10 
THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS. 
I 
» 
culture there dates back only fifty years ; for, as the plant (at least with 
tlie there usual treatment or ill-treatment) will yield only for some 
twenty-five or thirty years, whoever can afford it simply leaves the old 
]dantations to cut down new tracks of virgin forest, instead of trying 
to prolong the j)criod of productiveness * hy properly maumlng the 
soil. 
Of course, with any activity on the part of the hundreds of thousands 
of hands busy at this system of robbery, immense tlistricts must be 
cleared in a comparatively short time, and rendered unfit for cofiee- 
groAving, at least. But, OA'en if this AAmre not the case, if the Aurgin 
forests of the interior were really inexhaustible and easier of access than 
they are, it must be of the greatest interest to the planters themsclAms, as 
Avell as to the Government, and to road and railAAuiy companies, to keep 
once-tilled land under culthmtion, and not to put the centre of coffee- 
cultiu’e farther and farther from the sea, thus rendering comparath’ely 
useless greater and greater stretches of expensiAm roads. 
All this considered, it must be clear that poor, neAvly-anived colonists 
cannot buy any soil fit for the lucratiAm culture of coffee near the coast ; 
and, in out-of-the-Avay places in the interior, Avherc it may be had on 
reasonable terms, it is of no u.se to them, as they cannot sell the produce. 
Only after the entire abolition of slavery will and can all this change. 
The soil Avill get cheaper, especially if a land-tax be le\ied ; the Govern- 
ment AAull be able to buy good and advantageously situated districts for 
ncAV settlers ; and then only, the large fazendas AAuth their hundreds of 
negroes disappearing, and smaller estates, conducted on sounder prin- 
ciples, taking their place, agriculture will develope itself, as it ought, on 
such a first-rate soil and under such a fertilising climate. 
As to the Indians, considered from an ethno-economical point of vioAV, 
as Avorking material and equiA-alent for the slaves, the great task of 
getting them used to fixed settlements and regular work, and of uniting 
them to some useful community, has already been achieved. The Jesuits 
liavo shown by their Missions that it can be done. Lopez also, the 
ill-famed President of Paraguay, Avho had reaped the benefits of then- 
long activity, Avorking upon the same principles of absolute despotism, 
* If aijy clieap mineral manure could be dlscoTered Avliicli AvoAild ansAver tliis 
purpose, or would render to the capoeira (second growth, from eda poeira, low or thin 
forest) those elemonts Avhich it lacks, compared Avith first groAvth, the fazendoiros 
might yet hold up their heads for many years to come. 
