t, which
are really excellent, are the oranges, bananas and mangoes. Their
celebrated pine-apples are neither very fragrant nor remarkably
sweet; I certainly have eaten much finer flavoured ones that had
been grown in a European hot-house. The other kinds of fruit are
not worth mentioning. Lastly, with the two very necessary articles
of consumption, milk and meat, the former is very watery, and the
latter very dry.

On instituting a comparison between the Brazils and Europe, both
with respect to the impression produced by the whole, as also to the
separate advantages and disadvantages of each, we shall, perhaps, at
first find the scale incline towards the former country, but only to
turn ultimately with greater certainty in favour of the latter.

The Brazils is, perhaps, the most interesting country in the world
for travellers; but for a place of permanent residence I should most
decidedly prefer Europe.

I saw too little of the manners and customs of the country to be
qualified to pronounce judgment upon them, and I shall therefore, on
this head, confine myself to a few remarks. The manners seem, on
the whole, to differ but little from those of Europe. The present
possessors of the country, as is well known, derive their descent
from Portugal, and the Brazilians might very aptly be termed
"Europeans translated into Americans;" and it is very natural, that
in this "translation" many peculiarities have been lost, while
others have stood forth in greater relief. The strongest feature in
the character of the European-American is the greed for gold; this
often becomes a passion, and transforms the most faint-hearted white
into a hero, for it certainly requires the courage of one to live
alone, as planter, on a plantation with perhaps some hundred slaves,
far removed from all assistance, and with the prospect of being
irrevocably lost in the event of any revolt.

This grasping feeling is not confined to the men alone; it is found
among the women as well, and is greatly encouraged by a common
custom here, agreeably to which, a husband never assigns his wife so
much for pin-money, but, according to his means, makes her a present
of one or more male or female slaves, whom she can dispose of as she
chooses. She generally has them taught how to cook, sew, embroider,
or even instructed in some trade, and then lets them out, by the
day, week, or month, {27} to people who possess no slaves of their
own; or she lets th