some, while on others they bestow their favors for a dram, or a broken tobacco-pipe, or indeed for nothing. Dissipation and luxury appear to be congenial to the inhabitants of this climate, to which great numbers annually fall victims. Their fatal consequences are, indeed, too visible in the men, who have over-indulged themselves in sensual pleasures, and whose appearances are withered and enervated in the extreme; nor do the generality of Creole females exhibit an appearance more alluring; they are languid, their complexions are sallow, and the skin even of the young ladies frequently appears shrivelled. This, however, is not the case with all; and there are some who, preserving a glow of health in their lovely countenances, are entitled to contend for the prize of beauty with the fairest European. But, alas! the numbers of the last are so small, that the colonists, in their amours, prefer the Indian and Mulatto girls on account of their remarkable neatness and cleanliness, health and vivacity. From the excesses of the husbands, the Creole ladies generally appear in mourning weeds at a very early period, with the agreeable privilege of making another choice in hopes of a better partner, nor indeed are they ever long without another mate, Such is the superior longevity of females at Surinam, (owing, as before mentioned, to the excesses,) that widows may frequently be met withi

who have buried four husbands; but you will scarcely ever meet with a man who has survived two wives. The ladies do not, however, always bear with the most becoming patience the slights and insults they thus meet with in the expectation of a sudden relief, but mostly persecute their successful sable rivals with the most implacable hatred, and even on bare suspicion with the most unrelenting cruelty; while they chastise their partners, not only with an ineffable show of contempt, but also with giving, in public, the most unequivocal marks of preference towards those gentlemen who newly arrive from Europe, which occasions the trite proverb and observation in the colony, that the tropical ladies and the mosquitoes have an instinctive preference for the newly-arrived Europeans. This partiality is indeed so very ex, treme, and the proofs of it so very numerous and apparent, that some command of temper is necessary to prevent that disgust which such a behaviour must naturely excite, particularly where the object is not very inviting; nay, it was once publicly reported at Paramaribo, that two of these tropical Amazons had fought a duel for one of our officers.

"In this colony, when a negro is purchased, and attached to any estate, he acquires a right of settlement, and in youth and old age is maintained, clothed, and lodged. The old settled estates can

boast of having reared negroes of three and four generations. Some negroes, not being able to accommodate themselves with wives on the estate where they were setted, were sent for to Stabroek, and taken to a sale-room, where a cargo of negroes was just landed, and there made choice of wives, which their masters paid for. Two chose pretty women, and the third an ordinary one. On asking him why he did not prefer a handsome wife, he replied, No, massa, me no want wife for handsome, me want her for to do me good, and work for massa as well as me." She was a stout young woman, and turned out much better than the other two."

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When an Indian of GUYANA marries, he is perfectly indifferent about the virginity of his wife; but after his marriage he expects fidelity to his bed; and so strong is the influence of opinion, that adultery is very uncommon, although it is not forbidden by any part of their religious tenets. Polygamy is universally allowed; but an Indian is never seen with two young wives; the only case in which he takes a second, is when the first has become old.

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BRAZIL.

THE native Brazilians differ very little in stature or complexion from the Portuguese themselves; but some of the tribes greatly exceed them in strength and vigour.

At the period this country was discovered, some of the natives lived in villages, and others roamed about according to their caprice or their necessities. These villages consisted, however, only of three or four very large houses, is each of which lived a whole family or tribe, under a species of patriarchal government.

The Portuguese and Dutch writers give the name of Tapuyers to the native inhabitants of the northern part of Brazil; and that of Tupinambies, or Tupanamboys, to those who dwell in the south; but divide these again into several petty nations, each having a different dialect, though their manners and customs were nearly similar. "Every colony of this vast continent," says the Abbé Raynal, had its own idioms; but not one of them had any words to convey general or abstract ideas. This poverty of language, which is common to all the nations of South America, affords a con

vincing proof of the little progress the human understanding had made in these countries. The analogy between the words in the several languages of this continent shews, that the reciprocal transmigration of these savages had been frequent."

The Tapuyers are in general tall, and from living under the equator, of a dark copper colour; their hair, which is black, hangs over their shoulders, but they have no beards or hair on any part of their body. They go naked, the women only concealing certain parts of their bodies with leaves, which they fasten to a cord or small rope, tied round the waist like a girdle. The men employ a little bag or net, formed of the bark of trees, with the same intention, and wear on the head a cap or coronet of feathers. Their ornaments consist of glittering stones, hanging to their lips and nostrils, and bracelets of feathers on their arms; some of them paint their bodies of various colours; while others, rubbing themselves with gum, attach by this means to their skin feathers of different birds, which give them, when viewed at a distance, a very motley appearance.

The Tupinambies, on the contrary, are of a moderate stature, and of a lighter complexion than their more northern neighbours, who are not, however, so dark as the African negroes under the same degree of latitude. The Tupinambies resemble them in their flat noses, which being esteemed