Slave population. 



Negroes of Brazil. Minas slaves. 



1110 JANEIRO. 



Minas slaves. Tattooing. 

 The Mundjola. 



The plantation appeared to our botanical gentlemen 

 in a sickly state. 



The great and distinctive characteristic of Rio 

 may be said to be its slaves and slavery. This 

 evil continually presents itself to the observer, and 

 he cannot, if he would, divert his attention from the 

 many sights which keep it before his mind. 



The slave population is stated at five times the 

 number of that of the whites, and notwithstanding 

 the existing danger of maritime capture, the supply 

 still seems equal to the demand. Although many 

 slavers are taken by the English cruisers, brought 

 in and tried by the mixed commission, agreeably 

 to treaty, yet means are found to introduce the 

 slaves. Two slavers were lying in charge of the 

 English squadron while we were there. On board 

 of them, though quite small vessels, were two and 

 three hundred negroes. It is difficult to imagine 

 creatures more emaciated and miserable. Nor 

 will it fail to excite surprise, that they should be 

 kept thus confined by those who affect to establish 

 their freedom and ameliorate their condition. These 

 vessels it is understood had obtained their victims 

 on the eastern coast of Africa. 



Slaves are almost the only carriers of burdens in 

 Rio Janeiro. They go almost naked, and are ex- 

 ceedingly numerous. They appear to work with 

 cheerfulness, and go together in 'gangs, with a 

 leader who carries a rattle made of tin, and filled 

 with stones (similar to a child's rattle). With 

 this he keeps time, causing them all to move on a 

 dog-trot. Each one joins in the monotonous chorus, 

 the notes seldom varying above a third from the 

 key. The words they use are frequently relative 

 to their own country; sometimes to what they heard 

 from their master, as they started with their load, 

 but the sound is the same. 



These slaves are required by their masters to 

 obtain a certain sum, according to their ability, it 

 is said from twenty-five to fifty cents a day, and to 

 pay it every evening. The surplus belongs to 

 themselves. In default of not gaining the required 

 sum, castigation I am told is always inflicted. 



It is said that the liberated negroes who own 

 slaves are particularly severe and cruel. The 

 usual load carried is about two hundred pounds 

 weight. 



Vast numbers of slaves have been and are still 

 imported annually into this market; and as very 

 many of the same nation or tribe associate toge- 

 ther, they retain their own language, even after 

 they have been in the country for some years. It 

 may be seen by the most cursory examination that 

 they are marked in such a manner as to serve to 

 distinguish their different races. Some have little 

 of the distinctive negro character, and others more 

 of it than any human beings we had seen. 



The negroes of Brazil who have been brought 

 from North and South Africa are divided into two 

 distinct and very dissimilar classes. The natives 

 of that portion of the continent known under the 

 general name of Upper Guinea, include the coun- 

 tries in the interior as far as Timbuctoo and Bor- 

 nou, being the whole of that region lately explored 

 by the English expeditions. The slaves from this 

 quarter, though of various nations and languages, 

 have yet a general likeness, which stamps them as 

 one race. In Brazil they are known under the 

 name of Minas. 



The Minas slaves are said to be distinguished 



from others by their bodily and mental qualities. 

 They are generally above the middle height, and 

 well formed, and betray little of the levity usually 

 ascribed to the negro race. 



In Brazil they occupy the highest position that 

 slaves are allowed to attain, being employed as 

 confidential servants, artisans, and small traders. 

 They look down upon, and refuse to have any con- 

 nexion with, or participation in, the employment 

 of the other negroes. Many of them write and 

 read the Arabic, and all can repeat some sentences 

 of it. The greatest number of slaves who pur- 

 chase their freedom belong to this race. 



There is one singularity which seems to be com- 

 mon to the inhabitants of both regions, and which 

 may be compared with the practice of tattooing 

 which prevails throughout the tribes of Polynesia, 

 viz. the custom of cutting or branding certain 

 marks upon the face and body, by which the indi- 

 viduals of one tribe may be distinguished from 

 those of any other. This practice is general among 

 all the Minas, and also prevails along the Eastern 

 or Mozambique coast of Southern Africa. Among 

 the Western or Congo tribes it does not appear to 

 be universal. It will be readily understood that 

 these marks are of great service to the slave- 

 traders, and all that have much to do with native 

 Africans soon learn to distinguish them; and the 

 price of a slave is depressed or enhanced accord- 



ii'g'y- 



The Minas are held in much fear in Brazil. 

 They are extremely numerous at Bahia; and it is 

 understood that during a late insurrection, they 

 had fully organized themselves, and were deter- 

 mined to institute a regular system of government. 

 They had gone so far as to circulate writings in 

 Arabic, exhorting their fellows in bondage to make 

 the attempt to recover their liberty. 



Tattooing, or marking, does not prevail among 

 the tribes of Lower Guinea to any great extent. 

 The Kambindas, who border immediately upon the 

 Minas, appear to have borrowed from them the 

 custom, but employ it rather for the purpose of 

 ornament than as a mode of distinguishing their 

 origin. The marks or figures with which they 

 brand themselves are various, and sometimes orna- 

 mental. 



The Mundjola, a savage tribe, living in the inte- 

 rior, beyond the Loango district, are esteemed the 

 least valuable of all the blacks imported into Bra- 

 zil, being stupid, ferocious, and intractable. In 

 Africa they are stigmatized as man-eaters by the 

 other negroes. The Mundjola have the usual 

 negro features, with somewhat of a Tartar expres- 

 sion. 



The Benguela blacks have a much higher cha- 

 racter as slaves than the other nations of Lower 

 Guinea. They are next in estimation to the Minas, 

 being steady, industrious, and intelligent. They 

 make excellent husbandmen. They are generally 

 of good height, with features having less of the 

 negro stamp than those of the Congo: the forehead 

 tolerably high, the nose not much depressed, and 

 the lips moderately full. 



Many disgusting objects may be seen among the 

 slave population at Rio, but I do not recollect 

 having met with a beggar. I have understood 

 that they are not suffered to appear in the streets. 

 This is the law in almost all cities, but here it is 

 rigidly observed. 



