BOOK FOURTH. BRAZI L.* AMONG the Portuguese colonies would have been cited, at the beginning of the present century, as the fairest, the vastest, the richest, Brazil. Independent since 1822, this immense empire is one of the principal centres of slavery at our epoch. North America possesses the most powerful republic in the world, the United States. South America belongs in great part to Brazil, one of the most flourishing monarchies of the universe, the only monarchical, the only flourishing state in the midst of ten republican states.† The Union is a vigorous branch of the Saxon race, Brazil is a bough full of sap of the Latin race; the first is a Protestant nation, the second a Catholic nation. Both have broken the bond which attached them to the mother country, for the sake of freedom of trade, and the first since 1787, the second since 1822, have not ceased to grow. If we pause in surprise before the gigantic destinies of the United States, how can we help also assigning an incalculable future to Brazil, as large as Europe,‡ already composed of twenty provinces, * Brésil, by M. Charles Reybaud, 1856; Portugal et ses colonies, by M. Vogel, 1860; Le Budget du Brésil, by Count de Stratten Ponthos; Brésil, by Pereira de Silva, Revue des deux Mondes, April 15, 1858; A travers l'Amérique du Sud, by F. Dabadie, Sartorius, 1859; Histoire du Brésil, by Ferdinand Denis. † It would be unjust not to point out Chili as a flourishing state. See the Histoire du Chili, by the Abbé Eyzaguire. 3,956,800 square miles in area; extending from the 4th to the 33d degree of south latitude, and from the 37th to the 73d degree of west longitude. sixteen of which have harbors on the Atlantic, - provinces where the vegetation of the tropics and the cultivation of Europe divide the surface of a soil rich in metals, gold, and diamonds, and watered by immense rivers, tributaries or rivals of that Amazon which, after a course of 4,000 miles, reaches the sea, 250 miles broad at the mouth. 8,000,000 of inhabitants dwell on this land, so rich in the gifts of God, and which would support 150,000,000, protected by a free constitution under a popular government. Since the declaration of independence, in 1822, this people has passed through war with the mother country, war with the neighboring countries, and internal wars of parties; yet notwithstanding receipts are progressing, importations have tripled, exportations are yearly increasing,* four lines of steamers run up and down the Amazon, others serve the coasts, others connect Brazil with Europe, railroads are constructed, rivers and roads are improved, and in the city of Rio Janeiro, whose children were forced forty years since to go to Coimbra to take their degrees, to-day 300,000 inhabitants have colleges, an institute, churches, hospitals, Sisters of Charity, journals, writers, poets. This century will have witnessed the birth and growth on the same continent, in the North and South, of two states vaster and erelong more powerful than the most ancient states of Old Europe. Unfortunately both, again too much alike on this point, hold slaves, nearly 4,000,000 in the United States, more than 2,000,000 in Brazil. Rio Janeiro alone had, in 1850, 110,599 slaves in 266,466 inhabitants, and, taking into account the free negroes and mulattoes, the African race exceeds in numbers the white and Brazilian races. Following their appearance on Brazilian territory, the *We will quote a single fact. Coffee was introduced into Brazil in 1774; in four years, 1834-1838, this country exported only 657,575 sacks; in five months, from January to May, 1859, it exported 687,704 sacks. It produces 460,000,000 lbs., — more than half of the total production of coffee (900,000,000 lbs.) on the globe. (Hunt's Merchants' Magazine.) Europeans enslaved the Indians, and, long after the measures of emancipation decreed by the government, in 1570, 1647, and 1684, these unfortunates remained slaves, until 1755; the Africans were such after them, are still, and will be perhaps for a long time. The 2,000,000 African slaves in Brazil were brought thither through the slave-trade; no country abandoned itself to this odious traffic more actively or more obstinately. Portugal pledged itself to England, by a treaty of Jan. 22, 1815, towards the abolition of the slave-trade; Brazil, by another treaty of Nov. 23, 1826, renewed the same pledges. Yet in 1839 Mr. Buxton,* sustained by official documents, estimated at about 80,000 the number of slaves imported annually at Rio, Bahia, Pernambuco, and Para. In 1844 the English consuls declared that the slave-trade had not diminished. It was at this epoch that England, by a bill of 1845, violating the right of nations in behalf of the right of men, declared Brazilian slave-ships amenable to English authorities; and a long diplomatic contest, backed by forcible demonstrations, threatened the repose of Brazil. statute bearing date July 17, 1850, which assimilated the slave-trade to piracy, was at length the token of better intentions. The Emperor, in a speech, Sept. 4, 1852, declared that the slave-trade might be regarded as extinct. A society opposed to the slave-trade and in favor of colonization was formed under his patronage, 1853,§ and the same year, May 14, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. de Souza, announced that 700 negroes only had been imported in 1852, but added, at the same time, that the importation had amounted *On the Slave-Trade, 1839, p. 12. § Ibid., 1832, p. 357; 1853, p. 307. A In 1846 to 50,324, "1847" 56,172, "1848" 60,000, "1849" 54,000. Since this time, the slave-trade has diminished, yet it still exists; but one ship out of five reaches its destination, yet the business is still good. Surveillance is difficult on 1,200 leagues of coast. More secret, more cruel, more active, the slave-trade continues therefore to nourish slavery in Brazil, as in Cuba, as in the United States; slavery and the slave-trade are accomplices which can only be slain at one blow. What is said in Brazil in justification of slavery? That South America is almost entirely destitute of inhabitants, that to people it needs the aid of immigration, that the climate permits none but Africans to labor, and that, to attach them to the cultivation of the soil, it is necessary to constrain them to it by force. It is added, that the Brazilian planters take great care of their slaves, moderate their labor, almost always abstain from corporal punishment, and regulate their dietary and hygienic system with judicious humanity. It is affirmed that the abolition of slavery would dry up all the sources of agricultural wealth, and prove an immense subversion, almost suicide, to the empire. It is hoped, notwithstanding, that the day will come when Brazil will have none but freemen, and this will be when colonists flow thither. We will briefly review these arguments. Brazil presents every The climate is a bad reason. species of climate; let the cultivation of the regions bordering on the equator be confined to Africans, but free Africans, hired for a stated term, as English Guiana and a portion of Porto Rico are cultivated. In three fourths of the empire the white and native races have nothing to * Charles Reybaud, Brésil, Chap. V. p. 187. fear from the climate. Are slaves employed only under the equator? Are they not employed in agriculture? We have seen that Rio alone contains more than 100,000. It is hoped to people an uninhabited country by slavery. Everywhere the negro population dies out by degrees in slavery. It is a law of Providence, and this law extends to certain animals, that perpetuation is impossible in captivity. An overwhelming subversion is feared. If, as is affirmed, the negroes are well treated, if precautions are taken to bind them to the soil by engagements, and also by the threefold bond of property by not disputing to them their cabin and garden, of family by encouraging marriage, of religion by favoring their taste for instruction and religious worship, there is no cause for fear. The example of the French and English colonies proves that the negro race is gentle, domestic, and susceptible of civilization. It flees the plan tations only where the memory of a harsh slavery inspires it with dread; only when the transition is not prudently managed. It is hoped that the influx of European colonists will one day render slavery useless. The day is far off when Brazil will have received 10,000,000 inhabitants by this means. But colonists are little attracted towards slave countries; do not the Northern United States receive more than the Southern? The colonists who come, moreover, make the greatest possible haste to buy slaves in their turn. The French and English themselves, who would blush in their own country to declare themselves partisans of slavery, despite the threat of losing their nationality, do not scruple to own slaves in Brazil. The influx of colonists will, therefore, increase the demand for slaves, unless the abolition of slavery precede their arrival. We will again invoke here the example of North America. The States which had the courage to abolish slavery |