CHAP. XXIX. OF PRECIOUS METALS. 363 



with which they are unacquainted, except by 

 report. 



Under all the circumstances of Spanish America, 

 considering the small profit that mining as a whole 

 yields, with the want of capital and the scarcity of 

 labourers, there seems no more reason to conclude 

 that any material increase can take place in the 

 extraction of the precious metals than there is to 

 suppose that the agitations and commotions which 

 have long prevailed will speedily terminate, or 

 such a state of society be attained as^will afford se- 

 curity and protection to persons and to property. 



In Brasil the gold is chiefly obtained by the 

 labour of slaves brought for that purpose from the 

 shores of Africa. How long the more civilized 

 parts of the world may ineffectually strive for the 

 abolition of that inhuman traffic it is difficult to 

 foresee. The continuance of the present state of 

 society and the present form of government in 

 that country is equally difficult to anticipate. From 

 all accounts an explosion is not unlikely to take 

 place, which may divide that country into as many 

 distinct communities as are to be seen in the Spanish 

 parts of the new world. Bahia and San Paulo 

 have no natural connexion with each other, arid 

 there is still less between Pernambuco and Minas 

 Geraes. The whole empire is a most incongruous 

 mass, and more likely to dissolve into some 

 anarchical forms than to settle into such a state of 

 security as will induce any great increase of its 

 metallic productions. 



