NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



475 



nursery wheat, barley, and oats, grow with most extraordinary but 

 useless luxuriance, running into gigantic straw, with long straggling 

 ears, and a small proportion of inferior corn. From the richness of the 

 soil, and the powerful influence of the seasons, the ears do not ripen at 

 the same time, and when arrived at maturity immediately shed their 

 corn on the ground. The owner of this plantation has many of our 

 eatable plants, and some of our fruit-trees, such as apples and pears, 

 which he is striving to modify and naturalize to the climate by various 

 modes of grafting. He is very fond of agriculture, and justly deems it 

 the basis of all political prosperity. As a Priest, a Scholar, and a 

 Philosopher, he will never be ranked among the eminent of Europe; 

 but as a pious, an active, and a benevolent man, he will do much to 

 promote his country's welfare, and deserve its affection and gratitude. 

 When I took my final leave of him he was examining some drawings 

 and descriptions of looms, which he had procured in his district for the 

 Government at Rio. The novelty which most fixed his attention, and 

 which he was surprised to find we had long possessed, was the spring- 

 shuttle, — an improvement which, in his country, the listlessness of the 

 people will render of little importance. 



On the opposite side of the Villa, at a country establishment finely 

 situated in a deep valley, by the side of a small but limpid stream, we 

 found a large and excellent house, at that time uninhabited, but possess- 

 ing all suitable offices for the accommodation of a large family. The 

 soil was extremely good, but in no part cultivated, except a small 

 garden, where plants of every description flourished in wild confusion. 

 Below were tanks and fish-ponds, and every convenience for watering 

 and feeding cattle. On the estate were also the ruins of a large gold 

 work, which consisted of a wall built across a ravine, to serve as a Dam 

 to keep up the water, and to stop any sediment which it might bring 

 down, There was a sluice for emptying the Dam occasionally, to afford 

 an opportunity of taking out the sediment, and extracting the gold 

 which it contained. The greatest part of the wall was well secured by a 



solid bank of earth thrown up against it, but that part which crossed 



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