4.02 Discovery of the Province of Minas Geraes. [April, 



the benefit accruing from the unwilling labour of one of those poor wretches is 

 frequently so trifling, us not to furnish the means of supplying his successor. 



After all I have shewn of its natural wealth, is it not matter of admiration 

 that in the province of Minas Geraes, where so much gold is extracted, there 

 should be found so few rich families and good houses ? But the prosperity of 

 families decays with the industry that raised and sustained it. 



It may be truly said that Portugal has been the butcher of the coast of 

 Africa by her iniquitous practice of exporting its inhabitants as slaves, and of 

 Brazil by bestowing on it the system known under the name of the System of 

 the Mother Country. 



The justice of Providence has ordained that Portugal should herself make an 

 ample atonement to Brazil, by giving her an emperor who seems destined to 

 pay her for the long series of extortions and oppressions she had endured. 

 This young prince, in the midst of revolutions that disturbed Brazil, has 

 excited improvements which present his adopted country, to the civilized world, 

 in a new and promising aspect. The army, navy, commerce, literature, arts, 

 roads, &c., have all received great improvements during the three years he has 

 governed. The establishment of the English mining associations is amongst 

 the most brilliant measures taken by his government for the advance and 

 encouragement of industi-y ; without them it would be impossible to undertake 

 any thing of importance — and the following statement verifies my assertion 

 from experience. 



The king, Don John the Sixth, had sent Baron Echweg, the German before 

 quoted, to Minas Geraes, to investigate the state of mining in the country, 

 and to propose the necessary improvements, but especially to make an analysis 

 of the galena of Andaya. He began his investigations in the year 1812, and, 

 wishing to avail himself of the liberty granted by the king to all foreigners to 

 mine, as well as the natives under the same laws, he erected an engine on the 

 banks of the river that flows by the city of Giro preto, a work which, to use a 

 homely phrase, was " much better for show than for service;" however he put 

 it in action, and, having no Invra of his own, employed his engine to cleanse the 

 grit of stones, that had escaped the miners of the mountain where the river took 

 its course. 



This badly calculated speculation failed for want of a mine, and it is said he 

 did not gather a single ounce of gold ; at length the engine stopt, and the wood 

 which entered into its composition not having been properly chosen, began to 

 decay. The Baron, disquieted for the 3,000,000 rees which he had expended 

 for the engine, endeavoured to sell it, but nobody would buy a machine without 

 lavi-a, and so complicated, and containing such a great quantity of wood, as to be 

 almost useless. He therefore contrived and executed the following ruse. 



He proposed to the king to form a mining company under his direction, which 

 his Majesty granted ; but his ministers, always Portuguese, were fearful to 

 behold Brazil flourishing : they foresaw the good which would result to the 

 country if the king's concession for large capitals was decreed, and wishing, in 

 the event of the monarch's return to Lisbon, to prevent Brazil, in a prosperous 

 state, from assuming the attitude she since has so nobly done, and which they 

 always predicted she would attempt to do — in short anxious that Portugal 

 might not lose those colonies, they managed so ministerially as to have the 

 royal permission dwindled to a decree for a fund of 13,000,000 rees only. 



The Baron, who had not the prosperity of the province in view, but merely the 

 sale of his engine, made no remonstrance to the king, who, in that case, 

 would certainly have revised the decree, but proceeded to Minas to form the 

 company, having found some shareholders in Rio de Janeiro — each share being 

 400,000 rees. 



Thus placed at the " head and front " of the association, the Barorr com- 

 menced by shearing the shareholders of his promised " golden fleece" — in other 

 words, he collected the share-money, and the first thing he bought for the use 

 of the society was his own already rotten engine, for the sura of 2,400,000 rees. 

 When the worthy Baron had so adroitly indemnified himself, and had purchased 

 some slaves for mining, also two lavras, he again put his wits in requisition to 



