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each, for whose labor they were paid. "It would excite laughter, if it was not for the sorrow which it occasions," said Bonafacio Andrada, "to see twenty slaves in Brazil employed in carrying to market twenty bags of sugar, which might be conveyed thither on one well-constructed cart drawn by two oxen or a pair of mules."

'There has been such a rage for acquiring this sort of property, that negroes themselves who had obtained their freedom, frequently sent ventures to Africa to purchase their countrymen, who were brought back to them in exchange for the beads and looking-glasses which they sent out. It is a frightful thing, that those poor creatures have been so instructed by the example of their masters; and their conversion to Christianity has only taught them to reduce their kindred to that state, to which they themselves felt such a horror.

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Every intelligent person in the country seems convinced, that a state of slavery is highly injurious to its best interests. The abolition of the slave-trade abroad, and the gradual extinction of a state of slavery at home, had begun to engage the attention of the first constituent assembly, when it was suddenly dissolved; but the spirit and feeling that suggested the consideration still exists in the country, notwithstanding the powerful personal interests opposed to it. The preponderance of the black population is a subject of deep alarm, and the danger of its increase has reconciled many people to the speedy abolition of the foreign trade; while the numerous obstacles presented to the industry and prosperity of the country by the employment of slaves at home, have convinced many of them, that its evils far exceed its benefits. As long as labor, they say, is performed by the hands of slaves, no white man who can buy them will exert himself, and indolence and inactivity will ever be, as it is now, the characteristic of the Brazilian. As long as a man's property is vested in slaves, which he must have employed by others in order to live himself, no machinery to abridge manual labor will ever be admitted or encouraged in the country, and the people will continue to use the few miserable and crazy expedients which their ancestors used two centuries ago. As long as two-thirds of the community are regarded as mere chattels, the interests of the proprietor will ever be considered paramount to public justice; and crimes will be committed with impunity by those who are not looked upon in the light of moral agents, because their punishment would be a loss of property to their owners. As long as men live as they do with their female slaves, the sacred bonds of parental and filial duty will be disregarded; fathers will sell their own chil

dren as their slaves, and children will destroy their own parents, as slaves who endeavour to escape from bondage. As long as the unfortunate beings are objects to which the laws afford an inefficient protection, but are subject to the uncontrolled caprice and tyranny of their masters, it will be a continued incentive to every bad passion of the heart to indulge itself with impunity. These, and a thousand similar reflections, independent of political and natural rights, continually suggest themselves to the Brazilians, and incline them to consider seriously the evils of slavery in their country.

'The number of free blacks and mulattoes is very considerable already in the country. It is calculated of the former, that there are one hundred and sixty thousand; and of the latter four hundred and thirty thousand, making about six hundred thousand free men, who were either slaves themselves, or the descendants of slaves. These are, generally speaking, wellconducted and industrious persons; and compose indiscriminately different orders of the community. There are among them merchants, farmers, doctors, lawyers, priests, and officers of different ranks. Every considerable town in the interior has regiments composed of them; and I saw at Villa Rica two corps of them, one consisting of four companies of free blacks, and the other of seven companies of mulattoes. The benefits arising from these, have greatly disposed the whites to consider the propriety and necessity of gradually amalgamating the rest with the free population of the country, and abolishing for ever that outrage upon the laws of God and man, the condition of a slave.' — Vol. 1. pp. 199–201.

We regret that our limits will not allow us to make any farther extracts on the subject of slavery. Melancholy as the condition of Brazil is, it is gratifying to know that the government has at last abolished the slave-trade, Our author mentions, that by a treaty between Great Britain and Brazil, the latter power agreed to abolish the slave-trade after March 23, 1830. After that time the traffic was to become piracy. This treaty, which was made in 1826, and ratified in 1827, led to a great increase in the number of slaves imported into the country during the succeeding years. The abolition of the trade by Brazil, which was long, we believe, the greatest slave-market in the world, must be regarded as a great triumph of humanity, and will no doubt have a favorable influence upon the moral condition of that country.

Some estimate of the character of the Brazilians may be formed from the state of the periodical press.

The Brazilians are an improving people, and though their literary progress is not great, it is, I imagine, much more so than in any other new state in South America.

'In periodicals, gazettes, and newspapers, they are still more advanced. In the year 1828, there were one hundred and thirty-three periodical papers printed in the whole peninsula, of which twenty-five were published in Brazil; viz. fifteen at Rio, three at Bahia, and the rest at Pernambuco, St. Paul's, St. João d'el Rey, and Villa Rica. Those at Rio were "Imperio do Brazil,' ," "Diario do Rio Janeiro," and "Journal do Commercio," daily; " Analista," " Aurora Fluminense," "Astréa," "Courier du Brézil" (French), three times a week; "Rio Herald" (English), once a week; "Malagueta," "Diario dos Deputados," "D. do Senado," "Despertador Constitutionale," "Censor Brazilico," occasionally; "Espelho Diamantino," monthly; "Propagador," or Annals of Medicine, Zoology, and Botany, yearly.

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"Of these, the "Aurora" is the most decided and liberal. The columns rarely admit foreign news, and are entirely devoted to keeping alive the constitutional spirit. "It is the constitution," it says, "full and reduced to practice, which forms, and is to form, the infallible rule of our social life. is for this we live, for this we have fought, and for this we will fight for ever." The "Diario do Rio Janeiro" is printed on wretched paper, and is scarcely legible; it consists almost entirely of editals and decrees, with from sixty to seventy advertisements.' - Vol. 1. p. 236.

The Analista' is then noticed as an excessively stupid paper, and the organ of the government. The Malagueta' is said to be distinguished for its bitter personalities. Malaguete is the native name for a small species of capsicum, the most biting and pungent of all peppers, as this is of periodicals.'

"The "Courier du Brézil" is written in French, and published on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It gives the fairest and almost the only statement of things passing in the interior, and the news of other countries much more copiously than all the rest; but it is a ministerial paper, and for that reason bitterly denounced. The "Malagueta" charges it with being an emissary of the French government, sent to invade the country beforehand. The "Farol Paulista," a provincial paper, thinks it a crime not to be forgiven, that its editor is a Frenchman; and the "Aurora" denounces it to the police. These opinions are evidences of the exceeding jealousy of the people, and their

suspicions of all strangers, as enemies to their independence and liberty.

The Journal do Commercio," like the "Diario," is printed on wretched paper, and the typography so bad that it is hardly legible, though it is in more demand than any other. It is almost entirely filled with editals and advertisements ; every publication containing from eighty to one hundred. Under the head of "Noticias Particulares," one person is informed, that if he does not bring back the books he borrowed, his name will be made public; another, that a particular person wants to speak to him, and warning him at his peril not to disappoint; a third, that his stagnant water is very offensive, and if he does not throw it out, a neighbour will come and spill it in his parlor. Some curious notices also appear from ladies: — "The senhor, who was in the house of Luiza de Conçeição, in the street of Livradio, No. 1, and who requested from the senhora some paper to write on; and having finished his letter, took from her drawer four milreis in gold, a bank note for eight milreis, and a pair of silk stockings, is requested to restore the articles, if he does not wish to see his name in public. The same favor is requested from the gentleman who carried away her fan, otherwise his name shall also appear.'

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'Distributed frequently with the papers, is a loose sheet, called "Correspondencia: "—it consists of a letter to the editor, attacking some individuals with whom the writer has had a dispute, and it generally contains the most extraordinary libels that ever were published. The editor of the paper, who prints and circulates the libel, incurs no responsibility, provided he does not refuse to print and circulate a libellous answer. I send you one or two specimens, which came to me folded up in my newspapers.

"Retribution. — God being pleased to call from this world to a better, the merchant João Pereira Borba, and he being a man of correct life, wished to prove before his death, by an authentic testimony, that he was an honest man, whose ashes should be respected; and to that end he inserted the following clause in his will:-'I declare that I always have been a neighbour of the merchant José Loureno Dios, a native of S. João d'el Rey, with whom I lived in close friendship; and for that reason, I strictly enjoin my heir not to demand from him a large debt, which he contracted at my store, by his constant and daily visits to the bung of a cask of Catalonian wine; for it would be a burden to my conscience, if what he owes me was demanded, since it was the vicinity of my store to the said merchant's house, that was the real and proximate cause of his

disgracing himself every day, by constant intoxication, by which he has directly and indirectly offended all his countrymen. It would, therefore, be manifest injustice to receive money for that, which renders the merchant this day so contemptible in the eyes of all fellow citizens.

ONE OF THE offended.'

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Such of our readers as desire to know something of the personal appearance and modes of living of the citizens of Rio, will be gratified with the following lively description.

"The manners of the people of Rio, though not polished, are kind and cordial. I had opportunities of witnessing those of all ranks. Immediately after our arrival, we dined with Baron Mareschal, the Austrian plenipotentiary, where I met the whole of the ministry, and other distinguished Brazilians. They were men generally of low stature, and had not the least appearance or pretension of a similar class in Europe. The greater number had been engaged in business, and being men of opulence when the separation of the countries took place, naturally stepped into those situations, formerly occupied by strangers of rank from the parent country. They were men of the plainest manners, laughing, good-humored, and accessible, like common-councilmen at a London feast. Their dress, however, was rich and expensive; and some of them wore large golden keys, attached like small swords to their sides, intimating that they performed the office of chamberlain to his Majesty. Among them was a little man, with a sharp, pockmarked visage, formerly a jeweller, but now the arbiter elegantiarum of the court. He holds no official situation, but has attained the same influence over the Emperor that Halet Effendi possessed over the Sultan when I was at Constantinople. He is familiarly called in Rio, Chalassa, a local term, synonymous, I believe, with bon vivant.

'Shortly after, I was at a ball given by M. Pontois, the French Chargé d'Affaires, where I saw the ladies who composed the beau monde of Rio, dancing waltzes and quadrilles. They, like the men, were remarkably low of stature, with sallow complexions, and dark eyes and hair. The latter was dressed remarkably high, and ornamented with various productions of the country; among these were the shells of a very beautiful species of beetle, of a rich vivid green, more bright and lustrous than the finest emerald. They danced well, and their manners were very affable and unaffected.

'The shop-keepers of Rio are rather repulsive in their ad

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