NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



293 



subsequent years, as the farm became improved, and conveniences were 

 multiplied, the sugar cane was introduced and throve admirably. A mill 

 and distillery were erected, the walls of which were of Taipe, the Paysan 

 of Southern Europe, before unknown in this part of Brazil, though 

 long used in St. Paul's. The still was formed on the principles most 

 approved in Great Britain. After all, it proved impossible to over- 

 come the prejudices of the people; and irreparable mischief was ere 

 long done to the apparatus, in the absence of the proprietor. 



Lands are obtained by grant as well as purchase ; and being distri- 

 buted by the map, instead of survey and measurement, it cannot be 

 wonderful that confusion and contests should arise with respect to their 

 boundaries. To ascertain and establish their claims, many landholders 

 fix around their borders a number of small tenants, called Moradores, 

 who pay a trifling rent, procure their subsistence chiefly by the cultivation 

 of vegetables, and answer the important purpose of watchmen, preventing 

 the encroachments of neighbouring proprietors and the robbery of the 

 woods. They are generally white people who have families, some- 

 times a slave or two, and add much to the population of the country ; 

 but they love and affect independence, and seldom continue after the 

 limits of an estate are well ascertained^ and its remoter parts brought 

 into cultivation. 



The ignorance and listlessness of tliese people are astonishing. Living 

 almost constantly in the woods, their minds are uncultivated, and become 

 hardly capable of more than one kirid of excitement. Accustomed 

 to exercise the violent passions without controul, and to slaughter 

 every animal which comes in their way, their fury knows no bounds, 

 and they are ever ready for all that it urges to. Their eyes, inces- 

 santly on the watch, become large, distorted, and piercing, even to 

 a frightful degree ; and the muscles of their faces assume a concomitant 

 form. Having nothing to lose, easily finding a supply for their wants, 

 and unattached to any particular spot, they leave their abodes without 

 regret, and fix again without any seeming concern but that of avoiding 

 the rivalry and annoyance of a neighbourhood. 



They are frequently succeeded by a more valuable class of tenants 



