TEA. 



133 



that is, the labor of a free peasant's family, the wife and children, the young and 

 the old, can successfully compete with slave labor, and considerably undersell it, 

 It is manifest, from the remarks of M. Guillemin, that the cost for plantation 

 slaves, under a system apparently so profitable as labor without wages, is a dead 

 weight on the Brazilian planter." 



Paraguay Tea. A species of holly (Ilex Paraguensis), which 

 grows spontaneously in the forest regions of Paraguay, and the in- 

 terior of South America, furnishes the celebrated beverage called 

 Ye-rba Mate, in South America. The evergreen leaf of this plant 

 is from four to five inches long ; when prepared for use as tea it is 

 reduced to powder, and hence the decoction has to be quaffed by 

 means of a tube with a bulb perforated with small holes. 



The leaves yield the same bitter principle called theine, which 

 is found in the leaf of the Chinese tea-plant, the coffee berry, &c. 

 Various other species of Ilex are sometimes employed in other 

 parts of South America for a similar purpose. Although the leaves 

 may not contain as much of the agreeable narcotic oil as those of 

 the China shrub, in consequence of the rude way in which it is 

 collected and prepared for use, yet it is much relished by European 

 travellers in South America, and would doubtless enter largely 

 into consumption if imported into this country at a moderate rate 

 of duty. 



The" consumption in the various South American Eepublics is 

 estimated at thirty or forty millions of pounds annually. It is 

 generally drank without sugar or milk. 



There are no correct data for calculating the exports, but some 

 authorities state the amount sent to Santa Fe and- Buenos 

 Ay res at eight millions of pounds. 



"A great trade is carried on with it at Sta. Fe, where it is brought 

 from the Eio de la Plata. There are two sorts, one called " Terba 

 de Palos," the other, which is finer, " Yerba de Carnini." Frezier 

 tells us that, in the earlier part of the 17th century, above 50,000 

 arrobas, or more than 12,000 cwt. of this herb were brought into 

 Peru from Paraguay, exclusive of about 25,000 arrobas taken to 

 Chile ; and Father Charleroix, in his " History of Paraguay," states 

 the quantity shipped to Peru annually at 100,000 arrobas, or nearly 

 2,500,000 Ibs. 



My friend, Mr. W. P. Robertson, has favored me with some de- 

 tails as to the production of Paraguay tea. His brother has 

 graphically described a visit he paid to the wastes or woods of the 

 Terba tree, with a colony of manufacturers from Assumption. 

 These woods were situated chiefly in the country adjacent to a 

 small miserable town called Villa Eeal, about 150 miles higher 

 up the river Paraguay than Assumption. The master manufac- 

 turer, with about forty 'or fifty hired peons or servants, mounted on 

 mules, and a hundred bulls and sumpter mules, set out on 

 their expedition, and having discovered in the dense wood a suit- 

 able locality, forthwith a settlement is established, and the neces- 

 sary wigwams tor dwellings, &c., run up. The next step is the 

 construction of the " tatacua," This was a small space. of ground. 



