MAMELUCO FARMERS 



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he and his wife were mam el u cos ; the negro children 

 called them always father and mother. The order, 

 abundance, and comfort about the place, showed what 

 industry and good management could effect in this country 

 without slave-labour. But the surplus produce of such 

 small plantations is very trifling. All we saw, had been 

 done since the disorders of 1835-6, during which Joao 

 Trinidade was a great sufferer ; he was obliged to fly, 

 and the Mura Indians destroyed his house and plantations. 

 There was a large, well- weeded grove of cacao along the 

 banks of the river, comprising about 8000 trees, and 

 further inland, considerable plantations of tobacco, 

 mandioca, Indian corn, fields of rice, melons, and water- 

 melons. Near the house was a kitchen garden, in which 

 grew cabbages and onions introduced from Europe, be- 

 sides a wonderful variety of tropical vegetables. It must 

 not be supposed that these plantations and gardens were 

 enclosed or neatly kept, such is never the case in this 

 country where labour is so scarce ; but it was an unusual 

 thing to see vegetables grown at all, and the ground 

 tolerably well weeded. The space around the house was 

 plentifully planted with fruit-trees, some, belonging to 

 the Anonaceous order, yielding delicious fruits large as 

 a child's head, and full of custardy pulp which it is neces- 

 sary to eat with a spoon ; besides oranges, lemons, guavas, 

 alligator pears, Abius (Achras cainito), Genipapas and 

 bananas. In the shade of these, coffee trees grew in 

 great luxuriance. The table was always well supplied 

 with fish, which the Mura, who was attached to the 

 household as fisherman, caught every morning a few 

 hundred yards from the port. The chief kinds were the 

 Surubim, Pira-peeua and Piramutaba, three species of 

 Siluridae, belonging to the genus Pimelodus. To these 

 we used a sauce in the form of a yellow paste, quite new 

 to me, called Arube, which is made of the poisonous juice 

 of the mandioca root, boiled down before the starch or 

 tapioca is precipitated, and seasoned with capsicum 

 peppers. It is kept in stone bottles several weeks before 

 using, and is a most appetizing relish to fish. Tucupi, 

 another sauce made also from mandioca juice, is much 

 more common in the interior of the country than Arube. 

 This is made by boiling or heating the pure liquid after 

 the tapioca has been separated, daily for sever aljdays 

 in succession, and seasoning it with peppers and small 



