FAZENDA LIFE. 121 



emancipation is considered there a subject to be discussed, 

 legislated upon, adopted ultimately, and it seems no uncom- 

 mon act to present a slave with his liberty. In the evening, 

 while taking coffee on the terrace after dinner, we had very 

 good music from a brass-band composed of slaves belonging 

 to the estate. The love of the negroes for music is always 

 remarkable, and here they take pains to cultivate it. Sen- 

 hor Breves keeps a teacher for them, and they are really 

 very well trained. At a later hour we had the band in 

 the house and a dance by the black children which was 

 comical in the extreme. Like little imps of darkness they 

 looked, dancing with a rapidity of movement and gleeful 

 enjoyment with which one could not but sympathize. 

 While the music was going on, every door and window 

 was filled with a cloud of dusky faces, now and then a 

 fair one among them ; for here, as elsewhere, slavery 

 brings its inevitable and heaviest curse, and white slaves 

 are by no means uncommon. The next morning we left 

 the fazenda, not on mule-back, however, but in one of 

 the flat-bottomed coifee-boats, an agreeable exchange for 

 the long, hot ride. "We were accompanied to the landing 

 by our kind hosts, and followed by quite a train of blacks, 

 some of them bringing the baggage, others coming only for 

 the amusement of seeing us off. Among them was the 

 old black woman who gave us the heartiest cheers of all, 

 as we put off from the shore. The sail down the river was 

 very pleasant ; the coffee-bags served as cushions, and, with 

 all our umbrellas raised to make an awning, we contrived 

 to shelter ourselves from the sun. Neither was the journey 

 without excitement, the river being so broken by rocks in 

 many places that there are strong rapids, requiring a skilful 

 navigation. 



