TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



11 



individuals ; and the highest known proportion is 

 said to be that of 1 : 22. 7 in fifteen villages about 

 Paris, and 1 : 23.5 in thirty-nine Dutch villages ; 

 but here there is one birth to twenty-one indivi- 

 duals. The mortality is to the population as one to 

 forty.'Six, a proportion which is smaller, though not 

 in so remarkable a degree as in the country among us. 

 The black slaves have very few children, which is not 

 entirely explained by the proportion of the female 

 to the male slaves (16:22). One cause maybe, 

 that the male slaves, being almost always employed 

 in the labours of agriculture, and tending the cat- 

 tle, pass the greater part of the year alone in the 

 remote charcaras and fazendas de criar gado, 

 whereas the female slaves are employed in house- 

 hold services. As we found it impossible to obtain 

 an authentic account of the number of negro slaves 

 annually imported into the capitania, we do not 

 venture precisely to state the progression in the 

 increase of this part of the population. So much, 

 however is certain, that very few provinces of 

 Brazil, for instance, Rio Grande do Sul and Rio 

 Negro, receive a smaller number of slaves from 

 Africa ; the others, on the contrary, many more. It 

 is said to have been observed, that the cold moun- 

 tain air, and still more the cool nights, which are 

 usual in a great part of the province, are injurious 

 to the health of several of the negro tribes who 

 have been accustomed to a warmer climate. Those 

 who come from the high mountain pastures to the 



