46 FOOD OF THE NEGROES. 
classes ; the few whites found among them being 
the worst of characters, ignorant and vicious to 
the last degree; their repulsive exterior is worthy 
of their abandoned lives: they are usually 
retail slave dealers, and keep shops where these 
miserable beings are exposed to view, and may 
be examined and purchased like any other ware. 
About twenty thousand negroes are annually 
brought to Brazil ; the average price of a female is 
three hundred, and of a man six hundred piastres. 
The principal food of the negroes is a sort 
of thick paste called Manioc, which is prepared 
from Tapioca by kneading in hot water; to an 
Kuropean palate it has a disagreeable flavour, 
but may be nutritious, as the slaves mostly 
look well-fed; I doubt, however, its being 
wholesome without a mixture of other food, and 
I even think it possible that it may be the 
original cause of a terrible disease to which the 
negroes alone are subject, and of which they 
know nothing in their own country. Large tu- 
mours appear on their faces and legs, which do 
not break, but increase in size till in some of the 
sufferers the human form can scarcely be recog- 
nised. A convent situated on a little island, 
