THE TAPUIOS. 



253 



appeared to anticipate the theory of the organization of labor. In 

 Europe this is a desideratum among the inferior classes of the commu- 

 nity, who are oppressed by want, by pauperism, and by famine. For 

 these to have work, is to have the bread of life and happiness ; but in 

 the fertile provinces of Para, where nature gives to all, with spontaneous 

 superabundance, the necessaries of life, work is held by these classes to 

 be an unnecessary and intolerable constraint. Our Tapuio, who erects 

 his palm-leaf hut on the margin of the lakes and rivers that are filled 

 with fish, surrounded with forests rich with fruits, drugs, and spices, and 

 abounding in an infinite variety of game, lives careless and at his ease 

 in the lap of abundance. If these circumstances give him a dispensa- 

 tion from voluntary labor, with what repugnance and dislike will he 

 render himself to compulsory toil, and especially when the obligation 

 to work, imposed by the law, has so generally been converted into vexa- 

 tious speculation by abuse ! 



" Last year I gave my opinion to you at length upon this subject : I 

 will not now tire you with a repetition. A very general idea prevails 

 that the best method to do away with the abuses of this institution of 

 laborers is its total abolition. But remember that the adoption of this 

 measure imposes upon you a rigorous obligation to have a care of, and 

 give direction (dar destino) to, nearly sixty thousand men, who, deprived 

 by the law of political rights, without any species of systematic subjec- 

 tion, unemployed, and delivered up to their own guidance, and to an 

 indolent and unbridled life, live floating among the useful and laborious 

 part of the population, who are in a most disproportionate minority. 



" Your penetration and wisdom will find a means which will guaranty 

 protection to one, security to the other, and justice to all. A convenient 

 law, based upon a regular enlistment, moderate employment in cases, 

 and at places well defined, and subjection to certain and designated local 

 authorities, may give this means ; and it was upon these principles that 

 I formed the project, which I presented to you last year, of converting the 

 corps of laborers into municipal companies, to be added to the battalions of 

 the Nacional Guard. But said project depended upon the reorganiza- 

 tion of this guard ; and this failing, it of course fell through. 



" The question relative to the corps of laborers is, as I have said, a 

 problem of difficult solution, but which must necessarily be solved. 

 The how and the when belongs to you." 



It is from these bodies that the trader, the traveller, or the collector 

 of the fruits of the country, is furnished with laborers ; but, as is seen 

 from the speech of the President, little care is taken by the government 

 officials in their registry or proper government, and a majority of them 



