NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



507 



according to his account, brought him in abundance of Topazes, Ame- 

 thysts, Emeralds, and other precious stones. When pressed to show me 

 some of them, he, however, could not, or was unwilling. 



Besides the common brilliant yellow gold, we find in this neigh- 

 bourhood white gold, which I suspect to be platina ; black gold, which 

 appears in the form of a dark coloured dust ; and poisoned gold, which 

 is probably either an imperfectly formed, or a corroded metal ; but of the 

 latter kind I saw none. The country also produces, in abundance, a 

 more useful metal ; besides iron in the ore, as it commonly appears, 

 there is a vast quantity of matter, which resembles the calx of that 

 metal, in situations which the Mineralogist would, I think, account 

 unnatural. Yet this gift of nature seems to be, in a great measure, 

 useless ; I did not observe a single establishment for fusing and rendering- 

 iron malleable. 



Villa Rica is of some importance in a Commercial view. Until 

 lately it enjoyed, almost exclusively, the trade to Goyaz and Cuyaba, which 

 it now divides with St. John D' El Rey. St. Bartholomew, too, in this 

 neighbourhood, is famed for its sweetmeats, and sends a large quantity 

 of Marmalade to Rio de Janeiro. If any be disposed to smile at a trade 

 in confections, let him recollect what a general want of employment 

 there is in the country, and that here are fruits, sugar, wood, and work- 

 manship, which by this means are rendered valuable. At all events it is 

 better, both for the people and the state, than grubbing for gold. 



Owing, probably, in part to their freedom from the extreme heat, 

 which molests the provinces of Brazil situated along the coast, the people 

 of this country are advanced a few steps before some of their countrymen 

 in industry. They spin and weave wool, worsted, and cotton; but 

 their manufactures are purely domestic ; their implements, and modes of 

 using them, of the oldest and most unimproved description. Perhaps, 

 when the rage for mining is over, this district may become more wealthy 

 from commercial estabhshments, of which these are the embryo, than from 

 all the gold which it has ever collected. This, however, will be thought 

 by some an extravagant estimate of the value of manufactures, when 



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