observer it would appear that, unless some much more effective measures
are adopted, within a few years from the present time the whole of this
fine country will be in the hands of the blacks: and indeed I think one
would be justified in concluding that the moment which produces a person
sufficiently intriguing again to stir up the slaves, and endowed with the
firmness and talent necessary to conduct an emeute of this nature, will
be the last of the Brazilian Empire.

POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE STATE.

It is evident from what I have before stated that the only hope the white
population can reasonably entertain of retaining their present position
must be in the most perfect union and concord amongst themselves, and
that, when a unity of design and action ceases to exist between the
different provinces, their fate is sealed. Yet this circumstance never
appears to enter into their calculations; and at this instant each state
is plotting its separation from the Empire. The inhabitants here openly
state their intention of revolting and declaring their independence, and
Sunday next is even mentioned as the day for the commencement of the
rising.*

(*Footnote. The revolt broke out on the 7th November 1837 but was
suppressed the following month. Great alarm existed lest the Negro slaves
should be induced to take their part likewise in the conflict between the
contending factions. Annual Register for 1837.)

It is really strange to one who stands by, a calm unconcerned spectator,
to observe men hurried on by the violence of faction to their own certain
destruction, and to behold them so entirely blinded by party spirit as
not to see that danger which stares them so openly in the face, that a