Cochineal may be said to be almost unknown in the capitania; the palma Christi grows spontaneously, and from its seeds great quantities of castor oil may be extracted. For bananas and other tropical fruits the climate is not sufficiently hot, and is too changeable. Beans, peas, and pulse in general are very fine; pumpkins also, and cabbages grow to a great size. It is a fine country for flowers; the rose is extremely fragrant, and is in bloom all the year. Varieties of the passion-flower are found in all parts; pinks and carnations, with numberless other flowers, grow in great profusion.
This capitania contains four comarcas, or districts, St. João d’El Rey, Sabará, Villa Rica, and Cerro do Frio, all of which produced much more gold a few years after their discovery than at present, though in the year 1809 Villa Rica alone received for gold permuted a hundred and six arrobas of thirty-two pounds each. The mines in the other three comarcas cannot be rated to permute less than from fifteen to twenty arrobas, therefore the capitania may be estimated to yield to Government, as the annual fifth, a quantity not less than one hundred and fifty arrobas.
St. João d’El Rey, the capital of the district so called, is a considerable town, and contains at least five thousand inhabitants. It is situated near the Rio das Mortes, which runs northerly, and empties itself into the Rio das Velhas. The country around it is very fertile, and produces excellent fruits, both exotic and indigenous; also Indian corn, and beans in great quantities; as well as a little wheat. This comarca being more cultivated than any other part, is called the granary of the district; cheese is made here in tolerable quantity, and bacon very indifferently cured, both which are sent to Rio de Janeiro, and form a considerable trade. Great numbers of fowls are also sent thither, and a little rum, sugar, and coffee. Provisions of all kinds are much cheaper than at Villa Rica; pork and beef are about a penny per pound, poultry in proportion, and vegetables equally cheap.
About two leagues distant from the town is the rivulet of San José,[62] formerly abounding in gold-washings, some of which continue good, particularly those in the vicinity of a pretty village, called Campanha. In the neighbourhood is a mountain that produces a great quantity of iron pyrites, which many people believe to be gold, and say that no method is yet known for extracting it. In this district are a great number of pines of a very singular variety, from the bark of which exudes much resinous gum. The wood is of a fine brown-red color, full of knots, and inconceivably hard.
Some cotton, although not very considerable in quantity, is grown in this district; it is spun by hand, and woven into coarse clothing, generally for the use of the negroes. Finer cloth is sometimes woven for table linen. The making of lace is a favorite occupation with the ladies of St. João d’El Rey, who are reputed to be more attentive to domestic concerns than those of other towns, many of them being descendants of the Paulistas, so celebrated for industry and economy.
The district of Sabará was discovered and settled by the Paulistas, who took possession of it as early as the year 1690, or, according to some accounts, twenty years earlier. They founded the town which is now the capital of the district, and worked several gold-mines in its neighbourhood, the produce of which they sent to their native place, as it was their custom to do with all the gold found in the various parts which they explored; on this account the city of S. Paulo acquired a much higher reputation for riches than it merited, it being generally believed that all the gold sent from thence was procured in that vicinity. Some years after the establishment of Sabará, the Court of Lisbon sent out a nobleman as governor to reduce the settlers, and to oblige them to pay a tribute in conformity to the laws of the colony. The settlers took up arms, and several encounters took place, in one of which the nobleman was killed: but, after some time, the viceroy sent great reinforcements into the interior, and quelled the insurgents, who submitted to pay a fifth of the gold produced. An adventurer of the name of Artis, who was a man of great intrepidity and perseverance, and had made considerable discoveries in the neighbourhood, was afterwards appointed governor, and this proved the means of reconciling all parties.
Respecting the working of the mines throughout this capitania, it has been already observed, that much loss of time and labor is occasioned by the want of machinery, and proper implements for the workmen. Not a cart or wheel-barrow is in use: every thing necessary to be removed is carried on the heads of the poor negroes, in gamellas, who have in many instances to climb up steep ascents, where inclined planes might be employed to great advantage, and would be formed with very little trouble. The cassoon is the only hydraulic machine known, and is very generally adopted: but it is constructed with great difficulty and expense, and can be used only where a strong current of water can be commanded. Pumps might, at very trivial cost, be constructed on the simple plan of the machines used to pound their Indian corn.
The tedious process of washing the cascalho for gold in gamellas, would be much shortened by using a machine of very easy construction. Suppose a cylinder to be formed of bars of iron longitudinally placed, and nailed to circles of wood, open at each end, and suspended on two centres, one about sixteen inches higher than the other. At the highest end the cascalho is to enter by being put into a hopper which communicates with it. The bars must be nailed almost close to each other at the upper end, gradually widening to the lower end, where they should be about half an inch asunder. The cylinder ought to be from ten to twelve feet long, and a stream of water conducted to fall upon it length-wise: it should be inclosed, like a dressing-machine in a flour-mill, and be subjected to a very quick motion. The portion of cascalho containing the most gold will fall through, near the upper end; the other parts, according to their comparative fineness, gradually descending until nothing but the pebbles fall out at the lower end. The earth, &c. falling into partitions or troughs below the cylinder, would be ready for being separated from the gold by hand, which might be done with very little trouble. Machines of this kind might be made on any scale, and, if generally known and adopted, would save the labor of the negroes in a tenfold degree. The one constructing in Cerro do Frio will, when complete, do more work than a hundred negroes in the same space of time. A considerable improvement might yet be made in this useful apparatus; for, if the gold, &c. washed from the machine were to fall upon troughs placed in an inclined position, having a channel across about a yard from the upper end,[63] all the gold would precipitate into it, and; if a negro were to be continually employed in agitating the water, the earthy matter would run off, leaving only the gold and the ferruginous particles, which might be easily separated by mercury[64]. The utility of machinery of this kind is too obvious to need pointing out.