PROVINCE OF PERNAMBUCO. 



391 



consequence of the mal-operation of the pauta. The produce shipped from 

 hence, consists principally of cotton and sugar ; of the latter, about twenty-five 

 thousand cases annually, nearly one-half to England, and the remainder to 

 Lisbon : the quantity of the former averages about eighty thousand bags, sixty 

 thousand being sent to Great Britain, and the remainder principally to Lisbon. 

 The Pernambuco cotton is the best in the Brazil, arising in part from the rigid 

 inspection which it undergoes, A new inspection house was erected here, upon 

 the beach, called the Forte do Matto, in the year 1815. The cotton is bought 

 by the merchant at a certain price, when it is submitted to inspection and divided 

 into three qualities ; for the second quality, which is permitted to pass with the 

 first, the merchant receives an allowance of five hundred reas per arrobe, from 

 the planter ; the third quality is totally rejected. The bags are then weighed 

 for the merchant to pay the export duty, and as one bag is only weighed at k 

 time, there has been considerable delay in getting the cotton through the inspec- 

 tion house for shipment. The present governor attended here, and attempted 

 to make arrangements for weighing the cotton quicker, but matters shortly after- 

 wards reverted to their anterior state. Sugar is classed into nine different quali- 

 ties, and distinguished by the following marks, commencing with the finest and 

 continuing by gradations downwards. 



B F Bmnco Fino. -n 



R F Ridondo Fino. I 

 - B R Bianco Ridondo. f Paying a shipping duty of sixty 



R B Ridondo Branco. t reas per arrobe. 



£ B Branco Baixo. I 



B I Baixo Inferior. J 



MM Muscovado Macho. ^ 



MR Muscovado Retame. > Ditto of thirty reas per arrobe. 



MB Muscovado Brame. ) 

 The sugar engenhos are some of them very considerable, and the two accom- 

 panying plates are representations of the exterior and interior of the Engenho de 

 Torre not far from the right margin of the Capibaribe. The owner, who has 

 amassed a respectable property, very politely allowed four gentlemen with myself 

 to see this establishment. The juice is extracted by the compressure of the cane 

 between three upright rollers, the centre one moving the other two, and being 

 itself constantly carried round by relays of mares, which have a singular ap- 

 pearance from their ears being closely cropped. The juice flows along a chan- 

 nel to a lower apartment in the building, where it goes through the different 



