



M 



222 



CREOLE NEGROES. 



authorised to apprehend and take to their owner ; 

 any slaves who may be found absent from their 

 homes without their master's consent. Several 

 of these men are to be found in every district, 

 employing themselves in such pursuits as they 

 think fit, when their services are not required in 

 that calling which forms their particular duty. 

 They are men of undaunted courage, and are 

 usually followed by two or three dogs, which are 

 trained to seek out, and if necessary to attack 

 and bring to the ground those persons whose ap- 

 prehension their masters are desirous of effecting. 

 The men who bear these commissions can oblige 

 any unauthorised person to give up to them an 

 apprehended negro, for the purpose of being by 

 them returned to his owner. 



It is scarcely necessary to name the mestizos, 

 for they usually class with the mulattos ; nor 

 are they to be easily distinguished from some of 

 the darker varieties of this cast. A dark-coloured 

 man of a disagreeable countenance and badly 

 formed person is commonly called a mestizo, 

 without any reference to his origin. 



Yet one race of human beings remain to be 

 spoken of; but the individuals who compose it 

 are not sufficiently numerous to permit them to 

 take their place among the several great divisions 

 of the human family, which form the population 

 of Brazil, and therefore I did not rank this 



