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and in wet weather almost impassable. The father, an intelligent 

 and industrious man, informed me that he took up that land about 

 four years since, that he had only one negro, and had no funds 

 wherewith to carry on his undertaking, except seven or eight pounds 

 per annum, which he gained by his profession as a clergyman ; this 

 he expended in hiring those who chose to work. He shewed me his 

 garden, which was full of fine cofFee-trees, and was kept in the neat- 

 est order ; his fields were covered with Indian corn ; his live-stock 

 consisted of a good milch cow, a number of pigs, and one mule. On 

 asking him how he disposed of his produce, he told me that dealers 

 came and purchased it on the spot. The whole of the sezmaria, or 

 plantation, with the stock upon it, he valued at four hundred pounds 

 sterling, and said that he had no doubt he could obtain that price for 

 it. These were clear data for calculating the profits of farming, when 

 managed with prudence and industry. Here is a man who, having 

 begun with little or nothing, finds himself, at the end of four years, 

 worth four hundred pounds ; a snug independency in these parts, 

 ^nd not more than his exertions and perseverance deserved. Father 

 Thomas lived more comfortably than any person I had hitherto met 

 with in the district : he was economical, but not parsimonious ; liberal 

 in his sentiments, frank and communicative in his conversation, and 

 polite in his manners. 



Here I was met by the discoverers of the reputed silver-mine, who 

 came to conduct me to it. We set out on foot, and, after walking 

 about six miles over mountains impassable for mules, fording rivulets, 

 and passing thickets that left me scarcely a single article of dress un- 

 torn, we arrived at the miserable hut of these poor men ; a perfect 

 contrast to the neat dwelling of Father Thomas. Never in my 

 life was I so exhausted by fatigue ; I lay down, unable to go any 

 further, and rested for about an hour, when, being somewhat re- 

 covered, I accompanied the men, along the edge of a beautiful 

 stream, to the foot of the mountain, where they shewed me a hole 

 which they had dug, about two feet deep, and informed me that the 



