1

what out of order. In the centre of the garden was a small fountain, near which grew some fine specimens of the splendid Bougainvillea bracteata in full flower. There is also a fine collection of Orchidea, which are cultivated on decayed trunks of trees. The bread-fruit trees (Artocarpus incisa, and integrifolia) succeed very well. There were some trees of both kinds forty feet high, and the fruit of the latter as large as an ordinary watermelon. The rows of trees along the sides of the walks were principally Apeiba hispida, Theobroma cacao, several kinds of Lauracea and Myrtacea, with a species of Casuarina, introduced from New South Wales. Several groups of bamboos had a good effect among the other trees, but their stems bore evidence of a propensity to the carving of names, as a memento of the distinguished persons' visit. Among them I was glad to see the names of many Europeans, which serves to prove that this habit does not exist among Americans alone. Here an attempt was made some years since to introduce the tea-plant, with natives of China to cultivate it. The plantation appeared to our botanical gentlemen in a sickly state.

The great and distinctive characteristic of Rio may be said to be its slaves and slavery. This evil continually presents itself to the observer, and he cannot, if he would, divert his attention from the many sights which keep it before his mind.

The slave population is stated at five times the number of that of the whites, and notwithstanding the existing danger of maritime capture, the supply still seems equal to the demand. Although many slavers are taken by the English cruisers, brought in and tried by the mixed commission, agreeably to treaty, yet means are found to introduce the slaves. Two slavers were lying in charge of the English squadron while we were there. On board of them, though quite small vessels, were two and three hundred negroes. It is difficult to imagine more emaciated, miserable, and beastly-looking creatures, and it is not a little surprising that they should be kept thus confined by those who affect to establish their freedom and ameliorate their condition. These vessels it is understood had obtained their victims on the eastern coast of Africa.

Slaves are almost the only carriers of burdens in Rio Janeiro. They go almost naked, and are exceedingly numerous. They appear to work with cheerfulness, and go together in gangs, with a leader who carries a rattle made of tin, and filled with stones, (similar to a child's rattle.) With this he keeps time, causing them all to move on a dog-trot. Each one joins in the monotonous chorus, the notes seldom varying above a third from the key. The words they use are frequently

relative to their own country; sometimes to what they heard from their master, as they started with their load, but the sound is the

The coffee-carriers go along in large gangs of twenty or thirty,

singing

e

Another.

One half take the air, with one or two keeping up a kind of a hum on the common chord, and the remainder finish the bar.

These slaves are required by their masters to obtain a certain sum, according to their ability, say from twenty-five to fifty cents a day,

and to pay it every evening. The surplus belongs to themselves. In default of not gaining the required sum, castigation is always inflicted.

It is said that the liberated negroes who own slaves are particularly severe and cruel. The usual load carried is about two hundred pounds weight.

Mr. Hale, our philologist, found here a field of some extent in his department, through the slave population; and it afforded more opportunities for its investigation than would at first appear probable. Vast numbers of slaves have been, and are still imported annually into this market; and as very many of the same nation or tribe associate together, they retain their own language, even after they have been in the country for some years. It may be seen by the most cursory examination that they are marked in such a manner as to serve to distinguish their different races. Some have little of the distinctive negro character, and others more of it than any human beings we had seen. Mr. Hale obtained from a gentleman of Rio the following information respecting them, with their distinctive marks; the accuracy of which we had an opportunity of verifying during our stay. The likenesses made of them by Mr. Agate are very characteristic.

The negroes of Brazil who have been brought from North and South Africa, are divided into two distinct and very dissimilar classes. The natives of that portion of the continent known under the general name of Upper Guinea, include the countries in the interior as far as Timbuctoo and Bornou, being the whole of that region lately explored by the English expeditions. The slaves from this quarter, though of various nations and languages, have yet a general likeness, which stamps them as one race. In Brazil they are known under the name of Minas.

MINA.

The Minas slaves are said to be distinguished from others by their

bodily and mental qualities. They are generally above the middle height, and well formed. The forehead is high, and the cheek-bones prominent; the nose sometimes straight and sometimes depressed; the lips not very thick; teeth small and perpendicularly set; the hair is woolly, and the colour an umber or reddish brown, approaching to black.

The look and bearing of the Mina blacks are expressive of intelligence and dignity, and they betray little of the levity usually ascribed to the negro race.

In Brazil they occupy the highest position that slaves are allowed to attain, being employed as confidential servants, artisans, and small traders. They look down upon, and refuse to have any connexion with, or participation in, the employment of the other negroes. Many of them write and read the Arabic, and all can repeat some sentences of it. The greatest number of slaves who purchase their freedom belong to this race.

There is one singularity which seems to be common to the inhabitants of both regions, and which may be compared with the practice. of tattooing which prevails throughout the tribes of Polynesia, viz., the custom of cutting or branding certain marks upon the face and body, by which the individuals of one tribe may be distinguished from those of any other. This practice is general among all the Minas, and also prevails along the eastern or Mozambique coast of Southern Africa. Among the western or Congo tribes it does not appear to be universal. It will be readily understood that these marks are of great service to the slave-traders, and all that have much to do with native Africans soon learn to distinguish them; and the price of a slave is depressed or enhanced accordingly. Among the Mina nations, so called after a port on the Slave Coast in Upper Guinea, where these slaves are obtained, this practice is carried to its greatest extent. Each province or city of importance has a distinct brand or mark, which is invariable for all the inhabitants.

Of the tribes speaking the Houssa language, the Goobere, or Guberi, from the kingdom of Bornou, have three or four marks on each side of the mouth, converging towards the corners.

Those from the town of Kano, inhabited by a population of traders, have several perpendicular and parallel marks on each cheek.

The same mark prevails among the people of Kashua and Labbi, neighbours of the foregoing.

The Soccatoos, or Sakatus, on a branch of the Quorra, have several fine long oblique marks, converging towards the corners of the mouth.

Dawwarra or Dawara: these have parallel oblique lines, drawn to the corners of the mouth, with shorter marks meeting or bordering them above and below.

The men of the Nago or Yarribe nation, on the west bank of the Niger or Quorra, below the Houssa, have three or four longitudinal marks on each side of the mouth.

The Tacqua, otherwise called Nouffie or Nyffie, live on the eastern side of the Quorra, opposite the former, and have two or three oblique lines drawn to the corners of the mouth.

The Fantees and Ashantees inhabit that part of the coast of Guinea known as the Slave Coast, and the country in the interior. The former have no distinguishing mark; the latter are characterized by scars produced by burns on the forehead and cheeks.

ASHANTEE.

The Minas are held in much fear in Brazil. They are extremely numerous at Bahia, and it is understood, that during a late insurrection, they had fully organized themselves, and were determined to institute a regular system of government. They had gone so far as to circulate writings in Arabic, exhorting their fellows in bondage to make the attempt to recover their liberty.