Chap. III. CITIZENSHIP OF COLOURED PEOPLE. 191 



fought hard, but with perfect legality and good humour, 

 against this powerful interest. They did not succeed ; 

 and although the government agent committed many 

 tyrannical and illegal acts, the losing party submitted 

 quietly to their defeat. In a larger town, I believe, the 

 government would not have dared to attempt thus to con- 

 trol the elections. I think I saw enough to warrant the 

 * conclusion that the machinery of constitutional govern- 

 ment would, with a little longer trial, work well amongst 

 the mixed Indian, white, and negro population, even of 

 this remote part of the Brazilian empire. I attended, 

 also, before I left, several assize meetings at Ega, and 

 witnessed the novel sight of negro, white, half-caste, and 

 Indian, sitting gravely side by side on the jury bench. 



The way in which the coloured races act under the 

 conditions of free citizenship, is a very interesting sub- 

 ject. Brazilian statesmen seem to have abandoned 

 the idea, if they ever entertained it, of making this 

 tropical empire a nation of whites, with a slave labour- 

 ing class. The greatest difficulty on the Amazons is 

 with the Indians. The general inflexibility of charac- 

 ter of the race, and their abhorrence of the restraints 

 of civilised life, make them very intractable subjects. 

 Some of them, however, who have learned to read and 

 write, and whose dislike to live in towns has been 

 overcome by some cause acting early in life, make 

 very good citizens. I have already mentioned the 

 priest, who is a good example of what early training 

 can do. There can be no doubt that if the docile 

 Amazonian Indians were kindly treated by their white 

 fellow-citizens, and educated, they would not be so 



