Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-12-22
a3a Miscellaneous.
A REBEL PILGRIMAGE.

The Pilgrim Fathers of Alabama wind,
weather and Providence permitting to
sail to-day from the port of Mobile for Bra
zil, with one ton of freight, and probably, a
heavy heart each They turn their backs on
the land of free negroes and of mudsills for
ever. Like and yet unlike the old Pilgrim
Fathers, they seek distant and foreign
shore; not to worship their God undisturbed
but to ''wallop their niger uncondemned.
As the Puritans fed from theStar Chamber,
the Alabama pilgrims flee from the Freed
men S Bureau.
1t is the beginning of new secession
movement, which even Lee and Hampton
have no power to check. Not to-day by
States, but by families and colonies, they
secede from the Union once more. Unpatri-
otto in their former action, they are eminent
ly praiseworthy now -
True patriots they; for, be it understood
They leave their country for their country S
good.
But they seem to have forgotten the pro-
verb which advices us to look before we leap;
not to jump out of the .frying-pan into the
fire; and especially the dear bought wisdom
which says that we should begin nothing
until we have truly considered the end
The Puritans counted the cost, and the
results of their exile demonstrated their
wisdom. But have the "Impuritans OF
Alabama taken time to consider their step
We hardly think that they have given it
more than one thought--for they seem to
have been amply satisfied with the assurance
that slavery exists in Brazil. Let us take a
brief glance at Brazil as field of emigration
for the 'overpowered but "unsubdued
class of our Southern countrymen.
Christie, the last author who has written
on Brazil, late Her Majesty's Envoy Ex-
traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
there, reports that the slave population Of
the empire is variously estimated at from
two and half to four millions He says
the total population is about seven millions,
But the relative proportion Of the races is
much more largely in favor of the colored
people than even in Alabama, where, in
twenty out of her ffty-two counties, there
is an excess of negroes; or than in South
Carolina, where they constitute, by the cen
sus of 1850, tifty-six per cent of the popu-
lation, and probably to-day stands as three
to two.
In the year 1926 Humbolt estimated the
entire population of Brazil at about -four
millions OF this number he calculated that
100000 were whites, 100000 were ne
groes, and l, ,120, 600 were of mixed blood OF
native Indians. Thus, the proportion of the
colored races to the white is about three to
one. Later estimates give a total population
of Eve millions, with the proportion of col
ored to white as four to one. A still more
recent authority, an English parliamentary
report, estimated the population ON the lst
of January, l848, to be-whites, 200, 600;
free colored races, 100000; slaves, $780,
000,-being in the same proportion
The free colored races are mulattoes, wild
Indians, manumitted native Africans, free
negroes born in Brazil, domesticated obori-
gines, mamalicoes, Ia mixed caste between
whites and aborigines, and mestizoes OF
zamboes, the offspring of aborigines and ne
groes. When our new pilgrims are safely
landed, we wish them JOY of this select
company Like the boy at the menagerie,
they have paid their money and they can
take their choice!
But, alas there is no Eden without Its
serpent; and the repulsiye feature--to the
overwhelmed but unconquered mind the
repellant aspect Of Brazilian society, has
not yet been limited at 1t is-Negro Equal
dg
There is no country where the white and
black races mingle in which the field is So
fair for the negro. II is true that slavery
exists there, but it is equally true that it is
personal relation; that is, between master
and slave. not between white manand black.
stThough I'm Brazil slave Is indeed slave,