The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

166 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA.
city in Brazil. But tlie spot where Cabral's associates landed is at present one of
the least fi-equented in the whole country.
The first arrivals from Portugal generally penetrated inland to the plateaux
of Minas Geraes and the Upper S. Francisco Valley, attracted, in the first instance,
by the mineral wealth of these regions, and afterwards induced to remain by the
fertility of the land, its excellent climate, and abundant resources. Towards the
second half of the seventeenth century the intrepid Paulistas flocked in thou-
sands to the mining districts in quest of gold and of the precious stones wrongly
called " emeralds." But they were not the only intruders, and the settlers on the
shores of Rio de Janeiro, as well as adventurers from beyond the seas, also claimed
a share in these treasures. Civil war soon broke out between these emboabas,
or " strangers " from Portugal and the other provinces, and the Paulistas, who
considered themselves the lawful owners of the mineral districts, which thev had
wrested from the Cataguar Indians. In 1708 the emboabaa were nearlj^ exter-
minated on the banks of the Rio das Mortes ; but other bands pressed forward,
and after renewed conflicts both factions had to become reconciled under the
stern repressive measures imposed on all parties by the central government.
Extremely rigorous laws were enacted to regulate the operations in the gold-
fields, and afterwards in the diamantiferous districts discorered in 1728. Nowhere
else was a more draconic administration introduced, and the consequence was
widespread corruption, frauds, thefts, smuggling, and the general demoralisation
which is the usual outcome of legalised terrorism.
Since that epoch the political relations have changed, and the mines, which
had inspired this ferocious legislation, and caused aU this moral degradation, are
themselves now to a large extent exhausted. The old mining cities have fallen
mto decay ; little remains of formerly fiourishing centres of population, except
crumbling ruins overshadowed by sumptuous churches like the vast minsters of
mediaeval Europe. But the impoverishment of certain districts has not prevented
general progress, shown by a tenfold increase in the population since the
mining days.
The blacks introduced as slaves in the mining districts of the plateaux have
left scarcely any descendants, and the few survivors have been absorbed in the half-
caste populations of the interior. But nowhere in Brazil are the Africans better
represented than in the districts of the Lower S. Francisco and in the city of
Bahia. Here was formerly the centre of the slave trade. Besides those intro-
duced from the coast of Angola to work on the plantations and in the mines,
others arrived as freemen in the quality of sailors and supercargoes, and to
these (Krumen and others) was given the general name of Minas, from a tribe on
the Slave Coast south of Dahomey. Even stiU these form in Bahia a sort of
corporation, whose members are distinguished by their moral qualities and spirit
of solidarity, as well as for their tall stature and physical strength. Their speech
comprises numerous words inherited from the African languages, and hundreds
of Yoruba and Cabinda terms have been adopted in the current dialect of Bahia.
Here the negroes accompany their magic incantations with snatches of songs