PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



85 



six hundred miles, under a strong military guard, and deposited in the treasury, 

 till despatched for London, which is now their great mart. The gold mines 

 are a much less profitable source of revenue than they were formerly. 



An English agriculturist would regard with astonishment and regret the 

 extensive tracts of land lying waste in the Brazil, and particularly in the vicinity 

 of the capital and principal towns. On accompanying a party with Mr. 

 M'Keand, from whom I experienced much attention, to Campinha, only eighteen 

 miles from Rio, my surprise was more forcibly excited to see that very fine 

 champaign and extensive valley almost in a wild state, and with its primitive 

 anfi verdant woods. It is a plain, comprising twenty-five or thirty square miles, 

 inferspersed wit'i gentle acclivities, and encircled by graceful and softly undu- 

 lE^dng eminences, presenting a tranquillizing contrast to the more lofty contexture 

 o/'alpine objects before described. It is a most inviting situation, and its self-pro- 

 (?ucing vegetation reflects shame upon the indolence it has contributed to create. 

 Dne of the party joined me in a walk through the intervening woods, to a white 



rkouse, finely situated upon an acclivity at the edge of the valley, and whose 

 proprietor was a farmer of the sugar cane, and manufactured a fair quantity of 

 rum. His son was a padre ; and one end of the veranda formed a small chapel, 

 garnished with tinsel trappings. It was Sunday, and the tocsin had already 

 sounded the signal for mass, and was gradually assembling its votaries. Many 

 of the females, as in Scotland, walked without shoes and stockings. A spring 

 amongst some rocks, served as a purifying fountain, from whence they issued 

 in silk stockings and embroidered shoes, ascended the hill into the veranda, 

 sat down on the floor, beat their bosoms, and with other brief ceremonies con- 

 cluded the devotional exercise. The padre sat down to gamble at cards, and 

 some of the females danced not ungracefully with the castinets. 



The waste lands I had seen on this and other excursions were satisfactorily 

 accounted for, by the circumstances arising out of an attempt made by a friend 

 of mine to purchase about twenty acres, situated upon the margin of the bay, 

 four miles by water and eight by land from the city. Its cultivation had ex- 

 tended no further than the employment one solitary slave could give it ; a few 

 patches of mandioca were visible, and two rows of fruit trees, from the eminence 

 on which a clay tenement stood, formed a pathway towards the bay. Nine 

 hundred milreas (upwards of two hundred pounds) was the sum demanded for 

 the everlasting possession of it, subject to the payment of a fine of five pounds 

 per annum to a lady, whose assent to the transfer was required, and could be 

 immediately obtained. My friend determined to be the purchaser, and called 



