BRASIL; CHAP. xxv. 



should be abandoned and exchanged for the more 

 profitable employment of cultivating sugar, cotton, 

 coffee, and the other productions of the surface of 

 the country 1 . It seems probable, from what is 

 known of the state of society in Brasil, that the 

 slaves of those employed in seeking for gold are 

 so far cultivators of the soil as to raise sufficient 

 food for the workmen of the lavras : but if that 

 be the case, and their subsistence is so procured, 

 the small apparent profit would be insufficient to 

 pay interest on the capital invested in slaves, 

 especially in districts where, as in Minas Geras, 

 the common rate of interest is one per cent, per 

 month. The prospect of great sudden gain, which 

 is always before the eyes of those seeking for the 

 precious metals, may induce numbers to continue 

 an employment which may be clearly seen by the 



1 Count Mollien, in his Travels in Colombia, remarks that 

 " a mine which employs sixty slaves, and produces twenty 

 pounds of gold annually, is considered a good estate." At 

 this rate each man is calculated to produce the third of a 

 pound. The gold found there is only of eighteen carats, called 

 oro bajo, and worth about forty pounds sterling. The labour 

 of each slave, then, produces thirteen pounds six shillings and 

 eight-pence. In Colombia, however, provisions are by no 

 means so cheap as in Brasil, and the constant state of internal 

 hostilities has made labourers scarce, as the negroes are ready 

 or are compelled to become soldiers, and thus to leave the finest 

 establishments to abandonment and ruin. Mollien's Colombia, 

 p. 376. 



