138 Françoise Latour da Veiga Pinto,
A. Carreiraslave trading with Indians were excommunicated, it was not until 1839 that
a similar measure was taken in respect of the Negro trade. In addition, as far
as Portugal was concerned, the Church had a material interest in the business
from the start, through the dues she collected for the baptism of slaves. Every
slave shipped had to be baptized ; and, though the ceremony of baptism was
carried out in groups, the officiating priest made his charges on a per capita
basis. In the eighteenth century the rate was 300 to 500 reis for adults and
50 to 100 reis for children and infants in arms. The payment of these dues
often led to conflicts between the traders and the clergy (notably in 1697 and
1719), so that the civil power was compelled to intervene. In other words, the
State religion, which in Portugal was ruled by the Inquisition up to the eigh-
teenth century, not only gave its moral sanction to the traffic in human beings
through baptism, but also made a profit out of it. In such circumstances public
opinion could hardly have been expected to condemn a situation which enabled
the maintenance of the economic system responsible for the prosperity of
Brazil and the Kingdom. When, therefore, Pombal abolished slavery in Portu-
gal, in 1773, the aim was primarily to avoid drawing off the manpower that
was desperately short in the mines and plantations of Brazil.
It was not until the nineteenth century that Portuguese public opinion
revolted against the slave trade. Unlike Great Britain, where it was extremely
vehement and was led by great humanitarian figures, in Portugal it was led
by a liberal political élite. Admittedly Portugal was so torn by domestic strife
up to the middle of the century that it would have been difficult for her to
turn away from her immediate conflicts and concern herself with an overseas
problem. On the other hand, politicians such as Sá da Bandeira saw the advan-
tage to Portugal, after the loss of Brazil, of developing Africa, and the impera-
tive need to halt the manpower drain which the slave trade represented.
Humanitarian opinions also found expression, in keeping with the spirit of
the age. Naval officers posted to the coast of Africa were as a rule genuinely
shocked at the continuance of the trade. Later the Lisbon Geographical Society,
which was founded in 1875, conducted an anti-slavery campaign. Accounts by
Portuguese explorers from the interior of Angola, like those of their foreign
predecessors, told of the horrors of the internal trade—sequels of the Atlantic
trade and of that with the Arab countries.
But, above all, opinion was extremely alarmed at the international
campaign directed against Portugal. The various diplomatic vicissitudes that
had marked the negotiations between Palmerston and the Portuguese Govern-
ment in favour of abolition had aroused British public opinion against Portu-
gal; and its conviction of Portuguese insincerity was strengthened by the
accounts of explorers such as Livingstone, Cameron and Stanley, who on
their travels in Central Africa had witnessed gangs of slaves being escorted
by Portuguese pumbeiros. Portuguese public opinion was outraged at the accu-