THE BRAZILS. 119 
The ruin of the West India islands, it is to be feared, would 
equally affect the tranquillity of those colonies on tlie conti- 
nent of South America, in the possession of the English and 
the Dutch, which would tend in a very material degree to 
enhance the value of the possessions of Spain and Portugal 
on the same continent. But the restrictions, the exactions, 
and the monopolies, under which the settlements of these two 
powers are oppressed, and the total want of energy in the 
inhabitants, which necessarily results from such a system, are so 
many invincible barriers against any improvement which favour- 
able circumstances might otherwise suggest. Few countries af- 
ford so great a number or so great a variety of valuable pro- 
ductions as the Brazils. Beside the articles described in the 
eight paintings, wliich I took notice of in a former cha pter, the 
country produces an inexhaustible supply of the finest timber, 
suitable for all the purposes of civil and naval arcliilecturc ; 
but the cutting and disposing of it is a niono|>o]y of tlie 
Crown. The first object of every man, ^vlio <)])li!ins a gi'ant 
of woodland, is to destroy the best trees as fast as he can ; 
because he is not only forbidden to send them to market, but 
may have the additional mortification of being obliged to en- 
tertain the King's surveyor, whenever he thinks fit to pay him 
a visit, with a numerous retinue, for the purpose of felling tlie 
timber, which he as OAvner of the estate has not tlie power to 
prevent. Yet, notwithstanding this discouraging monopoly, 
together with the difiiculty of transporf , 011 account of tlie 
badness of the roads, and the scarcity of shii)wiights, very 
fine vessels, equal in size to an English 74 gun ship, have 
been constructed at Baliia or St, Salvador, and sent afloat, 
at the expence of about fifteen or sixteen pounds a ton, v. liich 
