less proceeds from the ignorant state in which they are brought up; they scarcely receive any education, and have not the advan tages of obtaining instruction from communication with persons who are unconnected with their own way of life; of imbibing new ideas from general conversation. They are born, bred, and continue, surrounded by slaves without receiving any check, with high notions of superiority, without any thought that what they do is wrong. Bring these women forwards, educate them, treat them as rational, as equal beings, and they will be in no respect inferior to their countrymen; the fault is not with the sex, but in the state of the human being. As soon as a child begins to crawl, a slave of about its own age and of the same sex is given to it as a playfellow, or rather as a plaything; they grow up together, and the slave is made the stock upon which the young owner gives vent to passion; the slave is sent upon all errands, and receives the blame of all unfortunate accidents; in fact the white child is thus encouraged to be overbearing, owing to the false fondness of its parents. Upon the boys the effect is less visible in after-life, because the world curbs and checks them, but the girls do not stir from home, and therefore have no opportunities of wearing off these pernicious habits. It is only surprising that so many excellent women should be found among them, and by no means strange that the disposition of some of them should be injured by this unfortunate direction of their infant years.

As vegetation rapidly advances

in such climates, so the animal sooner arrives at maturity than in those of less genial warmth; and here again education is rendered doubly necessary to lead the mind to new ideas, to curb the passions, to give a sense of honour, and to instil feelings of that species of pride which is so necessary to a becoming line of conduct. The state of society, the climate, and the celibacy of the numerous priesthood, cause the number of illegitimate children to be very great; but here the roda dos engeitados, and a custom which shows the natural goodness of the people, prevent the frequent occurrence of infanticide, or rather render it almost unknown. An infant is frequently during the night laid at the door of a rich person, and on being discovered in the morning is taken in, and is almost invariably allowed to remain; it is brought up with the children of the house (if its colour is not too dark to admit of this), certainly as a dependant, but not as a servant; however a considerable tinge of colour will not prevent it from being reared with the white children. These engeitados, or rejected ones, as individuals who are so circumstanced are called, are frequently to be met with, and I heard of few exceptions to the general kindness with which they are treated. Public feeling is much against the refusing to accept and rear an engeitado; the owner of a house, who is in easy circumstances, and yet sends the infant from his own door to the public institution which is provided for its reception, is generally spoken of in terms of indignation. Sometimes a poor man will find one of these presents

at

at his door, and he will generally place it at the landholder's threshold on the following night: this is accounted excusable and even meritorious, for at the great house the child has nearly a certainty of being well taken care of.

I have observed that, generally speaking, Europeans are less indulgent to their slaves than Brazilians; the former feed them well, but they require from the poor wretches more labour than they can perform, whilst the latter allow the affairs of their estates to continue in the way in which it has been accustomed to be directed. This difference between the two descriptions of owners is easily accounted for; the European has probably purchased part of his slaves on credit, and has during the whole course of his life made the accumulation of riches his chief object. The Brazilian inherits his estate, and as nothing urges him to the necessity of obtaining large profits, he continues the course that has been pointed out to him by the former possessors. His habits of quietude and indolence have led him to be easy and indifferent, and although he may not provide for the maintenance of his slaves with so much care as the European, still they find more time to seek for food themselves. That avaricious spirit which deliberately works a man or a brute animal until it is unfit for farther service, without any regard to the well-being of the creature, which is thus treated as a mere machine, as if it was formed of wood or iron, is however seldom to be met with in those parts of the country which 1 visited. In

stances of cruelty occur, (as baş been, and will yet be seen,) but these proceed from individual depravity, and not from systematic, cold-blooded, calculating indifference to the means by which a desired end is to be compassed.

Notwithstanding the relationship of the mulattos on one side to the black race, they consider themselves superior to the mamulucos; they lean to the whites, and froin the light in which the Indians are held, pride themselves upon being totally unconnected with them.

Still the mulattos

are conscious of their connection with men who are in a state of slavery, and that many persons even of their own colour are under these degraded circumstances; they have therefore always a feeling of inferiority in the company of white men, if these white men are wealthy and powerful. This inferiority of rank is not so much felt by white persons in the lower walks of life, and these are more easily led to become familiar with individuals of their own colour who are in wealthy circumstances. Still the inferiority which the mulatto feels is more that which is produced by poverty than that which his colour has caused, for he will be equally respectful to a person of his own cast who may happen to be rich. The degraded state of the people of colour in the British colonies is most lamentable. In Brazil, even the trifling regulations which exist against them remain unattended to. A mulatto enters into holy orders or is appointed a magistrate, his papers stating him to be a white man, but his appearance plainly denoting the con

trary.

trary. In conversing on one occasion with a man of colour who was in my service, I asked him if a certain Capitam-mor was not a mulatto man; he answered, "he was, but is not now." I begged him to explain, when he added, "Can a Capitam-mor be a mulatto man?" I was intimately acquainted with a priest, whose complexion and hair plainly denoted from whence he drew his origin; I liked him much he was a well-educated and intelligent man. Besides this individual instance, I met with several others of the same description.

The regiments of militia, which are called inulatto regiments, are so named from all the officers and men being of mixed casts; nor can white persons be admitted into them. The principal officers are men of property; and the colonel, like the commander of any other regiment, is only amenable to the governor of the province. In the white militia regiments, the officers ought to be by law white men; but in practice they are rather reputed white men, for very little pains are taken to prove that there is no mixture of blood. Great numbers of the soldiers belonging to the regiments which are officered by white men, are mulattos, and other persons of colour.

The

regiments of the line, likewise, (as I have elsewhere said,) admit into the ranks all persons excepting negroes and Indians; but the officers of these must prove nobility of birth; however, as certain degrees of nobility have been conferred upon persons in whose families there is much mixture of

blood, this proof cannot be regarded as being required against the mulatto or mamaluco part of the population. Thus an European adventurer could not obtain a commission in these regiments, whilst a Brazilian, whose family has distinguished itself in the province in former times, will prove his eligibility without regard to the blood which runs in his veins. He is noble, let that flow from whence it may.

The late colonel of the mulatto regiment of Recife, by name Nogueira, went to Lisbon, and returned to Pernambuco with the order of Christ, which the Queen had conferred upon him. A chief person of one of the provinces is the son of a white man and a woman of colour; he has received an excellent education, is of a generous disposition, and entertains most liberal views upon all subjects. He has been made a colonel, and a degree of nobility has been conferred upon him; likewise the Regent is sponsor to one of his children. Many other instances might be mentioned. Thus has Portugal, of late years from policy, continued that system into which she was led by her peculiar circumstances in former times. Some of the wealthy planters of Pernambuco, and of the rich inhabitants of Recife, are men of colour. The major part of the best mechanics are also of mixed blood.

It is said that mulattos make bad masters; and this holds good oftentimes with persons of this description, who have been in a state of slavery, and become possessed of slaves of their own, or are employed as managers upon

estates.

would lead to the same consequences in any race of human beings, and cannot be accounted peculiar to the mixed casts. I have seen mulattos of free birth as kind, as lenient, and as forbearing to their slaves and other dependants as any white man.

Marriages between white men and women of colour are by no means rare, though they are sufficiently so to cause the circumstance to be mentioned when speaking of an individual who has connected himself in this manner; but this is not said with the intent of lowering him in the estimation of others. Indeed the remark is only made if the person is a planter of any importance, and the woman is decidedly of dark colour, for even a considerable tinge will pass for white; if the white man belongs to the lower orders, the woman is not accounted as being unequal to him in rank, unless she is nearly black. The European adventurers often marry in this manner, which generally occurs when the woman has a dower. The rich mulatto families are often glad to dispose of their daughters to these men, although the person who has been fixed upon may be in indifferent circumstances; for the colour of the children of their daughters is bettered, and from the well-known prudence and regularity of this set of men, a very large fortune may be hoped for even from very small beginnings. Whilst I was at Jaguaribe, I was in the frequent habit of seeing a handsome young man, who was a native of the island of St. Michael's. This person happened to

These kind of commissions (encommendas) are not unusual.

Still the Brazilians of high birth and large property do not like to intermarry with persons whose mixture of blood is very apparent, and hence arise peculiar circumstances. A man of this description becomes attached to a woman of colour, connects himself with her, and takes her to his home, where she is in a short time even visited by married women; she governs his household affairs, acts and considers herself as his wife, and frequently after the birth of several children, when they are neither of them young, he marries her. In connections of this nature, the parties are more truly attached than in marriages between persons who belonged to two families of the first rank; for the latter are entered into from convenience rather than from affection; indeed the parties, on some occasions, do not see each other until a few days before the ceremony takes place. It often occurs, that inclination, necessity, or convenience induce or oblige a man to separate from the person with whom he has thus been connected;

nected; in this case, he gives her a portion, and she marries a man of her own rank, who regards her rather as a widow than as one whose conduct has been incorrect. Instances of infidelity in these women are rare; they become attached to the men with whom they cohabit, and they direct the affairs of the houses over which they are placed with the same zeal that they would display if they had the right of command over them. It is greatly to the credit of the people of that country that so much fidelity should be shown on one side, and that this should so frequently, as it is, be rewarded by the other party, in the advancement of those who have behaved thus faithfully, to a respectable and acknowledged situation in society. It should be recollected, too, that the merit of moral feelings must be judged of by the - standard of the country, and not by our own institutions. I have only spoken above of what occurs among the planters; for in large towns man is pretty much the same every where.

The Mamalucos are more frequently to be seen in the Sertam than upon the coast. They are handsomer than the mulattos; and the women of this cast particularly surpass in beauty all others of the country; they have the brown tint of mulattos, but their features are less blunt, and their hair is not curled. I do not think that the men can be said to possess more courage than the mulattos ; but whether from the knowledge which they have of being of free birth on both sides, or from residing in the interior of the country where government is more loose,

they appear to have more indẹ. pendence of character, and to pay less deference to a white man than the mulattos. When women relate any deed of danger that has been surmounted or undertaken, they generally state that the chief actor in it was a large mamaluco, mamalucam; as if they thought this description of men to be superior to all others, Mamalucos may enter into the mulatto regiments, and are pressed into the regiments of the line as being men of colour, without any regard to the sources from which their blood proceeds.

Of the domesticated Indians I have already elsewhere given what accounts I could collect, and what I had opportunities of observing, The wild Indians are now only to be met with at a great distance from the coast of Pernambuco; and although they are very near to Maranham, and are dreaded neighbours, I had no means of seeing any of them.

I now proceed to mention that numerous and valuable race of men, the creole negroes; a tree of African growth, which has thus been transplanted, cultivated, and much improved by its removal to the New World. The creole ne. groes stand alone and unconnected with every other race of men, and this circumstance alone would be sufficient, and indeed contributes much to the effect of uniting them to each other. The mulattos, and all other persons of mixed blood, wish to lean towards the whites, if they can possibly lay any claim to relationship. Even the mestizo tries to pass for a mulatto, and to persuade himself, and others, that his veins contain some portion of