390 RECOLLECTIONS OF BRAZIL. 



by the jealousy of the province of Moranham, will now be rapidly 

 developed by foreign science and intelligence." Here I bowed of 

 course very low ; but not to fatigue my readers with the whole of this 

 celebrated oration, I will briefly relate the object of a visit which he 

 had previously, he said delayed so long, the better to lull the suspi- 

 cions of his neighbours. At Villa Vicoza, formerly a Jesuit Mission, 

 then about twenty leagues from our place of residence, he told me 

 there was a large field, covered with innumerable tumuli, bearing an 

 inscription ; from earliest infancy it had occurred to him, that these 

 inscriptions related to some treasure buried there by the Indians; 

 and which by means of my knowledge of languages, which he had 

 taken into his head was extraordinary, he felt confident might now be 

 discovered. If these inscriptions, said I, are as I suspect, in the abo- 

 riginal language of Brazil, I must candidly tell you, I can be of no 

 service to you in this matter. However I offered to accompany him, as 

 I had long intended visiting the spot; it was therefore agreed between 

 us, in order to excite no suspicion, that I should give out I was going 

 to spend a week at his house, which was about a league from the 

 villa. We must be cautious was his expression, for when you the 

 least expect it, you are closely watched. The third morning after 

 this conversation, saw us on our road towards Villa Vicoza, and the 

 nearer we approached this supposed El Dorado, the spirit of my sin- 

 gular companion appeared proportionably to rise ; he laughed, talked 

 and frequently sang con amore, some stanzas of the patriot hymn. 



" Brava gente Brazilera, longe vai temor servila, 

 Ou ficar a Patria livre, ou morrer Pelo Brazila." 



My own attention and reflections were directed into other channels, 

 for upwards of two years not a drop of rain had fallen in this part of 

 Brazil, the crops had failed, the cattle had all died, and famine, and 

 its concomitant disease was making frightful havoc among the inha- 

 bitants. We met columns of these unfortunate creatures, coming 

 from the interior to the banks of the Pernaiba, where they could at 

 least find water, and their appearance beggared description. Yet 

 such was their indolence, that although living as they did upon the 

 banks of a mighty river, the banks of which were so low, that by the 

 simplest mechanical process, a great portion of the country might 

 have been irregated, and the effects of the drought neutralized, no 

 such attempt was made, and upwards of 5000 people actually pe- 

 rished by famine, which the slightest modicum of industry might 

 have averted. Here was an instance of the empire of climate, ac- 

 cording to Montesquieu, le premier de tons les empires, unmitigated in 

 its intensity by the operation of moral causes. From what I wit- 

 nessed not only there, but in other parts of Brazil during a residence 

 of nine years, I have no hesitation in expressing my confident convic- 

 tion, that the abolitionists will be woefully mistaken, in their calcula- 

 tions of the supposed results of free labour It is perfectly absurd to 

 cite India as an example, their population presses so narrowly on the 

 means of subsistence, that the Hindoo has but the alternative to 

 labour or to starve ; but the reverse is the case in the western world, 

 where as long as one day's labour will suffice for the subsistence of 



