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#16 A cut forest, with an aged Ficus,
near Santo Joao Marco in the province of Rio
de Janeiro.
Latin translation by
Ben Hennelly
Since the innate beauty and richness of the primitive forests has already
been illustrated in many etchings, it did not seem inappropriate to
present also an image of the devastation that the haughty hands of men
inflict in those forests, when they attack them with iron or fire in
order to open up space for new cultivation. So that this could be observed,
we selected part of the Sebastianopolitan province where, while we were
present, ancient forests were cut down with great violence and, as we
often noted with pain, excessive carelessness and negligence. Just as
the appearance of the untouched forest, which they call "Matto
Virgem", has something of the divine about it that you might
call chaste, so the primeval forests when they have been cut down appear
demonic. (1)
For while you think upon
nature's splendid magnitude and sublimity, humankind's covetousness
interjects itself at the same time, which despises everything and leaves
untouched nothing that might serve its purposes. Although this seems
less bitter and harsh to those who consider that man is in a certain
way prefect over nature, we nonetheless cannot but feel that he, as
nature's unyielding master, reckons too little that it is his place,
who has mind and reason, not to destroy heedlessly those things nature
required centuries to produce, but rather, with the same parsimony as
nature herself, to collect and gather those gifts gradually and consume
them with caution and foresight. But this is not at all what happens
in Brazil,
whose cultivators do nothing else but demolish the ancient forests with
flame and inhabit ground damaged in the very process. Since they act
with great haste and carelessness in this matter, it is brought about
that the noblest trees, which nature has through many years silently
labored to raise high aloft, are destroyed forthwith by fire, and those
things that, if rightly and wisely utilized, would have been great riches,
disappear in a few hours' time, snatched away in smoke and flame.
Given this opportunity, we cannot help but speak more expansively about  the Brazilian method of agriculture, inasmuch as it aims principally
to prepare those parts of the primary forests that, after consideration
of the area, appear to individual farmers especially suitable for cultivation,
so that, when the forest has been cut away and the timber burned, the
earth can be sown with maize, cotton, coffee, sugar, beans, cassava and other plants grown in the tropics. They generally set about cutting
down the trees when the rains have stopped, work that either slaves
perform or, where it is considered appropriate, indians undertake.
Because of the trees'
great size and the strength and density of their wood, oftentimes no
small amount of labor must be endured; quite often several slaves consume
an entire week in the work of felling a single tree. Indeed, when the
lower trunk has been distended into the shape of a star, so that too
great an area would have to be cut through with the axe, the timbermen
are not able to stand on the ground; therefore, they frequently build
a platform 10-15 feet high around the tree, on which they set to work,
so that the trunk can be cut where it begins to take cylindrical shape.
Work is hindered no less because the earth is moist, swampy or covered
with mist.
 
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