( n ) 



sides of the mount are steep, and in some places nearly perpendi- 

 cular'^, e'u 



The fertility of the country around St. Paul's may be inferred from 

 the quantities of produce, with which, as I have stated, its market 

 is supplied. About a century ago, this tract abounded with gold ; 

 and it was not until they had exhausted it by washing, that the 

 inhabitants thought of employing themselves in husbandry. As they 

 did so more from necessity than from choice, they were tardy in 

 pursuing those improvements which other nations have made in this 

 noble art, and, pining at the disappearance of the precious mineral, 

 considered their new occupation as vile and degrading. Indeed 

 throughout the whole of Brazil, the husbandmen have ever been con- 

 sidered as forming a class greatly inferior in point of respectability 

 to the miners ; and this prejudice will in all likelihood subsist until 

 the country shall have been drained of its gold and diamonds, when 

 the people will be compelled to seek in agriculture a constant and 

 inexhaustible source of wealth. 



I shall attempt to describe the system of farming which at present 

 prevails in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's. It has been elsewhere 

 observed that, in this extensive empire, land is granted in large tracts, 

 on proper application ; and we may naturally suppose that the value 

 of these tracts depends more or less on their situation. It therefore 

 becomes the first object of a cultivator, to look out for unoccupied 

 lands as near as possible to a large town ; good roads and navigable 

 rivers are the desiderata next in point of consequence which he 

 attends to. When he has made choice of a situation, he applies to 

 the governor of the district, who orders the proper officers to mark 

 out the extent required, generally a league or a league and a half 

 square, sometimes more. 'J'he cultivator then purchases as many 

 negroes as he can, and commences his operations by erecting habi- 



• In one part of the town is found a beautiful species of decomposed granite, consistipg 

 <)f extremely white feld-spar, quartz, and very little mica. 



