A different fate awaits those who are
sent for by the Brazilian government to cultivate the land or
colonize the country: these persons receive a piece of uncleared
ground, with provisions and other help; but if they come over
without any money at all, even their lot is no enviable one. Want,
hunger, and sickness destroy most of them, and but a very small
number succeed, by unceasing activity and an iron constitution, in
gaining a better means of livelihood than what they left behind them
in their native land. Those only who exercise some trade find
speedy employment and an easy competency; but even this will, in all
probability, soon be otherwise, for great numbers are pouring in
ever year, and latterly the negroes themselves have been, and are
still being, more frequently taught every kind of trade.
Let every one, therefore, obtain trustworthy information before
leaving his native land; let him weigh calmly and deliberately the
step he is about to take, and not allow himself to be carried away
by deceptive hopes. The poor creature's misery on being undeceived
is so much the more dreadful, because he does not learn the truth
until it is too late--until he has already fallen a victim to
poverty and want.
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