BRITISH EMIGRANTS IN BRAZIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1895, 2 September 1874, Page 3

BRITISH EMIGRANTS IN BRAZIL.

A paper has just been issued by command, containing a report respecting the condition of British emigrants in Brazil. A number have recently returned, and the document will be read with interest. On May 25, 1873, Mr Buckley M&thew addressed Lord Granville from* Kio Janiero as to the British emigrants in that place. He believed that the persons by whose extravagant statements and promises the unfortunate persons were induced to emigrate were the paid agents of the British Consular functionaries in Liverpool or elsewhere. He felt convinced that the Brazilian Government were both legally and morally responsible for their losses and sufferings, and their expenses in returning to England should be borne by that Government. MrMathew added, "the charity of the British residents in the capital has been largely called upon, and can scarcely be further available." Mr Phipps, in a letter dated May 20, 1873, just before he left Rio for England, detailed, in a letter to Mr Mathew (enclosed to Lord Granville), the wretched condition of the emigrants. There were 104 at Mendez. They were, after their enforced idleness during several months, utterly demoralised. Out of nearly 300 British colonists who went to the colony of Assunguyin January last nearly 50 died in the first seven or eight weeks. He had visited several emigrants at the asylum from Mendez. They complained, like their predecessors, of bad land, bad roads, high prices, food insufficient and of bad quality, even the food of the country offered to them being rotten. Mr Phipps states, "I am informed that only from 15 to 20 English families still remain in that ill-fated settlement, which, I observe by recent letters in the " Times," has been so highly eulogised by Mr Alsop and others. With regard to the Brazilian Oonsul-General at Liverpool and to Mr Alsop (who endeavors to exculpate himself from his share in the disastrous affair), I may mention that in a letter addressed by the latter to the former, as I am informed, in November last, he is said to have shown by the full details of his visit to Brazil than he was fully aware of all the. causes which rendered any further despatch of these unfortunate and credulous human beings an act of the greatest inhumanity, and yet it was subsequent to that date that the largest expeditions were sent out. In a letter published in the ' Times ' of the 14th of April, Mr Alsop ' emphatically denies ' having said he had been 'greatly deceived ;' but it is my. conviction, from the information which 1 have received from ths authorities here, that he was one of the principal instigators of this miserable scheme ; and if he can evade his resp.qpßJbility with regard to the first expedition in May last, it is clear that the emigrants whom he engaged subsequent to his return from Brazil, in. the autumn, were deceived by promises which he knew the authorities here were not in a position to kaep.*' The second enclosure was from Mr Fritsch (Director of the Emigrants' Asylum) to Mr Phipps. When Mr Alsop returned from Cananea to Rio he was not satisfied — it is so. stated; — and went to see the Emperor and the Minister of Agriculture. Only two days before Mr Alsop left England Mr Fritsch says that he told him he did not believe in the prosperity of the colony of Oananea, and Mr Fritsch's opinion was that Mr Alsop would have stopped English emigration for Cananea, and he was surprised at vessels coming from Liverpool loaded with emigrants engaged by Mr Alsop. About 20 cases appear in another enclosure, in several of which the sufferings of the emigrants are set forth. " One man lost his wife and two children ; had to make coffin in the place, and had not been paid. Another man lost a child ; and to dig the grave and make the coffin ', .buried the child five yards from the door.'*