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NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



This distortion of ideas and conduct is by no means peculiar to the 

 Post-office and its managers, but common to all truly bred Brazilians. 

 They think, they reason, and they act differently from what Europeans 

 would do in similar circumstances. They are not naturally more dull 

 than ourselves, but their minds have been exercised upon different 

 objects, have been subjected to different impressions, and have assumed 

 a different cast. In all affairs relating to travelling through the forests, 

 or obtaining a subsistence in them ; to the detection of danger there from 

 wild animals and reptiles which attack them ; to escaping from peril ; 

 and to entrapping and destroying their enemy ; they are greatly our 

 superiors ; and treat with as much contempt our want of active adroitness, 

 as we do their deficiency of reasoning and skill This also it is, which 

 sometimes makes Savages appear like Heroes ; they attack their own 

 objects in their own way ; and act with vigour for a moment, in circum- 

 stances where braver men would hesitate ; but they cannot be brought 

 to face danger coolly and for a length of time, nor can they subdue their 

 dread of fire-arms. 



The Register of Mathasus Barboza, is the great Toll-House of the 

 Province of Minas Geraes. Every three months it is required to remit 

 the sum collected for duties to Villa Rica, the Capital and seat of Govern- 

 ment. For the quarter which immediately preceded the date of my 

 visit, it had received thirty Contos of Reis ; and its annual remittance 

 amounts to about a hundred Contos, which at an exchange of sixty 

 pence per Mil-Reis, makes twenty-five thousand pounds Sterling. This 

 tax is the subject of bitter complaint, but as it is spent in supporting the 

 civil and military establishments of the province, and in promoting 

 the welfare of its five hundred thousand inhabitants, it should be 

 regarded not only as light, but as a public benefit. 



It is usual for a traveller to exchange, at this place, all his metallic 

 money, and to receive for it the paper of the Province, which, except a little 

 copper and bars of gold, is the only currency allowed there. On quitting 

 the Province he may again exchange at any of the Registers, these Bilhetes 

 or Notes, for those of the district upon which he is entering. Having 



