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244 



TRADE OF THE SERTAM. 



numerous, and to be obtained in any quantities, 

 but few species are cultivated ; among the latter 

 are the water-melon and the plantain. The 

 cheese of the Sertam, when it is fresh, is excel- 

 lent ; but after four or five weeks, it becomes 

 hard and tough. Some few persons make butter, 

 by shaking the milk in a 'common black bottle, 

 but this must of course be experimental, and not 

 general. In the towns even of the Sertam, 

 rancid Irish butter is the only kind which is to 

 be obtained. Wherever the lands admit of it, 

 these people plant mandioc, rice, &c. but much, 

 I may say the greater part of the vegetable por- 

 tion of their food, is brought either from more 

 fertile districts near to the coast, or from the 

 settlements still further back, — the vallies and 

 skirts of the Cariris, Serra do Teixeira, and 

 other inland mountains. 



The trade of the Sertam consists in receiving 

 small quantities of European manufactured 

 goods* ; the cotton cloth of the country, of 

 which they make some among themselves ; 

 a small portion of European white earthen- 

 ware, and considerable quantities of the dark 

 brown ware of the country, which is made for 

 the most part by the Indians who live in the 

 districts that contain the proper kind of clay ; 

 rum in small casks j butter, tobacco, snuff, sugar 



* This branch of trade increases most rapidly. — 1815. 



