or seven miles, attaining, in the peak of the Corcovado, a height of 2,300 feet, and terminating in the true Sugar-loaf Peak, which forms a fine feature in the landscape on the western side of the entrance to the harbor. The outline of this ridge presents in a remarkable manner the figure of a man lying on his back. The sun was sinking in the west as we approached Rio. The aspect of the sky was such as we sometimes see in England towards the close of a stormy day. Broad bands of glowing crimson and luminous yellow extended across the heavens, and the masses of rolling clouds were enriched with the same superb hues. I have compared the scene with the like phenomena in England; but colors so brilliant and varied rarely enrich the grey canopy of Northern Europe. The range of mountains, from the Gavia to the Sugar-loaf, stood out in majestic mass from the glorious background of the western sky; and we gazed in admiration on this beautiful effect of nature until the shades of night closed in upon the scene.

After a short residence of three weeks, it would be presumptuous to pretend to an intimate personal knowledge of Brazilian politics. The following observations, however, are drawn from numerous conversations with well-informed Englishmen long settled in Brazil.

The system of government is constitutional, though it urgently needs reform. The influence of the Ministry is too freely used at elections, and their nominees are brought into Parliament as representatives of constituencies with which they are wholly unacquainted. The members of the Senate are far superior, both in social position and in political knowledge, to the deputies.

The Emperor of Brazil is the only hereditary ruler in South America. The anomaly of his situation is sufficiently obvious, and the prospects of his heir are shadowy in the extreme. The republican system is popular with the unprincipled and ambitious men who usually occupy themselves with the affairs of government in the newly settled countries on the verge of the civilised world. The possibility of his own election to the presidency of his State is present to the mind of many a competitor for power; and all are ready to combine against the NEW SERIES.-VOL. XXVI., No. 4

hereditary principle which shuts the door impartially against all aspirants. The Empire of Brazil is held together but loosely by the existing constitution. It is rather a federation of separate states under an emperor, than a compact and homogeneous empire. If the empire were to be transformed hereafter into a republic, it would be split up into several independent states. Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Sul, and Rio de Janeiro, would each become the seat of a separate government, and a new. focus of intrigue and rapacity.

The reasons why a republican rather than a monarchical form of government would be adopted are not far to seek. 'Those who speculate on change,' says Burke, 'always make a great number among people of rank and fortune, as well as among the low and indigent.' How true is this remark in reference to the affairs of the Old World, and how inevitable is such a condition of men's minds in a new and unsettled community!

The personal influence of the present ruler is the chief security for the maintenance of the imperial style and the monarchical form of government in Brazil. The Emperor, as his habits of life during his visits to Europe testify, is endued with untiring energy. He manifests a deep interest in schools, and frequently opens new educational establishments and training colleges in person. By these manifestations of solicitude for their social elevation, the hearts of the Brazilians are won over to the imperial cause. We know the good effect in England of royal visits to the City and the provincial towns, and of manifestations of sympathy from high quarters with the great cause of social improvement.

At the date of our visit the religious. question was uppermost in the public mind in Brazil. Freemasonry flourishes throughout the Empire, and the Pope had recently promulgated an edict that all Freemasons were to be deprived of the privileges of membership of the Church of Rome. The course which the Emperor would take was a subject of deepÎy interesting speculation. It was the opinion of many that his throne would be rudely shaken should he lend his support to the papal edict of exclusion, directed against a body of men who are

28

strongly imbued with liberal, not to say republican, ideas.

From Monday, the 21st of August, to Thursday, the 24th, we were absent from the Sunbeam' on an excursion to Petropolis, Entre Rios, and Rio Bonito. The journey is accomplished for the first fifteen miles by steamer across the bay, thence for fifteen miles by railway, thence for eighteen miles by coach. Its most remarkable feature is the ascent from the railway, by an admirably engineered road, not inferior to the great works of a similar kind in Switzerland, to a pass where the road crosses a spur of the Organ mountains, at an elevation of 2,400 feet, and thence descends to Petropolis. The scenery recalls to memory the Simplon or the St. Gothard. The distant views of the plain and the harbor of Rio de Janeiro suggest a comparison with the fair prospect over the Lago Maggiore and the plains of Lombardy.

Petropolis is a small town, surrounded by numerous villas charmingly situated. Here the Emperor has a palace to which he retires in the hot season. We made an interesting excursion into the virgin forest. It is a dense jungle of palms, bamboos, tree ferns, and tropical hard wood trees. The larger trees are bound together by parasitical plants, and thus the steepest slopes are clothed with an impenetrable vegetation. Here we first began to realise the difficulties of colonisation in the tropics. The task of clearing the ground for cropping is so arduous that a luxuriant crop must be grown, or the laborer cannot be repaid for his toil. The wood is felled and then burnt. The following description, in an official report on the colony of Assunguy, from Mr. Lennon Hunt, our consul at Rio, gives some idea of the work which colonists in Brazil are compelled to undertake :

The land of Assunguy varies considerably in quality; much of it is extremely fertile, this depending upon the more or less recent decomposition of the granitic base, and the quantity of decayed vegetation of earlier growths resting on the surface; but it is not of a kind that can be ultimately reduced, and possessed in a manner understood in Europe. It rises at angles varying from 35° to 75° from the level of the mule-paths, called roads. When the virgin forest is cleared, it produces one or two most abundant crops; it is then necessary to allow it again to be covered with wild

growth, which, after being cleared and burnt, in three or four years will again give one or two rich crops. But wherever the steep land may be cleared to a large extent, the tropical rains falling on the denuded surface will carry the greater part of the rich but scanty alluvium into the rivers.

A laborer, therefore, on this soil, would be in a worse position, after a few years, than one who had cultivated the poorer, but clear and level, soil of the table land, which will improve every year, even with the limited quantity of manure it is likely to receive.

The native Brazilians are not therefore very unwise in their generation. They do not attempt to reduce and occupy permanently these forest lands. They select and clear a patch of forest, burn the undergrowth, and one The cultivator moves on to a new field, where or two marvellous crops are then produced.

the same operation is repeated.

It is impossible, on the land in Assunguy, to use any but the most elementary aids to agriculture. The only patch of land I saw in any portion of the colony, where it would be possible to use a plough, was the acre and a half which forms the central square of the colony.

The colony of Petropolis, with which we are at this moment more particularly concerned, is thus described by Mr. Eden, a former member of the British legation at Rio, and the author of an able pamphlet entitled Brazilian Colo

nisation :

In 1845 was created that miserable delusion, that imperial starveling, the colony of Petropolis. There, on narrow slopes of crumbling gneiss, always between a torrent and a crag, was founded one of the most numerous German settlements of the empire, and here German assiduity and sobriety have managed, and still manage, to subsist on meagre thankless plots of ground. But even this poor result is only owing to the artificial stim ulus of the Emperor's summer residence, and ists flying the heats of Rio. to the money brought by [wealthy excursion

As we rode through the forest, and here and there came upon small clearances not exceeding in extent the gardens usually allotted to our English farm laborers, and producing little more than the vegetables which a single family might consume, it was abundantly evident that the emigrants to Petropolis have not been able to eke out their livelihood by agriculture alone. The dwellings erected by the settlers are small and built of wood, and the doorsteps were thronged by blue-eyed flaxen-haired children, who have not yet lost tra ces of their Saxon origin. We were told that, in the second generation, the

German settlers usually abandon the use of their native tongue, and speak Portuguese.

Viewed as a field for British emigration, the advantages offered by Brazil are decidedly inferior to those afforded in our own colonies. The climate is tropical, and therefore utterly unsuited for the natives of northern regions. The following observations, extracted from the recent report of Mr. Phipps, are conclusive on the subject:

Numerous attempts have been made by the Government, at great expense, to found colonies of European immigrants, but none can be said to have proved successful, with the exception of one or two German colonies established in Rio Grande, at the southernmost extremity of the empire, where the climate is

temperate.

The difficulty with respect to the northern provinces is, that if the immigrants establish mate will probably kill them, sooner or later, should they devote themselves to agriculture; and if they penetrate into the interior to the table-lands, where the climate is comparatively healthy, no roads exist for the transport of their produce to a market, and they find

themselves on or near the coast line, the cli

themselves isolated in a wilderness.

Constant applications are addressed to this consulate by British subjects as to the advantages offered by Brazil to immigrants, and it may be as well to state here that [no recommendation can be given to such persons to choose this country: not only is the climate antagonistic to European constitutions through out the whole of the tropical portion of the country, but import duties have arrived at that point where the impression is left that they have long passed the limit of productiveness to the Treasury and check consumption, and the duties on the principal articles of produce have reached the enormous amount of 13 per cent on coffee and cotton, and 9 per cent on sugar.

While a work on Brazil, just published, speaks in glowing terms of the openings for British immigrants, and the social advancement that awaits them, a subscription is now in course of collection from the British residents to enable a considerable number of their fellow-subjects of both sexes to return to their own country.

They therefore undertook a most grave responsibility, who, in the excitement of the late strikes of the agricultural laborers, gave counsel to the guileless people of Somersetshire and Gloucestershire to bid farewell, in favor of such a change, to their rude but invigorating climate and the land in which, though they did not prosper as the friends of the progress of humanity might desire, they nevertheless enjoyed the protection of equal laws and

enlightened government, a religion adapted to their needs, and the precious sympathy of race and religion with the mass of their fellow-citizens. Vain indeed were the hopes they cherished of improving their condition by settling in a less favored country.

If I have dwelt at some length on the subject of emigration, it is because I should have deemed it a neglect of my duty if, after having visited those distant countries, and ascertained their unsuitability for English settlers, I did not utter a word of warning to my poor but enterprising fellow-countrymen.

Acting-Consul Austin, in his report on the trade of Rio for the year 1875, describes in earnest language the measures necessary for the purpose of attracting to the shores of Brazil emigrants from civilised, industrious, and physically endowed races, who will intermarry with the native population, and impart to the Brazilian people that intellectual capacity and bodily vigor in which they are undoubtedly deficient. Hitherto Brazil has discouraged Protestant immigration by the intolerance of the laws relating to matrimonial contracts and the rights accruing to the children of Protestant parents. No candidate, not being a Roman Catholic, is allowed to take his seat in the Chamber of Deputies.

The prices of waste lands should be gradually reduced. The cultivation of the unoccupied territory should be commenced in the vicinity of populous centres, instead of planting immigrants in a wilderness, without roads or means of disposing of their produce or obtaining supplies. Lastly, if a land tax were to be imposed, it would have the effect of compelling the proprietors of extensive domains which they make no effort to bring under cultivation, either to use their lands themselves, or to dispose of them to others.

Coffee is by no means the only product of the fertile soil of Brazil. Mandioca, from which tapioca is prepared, yields a result superior to that derived from coffee, sugar-cane, cotton, and nearly all other articles of produce; and, as Mr. Austin observes, it demands less care, and scarcely any capital.

On Thursday, the 24th of August, we visited the coffee plantation or fazenda of the Baron de Rio Bonito. This weal

thy planter has received a well-merited title in recognition of his kindness to a band of unfortunate English emigrants who came out to Rio a few years ago, and found the colony they were to occupy not ready to receive them, and the capital decimated with yellow fever. In this emergency, the Baron took the emigrants up to his establishment in the country, and for some months provided them with food and shelter.

On the present occasion we were most hospitably received. The fazenda consists of a vast courtyard paved with concrete, on which the coffee is spread to dry. Round three sides of the courtyard there is a range of single stone buildings, containing the dormitory for the slaves, the residence of the proprietor, and in one corner a small chapel. The staff of the establishment includes a priest, and several accountants, foremen, and heads of departments.

Shortly after our arrival, we were taken to the chapel. The door opened into a long verandah, which commanded a view of the altar. Presently the slaves, divided into companies of girls, boys, women, and men, were seen advancing, in a picturesque yet orderly procession, the yard, and thence up the verandah to the door, at the threshold of which they stopped. The priest then performed mass. During the greater portion of the service the negroes sang several chants with a degree of musical art too rarely attained in the village churches of England.

across

I had never before been in personal contact with the institution of slavery; and the reflection that the large congregation before us was composed of people living in a state of bondage was inexpressibly sad. Nor did the privation of personal liberty seem a less intolerable misfortune because the slaves were well fed, well clothed, and well housed. As the voices of the little negroes, who stood in front of the congregation, were lifted up in touching harmony to heaven, they recalled the hymn taught in the early days of infancy to every English child

I was not born a little slave
To labor in the sun,

And wish I were but in the grave,
And all my labor done.

My God, I thank thee, who hast planned A better lot for me.

Baron Rio Bonito is the owner of three coffee plantations and 1,500 slaves. His establishment, at which we were received, is most complete. It contains a hospital, a flour mill, a sugar refinery, an apparatus for making potash, a distillery, and a well-equipped forge and smithy.

An able-bodied slave in a liberally managed fazenda is employed about nine hours a day in field labor. His food is abundant, and he receives medical attendance and hospital treatment, without deduction from any savings which he may have accumulated.

The annual value of the labor of a good slave is estimated at 8ol., and the cost of his maintenance at 157. A piece of land is allotted to each slave, the produce of which is bought by the owner at the market price. By working on Sundays for the whole day the slave can make about 2s. 7d. The accounts, to which the slave can have access, are kept by the master.

Each slave has a small hut, which he occupies with his family during the day. At 9 P.M. all the working hands are required to retire to their respective dormitories, where they are locked up during the night, and whence they are despatched with absolute punctuality to their work in the morning.

The importation of negroes from Africa has long since ceased. Formerly as many as 40,000 slaves have been introduced into Brazil in the course of a year. In 1871 a measure was introduced and accepted by the legislature for the abolition of slavery. The report by Mr. Phipps on the trade of Brazil for 1872 contains a detailed statement on the subject of the emancipation of slaves. Its main provisions are that all children born of slave women shall be considered free, but shall remain at the charge of the owners of their mothers until they shall have completed the age of eight years. When the child is at that age, the owner of the mother will have the option of receiving 60l. from the State as compensation (in which case the child will be received by the Government and disposed of according to the provisions

of the law), or else may have the use of the child's services for thirteen years until he attains his majority.

It was proposed to form the emancipation fund with the proceeds of the tax on slaves, and the tax on the transmission of property in slaves.

In 1871, the number of slaves was estimated at 1,609,673. The number of births was little more than half the number of deaths among the slave population, and the joint result of the decrease in the total number, and of the manumissions, which are constantly taking place, was to cause an annual net decrease at the rate of 42 per cent.

Notwithstanding the recent legislation,

the market value of the slaves is increasing. Formerly an able-bodied slave could be bought for 20., or less than the price of a horse. Now more than 200l. is often paid for a man in the prime of life. Untrained female slaves are worth 40 per cent less than men. Women, if clever in sewing, cooking, or household work, command higher prices than men not trained in field or domestic labor. It is equally strange and repugnant to see the columns of the Brazilian newspapers crowded with advertisements inserted by persons anxious to buy or to sell these unfortunate bonds

men.

Mrs. Brassey's diary contains the following description of the modus operandi of the Brazilian slave trade :

We have all been much interested in the

about a quarter of an hour. Twenty-two men and eleven women and children were then brought in for inspection. They were suitable for a variety of occupations, indoor and out, and all appeared to look anxiously at their possible purchaser, with a view to ascertain what they had to hope for in the future. One couple in particular, a brother and sister, about fourteen and fifteen years old respectively, were most anxious not to be separated, but to be sold together; and the tiny children seemed quite frightened at being spoken to or touched by the white men. Eight men and five subjects for further consideration, the visit women having been specially selected as fit terminated.

The daily Brazilian papers are full of advertisements of slaves for sale, and descriptions of men, pigs, children, cows, pianos, women, houses, &c., to be disposed of, are inserted in

the most indiscriminate manner.

The work of renewing a coffee plantation is most arduous. The plants will not bear fruit more than twenty-five years, after which period they are cut down, and holes are dug to receive new plants. Again, the task of picking the coffee is most laborious, partly on account of the heat, partly because the task exacted is very severe. An unskilled European could not pick more than three bushels of coffee daily. From a slave nine to ten bushels are required.

The slaves are utterly ignorant. Baron Rio Bonito, kind as he is, in so far at least as a slaveowner can be kind to his herd of slaves, considers it quite unnecessary, not to say impolitic, to establish elementary schools on his plantations. On many coffee estates the

slaves to be sold or hired; so Mr. O'Connor kindly made arrangements with a Brazilian gentleman that some of our party should have an opportunity of seeing something of the way No Englishman is allowed to hold slaves here, and it is part of the business of the Legation to see that this law is strictly enforced. The secrets of their trade are accordingly jealously guarded by the natives, especially from the English. The gentlemen of our party therefore made themselves look as much like for eigners as possible, one of them pretending to be a rich Yankee who, in conjunction with a compatriot, had purchased large estates down South, between Santos and San Paulo,' which, after some deliberation, they had deter mined to work with slave instead of coolie

in which these transactions are carried on.

labor. He had therefore come to Rio to se

lect some slaves, but would have to see and consult his partner before deciding to purchase any. They were taken to a small shop

in the city, and, after some delay, were conducted to a room upstairs, where they waited

to labor, under terror of the lash, to the utmost point which the human frame will endure. Even under liberal planters, we may be sure that all the labor is required from the slave of which he is believed to be fairly capable.

Until a very recent period, Brazilian coffee commanded the lowest price in the market. It was the practice to dry the berry on earthen floors, which destroyed the flavor. Concrete has now been substituted by the best planters, in imitation of the methods adopted in Egypt and Ceylon; and the result has been a marked improvement in quality. The value of Brazilian coffee has lately risen to a guinea for an arroba, a measure containing thirty-two pounds weight. A few years ago the price did not exceed ten shillings.