There are people in Europe not a whit better than the African slave-dealers, and such people are those who delude poor wretches with exaggerated accounts of the richness of America and her beautiful territories, of the over-abundance of the products of the soil, and the lack of hands to take advantage of them.  These people, however, care little about the poor dupes; their object is to freight the vessels belonging to them, and to effect this they take from their deluded victim the last penny he possesses.

During my stay here, several vessels arrived with unfortunate emigrants of this description; the government had not sent for them, and therefore would afford them no relief; money they had none, and, consequently, could not purchase land, neither could they find employment in working on the plantations, as no one will engage Europeans for this purpose, because, being unused to the warm climate, they would soon succumb beneath the work.  The unhappy wretches had thus no resource left; they were obliged to beg about the town, and, in the end, were fain to content themselves with the most miserable occupations.  A different fate awaits those who are sent for by the Brazilian government to cultivate the land or colonize the country:  these persons receive a piece of uncleared ground, with provisions and other help; but if they come over without any money at all, even their lot is no enviable one.  Want, hunger, and sickness destroy most of them, and but a very small number succeed, by unceasing activity and an iron constitution, in gaining a better means of livelihood than what they left behind them in their native land.  Those only who exercise some trade find speedy employment and an easy competency; but even this will, in all probability, soon be otherwise, for great numbers are pouring in ever year, and latterly the negroes themselves have been, and are still being, more frequently taught every kind of trade.

Let every one, therefore, obtain trustworthy information before leaving his native land; let him weigh calmly and deliberately the step he is about to take, and not allow himself to be carried away by deceptive hopes.  The poor creature’s misery on being undeceived is so much the more dreadful, because he does not learn the truth until it is too late—­until he has already fallen a victim to poverty and want.

CHAPTER III.  EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF RIO JANEIRO.

The waterfalls near Teschuka—­boa Vista—­the botanical gardens and
their environs—­the Corcovado mountains, 2,253 feet above the level
of the sea—­palaces of the imperial family—­the newly-founded German
colony of Petropolis—­attempt at murder, by A MARROON negro.