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The usual mode of training the vines is by basket-work fixed to espaliers, about five feet high; but in some vineyards they are led up trees, or high poles; and in others, cut down to the height of two or three feet, as at the cape of Good Hope. In some places, the hills are terraced, in order to retain the soil, by stone walls. The process of making the wine is very simple. The grapes are picked from the stalk, thrown into a vat, pressed first with the feet and afterwards by a weighted wooden lever. The proprietor of the land and the collector of the taxes for the crown, both attend at the press; the latter takes out of the tub his tenth of the whole must, after which the remainder is equally divided between the landowner and the tenant. Each takes with him a sufficient number of porters to carry away their respective shares, sometimes in barrels, and sometimes in goat-skin borrachas, to the cellars in Funchal. The English merchants usually supply the farmers beforehand with money, to enable them to make a more extensive tillage.

appeared to be of a grave and serious disposition, seldom speaking to each other, and indicating an aversion to communicate with strangers. They had long black hair, and the beard was visible only on the upper lip and under the chin. Those who engage in this service are said to be so much detested by their countrymen, as to prevent them from ever returning to the horde, apprehensive that if once in their possession they would certainly he put to death.

When the Portuguese were sufficiently convinced of the inefficacy of the attempt to reduce the Brazilians to slavery, or to compel them to submit to the labours of agriculture, their next recourse was to the settlements they had already acquired on the coast of Africa for a supply of negroes. Whole cargoes of these ill-fated people were annually transported from their native country and their connections, cut off from every hope of returning and doomed to toil for the remain, der of their days in the foreign fields of South America. The number which at present is said to be annually imported amounts, on an average, to twenty thousand; and as this demand is constant, whilst the

General Observations on the Brazils. quantity of produce is supposed to

From the same.

The antipathy of the Brazilians to the Portuguese is so great that the viceroy is not able, without some difficulty, to keep up an establishment of twelve rowers of the state-barge. These were the only real natives we had an opportunity of seeing during our stay of three weeks. Their features were not much different from those of the Malays, Tartars, and Chinese. Their stature was short. They

be little, if at all increased, for several years past, there are strong grounds to suspect that at least an equal number to those imported must be destroyed every year. Yet these people make a boast of treating their slaves better than any other nation. The French and the Dutch do the same; and they all unite in asserting that the English are the most cruel to their slaves. People, however, are apt to differ in their notions of humanity, as well as on less important points; and, where

the whole system is bad, the degrees of atrocity may perhaps be the less discernible. Bad as our countrymen are, I am still inclined to hope that few are to be found among them who would act, on a similar occasion, in the samé manner as I am about to relate. An officer in the French army, having discovered that dealing in slaves was a more lucrative profession than fighting, was transporting a cargo, consisting of about three hundred, from Mosambique to the isle of France. They had scarcely put to sea when the small-pox broke out among them. On three or four the pustules appeared in such a manner as to leave no doubt as to the nature of the disease; and about a dozen of the rest were considered to be infected. As it was pretty evident that none of the cargo had gone through the disease, and equally so that they could not escape infection; and as the chances were, in this event, that the mortality would greatly exceed seven per cent., the slave-merchant resolved to throw the fifteen or sixteen in fected persons immediately overboard. This man afterwards wrote an account of his voyage to the East Indies, in which he talks a great deal about humanity, but carefully avoids the mention of this transaction.

Whatever the pretensions of other nations may be, in regard to the good treatment of their slaves, I am inclined to think that the method pursued by the Portuguese planters of the Brazils is far from being the worst. The master expects from the slave a certain quantity of labour in the week, which is calculated to be sufficient to employ four days of moderate application: the other

By such

two are for himself; but out of the proceeds of the labour of these two days he must clothe and feed himself for the whole week. a systein the lash of the whip is unnecessary; the master is at no expence beyond the first cost, which is about twenty pounds; and the slave, by the surplus produce of the labour bestowed on his own account, is frequently enabled to lay by a sufficient sum to purchase his freedom. Those who are doomed to work at the mines experience worse treatment than such as are employed in domestic purposes, or in agricul ture.

The temptation to secrete small diamonds has sometimes induced the slaves to swallow them. Whenever the labour of the day has not been usually productive, or any other cause of suspicion arises that such may have been the case, they are put for a certain time in close confinement, and a strong dose of ipecacuanha is administered. this should not produce the desired effect, the next step is to ply them, like the pearl fishers of Ceylon, with powerful cathartics, till the poor creatures are nearly exhausted; and this happens very often when they are perfectly innocent.

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The slave of the Brazils has many advantages over the slave of the West India islands. The climate of the former is infinitely superior to that of the latter, and the seasons of planting and of reaping are of longer duration. The owner of a sugar plantation in the West Indies has but a short period allowed him during the rains to get his canes into the ground. Equally short is the season of reaping them. If the canes are not cut down when fully ripe, the juice evaporates, and they turn to wood: if they are cut down

and

and not immediately pressed, the
juice begins to ferment, and is fit
only to be converted by distillation
into rum.
At these seasons, there-
fore, and particularly in the latter,
every hand that can work, however
feebly, is of importance to the
planter; and the urgent demand for
labour sometimes makes him wholly
insensible to acts of inhumanity,
which, perhaps, at other times, might
appear to him in their true light, and
as odious and atrocious in the ex.
treme. This is not the case in the
Brazils. The season of planting,
on account of the longer continu-
ance of rain, is at least two months
longer here than in the West Indies;
and the gradual ripening of the
plants protracted in the same pro-
portion. It is not therefore found
to be necessary here, as is the case
in our colonies, to drive the slaves
to work with the crack or the lash
of the whip, or to regulate the
stroke of the bill or the hoe by the
measure of a forced song.

If it should unfortunately happen that our colonies in the West Indies may ultimately be involved in the fate of St. Domingo, a considerable mass of property will no doubt be lost to this country; but, at the same time, it cannot well be denied that this loss would be productive of a most important saving to the state, by the number of British subjects, who, in their removal to a better climate, would escape a premature death. The most valuable productions of the West India islands were originally transplanted from the East, where the labour of slaves is not required, nor any extraordinary waste of Europeans occasioned. To this source we may again recur, and India and China may eventually prove the great

sheet anchors of our commercial prosperity.

The ruin of the West India islands, it is to be feared, would equally affect the tranquillity of those colonies on the continent of South America, in the possession of the English and the Dutch, which would tend in a very material degree to enhance the value of the possessions of Spain and Portugal on the same continent. But the restrictions, the exactions, and the monopolies, under which the settlements of these two powers are oppressed, and the total want of energy in the inhabitants, which necessarily results from such a system, are so many invincible barriers against any improvement which favourable circumstancesmight otherwise suggest. Few countries afford so great a number or so great a variety of valuable productions as the Brazils. Beside the articles described in eight ancient paintings, which are noticed in a former chapter of the original work, the country produces an inexhaustible supply of the finest timber, suitable for all the purposes of civil and naval architecture; but the cutting and disposing of it is a monopoly of the crown. The first object of every man who obtains a grant of woodland, is to destroy the best trees as fast as he can: because he is not only forbidden to send them to market, but may have the additional mortification of being obliged to entertain ́ the king's surveyor, whenever he thinks fit to pay him a visit, with a numerous retinue, for the purpose of felling the timber, which he, as owner of the estate, has not the power to prevent. Yet, notwithstanding this discouraging monopoly, together with the difficulty of transport, on account of the badness of

the

the roads, and the scarcity of shipwrights, very fine vessels, equal in size to an English 74 gun-ship, have been constructed at Bahia or St. Salvador, and sent afloat, at the expence of about fifteen or sixteen pounds a ton, which in England would have cost from twenty four to thirty-four pounds a ton.

Wheat, barley, Guinea corn, millet and all the European and tropical grains are produced in the greatest abundance; and all species of provisions and supplies for victualling and storing ships, and fitting them out for actual service at sea, are procurable at moderate rates in almost all the ports of the Brazils. At Rio de Janeiro alone a navy might be built, equipped, and fitted with every necessary for a sea voyage, sufficient to command the navi. gation of the southern Atlantic; and the fisheries, by proper encouragement, would create a neverfailing supply of seamen. Both the black whale and the spermaceti are plentiful on every part of the coast.

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The ambassador had not as yet landed at the town of Turon; and as the principal officers of that place were extremely desirous of testifying their respect by a public entertain ment to be given on the occasion, his lordship fixed on the 4th of June for celebrating, with the Cochinchinese on shore, the anniver, sary of his majesty's birth-day. Whether through accident, or in consequence of former suspicions, or to give eclat to the entertainment, did not appear, but on the VOL. XLVIII.

evening preceding we observed an unusual bustle about the place, an increased number of troops in and about the town, besides several huge elephants of war. We therefore, on our part, took the precaution of sending the two armed brigs up the river opposite to the town, to make a retreat, if necessary, the more secure. The day, however, passed over in harmony and conviviality. We were conducted from the place of landing to a temporary building, on a larger scale than that which we had hitherto occasionally occupied. The two pitches of its roof were supported by a row of bamboo poles which, running down the middle, divided the building into two parts. The sides and the roof were covered with thick double matts, and lined within with coarse Manchester cottons, of various patterns. Thes prints appeared to be new, but damaged, and were probably the refuse of the China market, carried thither by the Portuguese trader. In the first compartment of the building was a long table covered with linen, and laid out with plates, knives and forks, in the manner and style of Europe. Our Portuguese friend, it seemed, by way of making some atonement for the injury he had nearly, though perhaps not maliciously, done us, had prevailed on the Cochinchinese to allow him to be master of the ceremonies for the day, concluding in his own mind that, as the eating and drinking would be considered by us as the best part of the entertainment, he would be able to suit our taste in these respects better than the Cochinchinese; and under this impres sion, to do him justice, he had spared neither trouble nor expence in making his dinner as complete as 3 K

held forth my hand implying a desire to partake of their repast. They immediately gave me a part; and seemed pleased on observing me eat of it. A better sallad I never tasted. It was very crisp and white

much superior to the best lettuce or endive; and, in flavour, somewhat resembling the filbert. Perceiving that they were not incom. moded by our society, we remained a considerable time attentively watching their proceedings; but their curiosity was not commensurate with our own, for they scarcely looked at us, or appeared to be, in any degree, interested concerning us. With indifference they saw us approach-they regarded us with indifference whilst we remainedand with indifference they witnessed our departure.

"Enough!"-you will say. σε Give me no more of slaves, nor of slavery!"-For the present I obey, and, leaving the dusky Africans, proceed to introduce you to the copper-coloured Indians; thus, leading you to the opposite extreme of human life, and placing you among those of our species, who spurn alike the shackles of slavery, and the slavish trammels of society. I have lately had an opportunity of seeing several parties of the wild and naked inhabitants of these woods-men who range at large, in the fullest freedom of nature; neither suffering their liberty to be effaced by bondage, nor abridged by civilization. Being one day at the town of New Amsterdam with the acting surgeon of the garrison, we took a walk down to the bush,* on the border of the creek or river Two days after, I saw a much Kannye. Nigh to the water we larger party of Indians, who came met with a party of Indians, and to the government house to ask for observing that they made no attempt rum, as a compensation for cutting to avoid us, we went so near to down timber: and the same eventhem as to mix in the group. We ing, on walking towards the creek found them engaged in various pur- with some of the officers, we met suits; and remarked that none of with a still more numerous body of their occupations suffered any in- these inhabitants of the forest, who terruption from our presence. A had been employed by the governor woman and her son, who were in to cut down wood preparatory to the river, continued to bathe before clearing the land near the town for us, and seemed greatly to enjoy the cultivation. They were busied in water. Some were cutting wood packing up all their little store of imfor firing-some collecting the bush- plements and utensils, in order to water with a calabash, for the return to their native abode in the purpose of drinking,or of cooking-- woods. Bows and arrows, appara. some, with their pot of baked clay, tus for preparing cassada, the clay. upon the fire, were stewing crabs, cooking vessel, hammocks, calatogether with capsicum and cassada bashes, and crab-baskets, constitut. juice into pepper-pot-and some ed their whole list of stores and fur. were eating the raw tops of the niture. All these were light in mountain-cabbage. To the latter I structure, or made of light materi

* Upon this coast the forest is termed the Bush.
The rain-water which lodges in the low parts of the forest.

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