CACAO PLANTATIONS 



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plastered with mud and whitewashed, and the roof tiled. 

 The family were mamelucos, and seemed to be an average 

 sample of the poorer class of cacao growers. All were 

 loosely dressed and bare-footed. A broad verandah ex- 

 tended along one side of the house, the floor of which 

 was simply the well-trodden earth ; and here hammocks 

 were slung between the bare upright supports, a large 

 rush mat being spread on the ground, upon which the 

 stout matron-like mistress, with a tame parrot perched 

 upon her shoulder, sat sewing with two pretty little 

 mulatto girls. The master, coolly clad in shirt and 

 drawers, the former loose about the neck, lay in his 

 hammock smoking a long gaudily-painted wooden pipe. 

 The household utensils, earthenware jars, water-pots 

 and saucepans, lay at one end, near which was a wood 

 fire, with the ever-ready coffee-pot simmering on the top 

 of a clay tripod. A large shed stood a short distance off, 

 embowered in a grove of banana, papaw, and mango trees ; 

 and under it were the ovens, troughs, sieves, and all other 

 apparatus for the preparation of mandioca. The cleared 

 space around the house was only a few yards in extent ; 

 beyond it lay the cacao plantations, which stretched on 

 each side parallel to the banks of the river. There was 

 a path through the forest which led to the mandioca 

 fields, and several miles beyond to other houses on the 

 banks of an interior channel. We were kindly received, 

 as is always the case when a stranger visits these out- 

 of-the-way habitations ; the people being invariably civil 

 and hospitable. We had a long chat, took coffee, and 

 on departing one of the daughters sent a basket full of 

 oranges for our use down to the canoe. 



The cost of a cacao plantation in the Obydos district 

 is after the rate of 240 reis or sixpence per tree, which 

 is much higher than at Cam eta, where I believe, the 

 yield is not so great. The forest here is cleared before 

 planting, and the trees are grown in rows. The smaller 

 cultivators are all very poor. Labour is scarce ; one 

 family generally manages its own small plantation of 

 10,000 to 15,000 trees, but at the harvest time neigh- 

 bours assist each other. It appeared to me to be an 

 easy, pleasant life ; the work is all done under shade, 

 and occupies only a few weeks in the year. The incor- 

 rigible nonchalance and laziness of the people alone pre- 

 vent them from surrounding themselves with all the 



