The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1867-09-14
e a complete failure there.

IltGle opens 1uIly; consequently 1t
is much stained. Dt 5m
Old Miguel George, on the Ri
beira, with nearly a hundred hands,
runs an Is saw gin. He, however,
like all the balance, plants a little
of everything. Sugar cane grows
large, but does not mature well.
Soon as it commences to ripen,
sprouts spring up from around the
roots and each joint. Rice, we
were told by the natives them
selves, was not a safe crop-two
in seven was all they counted on.
Coffee trees looked well, and were
full of fruit, much of it, however,
is lost owing to dampness. 81 We
saw some fine patches of corn,
but generally speaking, the corn
was not good. At first, we were
very much taken with the fine
timber, and thought there must
be a perfect gold mine in a saw
mill, but have had reason since,
to alter our opinion somewhat.
Major Totten, the soul Of the mill
business on the Guarahu, hns quit
it as improbable, and sold out
his share, not only in the mill, but
some hundred and odd thousand
acres of land attached to 1t, for
| $4,000. One of the clerks of the
concern told us it was In debt.
There is good deal of fine wood,
but it is very difficult of access, to
every tree you have to cut a road
Through the dense mat, up or
down a steep mountain, and, after
the timber is sawed, it is soheavy
that a canoe is necessary to carry
it off. The finest timber is scat
tering in the woods, like the hick-
ory and red oak of our forests at
home. We once stopped at a
place where the posts around the
pig-pen were "solid mahogany
We often rode in canoes of cinna-
mon wood, and I did see a rough
little dug-out made of Rose wood.
The mat (brushwooD of this re-
gion is impenetrable, even to a
footman. A way has to be cut to
get out in any direction from the
streams. s.' e .s't 80 49, = =
We saw a great many bushes
of the yellow blossomed perennial
cotton of the country, some SO
large that steps had been made to
them for the fowls to go to roost !;
they bloom all the year round, and
| yet never bear any cotton worth
speaking Of; the bolls are very
small, three cells only, seed black
and clear Of lint; fiber long and
fine. Our American cotton is de.
ciduous here, when the first leaves
fall, others succeed them in
punches, and much smaller, like
they do in our Provinces when q
wet season followsa very long dry
one. 1t does not make a good Sc
cond crop, even the Brazilians
prefer to plant over. ,t
There are q great many annoy
ing insects in the Rebeira country
particularly the feet biches. / hat
ten of them in my feet, come neal
loosing @ couple of toe nails, anG
am still going about in slippers
, because of the sores-had one. tt
fatten under my big toe-like t.
have used it up, besides these
they have another, not quite s.
common, that gets into the body
Capt. Beulah says he has had up
wards of twenty of them to worry
, him, from a quarter to an inch ii
length. There are a great man,
mosquitoes, and a kind of gnat
J called Borachudas, that were yer,
annoying when we were there.
! Gen. Rowley is talking of max
t ing selection of land, for which
! [ would not give him a bit {
: square league; IL Is close 10 tn'
! old town Of Caunanea, I'M a coun
try settled three hundred years
: ago, and now almost abandoned
To show you how people talk here
D let me illustrate: When we wer
T down there, Capt. Beulah, witt
t all earnestness, made this calcula
3 tion-"I have. 10000, 900 squar
! bracas of land, each ten braea
r win average one tree, each tree. i
3 worth to me, 80 mil reis-ma |
r liberal allowance, say | only ge
/ half-that viii be 100000 trees
D These at so mil reis is 30, ,0O00O
I deduct from that, half for expen
!. ses of all sorts, leaves 25,OOO, ,0Ot
|. which is over twelve millions c
D dollars. \, A large fortune for on
1 years work" All of that he wa
; going to make with an lS-hors
{ power water mill. ] don't writ
; this to deride Capt. B., for he wa
Il exceedingly kind to us, but to e.