Among these are a few free men; but the greater part are slaves degraded to beasts of burden. The immense weights they carry are usually fastened on a plank, each end of which is borne by a negro, keeping time to his steps by a monotonous and melancholy song in his native language, and goaded by the whip to renewed efforts, when the failing of his voice indicates almost utter exhaustion. They often carry heavily laden baskets on their heads; and even women are not exempt from this labour. On Sundays and holidays they also sing in time to their steps, as they stroll about, but the tune has a more lively character; and they sometimes accompany their voices on a little instrument composed of a few steel springs. They understand no other language than that of their distant country, and therefore, though the ceremony of baptism is never omitted, they receive no instruction in the doctrines of Christianity; thus, while an appearance of anxiety concerning the salvation of their souls is maintained, they continue sunk in the state of misery and darkness which hopeless bodily suffering is so calculated to produce. The few free blacks are either manumitted slaves or their descendants: they are mostly mechanics engaged in trade. The mulattoes are generally of illegitimate birth, but are sometimes the offspring of marriages between blacks and the lowest class of whites. From their connexion with blacks or whites spring all the various gradations of colour met with among the inhabitants of Brazil. The mulattoes and free negroes form the middle classes; the few whites found among them being the worst of characters, ignorant and vicious to the last degree; their repulsive exterior is worthy of their abandoned lives: they are usually _retail_ slave dealers, and keep shops where these miserable beings are exposed to view, and may be examined and purchased like any other ware. About twenty thousand negroes are annually brought to Brazil; the average price of a female is three hundred, and of a man six hundred piastres.