjects of the King, nor be transported in Vessels belonging to Subjects of the King, nor be imported into the Possessions of the West Indies for sale there, and all sale in contravention of this Proclamation shall be regarded as illegal.

II. From the present, and to the end of the year 1802, all Nations, without any distinction, and under any Flag, are permitted to import men and women Slaves from the Coast into our West India Islands.

III. For healthy and sound Slaves, either men or women, who in the course of the above period shall be imported into our West India Islands, we allow the following quantities of raw sugar to be exported from the Islands within one year of such importation, either in our own or Foreign Ships, to Foreign Places, either in or out of Europe; viz., for every full-grown man or woman Slave, 2000 lb. gross weight, and for every half-grown 1000 lb., without any distinction of sexes; but for children nothing.

IV. The Duty imposed on imported Slaves by the Edicts of 9th April, 1764, and 12th May, 1777, which, inasmuch as they respect the Slave Trade, we hereby annul, we graciously take off from all women Slaves hereafter imported. In lieu of which, all sugars exported to Foreign Places for men or women Slaves imported, shall pay an export Duty of per cent. more than what is at present paid.

V. Further, it is our will that in order to establish a proportion between both sexes, from the beginning of the year 1795, the poll or head Tax on women Slaves, or girls, who work on the Plantations, if they are not house Slaves, shall be no longer paid, but the said Tax is from that time to be doubled on all male Negroes in the Plantations.

VI. The exportation of Negroes and Negresses from the Islands of the West Indies is forbidden from this day, very severely, and those only are excepted from the effect of this prohibition, whom the Laws permit to go out of the Country, and those to whom the GovernorGeneral, and the Regency in the West India Islands, may grant a similar permission, according to circumstances, and in particular

cases.

Given at our Palace of Christiansburg, Copenhagen, March 16th,

1792.

NETHERLANDS.

CHRISTIAN.

(2.)—DECREE of the Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands, relative to the abolition of the Slave Trade- The Hague, 15th June, 1814.

[See Vol. 1815-16. Page 889.]

PORTUGAL.

(3.)-ALVARA of the King of Portugal, for preventing the conveyance of Negroes from Brazil, to Sea-port Towns of Territories which are not in the Portuguese Dominions.—Lisbon, 14th October, 1751*. (Translation.)

I, THE KING, make known to those to whom this Alvará, having the form of a Law, shall come, that, it having been represented to me, in a Report from my Council beyond Sea, how great an irregularity is occasioned by Negroes being exported from Brazil, and conveyed to Dominions not belonging to me, whereof results a notorious prejudice to the public welfare and to my Royal Revenue, and that it is necessary to devise a proper remedy; I deem it right to ordain in general, that no Blacks shall be conveyed to Sea-port Towns of such Territories as are not in my Royal Dominions, and if the contrary be ascertained, that the triple value of such Slave shall be forfeited, half of it to go to the Informer, and the other half to the Royal Revenue, and that the Persons guilty of Contraband shall be banished for 10 years to Angola; it being likewise ordered, that no Clearance shall be given for the Colonia do Sacramento or other localities in the vicinity of the Portuguese Frontier, without entering in a separate Book (to be kept at the Provedorias), the name and marks of the Slave; and a Pass shall be transmitted to the Provedoria or the ordinary Court of Justice of the Peace to which the Clearance is given, which Pass such authority shall be obliged to return within a year; and all the Justices of those Places on the Frontier shall be obliged to send every year to the Provedorias of the City of Bahia and of Rio de Janeiro, a list of all the Slaves that had arrived, and of all those who abide there, specifying such as died, or were absent for some justifiable reason, or from having proceeded to Territories of my conquests.

Wherefore, I command my Viceroy and Captain-General, by sea and land, of the State of Brazil, and all the Governors, Superior Captains of that State, and the Provedors of the Royal Revenue in the same, to cause this my Alvará to be published, which shall be registered in the Courts of Justice in Brazil, and in all the Provedorias of the Royal Revenue, and in such other parts as may be proper, that it may be known what I ordain in this Alvará, and that it may be fulfilled and observed completely as set forth in it without any hesitation, which Alvará shall have the effect of a "Carta," although it is to be in force for upwards of a year, notwithstanding the Ordinance of Book ii., tit. 40, to the contrary, and it shall be published and registered in my Supreme Chancery of the Kingdom.

Lisbon, 14th October, 1751.

MARQUESS DE PENALVA.

Cited in Circular of 22nd October, 1835.

THE KING.

(4.)-ALVARA of the King of Portugal, prohibiting the importation of Black Slaves into Portugal.-Lisbon, 19th September, 1761*.

(Translation.)

I, THE KING, make known to those who shall see this Alvará, which has the force of Law, that having been informed of the many and the great inconveniences resulting from the excess and licence with which, contrary to the Laws and customs of other civilized Courts, is conveyed annually from Africa, America, and Asia, to these Kingdoms, so extraordinary a number of Black Slaves, that while they cause in my Dominions beyond Sea a sensible want of hands for the cultivation of the ground and the working of mines, they only resort to this Continent to supply the places of Menials, who being of little use, abandon themselves to sloth, and plunge into vice, its natural consequence. And having directed Men of learning and piety, and zealous of the service of God, as well as of my own and of the common welfare, to deliberate with many Ministers of my Council and Tribunal, on the subject of those inconveniences, and of others deserving my Royal care; and having adopted their opinions:

I decree, that from the day of the publication of this Law in the Ports of America, Africa, and Asia, and after the expiration of 6 months in the first and second Ports referred to, and of 12 months in the Ports of Asia, it shall not be lawful in any of them to embark or to disembark, in these Kingdoms of Portugal and of the Algarves, any Black Male or Female; ordaining that all those who shall arrive in the said Kingdoms after the expiration of the periods above stated, to be calculated from the day of the publication of the present, shall, in virtue of this Decree, be free and emancipated, without needing any other Letter of manumission or emancipation, or any other Warrant, beyond the Certificates of the Administrations and the Officers of the Custom-houses of the Places where they land; which Certificates I command to be handed to them forthwith, together with the specifications of the localities whence they shall have sailed, of the Vessels in which they arrive, and of the day, month, and year that they are set on shore, the aforesaid Administrators and Officers being entitled to the quadruple of the fees of those Certificates, at the expense of the Masters of those Blacks, or of the Persons who shall carry them in their company. But if these Certificates be withheld from them for more than 48 consecutive hours, to be reckoned from that at which they enter the Ships, the Officers withholding them shall incur the penalty of suspension during my pleasure, and in this case, those who find themselves aggrieved shall apply to the Judges and the Justices of the respective Territories, having ordinary jurisdiction in them, in order that each of them may produce the said Certificates with the same fees, and with the declaration of the doubts

Cited in Circular of 22nd October, 1835.

or negligences of the above Administrators or Officers of the Customhouses, to the end that, on the Parties complaining of them to the Regidors, Presidents of Courts of Justice of the respective departments and jurisdictions, they may immediately cause this procedure to be carried into effect, and without the formality of a Court, and may promulgate in the same manner the penalties above-directed.

In addition to the latter, I direct that all and every Person, of whatever state or condition, who shall sell, buy, or retain under their subjection and in their service, against their will, as Slaves, any Black Men or Women that may arrive in these Kingdoms, after the expira. tion of the said periods, shall be visited with the penalties established by Law, against those who keep private prisons, and who subject free Persons to captivity. But it is not my Royal intention that with regard to the Black Men and Women who are already in these Kingdoms, and may arrive in them within the periods referred to, any innovation should take place in consequence of the present Law, nor that, under the pretext of it, Slaves that now are, or shall hereafter be in my Dominions beyond Sea, should desert; on the contrary, I ordain that all the free Black Males and Females who may come to these Kingdoms to live, trade, or serve in them, with the enjoyment of that full liberty which is due to them, shall indispensably bring a Pass from the respective Chambers of the Places whence they have sailed, so as that these Passes shall make appear their sex, age, and person, establishing their identity, and manifesting that they are those very same emancipated and free Blacks, and that if any should arrive without those Passes so drawn up, they shall be seized, maintained, and sent back to the Places whence they came, at the expense of the Persons in whose company or Vessel they have arrived or shall have been found.

And this shall be complied with as fully as is set forth in it. Therefore, I command the Tribunal of the Dezembargo of the Court; the Council of my Royal Revenues; and, beyond Sea, the House of Suppliagno; the Court of Conscience and Orders; the Senate of the Chamber; the Junta of the Commerce of these Kingdoms, and its Dominions; the Governors of the Department and Tribunal of Porto, and of the Courts of Judicature at Bahia and Rio de Janeiro; the Viceroys of the States of India and Brazil; the Governors and Captains-General, and every other Governors of the same States; and also the Ministers, Officials, and other Individuals of them, and of these Realms, to fulfil and keep, and cause entirely to be fulfilled and kept, this, my Alvará, notwithstanding any other Laws or Provisions opposed to its contents, and which I also hold for abrogated, solely to this effect, while, in all other respects, they remain always in their vigour; and I command Doctor Manoel Gomes de Carvalho, of my Council, and Supreme Chancellor of these Kingdoms and Seignories, to cause

it to be published and registered in the offices of the Supreme Chancellor of the Kingdom. And it shall in the same manner be published in my Kingdoms and Dominions, and in each of the Districts of them, that it may come to the cognizance of all, and no one may be able to plead ignorance.

It shall also be registered in all the Courts of Justice of my Kingdoms and Dominions, and at other points where such Laws are usually registered and this Alvará shall also be deposited in the Tower of Tombo.

Given in the Palace of our Lady of Ajuda, the 19th September, 1761. THE KING.

(5.)-ALVARA of the Prince Regent of Portugal, respecting the Slave Trade.-Santa Cruz, 24th November, 1813 *. (Translation.)

I, THE PRINCE REGENT, make known to all who shall see the present Decree, to avail as though it were an Act passed, that having taken into my Royal consideration the returns of the Population of this State of Brazil, which I ordered to be laid before my Royal Person; and it being evident, on a perusal thereof, that the number of the Inhabitants is not yet proportionable to the vast extent of my Dominions in this part of the World, and that therefore it is insufficient to supply and effect, with such promptitude as I have recommended, the important works already realized in many parts, such as opening of communications in the interior, by Land and by Rivers, between this Capital and the different Captainships of this Empire; the improvement of agriculture, the plantations of hemp, spices, and of other products of great importance, and of known utility, both for internal consumption and that of exportation; the establishments of manufactures, which I have ordered; the exploration and extraction of the precious products of the vegetable and mineral kingdoms which I have encouraged and fostered, articles with which this happy and opulent Country abounds, especially favoured in the distribution of riches, divided amongst the various parts of the Globe; and that, having also considered that the provident dispositions ordered by me for the welfare of the Population of these my Kingdoms, cannot immediately yield their salutary effect, as they depend on a successive space of time; not being possible for that reason to facilitate the supply of the Workmen, which infirmity and death daily disable or deprive of life; the urgent necessity of permitting the expedient hitherto practised for conveying and exporting from the Ports of Africa hands to aid and promote the increase of agriculture and industry has been manifested to me, so as to produce by a greater portion of work, a greater abundance of products. But bearing in mind the cruel and * Referred to in Convention between Great Britain and Portugal of 28th July, 1817.