230 



TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO, [November, 



sorry I could not oblige him, but that, as I was not accustomed 

 to lying, I should be found out immediately if I attempted it : 

 he, however, insisted that I might surely try, and I should soon 

 learn to lie as well as the best of them. So I told him at once, 

 that in my country a liar was considered as bad as a thief ; at 

 which he seemed rather astonished. I gave him a short 

 account of the pillory, as a proof of how much our ancestors 

 detested lying and perjury, which much edified him, and he 

 called his son (a nice boy of twelve or fourteen, just returned 

 from school), to hear and profit by the example; showing, I 

 think, that the people here are perfectly aware of the moral 

 enormity of the practice, but that constant habit and universal 

 custom, and above all, that false politeness which renders 

 them unable verbally to deny anything, has rendered it almost 

 a necessary evil. Any native of the country would have 

 instantly agreed to Senhor Chagas's request, and would then 

 have told every one of it up the river, always begging them 

 not to say he told them, — thus telling a lie for themselves 

 instead of for Senhor CMgas. 



The next morning I reached Wanawdca, the sitio of Manoel 

 Jacinto, and stayed to breakfast with him, luxuriating in milk 

 with my coffee, and " coalhado," or curdled milk, pine-apple, 

 and pacovas with cheese, — luxuries which, though every one 

 might have, are seldom met with in the Rio Negro. His sitio 

 is, perhaps, the prettiest on the river ; and this, simply because 

 there is an open space of grass around the house, with some 

 forest and fruit-trees scattered about it, affording shade for the 

 cattle and sheep, and a most agreeable relief to the eye, long 

 fatigued with eternal forest. 



When I consider the excessively small amount of labour 

 required in this country, to convert the virgin forest into green 

 meadows and fertile plantations, I almost long to come over 

 with half-a-dozen friends, disposed to work, and enjoy the 

 country; and show the inhabitants how soon an earthly 

 paradise might be created, which they had never even con- 

 ceived capable of existing. 



It is a vulgar error, copied and repeated from one book to 

 another, that in the tropics the luxuriance of the vegetation 

 overpowers the efforts of man. Just the reverse is the case : 

 nature and the climate are nowhere so favourable to the 

 labourer, and I fearlessly assert, that here, the primeval " 



