Bahia is plentifully supplied with provisions. Beef and pork are in abundance; the former is decidedly bad, the latter tolerable. Fish are in great plenty and variety, and form a principal article in the diet of the inhabitants. Fish, with sallad, is the general supper of almost all ranks; even the rich desire nothing more for this repast in family. Numbers of retail shopkeepers, who sell wine, cheese, groceries, &c. buy fish and fry it, and afterwards retail it in small quantities. Poultry is in plenty, but not cheap; vegetables, and pulse of every description, are in very great profusion. The markets are well supplied with all the tropical fruits, many of which are said to be in great perfection, particularly the pine, the mango, and the banana; the latter is esteemed the best in America. Preserved fruits are in great abundance, owing to the cheapness of sugar; great varieties of them are sold in the streets, and two or three preserved limes in a cup of syrup may be bought for less than a penny. Even the lower orders conclude the meanest dinner with this delicious delicacy.
The soil of this _capitania_ is peculiar, and is esteemed the best in Brazil for the growth of the sugar-cane. This advantage, and the conveniences arising from the numerous rivers that flow from the interior into the bay, have occasioned the establishment of many sugar plantations, undoubtedly the finest in the country, which have produced immense quantities of that article. The soil most adapted to the plant, and held in the highest estimation, is a black greasy loam, a deposit, containing a large quantity of decomposed vegetable matter.
The opulent and best informed planters have imported steam-engines for the crushing of cane, which will probably prove very advantageous, and cheaper in many situations, as they can at all times be worked, and are as easily regulated as a water-mill.
The mode of cultivating the cane has already been detailed. If planted in new soil, it is fit for cutting in fourteen months, but in old and poorer land it requires eighteen or twenty months. When ripe, the canes are cut and dressed by taking off the top leaves, &c. which afford excellent provender for cattle; they are then brought to the mill, which is composed of three wooden or iron cylinders, moving on their axes in a perpendicular position, and between them the canes are repeatedly passed until all the juice is expressed, and they are reduced to a mass of dry fibres.