Travels in Brazil

by Henry Koster

There are a few morgados or entailed estates in Pernambuco, and I believe in Paraiba likewise; and I have heard that in Bahia there are a great many. There are also capellados or chapel lands; these estates cannot be sold, and from this cause are sometimes suffered to decay, or at any rate they yield much less profit to the State than they would under other circumstances. The capellado is formed in this manner: the owner bequeaths a certain part of the produce or rent of the estate to some particular church, for the purpose of having masses said for his own soul, or for pious uses of a less selfish nature. On this account the estate cannot, according to law, be sold, so that if the next heir is not rich enough to work the mill himself, he lets it to some one who possesses a sufficient number of negroes. The portion which is due to the favoured church being paid, the owner then remains with the residue of the rent as his share of the profit. Now, lands even with buildings upon them, are let at so low a rate, that after the church is paid, and the tenant has deducted what he has expended in repairing the edifices of the plantation, but a poor pittance remains for the owner. The engenho of Catû near to Goiana is placed in these circumstances; the owner lives in the neighbourhood of the Great House or principal residence, and the only advantage which he derives from the possession of this most excellent and extensive estate, is that of residing rent free upon one corner of it and now and then receiving a trifling sum of money. Whereas if it could be sold, he would immediately receive a sufficient sum to place him in easy circumstances; and the estate would undergo improvement, for the occupier would then have a direct interest in its advancement. I might mention several other plantations which are situated in a like manner.

The property of sugar planters, which is directly applied to the improvement, or to the usual work of their plantations, is not subject to be seized for debt; this privilege was granted for the encouragement of the formation of such establishments, but it may have a contrary effect. The planter is allowed many means of evading the demands of his creditors, and every thing is permitted to act in his favour. But thus it is that the government legislates; the revenue is thought of, instead of equity being regarded as the primary consideration. Nor does the plan act in the manner which the establishers of it imagine that it will, for the estates which are labouring under the disadvantage of being held by men who require such a law as this to enable them to keep possession of the property would doubtless, nine times out of ten, yield a greater profit if they passed into other hands; they could not be in worse, and they might fall into better. The government need not fear that good estates will, in the present state of Brazil, remain long untenanted. Besides, the rulers of that kingdom may be very sure that the merchants will be more careful how they lend their money; and this may sometimes prevent an honest man from obtaining what he requires for the due advancement of his labours.[164]

Most of the plantations of the first class are however in the hands of wealthy persons, and this is becoming more and more the case every day. The estates which may be said to constitute this class are those which are situated near to the sea coast, that is, from two to sixteen miles from it; which possess a considerable portion of low land adapted to the planting of the sugar-cane,—another of virgin wood,—good pasture land, (for nature must do every thing) and the possibility of being worked by water. The rains are more regular near to the coast than at a distance from it, and the facility of conveying the produce of the estate down some of the small streams or creeks to a market, are the particular advantages which are derived from the vicinity of the sea. The slaves are fed with more ease, and less expence, and the quantity of food which they themselves have the means of obtaining from the sea and from the rivulets, enables them to be less dependent upon the rations of the master than the slaves of the Mata or districts between the coast and the Sertam. In a country that is without roads, upon which a wheeled carriage can be drawn with any degree of regularity of pace or of safety, the difficulty of removing the large chests in which the sugar is packed, is a most serious consideration, and this inconvenience alone decreases the value of lands, however productive they may be, which are so situated. If a person wishes to purchase property of this description, he will discover that the plantations which are conveniently placed, are only to be obtained at high comparative prices, and by a considerable advance of money; but many of those in the Mata may be purchased even without any advance, and under the agreement of small yearly payments of eight to ten per cent. upon the price.

The lands of sugar plantations are appropriated to five purposes. These are; the woods,—the lands for planting canes,—those which are cleared for pasturage,—the provision grounds for the negroes,—and the lands which are occupied by free people.

The woods occupy a very considerable portion of the lands belonging to a plantation; in most cases much more than half the estate is yet covered with wood, but still I do not think, from what I saw and heard, that these forests contain so much fine timber as has been imagined. A tree of any species of valuable timber must now be purchased. Very little consideration is given to the quantity of wood that is destroyed in the work of a plantation, in many cases very unnecessarily. The fences are made of stakes, which are formed of the trunks of trees, driven into the ground, and to these are fastened horizontally the stems of younger plants. The best timber, rather than that of inferior quality, is selected for this purpose, that it may last the longer under exposure to the heat of the sun and to the rains. The fuel, likewise, is another most enormous source of destruction; and although for this purpose some selection might be made of the qualities of timber which are less valuable, no thought is given to the matter. The havock which is committed in bringing out of the woods a tree that has been felled for any particular purpose is likewise immense; for many trees are cut down to make a path from the usual road to the spot upon which the tree which is to be brought out is laying, that the oxen may enter to convey it away. It will be said, that the great object is to get rid of the superabundant quantities of wood, and this is no doubt the case; but according to the present system, very little land is radically cleared of wood, and yet the large and valuable timber is undergoing rapid destruction. Virgin woods however certainly do yet exist to a great extent. It is said that those of Apepucos, which is near to Recife, are connected with the woods in the neighbourhood of Goiana, a distance of fifteen leagues.

Of the lands for planting canes I have already treated.

Each sugar plantation has one large field in which the buildings are placed. It is very rarely that estates are supplied with a second inclosure, consequently the cattle, or at least that part of it which is required after and before crop time for the work which is necessary to be done during the whole of the year, always remains upon the spot. These fields are sometimes of considerable extent; I have seen some of three miles in circumference, or even of more. Few owners of estates can manage to preserve the field free from brushwood. The horses which work the mill are usually removed from the plantation as soon as the crop is finished, and are often sent to the Sertam to pass the winter, and they return again just before crop-time on the following year. Indeed such is the importance of having good pasturage for these animals between the crops, and the advantage of allowing some of them to rest two years, that every plantation should have a cattle estate in the interior of the country, as a necessary appendage. The oxen are often driven to the sea shore after the crop is over, if the estate is conveniently situated for this purpose, and are left to graze under the coco-trees until the following season. But they are fond of the young coco-plants, and therefore it is not in every situation that this can be done.

As the planters commonly feed their slaves, instead of allowing them a certain portion of each week for the purpose of supplying themselves, the lands which are set apart for raising their provisions are of great importance, for it does not answer to the planter to purchase the vegetable part of the food. The root of the mandioc and the kidney-bean are the two plants which are chiefly cultivated; of the first of these I shall soon treat more at large. Maize is not much used in this part of the country.

An estate contains in general much more land than its owner can manage or in any way employ, even under the present extravagant system of changing from one piece of ground to another. I call it extravagant, because it requires so much space for its operations, and performs these with more labour than is necessary. This overplus of land gives room for the habitations of free people in the lower ranks of life, who live upon the produce which they raise by their own labour. The tenures by which these persons hold the lands which they occupy, are most insecure, and this insecurity constitutes one of the great engines of that power which the landholder enjoys over his tenants. No agreements are drawn out; but the proprietor of the land verbally permits the peasant who applies to him for a place of residence, to inhabit a cottage upon his lands, under the condition of paying him a trifling rent (from four to eight mil reis, one to two guineas or rather more;) and he is allowed to cultivate as much ground as he possibly can by himself, but the rent is increased if he calls in any one to assist him. Sometimes the verbal arrangement which is entered into, is that the tenant shall perform some service in lieu of making his payment in money. The service required is, for instance, that of going upon errands, or of seeing that the woods are not destroyed by persons who have not obtained permission from the owner to cut down timber, and other offices of the same description.