TRAVELS IN BRAZIL, 179 



fist doubled. What is most apprehended in these 

 purchases, are hidden corporal defects, and especial- 

 ly the very frequent disposition to blindness. When 

 the choice is made, the purchase money is fixed, 

 which for a healthy male negro is here from 

 350 to 500 florins : the seller generally making 

 himself answerable for any corporal defects that 

 may be discovered within a fortnight. The pur- 

 chaser then takes away his slave, whom he destines 

 according as he wants him, to be a mechanic, a 

 mule-driver, or a servant. The new proprietor is 

 now absolute master of the labour of his slave and 

 the produce of it. But if he is guilty of inhuman 

 treatment of him, he is liable, as for other civil 

 offences, to be punished by the police or the tri- 

 bunals. The latter take care, by means expressly 

 adopted for the purpose, to restore runaway slaves 

 to their right owners, and punish the fugitives if 

 they renew the attempt, by putting an iron ring 

 round their necks. If the master will not punish 

 his slaves himself^ it is done after payment of a 

 certain sum, by the police in the Calabon90. Here 

 however, as well as in Brazil in general, the negroes 

 easily become habituated to the country. This is 

 a consequence of their careless tempers, as well as 

 of the similarity of the climate to that of their na- 

 tive country, and the mildness with which they are 

 treated in Brazil. 



Before the removal of the court from Lisbon to 

 Rio de Janeiro, the trade of this and all the other 



N 2 



