Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/105

 first floor connecting the two ends of the building, and looking down upon the mill, with its great water-wheel in the centre, and out through the windows on to the river, and a handsome stone quay which ran along the whole front of the building. It was all substantially constructed, and had cost him several thousand pounds.

He had about fifty slaves of all ages, and about as many Indians, employed in his cane-and rice-fields, and in the mills, and on board his canoes. He made sugar and caxaça, but most of the latter as it paid best. Every kind of work was done on the premises: he had shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, smiths, boat-builders, and masons, either slaves or Indians, some of whom could make good locks for doors and boxes, and tin and copper articles of all kinds. He told me that by having slaves and Indians working together he was enabled to get more work out of the latter than by any other system. Indians will not submit to strict rules when working by themselves, but when with slaves, who have regular hours to commence and leave off work, and stated tasks to perform, they submit to the same regulations and cheerfully do the same work. Every evening at sunset all the work-people come up to Senhor Calistro to say good-night or ask his blessing. He was seated in an easy chair in the verandah, and each passed by with a salutation suited to his age or station. The Indians would generally be content with "Boa noite" (good-night); the younger ones, and most of the women and children, both Indians and slaves, would hold out their hand, saying, "Sua benção "(your blessing), to which he would reply, "Deos te bençe "(God bless you), making at the same time the sign of the Cross. Others — and these were mostly the old Negroes — would gravely repeat, "Louvado seja o norae do Senhor Jesu Christo "(blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ), to which he would reply, with equal gravity, "Para sempre "(for ever).

Children of all classes never meet their parents in the morning or leave them at night without in the same manner asking their blessing, and they do the same invariably of every stranger who enters the house. In fact, it is the common salutation of children and inferiors, and has a very pleasing effect.

The slaves here were treated remarkably well. Senhor