i849.] 



TREATMENT OF SLAVES, 



8i 



first floor connecting the tv/o ends of the building, and looking 

 down upon the mill, with its great water-wheel in the centre, 

 and out through the windows on to the river, and a handsome 

 stone quay which ran along the whole front of the building. 

 It was all substantially constructed, and had cost him several 

 thousand pounds. 



He had about fifty slaves of all ages, and about as many 

 Indians, employed in his cane- and rice-fields, and in the mills, 

 and on board his canoes. He made sugar and caxaga, but 

 most of the latter as it paid best. Every kind of work was 

 done on the premises : he had shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, 

 smiths, boat-builders, and masons, either slaves or Indians, 

 some of whom could make good locks for doors and boxes, 

 and tin and copper articles of all kinds. He told me that by 

 having slaves and Indians working together he was enabled to 

 get more work out of the latter than by any other system. 

 Indians will not submit to strict rules when working by them- 

 selves, but when with slaves, who have regular hours to com- 

 mence and leave off work, and stated tasks to perform, they 

 submit to the same regulations and cheerfully do the same 

 work. Every evening at sunset all the workpeople come up to 

 Senhor Calistro to say good-night or ask his blessing. He was 

 seated in an easy chair in the verandah, and each passed by 

 with a salutation suited to his age or station. The Indians 

 would generally be content with " Boa noite " (good-night) ; 

 the younger ones, and most of the women and children, both 

 Indians and slaves, would hold out their hand, saying, " Sua 

 bengao " (your blessing), to which he would reply, ^'Deos te 

 bengoe " (God bless you), making at the same time the sign 

 of the Cross. Others — and these were mostly the old Negroes 

 —would gravely repeat, " Louvado seja o nome do Senhor 

 Jesu Christo " (blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus 

 Christ), to which he would reply, with equal gravity, " Para 

 sempre " (for ever). 



Children of all classes never meet their parents in the 

 morning or leave them at night without in the same manner 

 asking their blessing, and they do the same invariably of 

 every stranger who enters the house. In fact, it is the common 

 salutation of children and inferiors, and has a very pleasing 

 effect. 



The slaves here were treated remarkably well. Senhor 



