Monday, October 16, 1865.
After a pleasant rest for the night, we were regaled this morning before rising with a most excellent cup of coffee, which, it will be observed, is a part of the hospitality in every well-regulated household.
In due course of time our breakfast came, and, along with other articles, we enjoyed “Café corn leite” and excellent corn bread, made of fine meal.
This “Café corn leite” is prepared by boiling the milk with the coffee, and is so great an improvement upon the simple mixture of milk or cream with coffee that it ought to be resorted to generally by our people who are fond of this combination for breakfast.
Being supplied with horses by our host, we rode out with him to see his newly-opened plantation, called Fazenda Nova, passing in our route the site he has selected for building upon, whenever time is allowed for erecting a family residence. His brickyard and saw-mill are in successful operation, and the latter is a well-arranged perpendicular saw, that performs admirably, even in the hard material of the timber in all this country.
I have as yet seen no instance of a circular saw in operation here, and it certainly would be better adapted to the compact and hard wood which has to be encountered in sawing.
The coffee trees on this place have all been set out within the past two years, and some of them have been planted very recently. In all there are one hundred and forty thousand, and the number is still to be extended.
The lands under cultivation are, for the most part, elevated, and of the dark red terra rocha, being of very superior quality for the coffee.
We visited also the newly-opened fazenda[[17]] of Senor Dom Barros, and I there had the opportunity of witnessing the burning of a “roça,” or new ground, of twelve acres, upon which the timber had been simply felled and partially dried. The land being scraped around to prevent extension of the fire, all the negroes were posted at regular intervals to guard the progress of the conflagration, and the fallen timber was then fired in various places.
It was an interesting sight, as illustrating the custom of all the planters in Brazil for preparing their lands to receive the seed for the first time; and, with the heat of a boiling sun, in addition to the heat of the fire, I found that “distance lends enchantment to the view.”