Chap. III. CITIZENSHIP OF COLOURED PEOPLE. 191 
fought hard, but with perfect legahty and good humour, 
against this powerful interest. They did not succeed ; 
and although the government agent committed many 
tyrannical and illegal acts, the losing party submitted 
quietly to their defeat. In a larger town, I believe, the 
government would not have dared to attempt thus to con- 
trol the elections. I think I saw enough to warrant the 
conclusion that the machinery of constitutional govern- 
ment would, with a little longer trial, work well amongst 
the mixed Indian, white, and negro population, even of 
this remote part of the Brazilian empire. I attended, 
also, before I left, several assize meetings at Ega, and 
witnessed the novel sight of negro, white, half-caste, and 
Indian, sitting gravely side by side on the jury bench. 
The way in which the coloured races act under the 
conditions of free citizenship, is a very interesting sub- 
ject. Brazilian statesmen seem to have abandoned 
the idea, if they ever entertained it, of making this 
tropical empire a nation of whites, with a slave labour- 
ing class. The greatest difficulty on the Amazons is 
with the Indians. The general inflexibility of charac- 
ter of the race, and their abhorrence of the restraints 
of civilised life, make them very intractable subjects. 
Some of them, however, who have learned to read and 
write, and whose dislike to live in towns has been 
overcome by some cause acting early in life, make 
very good citizens. I have already mentioned the 
priest, who is a good example of what early training 
can do. There can be no doubt that if the docile 
Amazonian Indians were kindly treated by their white 
fellow-citizens, and educated, they would not be so 
