BRAZIL. 



487 



quantity, a pint of wine, and a few ounces of sugar or coffee. This, they say, is to remove 

 temptation from their slaves. A traveler remarks, that this want of system is the most obvi- 

 ous trait in the Brazilians, and that he has seen "a slave returning from a venda with a china 

 tureen full of charcoal under his arm, and a silver cup on his head, holding a few loose candles." 

 The Brazilians are not humane masters, though kind in their family relations.* 



In Brazil many customs exist that have been long disused in Portugal. Walsh relates, that 

 he sometimes saw groups, such as are pictured in the old editions of Don Quixote and Gil 

 Bias, in costumes long extinct in Europe. The barbers have musical instruments in their shops 

 to amuse the customers, and their avocations are various ; they prepare tortoise-shell for combs, 

 bleed, draw teeth, and exclusively mend silk stockings, vamping them very neatly. They are, 

 besides, the musicians of the country. Assassinations are rare in Brazil, and duels are un- 

 known. The spirit of the people is essentially democratic, and if this be properly directed to 

 the founding of good institutions, no country in America will be more enviable than Brazil. 



There is a department in the newspapers which discloses a national trait, and which affords 

 much amusement. Under the head of " Particular Notices," one person is informed, that if 

 he does not bring back the books he borrowed, his name will be made public ; another, that a 

 particular person wants to speak with him, and warning him at his peril not to refuse ; a third, 

 that his stagnant water is offensive, and if he does not throw it out, a neighbor will come and 

 spill it in his parlor. Some curious notices also appear from ladies, as, " The Senhor, who 

 was in the house of Luiza da Conceicao, in the street Livradia, No. 1, and who requested of 

 the Senhora some paper to write upon, and having finished his letter, took from the drawer 4 

 railreis in gold, a bank note for 8 milreis, and a pair of silk stockings, is requested to restore 

 the articles if he does not wish to see his name in public. The same favor is requested from 

 the gentleman who carried away her fan, otherwise his name shall also appear." Connected 

 with the newspapers are loose sheets called " Correspondencia," containing the most outrageous 

 libels, for which the printer is in no peril unless he refuse to print the answers. The following 

 is a specimen. "Retribution. — God being pleased to call from this world to a better, the 

 Merchant .Joao Pereira Borba, and he being a man of correct life, inserted the following clause 

 in his will. I declare that I have ever been a neighbor of the Merchant ,Tose Ijoureno Dies, 

 and for that reason I enjoin my heir not to demand from him a large debt which he contracted 

 at my store by his constant and daily visits to the bung of a cask of Catalonian wine ; since it 

 was from the vicinity of my store to the merchant's house, it would be injustice to receive 

 money for that which renders him to this day so contemptible in the eyes of his fellow-citizens. 

 One of the offended." 



The original inhabitants or Indians, were never found living in large communities, and those 

 of them that remain are more dispersed than the Indians of Mexico. In the annals of such a 

 people there is little of interest, — they were barbarians in peace and cannibals in war. In the 



* The following extract is from Wali5h's Notices of Bra- 

 zil. " Negroes every day are sacrificed. Not po much as 

 delinquents punished for offences as victims offered up to 

 the revenge or malice of their masters. A Portuguese 

 merchant was pointed out to me at the Alfandetra, as a 

 remarkable example of this. He had ill-used a black so as 

 greatly to exasperate him ; and as he was not his master, 

 the slave was not in the same personal awe of him ; and 

 he struck him on the face in a sudden fit of passion. The 

 merchant said little about it at the time, but the inexpia- 

 ble insult of receiving a blow from a negro slave rankled 

 in his heart. He some time after applied to his master to 

 sell him, but as he was a good negro, for whom lie felt a 

 regard, he declined, till he was offered a considerable sum, 

 which he thought it not prudent to refuse. The money 

 was immediately paid, and the negro transferred ; but the 

 moment his new master obtained pos.session of him, he 

 sent him to the calnbou(;o, or place where slaves are pun- 

 ished. Here he obtained an order, as is usual, from the 

 intendant of the police, for 300 or 400 laslies, or as many 

 as he might tliink necessary ; and he had him flogged 

 every day with such severily, that lie gradually simk under 

 the punishment, and the merchant never thouglit his af- 

 front expiated, till he saw his dead body sent in a mat to 

 the burying-ground of the Ivlisericordia. Sometimes the 

 gratification of these passions is too sweet to be intrusted 

 to other hands, so they take it into their own, and of this 



several stories were told me; I shall mention one. A 

 family was about to remove to the country, and the mas- 

 ter ordered one of his slaves to prepare the carriage. The 

 slave, as often happens, had some attachment which he 

 did not wish to leave, and neglected the orders ; and, 

 when they were repeated in a more peremptory manner, 

 he took an axe, and in a sudden fit of frenzy or despair, 

 attempted to cut his master down. He was seized and 

 disarmed, but he was not sent to the calabomjo, where it 

 was said his punishment would not be sufficiently severe ; 

 so he was tied up in a cellar in the house, where his mas- 

 ter every day inflicted the chastisement with his own 

 hands, and never took him down till he was dead. This 

 was universally known, and mentioned to me as rather a 

 more salutary and effectual way of domestic punishment 

 than sending to the calabou<;o. The master suffered no- 

 thing in public estimation, and was never called to any 

 account for the murder. Tlie wretched slave often anti- 

 cipates tlie result by inflicting death upon himself in an 

 extraordinary manner. They have a method of burying 

 their tongue in their throat, in such a way as to produce 

 suffocation. A friend of mine was passing through the 

 carioca, when a slave was tied up and flogged. After n 

 few lashes, he hung his head apparently lifeless, and when 

 taken down he was actually dead, and his tongue found 

 wedged in the oesophagus, so as completely to close the 

 tiaehea." 



