own consumption. | It has indeed been pretended by some,
and believed by many, that .the grapes which are produced
in North or South America are totally unfit for the making
of wine; but the people of Rio de Janeiro are sufficiently
convinced of the contrary, and consider the prohibition as
not one of the least grievances under which they labour. The
grapes here are remarkably large and juicy, and it is too absurd
to suppose for a moment that good grapes will not make
good wine. A much better reason may be assigned for the
cause of .this restriction. The Portugal Company, as it is
usually called, pays to the Crown an annual sum for the
privilege of the monopoly; and the consequence of this is
that a bottle of good port wine costs in the sea-port towns of
the Brazils a dollar, and in the interior not less than two
dollars. That the fat soils of America are too heavy for a
succulent plant, which will vegetate freely in dry sand or
rubbish, may be easily conceived; but that the vine should
not grow as well in America as in the barren soils of the
island of Madeira or the Cape of Good Hope, if planted in
proper situations, is too absurd to be mentioned. I shall be
told, perhaps, on high authority, that not only plants but
men and brute' animals have been found to degenerate, on
being transplanted to America. If the fact were true, which
may fairly be questioned, even this will admit of an explanation
on very simple and natural principles. The most unhealthy
countries are those where cultivation has been least
extended, and where the exuberant products of a fertile soil
and a warm climate have been left to a spontaneous decomposition
on the surface by the putrefactive fermentation.
The mephitic vapour, or hydro-carbonous gas, perpetually
forming under such circumstances, is not only noxious to
animal life,-but in many instances destructive of it. The
myriads of insects that are engendered in the woods and
marshes of a warm climate are a constant torment. In fact,
the life of man, in such situations, is so much occupied in
providing against annoyances, that he has little time or. inclination
to exert his faculties. If then energy of mind may
be allowed to have any relation to ease of body, and the connection
will hardly be disputed, it is not a matter of surprize
that men of genius have hitherto rarely appeared in Amenca.
I have no notion, for my own part, ridiculous as it may appear
to those who have never travelled beyond the temperate
regions of Europe, how any man can think to the purpose,
even while a little mosquito, insignificant as it is, shall be
humming in his ear.
Neither man nor quadrupeds can be said to thrive well, or
to enjoy an apparent vigour of health, in the neighbourhood
of Rio de Janeiro. During the season of rams, and for a
month or six weeks afterwards, dysenteries and intermittent
fevers are almost universal. All the hills behind the town,
the numerous islands in the harbour, and every part of its
shores, are covered with forests, interspersed with uncultivated
plains and tracts of marshy ground, where a constant process
of decay, and the reproduction of rank grass and sedges, furnish
the materials of a constant fermentation.
Notwithstanding the vexations, restrictions, and monopol
i e s , w h i c h the Portugueze government has imposed on the
trade and productions of its colonies in South America, so