NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



229 



favoured spot ; but the countiy is not yet sufficiently advanced in the 

 common arts of civilized life, to render it a desirable residence. One 

 of them has endeavoured to improve its agriculture, by introducing the 

 ploughj on the banks of the Tacoary, about ninety miles above Porto 

 Alegro ; I fear without much effect. This part of the Province is 

 however daily and rapidly improving; though the people still want 

 education, and are yet more destitute of moral and religious culture. 

 This last want will hardly be matter of surprise, when it is considered 

 that a district, extending over nearly six degrees of latitude, and four 

 of longitude, comprising more than forty thousand square miles, is 

 divided into five parishes, each containing five millions of acres ; and all 

 of them under the spiritual care of the Bishop of Rio de Janeiro, 

 whose residence is not within five hundred miles of the nearest part of 

 this his charge. 



One great bar to improvement is, that much of the interior is still 

 in the hands of the native Indians, whose animosity to white people is of 

 the bitterest sort, and their purposes of vengeance for injuries received^ 

 so long bequeathed from father to son^ as to be rooted in their hearts, as 

 firmly as the colour is attached to their skin. Under the influence of this 

 passion, they destroy every thing belonging to Europeans or their 

 descendants, which falls in their way ; even the cow and the dog are not 

 spared. For such outrages they pay dearly; small forts, or militaijy 

 stations being placed around the colonized parts of the district, from 

 whence a war of plunder and extermination is carried on against them. 

 In this warfare not only are fire-arms made use of, but the lasso, dogs, and 

 all the stratagems which are usually employed against beasts of prey.-— 

 This account I received chiefly from a fellow passenger to Rio de 

 Janeiro, who had been forty years engaged against the Indians, and 

 was proceeding to ask of the Sovereign some honorary distinction, as a 

 reward for his services. He would ask it I am persuaded in vain ; the 

 King has no feelings which would accord witli his. 



Business requiring me to proceed from St. Pedro to the Brazilian 

 Capital with the utmost speed ; I determined to go by Laguna, and if no 



