Chap, iv.] SLAVERY IN BRAZIL. 9 1 



When I reached the ship I found that a case of yellow fever 

 had occurred on board. This determined our immediate de- 

 parture, and we sailed for Tristan da Cunha direct, being 

 obliged to hasten to cold weather, for fear of other cases break- 

 ing out. We thus missed our intended visit to the islands of 

 Trinidad and Martin Vas, to which I had looked forward with 

 the greatest interest, since they are the only islands in tiie 

 Atlantic the flora and fauna of which are absolutely unknown. 



A word or two about slavery in Brazil. A law is now in 

 force by which every child born in the country is free, and 

 further, a master is obliged to free a slave if the slave can raise 

 a sufficient sum to buy himself off The value to be paid is 

 fixed by a Government valuer, and the sum is always fixed as 

 low as possible by him. Slaves commonly buy themselves off, 

 and a Society exists which assists them to do so, advancing the 

 money on loan, and receiving it back by instalments. Slaves 

 also go round and collect money from charitable people to assist 

 them in the matter. The fact that the children become free, 

 and that the slaves can buy themselves off so cheaply, has 

 made them fall very much in value. A female slave's time is 

 much taken up with her children, whom a master has to feed, 

 although after all they do not belong to him. Hence a strong 

 young man was worth, at the time of our visit, only about 

 ^120, and a young woman about ^70 to ^80. 



The slaves, however, do not often change hands. Old 

 families pride themselves on the numbers of their hereditary 

 slaves, and often having fallen in the world and being poorly off, 

 have nevertheless a dozen slaves, for whom they find hardly 

 any work, and whom they can scarcely afford to keep. These 

 slaves are much attached to their masters, and often their 

 masters to them. A member of the House of Assembly has 

 been known to refuse to speak on an occasion of importance, 

 because his foster-brother, a slave, had just died. 



The slaves are hired out as servants : and foreign residents, 

 especially English, who cannot hold slaves, hire them as domes- 

 tic servants. They make the engagements with the slaves 

 themselves, and pay them the wages, and the slaves carry these 

 wages to their owners, who, if kind ones, give them a fourth 

 part or so as a present. Other slaves are hired from the 

 owners, but not the best ones. At the best hotel in Bahia, 

 kept by a German, most of the servants were thus hired slaves. 

 The proprietor said that was much better than buying slaves, 

 since when they were ill you sent them back to their owners 

 and got fresh ones. 



Owners also employ their slaves as sellers of various goods 

 in the streets. The slaves are usually well treated, but in some 



