24 
RIO DE JANEIRO 
CHAP. 
great quantity. Every part of this plant is useful : the leaves 
and stalks are eaten by the horses, and the roots are ground into 
a pulp, which, when pressed dry and baked, forms the farinha, 
the principal article of sustenance in the Brazils. It is a curious, 
though well-known fact, that the juice of this most nutritious 
plant is highly poisonous. A few years ago a cow died at this 
Fazenda, in consequence of having drunk some of it. Senhor 
Figuireda told me that he had planted, the year before, one bag 
of feijao or beans, and three of rice ; the former of which pro¬ 
duced eighty, and the latter three hundred and twenty fold. 
The pasturage supports a fine stock of cattle, and the woods are 
so full of game that a deer had been killed on each of the three 
previous days. This profusion of food showed itself at dinner, 
where, if the tables did not groan, the guests surely did : for 
each person is expected to eat of every dish. One day, having, 
as I thought, nicely calculated so that nothing should go away 
untasted, to my utter dismay a roast turkey and a pig appeared 
in all their substantial reality. During the meals, it was the 
employment of a man to drive out of the room sundry old 
hounds, and dozens of little black children, which crawled in 
together, at every opportunity. As long as the idea of slavery 
could be banished, there was something exceedingly fascinating 
in this simple and patriarchal style of living: it was such a 
perfect retirement and independence from the rest of the world. 
As soon as any stranger is seen arriving, a large bell is set 
tolling, and generally some small cannon are fired. The event 
is thus announced to the rocks and woods, but to nothing else. 
One morning I walked out an hour before daylight to admire 
the solemn stillness of the scene ; at last, the silence was broken 
by the morning hymn, raised on high by the whole body of the 
blacks ; and in this manner their daily work is generally begun. 
On such fazendas as these, I have no doubt the slaves pass 
happy and contented lives. On Saturday and Sunday they 
work for themselves, and in this fertile climate the labour of 
two days is sufficient to support a man and his family for the 
whole week. 
April 14 th .—Feaving Socego, we rode to another estate on 
the Rio Macae, which was the last patch of cultivated ground 
in that direction. The estate was two and a half miles long, and 
the owner had forgotten how many broad. Only a very small 
