148 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL 



cles which Brazil itself furnishes, are the excellent 

 timber, tow, and pitch. This arsenal is, however, 

 comparatively, more employed in working up 

 foreign materials than the other arsenals of the 

 country, and supplies them, while they on the 

 other hand build many vessels. It is true that for 

 the present, things manufactured here cost the 

 government more than if they were procured by 

 commerce, immediately from Europe ; skilful work- 

 men, who are for the most part Europeans, are 

 retained only by high pay, and the blacks and 

 mulattoes, who are yet but novices, are with diffi- 

 culty accustomed to the active industry and per- 

 severance of their masters ; but these sacrifices of 

 the government make it necessary to establish 

 nurseries for these important professions. Thus 

 this institution, like many others, serves as a proof 

 of the prudent paternal care, which does not merely 

 consider the present moment, but has in view the 

 happiness of future generations. In this world 

 which Hes still rude and undeveloped before the 

 regulating mind of the sovereign, the latter feels 

 himself elevated above petty, interested opposition, 

 and called by exalted duties to the creation of a 

 better system for posterity. 



On a more intimate acquaintance with the spirit 

 of the Brazilian people, and with that of the society 

 of Rio de Janeiro, the traveller, indeed, finds that 

 these intentions of the government are, in general, 

 not duly appreciated, and that the character of the 

 Brazilian has been too powerfully influenced by 



