CiiAP. YII. TROVINCE OF THE AMAZONS. 339 



duce of the forests and rivers ; agriculture was conse- 

 quently neglected, and now the neighbourhood does not 

 produce even mandioca-meal sufficient for its own con- 

 sumption. Many of the most necessary articles of food, 

 besides all luxuries, come from Portugal, England, and 

 North America. A few bullocks are brought now and 

 then from Obydos, 500 miles off, the nearest place where 

 cattle are reared in any numbers, and these furnish at 

 long intervals a supply of fresh beef, but this is generally 

 monopolised by the families of government officials. 

 Fowls, eggs, fresh fish, turtles, vegetables, and fruit, were 

 excessively scarce and dear in 1859, w^hen I again 

 visited the place ; for instance, six or seven shilings were 

 asked for a poor lean fowl, and eggs were twopence 

 half-penny a piece. In fact, the neighbourhood pro- 

 duces scarcely anything ; the provincial government is 

 supplied with the greater part of its funds from the 

 treasury of Para ; its revenue, which amounts to about 

 50 contos of reis (5,600?.), derived from export taxes 

 on the produce of the entire province, not sufficing for 

 more than about one-fifth of its expenditure. The 

 population of the province of the Amazons, according to 

 a census taken in 1858, is 55,000 souls ; the municipal 

 district of BaiTa, which comprises a large area around 

 the capital, containing only 4500 inhabitants. For the 

 government, however, of this small number of people, 

 an immense staff of officials is g-athered toeether in 

 the capital, and, notwithstanding the endless number of 

 trivial formalities which Brazilians employ in eveiy 

 small detail of administration, these have nothing to do 

 the greater part of their time. None of the people 



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