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stirred until it is dry and fit for eating. This substitute for bread is 

 as common among the inhabitants here as is the farinha de Pao or 

 mandioca among the people of Rio de Janeiro, St. Paul's, and other 

 districts. 



The grain is grown always on virgin lands, cleared by burning, 

 after the manner already described. In good seasons, or, in other 

 words, when the dry weather allows the felled wood to be completely 

 reduced to ashes, the return is from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred bushels for one. Weeding is only performed after the seed 

 has been a short time in the ground ; indeed, the growing crops suf- 

 fer less from the neglect of that operation than from the depreda- 

 tions of rats, which are frequently very considerable. 



On the state of society here I had little leisure to make observ- 

 ations. A general debility seemed to prevail among the females, 

 which I imputed to the want of better food and more exercise : they 

 ponfine themselves principally to the sedentary employments of 

 sewing, or making lace. While at St. Jose I saw many females from 

 the country, dressed in gowns made of English prints ; some of them 

 had woollen mantles, edged with gold lace or Manchester velvet, 

 throvyn loosely over their shoulders. Their hair was invariably fas- 

 tened with combs, and they in general wore men's hats. The men, 

 most of whom belonged to the militia, appeared in uniforms. No 

 two things can be more different than the deshabille and full-dress of 

 a nominal militia officer. When at home he seldom puts on more 

 than half his clothes, over which he throws an old great coat ; and 

 saunters about the house in this attire from morning till night, a true 

 picture of idleness. On Sundays, or on gala-days, after some . hours 

 spent in decorating his person, he sallies forth, completely metamor- 

 phosed from a slip-shod sloven into a spruce officer, glittering in a 

 weight of gold lace, on a horse caparisoned with equal splendor, form- 

 ing as fine a sight for the gazing multitude as a general at a review. 

 He observes no medium between these extremes, being always 

 very shabby or very fine. 



