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far as twelve, but rarely beyond. A Brazilian lady with whom I lodged at Petropolis, confessed to me that when her daily expenses amounted to more than twelve vintens, (pence,) she was obliged to put as many beans in a glass as she expended pieces of money, so that her husband, upon his return, could form a correct idea of the sum paid out, and rectify mistakes, The women of color vary their arithmetic from three to twelve, according to the deepness of their complexion. Often, in my excursions, obliged to seek shelter in a cabin, have entered into conversation with he mistress, thus:

'What is your age, madam?'

'Não sei, senhor,' (I do not know, sir.)

'How long have you lived here?'

'Não sei, senhor.'

'How old is this child?'

'Não sei, senhor.'

'How many children have you?'

Here embarrassment was visible, if the number reached the figure of four or five.

'Meia pataca,' (half a pataca,)^[1] I was answered, after a long pause, by the mother of a family in which I counted eight children. It was soon after my arrival, and I confess that I was obliged to have recourse to my guide to get the sense of this strange metaphor.

Such are the occupations, manners, and distinctions of the fazenda, What has been said is specially applicable to the large estates of the north and centre, that border upon the Atlantic. To the south, the configuration of the land as well as the latitude modifies the productions of the soil and the habits of the planters. Immense grazing tracts take the place of the sugar and coffee plantations, and the colonist devotes himself exclusively to the rearing of cattle. It is he who sends the leather and the carne seca that supply both hemispheres.

In the provinces of the interior, a few descendants of the old mineiros still work the veins of quartz spangled with gold, or the diamond-bearing alluvium, This industry, which once formed the wealth of the country, is now but a mere memento of the past. The mining companies themselves no longer pay expenses. Whatever part of the country the traveller traverses, however, he always finds in the Brazilian fazenda that courtesy and heartiness of reception that have rendered the Spanish hacienda so famous, It nevertheless occasionally happens that a stranger who stops at a house at three or four o'clock in the afternoon is told: 'You have two hours of daylight yet, and that will bring you to Senhor X———'s plantation, or the rancho on the other side of the river.' These words, sufficiently unpleasant to the ear of one weary and travel-worn, are easily explained. It is not every one's fortune to be the possessor of estates and slaves. Many of the colonists have no other patrimony than a clay hut and a few fields of corn or manioc which they cultivate by hard labor. What can they offer? Hospitality would be to them. burdensome if not impossible. At other times it is Portuguese pride that renders the threshold of the case inaccessible, Every man of inferior condition feels himself ill at ease, when he is obliged to introduce a stranger into the heavy atmosphere of a dirty and destitute interior. Fortunately these cases are rare. Of a profoundly chivalric character, the creole, whatever his fortune, reminds one in all its aspects of the inexhaustible prolificness of the virgin Nature that surrounds him, and which from his infancy has never ceased to lavish upon him her caresses and her treasures.

Let us now cast a glance at the future, and see what fate is reserved for the fazenda, It must be observed that this agricultural and patriarchal mode of life is tending toa radical modification. Although improgressiveness seems to be