TRADE. 



251 



Egas and Peru, it is about twenty thousand dollars. I myself know of 

 about ten thousand dollars on its way, or about to be on its way up. A 

 schooner came in to-day ninety-two days from Para, which is bound up 

 with a greater part of its cargo. I met one belonging to Guerrero at 

 Fonteboa. Marcus Williams, a young American living at Barra, has 

 one now off the mouth of the river, which has sent a boat in for provi- 

 sions and stores ; and Batalha himself is about to send two. 



Major Batalha (for my friend commands a battalion of the Guarda 

 Policial of the province divided between San Paulo, San Antonio, Egas, 

 and Coari) complains, as all do, of the want of energy of the people. 

 He says that as long as a man can get a bit of turtle or salt fish to eat, 

 a glass of cagacha, and a cotton shirt and trousers, he will not work. 

 The men who fish and make manteiga, although they are employed but 

 a small portion of the year in this oocupation, will do nothing else. 

 There is wanting an industrious and active population, who know what 

 the comforts of life are, and who have artificial wants to draw out the 

 great resources of the country. 



Although the merchants sell their foreign goods at an advance of 

 twenty-five per cent, on the cost at Para, yet this is on credit; and 

 they say they could do much better if they could sell at fifteen per cent, 

 for cash. Moreover, in this matter of credit they have no security. 

 When a trader has made sufficient money to enable him to leave off 

 work with his own hands, the custom is for him to supply some young 

 dependant with a boat-load of goods and a crew, and send him away 

 to trade with the Indians, depending upon his success and honesty for 

 the payment of the twenty-five per cent. The young trader has no 

 temptation to desert or abandon his patron, (Jiabilitador ;) but much is 

 lost from the dangers incident to the navigation, and the want of 

 judgment and discretion in the intercourse of the employer with the 

 Indians, and in the hostile disposition of the Indians themselves. 



There is much in this life of the "habilitado" or person employed 

 by the traders, to attract the attention of the active, energetic young 

 men of our country. It is true that he will encounter much hard- 

 ship and some danger. These, however, are but stimulants to youth. 

 It is also true that he will meet with a feeling of jealousy in the native 

 towards the foreigner ; but this feeling is principally directed towards 

 the Portuguese, who are hard-working, keen, and clever; and who, as 

 a general rule, go to that country to make money, and return home 

 with it. This is their leading idea, and it makes them frugal, even 

 penurious, in their habits, and indisposes them to make common cause 

 with the natives of the country. Not so with the Italians, the French, 



