BRAZIL.* 11 



is from two to three hundred piasters. A woman 

 is of much less value j and speedily to exhaust the 

 whole strength of a man, and then to supply his 

 place by a new purchase, seems to be more proiit- 

 able than to bring up slaves in the planter's house. 

 We purposely quote the plain words of a planter 

 in the New World, which must sound strange to 

 the ears of an European. The sight of these 

 slaves in the mill, where they separate the rice 

 from its husk, in wooden mortars, with heavy 

 clubs, keeping time in their work by a par- 

 ticular kind of groaning, is distressing and hu- 

 miliating. These services are performed in Eu- 

 rope, by wind, water, and steam. We saw, also, 

 in the village of St. Michael, a water-mill, already 

 mentioned by Krusenstern. The number of slaves 

 is, in proportion, smaller on the more populous 

 islands than on the continent. Their food is meat 

 and cassava. Those living in the houses of their 

 masters, and such as are kept in poorer families, 

 grow up more like human beings, than those who 

 are compelled to work like mere machines. We 

 were, however, never witnesses of any cruel treat- 

 ment of them. 



The town of Nostra Senhora de Destero, the 



their skin, and many, besides, by peculiar figures, which were 

 imprinted in their childhood, in the skin of the face and body, 

 by a sharp instrument; marks by which the different tribes are 

 distinguished. 



