286 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



proclaim war against all masters, and counsel their murder and 

 the dishonouring of their wives and daughters. The lessons he 

 received took effect. The master, in due course, returned with 

 his valet to his estate. One morning, at six o'clock, when he was 

 watching from the door his slaves going to work, inquiring after 

 their welfare, and attending to those who were sick or unable 

 to work, this ungrateful youngster admitted two hired assassins by 

 a back door, who set upon the master and clave his head open 

 with a hatchet, subsequently pounding his body to a jelly with 

 a huge coffee pestle (a block of hard wood, some six feet long). 

 The three men were seized by those of the surrounding slaves 

 who realized how good a master they possessed, and were lodged 

 in gaol. There was a great commotion among the neighbouring 

 fazendeiros. They knew that the penalty of the law would never 

 be inflicted, and, gathering five hundred followers, the leaders 

 being masked, rode up to the prison early one morning, shot 

 down the guards, demanded the keys, dragged out the three 

 murderers, and lynched them. 



This excellent young man, who was a martyr to the cause 

 of leniency, only a few days before his death (April, 1884) was 

 relating in Rio how a relation of his had been saved from the 

 shots of assassins. This man was also a kind master. One 

 evening, a small negro boy told him that his death was decided 

 on. He was in the habit of riding every night into a town to pay 

 visits ; the assassins were to wait for him at a certain point on the 

 road, concealed in the forest. He locked up the boy, and ordered 

 a slave, one of those implicated, to attend him on his ride. On 

 the road, he said he felt cold, and, taking off his white cotton 

 dust-coat, ordered the slave to give him the thick blue poncho that 

 the latter wore, and to put on the white coat. The slave refused. 

 The master then drew a revolver, and under compulsion effected 

 the change. He then ordered the slave to ride ahead, which, the 

 revolver being presented at his head, he most reluctantly did. On 

 nearing the ambush, the fazendeiro said, "Gallop ahead, I will 

 follow." On passing the spot where the assassins lay concealed, 

 a volley was fired at the man in the white coat, who fell dead ; the 

 master drew his horse up on his haunches, and galloped off by 

 another road. 



