On most of the plantations the slaves are well attended to, and appear to be very happy. Indeed, it is a characteristic of the negro, resulting no doubt from his careless disposition, that he very soon gets reconciled to his condition. I have conversed with slaves in all parts of the country, and have met with but very few who expressed any regret at having been taken from their own country, or a desire to return to it. On some of the large estates at which I have resided for short periods, the number of slaves often amounted to three or four hundred, and but for my previous knowledge of their being such, I could never have found out from my own observations that they were slaves. I saw a set of contented and well-conditioned labourers turning out from their little huts, often surrounded by a small garden, and proceeding to their respective daily occupations, from which they returned in the evening, but not broken and bent down with the severity of their tasks. The condition of the domestic slave is, perhaps, even better than that of the others; his labour is but light, and he is certainly better fed and clothed. I have almost universally found the Brazilian ladies kind both to their male and female domestic slaves; this is particularly the case when the latter have acted as nurses. On estates, where there has been no medical attendant, I have often found the lady of the proprietor attending to the sick in the hospital herself. Slaves, however, are variously inclined; from the very nature of a negro—his well-ascertained deficient intellectual capacity—the want of all education—the knowledge of his position in society, and the almost certainty of his never being able to raise himself above it—we need not wonder that there should be among them some who are restless, impatient of all control, and addicted to every vice. It is the frequent necessity which arises for the punishment of the evil-disposed, that has led to the supposition of the indiscriminate and universal use of the lash. If the intellectual capacity of the negro be contrasted with the native Indian, it will not be difficult, on most points, to decide in favour of the latter. It is no small proof of the deficient mental endowment of the negro, that even in remote parts of the empire, three or four white men can keep as many as two or three hundred of them in the most perfect state of submission. With the Indian this could never be accomplished, for they too once were allowed to be held as slaves, and even still are, on the northern and western frontier, although contrary to law. The Indian has the animal propensities less fully developed than the negro; hence he is more gentle in his disposition, but at the same time, is much more impatient of restraint.