NOTES ON BIIAZIL. 



397 



portioned both to the quantity of water, and the work it has to perform. 

 We observed nothing new in the process of making sugar, except 

 that it was clayed in truncated pyramids of wood inverted, instead of 

 hollow cones of earthenware in the same position ; and the new mode 

 was declared to be greatly preferable to the old one. The produce of the 

 estate, for this season, was estimated at four thousand arrobas of sugar, 

 two hundred pipes of rum, or Brazilian Agoardente, a quantity of cotton, 

 coffee, milho, and fruit, all of which are sent to the city for sale. The 

 slaves were numerous, and appeared to enjoy all the comfort of which 

 persons, with their minds and habits, were capable. We noticed a great 

 deficiency of wood and water; indeed I scarcely ever saw land so com- 

 pletely cleared of its forests, and no v,?here so sensibly felt that these are 

 the principal ornament of Brazihan scenery. Wheji stripped, these lower 

 hills, naturally round, are so much alike, and so generally brown, as to 

 prodvice the idea of dull uniformity and barrenness. 



Perhaps a better place cannot be found for mentioning the almost 

 miraculous effects Avhich are ascribed to Garupa, or the cold juice as it is 

 pressed from the sugar cane, in the cure of scalds. A friend of mine had 

 occasion to put it to the test, for in stepping over a spout, along which 

 boiling sugar was flowing, some of it was accidentally sprinkled upon his 

 leg, in the agony which it produced, he was going to tear off the stocking, 

 but was prevented by a negro, who forcibly plunged the limb into a 

 bucket full of cold Garupa ; the pain was immediately soothed, and the 

 stocking afterwards taken off without bringing with it even the skin of 

 the wound. Does this point, it may be asked, to sugar dissolved in cold 

 water, as a remedy for recent burns ? 



Near to the mill, we observed an instance of the extraordinary power 

 of vegetation in this country. The trough, which conveyed water from 

 the dam to the wheel, was supported by tall pieces of squared timber, 

 set in the ground ; one of them, it is clear, liad not been thoroughly dry 

 when placed there, for the core had vegetated, taken root, and produced 

 a head ; the dry outside of the post had split through the whole length of 

 each face, and the pieces hung upon the renewed tree as a sort of bark. 



