Cento e cincoenta acabou.[30]
On the departure of the Royal Family, and as soon as the fleet had passed the bar, the Count de Ponta, adopting the style of the negroes, directed the two lines below to be posted up in every part of the city and suburbs, announcing to them that the one hundred and fifty lashes were resumed.
Don de Terra abalou,
Cento e cincoenta ficou.[31]
The Count de Ponta was succeeded in the governorship by the Count d’Arcos, a nobleman already spoken of. The rigid and necessary system pursued by his predecessor was in some measure relaxed. The negroes had always on holidays and Sundays indulged, without restraint, in the customs and rude amusements peculiar to their native country. In Bahia they usually assembled in the praca, or square, in the upper city, and frequently selected one from amongst the rest who was dignified with the title of chief, and received all the homage bestowed upon a chief in their own country. A friend of mine, passing on a Sunday through this square, observed them going through the ceremony of executing, or putting to death, white men, which were represented by effigies dressed for the purpose; this was intended for the amusement of their chief, but that there was some ulterior object in this species of diversion, must have been manifest. In the course of a few months afterwards, a general revolt took place amongst them, in which they proclaimed the Count d’Arcos their prince, and threatened destruction to the rest of the whites. They had already commenced their operations before it was known to the governor, and were performing a bloody circuit around the vicinity of the city, and putting to death all the white persons met with at the different hortas. They were, however, very soon surrounded by the Count d’Arcos, at the head of what force he could assemble, and a great many forfeited their lives for this atrocious and sanguinary attempt, the consequences of which, had they succeeded, would have been horrible, as they would have murdered every white person in the place. Subsequent to this, orders were issued by the government, that the negroes throughout the state were to discontinue their public assemblages on holidays and Sundays.
A theatre was erected here about seventeen years ago, but the performances are not equal even to those at Rio. In the high city there is a public walk, with a mirador in the form of a veranda, from whence a view is commanded almost of the whole bay; near it there is a pyramid of European marble, erected in memory of the short stay the Royal Family made here on its way, in 1808, to the metropolis.
The commerce of this city stands next in extent to that of Rio de Janeiro, and the main portion of it passes through the medium of the English merchants, comprising nearly twenty establishments. Every description of British manufactured goods has an extensive sale; but the competition already stated to exist in the capital also prevails here, affording these importations to the native dealers much below their value: and the cultivators have another advantage over our merchants, in consequence of their being under the necessity of purchasing produce for the return cargo, bills upon Europe being with difficulty or seldom obtained. The reader is already aware, from the statement of the productions of the province, that sugar, tobacco, and cotton, are the principal objects afforded to the merchant for the home shipments; and as eight-ninths of the cotton, some sugar, and tobacco, come to England, we will offer a few remarks relative to the quality and quantity of each article.
The crop of sugar in the year 1816 amounted to thirty thousand cases, averaging about forty arrobas each case; and the shipments between the 1st of October, 1817, and the same date in 1818, comprised twenty-six thousand one hundred and thirty-three packages, consisting of the denomination of branco and bruno (white and brown.) The new sugars begin to arrive here in the months of December and January, and some few in November. The most desirable months for purchasing sugar are from January to May, comprehending the summer season, when it is in an arid state, and the grain thereby improved; during the rainy months the sugar becomes succulent, and the grain inferior; in the early part of the first season also, the higher numbers of whites and browns are more abundant, the latter arrivals consisting of the lower numbers of both. The sugars are submitted to the inspection of the establishment before mentioned, and divided into the following numbers, according to quality, colour, and grain.
White—The lowest quality is termed Branco baixa.
| Second | Branco dez | No. 10. |
| Third | Branco onze | 11. |
| Fourth | Branco doze | 12. |