The food prepared for the negroes is Indian corn-flour, mixed with hot water, in which a bit of pork has been boiled. This dish serves both for breakfast and supper. Their dinner consists of beans boiled in the same way. This unfortunate race of men are here treated with great kindness and humanity, which, indeed, their good behaviour seems to deserve. They are allowed as much land as they can, at their leisure, cultivate, (Sundays and holidays being by law allotted to them for that purpose), and are permitted to sell or dispose of their produce as they please. Their owners clothe them with shirts and trowsers made of coarse cotton, which is grown and woven on the estate. Their days of labor are rather long; before sun-rise a bell rings to summon them to prayers, which are recited by one of the overseers, and repeated by the congregation; after worship is over they proceed to work, at which they continue till after sun-set, when prayers are said as in the morning. An hour after supper they are employed in preparing wood to burn, taking Indian corn from the husk, and in other in-door operations. Swelled necks are not uncommon among the men-negroes, but in other respects they appear healthy: I saw few or none afflicted with elephantiasis, or with any cutaneous disease. There were many very aged of both sexes; a few even remembered their old master, the first possessor, though he has been dead upwards of sixty years.
Their principal article of diet, the farinha de milho, or flour of Indian corn, appeared so palatable and nutritive, that, after living upon it for some time, I had the curiosity to enquire into the mode of preparing it from the grain. It is first soaked in water, and afterwards pounded in its swelled and moist state, to separate the outer husk. It then appears almost granulated, and is put upon copper pans, which have a fire underneath, and in these it is kept constantly stirred until it is dry and fit for eating. This substitute for bread is as common among the inhabitants here as is the farinha de Pao, or mandioca, among the people of Rio de Janeiro, S. Paulo, and other districts.
The grain is grown always on virgin lands, cleared by burning, after the manner already described. In good seasons, or, in other words, when the dry weather allows the felled wood to be completely reduced to ashes, the return is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred bushels for one. Weeding is only performed after the seed has been a short time in the ground; indeed, the growing crops suffer less from the neglect of that operation than from the depredations of rats, which are frequently very considerable.
On the state of society here I had little leisure to make observations. A general debility seemed to prevail among the females, which I imputed to the want of better food and more exercise: they confine themselves principally to the sedentary employments of sewing, or making lace. While at San Jose I saw many females from the country, dressed in gowns made of English prints; some of them had woollen mantles, edged with gold lace or Manchester velvet, thrown loosely over their shoulders. Their hair was invariably fastened with combs, and they in general wore, out of doors, men’s hats. The men, most of whom belonged to the militia, appeared in uniforms. No two things can be more different than the deshabille and full-dress of a nominal militia officer. When at home he seldom puts on more than half his clothes, over which he throws an old great coat; and saunters about the house in this attire from morning till night, a true picture of idleness. On Sundays, or on gala-days, after some hours spent in decorating his person, he sallies forth, completely metamorphosed from a slip-shod sloven into a spruce-officer, glittering in a weight of gold lace, on a horse caparisoned with equal splendor, forming as fine a sight for the gazing multitude as a general at a review. He observes no medium between these extremes, being always very shabby or very fine.
During my stay at Barro I was presented with some singularly fine fruit, equal in flavor to fresh almonds, and capable of being preserved by drying only, so as to become a valuable article of commerce. Having never before heard of this fruit, I am induced to give a brief account of it. The exterior substance is about the size of a full-grown cocoa-nut with the rind on, say nine or ten inches long and five or six in the thickest part. It grows suspended from the branch by a very slender but strong stem. This shell is full of kernels, to the number of from thirty to fifty, of the shape of almonds, but twice or thrice the size, disposed in ranges or layers, and separated from each other by a white pithy substance. As these kernels ripen, the top of the shell, which appears like a lid, is gradually forced open, and when they are at full maturity, the larger part, which contains them, separates and falls to the ground. The trees, at the season of shedding their fruits, are frequented by wild hogs, herds of monkies, flocks of parrots, and other birds, which never quit them, while any of these delicious nuts remain. I was credibly informed that some trees have been known to produce above a ton weight in a season. One of the nuts I preserved and brought with me, which I sent to Sir Joseph Banks.
We now took leave of the good people at the fazenda, and returned to Villa Rica by the way we came. I had, with great difficulty, procured a few pounds of butter, made after the new process, as a present for Dr. Lucas, the Judge, which arrived perfectly fresh and sweet. On passing Lavras Velhas, as we returned, we were shown some excellent cinchona, very like that of Peru, and said to possess similar properties in a high degree. From the specimen we saw, there was every reason to believe, that, if fairly introduced into practice, it might be administered in many cases with as much success as Peruvian bark; and, as great quantities might be procured here, the experiment is certainly worth attending to by medical men. I sent a parcel of it home, but by some accident or other it was lost at the Custom-house.
In many parts of our route we might have collected insects, but they require so much attention and care in preserving them for conveyance so great a distance, that I gave up the pursuit. It appeared to me extraordinary, that I had not, since my arrival in Brazil, seen (except in the cabinets of the curious,) more than one curculio imperialis (diamond-beetle), though I had frequently searched for them in almost every variety of plantation.
During my absence from Villa Rica one of my soldiers had procured me a full pound of native bismuth in lumps, none of which exceeded an ounce in weight. It is frequently found in this state, which proves that it is out of its place, as it originally occurs in veins. Many pieces of pyrites, and various iron ores, were also brought to me.
I had commissioned some persons to collect land shells for me during my absence, and was now to my great gratification presented with six, of a fine chesnut brown color, with beautiful pink mouths, belonging to a new variety of the helix. Having kept them a few days, without taking out the animals, I was surprised to find that one of the latter had laid two eggs. I had before imagined that they were oviparous. I took one of the shells in my hand, while the animal was crawling, when it immediately folded itself, and entered very quickly, in which exertion another egg was deposited in the mouth of the shell. All the eggs were about the size of a sparrow’s. These were the only land shells I had seen on this journey.