We left this peaceful abode; and, advancing for six miles through thickets and forests, and over some plain land, we reached a farm called St. Antonio, belonging to a widow named Dona Anna, who is noted throughout the country for making excellent butter and cheese. The dwelling is of two stories, and neat, but very inconvenient. The good lady gave me a hearty repast of milk, and we entered into some conversation respecting her dairy, in which I learned that she knew no other mode of making butter than that of agitating the cream in a jar or bottle; and her notions of cheese-making were equally defective, In looking about the grounds for an hour, while our mules rested, I noticed an excellent fence, formed by planting a strong thorny shrub, that seemed of very rapid and luxuriant growth. The few cows that were grazing in the inclosures appeared to be of a superior breed, but were not managed with either method or foresight. The principal produce of the farm is Indian corn, and a little cheese; the latter is only made occasionally, when there happens to be a sufficient supply of milk for the purpose.
We were here shewn various samples of earthy matter, wrapped very carefully in paper, and preserved with great secrecy, under the names of platina, silver, &c. They proved to be merely small crystals of shining iron ore, and pyrites.
Proceeding a league over a fine country, we reached the Rio Grande, a stream as large as the Derwent at Derby, which we crossed in a canoe, our mules swimming after us as usual. We passed several groupes of Aborigines, and occasionally saw many of their huts and places of abode. The road now led along the bases of some huge bold mountains of granite, from whose summits rushed fine cascades of water. The low ground was interspersed with fragments of the same rock, lying in heaps in every direction. In many places the grass was so tall that it reached above the skirts of my saddle, and, the weather being wet, rendered me very uncomfortable. After a laborious, and latterly a slow progress, we arrived by sun-set at the house of Father Thomas de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, who kindly accommodated us for the night.
The house was new, and neatly built, containing only four rooms, with boarded floors; a convenience very rarely to be met with in these parts. It is absolutely encircled with fine streams, abounding with water-falls, which render the roads to it at all times indifferent, and in wet weather almost impassable. The father, an intelligent and industrious man, informed me that he took up that land about four years since, that he had only one negro, and had no funds wherewith to carry on his undertaking, except seven or eight pounds per annum, which he gained by his profession as a clergyman; this he expended in hiring those who chose to work. He shewed me his garden, which was full of fine coffee-trees, and was kept in the neatest order; his fields were covered with Indian corn; his live-stock consisted of a good milch cow, a number of pigs, and one mule. On asking him how he disposed of his produce, he told me that dealers came and purchased it on the spot. The whole of the sesmaria, or plantation, with the stock upon it, he valued at four hundred pounds sterling, and said that he had no doubt he could obtain that price for it. These were clear data for calculating the profits of farming, when managed with prudence and industry. Here is a man who, having begun with little or nothing, finds himself, at the end of four years, worth four hundred pounds; a snug independency in these parts, and not more than his exertions and perseverance deserved. Father Thomas lived more comfortably than any person I had hitherto met with in this district: he was economical, but not parsimonious; liberal in his sentiments, frank and communicative in his conversation, and polite in his manners.
Here I was met by the discoverers of the reputed silver-mine, who came to conduct me to it. We set out on foot, and, after walking about six miles over mountains impassable for mules, fording rivulets, and passing thickets that left me scarcely a single article of dress untorn, we arrived at the miserable hut of these poor men; a perfect contrast to the neat dwelling of Father Thomas. Never in my life was I so exhausted by fatigue; I sat down, unable to go any farther, and rested about an hour, when, being somewhat recovered, I accompanied the men, along the edge of a beautiful stream, to the foot of the mountain, where they shewed me a hole which they had dug, about two feet deep, and informed me that the sand it contained at the bottom abounded with grains of silver. Having ordered a quantity to be taken out, I proceeded to examine the base of the mountain, which I found to be of granite-like gneiss, with garnets, and small crystals of pyrites. Near this place the margin of the rivulet contained rounded stones and sand, but no where was there to be found any metallic substance, except the one before mentioned. Indeed, the very idea of silver appearing here in dust or grains, as gold does, would be preposterous, and contradictory to every principle of nature, as, in such a state, it would probably have been attacked by the sulphur in the pyrites, so as to have assumed the form of a sulphuret.
I returned extremely wearied and much exhausted to Father Thomas’s, where, after some needful repose, I proceeded to examine the sand and stones I had collected at the supposed silver-mine, but no particle of metal was to be found. I then ordered the men to produce their samples, which I examined both by the blow-pipe and by acids, but no silver appeared. After equivocating very much, they acknowledged that they had rubbed and beaten substances to powder, and when they found specular iron ore they thought it was silver. In one of the samples there certainly was silver, but it appeared to have been filed probably from an old buckle or spoon, or rubbed on a stone and mixed with a pulverized substance. The farce could no longer be carried on: I charged them, in a most determined manner, with imposture, which, after some hesitation, they confessed: an officer who was with me would have secured them, but I restrained him; for, having obtained a confession, I was unwilling to bring them to punishment, or to render them more miserable than they already were, by having them sent to the army. Perhaps that would have been doing them a greater service than setting them at liberty; for they were too lazy to work, and would, no doubt, return to their old habits of prowling about, and subsisting on the credulity of the public by spreading fallacious reports about mines, precious stones, &c. Such impositions are not uncommon in South America: I have known instances in which copper-filings, mixed with earth, and afterwards washed, have been produced as samples, in order to enhance the value of land, or serve some other sinister purpose. A passion for mining is fatally prevalent among some of the lower orders of the people: by deluding them with prospects of becoming speedily rich, it creates in them a disgust for labor, and entails want and wretchedness upon them. Even among the few families of this district, I observed some examples of its effects; those who devoted themselves wholly to mining were in general badly clothed and worse fed, while those who attended to agriculture alone were well provided with every necessary of life.
Having concluded the affair, I took leave of Father Thomas, and returned to Canta Gallo, where I prepared my papers for a report respecting it, as the Conde de Linhares, had desired me. During the remainder of my stay I collected specimens of the different species of wood, which the neighbourhood produces. The following is a list of them:
Tapinhoam Canella—Hard, and excellent for sheathing ships.
Venatico—excellent timber.
Cedar—good and durable.