which the people here, as I have before observed, give the name of farinha de pao, which may not improperly be translated, powder of post.  The soil, though it produces tobacco and sugar, will not produce bread-corn; so that the people here have no wheat-flour, but what is brought from Portugal, and sold at the rate of a shilling a pound, though it is generally spoiled by being heated in its passage.  Mr Banks is of opinion, that all the products of our West Indian islands would grow here; notwithstanding which, the inhabitants import their coffee and chocolate from Lisbon.[76]

[Footnote 76:  The Portuguese government, it appears, from Mr Barrow’s representation, have taken effectual measures to preserve this colony in a state of dependance on the mother country:  “It no sooner discovered,” says that gentleman, “that sugar could be raised in any quantity, and afforded, in the markets of Europe, at reasonable prices, than it thought proper to impose on them an export duty of 20 per cent. which operated as an immediate check on the growth of this article.  When the cultivation of the indigo plant had been considerably extended, and the preparation sufficiently understood, so as to enable the colonists to meet their competitors in the markets of Europe, this article was assumed as a royal monopoly.”  Salt, he says, is another royal monopoly, and yields the sum of L. 15,000 annually:  But one of the immediate effects of its being so, is the entire destruction of the valuable fisheries.  Does the reader remember the fable of the hen that laid golden eggs?  Would not certain governments do well to study the moral of it?—­E.]

Most of the land, as far as we saw of the country, is laid down in grass, upon which cattle are pastured in great plenty; but they are so lean, that an Englishman will scarcely eat of their flesh:  The herbage of these pastures consists principally of cresses, and consequently is so short, that though it may afford a bite for horses and sheep, it can scarcely be grazed by horned cattle in a sufficient quantity to keep them alive.

This country may possibly produce many valuable drugs; but we could not find any in the apothecaries shops, except pariera brava, and balsam capivi; both of which were excellent in their kind, and sold at a very low price.  The drug trade is probably carried on to the northward, as well as that of the dying woods, for we could get no intelligence of either of them here.

As to manufactures, we neither saw nor heard of any except that of cotton hammocks, in which people are carried about here, as they are with us in sedan chairs; and these are principally, if not wholly, fabricated by the Indians.

The riches of the place consist chiefly in the mines which we supposed to lie far up the country, though we could never learn where, or at what distance; for the situation is concealed as much as possible, and troops are continually employed in guarding the roads that lead to them:  It is almost impossible for any man to get a sight of them, except those who are employed there; and indeed the strongest curiosity would scarcely induce any man to attempt it, for whoever is found upon the road to them, if he cannot give undeniable evidence of his having business there, is immediately hanged up upon the next tree.