1826. J Discovery of the Province of Minna Geraes. 263 



This measure, which otherwise would have been praiseworthy could 

 substitutes have been found for tiiu slaves, was so fatal to the miners, 

 that most of them turned to agricultural pursuits, and mining conse- 

 quently decreased; besides, the opening of the Hraziliaii ports to 

 foreigners giving acti\ ity to trade, and to the cultivation of cotton, 

 indigo, tobacco, coffee, &c., the profits accruing from commerce began 

 to be superior to those from mining, wliich requires a very considerable 

 capital, while the operations of husbandry demand little expense. 



The King's ministers, finding the produce of the crown's fifth rapidly 

 decreasing, instead of investigating the real cause, attributed it at 

 once to smuggling, against which they employed means in their judg- 

 ment efficacious, but which only brought matters to the verge of ruin. 



A law forbade the circulation of gold ; whoever possessed an ounce 

 was required to melt it, and whoever had less to exchange it for some 

 small notes which bore a value of from 37^ rees to 600 rees. In a short 

 time the province was inundated with forged paper-money ; the people 

 were ruined, and the notes fell into such discredit that 100,000 rees 

 were not worth 100 rees. 



All this highly disgusted the miners, and the cabinet, in its profound 

 wisdom, decreed it proper to endeavour to calm their irritation by a 

 royal law, which ordained, that whoever had a mine management of 

 twelve slaves should not be liable to be arrested for debt. The law, 

 similar to another of the King Don Joseph in favour of the miners who 

 had thirty slaves, seemed to encourage them ; but as it was encouraging 

 them at the expense of their creditors, it failed to produce the intended 

 effect. The government, obstinately infatuated, persisted in its error, 

 and, in 1818, enlarged this extensive privilege to those who had but 

 one slave ; as if determined to select and collect all the persons of bad 

 faith for the management of mines. The deterioratmg results proved the 

 fallacy and folly of the ministry's expectations. 



The revenue of the King's fifth was almost reduced to a nonentity ; 

 but the government, instead of penetrating into the cause, or perceiving 

 that in the whole province there were not sixty miners each having fifty 

 slaves in effective activity, without which, gold could not be obtained 

 and the fifth thus raised, persevered in attributing the deficiency to 

 smuggling. Precautions were redoubled ; additional gaai-ds were placed 

 at a great expense throughout the province ; patroles were constantly on 

 the alert, harassing and annoying the people in every possible way, 

 but all without producing any advantage. 



At last, in 1819, the government resolved to create an administration, 

 with a numerous assortment of agents, clerks, &c., for the purchase of 

 gold in dust. The object was to buy the gold of the miners, as the 

 smugglers did ; this measure was put into execution, notwithstanding its 

 opposition to the law which created and maintained the mints ; so that 

 two diametrically opposite laws directed the remains of the falling 

 mining system. Tlie second law, however, augmented the value of 

 gold at the rate of its quality, the best being paid 1400 rees for two 

 drachms ; but the revolution which in 1820 took place in the province 

 caused, as in the rest of Brazil, a provisional government to be es- 

 tablished there, which abolished this last law, and made another, raising 

 the value of gold to 1500 rees, as its general value, and giving in ex- 

 change for it coined gold, silver, and copper : it prohibited the entrance 

 and circulation in the province of the Brazilian bank-notes, and re- 



