102 A NATURALIST ON THE " CHALLENGER." 



self, and was driving cows along the road. He conld neither 

 read nor write. 



Onr host was an emigrant from the Hartz District. He had 

 been ont in Brazil about 14 years, and had a farm of several 

 hundred acres, most of which was grass land ; the grass growing 

 where sugar had once been planted. He bought cattle and sheep at 

 Feira St. Anna, kept them some time on his farm, and then killed 

 them and sold the meat in St. Amaro and the district. He also 

 grew a large patch of sugar-cane, which was ground at a large 

 mill close by, he receiving half the sugar produced as his share. 

 He had bought one slave : all foreigners, except English, being 

 allowed to possess slaves in Brazil. The slave was married to a 

 girl, who was principal servant in the house. The farmer had 

 assisted the girl to buy her freedom. 



Frau Wilkens, his wife, who had no children, described the 

 girl as most trustworthy, honest, and deeply attached. Her 

 small child, a chubby little negro, was a great pet in the house. 

 The greater part of the work on the farm was done by slaves 

 hired from the owners of neighbouring plantations. There was a 

 row of about thirty very small wooden houses or huts on a 

 neighbouring hill, where the slaves belonging to the owner of the 

 sugar mill lived. 



Cassava or Mandiocea, which is a Euphorbiaceous plant, 

 allied to our common spurge, was also grown on the estate, 

 and there was a small manufactory of farinha. The Cassava 

 (JatropJm manihot) is an indigenous South American plant, 

 though now widely spread in the tropics, and was cultivated in 

 Brazil by the original inhabitants, before they were molested 

 by Europeans. The plant is not unlike the castor-oil plant 

 in appearance, and is planted in rows slightly banked up. 



The tubers are long and spindle shaped. The preparation of 

 them was conducted in a small hut. A large fly-wheel was 

 turned by a negro, and drove, by means of a band, at a rapid 

 rate, a small grinding wheel provided with iron cutting teeth. 

 The cassava root, which had been peeled and washed by a 

 negress, was reduced to a coarse meal by means of the grinding 

 wheel. The meal was then put into a wooden trough, and a 

 board was tightly pressed upon it by means of a lever, heavily 



