1848.J 
FOOD OF THE INHABITANTS. 
17 
up with axes and cutlasses, with a total disregard to 
appearance, the blood being allowed to run all over the 
meat. About six every morning a number of loaded carts 
may be seen going to the different butchers’ shops, the 
contents bearing such a resemblance to horse-flesh going 
to a kennel of hounds, as to make a person of delicate 
stomach rather uneasy when. he sees nothing but beef on 
the table at dinner-time. Fish is sometimes obtained, 
but it is very dear, and pork is killed only on Sundays. 
Bread made from United States flour, Irish and Ameri- 
can butter, and other foreign products, are in general 
use among the white population ; but farinha, rice, salt- 
fish, and fruits are the principal food of the Indians and 
Negroes. Farinha is a preparation from the root of the 
mandiocca or cassava plant, of which tapioca is also 
made ; it looks something like coarsely ground peas, or 
perhaps more like sawdust, and when soaked in water or 
broth is rather glutinous, and is a very nutritious article 
of food. This, with a little salt-fish, chili peppers, 
bananas, oranges, and assai fa preparation from a palm 
fruit), forms almost the entire subsistence of a great part 
of the population of the city. Our own bill of fare com- 
prised coffee, tea, bread, butter, beef, rice, farinha, pump- 
kins, bananas, and oranges. Isidora was a good cook, 
and made all sorts of roasts and stews out of our daily 
lump of tough beef ; and the bananas and oranges were 
such a luxury to us, that, with the good appetite which 
our walks in the forest always gave us, we had nothing 
to complain of. 
c 
