746 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1882. 
jails. But if Indian merchants are successful in estab- 
lishing a considerable export tiade with the colonies, 
the returns for it can be made ir. gold of which India 
is taking an ever increasing-amount. 
It seems rather peculiar that, while the Indian teas 
are slrongly recommended on account of their free- 
dom from adulteration, a correspondent of the Indian 
Tea Gazette should draw attention to the South 
American mate, as what, "it is just possible might 
make an admirable blend with our excellent, though 
to some people peculiarly-flavoured, Indian teas, and 
give them a value in the British Colonial markets which 
they do not now possess." Yerva Mati is used in the 
greater part of South America as tea is by Western 
people, and its flavour, though peculiar, resembles the 
coarser qualities of China tea; but it has virtues and 
defects which the cup that cheers but not inebriates 
does not possess. It is a wonderful sustainer of 
strength even in circumstances requiring great physical 
exertion, but it produces excitement of a very unpleas- 
ant kind to Europeans. It derives its stimulating and 
restorative properties from the same principle that is 
found in tea and coffee, namely theine. The cor- 
respondent of the Tea Gazette, when combatting the ob- 
jection that the introduction of the cultivation in India 
of the Ilex from which mate" is made because it might 
be used as an adulterant, says, that in time it would 
stand in the same relation to tea as chicory to coffee ; 
that is, as an accepted adjuvant. He considers it 
possible that the tea with which it was mixed would 
modify, if it did not entirely counteract, its excitant 
properties, and further that, as it would cost little to 
cultivate and cure mat6, it must needs be profitable 
to the producer. The advocacy of mat6, as something 
which would improve Indian teas and render them 
more pleasant to consumers, seems an unfortunate pro- 
posal on the part of those who are so strenuously urg- 
ing their merits on the world generally. In a report 
o the proceedings at the opening celebration of the 
business of the Calcutta Tea Association in Sydney, 
contained in the same Gazette, we do not find any allu- 
sion to the necessity for an adjuvant in any of the 
speeches which were then made. A great deal was 
said about Indian tea not being liked by the public 
because of the difficulty in obtaining a good blend of 
the various growths ; something more of the indiffer- 
ent quality of the China teas; but nothing about im- 
proving the Association's imports by mats' or any other 
addition, which would be to them what chicory is to 
MESSRS. TYTLER AND SCOTT BLACKLAW 
ON BRAZIL: 
IS A REVOLUTION IMPENDING ? 
It is now about a quarter of a century since Mr. 
R. B. Tytler, so well-known in the annals of the 
planting enterprise of Ceylon, contributed to the 
Observer a startling communication on the preponderat- 
ing influence of Brazil in regulating the coffee market 
of the world. That was before the era of railways in 
the South American Empire and long before the pro- 
cess had been commenced of practically concentrat- 
ing the whole available slave labour— far larger iu 
amount, evidently, than the slaveholders were willing 
to let the outside world know — on the growth of one 
product, to the abandonment or neglect of the formerly 
important staples of sugar, cotton, &c. 
Again, a few years ago, Mr. Tytler embodied his senti- 
ments regarding the then posi'ion of Brazil and her poss- 
ible future, in a pamphlet, taking as his text the facts 
embodied in Mr. Scott Blacklaw's interestingand import- 
ant communications to this paper; especially his elaborate 
report of the discussion on future labour supply by 
planters and others interested in the leading enterprise 
of Brazil in conference assembled. At this conference, 
to the amusement as well as the astonishment of the 
world, strong objections were offered, on the ground 
of probable contamination of race, to the introduction 
of black or coloured free labourers to a country, the 
majority of whose inhabitants must consist of indigen- 
ous or half-bred Indians and negroes (slave and 
free), and the mixed race arising from intercourse be- 
tween the latter and the whites. 
A third time, in consequence of having had 
the advantage of obtaining the most recent in- 
formation from Mr. Scott Blacklaw, personally, 
Mr. Tytler has elaborated his views on Brazil, and 
his letter which appears in this day's issue 
supplements in some most important particulars the 
communication with which Mr. Scott Blacklaw him- 
self has simultaneously favoured us. It will be seen 
that almost the whole purpose of Mr. Scott Blacklaw's 
letter is to shew how mistaken he and we and 
many others were in the conclusions we drew, 
from apparently authentic information, as to the 
crisis which we believed had overtaken the supply 
of slave labour in Brazil, in consequenee of the oper- 
ation of emancipation laws, the decrease of slaves 
by death and the state of public feeling. Makin" 
every allowance for the vast advantages conferred by 
rapid and large railway extension, in freeing human 
beings and cattle from carriage of produce and goods 
to labour on estates, as well as in facilitating the trans- 
port of crops to Rio and Santos, we caDnot but feel 
that the census figures for the slave population, have 
been deliberately, systematically, and for a purpose, 
falsified. That is the opinion of the able and well- 
informed editor of the Rio News, from which honest 
paper we have learned much of the truth about Brazil 
instead of the self-complacent romance in which 
Brazilians themselves are so fond of indulging. Our 
reasoning and conclusion would have been correct 
enough, had our premises been as sound as we natur- 
ally imagined them to be. The result is just the 
reverse of what we reasonably arrived at and honestly 
promulgated. Coffee production in Brazil since the 
cessation,, of the slave trade and the promulgation of 
the emancipation law, instead of going back or even 
remaining stationary for want of labour, .has increased 
at a rate which is positively astounding. We knew 
that the great South American State commanded an 
almost unlimited area of rich coffee soil ; we knew 
that she was adding to her railway facilities at a 
rate which was a reproach instead of being an ex 
ample to our rulers in Ceylon ; and we could easily 
infer the vast advantages these conferred on i 
planters by setting free mules, bullocks and their 
drivers for estate work. But we knew also how 
emormously cofFee was taxed, bearing most of the 
burdens of Government, Imperial and Provincial, in 
fact, and by the trumpet flourishes of the statcsmei 
and public writers of Brazil, we were led— mislei 
we should say — into the erroneous belief that in ad- 
dition to the high death rate to which slaves 
