CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
THE SLAVER.
THE 'ADVOCATE' AND ITS AUTHOR.
A NIGHT ADVENTURE.
VISIT TO A CHOCOLATE MANUFACTORY.
THE WORKING-CLASSES IN 'THE GOOD OLD TIMES.'
EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF A TRAVELLER IN CHILI.
THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.
THE POET'S POWER.
IMPORTANCE OF THE CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES.
AN AMERICAN NOTION.
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 461. New Series. | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1852. | Price 1½d. |
THE SLAVER.
On the 18th day of February 1850, Her Majesty's steamship Rattlerwas lying at anchor about twenty miles to the northward of Ambriz, aslave depôt situated on the western coast of Africa. Week after weekhad passed away in dull uniformity; while the oppressive heat, thegentle breeze which scarcely ruffled the surface of the deep, and thelazy motion of the vessel as it rolled on the long unceasing swellthat ever sets on that rocky shore, lulled the senses of all into asleepy apathy. The only music that ever reached our ears was theeternal roar of that monotonous surf, as it licked the rugged beachwith its snowy tongue.
A few miles off, a range of low brown hills, covered with a stuntedvegetation, runs parallel with the shore—along their undulatingsides, angular spires of granite project through the parched andscanty soil; while on their highest brow one solitary giant stands,resembling an obelisk, from which the anchorage derives its name, 'TheGranite Pillar.' No appearance of human life or labour exists around;the whole is a desert, over which these columnarformations—resembling a city of the Titans, crumbling slowly intodust—hold an empire of solitude and death. The imagination isoppressed with a sense of utter desolation that withers every mentaleffort.
This day was passing like so many before it; the sun was low on thehorizon, and its yellow beams were throwing a brassy tint over the seaand sky; the sailors were engaged, some fishing with patientassiduity, others, grouped into small knots, listening to prosy yarns;while a few were prostrated round the decks in attitudes of perfectabandonment or sleep. The offic