290 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
tern of recruiting, or rather the utter want of system, 
leads to the most terrible abuse of authority in raising 
men for the army. I believe that the law provides for a 
constitutional draft levied equally on all classes, excluding 
meli below or above a certain age, or having certain respon- 
sibilities at home. But if such a law exists it is certainly 
not enforced ; recruiting parties, as bad as the old " press- 
gangs ' of England, go out into the forest and seize the 
Indians wherever they can find them. All who resist this 
summary treatment or show any inclination to escape are 
put into prison till the steamer leaves, by which they are 
despatched to Para and thence to the army. The only 
overcrowded room I saw at the prison was that where 
the recruits were confined. Coming from a country where 
the soldier is honored, where men of birth and education 
have shown that they are not ashamed to serve in the ranks 
if necessary, it seemed to me strange and sad to see these 
men herded with common criminals. The record of the 
province of the Amazonas will read well in the history 
of the present war, for the number of troops contributed 
is very large in proportion to the population. But as 
most of them are obtained in this way, it may be doubted 
whether the result is a very strong evidence of patriotism. 
The abuses mentioned above are not, however, confined to 
these remote regions.* It is not uncommon, even in the 
* Much of what follows upon social abuses, tyranny of the local police, 
prison discipline, &c., though not quoted in his own words, has been gathered 
from conversations with Mr. Agassiz, or from discussions between him and his 
Brazilian friends. The way in which this volume has grown up, being as it 
were the result of a double experience, makes it occasionally difficult to draw 
the exact line marking the boundaries of authorship ; the division being 
indeed somewhat vague in the minds of the writers themselves. But since 
criticisms of this so r t would have little value, except as based upon larger 
opportunities for observation than fell to my share, I am the more anxiou- 
to refer them, wherever I can, to their right source. 
