The minister informed us that no military service is exacted from residents of Brazil who are not citizens, and that only the service of home-guards is required from such foreigners as are naturalized.
No practicable measure has been devised for lessening the price of private lands which may be desirable for emigrants; but public lands will be put at the minimum price of twenty-two cents per acre, with the privilege of five years to pay for it.[[21]]
I informed his excellency that no formal report of my observations, up to this time, had been prepared, from the fact that it was my wish to make a further examination of the country, and that a final report, covering all, would be rendered when this tour was concluded.
On our way back to the hotel, the extensive and admirably arranged tannery (cortuma) of Mello & Co., in São Christovão, was visited by the party; and we were quite surprised to find so much taste and neatness displayed in the surroundings of the place. The structures are not simply substantial, but manifesting an architectural skill and perfection of arrangement that is not often found in buildings for similar purposes anywhere. The grounds are laid out artistically, and ornamented with shrubbery and flowers, so as really to make this place of business a pleasant resort.
The interior is provided with all the appliances for treating the hides, from packing them down, while fresh, in salt, to dressing the leather and finishing it off for use. There is a mill run by steam for grinding the bark and the leaves of the manque bravo and the manque manse, which furnish the astringent for making the tan ooze.
The small tree affording these materials grows very abundantly in the swampy lands near the coast in various portions of this country, and the principle of tannin is so strong in the leaves of the manque manse, that it makes a black dye which is indelible. There are, also, other trees growing in the forests here which furnish barks that are used for tanning; one of which has been pointed out to me, and is found upon the slopes of the serras in great profusion.
The vessels used in this establishment are huge reservoirs, made after the style of a half-barrel, with a diameter of five feet and a depth of three feet, into which a decoction of the astringents is conveyed, and in this the hides are deposited for a time, and afterwards laid down with astringents in the vats, to undergo the tanning process.
There are three sets of vats: the fresh water vats for soaking the recent hides, the liming vats, and the tanning vats. These are all laid in cement, and of course retaining all the fluids that are placed in them. The dimensions are about six feet long, five feet deep, and four feet wide. The fresh water is supplied by a system of pipes, and regulated according to the demand.
The refuse angles of the hides, and also those portions of the skin about the feet, with the hoofs, are converted into glue, and every thing is economized with the greatest care and neatness, preventing any bad smell.
The average period allowed for the action of the astringents upon the hides is six months; and I was informed that some three thousand (3,000) hides are taken out monthly, giving thus an annual yield of thirty-six thousand (36,000) skins tanned here.