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rancho. The interview is short; the slave is an especial instrument of labor, and the whims of the feitor must not turn to the detriment of his master. At nightfall he gives the signal for return, calls the roll again, reconducts the negroes to the habitation, and goes to make his nightly report.

This thankless duty is poorly paid for; but many of the feitors prefer their position to that of judge of the district, or comarca, so skilful are they in rounding out their income by petty industries, as simple as they are lucrative.

The first and most reliable of all is the venda, in which are kept tobacco, pipes, cachaça, carne seca, bacalhão, (dried codfish,) and, in a word, all the petty articles that please the African appetite. Maize is also kept for travellers, and variegated fabrics for the negresses. It is hither that slaves and freedmen resort, in their leisure moments, to refresh their spirits and recount the news of the day. The business is done on the cash system, which prevents any chance of loss. When the negro has no money, (dinheiro,) the feitor takes coffee or maize in exchange, which are supposed to be the fruit of each Sunday's labor, which the slave performs in his little patch on his own account; but this meagre weekly labor, being inadequate to supply the daily thirst for cachaça, it often happens that the coffee brought hither came from the storehouse of the fazendeiro. The feitor, like a man who knows his business, and would make himself worthy of his master's confidence, darkens his countenance on seeing the suspicious articles arrive, and threatens the slave with the lash (chicote) and the master's displeasure, unless he tells the truth. In the presence of the inquisitive glance, the unexpected questions, and at the sight of the thongs that menace his back, the poor wretch's countenance falls, and he drops upon his knees, confesses his theft, and, with joined hands, beseeches his overseer, with inimitable groans, not to disgrace him with the senhor, and to keep the coffee as the price of his silence. While the negro is improvising, in this posture, his pathetic appeals, the feitor steps to the sack, all the while repeating his threats, lifts it two or three times, as if to take it to the fazendeiro, and, having assured himself that it is conscientiously filled, suddenly recollects that he will shortly need all his strong men to make a road through the forest, and that it is not a good time to inflict the bastinado, the almost certain result of which would be to send the sufferer to the infirmary for several days till his shoulders got well. He therefore promises the negro to keep silent under these considerations, hands him back the empty sack, and gives him a glass of liquor, before he goes away, to show his liberality.

Not content with the profit he derives from the venda, the feitor also raises hogs, fowls, and especially young mules, which he has trained by his assistants, and which he afterwards sells to the fazendeiros of the neighborhood, or to passing travellers, who have left their own among the precipices of the roads. With time so well occupied, and the sobriety inherent among the creoles, he rapidly accumulates a snug sum, and some fine day he sends in his resignation as feitor. The next day he sets out in search of slaves and land for sale, buying as soon as he is suited, and becomes fazendeiro in his turn. Sometimes he attains the dignity of commendador, the object of ambition of every Portuguese.

I have said that, in the large fazendas, there were various {{lang|pt|pastos, or pastures, for cattle, sheep, and hogs, near the habitation. To each of these sections is attached a man of color or confidential negro; but if the vigilance of the master is relaxed, most of these guardians think