JOAO DEL REY, a town of Brazil, in the extensive country of Minas Geraes. It is surrounded by mountains, and lies partly on the side of an eminence and partly on a plain, being divided into two by the small river Tijuco. The town is compact, of a circular form, and has the general appearance of all Portuguese towns of the same class. The houses are low, white-washed, and furnished with laticed windows. The streets are narrow, crooked, far from uniform, and very slippery, being paved with large, smooth, blue stones, with a channel in the middle. The site of the buildings is so irregular, that they overtop each other, the conspicuous points being selected for public offices and the best private dwellings. The government-house is a large, substantial building, well situated for observing what passes in the town, and for the despatch of public business. Adjoining to it are the public offices, which form one side of an unfinished square; on the other stand some plain, substantial houses; and in the centre, the pillar of public executions, surmounted by a figure of Minerva, invested with the insignia of justice. The jail, a large and strong building, is situated in the principal street. There are thirteen churches, amongst which is a sort of metropolitan church, built in taipé or paysan. Its exterior is mean, but it contains within some very remarkable ornaments. A brisk trade is carried on between this town and the capital, by means of caravans, conveying thither bacon, cheese, some cottons, woollen hats, horned cattle, mules, and gold bars, and bringing back in return European goods, chiefly Portuguese and English, such as calicoes, handkerchiefs, lace, iron-ware, wine, porter, and liqueurs. Though the environs are very mountainous and bare, and seem to be thinly peopled, yet, in the clefts of the mountains and valleys many haciendas are scattered, which furnish the necessary supplies of maize, mandioca, beans, oranges, tobacco, a small quantity of sugar and cotton, cheese in abundance, cattle, swine, and mules; whilst the streams, which are full of fish, contribute to the supply of food. Formerly the chief occupation of the people was searching for gold. The mine to which the town owes its origin and celebrity, and whence such masses of mineral wealth have been extracted, is situated within the town, near the government-house. It is nothing but a deep pit, having perpendicular sides, and always full of water during the rainy season. The labour and expense of procuring the precious metal under such circumstances, together with the ignorance of the mechanical arts here, present insuperable obstacles to the full produce of the mine being obtained, and the greater part of the gold dust brought to the smelting-house comes from other quarters. The lower classes in this town are idle and profligate; a social condition which in some measure may be ascribed to the general want of education amongst the inhabitants. The town is governed by a desembargador, or supreme judge. It has
also an attorney-general, a vicar, and a royal Latin professor. The population amounts to about 6000, of which only one third are white people, the rest being negroes and mulattoes. The colour of the white people constitutes an exemption from toil; and those who do labour, occupy themselves on farms, in superintending shops, or in filling places of public trust, and in discharging the duties of religion and justice. Others are employed at woolen manufactories in the neighbourhood, the cloth being prepared from an article of native produce. This town is stated to be eighty miles south-west of Villa Rica, about the same distance south-south-west of Sabara, and upwards of two hundred miles north-west of Rio.