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climate is necessary for the development of this aroma, and to prevent the excess of sugar from overpowering it. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the tropics. The enormous quantity of water conveyed in the sap, and which vegetables absorb through every pore in an atmosphere constantly loaded with vapors, swells the fruit, neutralizes its acidity, and changes the pulp into a sweet paste, (mélasse,) In justice, however, it must be observed that the creoles appreciate the sweet juice of the pulp better than ourselves, and with them, therefore, their fruit has the advantage. The doces (sweetmeats) which they form from them constitute the principal merit of the Brazilian table.

The description of the fazenda would be incomplete, if we did not describe some of the original characters one meets with on all the large plantations. First in order come the padre and the doutor, then the mascate (the muleteer) and the formigueiro, (the ant-killer,) of which we have heretofore merely mentioned the name.

The padre is the almoner of the country, Let not the reader picture to himself, the dark figure of an inquisitor, enveloped in black gown and wearing a three-cornered hat. No; the South-American padre is a hale apostle. Clothed in linen like a worldly mortal, he wears his hair as short as a layman, dances, smokes, and plays and converses like the rest of the world. A mass glosses over the Sabbath, and that suffices for all the week.

A muleteer generally serves him as sacristan, and his music consists of a choir of negroes. After mass he baptizes the little negroes who are brought to him from various parts of the neighborhood. Of these he takes possession in the name of heaven and the Catholic religion, and to this effect inscribes their names in a register, under a rubric taken from the Roman martyrology. This duty performed, the new Christian returns to the hut, goes into the field as soon as he is able to walk, works as long as his strength permits, till at length he one day falls exhausted. A few hours later he takes his way to the grave upon the shoulders of four of his comrades, who form the entire funeral procession. The padre does not trouble himself to visit him in his dying moments, unless he is a free negro, and can pay the expense; for he thinks the sufferings of servitude are sufficient to redeem the faults of the poor slaves, and open to them the gates of heaven. Of what use, then, is the catechism, and instruction, and masses, and sacraments? The cleansing of baptism is enough; slavery will do the rest.

Lack of employment is not unknown to the padre; but he knows how to remedy this by the aid of some light employments with which his transatlantic brethren are unacquainted. If a fazendeiro thinks himself neither sufficiently rich nor devout to pay for a mass every week, he makes an arrangement with his neighbors. The padre then alternates week by week with one estate after another, till he comes around to the one with which he commenced. If his cure is too ungrateful, he ekes out a supplement by raising cattle or keeping a venda.

I one day met, in the province of Minas, one of these reverends who was traversing the estates with a herd of cattle, performing mass as occasion demanded, Being overtaken by a shower, we had both sought shelter at the same rancho. Seated upon a bench, we soon engaged in conversation.

'You see, senhor,' said he, with a profound sigh, 'the occupation to which a man of my condition is reduced! In the time of the King Don Joãs VI. we had more masses than we wanted; but since the independence, all is changed. There are still some senhoras who have them performed occasionally, but their husbands prefer to employ their money in cattle or mules. That is why you