TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



179 



militia of whites, seven of mulattoes, and four 

 of free negroes.* Almost all kinds of trades are 

 carried on here, the principal of which are the 

 saddlers, tinmen, and blacksmiths ; there are 

 likewise manufactories of gunpowder, beaver 

 hats, and pottery. No otlier town in the interior 

 of Brazil has such a brisk trade as Villa Rica. 

 There are roads from this place by way of S. Joao 

 d'El Rey to S. Paulo ; by Minas Novas to Bahia ; 

 by S. Romao, Tejuco, Llalhada, to Paracutu, 

 Goyaz, and Matto-grosso ; but none of these is 

 so much frequented by cai avans passing backwards 

 and forwards, as that leading to Rio de Janeiro, 

 which is seventy miles distant. Almost every week 

 large convoys set out with the productions* of the 

 country, cotton, hides, marmalade, cheese, pre- 

 cious stones, gold bars, &c., and bring in exchange 

 from the capital, salt, wine, calicoes, handker- 

 chiefs, hams, looking-glasses, iron-ware, and new 

 negroes to be employed in the gold-washing, &c. 

 The trade with the more remote districts of the 

 interior, is not, indeed, so great as that of S. Paulo 

 and Rio, which is carried on even as far as Goyaz 

 and Matto-grosso, yet it extends even beyond the 

 Rio de S. Francisco, almost over the whole capi- 

 tania, and supplies it not only with the Euro- 

 pean articles purchased at Rio de Janeiro, but 

 also with the produce of the environs ; for in« 



* See Note 1. page 198. 

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