290 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



tern of recruiting, or rather the utter want of system, 

 leads to the most terrible abuse of authority in raising 

 men for the army. I believe that the law provides for a 

 constitutional draft levied equally on all classes, excluding 

 men below or above a certain age, or having certain respon- 

 sibilities at home. But if such a law exists it is certainly 

 not enforced ; recruiting parties, as bad as the old " press- 

 gangs" of England, go out into the forest and seize the 

 Indians wherever they can find them. All who resist this 

 summary treatment or show any inclination to escape are 

 put into prison till tlie steamer leaves, by which they are 

 despatched to Para and thence to the army. The only 

 overcrowded room I saw at the prison was that where 

 the recruits were confined. Coming from a country where 

 the soldier is honored, where men of birth and education 

 have shown that they are not ashamed to serve in the ranks 

 if necessary, it seemed to me strange and sad to see these 

 men herded with common criminals. The record of the 

 province of the Amazonas will read well in the history 

 of the present war, for the number of troops contributed 

 is very large in proportion to the population. But as 

 most of them are obtained in this way, it may be doubted 

 whether the result is a very strong evidence of patriotism. 

 The abuses mentioned above are not, however, confined to 

 these remote regions.* It is not uncommon, even in the 



* Much of what follows upon social abuses, tyranny of the local police, 

 prison discipline, &c., though not quoted in his own words, has been gathered 

 from conversations with Mr. Agassiz, or from discussions between him and his 

 Brazilian friends. The way in which this volume has grown up, being as it 

 were the result of a double experience, makes it occasionally difficult to , draw 

 the exact line marking the boundaries of authorship ; the division being 

 indeed somewhat vague in the minds of the writers themselves. But since 

 criticisms of this so^t would have little value, except as based upon larger 

 opportunities for observation than fell to my share, I am the more anxious 

 to refer them, wherever I can, to their right source. 



