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less precarious subsistence than mining. So little gold is at present 

 found, that His Highness's fifth scarcely pays the officers and sol- 

 diers appointed to receive it. There are some situations alike fa- 

 vourable to mining and farming ; with a small capital, a man may 

 here turn both pursuits to account, if he can bring himself to con- 

 form to the customs of the place. The land is strong and good ; its 

 various inequalities present spots adapted to the growth of almost 

 every description of produce. In the valleys, and on the sides of 

 the mountains, the soil, in some parts, consists of strong clay, but 

 more generally of a fine, rich, vegetable mould. The rock, or solid 

 stratum, which appears at various depths below it, is granite, com- 

 posed of feld-spar, hornblende, quartz, mica, and frequently gar- 

 nets. When found in a decomposing state, it is denominated 

 pizarra. No metallic substances, except gold and oxides of iron, 

 appear ; the former, which is found in the interjacent bed of cas- 

 calhao, exists only in grains ; I examined a considerable quantity, 

 but could not discover a single particle in a crystallized state. 



The country appears to be very poorly stocked with cattle ; no 

 cows are kept for milking, nor is any attention here paid to the 

 production of an article of diet, so essential to the subsistence of a 

 poor family ; a few goats are kept, and the only milk used is that 

 which they yield. The common food of the inhabitants is as fol- 

 lows ; — for breakfast, a kind of kidney beans, called feijones, boiledy 

 and afterwards mixed with the flour of Indian corn ; for dinner, 

 feijones boiled with a little fat pork and some cabbage leaves, and 

 a sort of pudding, made by pouring the water from the pork on a 

 plate of the farinha, which is eaten with the hand, and much 

 relished ; for supper, some poor vegetables, also boiled up with fat 

 pork. Fowls, which are bred here in great numbers, are generally 

 cut to pieces and stewed for table. Wine is rarely used, even 

 among the higher ranks, but here are fruits in great abundance, par- 

 ticularly bananas and oranges, which form a considerable part of 

 the general diet. f'S/:-; . 



