After resting a few days, I accompanied the Intendant to a small diamond work, called Corolina, and returned the same day. This work some years ago produced many good stones, but at present it employs very few people. The mode of washing is exactly the same with that practised at Mandanga.
At Tejuco some tolerably good barley was shown to me; it was not so heavy as that of our best from Norfolk, and was but little known. The Intendant uses it as provender for his mules whenever he can obtain it. On examining the sample, I could not but reflect that, if land so ill-managed produced such barley, how much superior would be the quality of the grain under good management.
At a subsequent period of my visit, the Intendant, with whom malt-liquor is a favorite beverage, expressed a desire to see some of the barley converted into malt, in order to brew beer, and, after repeated solicitations, I undertook to make the experiment. A quantity was procured which I endeavoured to prepare in the best manner that circumstances would allow. Having steeped it the requisite time, I put it on a cold floor, and managed it as is customary in our malt-houses; when it had germinated sufficiently, I dried it over a slow fire; afterwards, having cleansed it from the combs by rubbing, I crushed it, and finally mashed it. The infusion produced a tolerable wort, which, however, I did not deem sufficiently good, as it wanted saccharine matter: this deficiency I supplied by the admixture of a small quantity of sugar. It was then boiled until it was judged of a proper consistency, and a very pleasant bitter was added instead of hops. The fermentation I endeavoured to promote with leaven, which had been prepared a few days before, and, when that process had terminated, the liquor was put into small casks, which we stopped close. Though it might not prove good from the hasty manner in which the process was conducted, yet the mode of preparing it was exemplified, which was the main purpose of the experiment. It appeared to me by no means impossible either to make malt or to brew beer, if proper places were made under-ground, so as to ensure a moderate degree of cold for the operation of malting, and for the subsequent process. Sugar is here so abundant, that any quantity of saccharine matter might be added to improve the poorness of the malt; and it is highly probable that a very pleasant beverage might be made, which would relieve the inhabitants of this remote district from the necessity of having recourse to the metropolis for bad wines, and from the ill effects which proceed from drinking bad spirits distilled in the vicinity.