hat Country. But there appears no
person capable of conducting a revolution, or willing to venture himself
at its head, without the aid of some powerful nation, as the people of
their own might fail them. There is no printing press in Brazil. They
consider the North American revolution as a precedent for theirs. They
look to the United States as most likely to give them honest support,
and, from a variety of considerations, have the strongest prejudices in
our favor. This informant is a native and inhabitant of Rio Janeiro,
the present metropolis, which contains fifty thousand inhabitants, knows
well St. Salvador, the former one, and the _mines d'or_, which are
in the centre of the country. These are all for a revolution; and,
constituting the body of the nation, the other parts will follow them,
The King's fifth of the mines, yields annually thirteen millions of
crusadoes or half dollars. He has the sole right of searching for
diamonds and other precious stones, which yield him about half as much.
His income from those two resources alone, then, is about ten millions
of dollars annually; but the remaining part of the produce of the
mines, being twenty-six millions, might be counted on for effecting
a revolution. Besides the arms in the hands of the people, there are
public magazines. They have abundance of horses, but only a part of
their country would admit the service of horses. They would want cannon,
ammunition, ships, sailors, soldiers, and officers, for which they are
disposed to look to the United States, it being always understood, that
every service and furniture will be well paid. Corn costs about
twenty livres the one hundred pounds. They have flesh in the greatest
abundance, insomuch, that in some parts, they kill beeves for the skin
only. The whale fishery is carried on by Brazilians altogether, and not
by Portuguese; but in very small vessels, so that the fishermen know
nothing of managing a large ship. They would want of us; at all times,
shipping, corn, and salt fish. The latter is a great article, and they
are at present supplied with it from Portugal. Portugal being without
either army or navy, could not attempt an invasion under a twelvemonth.
Considering of what it would be composed, it would not be much to be
feared, and if it failed, they would probably never attempt a second.
Indeed, this source of their wealth being intercepted, they are scarcely
capable of a first effort. The thinking part of the