88 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



famine, the system of slavery practised with in- 

 creased cruelty, similar contagious diseases return- 

 ing from time to time, and the destructive germs of 

 other disorders, which came in the train of the 

 foreign settlers, were powerful causes to extirpate 

 the population of these countries, which was never 

 considerable. Excursions against the Indians, who 

 roam about in the north-western part of the capi- 

 tania, to make slaves of them for the service of the 

 fazendas are now strictly prohibited by the govern- 

 ment, and are no more undertaken ; the Paulista 

 is still used to distinguish this unhappy race, whom 

 he calls Bugres, with an accessory notion of con- 

 temptibleness and lawlessness, from the tame or 

 civilised Indians {Indios mansos). Those fugitive 

 bands, on the other hand are kept at a distance 

 from the descendants of their oppressors, by in- 

 vincible aversion, and will, perhaps, become quite 

 extinct in a few centuries. 



During the fortnight that we remained at 

 Ypanema, the weather was more favourable for 

 our occupations than we had reason to expect. It 

 rained almost every day it is true, but the violence 

 of the showers continued but a few minutes. The 

 air was remarkably more dry than at S. Paulo. 

 This circumstance we partly attributed to the land- 

 wind which prevailed, and which the signal-flag, 

 erected in front of the house according to the cus- 

 tom of the country, showed to be south-west. 

 Some days too were very sultry, those especially 



