THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 33 



from being slightly swollen and bloody. The third day 

 afterwards we rode the horse, without any ill effects. 



April ijth. After three days' travelling we arrived at 

 Socego, the estate of Senhor Manuel Figuireda, a relation 

 of one of our party. The house was simple, and, though like 

 a barn in form, was well suited to the climate. In the sitting- 

 room gilded chairs and sofas were oddly contrasted with the 

 whitewashed walls, thatched roof, and windows without 

 glass. The house, together with the granaries, the stables, 

 and workshops for the blacks, who had been taught vari- 

 ous trades, formed a rude kind of quadrangle ; in the centre 

 of which a large pile of coffee was drying. These buildings 

 stand on a little hill, overlooking the cultivated ground, and 

 surrounded on every side by a wall of dark green luxuriant 

 forest. The chief produce of this part of the country is 

 coffee. Each tree is supposed to yield annually, on an aver- 

 age, two pounds ; but some give as much as eight. Mandioca 

 or cassada is likewise cultivated in great quantity. Every 

 part of this plant is useful; the leaves and stalks are eaten 

 by the horses, and the roots are ground into a pulp, which, 

 when pressed dry and baked, forms the farinha, the prin- 

 cipal article of sustenance in the Brazils. It is a curious, 

 though well-known fact, that the juice of this most nutritious 

 plant is highly poisonous. A few years ago a cow died at 

 this Fazenda, in consequence of having drunk some of it. 

 Senhor Figuireda told me that he had planted, the year be- 

 fore, one bag of feijao or beans, and three of rice ; the 

 former of which produced eighty, and the latter three hun- 

 dred and twenty fold. The pasturage supports a fine stock 

 of cattle, and the woods are so full of game that a deer had 

 been killed on each of the three previous days. This profu- 

 sion of food showed itself at dinner, where, if the tables did 

 not groan, the guests surely did ; for each person is expected 

 to eat of every dish. One day, having, as I thought, nicely 

 calculated so that nothing should go away untasted, to my 

 utter dismay a roast turkey and a pig appeared in all their 

 substantial reality. During the meals, it was the employ- 

 ment of a man to drive out of the room sundry old hounds, 

 and dozens of little black children, which crawled in together, 

 at every opportunity. As long as the idea of slavery could be 

 VOL. xxix B HC 



