I have observed that, generally speaking, Europeans are less indulgent to their slaves than Brazilians; the former feed them well, but they require from the poor wretches more labour than they can perform, whilst the latter allow the affairs of their estates to continue in the way in which it has been accustomed to be directed. This difference between the two descriptions of owners is easily accounted for; the European has probably purchased part of his slaves on credit, and has during the whole course of his life made the accumulation of riches his chief object. The Brazilian inherits his estate, and as nothing urges him to the necessity of obtaining large profits, he continues the course that has been pointed out to him by the former possessors. His habits of quietude and indolence have led him to be easy and indifferent, and although he may not provide for the maintenance of his slaves with so much care as the European, still they find more time to seek for food themselves. That avaricious spirit which deliberately works a man or a brute animal[201] until it is unfit for farther service, without any regard to the well-being of the creature, which is thus treated as a mere machine, as if it was formed of wood or iron, is however seldom to be met with in those parts of the country which I visited. Instances of cruelty occur (as has been, and will yet be seen,) but these proceed from individual depravity, and not from systematic, cold-blooded, calculating indifference to the means by which a desired end is to be compassed.