Metalliferous Deposits of Brazil. 63 



well as the Californian, are still on the increase. The value of Bra- 

 zilian workings seems never to have much exceeded one million a 

 year, and it has for a long time been on the decline ; the present 

 produce is calculated by the best authorities at about 6,000 or 7,000 

 lbs. of gold per annum, worth from £220,000 to £270,000 ; of 

 which about one-half is extracted from mines worked by British skill 

 and capital. 



The gold of Candonga, Gongo, and Bananal is alloyed with Palla- 

 dium, as well as with some silver, and a little platina ; at Fazondao 

 it is mixed with native copper, and this is probably the case in 

 several other mines ; at Morro Sao Vicente, large quantities of 

 Tellurium are mixed with the gold ; and the sulphuret of bismuth 

 was occasionally found at Catta Branca. Crystallized gold is rare, 

 but the little which occurs is chiefly obtained from the present beds 

 of rivers ; whence, like our own crystalline minerals, it is doubtless 

 derived from the shallower portions of the veins or strata. Iron ore 

 of the richest description occurs in inexhaustible abundance ; and 

 the only circumstance which can interfere with that metal becoming 

 hereafter the staple of Brazil, is the indiscriminate destruction of 

 the forests, and the absence of coal. 



The author never saw a regular cross-vein in any part of Brazil, 

 but was informed by the intelligent German engineer, Mr Von 

 Helmreichen, that wide granitic cross-veins traversed the gold vein 

 at Candonga. — With the assistance of Eschwege's Statistical Ac- 

 counts, he estimates the number of labourers employed in extracting 

 gold at about 13,000, of whom perhaps 10,000 are slaves, and the 

 remainder freemen ; and, comparing their numbers with the produce 

 of their labour before-mentioned, it appears that each person collects 

 on an average only about twenty pounds sterling worth of gold in 

 the year. So small a return must long since have led to the aban- 

 donment of this pursuit were it not for the extremely cheap manner 

 in which the natives and their slaves are supported ; — and for the 

 stimulus afforded by the immense prizes even yet found by the more 

 fortunate miners. Still, wiuh every possible allowance, it appears that 

 capital may be invested in our own mines with far greater chances 

 of success than are offered by the Brazilian gold workings. 



About 2,000 slaves are employed in the Anglo Brazilian mines ; 

 of whom perhaps 1,200 are the property of the companies; the 

 remainder are hired from native slave-owners ; they are all well fed, 

 clothed, and housed. But notwithstanding our laws prohibit British 

 subjects from 'purchasing negroes, it is deeply to be lamented that 

 they are silent on the subject of hiring ; a circumstance still taken 

 ample advantage of by too many of our countrymen, who thus 

 supply themselves with slave labour, and thereby give the African 

 slaver countenance and encouragement ; whilst they as directly con- 

 tribute to the profit of his abominable traffic as if they had been 

 actually buyers. 



