So long as the remote prazo-holder is satisfied with
the amount of income he derives from the propor-
tion of the native hut-tax which he is allowed to
retain, and makes no attempt to employ the people
residing upon his concession, an assured income is
his; but from the moment that he insists upon
utilising their labour, in no matter what branch of
industry or agriculture, his tax-payers immediately
cast about for a prazo where life flows more peace-
fully, and in a short time the man of action finds
his native locations deserted, with the inevitable
consequence that his revenues are proportionately
reduced. It is clear, therefore, that the present


136 THE PRAZOES


generation of the remoter prazo-proprietors, profit-
ing by the bitter experience of those who have
gone before, seek first of all to attract as large a
native population as possible by dint of indulgent
treatment, and by making it quite understood that
labour will not be required of them to any excessive
degree. This once done, and the advantages of
residence within his borders sufficiently made public,
the happy proprietor will assuredly see his unde-
veloped prazo densely populated, and his coffers
overflowing with easily collected hut-taxes. Of
course, in the prazoes near the sea, where im-
portant work has, as we have seen, been carried
out, large populations rule in spite of the extensive
plantations undertaken ; but it should be remem-
bered that these are almost exclusively coconut
plantations, and that, therefore, the task of planting
once performed, but little care and labour suffice
to maintain the groves in a state of comparative
order. Moreover, the conditions obtaining upon
the coast but little resemble those subsisting in the
far interior. Led by men of energy, men of initia-
tive, the coast negro to some extent has begun to
realise the dignity and necessity of labour. He
has created needs for himself which only the fruits
of his toil can satisfy. ‘To those pioneers of prazo-
farming who in the past were content to sit still
and enrich themselves by the sole means of the
collection of taxes, has succeeded another genera-
tion possessed of capital and the knowledge of how
to employ it. 