The National Register.
London, England, 1821-01-07 00:00:00

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Our &tins, Conatitution, anb ZaW4.

No. 1,200.—V0L. XIV.]

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 1821.

Puiez 94''.

SKETCH OF THE BRAZILS.

I they are obliged to work to pay the expense of their
passage, though it is pretended to be given to them
gratis : thus, under the name of debtors, they remain
slaves for six or eight years before they recover their
liberty. In the states from Philadelphia to Charles-
town, and New Orleans, the yellow fever makes
dreadful ravages, anti millions of Europeans' have
there met a premature death.
" Who has not lost friends or relations at the
Havattnah, Jamaica, St. Domingo, Ike.? Merchants
and sailors are carried off, not on attempting to
reside, but merely by touching on the soit or these
countries. But there is another inconvenience. Who
has not heard of those storms, tempests, hurricanes, •
or typhons, which tiom time to time destroy
the laps of the cultivator ? In one night,
in one hour, all the fruits of the labour of several
years are annihilated, the fruit trees are uprooted,
and the houses levelled in ruins. In Braz:l no con-
tagiour disorders are known, and the fertile lands
are never ravaged by tempests. Both capitalists and
colonists must therefore find the security and value
of landed property greater in Brazil than in these
countries, whether that property be acquired by
purchase, or received gratuitously from the govern-
ment.
" After what I have stated of Brazil, it may be
perhaps supposed, that it is s land of promise, a ter-
restrial paradise, where every thing is to be found
in abundance, anti where it is only necessary to put
fiarth the hand, and receive a supply of every want.
This idea, however, would be very fallacious. The
inhabitants lead a hard life; products of the first
necessity are scarce, and a multitude of difficulties
are experienced. •
" Above all, there is a want of hands. In general,
the population and the number 'of the artisans are
not in proportion to the extent of this kingdom, and
the increase of its commerce god communications
have not us yet been sufficiently facilitated by the
establishment of public roads.
" The Government has been at considerable ex-
pense in making a road through the mountains of
Estrella, seven leagues from Rio Janeiro ; but, on
arriving at the foot of this mountain, only 2 leagues
from the bay of Rio Janeiro, the road is sometimes
only passable at the risk of life.
" In vain will proprietors endeavour to derive
advantage from the fertility of the land granted to
them gratuitously, while the government does not
devote its attention to the making of roads, and the
farmers cannot Beni their produce to market, except
at the risk of the loss of the property, the mules that.
carry it, and the lives of the conductor;. However
productive die sJil, the poor peasant finds nu encou-
ragement to plant snore that is necessary for his own
existence. He often has not enough to support his
family. The lower class are in a wretched situation,
and the inhabitants of a country overflowing with
abundance are miserably poor, and badiy fed.
" Notwithstanding these inconveniences, and
many others, there are always persons desirous of
settling in Brazil ; but on examining the subject
with attention, it will appear that there are persons
who act as erroneously in going there, as the
governments ould in giving theta an encouraging
reception.

-••■•0.--

An interesting work on the above subject liss just
been published. Our limits confine us to the fol..
•
lowing extracts:—
" The province of Rio Janeiro being situated on
the confines and without the tropic of Capricorn, is,
in genera, in onsequence of that situation, less
warm than the countries which lie nearer the Line.
The whole province of Rio Janeiro, extending 90
leagues in length and 35 in breadth, is mountainous,
with the exception of the Goytacases, usually called
Camnos. It is, therefore, naturally divided into
high and low lands. In the latter the heat is us
great as in the other countries between the tropics,
and consequently we find cultivated there not only
all the colonial productions, as coffee, sugar, cotton,
indigo, cocoa, rice, tobacco, &c. but success has
attended the planting of the most valuable trees of
India, as the cinnamon, cloves,' pepper, &c. all the
exquisite spiceries and delicious fruits of the east.
The mango, the tea plant, the broad-fruit tree,
from the islands in the Pacific; the camphirc of
Japan, the ginger, the cardamum, and the casawa-
rine of New Holland, and, in fine, all the trees and
plants of warm climates thrive excellently here.
" On the mountains, which rise to the height of
3,000 English feet, which are covered to the summit
with impenetrable virgin forests, and the smiling
vallies of which are watered by limpid and delicious
streams, the temperature is as dithwent as the pro-
ductions. The forests abound in game, and in every
kind of wood for ornamental works. In the grounds
newly cleared, the fruit trees and plants of Europe,
the peach, the fig, the vine, the apple, the quince,
and the strawberry, are cultivated with surprising
success. In a word, the situation, the climate, and
the productions—indigenous, or, introduced by cul-

tivation—render this country the most happy and
the most independent in the universe.
■" With regard to climate, there is no winter and
summer. The heat is never excessive, and there is
no sensible cold—the whole year appears a continual
spring. Not a day passes on which the business of
cultivation may not be carried on. The reaping
rapidly succeeds the sowing; it is only necessary to
consign the seed to the earth to secure a harvest.
" I should expect to be taxed with exaggeration,
were I to relate the extraordinary instances of the
vegetation and fertility of the country which are
known to me. I shall therefore merely mention
common examples, which may be every day verified.
Father C:irreia, settled in the Serra d'listrella, and
one of the principal fanners of this province, has
sown a nie..!:;;re of rice, and obtained more than 500
in return. The common return from maize is 120
or 130 to one. _ _

" The coffee plant is easily cultivated, and in
favourable mills begins to bear fruit at the end of 20
months. This I have seen on the farm of Dr
Lezesne, formerly an inhabitant of St. Domingo.—
It is not uncommon to find coffee trees, every foot of
which yields five or six pounds of coffee a year. 1
have observed grafts from peaches form in two years
trees from three to four inches in diameter, loaded
with fruit.

" From the description which I have given of the
climate of !ti" Janeiro, its productions, and its fer-
tility, a very liwouruble idea will naturally be firmed
of it; but before pronouncing an opinion, let us
consider whether there are not other advantages, and
what arc the difficulties which may discourage those
inclined to remove to this country.
" If we examine every other region to the south
and the north of the Line, we shall nowhere find
the same natural and political advantages as in Bra-
zil. Chili, on the opposite coast, and in the same
latitude, c.:nnot be compared to it: though the
vegetation and the fertility cf its soil are nearly
equal to those of the Brazil, its natural productions
are nut so varied. Nature is less beautiful there;
there arc not so many forests, and the country rather
resembles Europe. It is besides in a state of revo-
lution, and no advantages are granted to foreigners.
" The United States, which now support millions
of Europeans, have peopled their territory by colo-
nists, to whom lands have been sold on credit. The
climate is cold, unhealthy, subject to foyers, and nut
n kaLly Froductive. The colonists were, at the
tommenecnient of their :cab:meta:, and :Ail' ale,.
trait Totted some lilthald:i of Leagues inland, where

" Every emigrant ought to have an object eon-
fimmable to his talents and his pecuniary means.
The capitalist with the must considerable sums
cannot succeed alone ; and the most skilful workman
can do nothing without being employed by inter -
mediate contractors, whether they pay him by the
day, or lend hint money liar a certain time. I call
adventurers persons who emigrate without the re-
quisite qualifications and information, and without
the assistance either of the government or a con-
tractor, or some individual already settled in the
country.
The province of Rio Janeiro being nearly as large
us France, and the wl.ole of the brazil embracing
an extent nearly to that of Europe, the planters and
iirtisatts to whom the government generowly otters
assistance, may choose any spot they think must
convenient for their business, or the branch of
industry they mean to pursue.
" Emigrants who mean to devote themselves to
husbandry should settle without the tropics, or in
the upland Frovince. The soil of tnc.c provinces
is bepides well adapted to the coitivution.ot tae vine.
ladtr dues nut succeed so Rio Januiro, °a decOtillC

of the excessive heat, which gives too great force sad
rapidity to vegetation.
" Cattle of a very large kind arc also raised in '
these provinces, and particularly in Rio Grande, -
where the inhabitants kill their horned cattle solely
for the value of their skins, which are sold to fo-
meets in their natural state, without any preps.
ration. Some lime after, the same skins return filial •
Europe tanned, prepared and worked into various
amides of the first necessity, as boots, shoes, slip-
pers, &e. The beef is then dried, but it then sells
less advantageously than it would if properly salted,
and fitted ter the use of the seamen who sail from
the ports of Brazil.
" The Provinces of Bahia and Pernambuco are
the best adapted for the cultivation of sugar. cot-
ton, tobacco, &c. and are the most advantageous '
for the settlement of persons who.wish to undo-
take the cultivatiop of these articles, and to estaL.
lish manufactures from them : as, for instance,
cotton-mills, saw-mills, tobacco•works, £c. •
" The cultivation of rice ought to go to Maranhco,
and establish mills after the manner of those in
South Carolina.
" The cocoa and spice trees thrive principally at
Para and Scorn. Thus all the provinces of this vast
country, which extentLs from the Equator to the
Rio de la Plata, and from Cape St. Augustin to the
frontiers of Chili and Peru, have each their 'arti-
cular advantages.
" Several quarters—among others, the Abrolhos
and the months of the river of the Amazons—
abound in flesh ; and the fisheries in those parts
present infinite resources for European industry.—
Fish might be cured there in different ways, and
the fishery of Newfoundland might in time be
rivalled.
" The making of isinglass has already been com-
menced with great success at Para. Manufactories
of this kind will, doubtless, be seconded by the
government; which must perceive that such un-
derstanding will be attended with the advantage of
forming a nursery for seamen,
" From these considerations it will appear that it is
contrary to the interest of emigrants to firllow the
first impulse which they may have received without
reflection, and to fix themselves at once near Rio
Janeiro; fur near navigable rivers, on the roist of
of St. Catherine, at Porto Segura, at Curavellas, on
the banks oldie beautiful river Moncouri, &c there
are several thousands of square leagues which the
benevolent government offers to those who wish to
mak esettletaeats, and where less difficulty with
respect to e.anotunications is experienced than in the
neighbourhood of the capital.
In conclusion,l must observe, that a poor peasant
alone, and without assistance, can obtain no ad-
vantage from settling iu Ltr.zil ; but on the contrary
a person of property, by choosing a suitable place,
way easily doutile or qie his capital in .1 ti:w
years, and contribute to the happiness of many dis-
tressed families who now vegetate in Europe. It
is, at the same time, the interest of the Portuguese
Government to facilitate as notch as possible emi-
grations to this best cylisiden maul fie.y.
" Paris, Nev. 2fi. G. VoN. LANSDORPF."

We are happy to learn, that with a view to the
relief of the hop planters, the Lords of the Trea-
sury have taken into consideration the propriety of
granting a drawback of the duty upon the exami-
nation of• Imps to foreign countries, anti that the
Board of Excise have been instructed to take into
their immediate consideration such regulations as •
may be hest adapted for the security of tha revenue,
in the payment of the drawback.
It was on Thursday stated that Lora Castlereagh
heti received advice of• the death of his venerable
faiher the Marquis and Earl of Londonderry, by
which the NtiOW Viscount would suceeed to
titres, and to the iamplt estate,; but the t vent wool
not occasion his removal to the House of re,EA, a.
the late .Nlarviss was only one of the represemeiive
Peers, anal nail no Britith title.
One or thoza: natural curio:a:Les which some 4,4 1•
roar Iliket to believe doas inn exist, co.led
has strived oa board the Borneo, J. C. Rai., niil4:r,
,uoar lying in the Thames, from Bents:deo, ►•
matra. It is o► u perfect human form front the head
to tlt middle, anal the rest coasis.l of a tail of a fish'''.
rtsenuiting a tio'phin.