Description of Canta Gallo.—Of the Gold-washing of Santa Rita.—Account of the supposed Silver-Mine.

CANTA GALLO, though so near the seat of government, was not known until about twenty years ago. It is situated in the midst of a fine well-wooded country, abounding in springs, and intersected by narrow valleys and ravines. The bottoms of some of these ravines formerly contained gold, which was accidentally discovered by some grimpeiros[27] from Minas Geraes, in the course of their searches about the great river Paraiba, and the Rio Pumba. The richness of these beds of gold, and the fertility of the circumjacent country, attracted numbers of adventurers, who placed themselves under the direction of an able chieftain, named MÃo de Luva, on account of his having lost one hand, and his wearing a stuffed glove in its place. The band soon amounted to two or three hundred persons, who washed every part in the neighbourhood worth washing, before they were discovered. Being very determined men, they lived free of control, and bade defiance to the laws. It was not until about three years after their first settlement, that the existing government was apprised of them; when, alarmed at the report of their numbers, which was doubtless exaggerated, they sent out spies to discover their rendezvous. This, after much time and great difficulty, was effected; the spies, in wandering through the solitary woods and fastnesses in the neighbourhood, were attracted toward the place, by the crowing of a cock:—hence the name of Canta Gallo, which was subsequently given to it. They introduced themselves as smugglers, who wished to belong to the fraternity, and after living there some time, found means to give information to government, at Rio de Janeiro, who issued proclamations, offering pardon if the whole body would surrender. This measure was ineffectual; the grimpeiros were well provided with fire-arms, and determined to defend themselves as long as any gold could be found. In a year or two afterwards, the washings began to fail, and thus the great bond of interest which united them being loosened, some deserted the place, and the rest became less vigilant in taking measures for their defence. The government seized this favorable opportunity for reducing them; a considerable force was assembled in the vicinity, with orders to make an attack at a certain fixed day, which was known to be celebrated by the grimpeiros as a festival in honor of some saint. At the expected time, while they were engaged at a great banqueting, and too much occupied with their wine to think of their arms, which had been laid aside, (the flints having been secretly taken out), about a hundred soldiers rushed in among them; those who were sober enough flew to their arms, exclaiming, “We are sold! we are betrayed! treason! treason!” The contest was short; the soldiers seized the ringleaders, who were either sent to Africa, or imprisoned for life; of the rest, some were taken prisoners, others fled, but were pursued for years afterwards, and a few fell in the attack.

The Government, having thus become masters of this territory, and imagining it to be as rich in gold as when the grimpeiros first settled there, issued many injudicious regulations, oppressed the natives beyond example, built registers in various parts, to prevent contraband, and filled the whole neighbourhood with guards. The numerous settlers, whom the supposed richness of the place afterwards attracted, soon found that the cream had been skimmed by the smugglers, and by degrees turned their attention to agriculture, a less precarious source of subsistence than mining. So little gold is at present found, that His Highness’s fifth scarcely pays the officers and soldiers appointed to receive it. There are some situations alike favorable to mining and farming; with a small capital, a man may here turn both pursuits to account, if he can bring himself to conform to the customs of the place. The land is strong and good; its various inequalities present spots adapted to the growth of almost every description of produce. In the valleys, and on the sides of the mountains, the soil, in some parts, consists of strong clay, but more generally of a fine, rich, vegetable mould. The rock, or solid stratum, which appears at various depths below it, is granite, composed of feldspar, hornblende, quartz, mica, and frequently garnets. When found in a decomposing state, it is denominated pizarra. No metallic substances, except gold and oxides of iron, appear; the former, which is found in the interjacent bed of cascalho, exists only in grains; I examined a considerable quantity, but could not discover a single particle in a crystallized state.

The country appears to be very poorly stocked with cattle; no cows are kept for milking, nor is any attention here paid to the production of an article of diet, so essential to the subsistence of a poor family; a few goats are kept, and the only milk used is that which they yield. The common food of the inhabitants is as follows:—for breakfast, a kind of kidney beans, called feijoens, boiled, and afterwards mixed with the flour of Indian corn; for dinner, feijoens boiled with a little fat pork and some cabbage leaves, and a sort of pudding, made by pouring the water from the pork on a plate of the farinha, which is eaten with the hand, and much relished; for supper, some poor vegetables, also boiled up with fat pork. Fowls, which are bred here in great numbers, are generally cut to pieces and stewed for table. Wine is rarely used, even among the higher ranks; but here are fruits in great abundance, particularly bananas and oranges, which form a considerable part of the general diet.

Very little sugar is grown here: the principal articles of produce sent to the capital, are Indian corn, and pulse of all kinds, bacon, fowls, jaracandÁ, or rose-wood, ipecacuanha, and a small quantity of gold. In many parts of the neighbourhood is found a tree, the bark of which has been successfully used as a substitute for the quinquina of Peru.

In one of the frequent excursions I took in the neighbourhood of Canta Gallo, previous to my journey to the reputed silver mine, I obtained some information respecting the half-civilized aborigines of the district, from a man who employs himself in procuring ipecacuanha, and is a kind of chief among them. They reside in the woods, in a most miserable condition; their dwellings, some of which I saw, are formed of boughs of trees, bent so as to hold a thatch or tiling of palm-leaves; their beds are made of dry grass. Having little idea of planting or tillage, they depend for subsistence almost entirely on their bows and arrows, and on the roots and wild fruits which they casually find in the woods. The chief above-mentioned brought about fifty of these Indians to pay me a visit, which was not a little gratifying to me, as it afforded an opportunity of examining their features, and of conversing with the few among them who could speak a little of the Portuguese language. The dress of the men consisted of a waistcoat and a pair of drawers; that of the women, of a chemise and petticoat, with a handkerchief tied round the head, after the fashion of the Portuguese females. They bore the general characteristics of their race, the copper-colored skin, short and round visage, broad nose, lank black hair, and regular stature, inclining to be short and broad set. Being desirous to see a proof of their skill and precision in shooting, of which I had heard much, I placed an orange at thirty yards distance, which was pierced by an arrow from every one who drew his bow at it. I next pointed out a banana-tree, about eight inches in circumference, at a distance of forty yards; not a single arrow missed its aim, though they all shot at an elevated range. Interested by these proofs of their archery, I went with some of them into a wood to see them shoot at birds; though there were very few, they discovered them far more quickly than I could; and, cautiously creeping along until they were within bow-shot, never failed to bring down their game. The stillness and expedition with which they penetrated the thickets, and passed through the brushwood, were truly surprising; nor could any thing have afforded me a more satisfactory idea of their peculiar way of life. Their bows are made of the tough fibrous wood of the Iriri, six or seven feet long, and very stout; their arrows are full six feet long, and near an inch in diameter, pointed with a piece of cane cut to a feather edge, or with a bone, but of late more frequently with iron. They are loathsome in their persons, and in their habits but one remove from the Anthropophagi; a woman was gnawing at a half-roasted parrot, which was spiked on a stick, with the feathers scarcely burnt off, and the entrails hanging out[28]. They are not of a shy or morose character, but have a great aversion to labor, and cannot be brought to submit to any regular employment. Rarely is an Indian to be found serving as a domestic, or working for hire, and to this circumstance may be ascribed the low state of agriculture in the district; for as the farmers, when they begin the world, have seldom funds sufficient to purchase negroes at Rio, their operations are for a long time very confined, and frequently languish for want of hands. What benefits would result to the state, and how much would the general cause of humanity be served, if these Indians were civilized and domesticated! A tribe of idle and unsettled savages would be converted into useful and productive laborers; the whole face of the district would be improved; the roads, which at present connect it with the capital, would be cleared of the thousand inconveniences which now encumber them, and new ones[29] would be opened for the more expeditious conveyance of its produce.

During my stay at Canta Gallo I undertook a journey to the gold-washing at Santa Rita, distant about five leagues, in a north-east direction. After passing the uneven country in the immediate neighbourhood of the village, we arrived at the Rio Negro, a considerable stream formed by many rivulets, which empties itself into the Paraiba; on crossing it[30], we entered upon a fine open country, the fertility of which was evident from the luxuriant growth of the tobacco and other plants: but it lay in a state of almost total neglect, and the families thinly scattered upon it appeared in the lowest condition of indolence and misery. We proceeded a league farther, through a tract entirely destitute of inhabitants, and arrived about two in the afternoon at Santa Rita. The proprietor of the works received us very kindly, and conducted us through them while dinner was preparing. The washing is in a deep ravine, bounded at one end by an abrupt hill, and open at the other to the plain. The vegetable earth appeared extremely rich, being clothed with luxuriant verdure, and the hills on each hand covered with trees of all sizes. The stratum of cascalho, which lies under a bed of soil four or five feet deep, is very thin and uneven, being no where more than two feet thick, and in many parts not more than seven or eight inches. The incumbent soil is removed at great labor and expense, being dug out and carried away in bowls; and the cascalho is conveyed with great care to a convenient place for water, where it is washed by the most expert among the miners, in a way similar to that practised at the mines of JaraguÁ. The proportion of gold produced was moderate: I was informed that it paid the master the rate of from fourteen pence to two shillings per day for each negro, which is a large profit, as the daily subsistence of one costs somewhat less than a penny.

The sides of the ravine towards the top were bare, and of different shades of color, being tinged by the water which flows from the vegetable matter above: in the bottom, on the surface that was yet unworked, lay some huge, half-rounded, amorphous masses. In the parts which had been worked, I observed two or three substances of the same kind, which being too large to be moved, the earth which imbedded them had been cut away, and they appeared like detached nodules. On breaking a fragment from one of them, with my hammer, I was much surprised to find it a calcareous substance, a solid mass composed of hexagonal crystals, with a small portion of brilliant specular iron ore. I presented this fragment to the proprietor, informing him that it was limestone, at which he was truly astonished, having never before heard of stonelime[31]; nor would he believe me until I proved it by calcination. The mountains, as I afterwards found, are of the same substance.

As I stood observing the heavy operation of cutting and carrying away the surface to get at the cascalho, it occurred to me that much time and labor might be saved by arching the work with brick; but, on suggesting the idea, I was informed that the sole or bottom was quite decomposed, and subject to much water.

There is reason to suppose that the stratum of limestone, below the earth in the bottom of the valley, is of very modern formation, and that, if not too thick to cut through, there might be found, between it and the granite stratum underneath, a bed of cascalho of prior formation, much richer in gold than the upper stratum.

After having investigated these works, we made an excursion of seven or eight miles, chiefly over a rich plain, abounding with the finest timber. On the margins of the rivulets which we crossed, I observed that the moss was incrusted, somewhat like the tuffa at Matlock; and, on more particular examination, I found a stratum of tuffa in all the valleys, a few inches below the surface, which, as I conjecture, must have proceeded from the deposition of calcareous matter by the overflowings of the streams after heavy rains. The hills, even at this distance, were composed of the same sparry limestone as at the gold-washing. It is much to be wished that the value of this material were duly appreciated at the capital, where the cost of the wood used in burning shells into lime, exceeds the price at which lime brought from Santa Rita might be delivered, if proper roads were made for its conveyance from this district to Porto das Caixas. Such an undertaking highly deserves the attention of His Highness’s ministers; the benefits likely to result from it are incalculable, and the expense attending it would be trifling; for in no part of the globe are roads made so cheap, or public works of any kind done on such moderate terms, as in Brazil.

This fine but almost uninhabited district produces spontaneously many valuable articles of commerce, which run to waste for want of hands to cultivate and gather them. Here is found that celebrated variety of the palm-tree, the long, serrated, lancet-formed leaves of which are composed of innumerable fibres, that rival silk both in fineness and strength. I bought some fishing-lines made of them for a mere trifle; and I have no doubt that, if proper means were employed to propagate the growth of the trees, this valuable substance might be produced in as great plenty, and at as cheap a rate, as flax is in England. I laid before His Highness’s ministers, a project for using it as a substitute for that article in the manufacture of fine cordage, and I shewed by experiment that it was fully adequate to the purpose.

We remained two days at Santa Rita and its vicinity, and on the third, set out on our return, taking the same route by which we came. In some parts we observed numerous flocks of birds, particularly parrots, and a few fine wild hens of the wood, and these were the only objects that engaged our attention. We reached Canta Gallo without having met with any monstrous serpents, or any other uncommon sights which travellers often see or fancy in a strange country.

After a few days’ rest, I set out, accompanied by a guide, to the supposed silver-mine, notice having previously been sent to the men to prepare them for my coming. We travelled for about two miles through a deep valley, and arrived at a rapid stream called MacÁco, which runs between two almost perpendicular mountains of very inconsiderable height, along one of which the road leads for about a mile and a half. Having passed this gloomy and dangerous ravine, we proceeded half a league farther, and halted at a neat farm-house called Machado, with a portion of good and well-cultivated land around it, which looked like a garden in the wilderness. The owner, a native of the Azores, received us very politely, and introduced us to his lady, who, with her blooming family of daughters, was engaged in needle-work on materials of their own spinning. The neatness of their dress, and the general air of propriety and comfort in the apartment where they sat, strongly reminded me of my country; and when they regaled us with liquor made from the fruits of their own farm, the image of our domestic scenes in rural life was complete: I could almost have fancied myself transported from the rugged wilds of Brazil to the smiling vales of England.

We left this peaceful abode; and, advancing for six miles through thickets and forests, and over some plain land, we reached a farm called St. Antonio, belonging to a widow named Dona Anna, who is noted throughout the country for making excellent butter and cheese. The dwelling is of two stories, and neat, but very inconvenient. The good lady gave me a hearty repast of milk, and we entered into some conversation respecting her dairy, in which I learned that she knew no other mode of making butter than that of agitating the cream in a jar or bottle; and her notions of cheese-making were equally defective, In looking about the grounds for an hour, while our mules rested, I noticed an excellent fence, formed by planting a strong thorny shrub, that seemed of very rapid and luxuriant growth. The few cows that were grazing in the inclosures appeared to be of a superior breed, but were not managed with either method or foresight. The principal produce of the farm is Indian corn, and a little cheese; the latter is only made occasionally, when there happens to be a sufficient supply of milk for the purpose.

We were here shewn various samples of earthy matter, wrapped very carefully in paper, and preserved with great secrecy, under the names of platina, silver, &c. They proved to be merely small crystals of shining iron ore, and pyrites.

Proceeding a league over a fine country, we reached the Rio Grande, a stream as large as the Derwent at Derby, which we crossed in a canoe, our mules swimming after us as usual. We passed several groupes of Aborigines, and occasionally saw many of their huts and places of abode. The road now led along the bases of some huge bold mountains of granite, from whose summits rushed fine cascades of water. The low ground was interspersed with fragments of the same rock, lying in heaps in every direction. In many places the grass was so tall that it reached above the skirts of my saddle, and, the weather being wet, rendered me very uncomfortable. After a laborious, and latterly a slow progress, we arrived by sun-set at the house of Father Thomas de Nossa Senhora da ConceiÇÃo, who kindly accommodated us for the night.

The house was new, and neatly built, containing only four rooms, with boarded floors; a convenience very rarely to be met with in these parts. It is absolutely encircled with fine streams, abounding with water-falls, which render the roads to it at all times indifferent, and in wet weather almost impassable. The father, an intelligent and industrious man, informed me that he took up that land about four years since, that he had only one negro, and had no funds wherewith to carry on his undertaking, except seven or eight pounds per annum, which he gained by his profession as a clergyman; this he expended in hiring those who chose to work. He shewed me his garden, which was full of fine coffee-trees, and was kept in the neatest order; his fields were covered with Indian corn; his live-stock consisted of a good milch cow, a number of pigs, and one mule. On asking him how he disposed of his produce, he told me that dealers came and purchased it on the spot. The whole of the sesmaria, or plantation, with the stock upon it, he valued at four hundred pounds sterling, and said that he had no doubt he could obtain that price for it. These were clear data for calculating the profits of farming, when managed with prudence and industry. Here is a man who, having begun with little or nothing, finds himself, at the end of four years, worth four hundred pounds; a snug independency in these parts, and not more than his exertions and perseverance deserved. Father Thomas lived more comfortably than any person I had hitherto met with in this district: he was economical, but not parsimonious; liberal in his sentiments, frank and communicative in his conversation, and polite in his manners.

Here I was met by the discoverers of the reputed silver-mine, who came to conduct me to it. We set out on foot, and, after walking about six miles over mountains impassable for mules, fording rivulets, and passing thickets that left me scarcely a single article of dress untorn, we arrived at the miserable hut of these poor men; a perfect contrast to the neat dwelling of Father Thomas. Never in my life was I so exhausted by fatigue; I sat down, unable to go any farther, and rested about an hour, when, being somewhat recovered, I accompanied the men, along the edge of a beautiful stream, to the foot of the mountain, where they shewed me a hole which they had dug, about two feet deep, and informed me that the sand it contained at the bottom abounded with grains of silver. Having ordered a quantity to be taken out, I proceeded to examine the base of the mountain, which I found to be of granite-like gneiss, with garnets, and small crystals of pyrites. Near this place the margin of the rivulet contained rounded stones and sand, but no where was there to be found any metallic substance, except the one before mentioned. Indeed, the very idea of silver appearing here in dust or grains, as gold does, would be preposterous, and contradictory to every principle of nature, as, in such a state, it would probably have been attacked by the sulphur in the pyrites, so as to have assumed the form of a sulphuret.

I returned extremely wearied and much exhausted to Father Thomas’s, where, after some needful repose, I proceeded to examine the sand and stones I had collected at the supposed silver-mine, but no particle of metal was to be found. I then ordered the men to produce their samples, which I examined both by the blow-pipe and by acids, but no silver appeared. After equivocating very much, they acknowledged that they had rubbed and beaten substances to powder, and when they found specular iron ore they thought it was silver. In one of the samples there certainly was silver, but it appeared to have been filed probably from an old buckle or spoon, or rubbed on a stone and mixed with a pulverized substance. The farce could no longer be carried on: I charged them, in a most determined manner, with imposture, which, after some hesitation, they confessed: an officer who was with me would have secured them, but I restrained him; for, having obtained a confession, I was unwilling to bring them to punishment, or to render them more miserable than they already were, by having them sent to the army. Perhaps that would have been doing them a greater service than setting them at liberty; for they were too lazy to work, and would, no doubt, return to their old habits of prowling about, and subsisting on the credulity of the public by spreading fallacious reports about mines, precious stones, &c. Such impositions are not uncommon in South America: I have known instances in which copper-filings, mixed with earth, and afterwards washed, have been produced as samples, in order to enhance the value of land, or serve some other sinister purpose. A passion for mining is fatally prevalent among some of the lower orders of the people: by deluding them with prospects of becoming speedily rich, it creates in them a disgust for labor, and entails want and wretchedness upon them. Even among the few families of this district, I observed some examples of its effects; those who devoted themselves wholly to mining were in general badly clothed and worse fed, while those who attended to agriculture alone were well provided with every necessary of life.

Having concluded the affair, I took leave of Father Thomas, and returned to Canta Gallo, where I prepared my papers for a report respecting it, as the Conde de Linhares, had desired me. During the remainder of my stay I collected specimens of the different species of wood, which the neighbourhood produces. The following is a list of them:

Tapinhoam Canella—Hard, and excellent for sheathing ships.

Venatico—excellent timber.

Cedar—good and durable.

Socupira, also called pao ferro—hard and good.

Olio—very solid, and of a peculiar fragrance.

Cubiuna.

JaracandÁ—cabinet-wood, variegated, black and yellow—This is called rose-wood in England: but the best sorts, as it appears to me, have not hitherto been imported.

JaracatangÁ.

Ubatanga.

Palms—many varieties, among which is the iriri, before described. Its wood, though small, is unrivalled for strength and elasticity.

Garfauna—the bark of which, as I was informed, affords a yellow dye.

EmbÉ—a creeping plant. The stems are used instead of cords, and often made into bridles.

Many species of thorny trees.

Most of the above-named species of woods are of large growth, and well calculated for ship-building. It is remarkable that this district produces none of the dye-wood called Brazil wood.

Here are innumerable fruit-trees and shrubs which I have omitted to particularize. Tobacco is cultivated in some parts, and is always manufactured into roll by uniting the leaves with each other, and twisting them with a winch. By this operation the juice is expressed, and after a short exposure to the atmosphere, the color of the tobacco changes from green to black.

Of wild animals, ounces are the most common; they are met with of various colors, some black and brown-red. Tapirs or antas are not unfrequent, but I saw only the footsteps of some of them. Wild hogs breed here in great numbers, and also long-bearded monkeys; the latter, when asleep, snore so loud as to astonish the traveller. The most formidable reptiles are the corral snake, the surocucu, the surocucu-tinga, and the jararaca, all said to be mortally venomous, none of which I ever saw on the journey, except a small one of the former species.

The prevailing method of clearing and cultivating the land here, is precisely similar to that practised in the neighbourhood of S. Paulo. After the timber and underwood have been cut down and burnt (often very imperfectly), the negresses dibble the seed; in about six weeks a slight weeding is performed, and then the ground is let alone till harvest. The seed-time begins in October and lasts until November; the maize is ripe in four or five months. The next year they commonly sow beans on the corn land, which they then let lie, and proceed to clear new ground. It is not common to molest the land from which they have had two crops in succession, before eight or ten years have elapsed.

The sugar-cane and mandioca require from fourteen to eighteen months. Coffee, planted by shoots, bears fruit in two years, and is in perfection in five or six years. Cottons and palma Christi, raised from seed, bear the first year.

Transplanting is only practised with tobacco; engrafting is little known and rarely attempted.

The Indian corn is ground by a horizontal water-wheel, which acquires great velocity from the rush of water upon it. On the upper end is fixed the mill-stone, which makes from fifty to sixty revolutions in a minute. They have likewise a mode of pounding the corn into flour, by a machine called a Sloth. Near a current of water a large wooden mortar is placed, the pestle of which is mortised into the end of a lever twenty-five or thirty feet long, resting upon a fulcrum at five-eights of its length. The extremity of the shorter arm of this beam is scooped out, so as to receive a sufficient weight of water to raise the other end, to which appends the pestle, and to discharge itself when it has sunk to a given point. The alternate emptying and filling of this cavity cause the elevation and fall of the pestle, which take place about four times per minute. This contrivance surpasses all others in simplicity; and in a place where the waste of water is of no consequence, it completely answers its purpose.

Having finished my affairs at Canta Gallo, I set out on my return to the capital, accompanied for about a league of the road by the worthy governor, the captain, the treasurer, and almost all the inhabitants. During a residence of about fifteen days among these excellent men, my table had been sumptuously supplied without cost, and I had been treated with a degree of respect far exceeding my expectations or merits. I took leave of them with regret, wishing most sincerely that it might be in my power to be of service to them at court, by making representations in their favor.

I arrived at Morro Queimado at night, after a journey of thirty-four miles[32], and on the next day, in good time, reached the house of my worthy friend Captain Ferreira. Being now less pressed for time, I took a more leisurely survey of his establishment, particularly of his sugarwork and distillery, both which are very ill conducted. When I saw the furnaces for heating the coppers in the latter, I freely told the Captain, that they could not have been constructed on a worse plan, but I received for answer, that no better was known. It would, indeed, be extremely difficult to introduce improvements into this or any other parts of the distillery, for every thing is left to the management of the negroes. When I asked any question concerning the process, the owner professed his ignorance of it, and sent for one of the African foremen to answer me. With this man I reasoned respecting the excessive quantity of fuel consumed to no purpose, and proposed a method for saving it, as well as for correcting the disagreeable taste of the rum, caused by the empyreuma; which was, to redistil it with an equal quantity of water, taking care previously to clean out the still; but he only laughed at me, and signified that his certainly must be the best method, for he had learned it of an old sugar-maker. Thus it is, that from the indifference of the owners to their own interest, things are suffered to go on in the same routine, being left to the direction of men who shrink from a temporary increase of labor, even when it promises them a lasting advantage. This aversion to improvement I have often observed among the inhabitants of Brazil: when, for instance, I have questioned a brick-maker, a sugar-maker, a soap-boiler, or even a miner, as to his reasons for conducting his concerns in such an imperfect manner, I have been almost invariably referred to a negro for answers to my interrogatories.

Some parts of this estate are said to contain gold, and at the time of my visit, Captain Ferreira was negociating for permission from Government to work them. I presented to him a drawing of a plan for washing the cascalho in a manner superior to that commonly practised, and explained to him the use of grinding or stamping those concrete masses frequently found in it, which generally contain particles of gold, but being too hard to be crushed by the hand, are thrown aside among the debris.

In this fazenda, as in most others, the conveniences for storing the produce, are so very poor and imperfect, that the weevil soon gets into the corn, and the cotton, coffee, and other produce are liable to be deteriorated in a thousand ways. The stabling, too, is bad, and the cattle are deplorably neglected; indeed, the only part of the live-stock that seems to be tolerably well attended to, is the swine. In the dwelling-house I observed a total inattention to domestic comfort; its general appearance confirmed a remark which I had often heard made, that the owners of estates here, dislike to live upon them, and considering their residence as only temporary, make shift with poor accommodations.

The tract of land belonging to the farm is full two miles square, and though still susceptible of great improvement, has not been wholly neglected; the parts already cleared have produced many valuable crops, and the rest will no doubt, in a few years, be brought to an equally promising state of cultivation.

Having staid two days with Captain Ferreira, I set out on the morning of the third for Porto das Caixas, where I arrived at two o’clock, after a journey of thirty miles, and was delayed some time, as the river was crowded with vessels, laden with ship-timber, for the capital. As soon as the navigation became sufficiently open, I embarked in a large boat, of about ten tons burthen, and rowing all night to the mouth of the river, sailed with a land wind, and arrived at Rio de Janeiro about noon. My first care was to inform His Excellency the minister of my return, after which I employed a few days in drawing up my journal for his inspection. He received it in the handsomest manner, and laid it before his Royal Highness, who was pleased to signify, that my description of the country, through which I had travelled, merited his approbation.