ioo R I O D E J A N E I R O .
I t will not be expected that I should be able to give any
account of the state of the country, as to the mode and the
extent of its cultivation, or the condition of its inhabitants.
Our short excursion to the vale of Tejeuca, about twenty miles
to the south-westward of St. Sebastian, furnished us, however,
with an opportunity of observing how wretchedly neglected
was this most beautiful and fertile country, even in the
vicinity of its most populous city. From the outlets of the
town, none of the roads, admitting of wheel carriages, are
carried beyond ten miles ; in our present excursion we were
obliged to alight at the end of about six, where horses were prepared
for the further prosecution of our journey. We presently
entered a large forest, in passing through which we were frequently
obliged to dismount, in order to scramble over huge
trunks of trees that had fallen across the path, where they
were suffered to lie and rot without molestation. We had no
objection to loiter under the cool shade which the venerable
evergreens of some centuries’ growth afforded, and to listen
to the wild notes of birds that were totally new and unknown
to any of us ; yet the frequent obstructions we met with from
trees, and rocks, and bogs, were tedious and tiresome. From
our quitting the town till we came to the verge of the forest
little cultivation had appeared; beyond it, still less. The
lower part of the hills were skirted with forests, the glens
were choaked up with trees of a majestic size, and the tops
of the hills and knolls were covered with coppice. Not an
inch of the surface appeared to be naked.
R IO D E J A N E I R O . l<?1
Ascending the heights to the westward we passed a most
magnificent cascade, which, from the number of names that
were cut on the sides of a cavern, and a long table withm it
that was hewn out of the solid rock, seemed to have once
been the resort 6f numerous visitors. The stream of water
fell into a rich and romantic valley, through which it flowed
into a small arm of the sea. We observed only two plantations
in the whole valley, at the dwelhng house of one of
which we took up our lodging for the night. I t had little or
no furniture, w a s exceedingly dirty, and we had to endure
a l m o s t insufferable torments from the swarms of mosquitoes,
that attacked us as we lay exposed on wooden frames with
cane bottoms, without bedding, mattras, or curtarns- The
plantations were worked entirely by slaves, and abounded with
cotton, coffee, cocoa, sugar, fruits and other valuable productions.
The proprietor had a hundred slaves on his plan -
, ation? was a considerable merchant m Rio, and esteemed to
be a very rich man; but his manner of living, as far as we
were capable of judging, was destitute of every kind of comfort
Surrounded with the greatest abundance of the necessaries
and even luxuries of life, he was a total stranger to any
of its conveniencies. He complained most grievously of the
oppression which the inhabitants of South America suffered
from the mother country; that the monopolies, the prohibitions,
and the taxes, had checked commerce, impeded agn-
ciflture, and destroyed the spirit of enterprise: and he represented
the dissatisfaction to have become so general at the
burdens imposed on them, and the restrictions they were