THE TROPICAL 
A manifesto was issued on the 7th September 1880, 
the ninth anniversary of the passing of the slave law. 
Some able men joined this Society and Branches were 
established in some of the other towns. The agri- 
cultural interest was entirely against the movement. 
The American Minister in Rio de Janeiro wrote a 
letter detailing the prosperity of the Southern States 
in North America since the abolition of slavery there, 
and a banquet was given to this gentleman, Mr. Hil- 
liard, by the Anti-Slavery Society. The speeches on 
this occasion, particularly that given by the American 
Minister, enraged some of the members of Parliament. 
The Government was called on to interfere, for here 
was a minister of a friendly state interfering in their 
domestic affairs. The debate was an angry one, and 
showed how they would resent outside interference, 
and how they could abuse nations and individuals, 
who did not respect the time-honoured institution of 
slavery. The Government; however, saw no reason 
either to praise or blame the American Minister, and, 
in justice to the Prime Minister, we must give him 
credit for saying that, although the Government were 
for slavery remaining as it is, they respected those 
who held opposite opinions. It was during these 
stormy times that the provincial laws were passed 
putting a stop to the inter-provincial slave trade. 
Can it be said then that it was a step towards aboli- 
tion ? During these debaies. the Northern Provinces 
were accused of being anti-slavery, and the Deputies 
from the South, while openly declaring themselves as 
on the pro-slavery side, used threats lo compel those 
from the North to hold on to the arrangement of 1871. 
One illustrious orator from the South used these words: 
— " You wish to sell your slaves to us, and then you 
will by-ancl-bye ask us to liberate all slaves, within 
the Empire." Another said, alluding to the Deputies 
from the North :— " I look on these people as high- 
waymen, and for such as these I have my revolver." 
We must look to the stoppage of the inter-pro- 
vincial slave-trade as putting a check on the labour 
supply to the coffee-producing provinces, and putting 
a limit on the exports of coffee from Rio de Janeiro 
and Santos. The Ceylon coffee planter may console 
himself that the competition in that direction will not 
be more than it is at present, but, if slavery is not 
reduced more rapidly than th" death-rate, and the 
working of the Emancipation fund has shewn during 
the last ten years, we will have to wait some time 
before there is much diminution in the coffee exports. 
We have also to consider that, although all the 
children are nominally born free, they are really slaves and 
are of the same value as slaves to the coffee planter, until 
they are twenty-one years of age. Slavery, we may say 
then, will remain in the same actual condition until the 
year 1892, when those born of slave mothers in 1871 
will be released from bondage. The death-rate and 
the liberations through the emancipation fund taken 
together is not more in these days than the death- 
rate alone was in former times, when there was not 
a prospect of slavery becoming extinct. This latter 
face has made slave-owners see well after the health 
of their slaves, and very strict precautions are taken 
to lessen the death-rate among the negroes. The 
rate now, as we have seen in examining the returns from 
eight provinces, is for death and Iteration by the 
fund together 25 per 1,000 annually. But supposing 
the fund were increased by a tax on slaves, which 
has not yet been imposed, although mentioned in the 
law of 1871 as the first factor in making up the fund 
— and suppose that the f ind were better administered 
and that including the death-rate the number would 
reach thirty per thousand, this calculating 1 oOO.OOO 
as the number of slaves at present (a very low cal- 
culation) the decrease would be only 1.0,000 per an- 
num. Against this we have to set off the children, 
which are said to be born free, who will till up the < 
AGRICULTURIST. [May i, 1882. 
gaps made in the estate gangs through death and 
emancipations up till 1892. 
The physical condition of the slaves in the coffee 
producing provinces is good. As a class, they are robust 
and healthy. The slaves brought from Africa were 
generally young. The most of the native Africans one 
meets were brought over when they were boys and 
girls of 12 to 18 years old. The gangs of slaves 
brought from the Northern Provinces to the South, 
were young. The dealers would buy only those that 
would sell highest to the planters of Sao Paulo and 
Bio Janeiro. The purchaser had to calculate in his 
own mind how many years- work he could get out 
of the negro before he bought him. 
Looking at a gang of slaves working on a coffee 
plantation, one. is struck with the large proportion of 
young and strong-looking people amongst them. Were 
I asked to say what would be the average number 
of years of work that could be got out of the gangs 
I have seen working on the coffee estates— very few 
being above forty and most of them between 
the ages of 15 to 30 years — I would re safe in calculat- 
ing thirty years as the average workable time. As 
I said before, the diminution from deaths and emancipa- 
tion can be made up from the young under twenty- 
one years. It is a matter of opinion to say that 
slavery can continue for thirty years : that is to 
suppose that the settlement of 1871 can last until 
that time. 
It interests us Ceylon planters to know if there is any 
probability of that settlement being disturbed. I have 
before said that, in the evenc of any political disturbance 
the slave may benefit by it. But there is little prospect 
of any serious question disturbing the public mind until 
the Emperor dies, and he is 57 now. 
The Brazilian nation having been colonized from 
Portugal, Brazilians are a quieter race of men than 
those which form the other South American States. 
Although internal troubles do not occur in connection 
with the election of rival presidents, owing to there 
being a constitutional sovereign, at the same time 
party feeling runs Ter y high on very insiguificant 
questions. 
There is a party composed of the shopkeepers in the 
towns in the interior that would benefit by the land being 
cultivated by free men receiving wages; these complain 
of all the money drawn from the produce of the soil being 
spent in the large towns at the coast or at the capital. 
The professional classes would also benefit by it, but all 
these are too much dependent on the wealthy coffee 
planters to openly stand up for abolition In the event 
of a revolution, these would side with the negro. 
The free labourer of the present day is also a pro- 
slavery man. He thinks if the negro were free he 
would work for small wages, and therefore lower the 
labour rate. The free labourer looks down on the slave 
and does not like to look forward to the time when 
they will be on equal terms. Even the free negro is 
despised by the half-Indian camarada. The free 
labourer now and then comes in for a handsome sum 
for catching runaway negroes. Supposing he were foii 
humanity's sake in favour of the slave, and would 
like to see slavery at an end, he is afraid to tamper 
with the negro in the -way of pointing oat to him the 
benefits of freedom. He knows that the punishment 
would be death, if he were found intriguing. 
It is well for the Fazendeiro that the free labourer is 
a pro-slavery man, as he could do incalculable mischief 
if he were not. A few free labourers by entering the 
lock-fast slaves' quarters, on a few estates, and telling 
the slaves how easily they could get freedom, if they 
would revolt, could put the whole country in a blaze. 
There is no police force that could quell a slave dis- 
turbance. Around the town near where I lived, there 
were five thousand slaves. There were only some 
twelve' policemen that could be taken to help the 
