72 



PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



CHAP. IV. 



PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO — Continued.'' 



Population of the Capital— Negroes— Nocturnal Clamour of Reptiles— Vampire 

 Bat — State of Literature — Jealousy — Dead Bodies — Military — Bank — Reve- 

 nue — Imposts — Diamonds — Visit to Campinha — Tenure of Lands — Proof of 

 Fertility — Swiss Emigrants — Visit to the Cascades of Tejuca — Commerce — 

 Judicial Procedure — Pauta and Convention — New Exchange — Foundation of 

 English Church — Towns, Villages, and Productions of the Comarca of Rio 

 de Janeiro — Boundaries, Productions, Rivers, Lakes, and Povaogoes of the 

 Comarca of Cape Frio — Boundaries, Indians, Rivers, Lakes, Towns, and 

 Sugar Works of the Comarca of Goytacazes — Boundaries, Coroado Indians, 

 and Povaogoes of the Comarca of Canta Gallo. 



The population of Rio de Janeiro is estimated at about one hundred and fifty- 

 thousand souls, two-thirds of which are negroes, mulattoes, and others, ex- 

 hibiting every variety of complexion. The Brazilians residing here, and in the 

 vicinity are denominated Cariocas by the European Portuguese ; the meaning 

 or origin of which term I could not learn; the latter falsely considering them- 

 selves much superior to the former. 



The mulattoes are a portion of the population much the most healthy and 

 robust, their mixture of African and Brazilian constitution appearing exactly 

 adapted to the cHmate. The negroes are probably not used with more inhu- 

 manity here than in other colonies. In the interior they are treated much 

 better than at Rio de Janeiro, where, in some instances, much cruelty is prac- 

 tised. For a trifling offence, they are sometimes committed to the charge of 

 two or three soldiers, who pinion them with cords, and beat them in the most 

 unfeeling manner along the streets, to the Calobouco, a prison for the blacks, 

 where they are destined perhaps to receive a severe castigation before they are 

 liberated. Their owners procure an order from the intend ant-general of the 

 police, for one, two, or three hundred lashes, according to the dictates of 

 their caprice or passion, which punishment is administered to those poor 

 wretches by one of their own countrymen, a stout, savage-looking, degraded 



