No. 216.] 297 



the superintendence of slaves and overseers, the amazing fertility of 

 the soil, the extent of unappropriated land, the ease with which sub- 

 sistence can be obtained, and the low degree of personal enterprise. 

 These are frowning features and would rather seem to indicate a 

 failure before the attempt at cultivation was made. But neverthe- 

 less the plant does flourish to some extent even in Brazil, under all 

 the disparaging circumstances which surround it. From the Bra- 

 zilian Consul General, Louis H J. De Aquiar, Esq , whom I have 

 consulted on this subject, I learn that although the plant for some 

 years after its first introduction received but little attention, and was 

 almost abandoned, yet within the last few years the cultivation has 

 revived, and is now prosecuted with energy, and with a correspond- 

 ing success. Some of the large and wealthy land proprietors of 

 Brazil have directed their attention to the cultivation of the Tea 

 Plant; and he mentioned one gentleman in particular, whose name I 

 do not at this moment recollect, who had entirely abandoned his coffee 

 plantations, and directed his attention to the cultivation of the Tea 

 Plant. The market of Rio Janeiro is supplied entirely with Tea of 

 domestic growth, and the public mind is awakened to the prominent 

 fact, that no plant cultivated in Brazil is more profitable, and none 

 is now receiving more decided attention. 



But as the veil which has hung over this subject for all past time 

 is lifted, and the clear light of demonstrated facts disclosed, we 

 shall perceive that the nearer we come to our own times, the more 

 decisive is the evidence of the practicability of breaking up the 

 Chinese monopoly and of freely participating in the benefits which 

 that monopoly has withheld. 



To Great Britain we now turn our eyes to witness the most prom- 

 ising and satisfactory efforts, that have as yet been made, to extend 

 the cultivation of the Tea Plant, and to render the British Empire 

 independent of China, for a supply of an article of consumption so 

 indispensably necessary as Tea. Considering the commercial and 

 agricultural enterprise of the English, the contiguity of India to 

 China, the vast amount of Tea imported, and the ample means and 

 resources always at command, it does seem surprising that so im-* 

 . portant a step should have been so long delayed. We cannot ac- 

 count for it upon any other hypothesis than that Great Britain has 

 hitherto been more eagerly bent in extending, rather than improving 

 her Indian conquests. 



