[21]. There is no tax on lands except a small per cent. paid at the time of purchase, and that even is not required in the sale of government land to our people.
[22]. Captain Lie tells me this custom of shaking hands all round after dinner is very common with the families of Norway when there is company at their houses. It is not general in Brazil, but so far as observed, is confined to this family, and I supposed that all were taking leave to depart for their respective homes, but found that they repaired to the parlor for further social intercourse.
[23]. In the midst of all this poverty it is most remarkable that theft is very rare in this country, and throughout every class of people there seems to be no necessity for any special safeguards to property of any description.
Even in the towns and cities through which I have passed there are fewer precautions observed against larceny than is customary in all parts of the United States, and the general confidence manifested in the honesty of the people is a very commendable feature of society.
[24]. This amount, in common with other expenses of travel, was paid by the agent of the government, Senor G. D. Street, and while noting the want of generosity on the part of this representative man of Conceicão, I would not fail to acknowledge our obligations for the bounty of the Brazilian government in providing for all our wants while exploring the country.
[25]. On arrival at this place we found a portion of the men seated upon the dirt floor of a house playing cards for money, while the more religiously-inclined population were assembled in the church to pray for a cessation of the continuous rains which flooded the lands. So go the different elements of society.
[26]. As a matter of history, the following paragraph of a correspondent from this place, of September 18, 1865, to the Diario de São Paulo, is translated, though I hear of no other instance of the kind in this or any other part of the province.
Within little more than one month there has occurred in this section seven assassinations of Christian people, namely: those of Sonsa, his son and son-in-law, by the Indians of São Domingos, that of Filisbino, according to report, by his native slave Silverio, on the Rio Novo; those of Francisco Bernardo, and Leopoldina Cordoso Martines, in the same region, and that of Salvador José Leite, on the small river Das Pedras.
[27]. Major Meriwether writes me as follows:
“Botocatu, January 8, 1866.—I was not prepared to see lands so immensely rich as we see here. We have examined the country ten miles in one direction, and every foot of it is the very best quality. Immense bodies of the best land are here.