TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



19 



articles manufactured here are indeed very good, 

 but they cost the government as much as European 

 arms, from the want of demand and the small num- 

 ber of workmen, by a judicious employment of 

 whom the business might be properly organised. 

 The establishment is, however, useful and imports 

 ant as a school for the national industry. 



The bishop, Don Mattheus de Abreu Pereira, 

 amuses himself in his garden in breeding silkworms, 

 which easily multiply and produce an extremely 

 beautiful thread. As the mulberry tree comes to 

 great perfection in this climate, it may be confi- 

 dently expected that the culture of silk will be 

 carried on with great success. There is besides in 

 this country another species of silkworm, which i» 

 found in abundance on a. laurel-like shrub, parti- 

 cularly in Maranhao and Para. This worm, whose 

 thread promises a much more brilliant silk than 

 that of Europe, has never yet been employed, al- 

 though it might be with great facility. But what 

 might become a still more profitable branch of cul- 

 tivation, is the cochineal ; for the Cactus cocci' 

 nellifer, with the insect peculiar to it, is found in 

 many parts of the province of S. Paulo, particularly 

 in sunny meadows. But the aversion of the in- 

 habitants to undertaking laborious work, while they 

 can gather other rich gifts of nature without trou^ 

 ble, may for the present check the propagation of 

 the cochineal plant. 



The environs of S. Paulo are beautiful, and of a 



c ^ 



