The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-08-11


If we assume that the missing seventy-fve died
before reaching Key West then that number,
added to the deaths reported to have occurred on
the Peninsula increases the entire loss by death
to three hundred and sixty-nine-or nearly one
fourth Of the whole We have no means of as
certaining what is the actual per centage
of loss among the negroes captured by the
British; taken to the West India Islands and
put TO labor there for limited period as an
prentces; nor are we able to state what amount
of loss the planters of Cuba who purchase these
slave cargoes, calculate upon sustaining during
the process of accimation. But it may be ques-
toned whether the three months Imprisonment
in the barracoon at Key West has not been
to the Africans confined there, as fatal as
those active duties TO which they would
have been put on the West India plantations.
1t would be well worth knowing, also. how
many of the Africans captured in the Echo
and transported to Liberia still survive, as the
information is becoming matter of considerable
importance, in view of the fact that our Govern
ment has already commenced, and will probably
continue to colonze that Republic with the negroes
taken from on board of savers by our vessels of war;
The policy of England, in regard to the disposition
which she makes of the negroes captured on the
high seas, differs radically from ours. She con-
vers them into indentured apprentices and thus
makes them work out part of the cost of their
redemption, whilst affording 10 the West India
planters an additional supply of that species of
labor of which they stand in so much need We,
on the contrary, after clothing and feeding them
for period of three or more months at the public
cost appropriate large sums of money to send
them to Liberia, and to provide for their MAIN
tenance a year afterwards. Our philanthropy,
therefore, is of less selfish cast than that of Eng
land, and if the policy we have adopted has re-
suited less favorably TO the negro, it is never
theess the only course that is open 10 us to
pursue. We have no island colonies where the
apprentice system could be carried out, under
regulations so stringent as TO render their non
observance almost matter of impossibility, and
and hampered as we are by complications which
nave their origin in the question of domestic sa-
very, the government is fairly entitled to the
credit of endeavoring TO fulfil its treaty obligations
TO the best of its ability. There is evidently but
one way in which this fearful loss of life can be
aVerted, and that by the effectual suppression OF
the slave trade. The means which are, at present
adopted to attain this end are certainly not the
best which could be devised. The utter futilitv
ofdetailing large squadron for the ostensible
purpose of interceptng slavers off the coast OF
Africa, has been so frequently and so conclusvely
demonstrated, that to still persist in keeping up
the quasi-blockade is 10 incur needless expense,
and to endanger the health of the officers and
crews, without deriving any corresponding benefit
for their services. The official report of the Afri-
can squadron for the year 1859 shows that it con-
sisted of the sloops-of-war Fiacennes, Cumberland,
Portsmouth, Dale, Warren and Constellation. and
the war-steamers Sumter, San Jacinto and Mvstic
in all nine vessels. What was the net result of
their united eXertiOns for the whole year? The
capture OF three vessels, suspected of being engaged
IN the slave trade! If those vessels vert subse-
quently condemned and confscated we do not
remember to have seen the fact reported. The
PROBABILITY is, that they managed to prove they
were engaged in lawful traffic. and that their CAP
tors were held liable for damages Had the Afri-
can squadron been combined with the squadron
stationed off Porto Rico and Cuba, so numerous a
Meet, acting in conjunction with the Anglo-Afri-
can anu west India squadrons, would have sufficed
10 establish complete Gordon around those
islands, within whose lines scarcely one SLAYER in
nifty could have succeeded in penetrating without
detection and consequent seizure. As it is. the
slavers still ply brisk trade, and advance the
price OF their cargoes in proportion to the risks
they run. The Spanish authorities wink at the
inraction of the laws, and pocket complacently
the capitation tax which they impose upon the
Adventurers To the UNITED STATES and Great
Britain are left the honor of keeping watch and
ward; the glory of an occasional capture, and the
expense which it entails