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of my worthy friend Captain Ferrera. Being now less pressed for 

 time, I took a more leisurely survey of his establishment, particularly 

 of his sugar-work and distillery, both which are very ill conducted. 

 When I saw the furnaces for heating the coppers in the latter, I 

 freely told the Captain, that they could not have been constructed 

 on a worse plan, but I received for answer, that no better was 

 known. It would indeed be extremely difficult to introduce improve- 

 ments into this or any other parts of the distillery, for every thing is 

 left to the management of the negroes. When 1 asked any question 

 concerning the process, the owner professed his ignorance of it, and 

 sent for one of the African foremen to answer me. With this man 

 I reasoned respecting the excessive quantity of fuel consumed to no 

 purpose, and proposed a method for saving it, as well as for cor^ 

 recting the disagreeable taste of the rum, caused by the empyreuma, 

 which was, to re-distil it with an equal quantity of water, taking 

 care previously to clean out the still ; but he only laughed at me, 

 and signified that his certainly must be the best method, for he had 

 learned it of an old sugar-maker. Thus it is, that from the inr 

 difference of the owners to their own interests, things are suffered to 

 go on in the same routine, being left to the direction of men who 

 shrink from a temporary increase of labour, even when it promises 

 them a lasting advantage. This aversion to improvement I have 

 often observed among the inhabitants of Brazil ; when, for instance, 

 I have questioned a brick-maker, a sugar-maker, a soap-boiler, or 

 even a miner, his reasons for conducting his concerns in such an 

 imperfect manner, I have been almost invariably referred to a negro 

 for answers to my interrogatories. 



Some parts of this estate are said to contain gold, and at the time 

 of my visit. Captain Ferrera was negotiating for permission from 

 Government to work them. I presented to him a drawing of a plan 

 for washing the cascalhao in a manner superior to that commonly 

 practised, and explained to him the use of grinding or stamping 

 those concrete masses frequently found in it, which generally con- 



