guese name and nation, in spite of all the revolutions of Europe.*

The other chief cities are St. Salvador and Fernambuco. The latter is not of any considerable magnitude; but the former is not greatly inferior to Rio de Janeiro. Its stands in a lofty situation on the coast, and has an excellent harbour. Till the middle of the last century it was the chief city of Brazil, and the seat of the viceroy.

For the description of Rio de Janeiro, see Sir George Staunton's account of the embassy to China, vol. 1. ch. 5. In 1761, the Marquis de Pombal had it in contemplation to remove the seat of government to Brazil. Staunton. vol. 1. ch. 5. p. 205.

CHAP. III.

Religion.....Government..... Laws.........Army.....Navy.....Revenues........Com

merce...Manufactures....Population... Political importance....Language .....Literature.....Polite Arts.....Education...... Manners and Customs..... National Character.

Ir is scarcely necessary to say that the religion of Brazil is

the Roman Catholic, to the external forms of which the Portuguese here, as well as in Portugal, are extremely attached, although religion seems to have little influence on their morals. Here are six episcopal sees, of which the bishops are suffragans of the archbishops of St. Salvador. Most of those. dignified ecclesiastics are natives of Portugal, who find a comfortable subsistence beyond the Atlantic. Their salaries, however, according to Morse, are not exorbitant; and the inferior clergy seem to be not in a very enviable situation.* Churches and convents, however, are sufficiently numerous. The government was formerly vested in a viceroy, whose office has now been superseded by the presence of the reigning monarch. The laws may be presumed to correspond in general with those of Portugal; but Mr. Morse says, that in no part of the world are lawyers more corrupt, or the chicaneries of their profession more practised. Of the military force kept up in this important colony, there is no certain account ;f but it is undoubtedly small in proportion to the extent of territory. The naval force stationed on the coasts seldom exceeded two or three small frigates, but this number is now increased by the navy of the parent country. The revenue which the crown of Portugal used to derive from Brazil, has been the

* Morse's Amer. Geog. p. 593; but his account is obscure and confused.

f [Mr. Pinkerton states it to consist of 8000 regulars, and 20,000 militia; but he supposes that 5000 European troops notwithstanding could subjugate the country. AM. ED.]

subject of different statements and conjectures. By the best information, it has been stated at 1,000,000l. sterling, of which one-third may be assigned for the expenses of the government.* The chief part of this revenue is derived from the diamond mines, which are now the exclusive property of the crown; and from the king's fifth of the produce of the gold mines. Commerce.]-The commerce of Brazil is of great impor

tance.

Anderson has given in detail the immensely rich, cargoes of the two fleets which arrived in 1734 at Lisbon from Bahia, or St. Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. These consisted of 15,500,000 crusaidos in gold, besides a vast quantity of gold in dust, ingots, and bars, as well as of diamonds, together with sugar, tobacco, hides, and various other kinds of merchandise.t The colony is, since that time, become much more flourishing, and from recent events, its commerce is now still more important and extensive. The exports, as already observed, consist chiefly of the produce of the mines, sugar, tobacco, hides, indigo, various drugs, materials for dying, &c. The imports are corn, wine, and several other European productions, with almost all the various articles of European manufacture, The Brazilians, however, have begun to manufacture several of the most necessary articles for home consumption, The population of this extensive region has not yet been given in any accurate statement, some having estimated it at 900,000, and others at 600,000 souls.

Language, literature, &c.]-It is obvious that the predominant language of Brazil is the Portuguese; and to investi gate the barbarous dialects of the natives, would here be a useless discussion. The literature of Portugal is inferior to that of almost every other European country; but the literature of Brazil is in a state truly contemptible. It is needless to say that the polite arts are unknown in the colony.

Manners, customs, and national character.]—Luxury, ostentation, and indolence, are, by all writers on the subject, considered as the general characteristics of the Portuguese in Staunton's Embassy to China, p. 208.

And. Hist. of Com. vol. 3. p. 209.

Some account of the native languages may be seen in Dobrirhoffer,

tom. 2.

Brazil. These indeed are, throughout America and the West Indies, features more or less predominant in the colonial character, in proportion to the prevalence of negro slavery. In Brazil this system prevails in its full extent. The neighbourhood of the African coast supplies the indolence of the rich, and the avarice of the planters, with great numbers of menial servants and robust labourers, at a moderate price.* About 20,000 negroes are annually imported into Brazil, the price being not above 281. each for such as are sold for 70%. in the West Indies. All labour is chiefly performed by slaves, and so great is the number of domestic negroes, that in some towns, where the greatest dissipation and extravagance prevail, it exceeds that of the whites in a ten-fold proportion. The easy condition of negro slaves in Spanish America has already been noticed. Their state in Brazil is nearly similar. The peculiar circumstances of the Spanish and the Portuguese colonies in America, in combination with the luxurious modes of life which there prevail, have introduced a system of negro-slavery, greatly different from that which has long disgraced the other European colonies. Both in the Spanish and the Portuguese settlements, the numerous Indian population has inculcated the policy of attaching the negroes to the European interest, in case of any contest with the natives; and in this view the legislature has used every prudent means of encouraging their acquisition of rights and privileges. In those countries the state of the slaves has a much greater resemblance to that of the villains in Europe in the feudal times, or even of the Russian peasantry, than to that of West Indian slavery. The Spanish and Portuguese negroes enjoy the same protection of the laws, the same possession of rights, and the same power of acquiring property that marked the condition of the European bondmen in their progress towards liberty. The negroes are a sort of tenants, or undertakers of work. In the business of collecting gold and jewels, the master supplies the slave with a certain quantity of provisions and tools, and the slave is obliged to return a certain quantity

• See Morse on this subject, Amer. Geog. p. 182, 183, with Mr. Jef. ferson's reflections on the effects of the slave system.

of gold and jewels.* All that remains over this fixed ration, how great soever may be its value, is the property of the slave. Under such regulations, a negro, who happens to be fortunate in his undertakings, may sometimes acquire a very considerable property. The rich pearl-fisheries of Panama, and other parts, are in the same manner in the hands, as it were, of negro tenants. The slaves in the towns are allowed to hire themselves out to different kinds of employment, on condition of paying to their masters a certain portion of their wages. After a slave has, by any of these means, acquired property, and wishes to purchase his freedom, if the master's demands be exorbitant, the laws enable him to have the price fixed by sworn appraisers, appointed by the magistrate. On all occasions, in case of ill treatment, the slaves can, on making complaint to the magistrate, procure immediate redress. The consequences of these regulations have been extremely beneficial to the Spanish and Portuguese power in America. The slaves are faithful and laborious: the free negroes are numerous, industrious, quiet, and attached to the country and government. The greatest part of the artificers are free negroes, and of this class of men some of the best troops in Spanish and Portuguese America are composed.† These circumstances would add greatly to the strength of the colonies, either in repelling foreign invasion, or in asserting their independence. This part of the moral picture of Spanish and Portuguese America, constitutes one of the most interesting features in the history of African slavery. It exhibits the peculiar circumstances of those countries partially operating some of the happy effects which must necessarily be the result of the abolition of the slave trade; and demonstrates that the present existing system in those countries is gradually preparing the way for the complete emancipation of the American slaves, by a process analogous to that which liberated the European villains. The lenity with which the slaves are treated, is, however, far from having a beneficial effect on their morals, which, in Brazil at least, are corrupted less per

* Brougham's Col. Pol. vol. 2. book iv.

↑ Ibid. vol. 2. book iv.-Voyage d'Ulloa, tom. 1.—Hist. Brazil, ap Harris, vol. 1. Brougham, ubi supra.