182G.J Discovery of the Province of Minas Geraes. 4Ul 



Througliout the whole province there ure crystals of all qualities. 

 In the Arrail dos Poreos, in Sahara, there are very fine niarhlc quarries, 

 which are made no use of. 



In the Certoens, and even in Sahara, is found a sort of soapy stone, that 

 serves for pots, kettles, and vases, which are fire-proof. In Rio tie Cantos there 

 is a large quarry of this stone, which is worked like jasper, and has nearly the 

 same consistency ; its colour is white and diaphanous — some have blue, green, 

 fleshcolour, and red veins. 



It cannot he said that Minas Geraes is mined, since the want of method, 

 knowledge and means has annihilated mining. The mountains may be called 

 still virgins ; and if sometimes there is an excavation, it only evidences the su- 

 perficial skill of the miners, who, in fact, merely extract what nature mani- 

 fests to them.* 



The Portuguese domination was the cause of arresting this important bx'anch 

 of human industry, from an apprehension that Brazil, fruitful in materials for 

 exciting the active energies of man, might at length employ those energies in a 

 still more golden cause — to shake off the iron yoke that had too long and too 

 blightingly oppressed her; but, in spite of all the steps taken by the late«^p- 

 mother country, to undermine ciUCTprizc and check the slow but sure progression 

 of human knowledge, Brazil is now independent, and, like the precious dia- 

 monds of her loo long neglected soil, freed from base dross and unnatural alloy, 

 begins to shine forth in her native and unsullied splendour. The system of 

 the defunct government was entirely a system of prohibition j a capitalist of 

 400,000,000 rees could not, in consequence, find employment for such a sum, 

 or any thing near it, in Brazil. 



Moreover, it was not permitted to form companies for any purpose whatever. 

 The melting of iron was forbidden that the miners might be compelled to buy 

 it of the government at the rate of 300 rees per pound. Gunpowder, salt, 

 and, in short, every thing arrived at Minas so overcharged with duties, that it 

 was impossil)le to form large establishments. Add to this that the Portuguese 

 did not excite any improvement whatsoever, their whole and sole aim being 

 to procure gold and then to return to Portugal ; and they looked upon it as be- 

 neath them to form a matrimonial connexion with a Brazilian woman, however 

 superior to them she might be in birth and fortune. The degrading system of 

 slavery, dreadful for its victims is, as it were by retriLiitive justice, equally 

 ruinous for their masters. Slaves are a bad race and growing worse every dayj-f- 



Manoel Vierra gave to the King Don Jolm VI. in 1811. It was registered for . 

 16,000,000 rees, the sum offered for it by some Englishmen at Rio. 



• In the year 1789, when P. . F. . V. . was Intendenle do Oi-o do Sahara, a miner 



appeared in that intendancy witii a large chest full of a white mineral, who addressed 



lumseif to a gentleman, stating that he had discovered a mine of the same metal, and 



not knowing what to make of it, had brought it to be examined. " If it should prove 



to be silver," said he, " my fortune is made, for there is a great quantity in my fields ; 



but if it turns out to be only tin, why then I shall be less rich." Tlie founder took a 



parcel of it, and perceiving that it had no ductility, told him it was a metal bravo (base 



metal). The man retired leawng the metal, and they had not the precaution to take 



his name. It is said that though he came afterwards to inquire whether any trial had 



been made of it, nobody had thought proper to take the trouble of ascertaining its 



quality ! In 1802 or 1803, the founder, being dead, was succeeded m hLs place by 



Antonio dos Santas Pereira, who deemed it his duty to examine this same melal bravo ,- 



Lhe accordingly submitted it to the ordeal of the coppel, and extracted gold at the rate 



M)f 24-32, iron 3-32, and platina 3-32. The great quantity of metal it contained being 



Tms proved, it was melted on accomit of him who could show the place whence it had 



een extracted, and the fact was made as public as possible. The owmer, however, did 



ot appear, and the bar is still existing. The founder supposed it to be a mixture of 



letals produced by some volcanic convulsion, since it seemed to him to have undeigone 



|« fusion. It is of an ash-colour, and exhaled some sulphur when melting. This trea- 



■ sure must, doubtless, have been found in the Camarca of Sahara. 



f ^But they who degrade their fellow-men to slaves, are more detestable. — Trans. 

 M. M. New Series.— Vol. I. No. 4:. 3 F 



