412 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



not yet reached the higher ranks 

 of life, as gentlemen, as planters, 

 and as merchants. Some of them 

 have accumulated considerable 

 sums of money, and possess many 

 slaves, to whom they teach their 

 own trade, or these slaves are 

 taught other mechanical employ- 

 ments by which they may become 

 useful. They work for their 

 owners, and render to them great 

 profits, for every description of 

 labour is high, and that which 

 requires any degree of skill bears 

 even a higher comparative value 

 than the departments of wluch a 

 knowledge is more easily attained. 

 The best church and image painter 

 of Pernambuco is a black man, 

 who has good manners, and quite 

 the air of a man of some import- 

 ance, though he does not by any 

 means assume too much. The 

 negroes are excluded from the 

 priesthood, and from the offices 

 which the mulattos may obtain 

 through their evasion of the law, 

 but which the decided and une- 

 quivocal colour of (he negro en- 

 tirely precludes him from aspiring 

 to. la law all persons who aie 

 not white, and are born free, class 

 equally ; manumitted slaves are 

 placed upon the same footing as 

 persons born free. However, 

 although the few exclusions which 

 exist against the negroes are de- 

 grading, still in some instances 

 they are befriended by them. 

 They are imable, owing to tlieir 

 colour, to serve in the regiments 

 of the line, or in any regiments 

 excepting those wliich aie exclu- 

 sively their own ; but by means of 

 this retvulation tliey escape the 

 persecutions under Avhich the other 

 casts suffer during the time of re- 

 cruiting. The officers and men 



of the Heniique regiments are so 

 united to each otlier, that the pri- 

 vates and subalterns are less liable 

 to be oppressed by any white man 

 in office even than the soldiers of 

 the mulatto regiments. Of these 

 latter the officers, having a con- 

 siderable tinge of white, some- 

 times lean towards the wishes of 

 the oapitam-mor, or some other 

 rich white officer, instead of pro- 

 tecting his soldiers. 



The men whose occupation it is 

 to appreliend runaway negroes, 

 are, almost without exception, 

 Creole blacks ; they are called 

 capitaens-do-campo, captains of 

 the field ; and are subject to a 

 capitam-mor-do-campo who re- 

 sides in Recife, and they receive 

 their commissions eitlier from the 

 governor or from this officer. By 

 these they are authorised to ap- 

 prehend and take to tlieir owners 

 any slaves who may be found 

 absent from their homes without 

 their master's consent. Several 

 of these men are to be found in 

 every district, employing them- 

 selves in such pursuits as they 

 think fit, when their services are 

 not required in that calling which 

 forms their particular duty- They 

 are men of undaunted courage, 

 and are usually followed by two 

 or three dogs, which are trained 

 to seek out, and if necessary to 

 attack and bring to the ground 

 those per.sons whose apprehension 

 their masters are desirous of effect- 

 ing. The men who bear these 

 commissions can oblige any un- 

 authorised person to give up to 

 them an apprehended negro, for 

 the purpose of being by them re- 

 turned to his owner. 



It is scarcely necessary to name 

 the mestizos, for they usually class 



with 



