KOTES ON BRAZIL. 



To make up the sixty thousand, nearly twenty-nine thousand 

 children are to be added. This, it may be observed, is a much smaller 

 proportion than usual, even in large cities, where many die at an early 

 age. But, in fact, few children comparatively are born in Rio; and, 

 owing to constitutional weakness, fewer are preserved alive even in 

 families, which surpass the generality in a skilful and tender care of 

 their offspring. Many are carried off by improper modes of treatment, 

 by neglect, and injurious indulgence, often mixed together in the same 

 case. The early age at which young people cease to be numbered among 

 children is also to be taken into account. The children of slaves, too, 

 are placed in the list together with their parents, as belonging to the 

 same class. And it is painful to add, that means of the vilest nature are 

 often employed to prevent the birth of children, and that infanticide is 

 by no means uncommon. 



Among the provisions with which the city was supplied, one of 

 the most important was beef Cattle abound in the interior of the 

 country, though not near to the warmer coasts of Brazil, and in general 

 are bred and reared with little attention. Many of them, when sent to 

 Rio, perform a journey of three or four hundred miles ; and during the 

 time when a great influx of strangers created an extraordinary demand 

 for fresh meat, it was said that some Were driven from a distance of seven 

 hundred ; and, perhaps, in such circumstances, there was a sort of 

 necessity that cattle should not only be collected in remoter districtSj 

 but that they should be driven more hastily across the country. Many, 

 of course, died on the road of fatigue ; and those which held out to the 

 end arrived in a most miserable condition, at a public Slaughter-house, 

 near the convent d'Ajuda; for there alone could they be butchered, the 

 sale of beef being a monopoly, and under the superintendence of the 

 police. Close to the house is a small yard, into which the animals are 

 crowded, and where they frequently remain two or three days without 

 food or water, until their turn come to stagger into the adjoining 

 building, and to yield up their lives. The scenes which occur here are, 

 some of them, highly distressing, and always of the filthiest description, 

 no attempt being then made to give even a partial cleansing to the place. 



