thoroughly acquaint himself with Brazilian manners must not shrink from fatigue; he must renounce the observation of a society at Bahia and Pernambuco differing but little from that at Lisbon. If he would feel himself really in Brazil, he must bestride a mule, face the picadas (paths) of the forests, and seek the creoles in the fazenda, where ancient customs have been preserved intact.
What is the fazenda? It is a vast extent of land planted with sugar-cane or coffee-plants, the central portion of which is occupied by a large rectangle of white buildings. The side reserved for the senhor or master, is distinguished by its regular architecture and a piazza, The beams that support the roof project several feet beyond the exterior wall, forming on the northern façade a varanda from whence the fazendeiro can observe, sheltered from sun and rain, all that is going on in the extended fields. Here the members of the household come, to enjoy the fresh morning odors or the soft evening breeze. Two or three little negroes, playing with a tame macaco, (monkey,) and several chattering parrots with blue plumage, enliven this peristyle with their frolic and their cries. Opposite extends a succession of large storehouses, to receive the harvest. At one of the angles stand the cylinders used for bruising the cane-stalks, or the machine for shelling grain. These machines are operated by a large wooden water wheel. The two other sides of the quadrangle, built of clay, contain the dwellings of the negroes and feitors. The large court in the centre is used for drying coffee, millet, cotton, etc. It is entered by two wooden doors, which separate the habitation of the master from that of the slaves. Only the store houses and the dwelling of the senhor have a floor, which is built a few feet above the ground, as a precaution against the floods of the solstices, None of the buildings have more than one story; the warm temperature of the country easily accounts for the aversion of the creoles to upper stories.
Behind the fazenda, and at some little distance, according to the arrangement of the place, are found the rancho, the garden, the infirmary, and the various parks set apart for cattle, sheep, and hogs. To each of these sections is attached a man of color or a trusted negro; and here and there amid the bushes, in the pasture, or on the roadside, are seen the huts of the agregados, built against a tree.
AGREGADO
is the name given to slaves that have been set free by wealthy fazendeiros in their will, either from tradition or as a reward for long service, or from a remembrance of the pontifical bulls. Most generally these people, enervated by servitude, especially when their liberty comes late, forthwith settle into complete inactivity, under the pretext of reposing from their long labors. Seeking retirement in some nook of the forest, always on the estate of their former master, they construct a hut of a few sticks and some clay, sow a little feijão and millet around their habitation, and pass the remainder of the year in that absolute repose of which they have dreamed all their lives as the ideal of human felicity. Their children, brought up in perfect liberty, naturally consider themselves the proprietors of the soil, and when the fazendeiro desires to clear his land, he is generally obliged to resort to force to dislodge his tenants. This life of indolence is the only one that a former slave seems capable of leading. The negro and the Indian never look ahead; and the mulatto, brutified from infancy, follows their example. The most enterprising content themselves with raising pigs or poultry, but it is seldom that these objects of their care profit them, on account of the wild-cats, (gatos do matto.) Sometimes, however, the germs of the white man's activity which lurk in their blood be come manifest; but the employments
