Captaincy of Rios de Senna. 63 



riously called on to make such a sacrifice of my feelings to 

 the welfare of the country, and not to smother but point out 

 the many vices which exist throughout it, in order that a 

 remedy may be found and applied. 



From what I have already advanced, it is evident that the 

 inhabitants of this colony, are an idle and indolent race. 

 From a general view of their want of industry, I shall turn 

 to those particular points where it is most conspicuous, — one 

 of which is the growth and manufacture of sugar at Tette. 

 At this place, as has been observed, a small quantity is 

 annually made, but it is cultivated without any principle; 

 improper places are selected for the plantations, and conse- 

 quently many of them altogether fail, — a failure which is 

 attributed ,to the , bad qualities of the soil, instead of being 

 laid to the account, as it ought, of those who choose improper 

 situations. If we pass from the growth of the cane to the 

 manufacture of the sugar, we see machines to the last 

 degree clumsy, and devoid of mechanical principle, totally 

 adverse both to the economy of time and labour — Machines 

 on which are employed a multiplicity of hands, which might 

 be most advantageously engaged in other pursuits, and at 

 the same time their place might be supplied by the elements, 

 or animals. Throughout the colony, there is not a single 

 machine worked by any other than human labour; other 

 means are altogether neglected. The cotton culture is most 

 miserably conducted, left as it is to the ignorance of the 

 colonists, who reap but very insignificant crops of it, — both 

 because it is planted in improper places, and the manner and 

 machines for cleaning it are at once clumsy and awkward to a 

 degree ; more than two months being requisite for one person 

 to clean a quarter of a hundred weight : so ignorant are they 

 of the most common processes which are made use of in other 

 countries for that purpose. Indigo, though the spontaneous 

 production of every part of the country, has never yet been 

 manufactured into a dye ; nor was it even known that the 

 plant could be raised by cultivation. The first indigo ex- 

 tracted was in 1806, and in 1807 the first manufactory was 

 established: similar observations will be made with respect 

 to coffee, and other valuable vegetable productions ; and it 

 may be added, that although some persons do prosecute the 

 culture of mandioc, they have not the means of reducing it 

 to flour, but make use of the dry roots as food for their 

 slaves. The trades and arts cannot be said to exist, since it 

 would be prostituting such names to apply them to the 

 mechanical efforts of the slaves, whose clumsy and ill-devised 

 tools can hardly perform the most ordinary work. 



That there are no public tradesmen and artists, may be 

 attributed to the indolence of the whites, who all abandon 



