det, a four-legged infect, the fting of which is mortal; the ibivaboca, a fpecies of ferpent, about seven yards long, and half a yard in cir cumference, whose poison is instantaneously fatal; the rattle-snake, which there attains an enormous fize; the liboyd, or roe-buck snake, which authors inform us are capable of fwallowing a roe-buck whole with his horns, being between twenty and thirty feet in length, and two yards in circumference. Befides thofe, there are many other infects and ferpents of a dangerous and venomous nature.

The gold and diamond mines are but a recent difcovery; they were firft opened in the year 1681, and have fince yielded above five millions fterling annually, of which fum a fifth belongs to the crown. So plentiful are diamonds in this country, that the court of Portugal has found it neceffary to restrain their importation, to prevent too great a dimunition of their value. They are neither fo hard nor fo clear as thofe of the Eaft-Indies, nor do they fparkle fo much, but they are whiter. The Brafilian diamonds are fold ten per cent. cheaper than the Oriental ones, fuppofing the weights to be equal. The largest diamond in the world was fent from Brafil to the king of Portugal; it weighs one thousand fix hundred and eighty carats, or twelve ounces and a half, and has been valued at fifty-fix millions feven hundred and eighty-feven thousand five hundred pounds. Some kilful lapidaries, however, are of opinion that this fuppofed diamond is only a topaz, in which cafe a very great abatement must be made in its value. The crown revenue arising from this colony amounts to two millions fterling in gold, if we may credit fome late writers, befides the duties and customs on merchandise imported from that quarter. This, indeed, is more than a fifth of the precious metal produced by the mines, but every other confequent advantage confidered, it probably does not much exceed the truth.

The extraction of gold is neither very laborious nor dangerous in Brafil. It is fometimes on the surface of the foil, and this is the pureft kind, and at other times it is neceffary to dig for it eighteen or twenty feet, but feldom lower. It is found in larger pieces upon the mountains and barren rocks than in the valleys, or on the borders of the river. Every man who discovers a mine, must give notice of it to the government. If the vein be thought of little confequence by perfons appointed to examine it, it is always given up to the public; if it be declared to be a rich vein, the government referve a portion of it to themselves; another share is given to the commandant, a third to the intendant, and two fhares are fecured to the discoverer. The VOL. IV. miners

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miners are obliged to deliver to the king of Portugal a fifth part of all the gold which is extracted.

St. Salvador is the capital of Brafil. This city has a noble, spaci ous and commodious harbour, is built on a high and steep rock, having the fea upon one fide, and a lake forming a crescent on the other. The fituation makes it in a manner impregnable by nature, and the Portuguese have befides added to it very strong fortifications; it is populous, magnificent, and beyond comparison the most gay and opulent in all Brafil.

The trade of Brafil is very great, and increases every year. The Portuguese have opportunities of supplying themselves with flaves for their feveral works, at a much cheaper rate than any other European power that has fettlements in America, they being the only European nation that has established colonies in Africa, from whence they import as many as forty thousand negroes annually.

The exceffive confluence of people to the Brafil colonies, as well from other countries as from Portugal, not only enlarges the imports of gold, diamonds, fugar, tobacco, hides, drugs and medicines, but what is of infinitely more importance to Europe in general, the expor tation of the manufactures of this hemifphere, of which the principal are the following: Great-Britain fends woollen manufactures, fuch as fine broad medley cloths, fine Spanish cloths, fcarlet and black cloths, ferges, duroys, druggets, fagathies, fhalloons, camblets, and Norwich ftuffs, black Colchester bays, fays, and perpetuanas, called long ells, hats, ftockings, and gloves. Holland, Germany, and France, chiefly export fine hollands, bone lace, and fine thread; filk manufactures, pepper, lead, block tin, and other articles, are alfo fent from different countries. Befides the particulars already fpecified, England likewise trades with Portugal, for the use of the Brafils, in copper and brafs, wrought and unwrought pewter, and all kinds of hardware; all which articles have fo enlarged the Portuguefe trade, that inftead of twelve fhips ufually employed in the Brafil commerce, there are now never fewer than one hundred fail of large veffels conftantly going and returning to those colonies. To all this may be added, that Brafil receives from Madeira great quantity of wine, vinegar, and brandy; and from the Azores, liquors to the amount of twenty-five thousand pounds per ann. Indeed, the commerce of Brafil alone is fufficient to raise Portugal to a confiderable height of naval power, as it maintains a conftant nursery of feamen; yet a certain infatuation in the policy of the country has prevented that ef

fect even amidst all these extraordinary advantages. All the fhips in this trade being under the direction of the government, have their appointed feafons of going and returning, under convoy of a certain. number of men of war; nor can a fingle fhip clear out or go, except with the fleet, but by a special licence from the king, which is seldom granted, though it is eafily determined that fuch reftrictions can prove no way beneficial to the general commerce, though poffibly the crown revenue may be better guarded thereby. The fleets fail in the following order, and at the following ftated periods: that to Rio de Janeiro fets fail in January; the fleet to Bahia, or the bay of All Saints, in February; and the third. fleet, to Fernambucca, in the month of March.

The native Brafilians are about the fize of the Europeans, but not fo ftout. They are fubject to fewer diftempers, and are long lived. They wear no cloathing; the women wear their hair extremely long, the men cut their's fhort; the women wear bracelets of bones of a beautiful white, the men necklaces of the fame; the women paint their faces, and the men their bodies. The food of the Brafilians is very fimple; they live upon fhell fish by the sea fide, along the rivers by fishing, and in the forefts by hunting; and when these fail, they live upon caffava and other roots. They are extremely fond of dancing and other amufements, and these amusements are not interrupted by the worship of a Supreme Being, for it is faid they know of none, nor is their tranquillity disturbed by the dread of a future state, of which they have no idea. They have, however, their magicians, who, by strange contortions, fo far work upon the credulity of the people, as to throw them into violent convulfions. If the impostures of these magicians are detected, they are immediately put to death, which serves in fome measure to check the spirit of deceit. Every Brafilian takes as many wives as he chooses, and puts them away when he gets tired of them. When the women lie in, they keep their bed but a day or two; then the mother, hanging the child to her neck in a cotton fcarf, returns to her ufual occupation, without any kind of inconvenience. Travellers are received with diftinguished marks of civility by the native Brafilians: wherever they go they are furrounded with women, who wash their feet, and welcome them with the most obliging expreffions. But it would be an unpardonable affront if they fhould leave the family where they were first entertained, in hopes of better accommodation in another. Some of thefe virtues, however, were more applicable to these

natives, before they were corrupted by an intercourfe with the Europeans.

With respect to the religion of Brafil, though the king of Portugal, as grand mafter of the order of Christ, is folely in poffeffion of the titles; and though the produce of the crufade belongs entirely to him, yet in this extenfive country, fix bishoprics have been fucceffively founded, which acknowledge for their fuperior the archbishop of Bohia, established in the year 1552. The fortunate prelates, most of them Europeans, who fill these honourable fees, live in a very commodious manner, upon the emoluments attached to the function of their miniftry, and upon a penfion of from fifty to one thousand two hundred and fifty pounds per ann. granted to them by the government. Among the inferior clergy, none but the miffionaries who are fettled in the Indian villages are paid, but the others find fufficient resources in the fuperftition of the people. Befides an annual tribute paid by every family to the clergyman, he is entitled to two shillings for every birth, for every wedding, and every bu rial. Though there is not abfolutely an inquifition in Brafil, yet the people of that country are not protected from the outrages of that bar barous and infernal inftitution.

The government of Brafil is in the viceroy, who has two coun eils, one for criminal, the other for civil affairs, in both of which he prefides; but there is no part of the world where the lawyers are more corrupt, or the chicanery of their profeffion more prac tifed.

Only half of the Captainfhips, into which this country is divided, belong to the crown, the reft being fiefs made over to fome of the nobility, in reward of their extraordinary services, who do little more than acknowledge the fovereignty of the king of Portugal.

FRENCH

FRENCH POSSESIONS

IN

SOUTH-AMERICA.

CAYENNE.

CAYENNE is bounded -north and east, by the Atlantic ocean ;

fouth, by the Amazonia; and weft, by Guiana, or Surinam. It extends two hundred and forty miles along the coast of Guiana, and nearly three hundred miles within land, lying between the equator and the 5th degree of north latitude.

The land along the coaft is low, and very subject to inundations during the rainy feasons, from the multitude of rivers which rush down from the mountains with great impetuofity. Here the atmofphere is very hot, moist and unwholesome, especially where the woods are not cleared away; but on the higher parts where the trees are cut down, and the ground laid out in plantations, the air is more healthy, and the heat great, mitigated by the fea breezes. The foil in many parts is very fertile, producing fugar, tobacco, Indian corn, fruits, and other neceffaries of life.

The French have taken poffeffion of an ifland upon this coaft, called alfo Cayenne. This fettlement was begun in 1635. A report had prevailed for fome time before, that in the interior parts of Guiana, there was a country known by the name of del Dorado, which con tained immense riches in gold and precious ftones, more than ever Cortes and Pizarro had found in Mexico and Peru, and this fable had fired the imagination of every nation in Europe. It is fuppofed that this was the country in queft of which Sir Walter Raleigh went on his

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