406 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



destined to the market of Rio de Janeiro. It was the first of the kind 

 we had met, because, beyond the Parahyba, they pursue to the city the 

 route of Uva and Maranbaya. Close to the water's edge stood one good 

 house, a small church, and a poor venda. I crossed by the canoa, 

 which had attended the oxen over, and at the Register, on the other 

 side, though obliged to wait until the officers were at liberty, was 

 received with civility. 



They were employed in weighing gold dust, which they received 

 from a number of country people, who had brought in the produce of 

 their washings. These men, some of them negroes, appeared to be very 

 poor, who having collected a few oitaves of metal, carry it to the Register, 

 where it is examined, weighed, and a small sum advanced upon it. — 

 These circumstances are entered in a book, the dust wrapped in a small 

 packet is deposited in an iron chest, and the man departs to search for 

 more. When he has collected as much as he thinks will make a Bar, a 

 certificate is given to him of the gross weight, and probable value, the 

 metal itself is sent to the Smelting-House, where it lies for several months. 

 In the mean time this written certificate is negotiated by the Searcher, 

 and circulates until the bar which it represents be inquired for. One of 

 these documents fell into my hands in the city, which had been issued at 

 Sahara, two years before. On presenting this writing at the Smelting- 

 House, the bar is produced, and with it a certificate of the gross weight 

 of the dust, the waste it suffered in smelting, of the quantity deducted 

 as the Royal Fifth, of the present weight, assay and value of the bar. 

 These Bars bearing the Royal Arms, the name of the place where they 

 were issued, the weight and the quality of the gold, accompanied by their 

 certificates, circulate as coin, in the province of Minas Geraes, and some 

 others, but now, when they find their way to that of Rio de Janeiro, 

 they must be carried to the Treasury, where they are coined into pieces 

 of 6,400 Reis or 4,000 Reis each. The former of these certificates, it is 

 evident, becomes actually a paper currency, and on a small scale produces 

 in commerce, some of the same effects ; the latter also, though in the 

 present mode, it rather encumbers the circulation, might be made ^ 



