SAN ROMAO TO THE DIAMOND DISTRICT. 333
from
town to town, and from fazenda to fazenda, many of them, like their
brethren in Europe, making large sums of money by their pretended skill
in this science.
This fazenda was one of the best I had then seen in the interior ; the
colonel's house, which was of two stories, those of his slaves, his
store-houses, and other offices, were arranged in the form of a square;
near the house was a garden, in which most of the common European
vegetables were cultivated with great care, and yielded good crops. It
was here that, for the first time since I left the coast at Araeaty, I
saw water employed to drive a wheel, as a substitute for manual labour,
in the grinding of man-diocca, &c. This wheel was about fifteen
feet in diameter, and was well supplied, on the overshot principle,
with water from a small stream that passed at some distance, conveyed
in a well-constructed wooden aqueduct: this power served alike for the
grinding of mandiocca, of cane, of Indian corn, and for bruising castor
oil seeds. The colonel every year prepares a considerable quantity of
castor oil, which is of better quality than any I have seen made in
other parts of Brazil; it is used principally for burning in lamps, but
a little is also employed medicinally. The property belonging to
Colonel Virciani is well adapted both for the rearing of cattle and the
cultivation of sugar-cane, and it is from these sources that he
principally derives his large income. The mandiocca, Indian corn,
&c, which he cultivates, are grown in quantities, not,more than
sufficient for the consumption of his household and slaves. Besides an
abundant supply of corn for my horses, for which he would not accept
payment, the colonel provided me with a small quantity of tea, as my
stock was then nearly exhausted, and none could be purchased either in
San Eomao, or Eormigas. Colonel Virciani and his family used it
constantly, procuring at intervals an entire chest from Bio de Janeiro.
On
the morning we left San Eloi, we did not depart till after breakfast,
so that we only accomplished a distance of about two leagues and a
half, passing through an elevated level country, large tracts of which
were covered with low shrubs, forming that
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