NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



485 



Brazil, as a settled rule, that justice must always be purchased. This 

 sentiment is so wrought into the general habit and mode of thinking, 

 that scarcely any one considers it as wrong ; and to remonstrate against the 

 practical operation of such a maxim would not only be thought absurd, 

 but be sure to plunge the complainant into deeper ruin. 



In the course of our journey to-day, which was eighteen miles 

 North-East by North, we picked up a few specimens of a fossil greatly 

 resembling coal. At the close of it we reached Palmeiros, an estate of 

 two leagues squared, or about forty thousand English acres ; the land 

 rich, well watered, and fertile. There is upon it one house, and, at the 

 distance of a league, two or three Retiros, or minor establishments, 

 with miserable huts and sheds. The garden is extensive, and a consider- 

 able tract is devoted to milho, which appeared to be in excellent order. 

 It is, however, properly a grazing and dairy farm, with about a thousand 

 head of cattle, a few horses, twelve or fourteen slaves, and a few white 

 people as superintendents ; making, in the whole, a population of twenty 

 men, and half that number of women and children. It produces yearly 

 for the market, keis. 



400 Oxen at 400O Reis, or 20 Shillings sterling, per Head, 1,600,000 



Cheese, in value 1,200,000 



Horses 200,000 



Total 3,000,000 



The disbursements of the estate are trifling, and generally paid for from 

 the sale of butter and other articles in the neighbouring towns. 



In the evening about two hundred cows were collected in the yard, 

 and a greater number of calves, which, after having been turned out of 

 the sheds, and acknowledged by the mothers, were tied to their fore legs 

 in the manner already described ; when the cows had been deprived of 

 their milk to a certain degree, the yoimg ones were suckled with great 

 care and judgment. The calving season commences here in August, 

 and is represented as requiring great watchfulness and exertion, for the 

 cows seek for retired spots in the woods and coppices, in which to drop 



