122 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. \Jmie, 
his acquisition. He has no intellectual pleasures, and, 
could he have education and taste them, they would 
assuredly embitter his life ; for what hope of increased 
knowledge, what chance of any further acquaintance 
with the wonders of nature or the triumphs of art, than 
the mere hearing of them, can exist for one who is the 
property of another, and can never hope for the liberty 
of working for his own living in the manner that may 
be most agreeable to him? 
But such views as these are of course too refined for a 
Brazilian slaveholder, who can see nothing beyond the 
physical wants of the slave. And as the teetotallers have 
declared that the example of the moderate drinker is 
more pernicious than that of the drunkard, so may the 
philanthropist consider that a good and kind slave-master 
does an injury to the cause of freedom, by rendering 
people generally unable to perceive the false principles 
inherent in the system, and which, whenever they find 
a suitable soil in the bad passions of man, are ready to 
spring up and produce effects so vile and degrading as 
to make honest men blush for disgraced human nature. 
Senhor C. was as kind and good-tempered a man as 
I have ever met with. I had but to mention anything 
I should like, and, if it was in his power, it was imme- 
diately got for me. He altered his dinner-hour to suit 
my excursions in the forest, and made every arrangement 
he could for my accommodation. A Jewish gentleman 
called when I was there : he was going up the river to 
collect some debts, and brought a letter for Senhor C. 
He staid with us some days, and, as he would not eat 
any meat, because it had not been killed according to 
