Some of them were bruised so dreadfully, that it was wonderful that they
continued to exist. Their emaciated appearance might have led to the
supposition that they had been nearly starved during the passage, did not
the varied miseries to which they were subjected, sufficiently account for
their fleshless forms. A great number of them were now upon deck, and clad
in long woollen shirts, in order to be sent to the warehouses on shore.
Miller, heartily sick of this disgusting scene, took leave of the master;
but, unable to control the indignation he felt, he inveighed with great
bitterness against all wretches concerned in so iniquitous a traffic,
letting him know at the same time that he was not in the service of the
emperor. The master, though at first taken aback by the violence of the
general's invectives, soon recovered himself, and retorted in the most
insolent terms of defiance, abusing the English for meddling in what he
styled the legitimate commerce of Brazil. The state of the vessel was such
as cannot be described, and the fetid effluvia, arising from it, offended
the senses on approaching her within fifty yards. Although Miller took a
warm bath immediately upon getting on shore, the stench of the slave ship
haunted his nostrils for many days.
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