Captaincy of Rio s de Senna. 59 



interior of 90,000 square leagues. It is, however, necessary 

 that I should make some reflections on the foregoing tables 

 of exports and imports. 



Amongst the importations, are mentioned so icles, 



which so" far from being brought to the Rios de Senna, ought, 

 if the inhabitants were industrious agriculturalists, and the 

 population eqvivalent to the extent of the country, to be 

 made the principal articles of exportation, — such are rum, 

 sugar, soap, and pitch ; and let it be particularly noted, that 

 the culture of sugar is not unknown, and the rum extracted 

 from it, is a great article of consumption in the country, and 

 constitutes at the same time a material part of the interior 

 traffic. The different liquids mentioned cannot be exactly 

 valued, because the barrels are of different sizes and content- ; 

 and indeed much confusion arises in the Rios de Senna about 

 measures, an inconvenience which can only be remedied 

 effectually by the residence of artificers capable of making 

 them. 



If we except the gold, ivory, and slaves, all the other ex- 

 ports are of little value. It may not here be improper to de- 

 monstrate the truth of a proposition too often overlooked by 

 the inhabitants of the Captaincy, viz.: — That any of the or- 

 dinary estates held under the crown, if they were brought in- 

 to cultivation and planted with coffee, cotton, sugar, indigo, 

 tobacco, maize, millet, and legumes, would furnish for exporta- 

 tion ten times more of these articles, than are now procured 

 from an interior country of 87,500 square leagues of surface. 

 To prove which, it will first be necessary to value, at the or- 

 dinary prices, all the different articles comprised in the table 

 of exports ; to consider the immense territory from which 

 they are drawn, and to compare this result with the value of 

 the above-mentioned agricultural products ; taking as a mea- 

 sure of comparison some one of the American isles, about the 

 size of a single crown estate in the Captaincy of the Rios de 

 Senna. 



To throw as much advantage as possible into the scale 

 of the present mercantile transactions, I will suppose, 

 against all probabily, that the (3786 maticals of gold, with 

 their cambio, to be worth in Mozambique 100,000 cruzadoes. 

 I will suppose the average weight of the teeth to be an arobe, 

 (21 lbs.), that each arobe will fetch 120 cruzadoes ; this will 

 amount to 525,000 cruzadoes. Let us value the rice at 8 

 cruzadoes the half-bushel ; this is 112,036 cruzadoes. Sup- 

 posing the wheal to be worth 10 cruzadoes, it will bring 

 61,420 cruzadoes; all the other things are very insignificant, 

 and may be at the utmost valued at 30,000 crusadoes, except 

 the slaves, which we will suppose individually to be worth 



