ICO AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



city in Brazil. But the spot where Cabral's associates landed is at present one of 

 the least frequented in the whole country. 



The first arrivals from Portugal generally penetrated inland to the plateaux 

 of Minas Geraes and the Upper S. Francisco Valley, attracted, in the first instance, 

 by the mineral wealth of these regions, and afterwards induced to remain by the 

 fertility of the land, its excellent climate, and abundant resources. Towards the 

 second half of the seventeenth century the intrepid Paulistas flocked in thou- 

 sands to the mining districts in quest of gold and of the precious stones wrongly 

 called " emeralds." But they were not the only intruders, and the settlers on the 

 shores of Rio de Janeiro, as well as adventurers from beyond the seas, also claimed 

 a share in these treasures. Civil war soon broke out between these emhoabax, 

 or " strangers " from Portugal and the other provinces, and the Paulistas, who 

 considered themselves the lawful owners of the mineral districts, which they had 

 wrested from the Cataguar Indians. In 1708 the emboabas were nearly exter- 

 minated on the banks of the Ptio das Mortes ; but other bands pressed forward, 

 and after renewed conflicts both factions had to become reconciled under the 

 stern repressive measures imposed on all parties by the central government. 



Extremely rigorous laws were enacted to regulate the operations in the gold- 

 fields, and afterwards in the diamantiferous districts discovered in 1728. Nowhere 

 else was a more draconic administration introduced, and the consequence was 

 widespread corruption, frauds, thefts, smuggling, and the general demoralisation 

 which is the usual outcome of legalised terrorism. 



Since that epoch the political relations have changed, and the mines, which 

 had inspired this ferocious legislation, and caused all this moral degradation, are 

 themselves now to a large extent exhausted. The old mining cities have fallen 

 into decay ; little renuiins of formerly flourishing centres of population, except 

 crumbling ruins overshadowed by sumptuous churches like the vast minsters of 

 mediaeval Europe. But the impoverishment of certain districts has not prevented 

 general progress, shown by a tenfold increase in the population since the 

 mining days. 



The blacks introduced as slaves in the mining districts of the plateaux have 

 left scarcely any descendants, and the few survivors have been absorbed in the half- 

 caste populations of the interior. But nowhere in Brazil are the Africans better 

 represented than in the districts of the Lower S. Francisco and in the city of 

 Bahia. Here was formerly the centre of the slave trade. Besides those intro- 

 duced from the coast of Angola to work on the plantations and in the mines, 

 others arrived as freemen in the quality of sailors and supercargoes, and to 

 these (Krumen and others) was given the general name of Minas, from a tribe on 

 the Slave Coast south of Dahomey. Even still these form in Bahia a sort of 

 corporation, whose members are distinguished by their moral qualities and spirit 

 of solidarity, as well as for their tall stature and physical strength. Their speech 

 comprises numerous words inherited from the African languages, and hundreds 

 of Yoruba and Cabinda terms have been adopted in the current dialect of Bahia. 

 Here the negroes accompany their magic incantations with snatches of songs 



