Chap. XIX. CARRIERS. 261 



the tops of many of the hillocks, looked as if the owners 

 possessed an eye for the romantic, but they were probably 

 more influenced by the desire to overlook their gardens, and 

 keep their families out of the reach of the malaria, which is 

 supposed to prevail most on the banks of the numerous little 

 streams which run among the hills. 



We were most kindly received by the Commandant, Lieu- 

 tenant Antonio Canto e Castro. Like every other person of 

 intelligence whom I had met, he lamented deeply the neglect 

 with which this fine country has been treated. The district 

 contained, by the last census, 26,0'00 hearths, or fires; and if 

 we reckon four souls to a hearth, we have a population of 

 104,000. There are no roads adapted for vehicles, and since 

 the difficulties placed in the way of the slave-trade by the 

 English Government a system of compulsory carriage has 

 been established by means of porters or carriers, of whom 

 there are no less than 6000 liable to serve in this district 

 alone. Formerly the goods were conveyed by slaves, who on 

 reaching the coast were sold for exportation. The system is 

 worked in the following manner. A trader who requires two 

 or three hundred carriers to convey his merchandise to the 

 coast applies to the general Government, and an order is 

 sent to the commandant of a district to furnish the required 

 number. This order is transmitted to the head-men of the 

 villages, who then furnish from five to twenty or thirty men, 

 according to the proportion that their people bear to the entire 

 population of the district. For this accommodation the trader 

 pays to the Government a tax of 1000 reis, or about three 

 shillings, per load carried, and to each carrier the sum of 50 

 reis, or about twopence, a day, for his sustenance. As a day's 

 journey is never more than eight or ten miles, the expense 

 wlrch must be incurred for this compulsory labour is very 

 neavy, and yet no effort has been made to form a great line 

 of road for wheel-carriages. 



A few days' rest enabled me to regain much of my strength, 

 and I could look with pleasure on the luxuriant scenery 

 around me. We were quite shut in by green hills, many oi 

 which were cultivated up to their tops with manioc, coffee, 

 cotton, ground-nuts, bananas, pine-apples, guavas, papaws, 

 rustard-apples, pitangas, and jambos — fruits brought from 



