8 
THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS. 
intelligent workmen, and tlio utter impossibility, witli existing means, 
of improving agiiculture, which hitherto has been carried on in the 
mdest and most unprofitable Avay. 
“ Of what use is it,” said an intelligent, educated landoAvncr once 
to me, “ of what use is it to know that Ave have not improved our 
farming one hair’s breadth since the time of our ancestors, the Portu- 
guese ? Even if we knew better what to do, and hov) to get out of 
that Avretched old routiuo of ours, it would not help us on; for with 
the hands Ave employ — a croAvd of stupid niggers, Avho, as slaAms, are 
stubborn, and must bear a grudge toAA'ards even the very best of 
mastei’s — it is quite impossible to effect the slightest change in our 
ruinous system.” 
To the coffee and sugar-groAving provinces it is, of course, an all- 
important matter to haA’o new hands in the land as soon as possible, in 
order to check the dreaded reduction of value in the trade and finances 
of the empire. 
Tlie attempt to settle Chinese coolies proAmd as unsuccessful as that 
to induce the planters of the Southern States, after the war, to trans- 
migrate to Brazil. People had the highest idea of the AAmnders 
American energy and industry could work there, and they believed 
the long-looked-for panacea against their own indolence had been found ; 
but they forgot that, in spite of all the hatred toAvards their vuctorious 
neighbours, the Southerners could not but foresee the adAmntages held 
out to them by their old home, in which, peace being I’estored, 
agriculture, trade, and industry floiu-ished aneAV, and A\kere, after all, 
they cordd prosper so much easier than in Brazil, where eA'erything 
Avas quite new to them, excejit slaAxny, and Avhere the general indolence 
Avould also have been a check to their activitJ^ With the aid of some 
American agents, Avho Amlunteered for the obviously lucrative job despite 
their high military titles — most of them called themseh’es generals — 
several hundreds of emigrants aiTived. Besides most respectable 
families, there seemed to be some perfectly organized gangs of thieves 
amongst them, whose luggage Avas found, at the Alfandega of Eio, 
to consist of false keys, rope-ladders, reA'olvers, and other tools of 
refined modern burglary. The voyage and tlie first instalment of the 
ueAV-comers having cost Brazil some hundi-ed thousands of dollars, 
almost all — including these gentlemen, I hope — returacd disappointed, 
alter a very short sojourn ; most of them, too, at the cost of the 
