reis afterwards, and now at 600 reis (about half a dollar.) For this reason, many planters left their plantations, and did not care about the expenses made on them, and those who continued with them, could only do so by reducing their plantations and simplifying the process of preparing the tea, in order to diminish the cost of the article.

This statement is founded upon the most exact information, which I gathered from reliable sources that it would be idle to mention; but the truth is, that within five leagues round St. Paul, only on one estate I did not see marks of abandoned plantations.

Whilst the production of coffee is increasing in the province of St. Paul, that of tea remains stationary, and will even decrease, as the price of slaves and manual labor is getting higher. Here also figures are stronger than words. According to the documents exhibited to me by the custom-house of Santos, the exportation of coffee was 3,463 arrobas for other ports of the empire, and 518,953 arrobas for foreign portsmaking an aggregate of 522,418 arrobas. During the same period the exportation of tea was, for the ports of the empire, 147,845 arrobas, and to foreign ports, zero. In the same way that these figures prove the inferiority of the production of tea to that of coffee, they show also the cause of this inferiority on account of there being no exportation of it to foreign ports, which in Brazil is well known both by merchants and planters. But what is still to be understood, is how to change this state of things so as to facilitate the exportation of tea from Brazil.

Many of the planters are under the impression that it is only necessary to hold the teas three years longer to sell them better; but I can assure them, after many experiments made, that the bitter principle of the drug, which is rather excessive in the Brazilian teas, being a fixed principle, cannot be dissipated by time; only the herbaceous taste can be corrected, either partially or entirely, but even this improvement is more in appearance than in reality; besides, this long delay is always a loss to the planters, who cannot always afford it.

Other planters have lately thought that by giving to the Brazilian teas the same appearance as those from China, they would easily find purchasers, at a high price, in European markets. During my stay in Brazil, I had frequent occasions to see how they prepare, in different ways, the black tea, and how they color the green with different stuffs, especially with Prussian blue and magnesia. By these inventions they have contrived to imitate, to some extent, the appearance of tea from China, but they could not give them that aroma and perfume characteristic of the latter, and which the connoisseurs appreciate so much, and they have not been able to modify the proportion of the different principles which, by chemical analysis, have been discovered in the tea-leaves, so that the black teas of Brazil are just as bitter and astringent as the green teas.

The best means to find markets abroad for Brazilian teas will be the low price. The law of cheap prices has always ruled all commercial speculations; there is no exception for any article. Among the Brazilian teas, there are some qualities which cost a great deal more than the teas from China; but the latter are preferred everywhere, on account of their cheap

ness.

Therefore, instead of complicating the process of preparing tea, which only increases the manual labor, and in order to obtain a suitable price, it will be necessary to make the same process more simple. This is what

has been understood already by the planters of St. Paul. By comparing the present mode of preparation with the account published twenty years ago by Father Leandro de Sacramento, and by General Arouche, I find some considerable differences. Formerly they used to put the leaves of tea in a kind of copper kettle, well heated, until they became quite soft, when they were placed on shelves to be stirred and turned over for a quarter of an hour, when they were rolled up and put again into the kettle where, by stirring and mixing, they would take that lead color proper of the green teas.

All these operations are now performed without taking the leaves out of the brass kettle, which is a great economy of labor, time, and fuel. But, notwithstanding this modification, three hours and a good deal of labor are spent in preparing a pound of tea, as it must go on the fire a second time, and all the leaves must be picked one by one, in order to separate the different colors.

Such processes are excusable only in a country like China, where the most simple elements of mechanic art are still unknown, and labor is extremely cheap; but not in Brazil, where the population, comparatively so thin, can find an easy and lucrative occupation out of any laborious agricultural work. Therefore, it is indispensable to substitute for manual labor the power of machines, which comes a great deal cheaper, easier, and more expeditive.

Only in this way the culture of tea may still become profitable in Brazil; only by these means they will be able to lower the prices to the same standard prices of Canton, where tea is sold at from 150 to 200 reis a pound.

Behold, then, the greatest difficulty which we meet both here and in Europe. It is more than twelve years since great efforts were made to propagate the culture of tea in France; and with the help of some of our best engineers, and of the wonderful discoveries made by chemistry and physical sciences, we are not without hope to get over this difficulty, so much so that the progress of the insurrection in China must necessarily cause a rising in the prices of tea.

Our machines can prepare very speedily immense quantities of leaves, and might be used for a central manufacture to be established in the capital, where all the leaves of tea might be prepared for the market. They do so in Canton with the teas destined for exportation. The merchants of Canton, at the time of the harvest, send their agents to Fo-King, Kiang-nan, and other places, to make purchases of the green leaves of tea, which they dry and pack up in boxes of about 96 pounds each, and when they have amassed a sufficient quantity to load a chop-that is to say, about 600 boxes-they send the cargo to Canton, where it is prepared in the pack-houses, in which operation more than 30,000 people are occupied.

Rio Janeiro also might become the great emporium of the Brazilian teas, and the source of a branch of husbandry quite suitable to its climate, to its central position, and to the immense capital circulating within its walls. It is Rio Janeiro, more than any other city of Brazil, that it behooves to give an impulse to this great enterprise, having a large number of good, intelligent, and industrious workingmen, whose help is certainly indispensable to make use of the artificial means which mechanic science has put in our hands.

Art. V.-COMMERCE OF CANDIA.

THE ISLAND OF CANDIA-IMPORTS AND EXPORTS-COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE-MANNERS, MORALS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE, ETC.

CANDIA is a seaport city, and the capital of the Island of Crete, near the center of its north coast. It has a population of some 12,000 or 15,000, nearly all Mohammedans. Its harbor, formed by two moles, each terminating with a port, is now so choked as to be available only by vessels drawing eight or nine feet of water. The streets are wide and roughly paved, and the houses are well built, and interspersed with gardens and fountains. Candia was taken by the Turks from the Venetians in 1669.

A correspondent of the Department of State furnishes some information of commercial interest, in connection with a description of the manners, morals, and customs of the inhabitants :

"The trade of this island with the United States fairly commenced in 1847, when the bark Ganges, of Boston, loaded at the port of Canca a home cargo of 195 casks of olive oil and 781 cases of soap, valued at $17,694; also in the same year the brig Hallowell loaded at the same port for Boston a cargo of 1,344 cases of soap, valued at $13,891. In December, 1850, the brig Barbadoes arrived at the same port from Boston with a cargo of rum, coffee, sugar, naval stores, furniture, &c., valued at $3,98 39. In 1851 the Barbadoes again arrived at this same port with an assorted cargo, valued at $3,907 56. As this vessel had the greater portion of her cargoes for America in waiting at Smyrna and Malta, she took on her return but a limited amount of the produce of this island. The cargoes of this vessel sold at very fair advantage-the net proceeds of which were invested in the produce of Egypt, at Alexandria, and forwarded to Boston via England; whereby opening a new and profitable trade with that section of the Turkish empire in the produce of Smyrna, and also with the Island of Candia via Smyrna, of wool, almonds, raw silk, wine, &c., all of which paid a good profit.

"The total exports from the port of Canca to Boston in 1847, and since, have been $34,961 80; and from Alexandria, via Canca and Smyrna, per brig Barbadoes, $751 87-rendering the total amount $35,713 67; on which amount duties were paid at the custom-house at Boston. The total imports from Boston amounted to $7,896 95 for this port, on a portion of the net proceeds of the sales of which the purchase of the aforesaid shipment from Alexandria, $751 87, was invested.

"The brig Barbadoes was intended for a regular trader between Boston and the Island of Candia by the well-known, highly respectable house of Messrs. A. S. & W. G. Lewis, of the former place; but on a voyage to St. Domingo in January, 1853, for a cargo of coffee designed for the Mediterranean market, she foundered at sea, and never has been heard from.

"In relation to Candia soap, it appears that the quantity of soap imported from Turkey during a part of the years 1849 and 1850, was 155,127 lbs., and from France on the Mediterranean, 1,121,801 lbs., making a total of 1,277,018 lbs. for one year. The greater proportion of the soap imported into the United States from Marseilles is manufactured from the oil of this island, shipped by French vessels. The soap of this island is, or has been until of late, manufactured from olive oil and Egypt

ian natim, which by no means is so well adapted to the use of American woolen manufactures, &c., as soap made from olive oil and soda ash. With a view of qualifying this soap for the American market, the soda ash has been introduced into its composition, which renders it of a very pure and fine quality.

"The following table exhibits a condensed report of the Commerce of the Island of Candia for the year 1853, by which it will be seen that the trade of this island is largely increasing :

"From the isolated condition of this island, and so little is its general society influenced by European or any other especial customs, notions, &o., and also so few strangers of intelligence and influence visit its ports to give any extraordinary or particular tone to its local manners and customs, that the broad distinctions of Turk, Greek Rayah, European, &c., are very prominent and distinct. The ignorant, fanatical, and indolent Turk, and the cunning, cringing, selfish, and down-trodden Greek Rayah, are met with at almost every corner; and the cosmopolite Jew, and stiff, reserved European, occasionally jostle each other on the 'Marina;' while may probably be seen some one of the numerous and enterprising Ionians, with his vessels and merchandise, cheek by jowl with some grim-visaged and solemn Arab merchant, discussing the quality and price of a cargo of barley.

"To be brief: the Turk of this island, with his gross vices, lax morals, good faith in his business transactions, hospitality, apathy, ignorance, and sincere veneration for his Creator, is behind the spirit of the age;' while the Greek Rayah, unscrupulous, intensely selfish, aspiring far beyond his condition, and crafty, is up with the spirit of the age-and both stand in prominent contrast with each other. In fact, the Turk of this island is the Turk of everywhere; while the Greeks, as a class, are industrious and frugal, with but few vices. The Greeks are very selfish, and sometimes addicted to intoxication, especially when wine is abundant and cheap. Homicides are very rare among them, and they are very ignorant, from the fact that schools are only to be found in the cities. Naturally, the Greek Rayahs of this island are an intelligent people, and only require the introduction of free schools on the American system to make them known for intelligence.

"An American in this magnificent island, on the very confines of civilized Europe, with a population of some 225,000 persons, in this age of intelligence and human progression, observes one strange fact that throughout its whole expanse of three hundred square miles there is not a printing press, and consequently, neither a newspaper, book, nor pamphlet printed or published.

"For its location, natural resources, &c., this island is unrivaled; and if divested of its 'nightmare' of Turkish rule, it would resume its ancient renown of a 'hundred cities,' and a million of inhabitants, almost in the space of the present century.

The society of the seaports is very limited, and except among the great body of the Greek Rayahs, there is but very little or no social intercourse; and the foreign consuls, leading merchants, and Europeans live in a very secluded, exclusive, and quiet manner, and what are called dinner parties, soirees, balls, &c., are of very rare occurrence. For the number of the population, I believe, comparatively with other sections of Turkey, or in fact any part of the world, there is not much vice or licentiousness."

Art. VI-TREASURE TROVE:

OR THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND OTHER COINS IN MAINE.

Ir appears from the following statement, prepared by WILLIAM WILLIS, Esq., a gentleman of considerable historical and antiquarian research, that the discovery of a quantity of old coin on the 11th of May, 1855, at Richmond's Island, near Portland, in the State of Maine, has created quite a sensation in Portland and at Cape Elizabeth, and has revived the rumors of a former day that large quantities of money lie buried in the soil of that and other islands in this neighborhood. This impression is not of recent date, nor confined to this region; for ever since the bucaneers infested the coast of Maine, two hundred years ago, the impression has prevailed that they concealed their treasures upon her islands, where they have been repeatedly sought by visionary men.

But the present case is no vision. A veritable collection of coin of an old date having been found, Mr. Willis was induced to make an investigation into the circumstances; and accompanied by Hon. C. S. DAVEIS, Dr. GILMAN DAVEIS, and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS, the owner of the island, he carefully examined the locality, and there found fragments of the pot in which the coin was buried, and other relics of a former age. Mr. Willis gives a description of the place and the articles discovered, which we deem sufficiently interesting to transfer to the pages of the Merchants Magazine:*

Richmond's Island lies off the southern shore of Cape Elizabeth, the nearest point half a mile distant. It is about a mile long and three-quarters of a mile wide at the broadest part, and contains a little more than 200 acres.

The first settlement made upon this island, of which we have any account,

• This account was originally communicated by the writer to the "State of Maine.”