NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



579 



places where they halt, every one of them, if it consist of fifty beasts 

 of burden, will occupy twelve slaves, consume two quarters of milho, 

 and travel each day twelve miles. The Eastern line forms a communi- 

 cation with the Interior Country as far as Espirito Santo, nearly three 

 hundred miles ; the Northern one passes through the Provinces of Minas 

 Geraes, Goyaz, and Matto Grosso, to distances of fifteen or eigh- 

 teen hundred miles, with roads branching off at different places, 

 which diverge and extend from Bom Successo, in the longitude of Cape 

 Frio on the East, as far as Villa Bella in the West, a lineal distance of 

 nine hundred miles. The Western road is chiefly occupied with trans- 

 porting produce from the Northern part of St. Paul's, and the interme- 

 diate countries ; but Cattle, Mules, and Sheep, have been occasionally 

 brought along it, from Rio Grande, from distances not less than six, 

 seven, and eight hundred miles. Such is the vast field presented, 

 by the Port of Rio de Janeiro to the Cultivator and the Merchant. 



A Commercial Intercourse with distant places, whether carried on 

 by land or water, must depend, in a great measure, for success, upon 

 good faith, and a facility of remitting cash, or its representative, Bills 

 of Exchange. In this respect, the Brazilians have much to learn. — 

 When a free trade was first admitted to the Capital, we found its Mer- 

 chants almost totally ignorant of the value of credit ; money was never 

 put out to interest, except to the Government, and then only in sums 

 which the moneyed men found it prudent to advance, and frequently 

 with a suspicion that they would never be repaid. They had, as yet, 

 little idea of the value and influence of Capital ; nor confidence sufficient 

 in each other, to lend it upon Bonds, nor to discount Acceptances. — 

 There was, indeed, a sort of paper security in use, called a Credito, but 

 it answered none of the various purposes of a paper currency. It 

 amounted to little more than an acknowledgment of the debt, and a 

 declaration that the Creditor was, at some time or other, to be satisfied out 

 of the goods and estate of the Debtor, when all other means of payment 

 had failed. The people likewise had some notion of a Bondsman or 



4d2 



