carefully kept up, have alone prevented a repetition of the massacre of Santo Domingo.

POPULATION AND MANNERS AT BAHIA.

A traveller who was unacquainted with the in-door habits of the creoles would think, in passing through Bahia, that he was in a negro ton. One here meets with specimens of all the African tribes that the conquistadores bought to the shores of Brazil. The athletic Vino seems to be predominant, and to preserve all his primitive freshness and vigour. Slavery has introduced some customs which are striking to a stranger. Sometimes you see two negroes passing along the street with a heavy, measured tread, clanking upon the flags a large chain riveted to their legs. This sad appendage indicates two fugitives who cannot be trusted, and who are secured together to render any future escape impossible. Further on you perceive a slave with his face concealed by an iron mask firmly locked, very like those formerly worn by the paladins of the middle ages. Your guide informs you that the poor wretch is a dirt-eater, and that he is thus prevented from indulging his outlandish tastes. But it is espeeally the gigantic Minas negresses that excite attention. Sometimes one might imagine them antique goddesses cut in black marble. It is not are to meet with these women six feet in height, grarely carrying a banana or an orange upon her head. The abhorrence of work is so deeply rooted in their indolent and sensual nature, that they would deem themselves dishonoured if they carried the smallest object in their hands.

VISITING.

| saint, whom he considers responsible for everything good or evil that happens in his house. The most powerful of all these patrons is Saint Anthony; at least it is he who is most frequently met with in the oratories. They pledge him tapers, money, and flowers to adorn his niche, if he vouchsafes any desired success or averts evil fortune; but if he turns a deaf ear, farewell tapers, flowers, and caresses. Being responsible, he must of course resign himself to the punishment. For example, if a negro runs away, the master forthwith hastens to the newspaper office, and publishes a description of the fugitive, offering a reward for him of from fifty to a hundred milreis, according to his value. He then makes all haste back to his room, pulls his patron from the niche, takes a chicote, or whip, proportioned to his size, and applies it to his back, accompanying the chastisement with the following monologue: "Ah filho da . . . . (Ah! you son of . . . .) that's the way you take care of my slaves! that's the way you pay me for the care I've taken of you, and the tapers I've bought for you! I'll teach you a little good manners!" After this correction he puts him into the most obscure nook in the house, among the dirt and rubbish that abound in most Portuguese dwellings, and declares he shall remain in that kennel till the lost slave is recovered. If the fugitive is not soon returned, the master loses patience, breaks his idol with a kick, and forthwith chooses another patron, more active and powerful; but if the slave reappears, he replaces the saint in his niche, asking pardon for having been so hasty, and buys any number of tapers to make him forget the past, and in order to continue to merit his protection.

....

A NEGRO SAINT.

The negroes generally choose a patron saint of their own colour, Saint Benedict, of whom they give wonderful relations. This Benedict, in his lifetime, was head-cook in a monastery. Naturally led, like all his countrymen, to a contemplative life, he furtively attended all the services of the monks, and sometimes allowed himself to be so carried away in his mental devotions that he forgot his saucepans. The angels, however, touched by his piety, performed his duties for him, so that the community did not suffer from his ecstatic moments. first time I saw this patron saint of the negroes, I mistook it for an image of the devil, so horrible was the grimace that the artist had imparted to it, doubtless through his excessive regard for truthfulness. When a man is too poor to construct an oratory in his cabin, he mentally adopts the patron saint of his neighbour, and consecrates tapers to him in times of difficulty in order to obtain his intercession.

A HOG STORY.

The

In a fazenda in the environs of Bahia I saw

master ten milreis (about 5 dollars), which com

prised all his earnings, to reward the saint for having enabled him to find his hogs, which he had lost the evening before. I asked him to tell me the particulars of his loss.

"Senhor," he immediately replied, "Saint Anthony is very powerful, and very kind to the poor folks. You see, when I went to attend my hogs last night, they were gone. It could only have been through some evil doings, for they never leave their pen. I vowed I would give my protector all the money I had, if he would help me find them, and, full of confidence, went at hazard the first way it struck me, all the time calling the animals. Seeing my search was in vain, I thought this was not the right direction, and turned back to try another. But my patron he was not deceived; while I was tiring myself in a vain search, he sent the hogs back into the pen; and as soon as they saw me the poor creatures crowded up to meet me. You see, senhor, that when one has so good a saint he ought to keep his vows, instead of doing as some do whom I know, who are in the habit of forgetting their engagements as soon as the difficulty is over."

Such is the credulity that prevails among the negroes of Bahia. This simplicity, which is not always unattended by a wild violence of disposition, is a heritage of the early times of the conquisadore.

THE MINING DISTRICTS.

The ancient Brazilian characteristics, so vividly impressed upon Bahia, become more and more marked as you recede from the coast. Before leaving this old civilization of Brazil to observe at Rio Janeiro the first manifestations of a new life, perhaps it would be preferable to contemplate the Brazilian cidade in a state still less advanced than at Pernambuco and Bahia, under the aspect it presents in the interior of the country, and especially in the provinces formerly exploited by the mineiros. It is here, at Ouro Preto, Goyaz, Cuyaba, &c., that the traces of the past are deepest and most striking. There is no longer an exchange; there are no theatres, no museums. Huts of mud suffice the inhabitants, and the ruins of convents take the place of schools. A population become halfsavage through the crossing of races and the isolation in which it lives, exists within these creviced walls without employment or any idea of the advantages of life. The most desolate parts of Abruzzia or Calabria can alone give any idea of these regions, which were formerly so flourishing. The creoles no longer strive with each other here, except in ignorance and idleness. The churches, even built by the piety of their ancient founders, are to-day for the most part as dilapidated as the dwellings of the simplest of the inhabitants. One might sometimes imagine himself in one of those large villages of the Cordilleras periodically visited by earthquakes. Those towns in which the passage of caravans keep up some activity, like São João del Rey, are frequently those that most sadden the European. It is true that the rudeness of

the inhabitants is explained by their origin. The first colonists of these provinces were peasants from the mountains of Portugal. Enriched by traffic, they knew not how to profit by their change of fortune, and remained in ig norance, with the addition of pride. The muleteers, who compose nearly all their patrons, are poorly qualified to inspire them with ideas of civilization and progress. When occasionally these Portuguese of the old stamp attempt, in the celebration of some festivity, to improvise a drama, one cannot repress a smile at the spectacle, in which the serious and the grotesque are so strangely blended. It is not rare to see a Greek tragedy represented by painted mu lattoes, dressed in cast-off French or Portuguese garments, and with any number of sabres and poignards.

IGNORANCE AND LAZINESS IN THE INTERIOR,

The few men of intelligence and energy to be met here and there, among these lost populations, seem to have little hope of drawing them from their ignorance. They express themselves on this subject with singular frankness, to judge by the language used by a mineiro a few years since, in conversing with a French traveller. "My countrymen," said he, "always wear their shirts out at the elbows, because they cannot stand without propping themselves up. On Monday they rest from the fatigue of listening to mass a quarter of an hour on Sunday; on Tuesday they set the negroes to work in their place; on Wednesday and Thursday they are obliged to go on a hunt to obtain a little meat; they must fish on Friday and Saturday, because those are fast-days; and on Sunday they repose after the labours of the week. If a tree falls across the road, they make a path around it through the woods, and come into the road again on the other side. It would have taken much less time to cut the tree; but it would have been necessary to use the axe, and in making the path the large trees are left. They content themselves with cutting the bushes, and this requires only the faca, or large knife, which the negroes always wear in their belt. If a man has flour to get, he mounts his mule, takes a small sack, and makes half-a-dozen journeys. He could have brought it all upon the mule's back in a single trip, but in that case he would have been obliged to walk."

The people of some of the Brazilian provinces differ greatly, it is perceived, from those who have adopted the motto: "Time is money." It is difficult for a European, accustomed to human activity, to witness such inertness without experiencing an unpleasant sense of oppression. There are many things essential to civilized life which are here entirely unknown.

A PARADOXICAL JOURNEY.

Being once on my way to a fazenda a few leagues from Rio Janeiro, on the road to Minas, the most travelled high-way of Brazil, and fear ing the coming on of a storm, I several times

way.

"How many leagues from here is it to Senhor I-'s fazenda?" I inquired of a mulatto on his way to the fields.

"Dous legoas, senhor." (Two leagues, sir). At the expiration of half-an-hour, I repeated the same question to a tropeiro.

"Tres legoas, senhor." (Three leagues, sir). This reply was so unexpected that I repeated the question to the keeper of a venda, which we reached a few minutes later, thinking I should now certainly be set right.

Tres legoas e meia, senhor," (Three leagues and a-half, sir) answered the inn-keeper. Perceiving that I was going farther away from my destination instead of approaching it, I feared my guide was mistaken, and begged my interlocutor to tell me which was the right road. Receiving a formal assurance that I was going in the proper direction, I continued my journey, vainly trying to explain to myself the meaning of these contradictions. I saw only one way to solve the difficulty, and that was to inquire perseveringly of everybody I met. The new swers to my inquiries were still more singular than the first.

Cuatro legoas, senhor," (four leagues, sir), said a pedlar.

'Não sei, senhor," (I don't know, sir) was the reply I received from nearly all the blacks. “Dous cuartos e meia," (two quarters and ahalf) answered a tropeiro,

"You mean a league ?" said I.

'S, senhor." (Yes, sir).

Why. then, do you say two quarters and aLalf?"

"He costume." (It is the custom).

Seeing a mulatto woman standing in the door of her cabin, I was curious to get her opinion also.

"Tres legoas, senhor."

"Oh! it isn't three leagues," objected her husband, coming out of the cabin.

'São pequenas, mas são tres, (the three leagues are short ones, if you like, but there are three nevertheless) answered the woman, in a tone of confidence that admitted of no reply. This answer at last gave me a key to the enigma, namely, the total ignorance in the Country of the real value of the league, everyone estimating it according to his own ideas.

THE BRAZILIAN NOBILITY.

A thing worthy of remark is, that among a people where, by the terms of the constitution, titles of nobility are not hereditary, there is not a beggar who is not of noble descent. Frequently a single affix is not enough, and two or three titles are joined together, thus rendering the appellation more sounding. I have sometimes seen the greatest names of Portugal borne by

man assumes, at pleasure, the name of either his master, his godfather, or any other protector. The Portuguese is generally born a gentleman. There is not, in fact, a family whose ancestors have not borne arms against Islamism, in the long struggles for independence; and it is well known that the kings of Portugal, desirous of exalting the valour of their troops, conferred nobility, on the battle-field, upon all the soldiers of an army that had obtained a victory over the infidels, or carried a Mussulman town by assault.

THE PEACE OF THE EMPIRE.