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One curious fact will show how some masters, in case of emergency, manage the skins of their slaves. A few years ago a negro was hung at Rio Janeiro who had committed his seventh murder. On six occasions he had killed his senhor, and six times he had changed hands, being sold by the heirs of the murdered man as an excellent laborer, Rather than give him up to justice and avenge the death of their father, they preferred to render him good for evil, leaving his life safe and his back unscarred. Not possessing so much of the evangelical spirit, the relatives of the seventh victim had the murderer arrested, and he was sentenced to the gallows. He walked to the scaffold with perfect coolness, and before giving himself up to the executioner, cried in a loud voice to the numerous blacks around him: 'If each of you had followed my example, our blood would long ago have been avenged.' These words found no echo, and never will do so in Brazil, although the number of slaves is much greater than that of the whites, by reason of the jealousies of race which the Europeans take care to encourage between the different tribes. These instances of masters falling be neath the poniard or poison of African vengeance, are not rare on the plantations. They were much more frequent formerly, when the slave-trade daily brought fresh cargoes of negroes who had once known liberty. The latter died or gradually became extinct, and those who were born in the country, degraded by slavery, forgot the free land of their ancestors.

The negro of the town has a milder fate than his brethren of the country. At Bahia, Pernambuco, and Rio Janeiro, the three grand centres of slavery, the streets, the market, and the port are in undated with these Ethiopians of black and shining skin, who do the heavy work of those populous cities. The surveillance of feitors being impossible in such duties, the proprietors leave their slaves to act for themselves, only exacting a milrois (fifty cents) each day, which sum the latter religiously pay every evening. This condition is far from being oppressive to the African. Sober and robust, he takes his place at the quay, or at the custom-house, or the large stores—at any place where merchandise is to be loaded or transported and sometimes earns as much as ten milreis (five dollars) in a day. When he has saved money enough, he goes to his senhor, presents him a purse containing the price of his ransom, and, in the name of the law, demands his liberty.

Easy as is the life of the city negro compared with that of the plantation hands, some of them attempt to escape from slavery by flight.

In the majority of cases, these fugitives are brought back, and are first sent to the house of correction, where they are flogged according to the duration of their absence, unless the master, being desirous of selling them, prefers to save their backs intact. Sometimes, when pressed with hunger, they return and give themselves up of their own accord, after obtaining a letter of intercession from some friend of their master. As we said before, this favor is never refused. The more adventurous expatriate themselves in order to escape pursuit, going to Europe if they can find a captain who will take them on board, or penetrating the interior to Indian territories which the whip of the feitor has never reached.

The black race in Brazil, as elsewhere, is composed of different types. The negroes of the coast of Minas present, with the exception of color, the Caucasian type: a high forEhead, straight nose, regular mouth, oval features, and athletic form all reveal within them a strong and intelligent nature. The eye and lip alone betray the sensuality