TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 181 



merce, this state of things very speedily changed. 

 The freedom of the Brazihan commerce, which 

 the monopoly and jealousy of the mother country 

 had hitherto checked, and the opening of the 

 ports to all nations is the commencement of a 

 new era in the history of Brazil. It may be 

 asserted, that of all the measures which the go- 

 vernment has adopted since its removal to the 

 colony, none has occasioned such a remarkable 

 impulse and so great a change as this. But it 

 has undoubtedly been more advantageous to 

 Brazil than to Portugal. The latter, after the 

 dissolution of the intimate union between it and 

 its former colony, will never regain its preceding 

 commercial splendour. 



This emancipation gave occasion to manifold 

 improvements in Brazil ; the competition of the 

 other commercial nations with the Portuguese, led 

 to new relations. The freedom of trade gave an 

 impulse to industry, and the produce of the coun- 

 try, being in demand from various quarters, grew 

 more valuable. This again increased the want of 

 labourers, the influx of strangers, and the import- 

 ation of the negroes necessary for the cultivation 

 of the land. Tempted by the views of an advan- 

 tageous commerce, colonists from other countries 

 arrived, and contributed to the instruction of the 

 inhabitants, to a more accurate knowledge of the 

 country, and to the increase of its riches. A very 

 great alteration was hereby effected in the public 



