578 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



be the resort of the wealthy and the idle, of those who hold offices under 

 the Crown, or depend upon Merchandise, in all its various forms, for the 

 employment of capital, or the support of life. Thither also Commercial 

 Vessels will resort with their lading, and seek for employment and 

 cargoes ; and the whole must be supplied by channels, which com- 

 municate with the Interior. These pour daily into Rio quantities of 

 Vegetables, Fruit, Milk, Grass, Firewood and Charcoal, Lime, Bricks, 

 Tiles, and Timber, with numberless other articles of domestic use, which 

 are furnished from the Coasts of its extensive Bay, and the rivers which 

 flow into it ; and not by water conveyance alone, but by a great number 

 of mules and of slaves, who are constantly passing and repassing to the 

 distance of twelve or fourteen miles by land. Besides this moving mass, 

 another is now occupied in bringing down Oxen, Hogs, Sheep, Farinha, 

 Bacon, Poultry, Cheese, Sugar, Rum, Indigo, Cotton, Cotton-cloth, 

 Salt-Petre, Gold, Crystals, and Precious Stones, and other articles of 

 necessity and luxury ; which are produced over an extent of country, 

 measuring about six hundred miles by a thousand ; the greatest part of 

 which, indeed, has not yet been visited by civilized man, but exhibiting, 

 so far as it has been explored, almost every variety of soil, climate, situ- 

 ation, and circumstance, which can ever become desirable, and capable 

 of furnishing the most ample supplies, and forming a broad basis of 

 growing and perpetual prosperity. 



The intercourse with this extensive tract is carried on, at present, 

 only through a few channels, and to a limited extent. Toward the 

 East, one of them, through Praia Grande, the Guaxendiba, and the 

 Iguape-zu, employs, perhaps, seventy mules per day. From the North, 

 the road passes through Porto d' Estrella, and brings thither about two 

 hundred and fifty loaded mules daily. From the West, they enter the 

 City by Venda Grande, and amount to two hundred, exclusive of fifty 

 from the North, through St. Antonio da Jacatinga. Each of these mules 

 carryirig, at least, one hundred weight and a half. The return burdens 

 consist of Dry Goods, Hardware, Salt, Wine, Iron, and Cocos. Besides 

 the employment, which these troops afford to people in the City and the 



