lOb THE tROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 18915 
The "Miaeiros," as those belonging to Minas are 
called, are a very happy and oontented lot of people; 
they supply Dearly all their own domestic wants, not 
only as regards food, but also clothing. On every farm 
there are rude appliances for turuiun cotton and 
wool into cloth, and ib is made of diiferent thicknesses 
from fine calico to thick counterpanes. Trousers' 
etuffi made in Minas on the farms are in great de- 
mand in other parts of Brazil. They are strong and 
the colours are fast. Troopers from the interior ta ke 
often large quanties of these to the Province of S. 
Fanlo for sale. The manipulation and manufacture 
of these textile fabrics generally devolves on the 
female portion of the establishment. The lady of tiie 
house takes cliarge of the women and children, from 
whom she exacts a fair amount of work between 
seven and ten o'clock at night. I fear that now 
that forced labour is abolished and railways are bring- 
ing European goods that will prove a substitute, tliis 
interesting industry will he neglected. 
I mentioned before that slavery had not such a 
stronghold in thtse parts as in some others, but 
there are many halt-castes between Poctuguesa and 
Indian, who work in gangs on the large coffee 
estatee. The condition of these is being very much 
improved by their being allowed to build a house tor 
themselves, and plant a piece of ground with pro- 
visions. Formerly marriage amongst this class was of 
rare occurrence, but families were reared all the 
same and couples lived happily together during their 
lives. The blame for this want of regard for the 
nuptial ceremony must be laid at the door of the 
church, for so many confotsions and preparatory 
oatechizmgs had tj be gone through, for weeks 
before the marriage could take place, people evaded 
it. Civil marriage had been for some time in the 
programme of advanced liberals, and the re- 
publican Government at once declared for it, and 
made civil marriage the only one recognisable, by law 
and have also made it a crime punishable by fine end 
imprisonment for any priest to celebrate a religious 
marriage before he has assured himself that the civil 
has been properly, that is to say le>?aily, performed 
The custom after that decree has been to marry civily. 
to make it legal, and those who want to keep rit^ht 
with the church are afterwards married spiritually. 
This will ameliorate considerably the moral state of 
the class I am now referring to. The improvement 
in this respect will also extend to the class who were 
formerly slaves, for the bw of 1871, while prohibition 
the sale of any one member a family, away from the 
other members, lost this salutary effect as regards the 
slave, if the father and mother were not married. 
The consequence was that, as a slave could not marry 
without his master's consent, and the master allowing 
him to marry depreciated the slave's market value, 
the rule was for masters to forbid marriages. 
Many snug little homes have npruug up on the estates 
since the emancipation law of May 13th, 1888, which 
abolished slavery for ever in Brazil, was passed ; and 
many dark-coloured couples, to whom the masterbefore, 
or the priest later on, denied this civilized right are 
being by the civil law made man and wife and their 
chubby children are legitimized. While referring to 
these "libertos" as they are now called, I must men- 
lion that the effect of abolition has not been so dia- 
astrons to agriculture as many predicted. A great 
many have left the old plantations, but are working 
on some other, and are very orderly. They prefer 
to work on piece work by themselves rather than 
the old system in large gangSi reminding them 
of the time when they were driven like oxen or 
males by a man with a whip behind them. Last 
year there was not much coffee lost owing to the 
blsoks not working. The change has been moat 
(elt in the household establishment, indeed it hisupnet 
domestic arrangments terribly. Formerly the house 
nsed to bo full of uegra and mulata women aud giria, 
over whom the mistress of the house used to rule with 
rigorous (ixactilade, and whether it was owing to the 
peculiar temper of the lady or the wilful obstimacy of 
.the feintle captive a great many authorities agree in 
haying, that puiiiuhinent was more severely dealt on 
poor uufortunateB inside, thau on those outside the 
house. The instrument of torture wtB not a whip but 
a " palmatorio," a piece of wood shaped like a flat 
spoon with a few snail holes bored in it : this was 
applied to the pilm of the hand; one poor innocent was 
told off to apply it to the offender. I am inclined to 
think stories 'ike these have been much exaggerated 
for no case of such treatment has passed under my 
observation : on the contrary I have known many kind 
and considerable Brazilian ladies, who gave much in- 
dulgence to the females under their charge, and I do 
not wish to join in this libel against the Brazilian fair 
sex. At the .same time on visiting Fazendeiros' houses 
at t'ue present time there are m^ny excuses made for 
want of better treatment to a visitor in the form of 
having so few servants now, to do particular work. In 
many instances the mistress of the house 
or the daughters will bring the usual cup of black 
coffee, which everyone gives to a visitor here, be the 
vititor or the householder ever so humble. 
It is natural to suppose that the coloured house-ser- 
vant girls sighed for a home of their own, aud many 
of them left to marry thoee who had been refused to 
them before. A great many were trained to do first- 
class needle-work ar.d lady's-maid work, and all c iuld 
do laundry work, aud cooking, and in ttie towns both 
before em incipetioa and sihct th re wjs and is alvrays 
a large demand for those who can hire them.selves out 
for fcuch useful work. 
The natural inclination of the coloured servant girl 
seems to be to get marri-d to one of her own race 
and co'our, and they seem to mukd their horaea cheer- 
ful and comfortible after marrying. Those who 
thought thit the members of the coloured races after 
ematicipition would gradually allow themselves to 
sink into social vices and degradations have beef 
woefully mistaken. They certainly, both sexes o 
thenn, spend a great deal in outward adornment, and 
in the exercise of this the taste often leads towards 
the gaudy and ridiculou?, but this is the nature of the 
Africaa race. 
Our housewives here will gradually settle down to 
do without the coloured servant, and be contented with 
theltalian, Portuguese and German maids; aud when 
the mistresses come to get acquainted with the treat- 
ment of white girls, things wiii get again into some 
sort of order in the old homes of the coffee and cane 
planters. 
During iny soiourn in these par's the so-called 
Revolution came off. Dom Pedro II. was quietly 
sent away to Europe and the army and navy took bis 
place of power, appointing a provisional Governraent 
of Minister.5 amongst people Wtll-known beforeh aud 
for their renublican sympatiiies. In the interior the 
news was received with perfect indifference. 
The leadiog republicans in (he vaiious dist icts were 
the tirst to move in the matter of receiving authentic 
news and propagdtiog it. The constituted authorities re- 
mained still and allowed the others to do as they liked 
and soon came appoiutinente by the central Government 
of new municical councillors etc. to substitute the old, 
»ud regularly elected municipal couaciilors had to 
retire before the Government nominations, and 
these selections were made by the central authority for 
all appointmeots from the presidents of the provinces 
down to the postmaster of the .«mallest village. 
Poor people who could not read newspapers got the 
news from those who could read. It was not considered 
fashionable nor was it safe to oppose those holding 
Government views, and those in humble condition were 
made to believe that the new republican form was essen- 
tially a poor man's Government. 
As far as my observation went, the deposed Emperor 
had a great deal of sympathy from among the lower 
classes. They never could find out what evil he had 
done, hui they all remembered of his being often pub- 
licly extolled for great and good actions. 
I need not go a second time into the cau«es that 
led to (his. I may repeat that they were various, but 
the XDrincipal one was that many great m'iiitary and 
naval officers thought themselves slighted, and gra- 
dually got the two services to promise to take part 
in the change, and thus it was effected — without 
bloodshed — for could there be any when all the 
people who had arms were in favour of the change ? 
