t's family, the wife and
children, the young and the old, can successfully compete with slave
labor, and considerably undersell it. It is manifest, from the
remarks of M. Guillemin, that the cost for plantation slaves, under
a system apparently so profitable as labor without wages, is a dead
weight on the Brazilian planter."

_Paraguay Tea._--A species of holly (_Ilex Paraguensis_), which grows
spontaneously in the forest regions of Paraguay, and the interior of
South America, furnishes the celebrated beverage called _Yerba Mate_,
in South America. The evergreen leaf of this plant is from four to
five inches long; when prepared for use as tea it is reduced to
powder, and hence the decoction has to be quaffed by means of a tube
with a bulb perforated with small holes.

The leaves yield the same bitter principle called theine, which is
found in the leaf of the Chinese tea-plant, the coffee berry, &c.
Various other species of Ilex are sometimes employed in other parts of
South America for a similar purpose. Although the leaves may not
contain as much of the agreeable narcotic oil as those of the China
shrub, in consequence of the rude way in which it is collected and
prepared for use, yet it is much relished by European travellers in
South America, and would doubtless enter largely into consumption if
imported into this country at a moderate rate of duty.

The consumption in the various South American Republics is estimated
at thirty or forty millions of pounds annually. It is generally drank
without sugar or milk.

There are no correct data for calculating the exports, but some
authorities state the amount sent to Santa Fe and Buenos Ayres at
eight millions of pounds.

A great trade is carried on with it at Sta. Fe, where it is brought
from the Rio de la Plata. There are two sorts, one called "Yerba de
Palos," the other, which is finer, "Yerba de Carnini." Frezier tells
us that, in the earlier part of the 17th century, above 50,000
arrobas, or more than 12,000 cwt. of this herb were brought into Peru
from Paraguay, exclusive of about 25,000 arrobas taken to Chile; and
Father Charleroix, in his "History of Paraguay," states the quantity
shipped to Peru annually at 100,000 arrobas, or nearly 2,500,000 lbs.

My friend, Mr. W.P. Robertson, has favored me with some details as to
the production of Paraguay tea. His brother has graphically described
a visit he paid to the wastes or woods of the Yerba t