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page 303 ---plains---Guaratingueta----

The singularly formed brown flowers of the Jarinha (Aristolochia ringens) and a white Ipomoea (Ipomea Krusensternii, Ledeb.), two gigantic flowers, climb over the hedges, which consists of several splendid specimens of the family of melastoma, myrtles, and euphorbia. The Ambrosia artemisiaefolia, a strand plant of Virginia and Carolina, is found in several thick bushes on the shores of the Paraiba. The plain, though partly very swampy, is one of the most fruitful districts of Sao Paulo. Tobacco thrives particularly well, and the cultivation of it is the chief occupation of the inhabitants of Lorena and of the village of Guaratinguetá, two leagues distant, where we passed the night.

Village of Guaratingueta, province of Sao Paulo

As the moisture and warmth are favourable to the separation of each specific substance on the leaves of the tobacco, on which their goodness chiefly depends, the tobacco cultivated along the sea-coast, and in the warmer valley of the Paraiba, known by the name of tobacco da marinha, is preferred to the more indifferent sorts of the mountain tobacco, which is called tobacco da serra acima. But the tobacco of the island of Saint Sesbastião is preferred in the country to all others, and is likewise exported from the province as snuff. The mode of treating the leaves, which are gathered several times in the year, is very simple. After they have been dried in the air they are laid together in bundles, or twisted in large rolls, which are one of the most important articles of barter employed by the Guinea ships in the slave trade.

page 304 ---slave trade---Guaratingueta---

Valley of the Paraiba, province of Sao Paulo

Guaratinguetá is situated in an extensive savannah near the river Paraiba, opposite some projections of the Serra do Mantiqueira, on a pleasant hill, surrounded with banana and orange trees. The Indian name of the village gives a favorable specimen of the talent for observation possessed by the aboriginal inhabitants; for this long word signifies the place where the sun turns back. In fact, the tropic of Capricorn is scarcely a degree south of the villa, which pleases by its simple and cheerful appearance and some traces of a superior mode of life.

Since our departure from Rio, this was the first place where we saw any glass windows, which in Brazil, always indicate prosperity, and, in the interior, even luxury. On the other hand, the traveller is surprised at the want of all regularity and order in the exercise of trades. Here, as almost everywhere in the interior except the more populous places, very few trades are exercised by guilds and corporations. On the other hand, it cannot be said that the trades are free, for the trades themselves are for the most part wanting. Only the rich land-holders are able to give due employment to mechanics, and the poor man supplies all wants of this kind by his own ability. The former generally have, among their own slaves, all those mechanics who are necessary for domestic purposes. An obvious consequence of this is that the public superintendence over trades by the police is rendered more difficult.