Notwithstanding the relationship of the mulattos on one side to the black race, they consider themselves superior to the mamalucos; they lean to the whites, and from the light in which the Indians are held, pride themselves upon being totally unconnected with them. Still the mulattos are conscious of their connection with men who are in a state of slavery, and that many persons even of their own colour are under these degraded circumstances; they have therefore always a feeling of inferiority in the company of white men, if these white men are wealthy and powerful. This inferiority of rank is not so much felt by white persons in the lower walks of life, and these are more easily led to become familiar with individuals of their own colour who are in wealthy circumstances. Still the inferiority which the mulatto feels is more that which is produced by poverty than that which his colour has caused, for he will be equally respectful to a person of his own cast, who may happen to be rich[202]. The degraded state of the people of colour in the British colonies is most lamentable[203]. In Brazil, even the trifling regulations which exist against them remain unattended to. A mulatto enters into holy orders or is appointed a magistrate, his papers stating him to be a white man, but his appearance plainly denoting the contrary. In conversing on one occasion with a man of colour who was in my service, I asked him if a certain _Capitam-mor_ was not a mulatto man; he answered, “he was, but is not now[204].” I begged him to explain, when he added, “Can a _Capitam-mor_ be a mulatto man[205]?” I was intimately acquainted with a priest, whose complexion and hair plainly denoted from whence he drew his origin; I liked him much, he was a well educated and intelligent man. Besides this individual instance, I met with several others of the same description.