FREE POPULATION. 



203 



These several mixtures of the human race 

 have their Shades of difference of character as 

 well as of colour. First we must treat of the 

 whites. The Europeans who are not in office, 

 or who are not military men, are, generally 

 speaking, adventurers who have arrived in that 

 country with little or no capital. These men com- 

 mence their career in low situations of life, but 

 by parsimony and continual exertion directed 

 to one end, that of amassing money, they often 

 attain their object, and pass the evening of their 

 lives in opulence. These habits fail not, often- 

 times, to give a bias to their dispositions, which 

 is unallied to generosity and liberality. They 

 look down upon the Brazilians, or rather they 

 wish to consider themselves superior to them ; 

 and until lately the government took no pains 

 to remove the jealousy which existed between 

 the two descriptions of white persons ; and even 

 now, not so much attention is paid to the sub- 

 ject as its great importance seems to require.* 

 The Brazilian white man of large property, 



when the king took the islands from the Companies which 

 had held them during his pleasure. — Nouveau Voyage, &c. 

 torn. ii. p. 192. 



* The majority of the clergy of Pemambuco, both regular 

 and secular, are of Brazilian parentage. The Governor is 

 an European, and so are the major part of the chief officers, 

 civil, military, and ecclesiastical ; but the bishop is a Bra- 

 zilian, and so is the ouvidor. 



