TEA. 131 



brought for the purpose. The heat heing excessive, we purchased mats, that we 

 might shelter them from the sun, and we gave them water far more frequently. 

 Many of the seeds that we had sown a month previously, were already appear- 

 ing above the ground, but the soil being of too compact a nature, some did not 

 come up, which warned us to make choice in future of a lighter kind of soil. 



The period now arrived when I was to visit the tea plantations in the pro- 

 vince of St. Paul ; and hoping that the cultivators would give me some of the 

 young shrubs, I took M. Houlet with me, leaving the charge of our collections 

 and seedlings to M. Pissis, a French geologist and engineer, with whom I had 

 formed an intimate acquaintance, and who most obligingly offered to .attend to 

 them during my absence. Many were the influential persons at Rio Janeiro, 

 who gave me introductory letters to the proprietors and tea growers of St. 

 Paul. 



We started on the 15th January, by steam-boat, and in two days reached Santos, 

 the principal port in the province of St. Paul ; thence crossing the great chain 

 of mountains, named the Serra do Mar, in caravans drawn by mules, we reached 

 the city of St. Paul on the 20th January, where I experienced the warmest 

 reception from the governor, two ex-governors, and some other gentlemen. 



******* 



Accompanied by M. J. Gomez and a M. Barandier, an historical painter, whom 

 the desire to visit a new country, and to see its inhabitants, had induced to 

 become my compagnon de voyage, we visited almost immediately a M. Feigo, 

 ex-Regent of the Empire, and now President of the Provincial Senate. We 

 found this venerable ecclesiastic at his country-house, two leagues distant from 

 the city, and here we saw all the process pursued on the tea leaf, commencing 

 by the bruising, drying, and scorching of a large quantity of foliage picked the 

 preceding evening. The chief difference that struck me in the mode here 

 adopted, was, that the tender, flexible, and not brittle leaves, were gathered 

 with the petiole and tip extremity of every bud, and that some water was put 

 with them into the iron pan, in which the negresses twisted, squeezed, broke 

 and shook the masses of foliage. The operation was, on the whole, more neatly 

 performed than at Rio. When the tea was perfectly dry and removed from the 

 pan, it was placed aside in a box, shaded from the air and light, and was con- 

 sidered ready for present use, on the spot ; but M. Feigo informed me, that 

 when sent to a distance, the cases were hermetically closed, and the tea under- 

 went an extra dessication over the fire. 



The plantations belonging to M. Feigo, and surrounding his chagara, are ex- 

 tensive, containing about 20,000 tea shrubs, of fine growth and high vigor, 

 most of them six or eight years old, set in regular lines, a metre asunder from 

 each other, and the lines with a metre and a half between them. The soil is 

 excellent, argillaceo-ferruginous, as is generally the case near St. Paul. 



In the Botanic Garden at St. Paul, some squares are devoted to the growth 

 of tea ; but I am not aware that the leaves are ever subject to preparation. 



M. da Luz had invited us to inspect his tea-grounds near Nossa Senhora da 

 Penha, and I went thither, accompanied by Messrs. Barandier and Houlet. 

 The cultivation is admirable, the soil excellent, and the tea-plants peculiarly 

 vigorous. Each shrub was so placed that a man can easily go all round it, and 

 young plants, self-sown, were springing tip below every old one; of these offsets, I 

 was made welcome to as many as 1 could take away, and should have had a great 

 stock, but that the ground had been very recently cleared. M. da Luz showed 

 me his magazines of prepared tea, which were extensive and well stocked. 



Hence I went to the property of a lady, Donna Gertrude Gedioze Larceda, 

 situated at the foot of Jarigur, a mountain famed for its gold mines, and passed 

 two days in exploring this celebrated locality, and then visited the Colonel 

 Anastosio on my way back to St. Paul. These plantations arc in the most 

 prosperous condition, situated on a sloping and well-manured tract behind the 

 habitations. The shrubs are generally kept low, and frequently cut, so as to 

 make them branching, by which the process of picking the leaves is rendered 

 easier. There may be 60,000 or 70,000 plants, hut a third of them were only 

 set a year before. Every arrangement is excellently conducted here ; the pans 

 kept very clean, though perhaps rather thin from long use and the fierceness of 



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