TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



17 



merely a bell or some heavy cannon. The two 

 other seaports of the province, Paranagua and 

 Cananea, are both inconsiderable ; the former is 

 fifty-eight leagues, and the other sixty-seven leagues, 

 from S. Paulo. They supply the district of Curi- 

 tiba, which is properly the meadow-land of the 

 province, with the necessaries which they obtain by 

 sea from Santos, Rio, or the ports on the northern 

 coast, whither they repair with large barks and 

 schooners. Their export trade is even more limited 

 than that of Santos to flour, hides, dried meat, and 

 mattey or Paraguay tea. The latter is an article 

 of daily use among the people of the southern part 

 of this province, as also in Rio Grande do Sul, and 

 in the countries on the Rio de la Plata. It is pre- 

 pared out of the dried and pulverised leaves of a 

 shrub (Cassine Gongonha^ nob.), the infusion of 

 which they usually suck through a small tube, to 

 which a little strainer is fastened. From this 

 sketch of the trade of S. Paulo, which we farther 

 illustrate by the annexed tables*, it appears that the 

 proportion of pecuniary wealth must be much 

 smaller here than in the northern provinces, where 

 an extensive and profitable trade has brought in its 

 train a propensity to extravagance and luxury. 

 Even in the capital there is almost a scarcity of 

 current coin, to which the inhabitant of the 

 province is still more indifferent, because, living in 



* See Note 3., &c. p. 35. 

 VOL. II. C 



