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JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO BRAZIL,
AND
RESIDENCE THERE, DURING PART OF THE YEARS 1821, 1822, 1823.
BY MARIA GRAHAM.
ONCE MORE UPON THE WATERS, YET ONCE MORE,
AND THE WAVES BOUND BENEATH ME AS A STEED
THAT KNOWS HIS RIDER.
[Illustration]
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,
PATERNOSTER-ROW;
AND J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
1824.
LONDON:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square.
PREFACE.
Although the Journal of a voyage to Brazil, and of a residence of many
months in that country, was not written without a view to publication at
some time; yet many unforeseen circumstances forced the writer to pause
before she committed it to press, and to cancel many pages recording
both public and private occurrences.
Perhaps there is even yet too much of a personal nature, but what is
said is at least honest; and if the writer should suffer personally by
candour, the suffering will be cheerfully borne.
As to public events, all that can be new in the Journal is the bringing
together facts which have reached Europe one by one, and recording the
impression produced on the spot by those occurrences which might be
viewed in a very different light elsewhere. Some have, no doubt, been
distorted by the interested channels through which they have reached the
public; some by the ignorance of the reporters; and most by the party
spirit which has viewed either with enthusiasm or malignity the
acquisition of freedom in any quarter of the globe.
The writer does not pretend to perfect impartiality, for in some cases
impartiality is no virtue; but knowing that no human good can be
attained without a mixture of evil, she trusts that a fair picture of
both has been given, although it has cost some pain in the writing.
Of the natives of the country, or of those engaged in its service, what
is said, whether of those still employed or of those no longer in the
empire, was written under the impression of the moment; and the writer's
confidence in the good sense and justice of the Brazilian government and
people is such, that she leaves the passages as they stood at the moment
of writing.
The events of the last three years in Brazil have been so important,
that it was thought best not to interrupt the account of them, by
continuing what may be called the writer's personal narrative after she
reached Chile; therefore the two visits to Brazil are printed together,
along with an Introduction containing a sketch of the history of the
country previous to the first visit, and a notice of the public events
of the year of her absence, to connect it with the second.
The Journal of a visit to Chile will form the subject of a separate
volume.
It was thought essential that the narratives concerning Spanish and
Portuguese America should be kept quite separate; the countries
themselves being as different in climate and productions, as the
inhabitants are in manners, society, institutions, and government.
Nothing can be more interesting than the actual situation of the whole
of South America. While Europe was engaged in the great revolutionary
war, that country was silently advancing towards the point at which
longer subjection to a foreign dominion became impossible.
Circumstances, not laws, had opened the ports of the South Atlantic and
the Pacific. Individuals, not nations, had lent their aid to the
patriots of the New World: and more warlike instruments and ammunition
had gone silently from the warehouses of the merchant to arm the natives
against their foreign tyrants, than had ever issued from the arsenals of
the greatest nations. But, for a period, Brazil did not openly join in
the struggle for independence. The Royal Family of Portugal took refuge
there; and converted it, by that step, from a colony into the seat of
government, from a state of slavery to one of sovereignty. Therefore,
while the court continued to reside at Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilians
had no inducement to break with the mother country. But it was very
different when the King returned to Lisbon, and the Cortes, forgetting
the change of men's minds produced by circumstances, endeavoured to
force Brazil back to the abject state from which she had arisen. Then
arose the struggle, some part of which it was the fortune of the writer
to witness; and concerning which she was able to collect some facts
which may serve as materials for future history. She trusts that if the
_whole truth_ is not to be found in her pages, that there will be
_nothing but the truth_.
It is with no small anxiety that the Journal is sent into the world, in
the hope that it may tend to excite interest for the country by making
it better known. Perhaps the writer has over-rated her powers, in
attempting to record the progress of so important an event as the
emancipation of such an empire from the thraldrom of the mother country.
The lighter part of her task, namely, the description of the country,
its inhabitants, and the manners of the different classes, both of
natives and foreigners, should have been fuller; but that want of
health, and sometimes want of spirits, prevented her from making use of
all the means that might have been within her reach of acquiring
knowledge. She trusts, however, that there is no misrepresentation of
importance; and that the Journal, the writing of which has to her
beguiled many a lonely and many a sorrowful hour, will not give a
moment's pain to any human creature.
PLATES.
PLATE I. Val Longo, or Slave Market at Rio _to front the Title Page_.
II. Represents the Great Dragon Tree of Oratava, of which Humboldt has
given so interesting an account. He saw it in all its greatness; I drew
it after it had lost half its top _to face Page 85_
III. View of Count Maurice's Gate at Pernambuco, with the Slave Market
107
IV. Gamella Tree at Bahia 135
V. Larangeiras 163
VI. View from Count Hoggendorp's Cottage 170
VII. View of Rio from the Gloria Hill 169
VIII. Corcovado, from Botofogo 220
IX. Palace of San Cristovao 246
X. Dona Maria de Jesus 292
XI. English Burial Ground 307
VIGNETTES.
I. That at the head of the Journal, page 77, represents two young Dragon
Trees; that with a single head is twenty years old, and had not, when I
saw it, been tapped for the Dragon's Blood. The other is about a century
old, and the bark is disfigured by the incisions made in it to procure
the gum _to face Page 77_
II. Part of Pernambuco, seen from Cocoa-nut Island, within the Reef 97
III. Slaves dragging a Hogshead in the Streets of Pernambuco 131
IV. Cadeira, or Sedan Chair of Bahia 133
V. Church and Convent of Sant Antonio da Barre at Bahia, as seen from
the Roca 157
VI. The Sugar-loaf Rock, at the Entrance to the Harbour of Rio de
Janeiro 158
VII. The End of an Island in the Harbour of Rio de Janeiro, drawn for
the sake of the variety of Vegetation 201
VIII. Convicts carrying Water at Rio de Janeiro 217
IX. Stone Cart at Rio de Janeiro 321
INTRODUCTION.
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF BRAZIL.
I judged it necessary to prefix the following sketch of the history of
Brazil to the journal of my voyage thither, in order that the political
events to which I was an eye-witness might be the better understood.
The early part of the history is almost entirely taken from Mr. Southey.
It would have been easy for me to have referred to the Portuguese
authors, as I have read nearly all that are to be found in print of Mr.
Southey's authorities, and some that he does not mention; but Mr.
Southey had been so faithful as well as judicious in the use he has made
of his authors, that it would have been absurd, if not impertinent, to
have neglected his guidance. From the time of the King's arrival in
Brazil, or rather of his leaving Lisbon, I am answerable for all I have
stated: it is little, but I hope that little is correct.
The circumstances of Spanish and Portuguese America were very different
in every stage. In Mexico, in Peru, in Chili, the conquerors encountered
a people civilised and humane; acquainted with many of the arts of
polished life; agriculturists and mechanics; knowing in the things
belonging to the altar and the throne, and waging war for conquest and
for glory. But the savages of Brazil were hunters and cannibals; they
wandered, and they made war for food: few of the tribes knew even the
cultivation of the mandioc, and fewer still had adopted any kind of
covering, save paint and feathers for ornament. The Spanish conquests
were more quickly made, and appeared more easily settled, because in
states so far advanced in civilisation the defeat of an army decides the
fate of a kingdom, and the land already cultivated, and the mines
already known and worked, were entered upon at once by the conquerors.
In Brazil the land that was granted by leagues was _to be won by inches_
from the hordes of savages who succeeded each other in incalculable
multitudes, and whose migratory habits rendered it a matter of course
for one tribe immediately to occupy the ground from which its
predecessors had been driven. Hence the history of the early settlers in
Brazil presents none of those splendid and chivalresque pictures that
the chronicles of the Corteses, and Pizarros, and Almagros furnish. They
are plain, and often pathetic scenes of human life, full of patience,
and enterprise, and endurance; but the wickedness that stains even the
best of them, is the more disgusting as it is more sordid.
But the very circumstances that facilitated the settling of the Spanish
colonies were also likely to accelerate their liberation. A sense and a
remembrance of national honour and freedom, remained among the polished
Mexicans and Peruvians. Their numbers indeed had been thinned by the
cruelties of the conquerors, but enough were left to perpetuate the
memory of their fathers, to hand down the prophecies uttered in the
phrenzy of their dying patriots; and the Peruvian, when he visited Lima,
looked round the chamber of the viceroys, as he saw niche after niche
filled up with their pictures, till the fated number should be
accomplished, with no common emotion[1]; and many a dreamer on the
Peruvian coast, when he saw the Admiral of the Chilian squadron, was
ready to hail him as the golden-haired son of light who was to restore
the kingdom of the Incas.[2]
[Note 1: The hall with the pictures of the viceroys was filled:
there would be no room in it for Lacerna.]
[Note 2: This prophecy was recorded by Garcelaco de la Vega; and it
is said, that the copies of his Incas were bought up, and an edition
printed, omitting the prophecy.]
But in Brazil, what was once gained was not likely to be lost by the
efforts of the natives, or at least by any recollection of their's,
pointing to a better or more glorious time. They have been either
exterminated, or wholly subdued. The slave hunting, which had been
systematic on the first occupation of the land, and more especially
after the discovery of the mines, had diminished the wretched Indians,
so that the introduction of the hardier Africans was deemed necessary:
_they_ now people the Brazilian fields; and if here and there an Indian
aldea is to be found, the people are wretched, with less than Negro
comforts, and much less than Negro spirit or industry. Hence, while the
original Mexicans and Peruvians form a real and respectable part of the
assertors of the independance of their country, along with the Creole
Spaniards, the Indians are nothing in Brazil; even as a mixed race, they
have less part among the different casts than in the Spanish colonies;
and therefore jealousies among the Portuguese themselves could alone at
this period have brought affairs to their present crisis. These
jealousies have taken place, and though they did not arise principally
out of the causes of the emigration and return of the Royal family, they
were at least quickened and accelerated by them.
In 1499, Brazil was discovered by Vicente Yanez Pincon, a native of
Palos, and one of the companions of Columbus. He and his brothers were
in search of new countries, and after touching at the Cape de Verd
Islands, he steered to the south-west, till he came to the coast of
Brazil, near Cape St. Augustine, and coasted along as far as the river
Maranham, and thence to the mouth of the Oronoco. He carried home some
valuable drugs, precious stones, and Brazil wood; but had lost two of
his three ships on the voyage. He made no settlement, but had claimed
the country for Spain.
Meantime Pedro Alvarez Cabral was appointed by Emanuel, King of
Portugal, to the command of a large fleet, destined to follow the course
of Vasco de Gama in the east. Adverse winds, however, drove the
expedition so far to the westward, that it fell in with the coast of
Brazil, and the ships anchored in Porto Seguro on Good-Friday of the
year 1500. On Easter-day the first Christian altar was raised in the new
continent under a large tree, and mass was performed, at which the
innocent natives assisted with pleased attention: the country was taken
possession of for the crown of Portugal by the name of the land of the
Holy Cross, and a stone cross was erected to commemorate the event.
Cabral dispatched a small vessel to Lisbon to announce his discovery,
and then, without making any settlement, proceeded to India.
On the arrival of the news in Europe, the King of Portugal invited
Amerigo Vespucci from Seville, and sent him with three ships to explore
the country. After a long and distressing voyage they arrived, and very
early in their intercourse with the natives they discovered that they
were cannibals, but nevertheless they established a friendly intercourse
with some of the tribes; and after coasting along South America as far
as lat. 52 deg., finding neither port nor inhabitants, and suffering from
intolerable cold, they returned to Lisbon in 1502.
Early in the next year Amerigo sailed again with six ships; but having
stood too near the coast of Africa, after passing the Cape de Verds by
the orders of the commander, four of the vessels were lost, but Amerigo
with the other two reached a port which they called All Saints.[3] There
they remained five months, in friendship with the natives, with whom
some of the party travelled forty leagues into the interior. They
erected a small fort, and left twelve men with guns and provisions, and
having loaded their two ships with Brazil wood, monkeys, and parrots,
they returned to Lisbon early in 1504.
[Note 3: This cannot be Bahia; for they say, that after coasting 260
leagues they were in 18 deg.S.; now Bahia is in 12 deg. 40', or nearly; the
difference being 120 leagues; it must therefore be a port to the
northward.]
But as Brazil, as it now began to be called, did not promise that ample
supply of gold which the Spaniards had discovered in their new
countries, and which the Portuguese gained with less hazard from Africa,
and from the East, the country ceased for a time to excite the attention
of government, and the first actual settlements were made by private
adventurers, who, on account of their trade, were desirous of having
some kind of agents among the people. The first persons employed for
this purpose were criminals, a sort of settlers that may do well in an
unpeopled country, where there is nothing to do but to reclaim the land,
but that must do ill where there are many and savage natives, because
they either become degraded to the savage level themselves, if they
continue friends, or, if not, they are apt to practise such cruelties
and injustice as disgust the natives, render colonisation difficult, and
if they teach any thing, it is all the worst part of the life of
civilised nations.
But in 1508, Amerigo Vespucci having returned to the service of Spain,
the King resolved to take possession of the new land which had been
discovered; and founding his claims on the grant of Alexander VI., he
sent Vincent Yanez Pincon and Juan Diaz de Solis to assert them. They
made Cape St Augustine's, which Pincon had discovered, and coasted along
to lat. 40 deg. south, erecting crosses as they went; but some disputes
having arisen between them, they returned to Spain: and it appears that
the remonstrances of Portugal against the voyage, as an interference
with her discoveries, had some weight, for it was not until 1515 that
Solis was dispatched on a second voyage, and then it was with the avowed
purpose of seeking a passage to the Great Pacific Sea, which had been
sought and seen by Balboa in 1513.
That extraordinary but unfortunate man was the first European whose eyes
rested on the broad Pacific. He had heard from the Indians of its
existence, and resolutely set out to discover it, well aware of the
dangers and difficulties he had to encounter. After twenty-five days of
suffering and fatigue, he saw the South Sea; he heard of Peru, its
mines, and its llamas, its cities and its aqueducts, and he received
pearls[4] from the islands that lay in front of St. Miguel's bay, where
he walked sword in hand up to his middle into the water and took
possession for the King of Spain. No one in Europe now doubted that the
western way to the East Indies was discovered.
[Note 4: Pearl islands, in the bay of Panama. The sand of the beach
of those islands is iron, and is as easily attracted by the loadstone as
steel filings.]
Great hopes were therefore entertained from the expedition of Solis.
That able navigator made the coast of Brazil far to the southward of
Cape St. Augustine, where he had been with Pincon; and on the 1st of
January 1516 he discovered the harbour of Rio de Janeiro; thence he
sailed still to the southward, and entered what he hoped at first would
be a sea, or strait, by which he might communicate with the ocean; but
it was the river La Plata, where Solis and several of his followers were
murdered and devoured by the natives. The ships then put back to St.
Augustines, loaded with Brazil wood, and returned to Spain.
But the King Don Emanuel claimed these cargoes, and again remonstrated
against the interference of Spain so effectually, that three years
afterwards, when Magalhaens touched at Rio de Janeiro, he purchased
nothing but provisions.
Meantime several French adventurers had come to Brazil, and had taken in
their cargoes of Brazil wood, monkies and parrots, and sometimes
plundered some of the weaker Portuguese traders. In 1616, two of these
adventurers entered the bay of All Saints, and had begun to trade with
the Indians, when the Portuguese commander, Cristovam Jaques, sailing
into the port, and examining all its coves, discovered them, and sunk
the ships, crews, and cargoes. About the same time, a young Portuguese
nobleman, who had been wrecked on the shoal off the entrance of the
harbour[5], and who had seen half his companions drowned, and half eaten
by the Indians, had contrived to conciliate the natives. He had saved a
musket and some powder from the wreck, and having taken an opportunity
of shooting a bird in the presence of the inhabitants, they called him
Caramuru, or the man of fire; and, as he accompanied them on an
expedition against their enemies the Tapuyas, he became a favourite,
married at least one Indian wife, and fixed his residence at the spot
now called Villa Velha, near an excellent spring, and not far from the
entrance to the bay.
[Note 5: I suppose that off St. Antonio da Barre.]
Caramuru, however, felt some natural longing to see his native land, and
accordingly seized the opportunity afforded by the arrival of a French
vessel, and taking his favourite wife, he went with her to France, where
they were well received by the court, the king and queen standing
sponsors at the baptism of the Brazilian lady, whose marriage was now
celebrated according to the Christian form. Caramuru, however, was not
permitted to go to Portugal; but by means of a young Portuguese student
at Paris[6], he communicated his situation to the King Joam III., and
pressed him to send an expedition to the bay of All Saints. Shortly
afterwards, Caramuru returned to Bahia, having agreed to freight two
ships with Brazil wood as the price of his passage, of the artillery of
the ships, and of the articles necessary for trading with the natives.
Still, however, as Brazil furnished neither gold, nor that rich commerce
which the Portuguese derived from their Indian trade, it was pretty much
left to itself for the first thirty years after its discovery; and then
the regulations adopted by the court were not, perhaps, the most
advantageous for the country. The coast was divided by Joam III. into
captaincies, many of which extended fifty leagues, and each captaincy
was made hereditary, and granted to any one who was willing to embark
with sufficient means in the adventure; and to these captains an
unlimited jurisdiction, both criminal and civil, was granted.
The first person who took possession of one of these captaincies was
Martim Affonso de Souza, in 1531, who sometimes claims the discovery of
Rio de Janeiro as his, although it had been named by Solis fifteen years
before. Souza was probably deterred from fixing on the shores of that
beautiful bay, by the number and fierceness of the Indian tribes that
occupied them. He therefore coasted towards the south, naming Ilha
Grande dos Magos on twelfth-day, when
"Three kings, or what is more, three wise men went
Westward to seek the world's true orient."
[Note 6: Pedro Fernandez Sardinha, the first bishop of Brazil.]
St. Sebastian's on the 20th, and St. Vincent's on the 22d; but having
proceeded as far south as the La Plata, he returned to the neighbourhood
of San Vincente, where he ultimately founded his colony, and whence he
named the whole captaincy.
Martim Affonso de Souza was no ordinary man: his cares for his colony
did not relax even after he had been recalled, and sent as
governor-general to India, where he had before highly distinguished
himself. He introduced the sugar-cane from Madeira into his colony, and
in it also the first cattle were bred. Thence they have spread all over
the continent of South America, and have proved of more real value to it
than its mines.
Pero Lopes de Souza, the brother of Martim Affonso, had his fifty
leagues of coast in two allotments; one part, St. Amaro, was immediately
to the north of San Vincente, and the other was Tamaraca, between
Pernambuco and Paraiba.
About the same time the Fidalgo Pedro de Goes attempted a settlement at
Paraiba do Sul; but after two years tolerable prosperity, he was
attacked by the native tribe of Goaytacazes, and five years of warfare
reduced him to the necessity of sending to Espirito Santo for vessels to
remove his colonists.
Vasco Fernandez de Coutinho began to settle Espirito Santo in the same
year (1531) in which the former colonies had been begun. He had amassed
a great fortune in the East, and expended most of it in collecting
volunteers for his new colony; sixty fidalgoes and men of the royal
household accompanied him. The adventurers had a prosperous voyage. On
their arrival they built a fort, which they called N. S. da Victoria,
and established four sugar-works. Coutinho returned to Lisbon for
recruits and implements for mining, the settlers having now obtained
some indications of gold and jewels to be found in the country.
The adjoining captaincy of Porto Seguro was given to Pedro de Campo
Tourinho, a nobleman and a navigator. He sold his possessions at home,
and raised a large body of colonists, with which he established himself
at Porto Seguro, the harbour where Cabral had first taken possession of
Brazil. The history of the settlement of Porto Seguro, like that of all
the others, is stained with the most atrocious cruelties; not such as
soldiers in the heat of war commit, but cold calculated cruelties,
exterminating men for the sake of growing canes, so waiting patiently
for the _fruit_ of crime.[7]
[Note 7: I hope the following tale is not true, though my authority
is good. In this very captaincy, within these twenty years, an Indian
tribe had been so troublesome, that the Capitam Mor resolved to get rid
of it. It was attacked, but defended itself so bravely, that the
Portuguese resolved to desist from open warfare; but with unnatural
ingenuity exposed ribands and toys infected with smallpox matter in the
places where the poor savages were likely to find them: the plan
succeeded. The Indians were so thinned, that they were easily overcome!]
_Ilheos_, so called from its principal river, which has three islands at
the mouth, was settled by Jorge de Figueredo Correa, who had a place in
the treasury, under Joam III., between 1531 and 1540, and speedily
became flourishing, being remarkably favourable to the sugar
cultivation.
Bahia de Todo os Santos was, with its adjacent territory, given to
Francisco Pereira Coutinho, a fidalgo who had made himself a name in
India. He fixed his abode at Villa Velha, where Caramuru had formed his
little settlement, and two of his followers married the daughters of
Caramuru.
The bay, or reconcave of All Saints, is a magnificent harbour: the
entrance appears to be a league in breadth; but on the right hand, on
entering, there is a shoal dangerous to large vessels, called that of
St. Antonio da Barre; and on the left, coral reefs running off from
Itaporica. The country that surrounds it is so fertile, that it must
always have been an object of desire whether to savage or civilised
inhabitants; and it is not surprising that three revolutions, that is,
three changes of indwellers, driven out by each other, should have been,
in the memory of the Indians, before the settlement of Coutinho.
That nobleman, whose early life had been passed in the East-Indian
Portuguese wars, imprudently and cruelly disturbed the peace of the
rising settlement, by the murder of a son of one of the chiefs. The
consequence was, that after a most disastrous warfare, in the course of
which the already flourishing sugar-works were burnt, he and Caramuru
were both obliged to abandon the settlement and retire to Ilheos. Soon
afterwards, however, he made peace with the Indians; but on his return
to the Reconcave, he was wrecked on the reef off Itaporica, where the
natives murdered him, but spared Caramuru, who returned to his old
dwelling.
In the settlement of Pernambuco, the first donatory, Duarte Coelho
Pereira, was opposed not only by the natives, but by numbers of French,
who having carried on a desultory though profitable trade on the coast,
now joined the Indians in retarding those regular settlements which were
likely to put an end to their commerce. The colony, however, had been
planted at Olinda,[8] a situation as strong as it is beautiful, and
Pereira contrived to engage some of the Indian tribes in his favour. The
war was but of short continuance, and nothing farther, except the
seizure of the little settlement of Garussa, in the woods and near the
creek which separates Itameraca from the main land, occurred to impede
the prosperity of the captaincy.
[Note 8: There is a note in the first volume of Southey's Brazil
concerning the name of Marino given to Olinda by Hans Staade. The other
Brazilians call the Pernambucans of Recife Marineros still. Is this from
the town or their nautical habits? or from the name of the Indian
village Marim which existed in the neighbourhood?]
The last colony which was founded during these ten eventful years was
that of Maranham. Three adventurers undertook this settlement jointly.
The most celebrated was Joam de Barros, the historian; the others were
Fernam Alvares de Andrada, father of the writer of the Chronicle, and
Aires da Cunha.
Aires da Cunha, Barros's two sons, and nine hundred men, sailed in ten
ships for their new possession, but were wrecked on the shoals of
Maranham; so that it was long before any success attended the
undertaking. Da Cunha was drowned, the sons of Barros slain by the
Indians, and the rest of the people with difficulty survived in a very
wretched condition.
Meantime the passage through Magellan's Straits had been discovered, and
the Spaniards, first under Sebastian Cabot, and afterwards under Don
Pedro de Mendoza, who founded Buenos Ayres, had begun to settle on the
shores of the Plata, not without opposition from the Portuguese, and a
more obstinate and fatal resistance from the Indians. The tribes in this
neighbourhood appear to have been more civilised than those of the coast
of Brazil, and consequently more formidable enemies to the rising towns.
Orellana had also made his daring voyage down the mighty river that is
sometimes called by his name. He had afterwards perished in an attempt
to make a settlement on its shores, and nearly the same fate had
attended Luiz de Mello da Silva, who made a similar attempt on the part
of Portugal.
Cabeza de Vacca had also made his adventurous overland journey from St.
Catherine's, and after settling himself in the government of Assumption,
had conducted various expeditions of discovery, always in hopes of
finding an easy way to the gold countries. In one of these he found
traces of the adventurer Garcia, a Portuguese, who, under the orders of
Martim Affonso de Souza, had, with five companions, undertaken to
explore the interior of South America. This man had by some means so
conciliated the Indians, that he was followed by a very considerable
army, and is said to have penetrated even into Tarija. He is believed to
have perished by the hand of one of his own followers, but no
particulars were ever known of his fate.
During the next ten years, nothing remarkable occurred with regard to
Brazil, except the founding of the city of St. Salvador's, by Thome de
Souza, the first Captain General of Brazil, who carried out with him the
first Jesuit missionaries. For the site of his new town De Souza fixed
upon the hill immediately above the deepest part of the harbour of
Bahia, which is defended at the back by a deep lake, and lies about half
a league from the Villa Velha of Coutinho and Caramuru.
The temporal concerns of the new colony, derived inestimable advantage
from the friendship and assistance of the patriarch Caramuru: as to the
spiritual, it was indeed time that some rule of faith and morals should
find its way to Brazil. The settlers had hitherto had no instructors
but friars, whose manners were as dissolute as their own, and who
encouraged in them a licentious depravity, scarcely less shocking than
the cannibalism of the savages. These latter are said to have eaten the
children born by their own daughters to their prisoners of war,--a thing
so unnatural, that it only gains credit because the Portuguese sold as
slaves even their own children by the native women. The apostle of
Brazil, as he may in truth be called, and chief of the six Jesuits who
accompanied Souza, was Nobrega, the cotemporary and rival in the race of
disinterested services to his fellow creatures of St. Francis Xavier;
and, with regard to his steady attempts to protect as well as to convert
the Indians, another Las Casas.
Brazil was becoming an object of importance to the crown of Portugal.
The new settlement of Bahia was established on the king's account, and
at his expense 1000 persons had been sent out the first year, 1549. In
four months there were 100 houses, six batteries, and a cathedral: a
college for the Jesuits, a palace, and a custom-house were begun; the
whole was defended by a mud wall. The next year supplies of all kinds
arrived from Lisbon, and the year after that several female orphans, of
noble family, were sent out as wives for the officers, with dowries in
negroes, kine, and brood-mares.
About this time, a Spanish expedition destined for the river Plata
miscarried; one of the ships was wrecked off St. Vincent's, and to Hans
Staade, one of the crew who survived and after various adventures fell
into the power of the Indians, we are indebted for the most authentic
and particular account of the Brazilian Savages.[9] It is curious that
the Indians of the new world, should so very far exceed all the savage
tribes of the old in barbarity. But it is certain that no authentic
accounts of cannibals have ever been brought from Africa; whereas, none
of the early writers on Brazil and its inhabitants have failed to dwell
upon their love of human flesh, as characteristic of the people.
[Note 9: In the Historia da Provincia Sancta Cruz, by Pero de
Magalhaens de Gandano, 1576, there is an account sufficiently tallying
with that which Southey has compiled from Hans Staade and De Lery. But
it is far from being so disgusting. There is a copper-plate representing
the dragging the prisoner with cords, and felling him with a club. The
author gives a short account of the then known plants and animals of
Brazil, and concludes with the hope that the mines believed to exist may
speedily be found.--See the collection of tracts by Barbosa Maehado.]
The year 1552 is distinguished by the arrival of the first bishop in
Brazil. His see was fixed at St. Salvador's, or, as it is generally
called, Bahia. In the next year, Thome de Souza retired from his
government, and was succeeded by Don Duarte da Costa, who was
accompanied by seven jesuits, among whom was the celebrated
Anchieta.[10] The chief of the order, Loyola, was still alive, he
erected Brazil into a new province, and appointed Nobrega and Luis de
Gran, who had been principal at Coimbra, joint provincials. From that
moment the labours of the fathers for the real good of the country
commenced. And whatever may be the opinions entertained, as to their
politics and ultimate views, there is not a doubt but that the means
they employed to reclaim and civilise the Indians, were mild, and
therefore successful; that while they wrought their own purposes, they
made their people happy; and that centuries will not repair the evil
done by their sudden expulsion, which broke up the bands of humanised
society which were beginning to unite the Indians with their fellow
creatures.
[Note 10: Anchieta was not only a man of extraordinary firmness of
mind and real piety, but a politician of no common cast, and his civil
services to the Portuguese government were equal to those of the
greatest captains, while his labours as a missionary and teacher were
beyond those of any individual of whom I have ever read. His merits as a
christian apostle and a man of literature, have disarmed even Mr.
Southey of his usual rancour against the Roman Catholic faith. That
excellent writer's book on Brazil is spoilt by intemperate language on a
subject on which human feeling is least patient of direct contradiction,
so that the general circulation of it is rendered impossible, and the
good it might otherwise do in the country for which it is written
frustrated. Oh, that Mr. Southey would remember the quotation which he
himself brings forward from Jeremy Taylor! "Zeal against an error is not
always the best instrument to find out truth."]
In 1553, the first school was established in Brazil, by Nobrega, in the
high plains of Piratininga, about thirteen leagues from the colony of
San Vicente. Anchieta was the school-master. The school was opened on
the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, and the establishment, and the
infant colony rising round it, received the name of the saint. St.
Paul's has since grown to be one of the most important towns in Brazil.
Its rich minerals, its iron-works, and other manufactures, but, above
all, the high and free spirit of its inhabitants, who have taken the
lead in every effort for the good of the country, distinguish it above
all the southern towns of Brazil.
Anchieta, while he taught Latin to the Portuguese and Mamalucos,[11] and
Portuguese to the Brazilians, learnt from these last their own tongue,
and composed a grammar and dictionary for them. He had no books for his
pupils, so that he wrote on separate leaves, in four different
languages, the daily lesson for each. He served as physician, as well as
priest and school-master, and practised and taught the most useful
domestic arts. But the colony had, like all the others, to fight for its
early existence; it was attacked by the Mamalucos of the neighbouring
settlement of St. Andre, who regarded the instruction of the Indians as
a step towards abolishing their slavery, and exclaimed against it as an
infringement of what they called their right to the services of the
natives. They engaged by other pretences some of the neighbouring tribes
to assist them, but they were met and defeated by those of St. Paul's.
[Note 11: Mamaluco. These were the Creole Portuguese, who had most
of them intermarried with the natives.]
Meantime some disputes having arisen between the Governor and the
Bishop, the latter resolved to return to Lisbon, but was wrecked on the
coast at a place called the Baixos de San Francisco, and there seized,
and with one hundred other white persons put to death by the Cahetes.
The revenge of the Portuguese was horrible, the Cahetes were hunted,
slaughtered, and all but exterminated.
In the year 1557, Joam III. died. His appointment of Mem de Sa, before
his death, to the government of Brazil, prevented the country from
immediately feeling the evils which a regency generally entails even in
an established government, but which are sure to fall with tenfold
weight upon a rising colony.
Mem de Sa was a man of more enlightened mind, and more humane principles
than most of those to whom the government of the Brazilian provinces
had been intrusted. He arrived at Bahia in 1558, and earnestly applied
himself to learn the relations in which the Portuguese, the Creoles, the
Indians, and the mixed race stood to each other.
His first acts were directed towards reclaiming the allied Indians from
some of their most brutal practices, and to induce them to form
settlements near those of the Jesuits. The selfish planters, interested
in keeping up the feuds of the Indians, in order to procure slaves,
exclaimed against these proceedings as violations of the freedom of the
natives, and they were equally displeased at the orders issued, to set
at liberty all the Indians who had been wrongfully enslaved. One
powerful colonist alone refused to obey: Mem de Sa ordered his house to
be surrounded and instantly levelled with the ground. Such an act was
certainly calculated to inspire the Indians with confidence in his good
intentions towards them, at the same time that his vigorous measures to
punish them for any infraction of their engagements kept them in awe.
Meantime an adventurer of no ordinary stamp, had formed a settlement in
the finest harbour of Brazil, namely, that of Rio de Janeiro. Nicholas
Durand de Villegagnon was a native of Provins en Brie, and a Knight of
Malta. In 1648, he had been employed by Mary of Guise, at the entreaty
of the French court, to convey her daughter the young Queen of Scots to
France: in 1651 he was engaged in the defence of Malta, against the
Pacha Sinan and the famous Dragut Reis, and two years afterwards
published an account of that campaign. Having visited Brazil in 1558,
Villegagnon could not be insensible to the advantages that must arise to
France from having a settlement there; and, on his return to Europe, he
made such representations at court of these advantages, that Henry II.
gave him two vessels, each of 200 tons, and a store ship of 100 tons, to
convey the adventurers who might wish to leave France, and who at that
time were numerous. Villegagnon, wishing to make use of Coligny's
interest, gave out that the new settlement was to be a refuge for the
persecuted Hugonots, and this answered the double purpose of securing
the Admiral's friendship, and gaining a number of respectable colonists.
With these he reached Rio de Janeiro, and made his first settlement in a
low rock at the mouth of the harbour, where there is now a small fort
called the Laje, but finding it not sufficiently elevated to resist the
high tides, he pitched on an island within the harbour, where there is
only one landing place, and whose form and situation is singularly
adapted for safety, especially against such enemies as the Indians.
Those, however, of the Rio had been long accustomed to trade with the
French, who, if they had not taught them, had at least encouraged them,
to hate the Portuguese, whom Villegagnon flattered himself that he
should be able to keep aloof by the assistance of the Savages.
Meantime Coligny had exerted himself to send out assistance of every
kind; provisions, recruits[12], and protestant ministers. But
Villegagnon now imagined himself secure in his colony, and threw off the
mask of toleration. He behaved so tyrannically that many of the Hugonots
were obliged to return to France, and of them he made the most malicious
complaints, and concluded by saying, that they were heretics worthy of
the stake.
[Note 12: Among these was Jean de Lery.]
But nothing is so short-sighted as wickedness. Villegagnon's treachery
was the cause of the ruin of his enterprise. Ten thousand protestants
were ready to embark for Coligny, as the island, now called Villegagnon,
was then named: but the report of those who had returned, stopped them,
and the colony was left in a defenceless state.
At length the attention of the court of Lisbon had been drawn towards
the French settlement, and orders were sent to the Captain General to
examine into its state first, and then, if possible, to take it.
Accordingly, Mem de Sa, accompanied by Nobrega and two other Jesuits,
attacked it in January, 1560, while Villegagnon was absent in France,
and demolished the works, but had not sufficient force to attempt
forming a settlement; and had Villegagnon succeeded in returning with
the recruits he expected, he would have found it easy to re-establish
and perhaps revenge himself. But his bad faith deterred the Hugonots
from joining him, the civil war prevented the government from assisting
him, and the French colony was lost.
In 1564, Estacio de Sa, nephew of Mem, was sent out from Portugal to
form a settlement in Rio, but finding his means inadequate to contend
with the Indians, led on by the few remaining French, he went to San
Vincente for reinforcements; these, however, only enabled him to keep up
the war, and to maintain himself in a post he had fortified[13], not far
from the entrance of the harbour, and near the Sugar-loaf mountain, a
bare and inaccessible rock, which, from a base of about four hundred
feet, shoots up to a thousand in perpendicular height, on the west side
of the bar. He therefore applied to his uncle for succour, who,
collecting what force he could, led them in person, and arrived in the
harbour on the 18th of January, 1567. On the 20th, St. Sebastian's day,
the Indians and French were attacked in their strongest hold, then
called Uracumiri, and having obtained a decisive victory, the French
embarked in the four ships they still possessed, and fled to the coast
of Pernambuco, where they attempted to form a settlement at Recife, but
were dislodged by the Portuguese of Olinda.
[Note 13: Mr. Southey says this spot is called Villa Velha. But
there is no place existing in the neighbourhood of that name, nor could
I find any person at Rio de Janeiro who remembered such a place. It was,
however, most probably on the site of the present St. Juan, or of the
fort of Praya Vermelha, which answers exactly to the description.]
Mem de Sa now founded the city of St. Sebastian, more commonly called
the city of Rio; and for its security the Jesuits, with their Indians,
fortified both sides of the entrance to the harbour, which is about four
miles distant from the city across the bay. Before these works, however,
or the walls of the town were completed, the French made a vigorous
effort to disturb the rising colony; but it ended in their defeat, and
their guns were made use of to fortify the mouth of the harbour.
Driven from Rio, the French attempted to form a settlement at Paraiba
the next year; but the Indians, with the Jesuits at their head, and a
very few troops, under the commander Martim Leytam, expelled them.
Under Mem de Sa the state had been so prosperous, that though he had
been Captain-general far beyond the term of his original appointment,
Don Sebastian, on assuming the crown, continued him in office for two
years longer, and then named Luiz de Vasconcellos to succeed him. That
nobleman never reached Brazil. With him sailed a fleet of seven ships,
bearing, besides the governor, sixty-nine Jesuit missionaries, and a
number of orphan girls, whose parents had died of the plague, and whom
the government was sending out to settle in Brazil. The fleet, in
different divisions, fell in with French and English ships, and the
Jesuits, save one, to use their own expression, received the crown of
martyrdom, and the new governor was killed in action off Tercera. As
soon as his death was known at Lisbon, Luiz de Brito de Almeida was
appointed to his vacant office; and Mem de Sa just lived long enough to
witness the arrival of his successor. Nobrega, who had begun that
system, on which the singular government of the Jesuits in Paraguay was
conducted, had died a few months before, so that Brazil was deprived
nearly at once of the two ablest men that had yet been concerned in its
government.
But Luiz de Brito did not succeed to the government of all Brazil. It
was judged proper to divide the colony into two captaincies, Rio de
Janeiro being the capital of the southern division, which included Porto
Seguro and every thing to the south of it; while Bahia remained the
capital of the northern districts. There Luiz de Brito fixed his
residence, and Doctor Antonio Salerna was appointed governor of the
south. But this division was soon found inconvenient, and the two parts
were re-united[14] about 1578, the year in which a new governor, Diego
Laurenco da Viega, arrived.
[Note 14: When the Historia da Provincia de Sancta Cruz, by Pero
Magalha[=e]s de Gadano, was printed, 1575, they were still separate; but
Southey's MS. of 1578 says they had been re-united.]
This was the year when the loss of Don Sebastian in Africa threw
Portugal into the hands of Spain. King Philip, eager to annex that
kingdom for ever to his crown, offered Brazil, with the title of King,
to Braganza if he would give up his claim to the crown of Portugal. But
it was reserved for his descendant to achieve the independence of
Brazil, and he refused it.
The colony was at this period most flourishing, though not altogether
able to do without occasional supplies from the mother country. But
already the original mud-cottages, supported by frame-work and thatched
with palm-leaves, of the first settlers, had given way to well built and
handsome houses of stone and brick, covered with tiles as in Europe. The
reconcave of Bahia had sixty-two churches, and upwards of seventy
sugar-works: the land was well stocked with cattle, all the kinds of
orange and lime trees introduced by Europeans had flourished. The
country abounded in excellent native fruits, and the mandioc furnished
never-failing stores of bread. Olinda partook of all these advantages,
and was itself the best built and most populous town in Brazil. Rio de
Janeiro had become a place only inferior in importance to the other two,
its natural advantages being still greater, and the climate milder; nor
were the other captaincies less prosperous.
But the transfer of the crown into foreign hands changed the aspect of
affairs in Brazil. Inferior to the Spanish American countries in mines,
it was considered only of consequence as being occupied by Spanish
subjects, and so forming a barrier against the intrusion of other
nations.
By this time the English had begun to trade on the coast of Brazil, and
in 1577 Drake had passed through the Straits of Magellan in his
memorable voyage round the world. His appearance in the southern seas
alarmed Philip the Second, now King of Portugal as well as of Spain, and
consequently Lord of Brazil. He attempted to form a colony and maintain
a fort in the Straits, in order to prevent future navigators from
passing; but of it nothing is left but the name, _Port Famine_, which
attests the miserable fate of the colonists. The English commerce was
also cut off in Brazil. Some vessels trading peaceably at San Vincente
were attacked in the harbour by the Spaniards in superior force; one of
the latter was sunk, and the English escaped next day. In 1686, the Earl
of Cumberland fitted out an expedition, in which Raleigh served and
Witherington was admiral, which entered the reconcave of Bahia and
plundered it, remaining there six weeks, the city being only saved by
the Indian archers. Baretto, the governor of Brazil, died the next year,
and was succeeded by D. Antonio Barreiros the bishop, and Christovam de
Barros as joint governors; and they were soon superseded by Francisco
Giraldes: he, however, never arrived in the country, and Don Francisco
de Souza was appointed in his stead.
During his captaincy some search was made after mines by a descendant of
Caramuru, who offered to discover where he had found the silver of which
he had services in his house and chapel, on condition of receiving the
title of Marques. This Philip refused to grant, and the secret, if
indeed the man had one, died with him.
Meantime the celebrated Cavendish had made one voyage round the world,
and had committed such ravages on the coast of Spanish America, as not
even the atrocious habits of naval warfare in those days can excuse. In
1591, he embarked in a second expedition, arrived in December on the
coast of Brazil, and took Santos and burned San Vincente. The ships then
sailed for the Straits, but were baffled in their attempt to pass, and
returned to the coast of Brazil to obtain provisions. Cavendish, who had
many great and good qualities, and who might certainly think it
allowable to supply himself on an enemy's coast, made an attempt on
Espiritu Santo, but by a mistake in executing his orders it failed, and
he sailed for England, but died of a broken heart on the passage.
The most remarkable expedition of the English to the coast of Brazil was
that of Sir James Lancaster to Pernambuco. He had the command of three
small vessels of 240, 120, and 60 tons. At Cape Blanco he learned that a
rich carrack from India had been wrecked near Olinda, and that her cargo
was safely stowed at Recife. He therefore fitted five out of near thirty
small prizes to accompany him, and built a galley frigate to land with.
He was also reinforced by Captain Vernon with two ships, a pinnace, and
a prize, and then sailed direct for Recife, where they arrived in March,
1595. On Good Friday of that year the town was taken with little
resistance, and Lancaster permitted not the slightest disorder after the
place was taken. He fortified the sandy isthmus which connects Recife
with Olinda, and then proceeded at leisure to stow his ships with the
goods found in the town, and hired the Dutch vessels lying in the port
as store-ships. Some French privateers coming in, he also hired them
with part of the booty to assist in the defence of the place, till the
lading of the vessels should be completed. The Portuguese made several
attempts to burn Lancaster's ships, which were all baffled by his
prudence, and after remaining in possession of Recife twenty days he
prepared to sail. However, on the very last day of his stay, some of his
people, both English and French, having advanced too far in a sally
against the Portuguese, were killed, and the enemy claimed a victory,
which Lancaster being now ready for sea had no inclination to dispute.
And this was the last attack made by the English on the coast of Brazil.
But the French had renewed their attempts, and under Rifault and his
successor De Vaux had succeeded in forming a settlement in the island of
Maranham, 1611. And shortly afterwards Henry IV. sent Daniel de la
Touche, Lord of La Rivardiere[15], to examine the country, in order to
form a permanent colony. His report was favourable; and though on his
return to France Henry was dead, an expedition of three ships,
containing 500 men, was fitted out, and in 1612 they arrived on the
island, speedily conciliated the natives, and the colony promised to
thrive. But the court of Madrid quickly sent out orders to the governor
of Brazil to attack the intruders. Various accidents prolonged the
warfare, and it was not until 1618 that they were dislodged, and a
permanent Portuguese colony formed. Its distance from the seat of
government determined the court of Madrid to erect Maranham and Para
into a separate state, of which the capital was fixed at San Luiz, a
town and fort built by the French on the island.
[Note 15: In Barbosa Machado's curious collection of pamphlets, in
the library of Rio de Janeiro, is one by the Capt. Symam Estacio da
Sylveira, printed in 1624. He had been at the taking of Maranham from
the French, and his paper is evidently a decoy for colonists. He says,
that Daniel de la Touche was induced to go thither by Itayuba of the
_Iron arm_, a Frenchman who had been brought up among the Tupinambas. Is
this Mr. Southey's Rifault?]
Meantime the Dutch had formed a West Indian Company, trusting that they
would thereby be able to annoy the court of Spain in their American
possessions, as they had already done in the East Indies. In 1624, a
fleet under Jacob Willekins and the famous Peter Heyne was fitted out
for that purpose. The ships having been separated in a gale of wind,
Willekins made the Morro de San Paulo, about forty miles south of Bahia,
where he waited for the rest of the convoy. When it arrived he sailed
boldly into the reconcave, and St. Salvador was taken almost without a
struggle. Vandort, the Dutch general, immediately began to fortify the
place, and proclamations being issued promising freedom and redress of
wrongs to all who should submit, many Indians, negroes, and Jews
instantly joined him. But the Portuguese, who had hoped that the Dutch
had only come to plunder the city, seeing that they were sitting quietly
down as in a permanent establishment, roused themselves, and after some
little disagreement as to who should command them, pitched on the Bishop
Don Marcos Texeira. He fixed his head-quarters on the Rio Vermelho. The
Dutch were weakened by the departure of Willekins for Holland, and of
Peter Heyne for Angola, the plan of the West India Company being to
secure that settlement, in order to have a certain supply of slaves for
their new conquests in Brazil. Dort had been killed, and there was no
competent commander. The Bishop's troops harassed those of the city in
every direction, and the Dutch were prepared to become an easy prey to
Don Fadrique de Toledo, who had been sent from Spain with a strong force
to recover the capital of Brazil. They capitulated, therefore, in May,
1625, and conditioned for being sent to Holland with sufficient arms and
their personal baggage, leaving the city and forts as they were.
The next year, however, Peter Heyne returned to the reconcave. Every
precaution was taken against him by the governor. Four large ships with
men and artillery were placed to intercept him; but in his single ship,
the rest of his squadron not being able to come up with him, ran in
between two of them, sunk one, and compelled several others to strike:
his own ship, however, grounded, and he burnt her. He added four ships
to his own fleet, loaded four others with prize-goods, and burnt the
rest. Nor was this his only success; for although the Dutch had been
baffled in several attempts on the coast, they sent home prizes enough
to be of national importance.
But a conquest of infinitely more consequence was shortly made; that of
Olinda, which, in 1630, was taken after a feeble resistance on the part
of Matthias de Albuquerque. The Dutch general-in-chief was Henrik Loncq,
the admiral was Peter Ardian, and Wardenburg commanded the troops. The
latter landed at Pao Amarello, three leagues to the north, while the
ships kept up a regular fire opposite to the place; consequently the
Portuguese were surprised, and the towns and forts easily taken.
But the country around continued to be the theatre of a most cruel
predatory war, during which atrocious cruelties were committed by both
parties, but chiefly by the Dutch; and while these things were going on,
a number of negroes had escaped from time to time into the great
palm-forests, about thirty leagues inland, and had multiplied so that
they are said to have amounted to upwards of thirty thousand. These men
were governed by a chief whom they called Zombi: they had some laws, a
shadow of the Christian religion, and were agriculturists. They harassed
the Portuguese, and added by their depredations to the general misery.
At length the Dutch government sent out Count Maurice of Nassau, to take
the command at Pernambuco. He arrived in 1537, and carried on the war so
vigorously that the Portuguese retired out of the province. He also set
about reforming the abuses which existed among the Dutch themselves at
Recife, and having established himself firmly there, he sent one of his
officers, Jan Koin, over to the coast of Africa, who took possession of
St. Jorge da Mina, by which a supply of slaves was secured, and leaving
a garrison there, returned to Recife. The next year, Maurice made an
unsuccessful attack on St. Salvador. His fleet anchored in the bay of
Tapagipe; but though he obtained at first some important posts, he was
finally repulsed and returned with loss to Pernambuco. There he occupied
himself in building a new town, and making the two first bridges that
had yet been built in Portuguese America, besides planting trees, and
improving the fortifications. In 1640 he sent the famous sea-warrior Jol
into the reconcave, to lay it waste; and he accordingly burnt the whole
of the sugar-works in the bay, while the Indians who were friendly to
the Dutch, fell on the land-side of the captaincy, and harassed the
unhappy settlers in an equal degree.
At length the court of Madrid began to be alarmed for the safety of
Brazil, and fitted out a large armament for its relief. Storms and
sickness diminished it, ere it arrived, to nearly one half. That half
arrived at Bahia, in 1640, under D. Jorge de Mascasentras, Marques de
Monte Alvam. Before he had time either to make open war, or to
negociate, the revolution in Portugal, which placed Braganza on the
throne of his ancestors, took place. The viceroy, unjustly suspected of
adhering to Spain, was sent home, and a commission, composed of
Barbalho, Correa, and the bishop, appointed in his stead.
One of the first acts of the restored Portuguese government was to make
a ten years' truce with the Seven United States. But this did not
prevent the continuance of hostilities in Brazil, and the other foreign
possessions of Portugal. Serigipe was surprised, Maranham conquered, and
Loanda in Angola and St. Thomas's taken.
Notwithstanding these successes, the Dutch government disapproved of
Count Maurice's administration. Instead of sending home either to the
States or the Company all the money and produce which he had gained in
Brazil, he had laid out great part of it, as well as of his private
fortune, in fortifying the mouths of rivers and harbours, particularly
Recife, in repairing and beautifying the towns, and in other public
works, which, looking forward to the permanent establishment of the
Dutch in the country, he considered as absolutely necessary. He was
accordingly recalled, and returned to Holland in 1644.
After the departure of Maurice the tyranny of the Dutch became so
intolerable, that the Portuguese began to rise against it almost
universally.
Maranham had already been wrested from their hands at the time of his
returning, and that event seemed to be the signal for the long and
calamitous struggle that ensued in Pernambuco and the neighbouring
Captaincies. Joam Fernandes Vieyra, a native of Madeira, had, at a very
early age, left his native island in hopes of bettering his fortune in
Brazil. He had succeeded, and at the time we speak of, he was one of the
richest Portuguese of Pernambuco, and highly esteemed by both his
countrymen and the Dutch. Against the latter, however, he was animated
both by patriotism and superstition. They oppressed his people, and they
were heretics. After waiting for years for a proper opportunity to
attempt their destruction, he seized the first months of Nassau's
absence, and communicating his plans to none but to two friends, one of
whom he commissioned to apply to the government of Bahia in person for
succour, he waited patiently for an answer. This man, Andre Vidal de
Negreiros, executed his commission exactly, and shortly afterwards
Antonio Diaz Cardozo, and sixty soldiers, were sent to Vieyra. He
concealed them in the woods in the neighbourhood of his dwelling, called
the Varzea, which was on the plain to the westward of the city, and then
summoned the Indian chief Camaram and the Negro chief Henrique Diaz[16],
to his assistance, and communicated his designs to his neighbours.
[Note 16: The following is an extract from one of the letters of
this Creole Negro: "Faltamos a obedienca, que nos occupava no certam de
Bahia, por nao faltaremos as obrigacoens da patria; respeitando primeiro
as leys da natureza, que as do imperio."
_Castrioto Lusitano_.]
Early in 1645 the war began in earnest. The most shocking atrocities
were committed by both parties, especially towards the Indians, who
themselves as they were the most faithful allies, were also the most
inveterate and cruel enemies. In the course of the struggle, which
lasted until 1654, several leaders on both sides were slain, but none so
remarkable as the Indian Camaram. He had been educated by the Jesuits;
he understood Latin, wrote, read, and spoke Portuguese perfectly, but on
all occasions of ceremony used an interpreter, that he might not in
public do any thing imperfectly, and thereby derogate from the dignity
of his chieftainship. When a number of Indians were taken among the
Dutch, at one of the strong posts of the latter, a relation of Camaram's
was found among them. These men had all been condemned to death. Camaram
did not intercede for the life of his kinsman, but he saved his honour:
he slew him with his own hand, and buried him decently. The rest were
hanged by the common executioner, and left for the fowls of the air.
At length this horrible warfare was ended. The two battles of the
Gararapes[17], had decided the fate of the Dutch in Brazil: but it was
the co-operation of the fleet of the new Brazilian company that enabled
Vieyra, who was the real commander in this war, although several
military men of reputation, had, from time to time, had the nominal
chieftainship, to reduce Recife, and on the 23d of January 1654, to
present the keys of the city to the Royal Commander Francisco Beretto,
and to restore to the crown of Portugal the empire of Brazil, after nine
years of the most cruel war, during which the private fortune, and the
determined spirit of individuals had sustained the conflict, generally
without the aid, and often in direct opposition to the commands of the
court. But men once determined on freedom, or on national independence,
must in the end overcome all obstacles and vanquish every difficulty.
[Note 17:
Ves Agros Gararapes, entre a negra,
Nuvem de Marte horrendo
Qual Jupiter em flegra,
Hollanda o vistes fulminar tremendo.--DINEZ.
The Portuguese reader will do well to read the whole of Diniz's fine ode
to Vieyra, as well as that to Mem de Sa, on his conquests at Rio de
Janeiro. This writer is one of the best of the Arcadian school.--But he
wrote on subjects of a minor interest, while Guidi wrote to the
"d'Arcadia fortunate Genti"--of the Eternal city, where every civilised
being feels he has an interest.]
While these things were going on in the northern provinces, the Jesuits
had formed their singular establishments in Paraguay, and endeavoured to
stop, or at least limit the slave hunting of the Portuguese in the
interior, though without effect. The best part of the colony of St.
Vincent's had been removed to St. Paul's, a settlement on the plain of
Piratininga, and had flourished surprisingly. The people had become
hardy, if not fierce. They had distinguished themselves by the courage
and perseverance with which they had explored the country in search of
mines, and the activity with which they had brought in slaves for the
new settlements. The consciousness of their strength begot in them a
longing for independence, and seizing the opportunity of the accession
of the House of Braganza to the throne of Portugal, they attempted to
set up a king for themselves. Their attempt was baffled by Amador Bueno
de Ribiero, the very person they intended for their monarch, who, when
the people shouted "Long live king Amador," cried out "Long live Joam
IV." and, being swift of foot, ran and took refuge in the Benedictine
convent; and the same day, as there was no alternative, Joam IV. was
proclaimed by all the people.
The low state to which Portugal was now reduced, was seen in its effects
on the government of Brazil. When the appointed Governors, either on
their own judgment, or in obedience to the orders of the court of
Lisbon, attempted to carry any new measure into execution which the
people disliked, it was seldom in their power to enforce it, and they
could expect little assistance from home. The Jesuits had undertaken the
defence of the Indians, and endeavoured by every means to restrain the
practice of making slaves of them, and to mitigate the lot of such as
were already enslaved. But the Franciscans and some other orders derived
equal pecuniary benefit with the hunters from the sale of slaves, and
therefore they opposed them with vehemence. Interest was on the side of
the Friars, and the most disgraceful scenes took place in various
captaincies between the parties, the Governors being either not able or
not willing to interfere with effect.
Meantime, however, the people became accustomed to canvass and to
understand public questions; their governors began to respect them as a
real part of the estate; and a value for independence, and a feeling
that to attain it was in their own power, grew out of these disorders.
Had it been possible to have purified their religion from some of its
most superstitious observances, and to reform the moral habits of the
people, the prosperity of the country would soon have been equal to its
means; but wherever slavery is established it brings a twofold curse
with it. It degrades both parties even where the slaves are imported.
How much more then, as was the case here, when they were hunted on their
own grounds, where all the details, disgusting and iniquitous as they
are, of the seeking, capturing, and bending to the yoke, pass under the
eye till the heart grows callous to the cry of the orphan, the grief of
the widow, and the despair of the parent in being torn from whatever has
been dear to them?
The history of the Jesuit Vieyra's mission to Maranham is as humiliating
to human nature, as his sincere exertions in the cause of the suffering
Indians is creditable to himself; but neither his exertions, nor the
royal authority, could baffle the selfish cruelty and avarice of the
people of that captaincy; they broke out into open rebellion in defence
of their detestable practices, and even when they returned to obedience,
there was a compromise between humanity and avarice, to which the
Indians were again sacrificed.
Rio de Janeiro had enjoyed a greater degree of tranquillity during the
eighty years since its foundation than any other settlement, and its
trade had increased together with its population; but the southern part
of its jurisdiction was little more peaceable than Maranham, and not at
all more inclined to listen to the remonstrances of the friends of the
Indians. The Paulistas were the most difficult of all to manage; they
had been the most active and daring of all that hunted either for slaves
or for mines, and they were not willing to participate with others, far
less to resign the advantages they had gained by unwearied labour and
great sacrifices. Their conduct on the restoration of Portugal had
evinced a desire of more than the freedom of a colony, and their
neighbours were little less disposed for independence than themselves.
Santos, and even Rio, had joined them, and had shewn a disposition to
depose the governor appointed by the crown; and nothing but the
unimpeachable character and firm conduct of Salvador Correa de Sa e
Benevides (1658) prevented him from falling a sacrifice to that
disposition. Bahia continued to be the capital of the Brazilian states,
and its inhabitants proceeded to beautify it with churches, and
convents, and nunneries, while they defied the spirit of Christianity by
the importation of African, as well as the kidnapping Indian slaves.
Pernambuco was still undergoing the miserable effects of the long and
desultory war it had sustained; all the bands of government had been
loosed during that disastrous period; law and justice had fallen into
disuse; and had there not been a redeeming virtue in the free spirit
that lived on in spite of the evils among which it had sprung, its very
emancipation from a foreign power might have been regretted. The negroes
who had escaped to the Palmares, and whose depredations had been
disregarded in comparison with the evils of a foreign government, had
become a real source of ill to the Pernambucans. Although they
cultivated maize, and mandioc, and plaintains, they wanted every other
supply. They therefore robbed the Creoles of their cattle, their sugar,
their manufactured goods, and even of their Mulatto daughters and female
slaves; till at length the government resolved to free the country of
them, and called in the aid of a Paulista regiment for the purpose. Ten
thousand of the negroes bearing arms had assembled in their chief city,
which was surrounded by wooden walls, leaving the lesser ones
uninhabited. But their enemies had the advantage of cannon against them,
and of supplies of every kind; yet once the negroes beat off their
assailants. But numbers overpowered them, and being weakened by famine,
their city was forced, and the inmates seized as slaves. Zombi, however,
and the most resolute of his followers, threw themselves from a high
rock when they perceived their condition desperate. The Portuguese
abused their victory, and murdered the rest.
But there was an evil that affected Brazil generally--the too much and
the too little power of the governors. They had too much power, if any
appeal lay from them--too little, if they were absolute for the term of
their government. They were also virtually free from responsibility;
their opportunities, nay, their temptations to extortion were almost
irresistible; and, to crown all, the corrupt administration of the laws
kept pace with the vices and the irregularity of the government. In vain
had the wisest regulations been made, and the most just decrees issued.
The judges were in many cases parties concerned; they were so in all
cases where Indians and negroes were the objects of their judgment, for
they were possessors of both. Their salaries were insufficient, their
fees arbitrary. What wonder then if the administration was corrupt!
The cultivation of sugar and cotton had proceeded silently amidst all
this confusion. The discovery of the gold and diamond mines assisted the
government, both in Brazil and in the mother country, to make a stand in
the midst of the eminent peril which threatened, in consequence of the
losses sustained in the east, while at home there was a scanty and
impoverished population, ruined manufactures, and, above all, a neglect
of agriculture, that rendered Portugal dependent on foreigners for corn.
Every thing was wanted; there was nothing to return; and at the
beginning of the eighteenth century, Brazil may be truly said to have
saved Portugal, by covering with her precious metals the excessive
balance that was against her in every branch of commerce, in every
department of government.
Yet, though absolute ruin was averted, the weakness of the crown
rendered it impossible to defend its foreign possessions from the
attacks of a daring enemy. In 1710, a French squadron, under Duclerc,
appeared off Rio de Janeiro, but not daring to pass the forts, sailed
on, and after making several attempts to land a force at the different
inlets, where he was deterred by the appearance of the militia of the
country, succeeded at Guaratiba, between thirty and forty miles from
the city, and thence he marched upon it with about one thousand marines.
The governor, Francisco Castro de Moraes, made no attempt to stop him
until his arrival at the city. There the first check the enemy met was
from F. Francisco de Menezes, a Trinitarian friar, who appeared every
where, and did what the governor, who remained quietly intrenched in a
flat space, where the place of the Rosario now is, between two hills,
ought to have done. The French having divided, one party attacked the
palace, but the students of the college defended it successfully; and
after a short, but desperate struggle, the French were overpowered, and
the victory disgraced by the inhuman conduct of the Portuguese. Duclerc
and his people were imprisoned and harshly treated. Duclerc himself is
said to have been murdered in his bed.
The next year drew on Rio de Janeiro a signal punishment for these
proceedings. The famous Duguay Trouin undertook to inflict it; and
accordingly, in August, 1711, one year after Duclerc's adventure, he
arrived off the coast, and taking advantage of a fog, entered the bay,
notwithstanding the fire of the forts.
The Portuguese government had notice of his design, and had sent out
stores and ammunition to meet the attack, and had appointed Gasper da
Costa commander of the troops. But the sudden appearance of the French
actually within the harbour, seems to have palsied the understanding of
every person on shore, whose business it should have been to oppose
them, and the forts and the city were given up almost without a
struggle.
It would, however, have been impossible for the French to maintain
themselves in Rio; therefore Duguay Trouin, after refreshing his people,
ransomed the city for 600,000 cruzadoes. Bad weather alone prevented him
from laying waste the reconcave of Bahia, as he had done Rio: but he had
fulfilled the ostensible purpose of his voyage by avenging the treatment
of Duclerc and his people, and returned to France early in 1712.
These circumstances had awakened the greatest anxiety on account of
Brazil in the cabinet of Lisbon: and at the peace of Utrecht, 1713,
every precaution was adopted by the Portuguese ministers to avoid any
expression that might seem to admit of a free trade by any power
whatever to Brazil, notwithstanding the agreements to that effect
actually existing at the time. Disputes without end arose between
Portugal and Spain concerning the colonies adjoining to the Rio de la
Plata, and it was especially stipulated that no other power,
particularly England, should be allowed to form settlements there on
account of the facilities such settlements might afford for smuggling
the precious metals out of the country. These had now become the first
object in Brazil. St. Paul's had been erected into a city, and the
district of the mines had been formed into a captaincy: the inhabitants
of the coast flocked to the interior, where new towns were daily
springing up; all were desirous of a share in that lottery where the
prizes were so enormous, that the great preponderance of blanks was
overlooked. Great inconvenience must have been felt by the early
adventurers to the mines: for so many hands were employed in searching
for gold, that few remained to cultivate the soil, and provide the
necessaries of life. Yet that insatiable thirst of gold is a stimulus
which has led to useful and to honourable things: it is not the love of
the metal, but the possession of it gives power, and that is the real
object of most men's ambition: it is certainly that of the ambition of
all nations, and this object is held legitimate: we account those base
or wicked who seek the means; we admire those who attain the end. The
philosophic historian and the poet are alike ready to condemn the man
who first dug the ore from the mine: the panegyric in prose and in verse
is lavished on the hero and the patron. But gold furnished the means for
the hero's conquests and the patron's liberality, and gold, or the worth
of gold, is the object of both; whether in the form of continued power,
or of that fame which patronage can bring. Sad indeed has been the waste
of human life in searching for gold: but have all the mines together
consumed more men than the single revolutionary war? And have not the
religious contests among Christians, and their persecutions and
mutilations and burnings cost many more? I would not justify the gold
finders; their actions were horrible, their oppressions atrocious; but
let them have justice: the stimulus was great; urged on by it, they
performed great things, they braved cold, and hunger, and fatigue, and
persecution, and death; they persevered, they opened the way to unknown
lands, they laid the foundations for future civilisation in countries
which will have reason to bless their discoveries, when the effect of
their evil deeds, as well as the memory of the brutal customs of the
savages they so unjustly oppressed, shall have passed away.
But I have neither space nor inclination to follow their adventures, and
must refer to Mr. Southey's elaborate and excellent account of them.
Daniel Defoe alone could have so handled the subject as to make
delightful so dull and so sad a tale. I am but a looker on to whom the
actions of the present are more interesting than the past, but yet am
not insensible to the influence that the elder days have had upon us.
Pernambuco had during the half century which had elapsed since the
expulsion of the Dutch had time to recruit. The sugar plantations had
reappeared, and the commerce of Recife had become extremely important.
The merchants, and especially those from Europe, had settled there, and
the town had increased till it became the second of Brazil; while Olinda
gradually declined, having few inhabitants besides priests and the
representatives of the old families of the province, who might be called
its nobility: still Recife was but a village until, in 1710, it
solicited and obtained the royal assent to its becoming a town, and
having a camera or municipal council to govern its internal affairs. The
jealousy of the people of Olinda and the other old Brazilians was
violently excited by this concession, which they conceived would raise
the plebeian traders and foreigners to an equality with themselves.
After several tumultuous meetings on the subject, three of the ten
parishes belonging to Olinda were assigned to Recife, and the governor,
fearing to set up the pillar which marks a township openly, had it
erected in the night. Fresh disturbances ensued, in which some of the
magistrates were concerned, and there were not wanting voices to exclaim
that the Pernambucans had shown they could shake off the strong chains
of the Dutch, and that they could as easily shake off others and govern
themselves. The seditious magistrates were arrested and thrown into
prison. The soldiers were employed to disarm the people; but they had
now advanced too far to be easily reduced. The governor was fired at and
dangerously wounded, and proofs were not wanting that the judge and the
bishop had at least consented to the attempt on his life. The most
serious disturbances followed: the inhabitants of the whole district
took up arms, some blood was shed in the course of their contentions
with the soldiers, and Sebastian de Castro, the governor, weakened both
in body and mind, was induced to fly to Bahia for safety. Six of the
chief Pernambucans were now appointed to exercise the functions of a
provisional government till orders should be received from Lisbon, and
all Europeans were deprived of their offices and commissions.
But the bishop, who had been at Paraiba since the time when De Castro
was wounded, now returned to claim his office as governor on the removal
of the former one. He began to exercise his authority in the king's
name, and his first act was to declare a general pardon. But he, however
appears to have been a timid man: willing yet not daring to join the
party who wished to shake off the yoke of Portugal, and by his
vacillating conduct betraying both his friends in that party, and the
trust reposed in him by the crown. At length, in 1711, these
disturbances were quieted by a new governor, Felix Jose Machado de
Mendonca. Brazil was not yet ripe for independence; nor indeed could so
small and ill-peopled a state as Pernambuco have maintained its freedom
even for a year unconnected with the other captaincies. While these
things were going on in the captaincies of Brazil, the Jesuits were
labouring in the interior to reclaim the Indians, with success far
beyond the apparent means, and some towns, which have since become of
importance, were built on the coast and on the shores of the Plata,
particularly Monte Video, in 1733; but the border war, between the
Spaniards and Portuguese, which was waged on account of these
settlements, disquieted the neighbourhood for a time. Its importance,
however, was soon forgotten in the disturbances caused by the treaty of
division between Spain and Portugal, which forcing the Indians who had
been reclaimed to emigrate, roused them to a vigorous but short and
useless resistance, which only began the evils that the Jesuit missions
were destined to perish under.
The Portuguese government, under the administration of Carvalho,
afterwards Marquis of Pombal, had begun to attend to, and attempt to
reform the abuses which existed throughout Brazil, but particularly in
the newly founded captaincies and settlements, when the war with France
and Spain broke out in 1762. For a time defence against a foreign enemy
superseded every other consideration. The first act of hostility in the
western world was the seizing of the Portuguese settlement of Columbia,
in the Plata, by the governor of Buenos Ayres, before the squadron
despatched by the governor of Brazil, Gomez Freyre, could arrive to
protect it. That squadron consisted of the Lord Clive, of 64 guns, an
English ship commanded by Capt. Macnamara; the Ambuscade, of 40 guns, in
which Penrose, the poet, served as lieutenant; and the Gloria, of 38
guns. The Spanish ships retired before Macnamara, and he ran under the
guns of the forts of Colonia, in order to retake the place. He had
nearly succeeded in silencing the batteries, when, by accident or
negligence, the ship took fire; the enemy renewed their fire;
three-fourths of the crew of the Lord Clive, among which was the
captain, were drowned. The other ships were nearly destroyed and obliged
to retreat; but owing to the neglect of the Spaniards, they were able to
refit and return to Rio. And this was the most remarkable action of the
war beyond the Atlantic, and the first in which the English
distinguished themselves in the defence of Brazil.
Pombal, meantime, having resolved on the suppression of the order of
Jesuits, overlooked, in the ardour with which he pursued that measure,
the important services they had rendered, and were daily rendering, to
one of his favourite objects, namely, the improvement of the condition
of the Indians. Their plan of discipline, indeed, hitherto had kept
their pupils rather in a state of childish innocence than of manly
improvement. Their fault was, that in order to secure obedience, they
had stopped short of what they might have effected. Their dominion was
an Utopia; and had it been possible to shut out every European and every
wild Indian, it might have lasted. But such artificial polities can
never be of long duration. Some convulsions either from without or from
within must end them, and that with a more complete ruin than could
befal states less curiously framed. But the well-intentioned labours of
the missionaries had produced one decided good effect,--the habits of
savage life were abandoned, and the advantages of agriculture and
manufactures had been felt. The rock on which the education of the
Indians split, was the community of goods. When a man has no property,
but depends for the supply of his daily wants upon the providence of
others, he has no incitement to particular exertion. The stimulus to
industry cannot exist where a man has no hope of growing richer, no fear
of becoming poorer, no anxiety about the provision of his family. His
judgment in the portioning and disposing of his property is never called
forth; all the qualities and virtues that arise out of the practice of
domestic economy lie dormant, and the man remains an infant. It would
have been easy to remedy this, by allowing the Indians to possess
private stock, and to provide for their own families after the first
generation. The newly reclaimed did require to be provided for, but the
children growing up in the Aldeas might have been intrusted with their
own property. They would have become men; and when the removal of their
spiritual fathers took place, that wide and deep desolation would not
have overwhelmed them, nor would Paraguay have gone back as it has done
towards a savage state.
The Jesuits of Brazil were expelled in 1760, in the most cruel and
arbitrary manner. Those of the Spanish American colonies eight years
later. Whatever might have been their faults, or even their crimes, in
other countries, in these their conduct had been exemplary. They had
been the protectors of a persecuted race, the advocates of mercy, the
founders of civilisation; and their patience under their unmerited
sufferings forms not the least honourable trait in their character.
The history of Brazil, for the next thirty years, is composed of the
mismanagement and decay of the Jesuit establishments; the enlargement of
the mining districts, particularly in the direction of Mato Grosso; some
disputes with the French on the frontier of Cayenne; and the more
peaceful occupations of opening roads, and the introduction of new
branches of commerce, and the improvement of the old.
This tranquillity was for a moment interrupted by a conspiracy in the
province of Minas Geraes, headed by an officer named Joaquim Jose de
Silva Xavier, commonly called Tiradentes. The project of the
conspirators was to form an independent republic in Minas, and, if
possible, to induce Rio de Janeiro to unite with it. But their measures
were most inadequate for the end proposed, and their conduct so
imprudent, that, although there was a pretty general feeling of
discontent on account of the taxes and some other grievances, the
conspirators were all seized before they had formed anything like a
party capable of resistance, much less of beginning the meditated
revolution.
The direct effects upon Brazil of the first thirteen years of the
revolutionary war in Europe were confined to some slight disputes
regarding the boundaries of the Portuguese and French Guiana, and
concerning the limits of which, there was an article in Lord
Cornwallis's negotiations with France, or rather the peace of Amiens in
1802.
The indirect effects were greater. Being a good deal left to themselves,
the colonists had leisure to discover what sort of cultivation and crops
suited best with the climate, and were fittest for the market; and some
branches of industry were introduced, and others improved, to the great
advantage of the province. Foreign ships, and even fleets, had also
begun to resort thither[18]: so that, though the ports had as yet been
closed against foreign traders, the entrance of men of war, and such
merchant ships as could find no others to refit in, introduced a virtual
freedom, which it would afterwards have been impossible not to have
confirmed.
[Note 18: That under Sir H. Popham, on Sir D. Baird's expedition to
the Cape of Good Hope, for instance, in 1805, and that of the French
admiral, Guillaumez, in 1806.]
The court of Portugal meanwhile, as if infatuated by the negotiations of
France, consented to buy a disgraceful neutrality at the price of
1,000,000 of livres or 40,000_l._ per month, besides granting free
entrance to French woollens into the kingdom.
It was in vain that frequent representations were made to the ministry
at Lisbon on the subject; that the armament at Bayonne, and the refusal
of Spain to forbid the passage of French troops through her territories,
were pointed out. The Portuguese forces were marched to the sea-coast,
as if they apprehended an invasion from England; thus leaving the
kingdom defenceless on the land side, and the ports were shut against
English commerce, by a proclamation, dated 20th October, 1807. But the
importance of Portugal to England, as neutral ground, or, in the event
of a French government in Spain, as a point whence to attack the great
enemy, was such, that the resentment which at another time would
certainly have been openly declared, was suppressed; but a strong
squadron was always kept up off the coast, partly to watch the
proceedings on shore, partly to prevent the Portuguese vessels from
coming out of port, and joining the French and Spaniards.
While this system of watchfulness was kept up in Europe, the English
ministry was not less attentive to the designs of France on the South
American colonies. As long as Spain and Portugal continued to pay the
enormous price in money for their neutrality, which France had demanded,
the views of Napoleon were better answered than they could have been by
the possession of all their territory and all their colonies. But the
moment in which they should become unable or unwilling to pay that
price, would of course be that of aggression and invasion. So early as
1796, Mr. Pitt had contemplated the advantages that must arise to
Britain from the possession of a port in South America, and particularly
in the Rio de la Plata, nor did he ever afterwards lose sight of it.
Some circumstances occurred in December, 1804, to draw his attention,
particularly towards the subject, inasmuch as he had intelligence that
France was about to attempt to seize on one of the Spanish settlements
on the first opportunity. But we were then at peace with Spain, and
however willing to prevent such an aggression on the part of France, and
to assist General Miranda in his intended expedition to South America,
it was impossible to co-operate with him, as he earnestly pressed the
ministry to do, although the advantage to England of securing such a
market for her manufactures was clearly perceived. Among the officers
who had been most confidentially consulted by Mr. Pitt, on the
practicability of obtaining a settlement on the La Plata, was Sir Home
Popham; and it was probably his knowledge of the views so long
entertained by that minister, that induced him to take the hazardous
step, of leaving the Cape of Good Hope so soon after it had been
occupied by the English forces, in 1806, and taking Buenos Ayres without
orders to that effect. His immediate motive was, the intelligence he had
procured, that the squadron of the French admiral, Guillaumez, had
intentions of touching on the coast of Brazil, entering the La Plata,
and, if possible, seizing, or forming a settlement there; and some North
Americans whom he had met, encouraged the undertaking, by observing,
that to throw open the ports of South America would be a common benefit
to all commercial nations, but particularly to England.[19]
[Note 19: For the political and commercial views entertained with
regard to the assisting Miranda, or obtaining for England a port in
South America, see Lord Melville's evidence on the court martial on Sir
Home Popham.]
In 1806, the demonstrations of hostilities against Portugal on the part
of France were so evident, that Lord Rosslyn was despatched thither on a
special mission, in which Lord St. Vincent and General Simcoe were
joined with him. His instructions from Mr. Fox, then prime minister,
were to lay before the ministry of Lisbon, the imminent danger which
threatened the country, and to offer assistance in men, money, and
stores from England, to put Portugal in a state of defence, in case the
government should decide on a vigorous and effective resistance. If, on
the other hand, Portugal should think itself too weak to contend with
France, the idea that had once occurred to King Don Alfonso of
emigrating to Brazil, and there establishing the capital of the empire,
was to be revived, and promises made of assistance and protection for
that purpose. If, however, Portugal insisted on rejecting assistance in
either case, the troops under General Simcoe were to be landed, the
strong forts on the Tagus occupied by them, and the fleet was to enter
the river and secure the Portuguese ships and vessels, taking care to
impress the government and people with the feeling that this was done
from regard to the nation, and by no means for the sake of selfish
aggrandisement on the part of England. It appears, however, that the
French preparations for the invasion were not at that time so far
advanced as had been imagined, and at the earnest entreaty of the court
of Lisbon, the troops and the fleet were withdrawn from the Tagus.
On the 8th of August, the next year, however, (1807) Mr. Rayneval, the
French charge d'affaires at Lisbon, received orders from his court to
declare to the Prince Regent of Portugal, that if by the first of
September he did not declare war against England, and send back the
English minister, recalling the Portuguese ambassador from London, and
did not seize all the English residents, confiscate their property, and
shut the ports of the kingdom against the English; and lastly, if he did
not, without delay, unite his armies and fleets with those of the rest
of the continent against England, he had orders to demand his passports
and to declare war.
The Conde de Barca, then prime minister, was certainly aware of the
preparations of the French government. But with that obstinate blindness
which sometimes seems to possess men like a fate, he persisted in
regarding them only as measures to intimidate and harass England. This
nobleman had been ambassador at the court of St. Petersburg, and on his
recall to take the first place in the cabinet at Lisbon, he was ordered
to go by sea to London, and thence to Portugal, but he chose to perform
the journey by way of Paris, where he saw and conversed both with
Napoleon and Talleyrand. There cannot be the least doubt but that he was
duped by those able men. Many considered him as a traitor. But the
vanity of the Conde, who always said he had gone to judge of these men
by his own eyes, though it makes him weaker, makes him less wicked, and
was, perhaps, the true spring of his actions. He it was who carried the
measures for the detention of the English, the confiscation of their
property, and the shutting the ports against English commerce: adopting,
in short, the whole of the continental system. The very day before Junot
was to reach Lisbon, however, a Paris newspaper, written in anticipation
of the event, announced that "_The House of Braganza no longer
reigned_," and that its members were reduced to the common herd of
ex-princes, &c., giving no very favourable description of them, and
holding out no very flattering expectations for the future. This
completely opened the Prince Regent's eyes, and he consented to that
step, which D. John IV. and Don Jose had contemplated, namely, the
transferring the seat of his empire to his Transatlantic possessions.
This was in the month of November, 1807, but the events of that month,
the most interesting that had occurred to Portugal since the revolution
that had placed Braganza on the throne of his ancestors, will be best
understood by the following extracts from the despatches received by the
British ministry from Lord Strangford and from Sir Sydney Smith at the
time. On the 29th November, 1807, His Lordship writes, after mentioning
the Prince's departure for Brazil:--
"I had frequently and distinctly stated to the cabinet of Lisbon, that
in agreeing not to resent the exclusion of British commerce from the
ports of Portugal, His Majesty had exhausted the means of forbearance;
that in making that concession to the peculiar circumstances of the
Prince Regent's situation, His Majesty had done all that friendship and
the remembrance of ancient alliance could justly require; but that a
single step beyond the line of modified hostility, thus most
reluctantly consented to, must necessarily lead to the extremity of
actual war.
"The Prince Regent, however, suffered himself for a moment to forget
that, in the present state of Europe, no country could be permitted to
be an enemy to England with impunity, and that however much His Majesty
might be disposed to make allowance for the deficiency of means
possessed by Portugal of resistance to the power of France, neither his
own dignity nor the interests of his people would permit His Majesty to
accept that excuse for a compliance with the full extent of her
unprincipled demands. On the 8th inst. His Royal Highness was induced to
sign an order for the detention of the few British subjects, and of the
inconsiderable portion of British property which yet remained at Lisbon.
On the publication of this order, I caused the arms of England to be
removed from the gates of my residence, demanded my passports, presented
a final remonstrance against the recent conduct of the court of Lisbon,
and proceeded to the squadron commanded by Sir Sydney Smith, which
arrived off the coast of Portugal some days after I had received my
passports, and which I joined on the 17th inst.
"I immediately suggested to Sir Sydney Smith the expediency of
establishing the most rigorous blockade at the mouth of the Tagus; and I
had the high satisfaction of afterwards finding that I had thus
anticipated the intentions of His Majesty: for despatches (which I
received on the 23d) directing me to authorise that measure, in case the
Portuguese government should pass the bounds which His Majesty had
thought fit to set to his forbearance, and attempt to take any further
step injurious to the honour or interests of Great Britain."--
----"I resolved, therefore, to proceed forthwith to ascertain the effect
produced by the blockade of Lisbon, and to propose to the Portuguese
government, as the only condition upon which that blockade should cease,
the alternative (stated by you) either of surrendering the fleet to His
Majesty, or of immediately employing it to remove the Prince Regent and
his family to the Brazils."--
"I accordingly requested an audience of the Prince Regent, together with
due assurances of protection and security; and upon receiving His Royal
Highness's answers I proceeded to Lisbon on the 27th, in His Majesty's
sloop Confiance, bearing a flag of truce. I had immediately most
interesting communications with the court of Lisbon, the particulars of
which shall be detailed in a future despatch. It suffices to mention in
this place, that the Prince Regent wisely directed all his apprehensions
to a French army, and all his hopes to a British fleet: that he received
the most explicit assurances from me that His Majesty would generously
overlook those acts of unwilling and momentary hostility to which His
Royal Highness's consent had been extorted; and that I promised to His
Royal Highness, on the faith of my sovereign, that the British squadron
before the Tagus should be employed to protect his retreat from Lisbon,
and his voyage to the Brazils.
"A decree was published yesterday, in which the Prince Regent announced
his intention of retiring to the city of Rio de Janeiro until the
conclusion of a general peace, and of appointing a regency to transact
the administration of government at Lisbon, during His Royal Highness's
absence from Europe."
Sir Sydney Smith writes on the first of December the following letter to
the admiralty:--
His Majesty's Ship Hibernia, 22 leagues west of the Tagus, Dec. 1, 1807.
"Sir,
"In a former despatch, dated 22d November, with a postscript of the
26th, I conveyed to you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty, the proofs contained in various documents of the
Portuguese government, being so much influenced by terror of the French
arms as to have acquiesced to certain demands of France operating
against Great Britain. The distribution of the Portuguese force was made
wholly on the coast, while the land side was left totally unguarded.
British subjects of all descriptions were detained; and it therefore
became necessary to inform the "Portuguese government, that the case
had arisen, which required, in obedience to my instructions, that I
should declare the Tagus in a state of blockade."
(_Sir Sydney then repeats part of Lord Strangford's despatch._)
"On the morning of the 29th, the Portuguese fleet came out of the Tagus
with His Royal Highness the Prince of Brazil, and the whole of the royal
family of Braganza on board, together with many of his faithful
councillors and adherents, as well as other persons attached to his
present fortunes.
"This fleet of eight sail of the line, four frigates, two brigs, and one
schooner[20], with a crowd of large armed merchant ships arranged itself
under the protection of that of His Majesty, while the firing of a
reciprocal salute of twenty-one guns announced the friendly meeting of
those, who but the day before were on terms of hostility, the scene
impressing every beholder (except the French army on the hills) with the
most lively emotions of gratitude to Providence, that there yet existed
a power in the world able, as well as willing, to protect the
oppressed.--I have, &c.
"W. SYDNEY SMITH."
[Note 20: _List of the Portuguese Fleet that came out of the Tagus
on the 29th of November, 1807._
Guns. Commanded by
Principe Real 84, Adm. Manoel da Cunha.
Capt. Manoel da Canto.
Rainha de Portugal 74, Capt. Francisco Manoel Soetomayor.
_The Princess Dowager and younger daughters
came in this ship._
Conde Henrique 74, Capt. Jose Maria de Almeida.
Medusa 74, Capt. Henrique de Souza Prego.
Affonso d'Abuquerque 64, Capt Ignacio da Costa Quinatella.
_The Queen and family in this ship._
D. Joam de Castro 64, Capt. Don Manoel Juan Souca.
Principe do Brazil 74, Capt. Garca[)o].
Martim de Freitas 64, Capt. Don Manoel Menezes.
FRIGATES.
Minerva 44, Capt. Rodrigo Lobo.
Golfinho 36, Capt. Luiz d'Acunha.
Urania 32, Capt. Tancos, Conde de Viana.
Cherua Princesa S.S. 20, Commanded by a lieutenant.
BRIGS.
Voador 22, Lieut. Fs. Maximilian.
Vinganca 20, Capt. Nicolas Kytten.
Gaivota 22.
SCHOONER.
Curiosa 12, _Hoisted French colours and deserted._
Of these vessels, the _Martin Freitas_ is now the _Pedro Primero_. The
_Principe Real_ is the receiving ship at Rio. The _Rainha de Portugal_
is at Lisbon, as well as the Conde Henrique. The _Medusa_ is the sheer
hulk at Rio. The three other line-of-battle ships either broke up or
about to be so. Of the frigates, the Minerva was taken by the French in
India. The Golfinho is broken up, and the _Urania_ was wrecked on the
Cape de Verde Islands. The Voador is now a corvette. The Vinganca is
broke up, and the Gaivoto is now the Liberal.
_List of the Ships that remained at Lisbon._
Guns.
S. Sebastao 64, _Unserviceable without thorough repair._
Maria Prima 74, _Ordered for floating battery--not fitted._
Vasco de Gama 74,[21] _Under repair, nearly ready._
Princesa de Beira 64, _Ordered for floating battery._
FRIGATES.
Fenix 48, _In need of thorough repair_ (broke up at Bahia).
Aamazona 44, _Do. Do._ (Do. at Lisbon).
Perola 44, _Do. Do._ (Do. at Lisbon).
Tritao 40, _Past repair._
Veney 30, _Past repair._
]
[Note 21: Hulk at Rio.]
Such are the public accounts transmitted by foreigners to their court of
one of the most singular transactions that has occurred in the history
of kingdoms and of courts. Yet such was the state of Europe at that
time, so momentous the struggle between the principals in the mighty
warfare that was going on, that the ancient house of Braganza left the
seat of its ancestors, to seek shelter and security beyond the Atlantic,
almost without notice and with less ceremony than had formerly attended
an excursion to its country palaces.
The French Government had waited to invade Portugal till that unhappy
country had exhausted its treasury, in the payment of the enormous sums
demanded as the price of its neutrality. French influence had removed
the Portuguese troops from the mountain passes, where they might have
opposed the entrance of French armies, and the Prince Regent only
declared his adherence to the continental system, and arrested the
English on the simultaneous entrance of three Imperial and Spanish
armies.
Junot invaded Algarve and passed the Zezere, at the same moment when
Solano threw himself upon Oporto, and Carafa occupied Alentejo and
Algarve.--Under these circumstances, the conduct of the ministry, though
not courageous, was natural, and it was as natural when Lord Strangford
returned to Lisbon, which, perhaps, he ought not to have left, that the
last council held in that capital should decide on the emigration of the
court to Brazil. Had it remained, and Portugal had become a French
province, the Prince and all his family were prisoners in the hands of
one who had respected no crown; and besides, England had intimated that
in that case she must occupy Brazil for her own security. By emigrating
to Brazil the Prince retained in his hands the largest and richest
portion of his domains, and secured at least, the personal freedom and
safety of his family. At the end therefore of the last meeting of his
councillors the Prince called his confidential servants[22], and ordered
them to prepare every thing _in secret_ for the embarkation of the court
on the next night but one. One of these had been actually ordered to
provide quarters for Junot, and on the next morning to have a breakfast
ready for him at a house half-way between Sacavem and Lisbon. This man
had smuggled his family on board one of the ships, he had been night and
day getting provisions, plate, books, jewels, whatever could be moved on
board the fleet, and, remaining to the last, was again ordered to
provide quarters for Junot: but he was fortunate enough to secure a boat
to carry him off to the fleet, leaving papers, money, and even his hat
behind him on the beach.
Such is the picture of the hasty embarkation, given by some of the
attendants on the royal family.
[Note 22: These were the Visconde de Rio Seco, who managed all; the
Marquis de Vagos, gentleman of the bed-chamber; Conde de Redondo, who
had the charge of the royal pantries; Manoel da Cunha, admiral of the
fleet; the Padre Jose Eloi, who had the care of the valuables belonging
to the patriarchal church.]
The fleets had no sooner got off the land than they encountered a
violent gale of wind, but by the 5th of December they were all collected
again; on that day Sir Sidney Smith having supplied the ships with every
thing necessary for their safety, and having convoyed them to lat. 37 deg.
47' north, and long. 14 deg. 17' west, left them to go on under the
protection of the Marlborough, Capt. Moore, with a broad pennant, the
London, Monarch and Bedford.[23] They proceeded without farther accident
to the coast of Brazil, and landed at Bahia on the 21st of January,
1808.[24]
[Note 23: On the removal of the family of Braganza to Brazil, Sir
Samuel Hood and General Beresford took possession of Madeira, in trust
for Portugal, till a restoration should take place.]
[Note 24: The Rainha de Portugal, and the Conde Henrique with the
Princess Dowager and the younger Princesses arrived straight at Rio, on
the 15th of January. The Martim de Freitas and Golfinho arrived on the
15th at Bahia for supplies, sailed for Rio on the 24th, and arrived on
the 30th.]
The Conde da Ponte was at that time governor of Bahia, and is said to
have been very popular[25]: he had married a lady of high family who was
not less so, and she possessed, besides the manners of the court, a
considerable portion of both beauty and talent.
[Note 25: The Conde died in May, 1809, at the age of 35, leaving ten
children, and an embarrassed estate.]
The reception of the royal party was rendered so agreeable to the Prince
by the governor and his lady, that he remained at St. Salvador's a
month, every day being a festival, and then left it with regret. In
commemoration of the visit, a spot was cleared near the fortress of St.
Peter's, and commanding a fine view over the whole of the beautiful bay,
and there an obelisk was erected with an inscription, stating its
purpose, and the surrounding ground was planted and converted into a
public garden.
But, however agreeable a residence at Bahia might have been to His Royal
Highness, the place is too insecure for the purposes for which he
emigrated. If it is besieged by sea, and the smallest land force gets
possession of the neck of land between the Cape and Rio Vermelha, it is
actually without the means of subsistence. The entrance of the bay is so
wide, that nothing, can prevent ships from going in when they please.
Whereas, the harbour of Rio is easily defended, it not being possible
for ships to enter without being exposed to the fire of the forts.
Besides, it has resources which Bahia has not, being at all times able
to communicate with the rich province of the Minas, which, besides the
metals, abounds in corn, mandioc, cotton, coffee, cattle, hogs, and even
the coarse manufactures such as cotton, &c., for the use of the slaves
and for ordinary purposes.
Rio was therefore the best adapted for the asylum of the illustrious
house of Braganza, and, on the 26th February, His Royal Highness sailed
from Bahia, and arrived in Rio de Janeiro on the 7th March.
Meantime the French troops had occupied Portugal, and Junot, who
commanded in chief, and had fixed his head-quarters at Lisbon, began by
disarming the inhabitants, and war between France and Portugal was
formally announced, eight days before the signature of the treaty of
Fontainbleau, by which Portugal was divided into three great feoffs,
which, under the King of Etruria, the Prince of Peace Godoy, and a
Braganza, if he would submit to the conditions[26], were to be subject
to the crown of Spain.
[Note 26: Godoy was to have Alentejo and Algarve; Etruria, Entre
Minho e Douro with the city of Oporto, the rest was to be sequestrated
till a general peace, when a Braganza was to be placed at its head, on
condition that England should restore Gibraltar, Trinidad, &c. to
Spain.]
Junot published a proclamation flattering the people in proportion to
his oppressions and exactions, and nearly ruined them by a forced war
contribution of nearly 3,000,000_l._--In addition to this a conscription
of 40,000 men was raised, and thus the means which Portugal possessed,
and which, if timely used, might have saved her from invasion were
turned against her.
The first ministry appointed on the arrival of the court at Rio,
consisted of Don Rodriguez de Souza Continho, Don Juan d'Almeida, the
Visconde d'Anadia, and the Marquez d'Aguiar.
The first measure of the court was to publish a manifesto, setting forth
the conduct of France towards Portugal, from the beginning of the
revolution; the efforts of the government to preserve its neutrality;
and detailing all the events which had led immediately to the emigration
of the royal family. The manifesto also denied having, as the French
government alleged, given any succours to the English fleet or troops in
their expedition to the River Plate; and it states, that the French
government having broken faith with that of Portugal, His Royal Highness
considered himself at war with France, and declared that he could only
make peace by consent of, and in conjunction with, his old and faithful
ally the king of England; and this was all the direct interference of
the Prince in the affairs of his ancient European kingdom, where a junta
of five persons was appointed to govern, and where, before the end of
the year (1808), the battle of Vimiera had been fought, and the
convention of Cintra had been signed.
The first sensible effect of the arrival of the royal family in Brazil
was the opening of its numerous ports[27]; and in the very first year
(1808) ninety foreign ships entered the single harbour of Rio, and a
proportional number, those of Maranham, Pernambuco, and Bahia. The
effect of the residence of the court was soon felt in the city of Rio de
Janeiro. It was before 1808 confined to little more than the ground it
occupied when attacked by Duguay Trouen in 1712; and the beautiful bays
above and below it, formed by the harbour, were unoccupied, except by a
few fishermen, while the swamps and morasses which surrounded it
rendered it filthy in the extreme. A spot near the church of San
Francisco de Paulo had been cleared for a square, but scarcely a dozen
houses had risen round it, and a muddy pond filled up the centre, into
which the negroes were in the habit of throwing all the impurities from
the neighbourhood. This was now filled up. On one side of the square a
theatre was begun, not inferior to those of Europe in size and
accommodation, and placed under the patronage of St. John; several
magnificent houses rose in the immediate neighbourhood, the square was
finished, and another and much larger laid out beyond it, on one side of
the city, while on the other, between the foot of the mountain of the
Corcovado, with its surrounding hills, and the sea, every station was
occupied by delightful country-houses, and the beautiful bay of Boto
Fogo, where there were before only fishermen and gipsies, soon became a
populous and wealthy suburb.
[Note 27: 28th January, 1808.]
It is not in my power to give a detailed account of all the transactions
of this important year. The trade had naturally rapidly increased; the
money brought by the emigrants from Portugal, had called forth greater
exertions and speculations in commerce; and in October a public bank was
chartered in Rio, with a capital of from seventy to eighty thousand
pounds sterling.
The establishment of a regular gazette naturally took place, for the
speedier dissemination of whatever tidings might arrive from Portugal,
where lay the possessions and the interest of the court and the new
people of Brazil; and though the press, of course, did not boast of much
freedom, nor indeed would its freedom at that time have been of any
consequence, it formed the first step towards awakening rational
curiosity and that desire for reading, which has become not only a
luxury, but even a necessary, in some countries, and which makes a rapid
and daily progress here.
On the arrival of the court many of the old Creole families hastened to
the capital to greet their sovereigns. The sons and the daughters of
these married into the noble houses of Portugal; the union of the two
nations became intimate and permanent; and the manners and habits of the
Brazilians more polished. With the artificial wants that sprung up, new
industry was excited, especially near the capital; the woods and hills
were cleared, the desert islands of the bay became thriving farms,
gardens sprung up every where, and the delicate table vegetables of
Europe and Africa were added to the native riches of the soil and
climate.
The numbers of the royal family furnished birth-days for frequent galas,
the foreigners vied with the Portuguese in their feasts, so that Rio
presented a scene of almost continued festivity. On the 17th of
December, the birth-day of the queen, six counts were created, that is,
Luiz de Vasconcellos e Souza was made Conde de Figuerio, Don Rodrigo de
Souza Continho, Conde de Linhares, the Visconde d'Anadia, Conde
d'Anadia, D. Joao d'Almeida de Mello e Castro, Conde das Galveas, D.
Fernando Jose de Portogal, Conde d'Aguiar, and D. Jose de Souza
Continho, Conde de Redondo. The Papal Nuncio, Sir Sidney Smith, and Lord
Strangford[28], were honoured with the order of the Tower and Sword; six
English officers were named commanders of the order of the Cross, and
five others were made knights of the same.
[Note 28: Sir Sydney Smith had followed the Portuguese court to Rio,
less as commander of the British naval force in those seas, than as the
protector of the Braganzas. Lord Strangford had resumed his character of
ambassador.]
The beginning of 1809 was marked by an event of some importance. By the
treaty of Amiens, Portuguese Guiana had been given up to France, and was
now, together with French Guyana and Cayenne, governed by the infamous
Victor Hughes. It was long since France had been able to send out
succour to these colonies. The fleets of England impeded the navigation,
and the demands at home were too urgent and too great to permit much to
be hazarded for the sake of such a distant possession. The court of Rio,
therefore, resolved to send a body of troops under Colonel Manoel
Marquez, to the mouth of the Oyapok. The English ship of war, Confiance,
commanded by Captain Yeo, accompanied him, and their combined attack
forced the enemy to surrender on the 12th of January. The terms were
honourable to both parties: and among the articles I observe the 14th,
by which it is stipulated, that the botanic garden, called the
Gabrielle, shall not only be spared, but kept up in the state of
perfection in which it was given up. War is so horrible, that a trait
like this, in the midst of its evils, is too pleasing to be overlooked.
The rest of the year passed in Brazil in quiet though important
operations; many roads were opened through the still wild country in the
interior; a naval academy was instituted; a school of anatomy was
founded in the naval and military hospital; and the vaccine
establishment formed in Brazil in 1804 having declined, it was renewed
both at Bahia and Rio, and immense numbers of persons of all colours
were vaccinated.
Meanwhile the Portuguese arms were employed in another quarter of the
world. The extensive dominions of Portugal in the east had fallen off
one by one, as pearls from a broken thread. Yet Macao was still
Portuguese. For twenty years past, it, in common with the coast of
China, had been plagued with the pirates of the Yellow Sea; till, at
length, the Chinese government found it necessary to take measures for
suppressing them, and therefore made a treaty with the Portuguese
government of Macao, signed by the following personages, on the 23d of
November.
MIGUEL DE ARRIGA, Judge.
BRUN DA SILVA.
JOSE JOAQUIN BARROS, General.
SHIN KEI CHI.
CHES.
POM.
The Portuguese were by this treaty to furnish six vessels of from
sixteen to twenty-six guns, but being in want of ball and other stores
they were supplied liberally by the English East India Company's
factory; and the result was, that after three months' resistance, the
pirates surrendered their ships, and promised to become peaceable
subjects, and the people of Macao performed a Te Deum in honour of their
success; but twelve months elapsed ere the happy tidings reached Brazil.
The great European interests of Brazil and its sovereign might have been
forgotten in the country itself, during the year 1810, so tranquil was
it, but for the packets which brought across the Atlantic the details of
those desperate battles, which the strength and the treasure of England
were waging in defence of them in the Peninsula. On the 19th of
February, Lord Strangford and the Conde de Linhares, in behalf of their
respective governments, signed a commercial treaty at Rio, by which
great and reciprocal advantages were obtained, and the English were
allowed the free exercise of their own form of worship, provided they
built no steeples to their churches, and that they used no bells.
This was followed in the month of May by a formal notice from Lord
Strangford, that the British Parliament had voted 980,000_l._ for the
carrying on of the war in Portugal. In fact, England had now taken the
battle into her own hands, as she had decidedly the greatest interest in
opposing France; and the royal house of Braganza was at leisure to
devote its whole attention to its American dominions. Several well
appointed detachments were sent into different parts of the country for
the purpose of repelling the Indians, whose inroads had destroyed
several of the Portuguese settlements, of forming roads to connect the
different provinces with each other, and, above all, of furthering the
gradual civilisation of the Indian tribes. Strict orders were given the
commanders to proceed peaceably, especially among the friendly Indians;
but such as were refractory were to be pursued even to extermination. To
further the views with which these expeditions had been formed, a
proclamation was issued in the month of September, holding out to such
as should become proprietors and reclaimers of land in the province of
the Minas Geraes and on the banks of the Rio Doce, all the advantages of
original donatories and lords paramount; and promising that every
settlement that should contain twelve huts of reclaimed Indians, and ten
houses of white persons, should be erected into a villa, with all its
privileges. The party that was sent up the Rio Doce discovered one
hundred and forty-four farms that had been ruined by the Indians, and
which they restored: they formed a friendly treaty with several tribes
of Puri Indians, whom they found already settled in villages, to the
number of nearly a thousand. These people were gentle, and not without
some of the arts and habits of industry; but they were heathens and
polygamists; not that a plurality of wives was general, or even common,
for there were only one hundred and thirteen wives to ninety four
husbands. They do not appear to have been cannibals, though it is
strongly asserted that the neighbouring Botecudos were so, and that
having gained a slight advantage over the Portuguese, they had eaten
four of them who fell into their hands.[29] I confess I am sceptical
about these anthropophagi. That savages may eat their enemies taken in
battle I do not doubt; under the circumstances of savage life revenge
and retaliation are sweet: but I doubt their eating the dead found after
the battle, and I doubt their hunting men, or devouring women and
children. With the latter atrocities, indeed, they have not been charged
in modern times; and as at the period the missionaries wrote the first
histories of them, it was politic to exaggerate the difficulties these
useful men had to encounter, in order to enhance their services, it is
not uncharitable to believe that much exaggeration crept into the
accounts of the savages, especially if we recollect the miracles
ascribed in those very accounts to many of the missionaries themselves.
Besides these measures concerning the Indians, other steps were taken
for the good of the country of no less importance; several colonies,
both of Europeans, and of islanders from the Acores, were invited and
encouraged. The fisheries off the coast were attended to, and
particularly that of the island of St. Catherine; and on the same island
sufficient experiments were made upon the growth of hemp, to prove that
time and industry only were wanting to furnish great quantities of that
valuable article of a very good quality.
[Note 29: I have in my possession a curious drawing, found in a
Botecudo cottage, and done by one of the Creole Brazilians, of mixed
breed, who shows himself hidden in a cave, his white companions dead,
and they, as well as the soldiers of the black regiment who accompanied
them, have the flesh stripped from the bones, excepting the head, hands,
and feet. The Botecudos are represented as carrying off this flesh in
baskets. These savages appear quite naked, having their mouth pieces,
and being armed with bows and arrows.]
The year 1811 was the last of the life and ministry of the Conde de
Linhares, whose views were all directed to the good of the country.
Fully aware not only of its richness and fertility, he also perceived
how poor and how backward it was, considering its natural advantages.
In endeavouring to remedy the evils, he perhaps aimed at doing more than
was possible in the short time, and under the circumstances, in which
his active disposition could operate. He had formed roads and planned
canals; he had invited colonies, which indeed afterwards sunk; but they
left behind them some of their ingenious practice, and some seeds of
improvement which have not utterly perished. The possibility of
navigating both the St Matthew's river and the Gequetinhonha had been
ascertained; experiments in every kind of cultivation had been made;
even the tea had been introduced from China. A botanical garden had been
formed, in which the spices of the East were cultivated with success;
and perhaps as the greatest possible good, a public library had been
formed, and its regulations framed on the most liberal principles.
Towards the end of 1811 a royal decree was issued, assigning 120,000
crusadoes per annum to be taken from the customs of Bahia, Pernambuco,
and Maranham, for forty years, to the Portuguese, who had suffered
during the French war; a measure regarded even then with jealousy by the
northern captaincies. But they all continued tranquil for the present,
and seemed to attend only to domestic improvement. New buildings, both
for use and ornament, arose in the cities. Maranham and Pernambuco
improved their harbours. Bahia, besides the handsome theatre opened
there in 1812, paved her streets; and at Rio, a subscription of 30,000
crusadoes was raised towards beautifying the palace square, completing
the public gardens, and draining the campo de Sta. Anna.
In 1813, some disputes arose between the court of Rio and England on
account of the slave trade. Three ships had been captured by the British
squadron off the coast of Africa, while certainly engaged in illegal
_slaving_; remonstrances were made, and the matter continued suspended
until after the congress of Vienna, when that illustrious meeting,
though most of its highest and most powerful members had exclaimed
loudly against the villanous practice, suffered it to be carried on.
Then indeed England consented to pay 13,000_l._ to indemnify the
Portuguese slave traders for their loss (July, 1815)!
In the same year there appears to have been some discontent manifested,
or suspected in the provinces. Many of the salaries of officers, both
civil and military, remained unpaid; yet there were exactions, the more
grievous, because they were irregular, in every department; the
administration of justice was notoriously corrupt; the clergy had fallen
into disorder and disrepute; and though much that was useful had been
done, yet that was forgotten, especially in the distant provinces, and
such a portion of discontent existed, that various officers who had come
to Rio either on private business or to remonstrate on public wrongs,
were peremptorily ordered to return to their own provinces.
It was wisely done at this juncture, to take off the public attention
from such vexations by a measure at once just and gratifying to the
pride of the Brazilians: by an edict of the 16th of December, 1815,
Brazil was raised to the dignity of a kingdom, and the style and title
altered so as to place it on an equal footing with Portugal. For some
months addresses of thanks and congratulation poured in to the king from
various provinces, and the feasts and rejoicings on that happy occasion
occupied the people to the exclusion of all other considerations.
Meantime the victories of the allies in Europe, having caused the exile
of Napoleon to Elba, the necessity for an English guardian squadron at
Rio had ceased; and accordingly the British establishment was broken up,
and the stores sold, and the family of Braganza, again independent of
foreign aid, began to renew its connections with the other courts of
Europe.
These negotiations suffered some little interruption from an event which
had long been expected, namely, the death of the queen, on the 20th of
March, 1816, whose state, both of body and mind, had long precluded her
from all share in public affairs. She was buried with great pomp in the
church of the convent of the Ajuda; and, as is usual, dirges were sung
for her in all the churches in the kingdom.
In the month of June, the Marquis Marialva was received at Paris as
ambassador of Portugal and Brazil, and shortly afterwards the way having
been prepared by an inferior minister, he went to Vienna, to negotiate a
marriage between Don Pedro de Alcantara, Prince of Portugal and Brazil,
and the Archduchess Maria Leopoldina, which was happily effected. On the
28th of November, she was privately contracted at Vienna to the prince.
On the 17th of February following, the contract was made public, and on
the 13th of May she was married by proxy, the Marquis Marialva standing
for Don Pedro; but it was not until the 11th of November that she
arrived at Rio. The line of battle ship Joam VI. had been sent along
with two frigates for her to Trieste, the voyage was performed without
accident, and the person the most important to the hopes and happiness
of Brazil, was welcomed with enthusiasm by all classes of people.
In the autumn preceding, two of the Infantas of Portugal had been
married to Ferdinand the 7th of Spain, and his brother the Infant Don
Carlos.
But the frontier of Brazil to the southward now began to feel the effect
of those disturbances which had long agitated Spanish South America. The
chief Artigas showed a disposition to encroach on the Portuguese line,
and, therefore, a corps of volunteers had been formed for the purposes
of observation, and the Porte da Santa Theresa had been occupied in
order to check the motions of that active leader: during the autumn of
1816, several skirmishes took place, but the arts of negotiation as well
as of war were resorted to, and on the 19th of January, 1817, the keys
of Montevideo were delivered up to the Portuguese general Lecor, by
which the long-wished-for command of the eastern bank of the Plata was
obtained.
Meantime the discontents in the northern provinces had broken out into
open insurrection, in the captaincy of Pernambuco. The people of
Recife, and its immediate neighbourhood, had imbibed some of the notions
of democratical government from their former masters the Dutch. They
remembered besides, that their own exertions, without any assistance
from the government, had driven out those masters, and had restored to
the crown the northern part of its richest domain. They were, therefore,
disposed to be particularly jealous of the provinces of the south,
especially of Rio, which they considered as more favoured than
themselves, and they were disgusted at the payments of taxes and
contributions, by which they never profited, and which only served to
enrich the creatures of the court, while great abuses existed,
especially in the judicial part of the government, which they despaired
of ever seeing redressed. Such were the exciting causes of the
insurrection of 1817, in Pernambuco, which threatened for many months
the peace, if not the safety of Brazil. The example of the Spanish
Americans had no doubt its weight, and a regular plan for obtaining
independence was formed, troops were raised and disciplined, and Recife
being secured, fortifications were begun at Alagoas and at Penedo.
The insurgents, however, had probably miscalculated the degree of
concurrence or assistance they should meet with from their neighbours.
The people of Serinhaem as soon as the insurrection was known, namely
the middle of April, posted themselves on the Rio Formosa as a check on
that quarter, and the king's troops under Lacerda, marched immediately
from Bahia. The Pernambucan leader Victoriano, having attacked the Villa
de Pedras, received a decided check from a body of royalists, under
Major Gordilho, who had been sent forward by Lacerda, on the 21st: and
by the 29th Gordilho had occupied that post, as well as Tamandre, where
he was not long afterwards joined by Colonel Mello, with a strong
reinforcement.
Meantime the Pernambucan chief, Domingos Jose Martins, was actively
employed in collecting troops, and forming guerilla parties, in order to
harass the marches of the enemy. These parties were headed by
Cavalcante, a man of wealth and family, aided by a priest, Souto, a
bold and enterprising man, who was far from being the only
ecclesiastical partisan. On the 2d of May, a vigorous attack was made on
Serinhaem, by the famous Pernambucan division of the south, which had
hitherto received no check; but the assailants were repulsed with the
loss of their artillery and baggage, and a column under Martins coming
up met with the same fate, on which he drew off his people with those of
the south, to the ingenio of Trapiche. On the 6th of May they left that
position, and meeting the royalists under Mello, suffered a complete
defeat. Their chiefs were either killed or taken; and of the latter some
were exiled, others imprisoned, and three, Jose Luiz Mendonca, Domingos
Jose Martins, and the priest, Miguel Joaquim de Alameida, were hanged in
Bahia.
At this juncture Luiz do Rego Barreto was appointed by the government at
Rio to the office of captain-general of Pernambuco. He was a native of
Portugal, and had served with distinction under Lord Wellington. Of a
firm and vigorous mind, and jealous of the honour of a soldier, he was
perhaps too little yielding to the people and the temper of the times.
The severe military punishments inflicted on this occasion certainly
produced irritation, which though it did not break out immediately, was
the cause of much evil afterwards, and brought an odium upon that
gallant soldier himself, from which his high character in other
situations could not shield him.
This year the ministry underwent a complete change. The Marquis
d'Aguiar, who had succeeded to the Conde de Linhares, died in January,
and the Conde da Barca in June; when the Conde de Palmela became prime
minister, Bezerra became president of the treasury, the Conde dos Arcos
secretary for transmarine and naval affairs, the Conde de Funchal
counsellor of state, and Don Tomas Antonio de Portogal secretary to the
house of Braganza.
I cannot pretend to speak of the character or measures of these or any
other Portuguese or Brazilian ministers. My opportunities of information
were too few; my habits as a woman and a foreigner never led me into
situations where I could acquire the necessary knowledge. I wish only to
mark the course of events, and in as far as they are linked with each
other, the causes of those effects which took place under my own eyes.
In the early part of 1818, some additional restrictions concerning the
slave trade, which had been agreed to by Conde de Palmela during the
last year at London, were published at Rio, and a commission of English
and Portuguese jointly was formed for the examining into and deciding on
causes arising out of the treaties on that most important subject, a
certain number of commissioners being appointed to reside in the
different ports in Africa and Brazil, where the trade was still
considered lawful. That year opened at Rio with unusual festivity. On
the 22d of January, a great bull-feast was given at San Christovam, the
royal country house, in honour of the young princess's birth-day; it was
followed by a military dance, in which the costume of the natives of
every part of the Portuguese dominions in the east and west were
displayed. Portugal and Algarve, Africa and India, China and Brazil, all
appeared to do homage to the illustrious stranger. Music, in which the
taste of the king was unrivalled, formed a great part of the
entertainment, and never perhaps had Brazil witnessed so magnificent a
festival.
On the 6th of February the coronation of his majesty, John VI., took
place, and these peaceful festivities gave a character to the year,
which was remarkably quiet, the only public acts of note being the
farther prosecution of the plans for civilising the interior, by
facilitating the communications from place to place, and reclaiming the
border tribes of Indians.
The following year was not less tranquil. The birth of the young
princess, Donna Maria da Gloria, was an event to gratify both the court
and the people of Brazil. They had now the heir of their kingdom born
among them, a circumstance which they were disposed to hail as a pledge
that the seat of government would not be removed from among them.
The early part of 1820 was disturbed by some irruptions of the Spanish
Americans under Artigas, on the eastern side of the Plata. The
Portuguese troops, however, soon repulsed him, and strengthened their
line by the occupation of Taquarembo, Simar, and the Arroyo Grande.
Meantime the peace in Europe had not brought back all the tranquillity
that was expected from it. In vain did the old governments expect to step
back into exactly the same places they had occupied before the
revolutionary war. The Cortes had assembled in Spain. Naples had been
convulsed by an attempt to obtain a constitution similar to that
promulgated by the Spanish Cortes; and now Portugal began to feel the
universal impulse. Lisbon and Oporto were both the seats of juntas of
provisional government, and both assembled Cortes to take into
consideration the framing of a new constitution, and the reformation of
ancient abuses. On the 21st of August the Cortes of Lisbon had sworn to
adopt in part the constitution of the Spanish Cortes, but it was not
until the month of November that the government of Brazil made public
the recent occurrences in the mother country. Indeed it was not to be
expected that Brazil should remain unconscious of the proceedings of
Europe. The provinces were all more or less agitated. Pernambuco was as
usual foremost in feeling, and in the expression of feeling. A
considerable party had assembled at about thirty-six leagues from
Olinda. They declared their grievances to be intolerable, and that
nothing but a total reform in the government should reconcile them to
longer subjection to the government of Rio. The royalist troops were
sent out against them and were victorious, after an action of six hours,
in which they lost six officers and 19 men killed, and 134 wounded. The
loss on the other side was much greater, and as usual severe military
executions increased the evils of the civil war, at the same time that
they farther exasperated the people, and prepared them for a future and
more obstinate resistance.
Bahia was far from tranquil. The old jealousy which had subsisted from
the time the seat of government had been transferred from the city of
St. Salvador to Rio, combined with other causes, tended to increase the
desire of a constitutional government, from which all good was to be
expected, and under which, it was hoped, that all abuses would be
reformed. Rio itself began to manifest the same feelings. The provinces
of St. Paul's and the Minas were always ready to unite in any cause that
promised an increase of freedom; and the whole country seemed on the
brink of revolution, if not civil war.
The court party, however, still flattered themselves that the
determination of the King to remain in Brazil, instead of returning to
Lisbon to put himself into the power of the Cortes, would be so grateful
to the Brazilians, that they would be contented to forego the probable
advantages of a constitution, for the sake of the positive good of
having the seat of government fixed among themselves. But it was too
late; the wish for improvement had been excited. The administration had
been too corrupt, the exactions too heavy to be longer borne, when
reform appeared to be within reach. The very soldiers became possessed
with the same spirit, and though highly repugnant to the King's
feelings, it soon became evident that a compliance with the wishes of
the people and with the constituton, as declared by the Cortes at
Lisbon, was inevitable.
It is said, that some of the wisest ministers hail long pressed His
Majesty to a compliance with the wishes of his people, but in vain. His
reluctance was unconquerable, until at length, perceiving that force
would certainly be resorted to, he adopted a half measure which probably
accelerated the very event he was anxious to avoid.[30] On the 18th of
February, 1821, the King accepted as a junta, to take into consideration
such parts of the constitution as might be applicable to the state of
Brazil, the following persons:--
[Note 30: Some have imagined that a paper published at Rio, written
by a Frenchman, and supposed to have been in the pay of the then
ministry, desirous of keeping the king in Brazil, had great effect on
the subsequent events; and that greater still had been produced by the
revolution of the 10th of February, at Bahia; but the motives of action
were the same in all Brazil; the event must have been the same at Rio,
whether Bahia had stirred or not, though, perhaps, it might be
accelerated by that circumstance.]
Marquez de Altegrete--_President_
Baron de St. Amaro.
Luiz Jose de Carvalho Mello.
Antonio Liuz Pereiro da Cunha.
Antonio Rodriguez Velloso dc Oliviera.
Joa[)o] Severiano Maciel da Costa.
Camillo Maria Tonelet
Joa[)o] dc Souza de Mendonca Costa Real.
Jose da Silva Lisboa.
Mariano Jose Pereira da Fonseca.
Jav[)o] Rodriguez Pereira de Almeida.
Francisco Xavier Pires.
Jose Caetano Gomez.
_Procurador da Casa._
Jose de Oliviera Botelho Pinto Masquiera.
_Secretarios._
Manoel Jacinto Noguerra de Gama.
Manoel Moreira de Figueiredo.
_Secretaries Sustituti._
O Coronel Francisco Saraiva da Costa Refoios.
O Desembargador Joa[)o] Jose dc Mendonza.
These persons were all anxious to retain the King in Brazil. Most of
them Brazilians, they had felt the advantage of having the seat of
government fixed among themselves, and though the King's foreign allies
and his Portuguese subjects had pressed him to return to Europe, his own
dread of the Cortes of Lisbon, together with their natural desire to
detain him in Brazil, produced on the 21st a manifesto, describing His
Majesty's affection and relianceon his Brazilian subjects, and stating,
that he was resolved to send the Prince Don Pedro to Lisbon, with full
powers to treat on his behalf with the Cortes, whom he seems to have
considered as subjects in rebellion.
The Prince was also to consult with the Cortes concerning the drawing up
of a constitution, and the King promised to adopt such parts of it as
might be found applicable to existing circumstances and to the peculiar
situation of Brazil. This manifesto appears to have produced an effect
very different from what was intended. At four o'clock in the morning of
the 26th, all the streets and squares of the city were found full of
troops. Six pieces of artillery were planted at the heads of the
principal streets, and the most lively sensation agitated every part of
the city of Rio. As soon as this circumstance could be known at San
Christova[)o], the Prince Don Pedro, and the Infant Don Miguel, came into
the city. The Camara[31] was assembled in the great saloon of the
theatre.[32] The Prince, after conferring for a short time with the
members of that body, appeared upon the balcony of the saloon, and read
to the people and the troops, a royal proclamation, antedated the 24th,
securing to them the Constitution, such as it should be framed by the
Cortes of Lisbon. This was received with loud cries of Viva el Rei, Viva
a Religia[)o], Viva a constituica[)o]. The Prince then returned to the saloon,
and ordered the secretary of the Camara to draw up the form of the oath
to be taken to observe the constitution, and also a list of a new
ministry, to be submitted to the people for their approbation. The list
of ministers was first read, and each individually approved.[33]
[Note 31: The whole municipal body.]
[Note 32: The square in front of the theatre, from its size and
situation, was most fit for the assembly of the people and troops on such
an occasion.]
[Note 33:
_New Ministers._
Vice-admiral and Commander-in-chief Quintella, secretary of state.
Joaquin Jose Monteiro Torres,
minister of marine, and secretary for transmarine affairs.
Silvestre Pinhero Fereiro, secretary for foreign affairs.
Conde de Louca, head of the treasury.
Bishop of Rio, president of the board of conscience.
Antonio Luiz Pereiro da Cunha, head of police.
Jose Gaetano Gomes, grand treasurer.
Joao Fereiro da Costa Sampaio, second treasurer.
Sebastian Luiz Terioco, fiscal.
Jose da Silva Lisboa, literary department.
Joao Rodriguez Pereira de Almeida, director of the bank.
----Barboza, police.
Conde de Aseca, head of the board of trade.
Brigadier Carlos Frederico da Cunha, commander-in-chief, &c.
]
His Royal Highness then proceeded to take the oath for his father, in
the following form:--
"I swear, in the name of the King, my father and lord, veneration and
respect for our holy religion; to observe, keep, and maintain for ever
the constitution such as established by the cortes in Portugal." The
bishop then presented to him the holy Gospels, on which he laid his
right hand, and solemnly vowed, promised, and signed the same.
The Prince then took the oath in like manner for himself, and was
immediately followed by his brother, the Infant Don Miguel, after whom
the ministers and a multitude of other persons crowded to follow his
example. Meantime the Prince rode to the King at his country seat of Boa
Vista, at San Cristovao, to inform him of all that had passed, and to
entreat his presence in the city, as the best means of securing order
and confidence. His Majesty accordingly set off immediately, and arrived
at the great square at about eleven o'clock, when the people took the
horses from his carriage and dragged him to the palace, the troops
following as on a day of gala, and forming in the square before the
doors. At one of the centre windows the King presently appeared, and
confirmed all that the Prince had promised in his name, declaring at the
same time his perfect approbation of every thing that had been done. The
troops then dispersed, and the King held a court, which was most
numerously attended; and the day ended at the opera, the people again
assembling to drag the King's carriage thither.
It would be curious to investigate the feelings of princes on occasions
so momentous to themselves and to their people. Joam VI., passionately
fond of music, was dragged by a people, grateful for a boon granted that
very day, to a theatre built by himself, where all the music vocal and
instrumental was selected with exquisite taste, and where the piece
presented was a decided favourite.[34] Yet it may be questioned whether
there existed in his wide dominions one heart less at ease than his
own. All his feelings and prejudices were in favour of the ancient order
of things, and this day those feelings and prejudices had been obliged
to bend to the spirit of the times, to a wide-spread desire for freedom,
to every thing, in short, most contrary to the ancient system of
continental Europe.
[Note 34: Rossini's Cenerentola.]
The next day[35], there was nothing but joy in the city, the great
saloon was again crowded with persons eager to sign the oath to the
constitution, illuminations, feux de joie, and fireworks succeeded; and
at the opera, Puccito's Henrique IV. was ordered in compliment to the
King. But he was too much fatigued with the events of the last two days
to go, and when the curtain of the royal box was drawn up, the pictures
only of the king and queen appeared; but they were received with loud
acclamations, as if the royal personages themselves had been present.
[Note 35: The 27th, on which day Messrs. Thornton, Grimaldi, and
Maler, ministers from England and France, waited on His Majesty. The
different motions or interferences of the members of the diplomatic body
scarcely concern this period. There is no doubt but that they were busy.
But circumstances which they could not control, though they might
disturb, brought about the revolution of the 26th, the visible facts
alone of which I pretend to give.]
Thus was a most important revolution brought about without bloodshed,
and almost without disturbance. The junta occupied itself seriously on
the business of the constitution, and began by publishing some edicts
highly favourable to the people, and, among others, one insuring the
liberty of the press.
Meantime Bahia, actuated by the same spirit as Rio, had anticipated the
revolution at that place. On the 10th of February the troops and people
assembled in the city, the magistrates were called on to take an oath to
adhere to the constitution, a provisional government was formed, and
troops were raised in order to maintain the constitution, in case the
court at Rio should be adverse to its adoption. Among these the most
forward was a small body of artillery, formed of the students at the
different colleges and schools of the city. The new government early
began to manifest a determination to be no longer subordinate to Rio,
and to acknowledge no other authority than that of the Cortes at
Lisbon. An intimation of what had taken place at Bahia was immediately
forwarded to Luiz do Rego at Pernambuco, who assembled the magistrates,
the troops, and the people, on the 3d of March, in Recife, and there,
along with them, solemnly took the oath to adhere to the constitution; a
measure which gave universal satisfaction. About the same time, several
of the towns in the Comarca of Ilheos also took the oaths to maintain
the constitution; and it appeared evidently that the whole country was
equally desirous of a change, in hopes of relief from the vexations it
had so long suffered under.
But the agitation of the capital was by no means at an end. Disputes
arose concerning the election of deputies to the cortes, which, however,
ended in adopting the method laid down in the Spanish constitution. The
troops found it necessary to publish a declaration, denying that they
had any factious views when they assembled on the 26th of February, and
alleging that they appeared as citizens anxious for the rights of the
whole community. The people assembled in different places, and are said
to have insulted several persons, particularly the members of the
council which existed immediately before the revolution; and in order to
save three of them from the fury of the mob, they were placed in
confinement for three days, and then liberated, with a proclamation
tending to exculpate them from all criminal charges, and explaining the
motives of their arrest.
The King meanwhile had resolved on returning to Lisbon, and on the 7th
of March he published a proclamation announcing his resolution, together
with an order for such deputies as should be elected by the time of his
departure, to go with him to attend the Cortes, and promising to find
means of conveying the rest when they should be ready.
Every thing now appeared to proceed in quiet. The preparations for His
Majesty's departure went on, and he resolved to take the opportunity of
the assembling of the electors on the 21st of April, to choose the
deputies to the Cortes, to submit to them the plan for the government of
Brazil which he had laid down, in order to receive their sanction.
These electors were assembled in the exchange, a handsome new building
on the shore, and thither a great concourse of people had flocked, some
purely from curiosity, some from a desire, imagining they had a right,
to express their opinion on so important a subject. The result of that
meeting was a deputation sent to the king, insisting on the adoption of
the entire Spanish constitution. The decree of the assembly received the
signature of the King. But the members of that assembly met again on the
22d, many of whom had no legal title to be present, and proceeded to
propose to stop the ships prepared for the King's return to Portugal.
Some went so far as to propose an examination of the vessels, in order
to stop the exportation of the quantity of wealth known to be on board
of them, and the meeting at length assumed so alarming an aspect, that
His Majesty revoked his royal consent to the act passed on the 21st, and
sent a body of soldiers to intimidate the assembly. Unhappily, an order
proceeding from some quarter, never known or never acknowledged, caused
the soldiers to fire into the exchange, where the unarmed and innocent
electors, as well as the others who had crowded thither, it might be,
with less pure motives, were assembled, but all were there on the faith
of the royal invitation given through the judge of the district.
About thirty persons were killed, many more were wounded: and the whole
city was filled with an indescribable consternation. The sudden stop
that was put to this strange, unwise and cruel attack, has always been
attributed to the Prince Don Pedro, who, on this as on other occasions,
has well merited the title of perpetual defender of Brazil. The attack
itself, perhaps unjustly, was imputed to the Conde dos Arcos by some, to
other individuals by others, according as passion or party directed the
suspicion: the truth is, that it seems to have been the result of
ill-understood orders, given hastily in a moment of alarm, for it is
impossible to think, for an instant, that any man could wantonly have so
cruelly irritated the people at the very time when so much depended on
their tranquillity. This shocking event, however, seems to have
quickened the King's resolution to leave Brazil. That very day he made
over the government of that country to the Prince, with a council to be
composed of
The Conde dos Arcos, Prime Minister.
Conda da Louca, Minister of Interior.
Brigadier Caula, Minister of War.
And in case of the prince's death, the regency to remain in the hands of
the Princess Maria Leopoldina.
The next day the King publicly addressed the troops, recommending to
them fidelity to the crown and constitution, and obedience to the Prince
Regent, and as a royal boon on leaving the army, promising a great
increase of pay to all, and that the Brazilian officers should be put on
the same footing as those of the Portuguese army. The ministers who
advised this step, acted cruelly towards the government they left
behind. The treasury was left empty at the King's departure, yet
increase of pay beyond all precedent was promised, as well as other
burdens on the prince's revenue. His Majesty published on the same day,
a farewell to the inhabitants of Rio; and it cannot be imagined that he
could leave the place which to him had been a haven of safety, during
the storm in which most of his brother monarchs had suffered, without
feelings of regret, if not affection.
The Prince also addressed the Brazilians on assuming the government by a
proclamation, which, as it sets forth his intentions, I shall give
literally:
"Inhabitants of Brazil;
"The necessity of paying attention to the general interests of the
nation before every other, forces my august father to leave you, and to
intrust me with the care of the public happiness of Brazil, until
Portugal shall form a constitution, and confirm it.
"And, as I judge it right, in the present circumstances, that all should
from this time understand what are the objects of public administration
which I have principally in view, I lose no time in declaring, that
strict respect for the laws, constant vigilance over the administration
of the same, opposition to the quibbles by which they are discredited
and weakened, will be the objects of my first attention.
"It will be highly agreeable to me to anticipate all such benefits of
the constitution as shall be compatible with obedience to the laws.
"Public education, which now demands the most especial attention of the
government, will be provided for by every means in my power.
"And in order that the commerce and agriculture of Brazil may be in a
prosperous state, I shall not cease to encourage whatever may favour
these copious sources of national riches.
"I shall pay equal attention to the interesting subject of reform,
without which it will be impossible to use liberal means for the public
good.
"Inhabitants of Brazil! all these intentions will be frustrated if
certain evil-minded persons should accomplish their fatal views, and
persuade you to adopt antisocial principles, destructive of all order,
and diametrically opposed to the system of liberality, which from this
moment it is my intention to follow."
The ceremonies of taking leave, occupied the following day. On the 24th,
the royal family embarked, and with it many of the Portuguese nobles who
had followed their king into exile, and many others whose fortunes were
entirely attached to the court.
But this great re-emigration produced evils of no common magnitude in
Brazil. It is computed that fifty millions of crusadoes, at least, were
carried out of the country by the Portuguese returning to Lisbon. A
great proportion of specie had been taken up in exchange for government
bills on the treasuries of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Maranham. But these
provinces, from the revolution in February, had disclaimed the
superiority of the government at Rio, and had owned no other than that
of the Cortes at Lisbon, and above all the ministry well knew, even at
the time of granting the bills, that they had refused to remit any
portion of the revenue to Rio. Hence arose commercial distress of every
description, and as long-standing government debts had been also paid by
these bills which were all dishonoured, the evil spread far and wide,
not only among the natives but the foreign merchants. It was of little
avail that the Prince acknowledged the debts[36]; the treasury was left
so poor, that he was obliged to delay or modify the increase of military
pay promised on the King's departure, a circumstance that occasioned
much disquiet in several provinces. The funds for carrying on several
branches of industry, and several works of public utility were destroyed
by this great and sudden drain; and thereby much that had been begun
after the arrival of the court, and which it was hoped would have been
of the greatest benefit to the country, was stopped. Colonies that had
been invited to settle with the most liberal promises perished for want
of the necessary support in the beginning of their career, and the
wonder is, not that disturbances in various quarters took place after
the departure of the King, but that they were not of a more fierce and
fatal tendency.
[Note 36: It was of little avail at the time. But as soon as it was
possible, his royal highness's government began payments by instalments,
which are still going on, notwithstanding the total change of
government. This is highly honourable.]
The Prince who remained at the head of the government was deservedly
popular among the Brazilians. His first care was to examine into and
redress causes of grievances; particularly those arising from arbitrary
imprisonment and vexatious methods of collecting taxes. The great duties
on salt conveyed into the interior, were remitted. Something was done
towards improving the condition of the barracks, hospitals, and schools.
Books were allowed to be imported duty free, and every thing that could
be effected under the circumstances, was done by the Prince for the
advantage of the people, and to preserve or promote public tranquillity.
But the question of the independence of Brazil had now come to be
publicly agitated, and out of it arose several others. Was it to be
still part of the Portuguese monarchy, with a separate supreme
jurisdiction civil and criminal under the Prince? or was it to return to
the abject state in which it had been since its discovery, subject to
all the vexatious delays occasioned by distant tribunals, by appeals
beyond sea, and all that renders the state of a colony irksome or
degrading? Then if independent so far, was it to form one kingdom whose
capital should be at Rio, or were there to be several unconnected
provinces, each with its supreme government, accountable only to the
king and cortes at Lisbon? Those who had republican views, and who
looked forward to a federal state, favoured the latter views, and so did
those who dreaded the final separation of Brazil from the mother
country; for they argued that the separate provinces might be easily
controlled, but that Brazil united would overmatch any force that
Portugal could send against it, should a hostile struggle between them
ever take place.
The people, jealous of all, but particularly of the ministers, accused
the Conde dos Arcos of treachery, and of a wish to reduce Brazil once
more to the state in which it had been before 1808. They insisted on his
dismissal, and on the appointment of a provisional junta, which should
deliberate on the best measures of government to be adopted, until the
constitution of the cortes should arrive from Lisbon, and the fifth of
June, the day of his dismissal, was held as a festival.[37]
[Note 37: When he touched at Bahia on his way home, the junta of
government there, prejudiced by letters from Rio, refused him permission
to land; and he had the mortification of being treated as a criminal, in
that very city where he had governed with honour, and where he had been
beloved. On his arrival at Lisbon, he suffered a short imprisonment in
the tower of Belem. Yet his misconduct, if it amounted to all he was
charged with, seems to have been an error in judgment.]
Yet, distressed as the government was by an empty treasury, and by
demands increasing daily on all sides, it was impossible to remove at
once all causes of discontent; and the new junta was so well aware of
this, that, on the 16th of June, on publishing an invitation to all
persons to send in plans and projects for improvements, and statistical
notices concerning the country, they also published an exhortation to
tranquillity and obedience, and patient waiting till the event of the
deliberation of the cortes, now to be joined by their own deputies,
should be known. That same night both the Portuguese and Brazilian
troops were under arms in the city, violent jealousies had arisen
between them, and it required all the authority and all the popularity
of the Prince to restore order. On the morning of the 17th His Royal
Highness called together the officers of both nations, and in a short
speech he ordered them as soldiers, and recommended to them as citizens,
to preserve the subordination of the troops they commanded, and union
among those troops, bidding them remember that they had sworn to support
the constitution, and that they were to trust to that for the redress of
their grievances.
Meanwhile the more distant provinces had acknowledged the authority of
the cortes, and had sworn to support the constitution. But Maranham in
its public acts took no notice whatever of the Prince, professing only
to recognise the government of Lisbon. At Villa Rica, when the
constitution was proclaimed, the troops refused to acknowledge the
Prince, accusing him of withholding the pay promised by the King. At St.
Catherine's, though the measures were less violent, yet the refusing to
admit a new governor who had been sent, was decidedly an act of
insubordination; but the political agitations at St. Paul's were not
only of a more serious nature, but had more important results than those
of any other province.
The ostensible cause of the first public ferment in that city was the
discontent of the Cacadores at not receiving the promised augmentation
of pay, which, indeed, it was not then in the power of the Prince to
bestow on them.
The regiment, however, took up arms on the 3d of June, and declared they
would not lay them down until they received the pay demanded, and were
proceeding to threaten the municipal government of the city, when they
were stopped by the good sense, and presence of mind of their captain,
Jose Joaquim dos Santos. But though the ferment was soothed for the
time, it continued to agitate not only the troops, but the people, to
such a degree, that the magistrates and principal inhabitants thought it
necessary to take some steps at once, to rule and to satisfy them. They
took advantage of the occasion furnished by the assembling of the
militia, on account of a festival on the 21st, and, keeping them
together, they placed them on the morning of the 23d, in the square
before the town-house, where the camara held its sittings. The great
bell of the camara then tolled out, the people flocked to the square,
with shouts of "Viva el Re, Viva o Constituicao, Viva o Principe
Regente." They then demanded a provisional junta to be appointed for the
government of the province, and that Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva,
should be appointed president. This truly patriotic citizen and
accomplished scholar, was a native of the country, and had now been
residing in it some years, after having studied, travelled, and fought
in Europe. As soon as he was named, a deputation was sent to his own
dwelling, to bring him to the town-house.
Meantime the standard of the camara had been displayed at one of the
windows, and there the magistrates were placed in sight of the people.
Jose Bonifacio appeared at another window, and addressed the people in a
short, but energetic speech, calculated to give them courage, and at the
same time to inspire peace and all good and orderly feeling. He then
named, one by one, the members proposed by the chief citizens, to form
the provisional junta, beginning with Joa[)o] Carlos Augusto de Oyenhausen,
to continue general of arms in the province. Each name was received with
cheers.[38] The troops and people then marched in an orderly manner to
the house of Jose Bonifacio, to install him formally as president, and
thence to the cathedral where a Te Deum was sung. At night the theatre
was illuminated as for a gala, the national hymn was sung repeatedly;
and from that moment all remained quiet in the city, and resolved to
maintain the constitution, and the Prince Regent, for whom they
expressed unbounded attachment.
[Note 38: _Provisional government of St. Paul's._
The Archpriest Felisberto Gomes Jardin.
The Rev. Joa[)o] Ferreiro da Oliviero Bueno.
Antonio Lecto Perreiro da Gama Lobo.
Daniel Pedro Muller.
Francisco Ignacio.
Manoel Rodriguez Jorda[)o].
Andre da Sylva Gomez.
Francisco de Paulo Oliviera.
Dr. Nicola[)o] Perreira de Campos Noguerros.
Antonio Maria Quertim.
Martin Francisco de Andrada.
Lazaro Jose Goncalez.
Miguel Jose de Oliviero Pinto.
]
Nothing could have been so important to the interest of the Prince at
that time. The Paulistas are among the most hardy, generous, and
enlightened of the Brazilians. Their country is in the happiest climate.
The mines of St. Paul's are rich, not only in the precious, but in the
useful metals. Iron, so rich as to yield 93 per cent. and coal abound.
The manufactures of that province are far before any others in Brazil.
Corn and cattle are plenty there, as well as every other species of
Brazilian produce. Agriculture is attended to, and the city by its
distance from the sea, is safe from the attacks of any foreign power,
while it is totally independent of external supplies.
Unfortunately, the port of Santos presented a different scene during the
first days of June. The first battalion of the Cacadores assembled
before the government house, and, accusing the governor and the camara
of withholding their pay, seized and imprisoned them, in order to force
them to give the money they demanded. Several murders were committed
during the insurrection, and various robberies, both in the houses and
the ships in the harbour. Some armed vessels were, however, speedily
despatched from Rio, and a detachment of militia from St. Paul's. Fifty
of the insurgents were killed, and two hundred and forty taken
prisoners; after which, every thing returned to a state of tranquillity;
and as the most conciliatory measures were adopted towards the people,
the peace continued.
The next three months were spent almost entirely in establishing
provisional juntas in the different capitals. Many of the captaincies
had, upon swearing to maintain the constitution, spontaneously adopted
that measure. Others, such as Pernambuco, had been restrained by their
governors from doing so, until the Prince's edicts of the 21st of
August, to that effect, reached them. These edicts were followed by
another of the 19th of September, directing the juntas to communicate
directly with the cortes at Lisbon; and the whole attention of the
government was now directed to preserve tranquillity until the arrival
of instructions from the cortes concerning the form of government to be
adopted.
It was fondly hoped, that the presence of Brazilian deputies, the
importance of the country, and the consideration that it had been the
asylum of the government during the stormy days of the revolutionary
war, would have induced the cortes to have considered it no longer as a
colony, but as an equal part of the nation, and that it might have
retained its separate courts, civil and criminal, and all the consequent
advantages of a prompt administration of the laws.
Such was the state of Brazil, generally speaking, on our arrival in that
country, on the 21st of September, 1821. Much that might be interesting
I have omitted, partly because I have not so correct a knowledge of it,
as to venture to write it; much, because we are too near the time of
action to know the motives and springs that guided the actors; and much,
because neither my sex nor situation permitted me to inform myself more
especially concerning the political events in a country where the
periodical publications are few, recent, and though by law free, yet, in
fact, owing to the circumstances of the times, imperfect, timorous, and
uncertain. What I have ventured to write is, I trust, correct as to
facts and dates; it is merely intended as an introduction, without
which, the journal of what passed while I was in Brazil would be
scarcely intelligible.
[Illustration]
JOURNAL.
At about six o'clock in the evening of the 31st of July, 1821, after
having saluted His Majesty, George IV., who at that moment went on board
the Royal George yacht, to proceed to Dublin,--we sailed in the Doris, a
42 gun frigate, for South America. After touching at Plymouth, and
revisiting all the wonders of the break-water and new watering place, we
sailed afresh, but when off Ushant, were driven back to Falmouth by a
heavy gale of wind. There we remained till the 11th of August, when,
with colours half-mast high, on account of the death of Queen Caroline,
we finally left the channel, and on the 18th about noon came in sight of
Porto Santo.
We passed it on the side where the town founded by Don Henry of
Portugal, on the first discovery of the island, is situated, and
regretted much that it was too late in the day to go in very near it.
The land is high and rocky, but near the town there is a good deal of
verdure, and higher up on the land, extensive woods; a considerable
quantity of wine is made there, which, being a little manufactured at
Funchal, passes for true Madeira. As usual in Portuguese colonial towns,
the church and convent are very conspicuous. When we passed Porto Santo,
and the Desertas, and anchored in Funchal roads, I was disappointed at
the calmness of my own feelings, looking at these distant islands with
as little emotion as if I had passed a headland in the channel. Well do
I remember, when I first saw Funchal twelve years ago, the joyous
eagerness with which I feasted my eyes upon the first foreign country I
had ever approached, the curiosity to see every stone and tree of the
new land, which kept my spirits in a kind of happy fever.
"Sweet Memory, wafted by thy gentle gale,
Oft up the stream of time I turn my sail,
To view the fairy haunts of long lost hours,
Blest with far greener shades, far fresher flow'rs." ROGERS.
Now I look on them tamely, or at best only as parts of the lovely
landscape, which, just at sunset, the time we anchored, was particularly
beautiful. Surely the few years added to my age have not done this? May
I not rather hope, that having seen lands whose monuments are all
history, and whose associations are all poetry, I have a higher taste,
and more discriminating eye? One object never palls--that ocean where
the Almighty "Glasses himself in tempests," or over which the gentle
wings of peace seem to brood. The feeling that there was a change,
however, either in the scene or in me, was so strong, that I ran to my
cabin and sought out a sketch I had made in 1809. I compared it with the
town. Every point of the hill, every house was the same, and again Nossa
Senhora da Monte, with her brilliant white towers shining from on high
through the evening cloud, seemed to sanctify the scene, while a few
rough voices from the shore and the neighbouring ships chaunted the Ave
Maria.
Early in the morning of the 19th, we took a large party of the
midshipmen on shore to enjoy the young pleasure of walking on a foreign
land. To them it was new to see the palm, the cypress, and the yucca,
together with the maize, banana, and sugar-cane, surrounded by
vineyards, while the pine and chesnut clothe the hills. We mounted the
boys on mules, and rode up to the little parish church, generally
mistaken for a convent, called Nossa Senhora da Monte. My maid and I
went in a bad sort of palankeen, though convenient for these roads,
which are the worst I have seen; however, the view made up for the
difficulty of getting to it. The sea with the Desertas bounded the
prospect: below us lay the roadstead and shipping, the town and gardens,
and the hill clothed with vineyards and trees of every climate, which
deck the ashy tufa, or compact basalt of which the whole island seems to
be composed. Purchas, who like Bowles, believes the story of the
discovery of Madeira by the Englishman Masham and his dying mistress,
says, that shortly after that event, the woods having taken fire burned
so fiercely, that the inhabitants were forced out to sea to escape from
the flames. The woods, however, are again pretty thick, and some
inferior mahogany among it is used for furniture. The pine is too soft
for most purposes. In the gardens we found a large blue hydrangea very
common: the fuschia is the usual hedge. Mixed with that splendid shrub,
aloes, prickly pear, euphorbia, and cactus, serve for the coarser
fences; and these strange vegetables, together with innumerable lizards
and insects, tell us we are nearing the tropics.
We spent a very happy day at the hospitable country house of Mr.
Wardrope, and our cavalcade to the town at night was delightful. The
boys, mounted as before, together with several gentlemen who had joined
us at Mr. W.'s, enjoyed the novelty of riding home by torch-light; and
as we wound down the hill, the voices of the muleteers answering each
other, or encouraging their beasts with a kind of rude song, completed
the scene. The evening was fine, and the star-light lovely: we embarked
in two shore boats at the custom-house gate, and, after being duly
hailed by the guard-boat, a strange machine mounting one old rusty 6
lb. carronade, we reached the ship in very good time.
20th. We walked a good deal about the town, and entered the cathedral
with some feelings of reverence, for a part of it at least was built by
Don Henry of Portugal, who founded and endowed the college adjoining.
The interior of the church is in some parts gaudy, and there is a silver
rail of some value. The ceiling is of cedar, richly carved, and reminds
me of some of the old churches at Venice, which present a style half
Gothic half Saracenic. Near the church a public garden has lately been
formed, and some curious exotic trees placed there with great success.
In rambling about the town, we naturally enquired for the chapel of
skulls, the ugliness of which had shocked us when here formerly, and
were not sorry to find that that hideous monument of bad taste is
falling fast to ruin. I cannot imagine how such fantastic horrors can
ever have been sanctified, but so it is; and the Indian fakir who
fastens a real skull round his neck, the Roman pilgrim who hangs a model
of one to his rosary, and the friar who decks his oratory with a
thousand of them, are one and all acted upon either by the same real
superstition, or spiritual vanity, craving to distinguish itself even by
disgusting peculiarities.
Of late years superstition has been used as an instrument of no small
power in revolutions of every kind. Even here it has played its part. A
small chapel, dedicated to St. Sebastian, had been removed by the
Portuguese government in order to erect a market-place, where all
articles of daily consumption were to be sold, a small tax being levied
on the holders of stands. This innovation was of course disagreeable to
the people, and on the night of the revolution, in November last, some
of their leading orators accused the market-place of having, by rudely
thrusting out St. Sebastian, occasioned the failure of the vineyards,
and threatened the ruin of the island. The market-place was instantly
devoted; it was down in a few seconds, and a chapel to St. Sebastian
begun. Men, women, and children worked all night, and the walls were
raised to at least two-thirds of the intended height; but day brought
weariness, and perhaps the morning breeze chilled the fever of
enthusiasm. The voluntary labourers worked no more, and no subscription
adequate to the hire of workmen to complete it has yet been raised: so
that the new St. Sebastian's stands roofless, and the officiating priest
performs his masses with no other canopy than the heavens.
Other and better consequences have, however, arisen from the revolution
of November. The grievances of the inhabitants of Madeira were severe.
The sons of the best families were seized arbitrarily, and sent to serve
in the armies of Europe or Brazil: scarcely any article, however
necessary, or however coarse, was permitted to be manufactured; the very
torches, made of twisted grass and resin, so necessary for travelling
these mountain roads after sunset, were all sent from Lisbon, and every
species of cultivation, but that of the grape, discountenanced. Thus
situated, every class joined heart and hand in the revolution: deputies
were sent to the Cortes; petitions respecting the state of agriculture,
manufactures, and commerce, were presented; and many, perhaps most, of
the grievances were redressed, or at least much lightened.
Till the year 1821, there had never been a printing-press in Madeira;
but the promoters of the revolution sent to England for one, which is
now set up in Funchal; and on the 2d of July, 1821, the first newspaper,
under the name of PATRIOTA FUNCHALENSE, appeared. It contained a well
written patriotic preface; and the first article is a declaration of the
rights of citizens, and of the pretensions of the Portuguese nation, its
religion, government, and royal family, as adopted by the Cortes for the
basis of the constitution to be formed for its government. The paper has
continued to be published twice a week: it contains a few political
addresses and discourses; all foreign intelligence; some tolerable
papers on distilling, agriculture, manufactures, and similar topics;
some humorous pieces in prose and verse; poems _on several occasions_;
and, at the end of the month, a table of the receipts and expenditures
of government. Among the advertisements I observe one informing the
public where _leeches_ may be bought at about two shillings and sixpence
a piece.
I thought it curious to observe this first dawning of literature and
interest in politics in this little island. There are certainly enough
anglicisms in the paper, to point out the probable country of some of
the writers; and there are, as might be looked for, some traces of the
residence of British troops in the colony; but on the whole, the paper
is creditable to the editors, and likely to be useful to the island. I
hear the articles on the making of wines and brandies very highly spoken
of. Madeira, lying in the finest climate in the world, beautiful and
fertile, and easy of access to foreigners, ought not to be a mere half
civilised colony.
23d.--We sailed yesterday from Funchal, and soon lost sight of the
"Filha do oceano
Do undoso campo flor, gentil MADEIRA." DINIZ.
At night, I sat a long time on the deck, listening to the sea songs with
which the crew beguile the evening watch. Though the humorous songs were
applauded sufficiently, yet the plaintive and pathetic seemed the
favourites; and the chorus to the Death of Wolfe was swelled by many
voices. Oh, who shall say that fame is not a real good! It is twice
blessed--it blesses him who earns, and those who give, to parody the
words of Shakspeare. Here, on the wide ocean, far from the land of
Wolfe's birth, and that of his gallant death, his story was raising and
swelling the hearts of rough men, and exciting love of country and of
glory by the very sound of his name. Well may _he_ be called a
benefactor to his country who, by increasing the list of patriotic
sailors' songs, has fostered those feelings and energies which have
placed Britain's "home upon the mountain wave, and her march upon the
deep."
The charms of night in a southern climate have been dwelt upon by
travelled poets (for I call Madame de Stael's writings poetry), and even
travelled prose writers; but Lord Byron alone has sketched with
knowledge and with love, the moonlight scenery of a frigate in full
sail. The life of a seaman is the essence of poetry; change, new
combinations, danger, situations from almost deathlike calm, to the
maddest combinations of horror--every romantic feeling called forth, and
every power of heart and intellect exercised. Man, weak as he is,
baffling the elements, and again seeing that miracle of his invention,
the tall ship he sails in, tossed to and fro, like the lightest feather
from the seabird's wing--while he can do nothing but resign himself to
the will of Him who alone can stay the proud waves, and on whom heart,
intellect, and feeling, all depend!
25th.--Nothing can be finer than the approach to Teneriffe[39],
especially on such a day as this; the peak now appearing through the
floating clouds, and now entirely veiled by them. As we drew near the
coast, the bay or rather roadstead of Oratava, surrounded by a singular
mixture of rocks, and woods, and scattered towns, started forth at once
from beneath the mists, which seemed to separate it from the peak, whose
cold blue colour formed a strong contrast to the glowing red and yellow
which autumn had already spread on the lower grounds.
[Note 39: The Chinerfe of the Guanches.]
We anchored in forty fathoms water with our chain-cable, as the bottom
is very rocky, excepting where a pretty wide river, which, though now
dry, rolls a considerable body of water to the sea in the rainy season,
has deposited a bed of black mud. There are many rocks in the bay, with
from one to three fathoms water, and within them from nine to ten. The
swell constantly setting in is very great, and renders the anchorage
uncomfortable.
26th.--- I went ashore with Mr. Dance, the second lieutenant, and two of
the young midshipmen, for the purpose of riding to the Villa di Oratava,
which is situated where the ancient Guanche capital stood. We landed at
the Puerto di Oratava, several miles from the villa: it is defended by
some small batteries, at one of which is the very difficult
landing-place, sheltered by a low reef of rocks that runs far out, and
occasions a heavy surf. I took my own saddle ashore: and being mounted
on a fine mule, we all began our journey towards the hill. The road is
rough, but has evidently once been made with some pains, and paved with
blocks of porous lava; but the winter rains have long ago destroyed it,
and it does not seem to be any body's business to put it in repair.
The first quarter of a mile on either hand presented a scene so black
and stony, that I was surprised to learn that we had been passing
through corn land; the harvest was over, and the stubble burned on the
ground. The produce here is scanty; but being so near the port, it
repays the labour and expense of cultivation. We saw the botanical
garden so much praised by Humboldt; but it is in sad disorder, having
been for some time entirely neglected. However, the very establishment
of such a thing brings in new plants, and perhaps naturalises them.
Here, the sago-palm, platanus, and tamarind, as well as the flowers and
vegetables of the north of Europe, flourish so well as to promise to add
permanently to the riches of this rich island. As we ascended towards
the villa the prospect improved; the vineyards appeared in greatest
beauty, every other crop still standing in the luxuriant valleys, the
rocky cliffs of the mountains clothed with wood, and every thing glowing
with life. Wheat, barley, a few oats, maize, potatoes, and caravansas,
all grow freely here. The food of the common people consists chiefly of
Polenta, or maize flour, used nearly as the Scotch peasants use their
oatmeal, in cakes, brose, or porridge, which last is suffered to grow
cold, and then most commonly cut in slices and toasted. After the maize,
potatoes are the favourite food, together with salt fish. The potatoe is
always in season, being planted every month, and consequently producing
a monthly crop. The fishery employs from forty-five to fifty vessels of
from seventy to ninety tons' burden, from the island of Teneriffe alone;
the fish are taken on the coast of Africa, and salted here.
To a stranger the sight of the long walls of black porous lava, built
terrace-wise to support the vegetable mould, is very striking; but the
walls cannot be called ugly, while the clustering vine and
broad-spreading gourd, climb and find support on them: these, however,
soon disappeared, and were replaced by field and garden enclosures.
After a pleasant but hot ride, we arrived at the villa about noon, and
went to the house of Senor Don Antonio de Monteverde, who accompanied us
to M. Franqui's garden, to see one of the wonders of the island, the
famous Dragon Tree. Humboldt has celebrated this tree in its vigour;
it is now a noble ruin. In July, 1819, one half of its enormous crown
fell: the wound is plaistered up, the date of the misfortune marked on
it, and as much care is taken of the venerable vegetable as will ensure
it for at least another century. I sat down to make a sketch of it; and
while I was drawing, learned from Mr. Galway the following history of
the family of its owner, which a little skill in language and a little
adorning with sentiment might convert into a modern novel.--About the
year 1760, the Marquis Franqui, upon some disgust, made over his estates
in trust to his brother, and emigrated to France, where he remained
until 1810, regularly receiving the proceeds from his estates in
Teneriffe. Meantime, during the early period of the revolution, he
married; and his only child, a daughter, was born. This marriage,
however, was only a civil contract, such being then the law of France,
and with a woman divorced from another, who was still living. But
neither the validity of the union nor the legitimacy of the child was
ever questioned; and the Marquis Franqui returning to his native
country, brought with him his daughter, introducing and treating her as
his heiress. She appeared to be received as such by his family; and at
his death he appointed trustworthy guardians to her and her estates, one
of whom is her husband's father. No sooner, however, was the Marquis
dead, than his brother claimed his property, alleging that the church
had never sanctioned the Marquis's marriage, and that the daughter
consequently, as an illegitimate child, could have no claim on his
estates. He therefore commenced a lawsuit against her and her guardians,
and the suit is still pending. Meantime the court receives the rents;
the garden, the chief ornament of the town, is running wild, and the
house is deserted.
[Illustration]
The dragon tree is the slowest of growth among vegetables; it seems also
to be slowest in decay. In the 15th century, that of Oratava had
attained the height and size which it boasted till 1819. It may have
been in its prime for centuries before; and scarcely less than a
thousand years must have elapsed, before it attained its full size.
Excepting the dragon trees at Madeira, the only many-headed palm I had
seen before was that at Mazagong in Bombay. It is crowned, however, with
a leaf like that of the palmetto; but the tufts of the dragon tree
resemble the yucca in growth. The palm tree at Mazagong, like the
adansonia in Salsette, is reported to have been carried thither by a
pilgrim from Africa, probably from Upper Egypt, where late travellers
mention this palm.
On our return from the garden to Don Antonio's house, we were most
kindly received by his wife and daughter, the latter of whom played a
long and difficult piece of music most excellently. It was, however,
English, in compliment to us, though we should have preferred some of
her own national airs. After the music, we were conducted to a table
spread in the gallery that surrounds the open court in the middle of the
house, and covered with fruits, sweetmeats, and wines, which were
pressed upon us most hospitably; till finding it time to return, the
ladies both embraced me, and we began our journey down the hill, having
first looked into the churches, which are spacious and handsome, a good
deal in the style of those of Madeira, but finer.
As we rode along, we observed a large Dominican convent, the only one
now on the island. The recent law passed by the Spanish Cortes for the
suppression of religious houses, has been strictly enforced here. No
more than one convent of each denomination is allowed to subsist, and
great checks are put on the profession of new members. As to the
revolution here, the inhabitants had known from authentic though not
official authority of what had taken place in the mother country, three
weeks before they received any notification from either court or cortes.
When notice did arrive, the magistrates assembled the people, read their
orders, and took their oaths to support the cortes; the people shouted,
and made a bonfire: next day the forms of law and justice were declared
to be changed, the tribunals proceeded accordingly, and all was over and
quiet.
The Canary Islands boast of two bishoprics, both of which are now
vacant, yet have not one newspaper. The only printing press has been so
long in disuse that there is nobody who can work it in the country. I
could not learn that there are any manufactures in Teneriffe; if there
are, I conclude they must be in the neighbourhood of Laguna or Santa
Cruz. Oratava appears to be the district of corn and wine.
We returned to the port by a longer road than that by which we left it.
In the hedges, the boys, with no small delight, gathered fine ripe
black-berries, which were growing among prickly pear and other tropical
plants. The fields, vineyards, and orchards we had seen from the former
road we now passed through; and as it was a _fiesta_, we saw the
peasants in their best attire, and their little mud huts cleanly swept
and garnished. They seem gentle and lively, not much darker than the
natives of the south of Europe; and if there be a mixture of Guanche
blood, it is said to be traced in the high cheek-bones, narrow chins,
and slender hands and feet which in a few districts seem to indicate a
different race of men. I regret that I had not time to see more of the
people and the country; but not being travellers from curiosity, and
belonging to a service that may not swerve from the strictest obedience,
we dared not even think of a farther excursion.
Halfway down the hill, we entered a ravine, the dry bed of a winter
torrent, where there were rue, lavender, prickly pear, hypericum, and
spurge; but not a blade of grass had survived the summer's drought. We
passed a heap of black ashes, which anywhere but at the base of the peak
would be called a respectable mountain. It has not been cold long enough
to be disguised by vegetation; and though on one side the vine is
beginning to clothe its rugged surface, yet the greater part is
frightfully barren. Shortly after we passed it, we arrived at Mr.
Galway's garden-house, and found his lady, a Spaniard of Irish
extraction, ready to receive us. As I had seen in some old Scotch
houses, the best bed-chamber served as drawing-room; but the
dressing-room is apart, and from the front there is an opening to a
pleasant terrace, commanding a charming view. Our dinner was a mixture
of English and Spanish cookery and customs: the Spanish part consisted
of part of a Darter, a very fine fish, white, but resembling a salmon
in taste, with sauce made of small lobsters, oil, vinegar, garlic, and
pimento; some excellent stews, and mixtures of vegetables and quails
roasted in vine leaves; the rest were all English; and the wines, the
growth of the island, and ices[40] were delicious. Neither the
pine-apple nor water-melon grow in Teneriffe, but abundance of the
latter are brought from Grand Canary. All the common garden fruits of
Europe flourish here; but too little attention is paid to horticulture.
This island, or at least the part I have seen, evidently belongs to a
state that has once been great; but is now too poor or too weak to
foster its foreign possessions. Some fine houses begun are in an
unfinished state, and appear to have been so for years; others, though
falling, are neither rebuilt nor repaired; and the only things like
present prosperity, are the neat English country-houses.
[Note 40: The ice is procured from a large cavern near the cone of
the peak; it is almost full of the finest ice all the year round.]
It was sunset before we reached the boats that were to convey us to the
ship; and we had some difficulty both in getting off and in going
alongside of the frigate, owing to the great swell. The night, however,
was fine, and the scene enlivened by the lights in the fishing boats,
which, like those in the Mediterranean, are used to attract the fish. On
shore, the lights of the ports and villa, and the fires of the charcoal
burners shining from amidst the dark hanging forests of pine, and those
of the limekilns in the direction of Laguna, appeared like a brilliant
illumination; and there being not a cloud, the outline of the peak was
well defined on the deep blue of the nocturnal sky.
27th _August_. To-day, some of our new friends, both Spanish and
English, came on board; but the swell was so great, that only one
escaped sea-sickness. Mrs. Galway was fearful of suffering, so did not
come, but she sent me some of the beads found in the sepulchres of the
Guanches: they are of hard baked clay. Mr. Humboldt, whose imagination
was naturally full of South America, has conjectured that they might
have been used for the same purpose as the Peruvian _quipos_, but they
are inconveniently large for that use. They are not unlike the beads
Belzoni found in the mummy pits in Egypt, and they closely resemble some
of the many kinds of beads with which the Bramins have counted their
muntras time immemorial. The Oriental custom of dropping a bead for
every prayer having been adopted by the Christians of the west, and
still continuing in Roman Catholic countries, appears, on that account,
too common to deserve the notice of a philosophical traveller; and
therefore the Guanche shepherds, or goatherd kings, are rather supposed,
like the polished Peruvians, to have recorded the annals of their reigns
with clay beads, than allowed to tell them with their orisons, like the
Bramins of the Ganges, the shepherds of Mesopotamia, or the anchorets of
Palestine and Egypt, because the modern monk does the same. The Guanche
mummies are now of very rare occurrence. During the early times of the
Spanish government of the island, their sepulchres were carefully
concealed by the natives; now, intermarriage with their conquerors, and
consequent change of religion and habits, have rendered them careless of
them, and they are, generally speaking, really forgotten, and only
discovered accidentally in planting a new vineyard, or ploughing a new
field.
28th. This morning left the "still vext" bay of Oratava, and before
sunset saw Palma and Gomera. The Canary Islands, supposed to be the
Fortunate Islands of the ancients, were discovered accidentally in 1405.
Betancour, a Frenchman, took possession of them for Spain; but the
natives were brave, and it cost both the Spaniards and Portuguese, who
possessed them by turns, much blood and treasure to conquer the country
and exterminate the people, for their wars ended in nothing less.
Purchas complains that he could not obtain the reading of some travels
by an Englishman who had visited the Peak; the good pilgrim's curiosity
had been strongly excited by the particulars he had learnt from books,
and the journals of some of his friends who had travelled, which he has
carefully related: they are such as to make me regret that he has not
recorded more, and that I cannot see more. We brought with us from
Oratava one of the finest goats I ever saw; I presume she was a
descendant of the original flock which the supreme deity of the Guanches
created to be the property of the kings alone: she is brown, with very
long twisted horns, a very remarkable white beard, and the largest udder
I ever saw.
29th. Passed the island of Hierro or Ferro, the old first meridian;
which honour, I presume, it enjoyed from having been considered as the
most western land in the world until the discovery of America. We were
very close to it, and all agreed that we never saw so hard-looking and
inaccessible a place. We saw some fine woods, a few scattered houses,
and one village perched upon a hill, at least 1500 feet above us. The
Peak of Teneriffe still visible above the clouds.
_Sept._ 1st. The flying-fish are become very numerous, and whole fleets
of medusae have passed us; some we have picked up, besides a very
beautiful purple sea-snail. This fish has four horns, like a snail, the
shell is very beautifully tinted with purple, and there is a spongy
substance attached to the fish which I thought assisted it to swim: it
is larger in bulk than the whole fish. One of them gave out fully a
quarter of an ounce of purple fluid from the lower part of the fish. A
fine yellow locust and a swallow flew on board; and as we believe
ourselves to be four hundred miles from the nearest land, Cape Blanco,
we cannot enough admire the structure of the wings that have borne them
so far.
Our school for the ship's boys is now fairly established, and does Mr.
Hyslop, our school-master, great credit; that for the midshipmen is
going on very well, being kept in the fore-cabin under the captain's
eye. The boys have his presence, not only as a check to idleness or
noise, but as an encouragement to industry. He is most anxious to make
them fit to be officers and seamen in their profession, and good men and
gentlemen both at sea and on shore. Happily they are all promising; but
if G---- should disappoint us, I never will believe in youthful talent,
industry, or goodness more. Our days pass swiftly, because busily. The
regular business of the ship, the school, astronomical observations,
study of history and modern languages, and nothing permitted to pass
without observation, fill our time completely.
Lord Bacon says, "It is a strange thing that in sea voyages, where there
is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries; but in
land travel, wherein so much is to be observed, for the most part they
omit it, as if chance were fitter to be registered than observation."
However, for once, his lordship has only seen, or perhaps only spoken,
in part. Sea and sky must be observed before we can know the laws by
which their great changes or chances are regulated. Observations on the
works of man, as cities, courts, &c. may be omitted, for we know their
authors, and can have recourse to them, their motives, and their
history, whenever we please; but the great operations of nature are so
above us, that we must humbly mark them, and endeavour to make their
history a part of our experience, in order that we pass safely through
their vicissitudes. Hence it is, that the commonest details of the early
navigators, their sunrise and sunset, their daily portionings of food
and water, are read with a deeper interest than the liveliest tour
through civilised countries and populous cities; that Byron's passage
through Chiloe continues to excite the most profound sympathy; while
Moore's lively view of society and manners in France or Italy, are now
seldom or languidly read. The uncertainty, the mystery of nature, keep
up a perpetual curiosity; but I suspect that if we knew the progress and
dependance of her operations, as well as we do those of an architect or
brick-layer, the history of the building of a theatre or a
dwelling-house might vie in interest with that of a sea voyage.
The books we intend our boys to read are,--history, particularly that of
_Greece_, _Rome_, _England_, and _France_; an outline of general
history, voyages, and discoveries; some poetry, and general literature,
in French and English; Delolme, with the concluding chapter of
Blackstone on the history of the law and the constitution of England;
and afterwards the first volume of Blackstone, Bacon's Essays, and
Paley. We have only three years to work in; and as the _business_ of
their life is to learn their profession, including mathematics,
algebra, nautical astronomy, theory and practice of seamanship, and duty
as officers, with all the _technicalities_ belonging to it,--this is all
we dare propose.
5th. We have begun to look forward to that festival of the seamen, the
crossing the line. I know not whence the custom is derived, but the
Arabs observe it with ceremonies not very unlike those practised by our
own sailors. To-day a letter, containing a sketch of the intended
festival, with thanks for permission to keep it, was sent into the
cabin. I shall copy it with its answer. I find that some captains have
begun to give money at the next port, instead of permitting this day of
misrule. Perhaps they may be right, and perhaps in time it may be
forgotten; but will it be better that it should be so? It is the
sailors' only festival; and I like a festival: it gives the heart room
to play. The head in one class, and the limbs in another, work every
day, and in divers, if not opposite directions; but on a festival, the
hearts of all beat the same way: yet I would not have them too often,
for
"If every day were playing holiday,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;"
the converse of the proverb, "All work and no play, makes Jack a dull
boy." But to our letters.
"The sons of Neptune, of His Majesty's ship Doris, commanded by Captain
T.G., return their most grateful thanks for his kind condescension for
granting them the favour that has been allowed to them from time
immemorial, in crossing the Equinoctial, on our Old Father Neptune's
dominions, when we hope the characters will meet your Honour's
approbation, which will appear in the margin.
Thomas Clark, quarter-master, -- Neptune.
J. Ware, forecastle, -- Amphitrite.
W. Knight, -- Amphitrite's Son.
W. Sullivan, 2d captain main-top, -- Triton.
C. Brisbane (_negro_), -- Triton's Horse.
J. Thompson, gunner's mate, -- High Sheriff.
J. White, forecastle, -- Sub Sheriff.
W. Sinclair, captain forecastle, -- Barber.
J. Smith, J. Forster, Michael Jaque, -- Barber's Mates.
J. Gaggin, -- Clerk.
W. Bird, captain fore-top, -- Chief Constable.
Nine assistants.
J. Duncan, boatswain's mate, -- Coachman.
J. Clark, -- Postilion.
J. Leath, -- Footman.
J. Speed, -- Painter.
W. Lundy, -- Bottle-holder.
W. Williamson, -- Satan.
J. Williams, -- Judge Advocate.
Eight Sea-horses.
"So we have given you as good a relation as possibly our weak abilities
afford us; and, honoured Captain, believe us when we say, we wish you
every happiness this life can afford, and your honoured lady entirely
included, and believe us yours, &c. &c. &c.
"BRITTON'S SONS."
_Answer._
"I received your letter with the list of characters that are to appear
in Father Neptune's train on our crossing the line, of which I
completely approve. I have to thank you for your kind wishes both for
Mrs. G---- and myself, and to assure you, that the greatest pleasure I
can feel in the command of this ship, will be in promoting the happiness
and comfort of the whole of Britain's sons on board the Doris.
"Believe me your sincere friend,
THOS. G----,
"H.M.S. Doris, at Sea, Sept 5th, 1821.
To Britain's Sons, H.M.S. Doris."
It would be worth while to enquire into the origin of the merry-making
on crossing the line. As the Arabs, an astronomical people, have it, it
has probably some reference to their now-forgotten worship of the
heavenly bodies. Like us, they set on fire some combustible matter or
other, and let it float away, but they add some food to it, as if there
had once been a sacrifice accompanying the festival. Such, at least, I
have been assured by several gentleman well acquainted with the Arab
traders in the Eastern sea, is their practice.
18th. We have done nothing but sail on with very variable weather, for
the last thirteen days.
"From world to world our steady course we keep,
Swift as the winds along the waters sweep,
Mid the mute nations of the purple deep."
One night we observed that luminous appearance of the sea so often
described, but it was not so brilliant as I remember to have seen it
near the same latitude. The next morning we found the temperature of the
sea, at the surface, two degrees higher than that of the atmosphere.
Last night at 8 P. M. we crossed the line: to-day, accordingly, our
Saturnalian festival took place.
About six o'clock P. M. yesterday, the officer of the watch was informed
that there was a boat with lights alongside, and begged to shorten sail.
The captain immediately went on deck, and Neptune hailed from the fore
part of the rigging, "What ship?" "Doris." "Who commands?" "Captain T.
G." "Where from?" "Whitehall." "Where bound?" "A man of war's cruize."
Upon which Triton mounted upon a sea-horse, admirably represented,
appeared as bearer of a letter containing the names of all who had not
yet crossed the line, and who were consequently to be initiated into the
mysteries of the Water God. Triton having thus executed his commission,
rode off, and was seen no more till 8 o'clock this morning, when Neptune
being announced, the captain went on deck to receive him.
First came Triton mounted as before, then a company of sea-gods or
constables dressed in oakum and swabs, but having their arms and
shoulders bare, excepting the paint which bedaubed them. Neptune with
trident and crown, Amphitrite by his side, and their son at their feet,
appeared in a car drawn by eight sea-horses, and driven by a sea god:
the train followed in the persons of the lawyers, barbers, and painters.
The whole pageant was well dressed, and going in procession, fully as
picturesque as any antique triumphal or religious ceremony; the fine
forms of some of the actors struck me exceedingly. I never saw marble
more beautiful than some of the backs and shoulders displayed; and the
singular clothing to imitate fishes instead of legs, and seaweed skirts,
which they had all adopted, carried one back for centuries, to the time
when all this was religion.
After the progress round the decks, a conference with the captain, and a
libation in the form of a glass of brandy, to which the god and goddess
vied with each other in devotion, the merriment began. Mock-shaving, or
a fine paid, was necessary to admit the new comers to the good graces of
their watery father; and while he was superintending the business, all
the rest of the ship's company, officers and all, proceeded to duck each
other unmercifully. None but women escaped, and that only by staying in
my cabin. The officer of the watch, sentries, quartermasters, and such
as are absolutely necessary to look after the ship, are of course held
sacred; so that some order is still preserved. It seemed really that
"madness ruled the hour;" but at the appointed moment, half past eleven,
all ceased: by noon, every body was at his duty, the decks were dried,
and the ship restored to her wonted good order. The whole of our gunroom
officers dine with us, and we flatter ourselves that we shall end the
day as happily as we have begun it.[41]
[Note 41: Frezier, who crossed the line, March 5th, 1712, says,
"When it was no longer to be doubted that we were to the southward of
the line, the foolish ceremony practised by all nations was not omitted.
"The persons to be so served are seized by the wrists, to ropes
stretched fore and aft on the second deck for the officers, and before
the mast for the sailors; and after much mummery and monkey tricks, they
are let loose, to be led after one another to the main mast, where they
are made to swear on a sea chart that they will do by others as is done
by them, according to the laws and statutes of navigation: then they pay
to save being wetted, but always in vain, for the captains themselves
are not quite spared."
Jaques le Maire, the first who sailed round Cape Horn, mentions in his
Journal, 8th July, 1615, baptizing the sailors when he arrived at the
_Barrels_.--Has this any thing in common with the ceremony of crossing
the line?]
20th. The long tiresome calms, and the beautiful moonlight nights near
the equator, have been talked of, and written of, till we know all about
them. Mention but passing the line, and you conjure up a wide,
apparently interminable, glassy dull sea: sails flapping, a solitary
bird sinking with heat, or a shark rising lazily to catch a bait; or, at
best, a calm warm night, with a soft moonlight silvering over the
_treacherous_ deep, and rendering the beholders, who ought to be lovers
if they are not, insensible of the rocks that may lurk below.--But our's
was not the _beau ideal_ of crossing the line: we had fresh breezes in
the day, and thunder and lightning at night; saw few tropic birds, and
those very vigorous, and fish more nimble than sharks, or even sun-fish,
of which, however, we met a due proportion. I had once been in a
tropical calm, and I really, after trying them both, prefer the breezes
and thunder-storms. The other night we had one, such as Milton talks of:
"Either tropic now
'Gan thunder, and both ends of heav'n: the clouds
From many a horrid rift abortive poured
Fierce rain with lightning mixt, water with fire
In ruin reconciled; nor slept the winds
Within their stoney caves, but rush'd abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the vext wilderness."
I never see a thunder-storm at sea, but it reminds me of the vision of
Ezekiel:
"The sapphire blaze,
Where angels tremble while they gaze."
It is awful and grand every where: fearful in the plain, sublime among
the mountains; but here, on the ocean, with nothing to intercept its
bolt, the horrible is superadded, and he must be more or less than man
that does not at least take thought during its continuance.
_Friday, September 21st._ At length we are in sight of the coast of
Brazil, which here is low and green, about two degrees to the northward
of the point first discovered by Vincente Pinzon, in 1500.[42] The
weather is very squally, and there is a heavy swell: we are anchored
about eight miles from Olinda, the capital of Pernambuco, in fifteen
fathoms water, but though we have fired more than one gun for a pilot,
none seems to be coming off.
[Note 42: Cabral first took possession of the country which he
called _that of the Holy Cross_, for the crown of Portugal; Amerigo
Vespucci 1504, called it Brazil, on account of the wood.]
[Illustration]
_Pernambuco, September 22. 1821._--At nine o'clock the commodore of this
place, whose office is a combination of port-admiral and commissioner,
came on board with the harbour-master, and the ship was guided by the
latter to the anchorage, which is about three miles from the town, in
eight fathoms water. The roadstead is quite open, and we find here a
very heavy swell. It is not wonderful that our guns were neither
answered nor noticed last night. Mr. Dance, having been sent on shore
with official letters to the governor and the acting English consul,
found the place in a state of siege, and brought back with him Colonel
Patronhe, the governor's aide-de-camp, who gave us the following account
of the present state of Pernambuco:
Besides the disposition to revolution, which we were aware had long
existed in every part of Brazil, there was, also, a jealousy between the
Portuguese and Brazilians, which recent events had increased in no small
degree. On the 29th of August, about 600 men of the militia and other
native forces had taken possession of the Villa of Goyana, one of the
principal places in this captaincy, and had forcibly entered the
town-house, where they had declared the government of Luiz do Rego to be
at an end. They proceeded to elect a temporary provisional government
for Goyana, to act until the capital of the province should be in a
condition to establish a constitutional junta; and in order to
accelerate that event, they had collected forces of every kind, and
among them several companies of the Cacadores who had deserted from Luiz
do Rego; with these troops, such as they are, they had marched towards
Pernambuco, and last night they had attacked the two main points of
Olinda, to the north, in four different places, and Affogados to the
south. They were, however, repulsed by the royal troops, under the
governor, with the loss of fourteen killed and thirty-five prisoners,
while the royalists had two killed, and seven wounded. This morning the
alarm of the town's people was increased by finding several armed men
concealed in the belfreys of the churches, whither also they had
conveyed several stands of arms. Luiz do Rego is a soldier, and attached
to the royal cause. He served long with the English army in Portugal and
Spain, and, if I mistake not, distinguished himself at the siege of St.
Sebastian's. He is rather a severe man, and, especially among the
soldiers, more feared than loved.--Great part of the regiment of
Cacadores has left him to join the patriots, and formed the most
efficient corps in the attack last night. The towns-people have been
formed into a militia, tolerably armed and trained. The town is pretty
well supplied with mandioc flour, jerked beef, and salt fish; but the
besiegers prevent all fresh provisions from coming in. All shops are
shut, and all food scarce and dear. Most people who have property of
value, in plate or jewels, have packed it up, and lodged it in the
houses of the English merchants. Many persons with their wives and
families have left their homes in the out-skirts of the town, and have
taken refuge with the English. The latter, who, for the most part,
sleep, at least, in country houses in the neighbourhood, called sitios,
have left them, and remain altogether at their counting-houses in the
port: every thing, in short, is alarm and uncertainty.
_23d._--The night passed quietly, and so indeed did the day. Many
messages have passed between us and the land, but I could not go on
shore: we have excellent oranges, and tolerable vegetables from the
town, and have been quite enough amused in observing the curious little
boats, canoes, catamarans and jangadas, that have been sailing, and
paddling, and rowing round the ship. The jangada resembles nothing I
have ever seen before; six or eight logs are made fast together by two
transverse beams; at one end there is a raised seat, on which a man
places himself to steer, for they are furnished with a sort of rudder;
sometimes the seat is large enough to admit of two sitters, another
bench at the foot of a mast, immense for the size of the raft, holds
clothes and provisions, or an upright pole is fixed in one of the logs,
to which these things are suspended, and a large triangular sail of
cotton cloth completes the jangada, in which the hardy Brazilian sailor
ventures to sea, the waves constantly washing over it, and carries
cargoes of cotton or other goods, or, in case of necessity, letters and
despatches, hundreds of miles in safety.
About three o'clock a large canoe with two patriot officers came along
side, to ascertain if we were really English; if we had come, as was
reported, to assist the royalists, or if we would assist them: so apt
are men, under the influence of strong feeling themselves, to doubt of
perfect indifference in others, that I question much whether they
believed in the strict neutrality we profess. They left us, however,
without betraying any particular anxiety, and made a very circuitous
passage home, in order to avoid the Recife cruizer, which was looking
out for straggling boats or vessels of any description belonging to the
patriots.
_Monday the 24th._--Col. Patronhe arrived early this morning, to request
that the English packet might put into Lisbon with the Government
despatches. We felt glad that the strict rules of service prevented the
captain from giving any such order to the master of the packet. It would
be at once a breach of that neutrality we profess to observe, and, in my
opinion, an aiding of the worst cause. The colonel, adverting to the
town being in a state of siege, and the uncertainty of the next attack
as to time and place, advised me strongly to stay altogether on board;
but I had never seen a town in a state of siege, and therefore resolved
to go ashore. Accordingly, Mr. Dance, being the only officer on board
who speaks either Portuguese or French, was commissioned to accompany
me; and I took two midshipmen, Grey and Langford, also to call on Madame
do Rego.
The name of Pernambuco, which is that of the captainship, is now
generally applied to the capital, which consists of two parts; 1st, the
city of Olinda, which was founded by the Portuguese, under Duarte Coelho
Pedreiro, about 1530 or 1540, and, as its name implies, on a beautiful
spot, where moderate, but abrupt hills, a fine river, and thick wood,
combine to charm the eye; but the approach to it by sea must always have
been difficult, if not dangerous: and, 2nd, the town of Recife de
Pernambuco, or the Reef of Pernambuco, built by the Dutch, under Maurice
of Nassau, and by them called Maurice Town. It is a singular spot, well
fitted for trade; it is situated upon several sand banks, divided by
salt water creeks and the mouth of two fresh water rivers, connected by
three bridges, and divided into as many parts; Recife, properly so
called, where are the castles of defence, and the dock-yard, and the
traders; Sant Antonio, where are the government house, the two principal
churches, one for the white and one for the black population; and Boa
Vista, where the richer merchants, or more idle inhabitants, live among
their gardens, and where convents, churches, and the bishop's palace,
give an air of importance to the very neat town around them.
All this I knew before I landed, and thought I was pretty well prepared
for Pernambuco. But no previous knowledge could do away the wonder with
which one must enter that very extraordinary port. From the ship, which
is anchored three miles from the town, we see that vessels lie within a
reef on which the sea is perpetually breaking, but till I was actually
within that reef, I had not the least idea of the nature of the harbour:
the swell going ashore would have seemed tremendous, had we not been
prepared for it, and made our passage of three miles a very long one. We
approached the sandy beach between Recife and Olinda so nearly, that I
thought we were going to land there; when coming abreast of a tower on a
rock, where the sea was breaking violently, we turned short round, and
found ourselves within a marvellous natural break-water, heard the surf
dashing without, and saw the spray, but we ourselves were sailing along
smoothly and calmly, as if in a mill-pond. The rock of which the reef is
formed, is said to be coral; but it is so coated with barnacle and
limpet above barnacle and limpet, that I can see nothing but the
remainder of these shells for many feet down, and as deep into the rock
as our hammers will break. It extends from a good way to the northward
of Paraiba to Olinda, where it sinks under water, and then rises
abruptly at Recife, and runs on to Cape St. Augustine, where it is
interrupted by the bold granite head, that shoots through it into the
ocean: it then reappears, and continues, interruptedly, towards the
south. The breadth of the harbour here between the reef and the main
land varies from a few fathoms to three quarters of a mile; the water is
deep close to the rock, and there the vessels often moor. There is a bar
at the entrance of the harbour, over which there is, in ordinary tides,
sixteen feet water, so that ships of considerable burden lie here.[43]
His Majesty's brig Alacrity lay some time within the reef; and two feet
more water on the bar, would have enabled the Doris to have entered,
though, as far as I have seen, there would be no room to turn about if
she wished to go out again. The reef is certainly one of the wonders of
the world; it is scarcely sixteen feet broad at top. It slopes off more
rapidly than the Plymouth break-water, to a great depth on the outside,
and is perpendicular within, to many fathoms. Here and there, a few
inequalities at the top must formerly have annoyed the harbour in high
tides or strong winds, but Count Maurice remedied this, by laying huge
blocks of granite into the faulty places, and has thus rendered the top
level, and the harbour safe at all times. The Count had intended to
build warehouses along the reef, but his removal from the government
prevented his doing so. A small fort near the entrance defends it, and
indeed always must, so narrow and sudden is the passage. Near it, a
light-house is in a fair way of being soon finished, at the very
extremity of the reef, and these are the only two buildings on this
extraordinary line of rock. We rowed up the harbour among vessels of all
nations, with the town on one side, and the reef on the other, until we
came to one of the wide creeks, over which the Dutch built a fine stone
bridge, now in decay. We were a a good deal struck with the beauty of
the scene; the buildings are pretty large, and white; the land low and
sandy, spotted with bright green tufts of grass, and adorned with
palm-trees. A few years ago a violent flood nearly destroyed the greater
part of the centre of the bridge, yet the arches still serve to support
light wooden galleries on each side of it, and the houses and gateways
are still standing at either end. We landed pretty near the bridge, and
were received by Colonel Patronhe, who apologised for the governor, who
could not come to receive us, as he was in the council room.[44] The
colonel conducted us to the government house, a very handsome building,
with a square in front, and a tower, and we entered what had evidently
been a splendid hall. The gilding and painting still remained on some
parts of the ceiling and walls; but now it is occupied by horses
standing ready saddled; soldiers armed, and ready to mount at a moment's
warning; every thing on the alert; guns in front with lighted matches by
them, and an air of bustle and importance among the soldiers, that
excites a sort of sympathetic curiosity as to their possible and
immediate destination. On going up stairs we found almost as much
confusion: for the governor has hitherto lived in the very out-skirts of
the town, and has but just come to the house in Sant Antonio, which was
formerly the Jesuits' college, partly to be in the centre of business,
and partly to secure his family, in case of accident, as the besiegers'
out-posts are very near his former residence. I found Madame do Rego an
agreeable, rather pretty woman, and speaking English like a native: for
this she accounted, by informing me that her mother, the Viscondeca do
Rio Seco, was an Irish woman. Nothing could be kinder and more
flattering than her manner, and that of General do Rego's two daughters,
whose air and manner are those of really well-bred women, and one of
them is very handsome. After sitting some little time, refreshments were
brought in, and shortly after, the governor himself appeared; a fine
military-looking man. He appeared ill, being still suffering from the
effects of a wound, he received some months ago, while walking through
the town with a friend. It has since been ascertained, that the
instigator of the crime was a certain Ouvidor (judge) whom he had
displaced shortly after he assumed the government. The assassin fired
twice; Luiz do Rego received several shots and slugs in his body, but
the most severe wound was in his left arm. His friend's life was for
some time despaired of, but both are now nearly well. At the time the
crime was committed, the perpetrator was seized more than once by some
of the bye-standers; but as often, a baker's basket was pushed in
between him and whoever seized him; he threw away his pistols and
escaped.[45]
[Note 43: In 1816, under the governor, Monte Negro, the harbour was
cleared and deepened, and particularly the bar.]
[Note 44: The council or junta of provisional government consisted
of ten members, of which Luiz do Rego was the head; they were drawing up
an address to the inhabitants of Recife, assuring them of safety and
protection; exulting in the advantage gained in the night, and asserting
that there were plenty of provisions within the town; and encouraging
them in the name of the king and cortes, to defend the city against the
insurgents, who were of course branded with the names of enemies to the
king and country.]
[Note 45: Luiz do Rego was not the first governor of Pernambuco who
had been shot at. In 1710, when Sebastian de Castro, in conformity to
his orders from Lisbon, had erected a pillar, and declared Recife a
town, San Antonio da Recife, the Olindrians shot him on his walk to Boa
Vista, in four places. The Ouvidor was one of the conspirators. The
bishop had a share in this unchristian action. The object of the people
of Olinda and of the assassin's party was, to confine Recife to its own
parish, extending only to the Affogados on one side, and Fort Brun on
the other.]
Having paid our visit, we proceeded to walk about the town. The streets
are paved partly with blueish pebbles from the beach, partly with red or
grey granite. The houses are three or four stories high, built of a
whitish stone, and all are white-washed, with door-posts and
window-frames of brown stone. The ground floor consists of shops, or
lodging for the negroes, and stables: the floor above is generally
appropriated to counting-houses and ware-rooms; and the dwelling-house
still higher, the kitchen being universally at the top, by which means
the lower part of the house is kept cool, I was surprised to find it so
possible to walk out without inconvenience from the heat, so near the
equator; but the constant sea-breeze, which sets in here every day at
ten o'clock, preserves a temperature, under which it is at all times
possible to take exercise. The hot time of day is from eight, when the
land breeze fails, to ten. As we were to pass the stone bridge on our
way back to the boat, which was ordered to meet us at the point of
Recife, because the receding tide would have left it dry in the creek
where we landed; we left it on one hand, and walked through Sant Antonio
towards Boa Vista. When we came to the wooden bridge, 350 paces long,
connecting it with Sant Antonio, we found that it had been cut through
the middle, and is only now passable by means of two planks easily
withdrawn, in case the besiegers should get possession of Boa Vista.
Nothing can be prettier of its kind than the fresh green landscape, with
its broad river winding through it, which is seen on each hand from the
bridge, and the white buildings of the treasury and mint, the convents,
and private houses, most of which have gardens. The verdure is
delightful to an English eye; and I doubt not that the flat meadows, and
slowly-flowing water, were particularly attractive to the Dutch founders
of Recife. We walked back by the stone bridge, 280 paces long, as we
intended; in vain did we look for shops; not one was open, the
shopkeepers being all on military duty. They form the militia, and, as
many of them are from Europe, and as they all expect to be plundered
should the country Brazilians take the town by force, they are most
zealous in their attendance as soldiers.
At each end of every street we found a light gun, and at the heads of
the bridges two, with lighted matches by them, and at each post we were
challenged by the guard. At the end of the stone bridge, at the ponte
dos tres pontes[46], next to Recife, the guards are more numerous and
strict. In this quarter, the chief riches of the place are lodged, and
that is the point most easily defended. It is very nearly surrounded
with water, the houses are high, strongly built, and close together, the
streets being very narrow, and the strong gateways at each end of the
bridge might secure time to demolish it entirely, and thus render that
part of the town secure, except by the sand bank communicating with
Olinda, and that is guarded by two considerable forts.
[Note 46: A little fort which defends the entrance to Recife.]
We had hardly gone fifty paces into Recife, when we were absolutely
sickened by the first sight of a slave-market. It was the first time
either the boys or I had been in a slave-country; and, however strong
and poignant the feelings may be at home, when imagination pictures
slavery, they are nothing compared to the staggering sight of a
slave-market. It was thinly stocked, owing to the circumstances of the
town; which cause most of the owners of new slaves to keep them closely
shut up in the depots. Yet about fifty young creatures, boys and girls,
with all the appearance of disease and famine consequent upon scanty
food and long confinement in unwholesome places, were sitting and lying
about among the filthiest animals in the streets. The sight sent us home
to the ship with the heart-ache: and resolution, "not loud but deep,"
that nothing in our power should be considered too little, or too great,
that can tend to abolish or to alleviate slavery.
_27th._--I went on shore to-day to spend a few days with Miss S., the
only English lady in the town. She is now living in her brother's
town-house, where the office and warehouses are, because the
country-house is within reach of the patriots. I do long to walk or ride
out to the tempting green hills beyond the town; but as that cannot be,
I must content myself with what is within the lines. To-day, as we were
coming in from Boa Vista, we met a family of Certanejos, who had brought
provisions into the town some days ago, returning home to the Certam, or
wild country of the interior. These Certanejos are a hardy, active set
of men, mostly agriculturists. They bring corn and pulse, bacon and
sweetmeats, to the sea-coast, hides and tallow also at times. But the
sugar, cotton, and coffee, which form the staple exports of Pernambuco,
require the warmer, richer lands, nearer the coast. Cotton is, however,
brought from the Certam, but it is a precarious crop, depending entirely
on the quantity of rain in the season; and it sometimes does not rain in
the Certam for two years. The party we met formed a very picturesque
groupe, the men clad in leather from head to foot, of which their light
jerkin and close pantaloons are fitted as closely as the clothing on the
Egina marbles, and have something of the same effect: the small round
hat is in the form of Mercury's petasus; and the shoes and gaiters of
the greater number are excellently adapted to defend the legs and feet
in riding through the thickets. The colour of all this is a fine tan
brown. I was vexed that the woman of the party wore a dress evidently of
French fashion: it spoiled the unity of the groupe. She was mounted
behind the principal man, on one of the small active horses of the
country; several sumpter horses followed, laden with household goods and
other things in exchange for their provisions: cloths, both woollen and
cotton, coarse crockery, and other manufactured articles, especially
knives, are what they chiefly take in barter; though I saw some
furniture, with pretensions to elegance, among the stuff of the family I
met. After the horses came a groupe of men, some walking and keeping
pace with the amble of the beasts; others riding and carrying the
children; the procession being closed by a very stout good-looking man,
smoking as he went along, and distinguished by a pair of green baize
trowsers.
In the evening we rode out; whether it was because we had been so many
weeks on board ship, and without horse-exercise, or because of the
peculiar sweetness and freshness of evening after the sultry tropical
day we had just passed, I know not, but I never enjoyed an hour in the
open air so much. We rode out of the town by some pretty country-houses,
called _sitios_, to one of the out-posts at Mondego, which was formerly
the governor's residence. The tamarind, the silk-cotton tree[47], and
the palm, shaded us, and a thousand elegant shrubs adorned the garden
walls. It is impossible to describe the fresh delicious feel of such an
evening, giving repose and health after the fiery day. We were very
sorry when obliged to return home; but the sun was gone, there was no
moon, and we were afraid that the guards at the various posts of defence
might stop us. As we came back, we were challenged at every station; but
the words, _amigos ingresos_ were our passport, and we got to Recife
just as the evening hymn was singing, harshly and unmusically enough, by
the negroes and mulattoes in the streets; but yet every thing that
unites men in one common sentiment is interesting. The church doors were
open, the altars illuminated, and the very slave felt that he was
addressing the same Deity, by the same privilege with his master. It is
an evening I can never forget.
[Illustration]
[Note 47: Bombex pentandrium. _Jaquin._]
_28th._--This morning before breakfast, looking from the balcony of Mr.
S.'s house, I saw a white woman, or rather fiend, beating a young
negress, and twisting her arms cruelly while the poor creature screamed
in agony, till our gentlemen interfered. Good God! that such a traffic,
such a practice as that of slavery, should exist. Near the house there
are two or three depots of slaves, all young; in one, I saw an infant of
about two years old, for sale. Provisions are now so scarce that no bit
of animal food ever seasons the paste of mandioc flour, which is the
sustenance of slaves: and even of this, these poor children, by their
projecting bones and hollow cheeks, show that they seldom get a
sufficiency. Now, money also is so scarce, that a purchaser is not
easily found, and one pang is added to slavery: the unavailing wish of
finding a master! Scores of these poor creatures are seen at different
corners of the streets, in all the listlessness of despair--and if an
infant attempts to crawl from among them, in search of infantile
amusement, a look of pity is all the sympathy he excites. Are the
patriots wrong? They have put arms into the hands of the _new_ negroes,
while the recollection of their own country, and of the slave-ship, and
of the slave-market, is fresh in their memory.
I walked to-day to the market-place, where there is but little;--beef
scarce and dear, no mutton, a little poultry, and a few pigs,
disgusting, because they feed in the streets where every thing is
thrown, and where they and the dogs are the only scavengers. The
blockade is so strict, that even the vegetables from the gentlemen's
private gardens, two miles from the out-posts, are detained. No milk is
to be had, bread of American flour is at least twice as dear as in
England, and the cakes of mandioc baked with cocoa nut juice, too dear
for the common people to afford a sufficiency even of them. Fire-wood
is extravagantly high, charcoal scarce. The negroes keep the markets: a
few on their own account, more on that of their masters. The dress of
the free negroes is like that of the creole Portuguese; a linen jacket
and trowsers, or on days of ceremony one of cloth, and a straw hat,
furnish forth either a black or a white gentleman. The women, in-doors,
wear a kind of frock which leaves the bosom much exposed. When they walk
out they wear either a cloak or mantle; this cloak is often of the
gayest colours; shoes also, which are the mark of freedom, are to be
seen of every hue, but black. Gold chains for the neck and arms, and
gold ear-rings, with a flower in the hair, complete a Pernambucan
woman's dress. The new negroes, men and women, have nothing but a cloth
round their loins. When they are bought, it is usual to give the women a
shift and petticoat, and the men at least trowsers, but this is very
often omitted.
Yesterday the motley head-dresses of the Portuguese inhabitants were
seen to great advantage, in a sally through the streets, made by a kind
of supplementary militia to enforce the closing of all shop-doors, and
the shutting up of all slaves, on an alarm that the enemy was attacking
the town to the southward. The officer leading the party was indeed
dressed _en militaire_, with a drawn sword in one hand, and a pistol in
the other. Then followed a company that Falstaff would hardly have
enlisted, armed in a suitable manner, with such caps and hats as became
the variety of trades to which the wearers belonged, the rear being
brought up by a most singular figure, with a small drum-shaped black cap
on the very top of a stiff pale head, a long oil-skin cloak, and in his
left hand a huge Toledo ready drawn, which he carried upright. The
militia are better dressed, and are now employed in regular turn of duty
with the royal troops, who are going over to the patriots daily.
Calling at the palace this forenoon, we learned that a hundred Indians
are expected in the town, by way of assistance to the garrison. They
wear their aboriginal dress, and are armed with slings, bows, and
arrows. We are told their ideas of government consist in believing that
implicit obedience is due both to king and priests. Brandy is the bribe
for which they will do any thing; a dram of that liquor and a handful of
mandioc flour being all the food they require when they come down to the
port.
This evening, as there are no horses to be hired here, we borrowed some
from our English and French friends, and rode to Olinda by the long
sandy isthmus, which connects it with Recife. This is the isthmus
fortified with a palisade, by Sir John Lancaster, during his stay at
Recife, which he plundered.[48] The beach is defended by two castles,
sufficiently strong when their situation is considered; on one side a
furious surf breaking at their base, on the other a deep estuary and
flat ground beyond, so that they cannot be commanded. The sand is
partially covered by shrubs; one is very splendid with thick leaves and
purple bell-shaped flowers; many are like those of the eastern world;
many are quite new to me. I was surprised at the extreme beauty of
Olinda, or rather of its remains, for it is now in a melancholy state of
ruin. All the richer inhabitants have long settled in the lower town.
The revenues of the bishopric being now claimed by the crown, and the
monasteries suppressed for the most part, even the factitious splendour
caused by the ecclesiastical courts and inhabitants is no more. The very
college where the youths received some sort of education, however
imperfect, is nearly ruined[49], and there is scarcely a house of any
size standing.
[Note 48: See Introduction, p. 20.]
[Note 49: This was the Jesuits' college founded under the
administration of the admirable father Nobrega, and his companion De
Gram. Here at eighteen years' old the celebrated Viera read lectures on
rhetoric, and composed those commentaries on some of the classics, which
were unfortunately lost in the course of the civil wars.]
Olinda is placed on a few small hills, whose sides are in some
directions broken down, so as to present the most abrupt and picturesque
rock-scenery. These are embosomed in dark woods that seem coeval with
the land itself: tufts of slender palms, here and there the broad head
of an ancient mango, or the gigantic arms of the wide spreading
silk-cotton tree, rise from out the rest in the near ground, and break
the line of forest: amidst these, the convents, the cathedral, the
bishop's palace, and the churches of noble, though not elegant
architecture, are placed in stations which a Claude or a Poussin might
have chosen for them; some stand on the steep sides of rocks, some on
lawns that slope gently to the sea-shore: their colour is grey or pale
yellow, with reddish tiles, except here and there where a dome is
adorned with porcelain tiles of white and blue. Just as we reached the
highest point of the town, looking across the woody bason round which
the hills are grouped, the smoke from one of the out-posts caught our
sight. The soldiers were standing or lying around, and their arms piled
by them: they were just shadowed by tall trees behind, between whose
trunks the scattered rays of the setting sun shed such a partial light
as Salvator Rosa himself would not have disdained. These same soldiers,
however, circumscribed our ride: we had intended to return by the inland
road, but were not allowed to pass into it, as part, at least, lies
without the posts, therefore we were obliged to return by the way we
came.
At the spot where the present guard is placed, and where indeed a strong
guard is peculiarly necessary, the river Bibiriba falls into the
aestuary, which was formerly the port of Olinda. A dam is built across
with flood-gates which are occasionally opened; and on the dam there is
a very pretty open arcade, where the neighbouring inhabitants were
accustomed in peaceable times to go in the evening, and eat, drink, and
dance. It is from this dam that all the good water used in Recife is
daily conveyed in water-canoes, which come under the dam called the
Varadouro, and are filled from twenty-three pipes, led so as to fill the
canoes at once, without farther trouble. We saw seven-and-twenty of
these little boats laden, paddle down the creek with the tide towards
the town. A single oar used rather as rudder than paddle guides the tank
to the middle of the stream, where it floats to its destination.
The sun was low, long before we reached even the first of the two
castles on our way back to the fort. The dogs had already begun their
work of abomination. I saw one drag the arm of a negro from beneath the
few inches of sand, which his master had caused to be thrown over his
remains. It is on this beach that the measure of the insults dealt to
the poor negroes is filled. When the negro dies, his fellow-slaves lay
him on a plank, carry him to the beach, where beneath high-water mark
they hoe a little sand over him; but to the new negro even this mark of
humanity is denied. He is tied to a pole, carried out in the evening and
dropped upon the beach, where it is just possible the surf may bear him
away. These things sent us home sad and spiritless, notwithstanding the
agreeable scenes we had been riding among.
_29th_. The feast of St. Michael's has drawn out the Portuguese
gentlewomen, of whom we had not yet seen one walking in the streets. The
favourite dress seems to be black, with white shoes and white or
coloured ribbons and flowers in the hair, with a mantle of lace or
gauze, either black or white. We have seen a few priests too for the
first time. I think the edict desiring them to keep within their convent
walls, is in consequence of their being among the fomentors of the
spirit of independence. The appropriation of so much of the church
revenue by the court of Lisbon is of course unpopular among the clergy
of the country; and it is not difficult for them to represent, what
indeed is truth, to the people, that the drawing of so much treasure
from the country to support Lisbon, which can neither govern nor protect
them now, is a rational ground of complaint. It is said, that the morals
of the clergy here are most depraved. This is probably true. Men cut off
by vows like those of the Roman clergy, from the active charities of
social life, have only the resources of science and literature against
their passions and vices. But here the very names of literature and
science are almost unknown. The college and library of Olinda are in
decay. There is not one bookseller in Pernambuco, and the population of
its different parishes amounts to 70,000 souls! A tolerably well written
newspaper, of which I have not been able to procure the first number,
was set up in March, under the title of "Aurora Pernambucana," with the
following motto from Camoens:
Depois da procellosa tempestade,
Nocturna sombra e sibilante vento,
Tras a manha serena e claridade,
Esperanca de porto e salvamiente:
alluding to the arrival of the news of the revolution in Portugal, on
the 26th of that month, and the swearing of the governor, magistrates,
&c. to adhere to the constitution as established by the Cortes. I am
sorry to say that this only paper has been discontinued for the two last
months, the editor having, as it seems, become a secretary of
government, and having no longer time to superintend the press.[50]
[Note 50: Not only has this paper been continued since, but others
are now published in Recife.]
_30th._--Last night the patriot troops attacked the line of defence at
Olinda for four hours, but I do not believe there was any loss on either
side. This morning a Portuguese frigate, the Don Pedro, with troops from
Bahia, arrived. The reinforcement of 350 men, partly European, partly
Bahian, has put the inhabitants, from the governor downwards, into the
highest spirits; so that for once we see Pernambuco active, and
cheerful, and alive. Men and women are out in their gayest habits, and
the military are running and riding in all directions, not a little
pleased to have some to relieve them in their constant watch and ward.
Among other things which I learned by looking on, while the elders of
families were engaged in the streets with the new-comers, was that the
young Pernambucans are as dexterous in the use of signs as the Turkish
lovers themselves, and that often a courtship is carried on in this way,
and a marriage settled, without the parties having ever heard each
other's voices. However, the general mode is for parents to settle their
children's nuptials, without consulting any thing but pecuniary
convenience.
This day several of the officers and midshipmen of the Doris accompanied
us to dine at the governor's, at half-past four o'clock. Our welcome
was most cordial. His excellency took one end of the table, and an
aide-de-camp the other: I was seated between M. and Madame do Rego. He
seemed happy to talk of his old English friends of the Peninsula, with
many of whom I am acquainted; and she had a thousand enquiries to make
about England, whither she is very anxious to go. They apologised for
having so little plate, but their handsome services were packed up in an
English store-house, together with her excellency's jewels and other
precious things. The cookery was a mixture of Portuguese and French.
After the soup, a dish was handed round of boiled lean beef, slices of
fat salt pork, and sausages, and with this dish, rice boiled with oil
and sweet herbs. Roast beef was presented, in compliment to the English,
very little roasted. Salads, and fish of various kinds, were dressed in
a peculiar manner; poultry and other things in the French fashion.
The dessert was served on another table. Besides our European dessert of
fruit, cakes, and wine, all the puddings, pies, and tarts, formed part
of it. It was decorated with flowers, and there was a profusion of
sugar-plums of every kind. The company rose from the dining-table, and
adjourned to the other, which Madame do Rego told me should have been
spread in a separate apartment; but they have so recently taken
possession of their house, that they have not one yet fitted up for the
purpose. The governor and his guests proposed many toasts
alternately--The King of England, the King of Portugal, the navy of
England, the King of France[51], Luis do Rego, and the captaincy of
Pernambuco, &c.--When we all rose at once from table; some of the
company went on board ship, but most adjourned to the drawing-room, a
comfortable apartment, furnished with blue satin damask, where we were
joined by the French naval officers of His Most Christian Majesty's ship
Sappho, and several ladies and gentlemen of the city. We had some
excellent music. Madame do Rego has an admirable voice, and there were
several good singers and players on the piano. It was a more pleasant,
polished evening than I had expected to pass in Pernambuco, especially
now in a state of siege.
[Note 51: Mr. Laine, the very pleasing and gentlemanlike French
consul, was present.]
_Wednesday, 3d October._--I went on board on Monday, and, provokingly
enough, the patriots chose that very night to make an attack upon the
out-post of the Affogadas, so I did not see the governor, at the head of
his troops, march out to meet them; nor did I hear the national hymn
sung by the regiments as they filed along on their return from a
successful sally.[52] Yesterday, nothing occurred worth noting; we had
the consul and British merchants on board to dinner, and the day passed
as such days usually do.
[Note 52: Since writing my Journal, I have seen the official account
of this attack on the Villa of the Affagados. It was a well planned
expedition; but the raw troops were easily driven out of the villa of
which they had already possessed themselves, by throwing a bridge over a
branch of the Capabaribe, by the veteran soldiers of Do Rego.
The same morning, i.e. that of the 1st of October, the provisional junta
of Pernambuco had addressed that of the patriots of Goyana, offering
peace, saying, that as their avowed object was the dismissal of L. do
Rego, he was ready to withdraw himself; that he had twice offered the
council of Recife to do so, and had besides sent to the Cortes to beg
they would appoint a successor, and allow him to retire; that his motive
for this was the desire of peace, and of procuring the tranquillity of
the province, so disturbed by these civil broils. They tell the patriots
also, that the Don Pedro is arrived, and assure them that the troops
brought by the frigate shall be employed only in the defence of Recife.
They also intimate, that they are sure of assistance from the French and
English frigates then there, such assistance having been offered, on the
ground of the English and French property in the place. Now I know that
no such assistance was offered by the English frigate. It was asked; but
a strict neutrality had been enjoined by the government, all
interference was refused, and no more was offered than _personal_
protection to either English, French, or Portuguese; and of course
protection for English property being the purpose for which the frigate
was there, was understood by all parties.]
Having learned that the patriots have refused to allow the linen
belonging to the ship, which had been sent to the country to be washed,
to return to the town, it was determined that we should send to their
head-quarters, and remonstrate against this very inconvenient mode of
annoying the port. I obtained leave to accompany the messengers, and
accordingly we all went on shore immediately after breakfast. Our first
business was to procure passports, and to learn the countersigns; after
which Capt. Graham, with Col. Cottar, the governor's principal
aide-de-camp, rode with us to the out-posts, where we left them, with an
intention of returning to dine at Mr. Stewart's, to meet Luis do Rego's
family. Our party consisted of M. Caumont, to act as interpreter, Mr.
Dance, bearing the letter, my cousin Mr. Glennie as my cavalier, and
myself. It was the first time we had had an opportunity of passing the
lines, and we felt like school-boys who had stolen beyond bounds, and
well we might; the scenery was fresh and lovely, and the day as fine as
possible.
Pernambuco is not a walled town, but broad rapid rivers and aestuaries
surround it, and it is only approachable by the roads and causeways; the
banks thrown up across these, for present defence, are such as might
stop the Brazilian cavalry for a few minutes, or afford cover for
musketry; but their best defence is the swamp at the mouth of the
Capabaribe, which is flooded at high water, and which extends nearly to
the Bibiribi. At the edge of the swamp there is a wooden palisade, where
we left the last post of the royalists, and took leave of our friends,
who had accompanied us so far. After riding across the marsh, which by
the by is very fit for rice ground, and is surrounded by cocoa-nut and
tamarind trees, we came to the main stream of the Capabaribe, a deep,
broad, and very rapid river; its sides are steep, and the water
beautifully clear[53]: its banks are studded with country-houses, and
adorned with groves and gardens, for the present abandoned by their
owners, who have taken refuge in Recife.
[Note 53: The Capabaribe has a course of about fifty leagues, but is
only navigable to about six miles from the sea, on account of rapids and
falls in the upper part; it has two mouths, one at Recife, and the other
at Os Affogados. Chor. Braz.]
The hedges on each side of the road are woven of palm-leaves, and where
not quite new, are covered with all splendid creeping plants; the common
and winged passion-flower, white, blue, and yellow clematis, jasmine,
china-rose, and many others, both gay and sweet. The ditches, too, were
full of colour, but we rode too fast to stay to collect plants; and I
could only promise myself, at some future time, to gather one that
appeared like a bog bean, but its colour bright purple.
About two miles from Do Rego's last out-post, we came to the first post
of the patriots, at a country-house on a rising ground, where arms piled
at the door, and a sort of ragged guard, consisting of a merry-looking
negro with a fowling-piece, a Brazilian with a blunderbuss, and two or
three of doubtful colour with sticks, swords pistols, &c., told us an
officer was to be found. After a few minutes parley, we found he was not
authorised to receive our letter, so we rode on under the direction of
the old Brazilian with his blunderbuss, who, being on foot, threatened
to shoot us if we attempted to ride faster than he walked. The slow pace
at which we advanced gave us leisure to remark the beauties of a
Brazilian spring. Gay plants, with birds still gayer hovering over them,
sweet smelling flowers, and ripe oranges and citrons, formed a beautiful
fore-ground to the very fine forest-trees that cover the plains, and
clothe the sides of the low hills in the neighbourhood of Pernambuco.
Here and there a little space is cleared for the growth of mandioc,
which at this season is perfectly green: the wooden huts of the
cultivators are generally on the road-side, and, for the most part, each
has its little grove of mango and orange-trees. At one of these little
homesteads, we found a pretty large guard-house, established where four
roads meet, and there our foot guide left us, and a gentlemanlike young
officer, of the Brazilian Cacadores, rode with us, and entertained us by
calling Luis do Rego a tyrant, and attributing the siege of Pernambuco
entirely to the governor's obstinacy, in not joining the people of the
province in throwing off the dominion of his master. Round the
guard-house a number of negro girls, with broad flat baskets on their
heads, were selling fruit and cold water: they had decked their woolly
hair, and the edges of their baskets, with garlands of the scarlet
althaea; their light blue or white cloaks were thrown gracefully across
their dusky shoulders, and white jackets, so that it was such a picture
as the early Spaniards might have drawn of their Eldorado.
After riding a few miles, we came suddenly to the foot of an abrupt
hill, on whose sides there were scattered groups of the most magnificent
trees I ever beheld. There we were met by a small military party, which,
after a parley with our guide, rather ordered, than invited us to ride
up. In a few seconds, we came to a steep yellow sandstone bank, shaded
on one side by tall trees, and open on the other to a lake surrounded
by woody hills, on the most distant of which, the white buildings of
Olinda sparkled like snow. On the top of the bank, and in the act of
descending, was a group of forty horsemen, one of the foremost of whom
bore a white banner; several were dressed in splendid military habits,
others in the plain costume of the landed proprietors. These were
deputies from Paraiba on their way to propose terms to Luis do Rego;
they had just left the head-quarters of the besieging army, where the
provisional government of Goyana is stationed, and were accompanied by a
guard of honour: after exchanging civilities, part of the guard turned
back with us, and the deputies went on their way. Having reached the top
of the hill, we found about a hundred men, tolerably well armed, but
strangely dressed, awaiting us; and there we were detained till our
guide rode forward to ask leave to bring us to head-quarters. I was
sorry I had no means of sketching any part of the beautiful landscape,
which, besides the striking features I have mentioned before, now
displayed a broad river, over which there is a white stone bridge of
several arches; at one end, a large house, more like a palace, with its
arches and corridors, and the encampment of the army and the horse
picquets, and, in short, a bustle and animation that seldom happen to
adorn so fine a scene. Our guide soon returned with eighteen or twenty
mounted soldiers, whose appearance was rather wild than military: the
guard presented arms as we parted from them, and we soon cantered down
the hill towards the main body of the troops. Not above two hundred had
the arms or accoutrements of soldiers; but there were dresses and
weapons of every kind, leather, cloth, and linen; short jackets and long
Scotch plaids, and every tint of colour in their faces, from the sallow
European to the ebony African. Military honours were paid us by these
ragged regiments, and we were conducted to the palace square, where Mr.
Dance and Mr. Caumont dismounted, and I determined to await the issue of
their conference, with my cousin in the court.
This, however, was not permitted. In a few minutes, a smart little man,
speaking tolerable French, came and told me the _government_ desired my
company. I suspected a mistake of the word government for governor, and
endeavoured to decline the honour; but no denial could be taken, and the
little man, who told me he was secretary to government, accordingly
assisted me to dismount, and showed me the way to the palace. The hall
was filled with men and horses, like a barrack stable, excepting a
corner which served as an hospital for those wounded in the late
skirmishes, the groans of the latter mingling uncouthly with the
soldiers' cheerful noisy voices. The stairs were so crowded, that we got
up with difficulty, and then I found that I was indeed to be confronted
with the whole strength of the provisional government. At the end of a
long dirty room, that had once been handsome, as the form of the windows
and carving of the panels on which there were traces of colour and
gilding, indicated, there was an old black hair sofa, on the centre of
which I was placed, with Mr. Dance on one side, and Mr. Glennie on the
other; by Mr. Dance sat the little secretary, and next to him our
interpreter, in old-fashioned high-backed chairs; the rest of the
furniture of the room consisted of nine seats of different sizes and
forms, placed in a semicircle fronting the sofa, and on each of these
sat one of the members of the junta of the provisional government, who
act the part of senators or generals, as the occasion may require. To
each of these I was introduced; the names of Albuquerque, Cavalcante,
and Broderod, struck me, but I heard imperfectly, and forget most of
them: some wore handsome military coats, others the humbler dress of
farmers. They politely told me they would not read the letter while I
was waiting below, but as soon as we were seated, the secretary read it
aloud. Instead of taking any notice of its contents, the secretary began
a long discourse, setting forth the injustice of the Portuguese governor
and government towards Brazil in general, and the Pernambucans in
particular; that in order to resist that injustice, they had formed the
present respectable government, pointing to the junta, without intending
the least detriment to the rights of the king. That surely they could
not be called rebels, as they marched under the royal flag of Portugal;
but Luis do Rego might be reasonably stigmatised as such, for he had
fired on that banner. He then went off into a long harangue upon the
general principles of government; but as I understood little of the
language, much of it was lost upon me, as well as on my companions; but
I have no doubt that it served to impress the respectable junta with a
higher idea of their secretary's understanding and eloquence:
altogether, the speech reminded me of some of the best written of the
Carbonari addresses of Italy; and there was something in the air,
manner, and scene, not unlike what one imagines of the Barraca meetings
of those ill-guided, misused people.[54] We then talked a great deal in
French to the secretary, who repeated every word to the respectable
junta, and at length got him to attend to a proposal for releasing our
linen, and another for supplying the ship with fresh provisions. We had
been paying forty dollars per bullock in the town; they agreed that
their price should not exceed ten, if we sent boats to the Rio Doce, or
Paratije[55] for them. This is the mouth of a small stream on the
northside of Olinda. And I must not omit to mention, that they offered
to allow us to take off fresh provisions for our English or French
friends in the town.
[Note 54: I regret exceedingly that I was then so ignorant of the
language. I have since learned that there were many causes of particular
grievance in this province. I do not mean to speak disrespectfully of
the popular meetings of Brazil; they had all in view the best objects,
national independence and civil liberty under reformed laws. The first
object has been secured to them by their constitutional emperor, the
last is growing up under his government; time only can perfect it. Happy
would it have been for Italy, if its popular meetings had possessed the
mild character of those of Brazil, and still happier, had they found in
their prince a defender and protector.]
[Note 55: At Rio Doce, Brito Freire and Pedro Jaques landed to
assist Vieyra in the recovery of Pernambuco. See p. 25. of the
Introduction.]
The junta was extremely anxious to learn if there was a probability of
England's acknowledging the independence of Brazil, or if she took part
at all in the struggle; and many were the questions, and very variously
were they shaped, which the secretary addressed to us on that head. They
are of course violent in their language concerning Luis do Rego, in
proportion as he has done his military duty, in keeping them at bay
with his handful of men: and like all oppositions they can afford to
reason upon general principles, because they have not to feel the
hindrances of action, and the jarring of private interests in the
disposal and fulfilment of office.
I was sitting opposite to one of the windows of the council-room, and
had been remarking for some time, that the sun was getting very low,
and, therefore, rose to go, having received a note from the secretary,
ordering the officers at their advanced posts to offer no hindrance to
the passing of any thing belonging to His British Majesty's frigate,
Doris. But we were not suffered to depart without a hearty invitation to
sup and spend the night: and a stirrup-cup (a huge glass) was brought,
and a bottle of wine, with about half as much water, poured into it; it
was then handed to me to begin, and all fourteen received it in turn. By
this time the guard was drawn out, the band played the national hymn, to
which we all listened bare-headed, and so we mounted among those
wild-looking men, in that strange, yet lovely landscape, just as the
evening mist began to veil the lower land, and the bright red evening
sun to gild the topmost branches of the forest.
Our journey home was much more rapid than our journey out. The evening
was cool, and the horses eager to return; but we did not reach Mr. S.'s
till two hours after sunset, when we found that, after the party had
waited till six o'clock, Captain Graham had insisted on their dining.
The governor was uneasy, and offered to send a party of Cacadores in
search, as he kindly said, of me,--but this, of course, was refused; the
captain assuring his excellency, that if the patriots detained his
lieutenant, he would take him back with his own men, and that as to me,
while I was with my two companions, he had not the least fear concerning
me. We were accompanied by the same officer, who had been our companion
on the latter part of the ride to head-quarters, back almost to the town
lines; and when we told this to the governor, he was sorry we did not
know his name, that in case he should ever have it in his power to show
him kindness, he might do so. A pleasant chat on the adventures of our
ride, a hearty supper, and a little concert closed the day, which, upon
the whole, was to me a most agreeable one.
_Thursday, 4th._--Received Madame do Rego, one of her daughters, Miss
S., and several gentlemen, on board. Most of the party were sea-sick,
from the rolling of the ship, caused by the heavy swell at the
anchorage. They were, however, highly charmed with their visit,
particularly with the fireworks with which we saluted the ladies, who
had never been on board a British frigate before, on their departure.
_Friday, 5th._--According to the agreement made with the patriot
officers, on Wednesday, one launch and the second cutter went to Rio
Doce to receive bullocks and other provisions. The officers and men were
most kindly received, and returned with many presents of fresh stock and
vegetables, which the patriots forced upon them. A military band
attended them on landing, and conducted them to the place of meeting
with the chiefs.
Messrs. Biddle and Glennie, being on shore surveying, near Cabo de Sant
Augustin[56], were detained as prisoners for a few hours, by a patriot
detachment; but, as it appeared to be only for the purpose of obtaining
money, and done by some subaltern, no notice was taken of it.
[Note 56: The easternmost land of South America. It has two little
harbours, for small vessels, each of which is defended by a small fort,
and has a celebrated chapel to our Lady of Nazareth.]
_Saturday, 6th._--The frigate got under weigh to take a cruize, and if
possible find a quieter anchorage. Mr. Dance with a party went for more
provisions, to Rio Doce. The surf at the landing place was so high, that
they were obliged to get into canoes, and leave the boats grappled at
some distance from the beach. A guard of honour and military band
attended them, as on the former day, and they were, moreover, pressed to
dine with the commander of the post, which they gladly did. The
dining-room was a long hut, built of wood and plaited palm leaves. In
the centre, was a long table spread with a clean and very handsome
cloth. The few chairs the place afforded were appropriated to the
strangers, and the rest of the company stood during the meal. To the
strangers, also, were given the spoons and forks, but the want of them
did not appear to incommode the Brazilians. To each person a small
basin of good beef broth, _bien doree_, was served, and for the rest
every man put his hand in the dish. Two principal messes occupied the
centre of the table, one, a platter, containing a quantity of mandioc
flour, raw; and the other a pile of fish, dressed with oil, garlic, and
pimento. Each person began by stirring a quantity of the flour into his
broth, till it acquired the consistence of brose, and then helping
himself to the fish, which was cut up in convenient pieces, dipped it
into the brose, and eat it with his fingers. Around the two principal
dishes, were others of a most savoury nature,--eels fried with sweet
herbs, shellfish stewed with wine and pimento, and others of the same
kind. Into these also each man put his hand indiscriminately, and
dipping his morsel into his basin, set our officers the example of
eating that substitute for wheaten bread, and of swallowing, without
regard to neatness or order, all manner of messes, mixed together, and
touched by all hands. After dinner, a slave handed round a silver basin,
with water and towels, after which a number of toasts were given, and
the entertainment concluded with vivas, when the guard and band attended
the officers to the boats, where the bullocks were ready to embark, and
slaves to carry the English through the surf to the canoes, which
conveyed them to the boats. On their return, I saw for the first time,
the pitanga, a berry of which an excellent preserve is made; it grows
upon a beautiful shrub, scarcely to be distinguished, either in flower
or leaf, from the broad-leaved myrtle; the berry is as large as a
filbert, and divided and coloured like the large red love-apple. Mr.
Dance brought me, also, a beautiful green paroquet, the tamest,
loveliest thing, with his emerald coat, and sparkling eye, I ever
saw.[57]
[Note 57: All the parrot tribe in Brazil is beautiful: but neither
parrots nor parroquets talk well. However, no slave ship comes from
Africa without a grey parrot or two; so that in the towns they are
almost as numerous as the native birds, and much more noisy, for they
talk incessantly.]
_Sunday, 7th._--We continued to cruize opposite to Olinda and Recife,
and alarmed some of our friends on shore, by sailing round the English
bank, a thing hitherto believed impossible, for so large a ship.
_Monday, 8th._--We find to-day, on anchoring, that terms have been
entered into with the patriots, by which their deputies are to be in the
council, and take an equal share in the administration, and on the other
hand, they are to withdraw the investing troops, and leave Luis do Rego
at the head of the military department, until the arrival of the next
despatches from Lisbon. These pacific measures were brought about by the
Paraiban deputies whom we met on Wednesday.
_Tuesday, 9th._--Mr. Dance, Mr. Glennie, and I, were deputed to take
charge of a large party of midshipmen, who had not been able before to
take a run on shore, to spend the day on Cocoa-nut Island, which lies a
good way up the harbour, and within the reef of Pernambuco. As we sailed
along the rock, we observed that it is covered with echini, polypii,
barnacles, limpets, and crusted with white bivalves less than oysters or
cockles, yet containing a fish not unlike the latter in appearance, and
the former in flavour. We had not exactly calculated the effect of the
tide so far up the harbour as Cocoa-nut Island, consequently we got
aground in the outer channel, at a considerable distance from the shore.
The sailors pushed me over one flat bank in the gig, and then carried me
to the beach; the midshipmen waded, and the officers and boats with the
crews, went in search of a deeper passage, where they might approach
with our provisions. Meantime the boys and I had full leisure to examine
the island. It is perfectly flat and covered with white sand; the shore
scattered with fragments of shells and coral. As its name imports, it is
one grove of cocoa-nut trees, excepting where the present occupant has
cleared space for a market-garden and fishponds. These last are very
extensive; and as they secure a supply of fish at times when the rough
seas of the outer roads prevent the canoes from going out, they have
answered extremely well to the speculator. The garden produces European
as well as Brazilian vegetables, in great perfection: Fruit-trees also
thrive very well.[58] In the cuts for the fishponds I observed below
the sand, a rich black earth, full of decayed vegetables, which probably
renders this apparently sandy land, so fertile. The ponds were half
covered with the white water-lily, and some other aquatic plants of the
country. The whole island abounds in gay shrubs and gaudy flowers[59],
where the humming-bird, here called the _beja flor_ or kiss-flower, with
his sapphire wings and ruby crest, hovers continually, and the painted
butterflies vie with him and his flowers in tints and beauty. The very
reptiles are beautiful here. The snake and the lizard are singularly so,
at least in colour. We found a very large rough caterpillar, each hair
or prickle of which is divided into five or six branches; the rings of
its body are scarlet, yellow, and brown; and the country people believe
that it hurts the udders of cows, and prevents their giving milk, if it
does not actually suck them. They are therefore very unpopular here,
because the whole island that is not garden-ground is pasture, and
supplies a great deal of the milk for the market of Recife.
[Note 58: All the orange and lemon tribe, papaws, cashew nuts,
melons and gourds, pomegranates, guavas, &c.]
[Note 59: The Madagascar perriwinkle is the most common, many
parasitic plants, and almost all the papilionaceous and the bell-shaped
creepers: the passion flowers also are common.]
While we were endeavouring to forget our hunger by examining the island,
and drinking cocoa-nut juice, and wondering at many an ordinary thing,
though new to young untravelled eyes, and such were those of most of the
party, our boats were taking a circuitous track, and at length at ten
o'clock landed our provisions, when we made a hearty breakfast, sitting
on a sail spread under the palm shade. The elder boys with their guns,
then accompanied Mr. Dance and the captain of a merchant vessel, who
volunteered to act as Cicerone, to shoot; and the younger ones staid
with me to collect flowers, gather vegetables, and with the assistance
of the boats' crews, to superintend the preparations for dinner. At four
o'clock the sportsmen returned, bringing red-crested woodpeckers,
finches of various hues, humming-birds, black and yellow pies, and
others of gay plumage and delicate shape, quite new to us all. A merrier
party certainly never met, but the best of the expedition was to come.
The tide was now favourable; and we determined to do a spirited thing,
and instead of going all the way down the harbour, which would have
kept us out beyond the time allowed us, we ran through a passage in the
reef called Mother Cary's passage, because few things but the birds
think of swimming there. The merchant-boat went first, our gig next, and
as I sat in the stern of the large boat that was to follow, it was
beautiful, but something fearful, to see them dash through that boiling
surf between the rocks and rise over the wave secure beyond it, nor was
the sensation less mixed when we followed. There is at all times
something triumphant in the sensation of sailing over the waters; but
when they are roughened by storms, or rendered fearful by rocks or
shoals, the triumph approaches to the sublime, and in it there is a
secret dread, though not of ocean, and a raising of the soul to him who
made the ocean, and gave man mind to master it. I am not ashamed to own,
that as I looked round on my young charge, when Mr. Dance whispered "sit
still and say nothing," and then stepping to the bow of the boat called
aloud to the helmsman, "steady!" I had a moment, though but a moment, of
exquisite anxiety. But we were through in an instant, and soon alongside
of the frigate, where we were praised for doing what few had done
before, and having shown the possibility of doing that safely, which at
some future time it might be of importance to know could be done at all.
_Wednesday, 10th._--We went on shore early for the first time since the
armistice. The guns are removed from the streets and a few of the shops
are re-opened; the negroes are no longer confined within doors, and the
priests have reappeared; their broad hats and ample cloaks give them an
importance among the crowd, which now is busy and active, and seemingly
intent on redeeming the time lost to trade by the siege. I was struck by
the great preponderance of the black population. By the last census, the
population of Pernambuco, including Olinda was seventy thousand, of
which not above one third are white: the rest are mulatto or negro. The
mulattoes are, generally speaking, more active, more industrious, and
more lively than either of the other classes. They have amassed great
fortunes, in many instances, and are far from being backward in
promoting the cause of independence in Brazil. Few even of the free
negroes have become very rich. A free negro, when his shop or garden has
repaid his care, by clothing him and his wife each in a handsome black
dress, with necklace and armlets for the lady, and knee and shoe buckles
of gold, to set off his own silk stockings, seldom toils much more, but
is quite contented with daily food. Many, of all colours, when they can
afford to purchase a negro, sit down exempt from further care. They make
the negro work for them, or beg for them, and so as they may eat their
bread in quiet, care little how it is obtained.
The European Portuguese, are extremely anxious to avoid intermarriage
with born Brazilians, and prefer giving their daughters and fortunes to
the meanest clerk of European birth, rather than to the richest and most
meritorious Brazilian. They have become aware of the prodigious
inconvenience, if not evil, they have brought on themselves by the
importation of Africans, and now no doubt, look forward with dread to
the event of a revolution, which will free their slaves from their
authority, and, by declaring them all men alike, will authorise them to
resent the injuries they have so long and patiently borne.
_Thursday, 11th._--As every thing seems quietly settled between the
royalist and patriot chiefs, we are preparing to take leave of
Pernambuco, and it is not without regret, for we have been kindly
treated by the Portuguese, and hospitably received by our own
countrymen. We went on shore to provide necessaries and comforts for our
farther voyage. Among the latter I bought some excellent sweetmeats[60],
which are made in the interior, and brought to market in neat little
wooden kegs, each containing six or eight pounds. It is astonishing to
see the weight brought from two and three hundred miles' distance, by
the small and slight but very swift horses of the country. The baggage
horses are not shod any more than those for riding: the latter are
almost universally trained to a kind of running pace, easy in itself,
but not very agreeable at first, to those accustomed to English horses.
To-day I saw and tasted the jerked beef, _charqui_, of Spanish South
America. It appears, when hanging in bales at the shop-doors, like
bundles of thick ragged leather. It is prepared by cutting the flesh in
wide strips, clean off the bones, slightly salting, pressing, and drying
in the air. In this state it might well have served for saddle-cloths to
the Buccaneers, as tradition says they dressed their meat under their
saddles. However that may be, the beef is good. Here the common mode of
using it is to cut it in small squares, and boil it in the mandioc
pottage, which is the principal food of the poorer inhabitants and the
slaves.
[Note 60: The convents are, generally speaking, the places where the
more delicate preserves are made. Those I bought were of Guava, cashew
apple, citron, and lime. The cashew particularly good. They go by the
general name of _Doce_.]
After I had ended my marketing, I went to call on a Portuguese family,
and as it was the first private Portuguese house I had been in, I was
curious to notice the difference between it and the English houses here.
The building and general disposition of the apartments are the same, and
the drawing-room only differed in being better furnished, and with every
article English, even to a handsome piano of Broadwood's; but the
dining-room was completely foreign; the floor was covered with painted
cloth, and the walls hung round with English prints and Chinese
pictures, without distinction of subject or size. At one end of the room
was a long table, covered with a glass case, enclosing a large piece of
religious wax-work; the whole _praesepia_, ministering angels, three
kings, and all, with moss, artificial flowers, shells and beads,
smothered in gauze and tiffany, bespangled with gold and silver, San
Antonio and St. Christopher being in attendance on the right and left;
the rest of the furniture consisted of ordinary chairs and tables, and a
kind of beaufet or sideboard: from the ceiling, nine bird-cages were
hanging, each with its little inhabitant; canaries, grey finches with a
note almost as fine, and the beautiful widow-bird, were the favourites.
In larger cages in a passage room, there were more parrots and paroquets
than I should have thought agreeable in one house; but they are
well-bred birds, and seldom scream all together. We were no sooner
seated in the dining-room, than biscuit, cake, wine, and liqueurs, were
handed round, the latter in diminutive tumblers; a glass of water was
then offered to each, and we were pressed to taste it, as being the very
best in Recife; it proceeds from a spring in the garden of the convent
of Jerusalem, two miles from town, and the only conduit from that spring
leads to the garden of a sister convent here. From the lady, I learned,
that the porous jars for cooling water, that we find here, are all made
in the neighbourhood of Bahia, there being no manufactory here, except a
few coarse cottons for clothing for the slaves. The air and manners of
the family we visited, though neither English nor French, were perfectly
well bred, and the dress pretty much that of civilised Europe, only that
the men wore cotton jackets instead of cloth coats, and were without
neck-cloths; when they go out of doors, however, they dress like
Englishmen.
Returning from our visit, we met a monk, carried out to be buried by
several of his brethren, with candle, book, and bell, and all the
solemnities which human feeling has invented to solace its own fears and
griefs, under the pretence of honouring the dead, and to which the
Romish church has in such cases as these, added all her pageantry. I
could not help contrasting it with the burials on the beach of Olinda,
and smiling at the vanities that attach themselves even to corruption.
"But man, vain man, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as
make the angels weep."
But our horses were awaiting us, and we left our indignation and our
pity for the follies of some, and the miseries of others, to enjoy, for
the first time since the posts were free, the country air. When we went
to Bibiriba, soldiers stopped us to question at every turn; piles of
arms, and horses ready accoutred at the door of every considerable
residence, showed that military posts had taken place of the pleasures
of the country-houses, and accounted for the solitariness of the roads.
Now the scene is changed--the paths are crowded with negroes, young and
old, in their picturesque, though gaudy dresses, with baskets of fruit,
fish, and other provisions, on their heads; little carts, of which we
had not before seen one, begin to appear, and the fine oxen which draw
them form no bad contrast to the half-starved bullocks of the town.
'Twas a cool evening, and the sun was just low enough to gild the edges
of the palms and other tall trees, which shot up with their deep black
shadows into the thin pure light, making an effect, that even Titian's
landscape pencil has not reached. Our ride extended to Mr. S.'s
country-house, which is, I believe, on the same plan with all the others
hereabouts, and which I can only compare to an Oriental bungalow; one
story very commodiously laid out, a veranda surrounding it, and standing
in the midst of a little paddock, part of which is garden ground, and
part pasture, generally hedged with limes and roses, and shaded with
fruit trees, is the general description of the country sitios about
Pernambuco; the difference arising from the taste of the inhabitant, or
the situation of the ground, being allowed for. The low rent of these
pleasant little gardens is surprising; but it arises in great measure
from the indolence and consequent poverty of the holders of original
grants of land here: as long as their negroes and estates maintained
them, they paid no attention to the particular parts that, being near
the town, might have been at all times productive. Now, that sugar and
cotton are no longer in such demand, nearly half the fazendas or
factories are ruined, and such is become the indolent temper of the
people, that rather than seek to redeem their estates, they will take
the smallest annuity for a portion.
On our way to the sitio, we stopped at a kind of public-house or venta;
it is like an English huckster's, and contains a little of every thing,
cloth and candles, fruit and lard, wine and pimento, which are retailed
at no very extravagant profit to the poor; the draught wine is really
good, being port of excellent quality, without the quantity of brandy
which the English market requires. By the time we repassed it on our way
home, many a negro was spending his day's savings, and becoming as happy
as wine could make him; and many a traveller was regaling himself with
bread, garlic, and salt, and preparing to spread his mat, and lie down
in the open air for the night. Night within the tropics is always a
gayer and more peopled time than with us; the heat of the day detains
many within doors all day, and evening and night become the favourite
hours for walking. As we returned through Boa Vista we passed many
groups enjoying like ourselves the pleasant air, and gazing idly on the
reflections of the white houses and waving trees in the water; while the
fire flies flitting from bush to bush, seemed like fragments of stars
come down to adorn the moonlight.
_Friday, 12th._--- The Prince Royal of Portugal's birth-day. There is a
levee at the palace. The company bow first to the governor, then to the
Prince's picture, which is placed in the middle of the audience-room, to
receive its due honours; and then the _beja mano_, or kiss hands, takes
place. The forts and ships saluted; we of course did the same; and the
people all dressed and went to mass, as on a holiday. One thing
contributed, however, in no small degree to the enjoyment of the day.
The troops, which lately arrived from Bahia, re-embarked in order to
return. Their whole behaviour had been disorderly, and their drunkenness
and riot, during the ten days they were here, had quite disgusted the
people; while the disposition they manifested to join the patriots, had
rendered them but suspicious auxiliaries to the governor.
_Saturday, 13th._--I took leave of my amiable friends at the palace.
Madame do Rego gave me several specimens of amethyst, and the stone
called minha nova (like aqua marine), and also a fine piece of gold ore
of the province. She told me that Luiz do Rego had sent home many fine
minerals from the captaincy, and also some fossils. She described some
enormous bones, which may have belonged to the elephant or the mammoth,
found at no great distance from Recife in digging a well, and, as far as
I could understand, in such soil as I had observed lay under the sand in
Cocoa-nut Island.[61]
[Note 61: The Sugar-loaf Hill, in the ridge of Priaca, about eight
leagues N.E. of the villa of Penedo, has a lake on its western
declivity, where enormous bones have been found; and on the north side
there is a fearful cavern.--_Chor. Brazil._]
A great dinner was given to-day, by the merchants, to the captain and
officers. The governor, and other persons of dignity in the town, met
them; I am told it was a very handsome dinner, that there was plenty of
every kind of wine, and that nothing could exceed the friendly
politeness of the governor and his party. I had remained at Mr. S.'s,
where most of the company visited me after tea; and then we took leave
of Pernambuco, where we had received much kindness, and had at least the
enjoyment of novelty. The scene at our embarking was very pretty. Our
friends went with us to the jetty, and our boats lying in the clear
moonshine beneath it, with sailors going up and down preparing for us,
the harbour and the shipping doubled by the clear reflection in the
still water, heightened and set off the sparkling of the breakers that
dashed against the outer fort and light-house. Through these we soon
made our way and reached the ship, where I have once more taken
possession of my cabin, and put it in order for sea.
We leave Pernambuco, with a firm persuasion that this part of Brazil at
least will never again tamely submit to Portugal. Where the firmness and
conduct of Do Rego have failed to hold the captaincy in obedience, it
will be in vain for other governors to attempt it, particularly so long
as the state of the mother country is such as that she can neither fight
with nor for her colonies; and while she considers them only as taxable
parts of her states, that are bound to support her in her weakness.[62]
[Illustration]
[Note 62: We left Pernambuco on the 14th Oct. 1821. Before Nov. 18th
of the same year, the Cortes of Lisbon had recalled Luiz do Rego and all
the European troops; had repented of that recal, and had countermanded
it, and sent reinforcements. But by the time they arrived, the
captain-general had embarked on board a French ship for Europe; and the
junta, after provisioning the ships with the troops, forbid them to
land, and sent them towards Rio Janeiro.]
_Sunday, Oct. 14th._--We got under weigh after breakfast, and soon lost
sight of Pernambuco. All Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, we coasted along
within sight of the shores of Brazil. They are hilly and very woody, the
green of the sloping banks being often interrupted by bright white
patches, which seem to be of sand. In the evening of Tuesday the 16th,
we anchored in the bay of All Saints, opposite to the town of St.
Salvador, commonly called Bahia. It was quite dark before we got in, so
that we lost the first entrance-view of that magnificent harbour; but
the scattered lights show us the great extent and high situation of the
town.
_Wednesday, 17th._--This morning, at day-break, my eyes opened on one of
the finest scenes they ever beheld. A city, magnificent in appearance
from the sea, is placed along the ridge and on the declivity of a very
high and steep hill: the richest vegetation breaks through the white
houses at intervals, and beyond the city, reaches along to the outer
point of land on which the picturesque church and convent of Sant
Antonio da Barre is placed. Here and there the bright red soil shows
itself in harmony with the tiling of the houses. The _tracery_ of forts,
the bustle of shipping, hills melting in the distance, and the very form
of the bay, with its promontories and islands, altogether finish this
charming picture; then the fresh sea-breeze gives spirit to enjoy it,
notwithstanding its tropical climate.
Early in the day we moved our anchorage closer in-shore; and then, on
the invitation of Mr. Pennell, the British consul, we went ashore to
spend the day with him. We landed at the arsenal, or rather dock-yard,
where there is nothing of the neatness observable in such establishments
at home. The first object we saw, however, was a fine 58-gun frigate on
the stocks, the model of which I hear connoisseurs praise as beautiful.
There is nothing besides the new ship, and some handsome pieces of old
brass cannon, worth looking at. Every thing is visibly either suspended
or on the decline, and there will probably be no improvement, until the
political state of Brazil is a little more settled. We find things here,
though not quite so unquiet as at Pernambuco, yet tending the same way.
The street into which we proceeded through the arsenal gate, forms, at
this place, the breadth of the whole lower town of Bahia, and is,
without any exception, the filthiest place I ever was in. It is
extremely narrow, yet all the working artificers bring their benches,
and tools into the street: in the interstices between them, along the
walls, are fruit-sellers, venders of sausages, black-puddings, fried
fish, oil and sugar cakes, negroes plaiting hats or mats, caderas, (a
kind of sedan chair,) with their bearers, dogs, pigs, and poultry,
without partition or distinction; and as the gutter runs in the middle
of the street, every thing is thrown there from the different stalls, as
well as from the windows; and there the animals live and feed! In this
street are the warehouses and counting-houses of the merchants, both
native and foreign. The buildings are high, but neither so handsome nor
so airy as those of Pernambuco.
It was raining when we landed; therefore, as the streets leading out of
the filthy lower town do not admit of the use of wheeled carriages, on
account of the steepness of the ascent, we hired caderas, and found
them, if not comfortable, at least commodious. They consist of a cane
arm-chair, with a foot-board and a canopy covered with leather;
curtains, generally of moreen, with gilt bordering and lined with cotton
or linen, are contrived to draw round, or open at pleasure; and the
whole is slung by the top to a single pole, by which two negroes carry
it at a quick pace upon their shoulders, changing occasionally from
right to left.[63]
[Illustration]
[Note 63: When Frezier travelled, a cotton hammock with a canopy was
used.]
As we ascended from the street, every step brought us in sight of some
beautiful scene, generally terminated by the bay and shipping. There is
something in the landscape here peculiarly agreeable. The verdure, the
wood, the steep banks, and gently sloping lawns, generally opening to
the sea or the lake behind the town, have a freshness and amenity that I
scarcely remember seeing before. We saw but little of the upper city,
but that little was handsome, in our way to the consul's. His house,
like those of all the British merchants, is a little way out of town,
and is in the suburb Vittoria, which occupies the greater part of a long
narrow ridge extending from the town towards Sant Antonio: between it
and the town is Fort Pedro, built, I think, originally of mud, by the
Dutch. It was faced with stone, on the recovery of Bahia from the Dutch,
about the beginning of the last century. We found the Consul and his
daughter ready to receive us at their very pleasant garden-house, which
literally overhangs the bay,--flowers and fruits mingle their sweets
even down to the water's edge,--while
"Seaborn gales their gelid wings expand,
To winnow fragrance round the smiling land."
Eager to seize the opportunity of walking out after our voyage, we
accepted Miss Pennell's kind offer, to show us some of the surrounding
country before dinner, and accompanied her as far as the church
dedicated to N.S. da Graca. It was the first offering of piety, I
believe, to Christian worship by a native Brazilian.
When the famous Caramuru was wrecked, together with the Donatory
Coutinho, on Itaparica, Coutinho was put to death; but, Caramuru, being
beloved by the natives, was spared, and he returned to his old
settlement of Villa Velha. His wife, Catherine Paraguaza, who had
accompanied him to France, saw an apparition in the camp of the Indians,
and believing it to be a real European female, Caramuru followed in the
direction his wife pointed out: he discovered, accordingly, in one of
the huts, an image of N.S. da Graca; and according to the directions his
wife had received from the vision, built and dedicated the church, and
bestowed it, and a house by it, on the Benedictines. It was at first
of mud, but soon after was built of stone.
[Illustration]
_Thursday, 18th._--We rode out before breakfast, through landscape so
fine, that I wished for a poet or a painter at every step. Sometimes we
went through thick wild wood into bushy hollows; then emerged on clear
lawns, sprinkled with palm trees, through which country-houses, farms,
and gardens were seen; and from every eminence, the bay, the sea, or the
lake, formed part of the scene. Here and there the huge gamela tree[64]
stands like a tower, adorned, besides its own leaves, with numberless
parasite plants, from the stiff cactus, to the swinging air plant[65];
and the frequent tower of church and monastery soften and improve the
features of the country.
[Note 64: The gamela, like the banyan, easily takes root in other
trees, and its branches meet together in the same manner. It is the tree
of which the canoes of Brazil are made, and serves besides for troughs
of various kinds.]
[Note 65: Air-plant or Tillandsia, of which there are several sorts.
The Tillandsia Lingulata is the largest, and agrees with Jaquin's plate;
the others are different from those described by him, and are much more
beautiful.].
Mr. Pennell has most kindly given our young men a general invitation to
his house; and accordingly, to-day several of them dined with him, and
we had a party in the evening, when some of the ladies played
quadrilles, while others danced.
_Friday, 19th._--I accompanied Miss Pennell in a tour of visits to her
Portuguese friends. As it is not their custom to visit or be visited in
the forenoon, it was hardly fair to take a stranger to see them.
However, my curiosity, at least, was gratified. In the first place, the
houses, for the most part, are disgustingly dirty: the lower story
usually consists of cells for the slaves, stabling &c.; the staircases
are narrow and dark; and, at more than one house, we waited in a passage
while the servants ran to open the doors and windows of the
sitting-rooms, and to call their mistresses, who were enjoying their
undress in their own apartments. When they appeared, I could scarcely
believe that one half were gentlewomen. As they wear neither stay nor
bodice, the figure becomes almost indecently slovenly, after very early
youth; and this is the more disgusting, as they are very thinly clad,
wear no neck-handkerchiefs, and scarcely any sleeves. Then, in this hot
climate, it is unpleasant to see dark cottons and stuffs, without any
white linen, near the skin. Hair black, ill combed, and dishevelled, or
knotted unbecomingly, or still worse, _en papillote_, and the whole
person having an unwashed appearance. When at any of the houses the
bustle of opening the cobwebbed windows, and assembling the family was
over, in two or three instances, the servants had to remove dishes of
sugar, mandioc, and other provisions, which had been left in the best
rooms to dry. There is usually a sofa at each end of the room, and to
the right and left a long file of chairs, which look as if they never
could be moved out of their place. Between the two sets of seats is a
space, which, I am told, is often used for dancing; and, in every house,
I saw either a guitar or piano, and generally both. Prints and pictures,
the latter the worst daubs I ever saw, decorate the walls pretty
generally; and there are, besides, crucifixes and other things of the
kind. Some houses, however, are more neatly arranged; one, I think
belonging to a captain of the navy, was papered, the floors laid with
mat, and the tables ornamented with pretty porcelain, Indian and French:
the lady too was neatly dressed in a French wrapper. Another house
belonging to one of the judges was also clean, and of a more stately
appearance than the rest, though the inhabitant was neither richer nor
of higher rank. Glass chandeliers were suspended from the roof; handsome
mirrors were intermixed with the prints and pictures. A good deal of
handsome china was displayed round the room; but the jars, as well as
the chairs and tables, seemed to form an inseparable part of the walls.
We were every where invited, after sitting a few moments on the sofa, to
go to the balconies of the windows and enjoy the view and the breeze, or
at least amuse ourselves with what was passing in the street. And yet
they did not lack conversation: the principal topic, however, was praise
of the beauty of Bahia; dress, children, and diseases, I think, made up
the rest; and, to say the truth, their manner of talking on the latter
subject is as disgusting as their dress, that is, in a morning: I am
told they are different after dinner. They marry very early, and soon
lose their bloom. I did not see one tolerably pretty woman to-day. But
then who is there that can bear so total a disguise as filth and
untidiness spread over a woman?
_Saturday, 20th._--As the charts of this coast hitherto published are
very incorrect, the captain asked permission from government to sound
and survey the bay: it is refused on the ground of policy; as if it
could be policy to keep hidden rocks and shoals, for one's own as well
as other people's ships.
I walked through the greater part of the town. The lower part extends
much farther than I could see the day I landed; it contains a few
churches, one of which, belonging to the monastery of _A concepcao_, is
very handsome, but the smell within is disgusting; the flooring is laid
in squares with stone, and within each square there is a panelling of
wood of about nine feet by six; under each panel is a vault, into which
the dead are thrown naked, until they reach a certain number, when with
a little quick-lime thrown in, the wood is fastened down, and then
another square is opened, and so on in rotation. From that church,
passing the arsenal gate, we went along the low street, and found it
widen considerably at three quarters of a mile beyond: there are the
markets, which seem to be admirably supplied, especially with fish.
There also is the slave market, a sight I have not yet learned to see
without shame and indignation[66]: beyond are a set of arcades, where
goldsmiths, jewellers, and haberdashers display their small wares, and
there are the best-looking shops; but there is a want of neatness, of
that art of making things look well, that invites a buyer in England and
France. One bookseller's shop, where books are extravagantly dear,
exists in the low town, and one other in the ascent to the upper.
[Note 66: Frezier says of Bahia, "Who would believe it? there are
shops full of those poor wretches, who are exposed there stark naked and
bought like cattle, over whom the buyers have the same power; so that
upon slight disgust they may kill them, almost without fear of
punishment, or at least treat them as cruelly as they please. I know not
how such barbarity can be reconciled to the maxims of religion, which
makes them members of the same body with the whites, when they have been
baptized, and raises them to the dignity of the sons of God--_all sons
of the Most High_.
"I here make this comparison, because the Portuguese are Christians who
make a great outward show of religion."--_Voyage to the South Sea_.]
The upper town is most beautifully situated on the ridge between the sea
and the fresh water lake, and from its height, and the great slope of
most of the streets, it is incomparably cleaner than the port. The
cathedral dedicated to St. Salvador is a handsome building, and stands
on one side of a square, where the palace, prison, and other public
buildings are placed. The finest of these, the Jesuits' college, the
marble columns of which came from Europe ready cut, is now converted
into a barrack. The most useful is the hospital of Nossa Senhora da
Misericordia[67], founded by Juan de Matinhos, whose statue in white
marble, with a wig like Sir Cloudesley Shovel's in Westminster Abbey,
stands at the first landing-place, and is the ugliest piece of carving I
ever saw.
[Note 67: Part of the funds for supporting this and other hospitals
is derived from lotteries. See advertisements in the different Bahia
newspapers.]
This hospital, besides its use as a refuge for the sick, of whom there
are generally about 120, maintains 50 young girls of decent parentage,
to whom a suitable education is given, and a dowry of 200 crowns
bestowed on them when they marry.[68] The building of the Misericordia
is a fair specimen of the style of the convents, public buildings, and
more noble houses,--rather handsome than elegant. It surrounds a large
area, subdivided into smaller courts; the staircase is of marble, inlaid
with coloured stucco, and the sides are lined with tiles of porcelain,
so as to form arabesques, often of very pretty design. This is both a
cool and a cleanly lining to a wall, particularly for an hospital. The
principal rooms are also decorated in the same manner; and many of the
fronts and cupolas of the churches are covered with similar tiles, the
effect of which is often exceedingly agreeable, when seen among the
trees and plainer buildings of the city. The chapel belonging to the
hospital is handsome, a little gaudy, however. The ceiling is
respectably painted, and was probably the work of an amateur monk of
the seventeenth century. The treatment of the sick is humane, and they
are well provided with food and other necessaries; but the medical
practice, though much improved of late years, is not the most
enlightened.
[Note 68: Joao de Matos Aguiar, commonly called Joao de Matinhos,
from his diminutive size, was the founder of this Recolhimento. He
bequeathed 800,000 crusadoes for the retired women, 400,000 for the
patients, one to each on leaving the hospital, and 400,000, dowry to 38
girls every year, at the period of the foundation, 1716.]
There is a great deal of jealousy of foreigners in the present
government, hence I was not able to enter many of the public buildings.
The government treasury was one I was desirous to see, but there were
objections. The treasury here was formerly considered as subordinate to
that of Rio de Janeiro, and accordingly paid a portion of its receipts
to bills drawn monthly by the treasurer in the capital, upon this, and
those of the other provinces. But since the revolution of the 10th of
February, the provisional government has taken upon itself to refuse
payment, on the grounds that it is entirely independent of Rio, until
the pleasure of the cortes at Lisbon shall be known. The revenue is
derived from direct taxes on land and provisions, excise upon exports
and imports, and harbour dues. Land is subject to a tax of one-tenth of
the whole of its produce, and since the revolution, church lands are
under the same law, and the clergy are paid by the government.
The taxes on provisions are annually farmed out to the highest bidder:
they are imposed on beef, fresh fish, farinha, and vegetables. Each
parish has its separate farmer, who pays the amount of his contract into
the treasury, and then makes the most he can of his dues.
The import and export duties are paid at the custom-house, between which
and the treasury a monthly settlement takes place.
The port dues for foreign ships are 2000 reals per day, a trifle for the
light house, and rather heavy charges for entering, clearing, &c.
Portuguese and Brazilian ships pay no anchorage, but are subject to a
tonnage.
We ended our perambulation of the town, by going to the opera at night.
The theatre[69] is placed on the highest part of the city, and the
platform before it commands the finest view imaginable. It is a handsome
building, and very commodious, both to spectators and actors. Within it
is very large and well laid out, but dirty and in great want of fresh
painting. The actors are very bad as such, and little better as singers;
but the orchestra is very tolerable. The piece was a very ill-acted
tragedy, founded on Voltaire's Mahomed. During the representation, the
Portuguese ladies and gentlemen seemed determined to forget the stage
altogether, and to laugh, eat sweetmeats, and drink coffee, as if at
home. When the musicians, however, began to play the overture to the
ballet, every eye and voice was directed to the stage, and a loud call
for the national hymn followed, and not till it had been played again
and again, was the ballet suffered to proceed. During the bustle
occasioned by this, a captain in the army was arrested and hurried out
of the pit; some say for picking pockets, others for using intemperate
language on politics, when the national hymn was called for. Meantime
one of the midshipmen of our party had his sword stolen, adroitly
enough, from the corner of the box, yet we perceived nobody enter; so
that we conclude a gentleman in regimentals in the next box thought it
would suit him, and so buckled it on to go home with.
[Note 69: It was begun by the Conde da Ponte, and finished by the
Conde dos Arcos after the arrival of the king in Brazil. It was opened
May 13th, 1812.]
The police here is in a wretched state. The use of the dagger is so
frequent, that the secret murders generally average two hundred yearly,
between the upper and lower towns. To this evil the darkness and
steepness of the streets mainly contribute, by furnishing almost a
certainty of escape. The nominal _intendente da policia_ is also the
supreme judge in criminal cases. No law, however, has as yet determined
the limits or scope, either of his power, or that of the
lieutenant-colonel of police, who calls upon a few soldiers from any of
the garrisons whenever he has to act, and who appoints military patroles
also from among the soldiers on duty. It often happens that persons
accused before this formidable officer are seized and imprisoned for
years, without ever being brought to a trial; a malicious information,
whether true or false, subjects a man's private house to be broken open
by the colonel and his gang; and if the master escapes imprisonment it
is well, though the house scarcely ever escapes pillage. In cases of
riot and quarrels in the street, the colonel generally orders the
soldiers to fall on with canes, and beat people into their senses. Such
being the state of the police, it is, perhaps, more wonderful that
murders are so few, than that they are so many. Where there is little or
no public justice, private revenge will take its place.
_Sunday, 21st._--We went to the English chapel, and were well pleased
with the decent manner in which the service was performed. The Rev.
Robert Synge is chaplain, a man of cheerful convivial manners, yet
exceedingly attentive both as chaplain, and as guardian of his poorer
countrymen. The chapel and clergymen are supported by the contribution
fund, as are also the hospital for English sailors and others, and its
surgeon, Mr. Dundas: both the hospital and chapel are under the same
roof. I was surprised, perhaps unreasonably, to hear Mr. Synge pray for
"Don John of Portugal, Sovereign of these realms, by whose gracious
permission we are enabled to meet and worship God according to our
conscience," or words to that effect. We were not so polite in Rome, I
remember, as to pray for His Holiness, though it would have been but
reasonable.
Returning from chapel, we saw great part of the troops drawn up in
inspecting order, on the little green between _Buenos Ayres_ (the name
of the hospital) and Fort Pedro. Every Portuguese is, it seems, by birth
a soldier; and nothing exempts a man from military duty, but his holding
a place under government. There are six corps of militia in the city of
Bahia: 1st, one company of mounted gentlemen, forming the government
guard of honour; 2d, one squadron of flying artillery; 3d and 4th, two
regiments of whites, almost all tradespeople; 5th, one regiment of
mulatoes; and 6th, one of free blacks, amounting altogether to 4000 men,
well armed and equipped; but the black regiment is unquestionably the
best trained, and most serviceable, as a light infantry corps. The
regiments of country militia, as those of Cachoeira, Piraja, &c. are much
stronger, and with those of the city, amount to about 15,000 men. The
officers are chosen from among the most respectable families, and with
the exception of the majors and adjutants, who are of the line, receive
no pay.
The troops of the capital are generally reviewed or inspected on
Sundays, and sometimes the regular Portuguese are reviewed with them.
There is always something gay and inspiriting in martial sounds and
martial sights; and the fine weather, gay landscape, and above all, the
idea that in a day or two, nay, this very night, these same soldiers
might be called into action, did not render the scene less interesting.
The native artillery have long garrisoned some of the forts. It appears
that the royal troops of Portugal have claimed some superiority, and
above all, have demanded their guns and ammunition; and so there is a
dispute, in which the royalists and independents take part, and every
day hostilities are expected; but both parties seem so willing to be
peaceable, that I trust the matter will end without bloodshed.
_Monday, 22d._--This evening there was a large party, both Portuguese
and English, at the consul's. In the well-dressed women I saw to-night,
I had great difficulty in recognising the slatterns of the other
morning. The senhoras were all dressed after the French fashion: corset,
fichu, garniture, all was proper, and even elegant, and there was a
great display of jewels. Our English ladies, though quite of the second
rate of even colonial gentility, however, bore away the prize of beauty
and grace; for after all, the clothes, however elegant, that are not
worn habitually, can only embarrass and cramp the native movements; and,
as Mademoiselle Clairon remarks, "she who would _act_ a gentlewoman in
public, must _be_ one in private life."
The Portuguese men have all a mean look; none appear to have any
education beyond counting-house forms, and their whole time is, I
believe, spent between trade and gambling: in the latter, the ladies
partake largely after they are married. Before that happy period, when
there is no evening dance, they surround the card tables, and with eager
eyes follow the game, and long for the time when they too may mingle in
it. I scarcely wonder at this propensity. Without education, and
consequently without the resources of mind, and in a climate where
exercise out of doors is all but impossible, a stimulus must be had; and
gambling, from the sage to the savage, has always been resorted to, to
quicken the current of life. On the present occasion, we feared the
young people would have been disappointed of their dance, because the
fiddlers, after waiting some time, went away, as they alleged, because
they had not their tea early enough; however, some of the ladies
volunteered to play the piano, and the ball lasted till past midnight.
_Tuesday, 23d._--I rode with Mr. Dance and Mr. Ricken along the banks of
the lake, decidedly the most beautiful scenery in this beautiful
country; and then through wild groves, where all the splendours of
Brazilian animal and vegetable life were displayed. The gaudy plumage of
the birds, the brilliant hues of the insects, the size, and shape, and
colour, and fragrance, of the flowers and shrubs, seen mostly for the
first time, enchanted us, and rendered our little journey to the great
pepper gardens, whither we were going, delightful. Every hedge is at
this season gay with coffee blossom, but it is too early in the year for
the pepper or the cotton to be in beauty. It is not many years since
Francisco da Cunha and Menezes sent the pepper plant from Goa for these
gardens, which were afterwards enlarged by him, when he became governor
of Bahia. Plants were sent from hence to Pernambuco, which have
succeeded in the botanical garden.
From the pepper gardens we rode on to a convent at the farther extremity
of the town, and overlooking both the bays, above and below the
peninsula of Bon fin, or N.S. da Monserrat. It is called the Soledad,
and the nuns are famous for their delicate sweetmeats, and for the
manufacture of artificial flowers, formed of the feathers of the
many-coloured birds of their country. I admired the white water-lily
most, though the pomegranate flower, the carnation, and the rose are
imitated with the greatest exactness. The price of all these things is
exorbitant; but the convents having lost much of their property since
the revolution, the nuns are fain to make up by the produce of this
petty industry, for the privations imposed on them by the reduction of
their rents.
_Wednesday, October 24th._--Mr. Pennell, his daughter, and a few other
friends, joined us in an expedition to Itaparica[70], a large island
that forms the western side of the Bay of All Saints. A shoal runs off
from it a long way to sea, and there are reefs of coral rocks on
different parts of its coast. The distance from the city to the nearest
landing place on the island is five miles and a half, which our boats'
crews rowed in less than two hours. We put in between two ledges of
rock, to a little jetty, belonging to the fazenda or factory of Aseoli,
or Filisberti, both of whom were partners in Jerome Buonaparte's
commercial establishment here. There is no town on Itaparica; but there
is a villa, or village, with a fort on the Punto de Itaparica, which
commands the passage between it and the main land, and also the mouth of
the river, on which stands Nazareth da Farinha, so called from the
abundance of that article which it produces. There are also a great many
fazendas, which, with their establishment of slaves and cattle, may be
considered as so many hamlets. Each sugar farm, or ingenho, as the
fazendas are oftener called here, has its little community of slaves
around it; and in their huts something like the blessings of freedom are
enjoyed, in the family ties and charities they are not forbidden to
enjoy. I went into several of the huts, and found them cleaner and more
comfortable than I expected; each contains four or five rooms, and each
room appeared to hold a family. These out-of-door slaves, belonging to
the great ingenhos, in general are better off than the slaves of masters
whose condition is nearer to their own, because, "The more the master is
removed from us, in place and rank, the greater the liberty we enjoy;
the less our actions are inspected and controuled; and the fainter that
cruel comparison becomes betwixt our own subjection, and the freedom, or
even dominion of another." But, at best, the comforts of slaves must be
precarious. Here it is not uncommon to give a slave his freedom, when he
is too old or too infirm to work; that is, to turn him out of doors to
beg or starve. A few days ago, as a party of gentlemen were returning
from a _pic nic_, they found a poor negro woman lying in a dying state,
by the side of the road. The English gentlemen applied to their
Portuguese companions to speak to her, and comfort her, as thinking she
would understand them better; but they said, "Oh, 'tis only a black: let
us ride on," and so they did without further notice. The poor creature,
who was a dismissed slave, was carried to the English hospital, where
she died in two days. Her diseases were age and hunger.[71] The slaves I
saw here working in the distillery, appear thin, and I should say
over-worked; but, I am told, that it is only in the distilling months
that they appear so, and that at other seasons they are as fat and
cheerful as those in the city, which is saying a great deal. They have a
little church and burying-ground here, and as they see their little lot
the lot of all, are more contented than I thought a slave could be.
[Note 70: _Itapa_ is the Indian name: the Portuguese termination,
_Rica_, indicates the fertility of the island. On this island Francesco
Pereira Coutinho, the first donatory, was killed by the savages. He had
founded his city near the watering place called Villa Velha, by what is
now the fort of Gamboa, and not far from the habitation of the
adventurer Caramuru. The first Christian settlement formed here was in
1561, when the Jesuits founded an Aldea, and collected and humanised
some of the natives.]
[Note 71: "The custom of exposing old, useless, or sick slaves, in
an island of the Tyber, there to starve, seems to have been pretty
common in Rome; and whoever recovered, after being so exposed, had his
liberty given him, by an edict of the Emperor Claudius; where it was
likewise forbid to _kill any slave, merely for old age or
sickness_."--"We may imagine what others would practise, when it was the
professed maxim of the elder Cato, to sell his superannuated slaves for
any price, rather than maintain a useless burden."--_Discourses of the
Populousness of Ancient Nations_.]
Sugar is the principal product of Itaparica; but the greater part of the
poultry, vegetables, and fruit, consumed in Bahia, are also from the
island, and lime is made here in considerable quantities from the
madrepores and corals found on the beach. This island used to furnish
the neighbourhood with horses. When the English fleet and army stopped
here, on the way to the Cape of Good Hope, the horses for the cavalry
regiments were procured here. However, there is nothing remarkable in
Itaparica but its fertility; the landscape is the same in character with
that of Bahia, though in humbler style; but it is fresh and green, and
pleasing. After dining in a palm-grove, and walking about till we were
tired, we re-embarked to return; but the tide was unfavourable; we
drifted among the rocks, where Coutinho, the first founder of the colony
of Bahia, was wrecked and afterwards murdered by the natives, and we
were in consequence four hours in returning home.
26th, 27th, 28th, passed in pleasant enough intercourse with our
countrymen, though neither of us were well enough to go much on shore,
therefore our friends came to us. There are eighteen English mercantile
houses established at Bahia, two French, and two German. The English
trade is principally carried on with Liverpool, which supplies
manufactured goods and salt, in exchange for sugars, rums, tobaccos,
cottons, very little coffee, and molasses. Lately, sugars have been
shipped, on English account, for Hamburgh to a great extent, and I
believe part of the returns are in German or Prussian woollen-cloths.
The province of Bahia, by its neglect of manufactures, is quite
dependent on commerce. But the distance from the sea of the province of
Minas Geraes, has induced the inhabitants to weave not only enough
coarse cotton cloths for home consumption, but even to become an article
of trade with the other captaincies.
In the province of Esperitu Santo, cotton sail-cloth is made; but the
chief trade of this place is _slaving_. This year no less than
seventy-six slave-ships have sailed, without reckoning the smugglers in
that line.
_Sunday, 28th._--Mr. Pennell had kindly fixed to-day for giving us a
party in the country, and accordingly some of our young people were to
go and assist in putting up tents, &c.; but a miscalculation of tide and
time, and a mistake as to the practicability of landing on part of the
beach beyond the light-house, occasioned a variety of adventures and
accidents, without which I have always heard no fete champetre could be
perfect. However that may be, our party was a pleasant one. Instead of
the tents, we made use of a country-house called the Roca, where beauty
of situation, and neatness in itself and garden, made up for whatever we
might have thought romantic in the tents, had they been erected. It is
the fashion to pave the courts of the country-houses here with dark
pebbles, and to form in the pavement a sort of mosaic with milk-white
shells. The gardens are laid out in alleys, something in the oriental
taste. The millions of ants, which often in the course of a single night
leave the best-clothed orange-tree bare both of leaves and flowers,
render it necessary to surround each tree with a little stucco wall, or
rather canal, in which there is water, till they are strong enough to
recover if attacked by the ants. In the garden at Roca, every shrub of
value, either for fruit or beauty, was so fenced, and there were seats,
and water channels, and porcelain flower-pots, that made me almost think
myself in the East. But there is a newness in every thing here, a want
of interest on account of what has been, that is most sensibly felt. At
most, we can only go back to the naked savage who devoured his prisoner,
and adorned himself with bones and feathers here. In the East,
imagination is at liberty to expatiate on past grandeur, wisdom, and
politeness. Monuments of art and of science meet us at every step:
_here_, every thing, nature herself, wears an air of newness, and the
Europeans, so evidently foreign to the climate, and their African
slaves, repugnant to every wholesome feeling, show too plainly that they
are intruders, ever to be in harmony with the scene. However, Roca is
beautiful, and all those grave thoughts did not prevent us from
delighting in the fair prospect of
"Hill and valley, fountain and fresh shade;"
nor enjoying the scent of oleander, jasmine, tuberose, and rose,
although they are adopted, not native children of the soil.
Of the Portuguese society here I know so very little, that it would be
presumptuous to give an opinion of it. I have met with two or three
well-informed men of the world, and some lively conversable women; but
none of either sex that at all reminded me of the well-educated men and
women of Europe. Here the state of general education is so low, that
more than common talent and desire of knowledge is requisite to attain
any; therefore the clever men are acute, and sometimes a little vain,
feeling themselves so much above their fellow-citizens, and the portion
of book-learning is small. Of those who read on political subjects, most
are disciples of Voltaire, and they outgo his doctrines on politics, and
equal his indecency as to religion; hence to sober people who have seen
through the European revolutions, their discourses are sometimes
disgusting. The Portuguese seldom dine with each other; when they do, it
is on some great occasion, to justify a splendid feast: they meet every
evening either at the play, or in private houses, and in the last case
gamble very deeply. The English society is just such as one may expect.
A few merchants, not of the first order, whose thoughts are engrossed by
sugars and cottons, to the utter exclusion of all public; matters that
do not bear directly on their private trade, and of all matters of
general science or information. Not one knew the name of the plants
around his own door; not one is acquainted with the country ten miles
beyond St. Salvador's; not one could tell me even the situation of the
fine red clay, of which the only manufacture, pottery, here is made: in
short, I was completely out of patience with these incurious
money-makers. I was perhaps unjust to my countrymen: I dare say there
are many who _could_ have told me these things, but I am sure none _did_
tell me, and equally sure that I asked information of all I met with.
But a woman is not, I believe, considered as privileged to know any
thing by these commercial personages. The English are, however,
hospitable and sociable among each other. They often dine together: the
ladies love music and dancing, and some of the men gamble as much as the
Portuguese. Upon the whole, society is at a low, very low scale here
among the English. Good eating and good drinking they contrive, to have,
for the flesh, fish, and fowl are good; fruits and vegetables various
and excellent, and bread of the finest. Their slaves, for the English
are all served by slaves, indeed, eat a sort of porridge of mandioc meal
with small squares of jerked beef stirred into it, or, as their greatest
luxury, stewed caravansas; and this is likewise the principal food of
the lower classes even of the free inhabitants. In the fruit season,
pumpkins, jackfruit, cocoa-nut, and melons, nearly take place of the
mandioc. The huts of the poor are formed of upright poles, with branches
of trees wattled between, and covered and lined either with cocoa-leaf
mats, or clay; the roofs are also thatched. The better houses are built
either of a fine blue stone, quarried on the beach of Victoria, or of
brick. They are all white-washed: where the floor is not laid with wood,
a fine red brick, six to nine inches square, and three in thickness, is
used, and they are roofed with round red tiles. The houses are generally
of one story high, with a room or two above by way of a look-out house.
Under the house is generally a sort of cellar, in which the slaves live;
and really I have sometimes wondered that human beings could exist in
such.
_Friday, 2d November._--Several of our people having yielded to the
temptations of some worthless persons in the town, who induce sailors to
desert in order that they themselves may profit by the premium given for
the discovery of deserters, and having consequently swam on shore, the
frigate has been moved up the harbour as far as Bom Fim, and it is
intended to take her up still higher. I am glad of the opportunity of
seeing more of this beautiful bay, and shall endeavour to land on the
Ilha do Medo, or the point of Itaparica, where the first adventurers
from Europe underwent hardship that appear hardly credible in our modern
days. We also wish to examine the harbour within the funil or passage
between the two islands, and into which the river or creek of Nazareth,
which supplies Bahia with great part of the mandioc flour consumed
there, runs.
_Saturday, 3d November._--Our plan of proceeding farther up the harbour
is suspended for the present. The disputes between the European
Portuguese and the Brazilians in the city, seem to be about to come to a
crisis. Early this morning, we learned that troops were assembling from
all quarters, and that therefore it was advisable, for the protection of
the British property and the persons of the merchants, that the ship
should return to her station opposite to the town. The first provisional
junta has lost several of its members, two of them being gone as
delegates to Lisbon, and others being absent on account of ill health or
disgust. The party opposing this junta talk loudly of independence, and
wish at least one-half of the members of the provisional government to
be native Brazilians. They also complain bitterly, that instead of
redressing the evils they before endured, the junta has increased them
by several arbitrary acts; and assert that one of the members who has a
great grazing estate, has procured a monopoly, by which no man can
supply the market with beef without his permission, so that the city is
ill supplied. Such a ground of complaint will always excite popular
indignation, and it appears now to be at its height. There has already
been some skirmishing, in which, however, I hear there have been only
three men killed. The Brazilian artillery occupies Fort San Pedro; the
governor, and the wreck of the junta, have the town and the palace. The
governor, indeed, has arrested several, I think seventeen persons, in an
arbitrary manner; among these, two of my acquaintance, Colonel
Salvador[72] and Mr. Soares, and have put them, some on board the Don
Pedro, some on board transports in the bay, for the purpose of
transporting them to Lisbon. Some of these persons are not permitted to
have any communication with their families; others, more favoured, are
allowed to carry them with them. These are not the means to conciliate.
We have sent on shore to offer shelter to the ladies, and Captain Graham
has agreed upon certain signals with the consul, in case of increased
danger to his family.
[Note 72: Colonel Salvador, though born in Portugal, has all his
property and connections in Brazil; he served with credit in the
peninsula. Mr. Soares, a Brazilian, had been long in England.]
_Sunday, November 4th._--On looking out at daylight this morning, we saw
artillery planted, and troops drawn up on the platform opposite to the
opera house. I went on shore to see if Miss Pennell, her sister, or any
of our other friends would come on board; but they naturally prefer
staying to the last with their fathers and husbands. Notwithstanding the
warlike movements of these last two days, it appears most likely that
the chiefs of the opposite parties will agree to await the decision of
the cortes at Lisbon, with respect to their grievances, and at least a
temporary peace will succeed to this little disturbance.
It appears, however, next to impossible that things should remain as
they are. The extreme inconvenience of having the supreme courts of
justice so far distant as Lisbon must be more and more felt as the
country increases in population and riches. The deputies to the cortes
are too far removed from their constituents to be guided in their
deliberations or votes by them; and the establishment of so many juntas
of government, each only accountable to the cortes, must be a cause of
internal disorder, if not of civil war, at no distant time.
_Monday, 5th._--A day of heavy tropical rain, which has forced both
parties on shore to house their guns, and to desist for the present from
all farther hostility. The governor, however, continues his arbitrary
arrestations. It is curious how ancient authority awes men; for surely
it is the accustomed obedience to the name of the king, and the dread of
the name of rebellion, that prevents the Brazilians, armed as they are,
from resisting these things.
_Tuesday, November 6th._--The Morgiana, Captain Finlaison, came in from
Rio de Janeiro. She belongs to the African station, and came to Brazil
about some prize business connected with the slave trade. Captain
Finlaison tells me tales that make my blood run cold, of horrors
committed in the French slave ships especially. Of young negresses,
headed up in casks and thrown overboard, when the ships are chased. Of
others, stowed in boxes when a ship was searched; with a bare chance of
surviving their confinement. But where the trade is once admitted, no
wonder the heart becomes callous to the individual sufferings of the
slaves. The other day I took up some old Bahia newspapers, numbers of
the Idade d'Ouro, and I find in the list of ships entered during three
months of this year,
Alive. Dead.
1 slave ship from Moyanbique, 25th March, with 313 180
1 do. 6th March 378 61
1 do. 30th May 293 10
1 do. 29th June from Molendo, 357 102
1 do. 26th June 233 21
____ ___
1574 374
____ ___
So that of the cargoes of these five ships reckoned thus accidentally,
more than one in five had died on the passage!
It seems the English ships of war on the African coast are allowed to
hire free blacks to make up their complements when deficient. There are
several now onboard the Morgiana, two of whom are petty officers, and
they are found most useful hands. They are paid and victualled like our
own seamen.[73]
[Note 73: The negroes of the _Cru_ nation come to Sierra Leone from
a great distance, and hire themselves out for any kind of labour, for
six, eight, or ten months, sometimes for a year or two. They have then
earned enough to go home and live like idle gentlemen, for at least
twice that time, and then return to work. When their engagements on
board men of war are fulfilled, they receive regular discharges and
certificates.]
_Thursday, November 8._--We went on board Morgiana to call on Mrs.
Macgregor, a lively intelligent Spaniard, who with her husband, Colonel
Macgregor, is a passenger. She joined me in visits on shore, where the
only news is, that the governor continues to arrest all persons
suspected of favouring independence.
_November 9._--The Brazilians who occupy the forts of San Pedro and
Santa Maria, had threatened to fire on the Don Pedro, if she attempted
to get under weigh with the state prisoners on board. Nevertheless
during the night she bent her sails, and sailed early this morning,
carrying, it is said, twenty-eight gentlemen, who have been taken up
without any ostensible reason. They are understood to have spoken in
favour of the independence of Brazil. Several of our officers went on
shore to dine with the gentlemen of the English club, who meet once a
month, to eat a very good dinner, and drink an immoderate quantity of
wine for the honour of their country.
_Tuesday, November 13._--We have had, for ten days past, some of the
heaviest showers I remember to have seen, and in going to and from the
ship, we have generally been wet through; nevertheless some of our
friends ventured on board to-day to dine with us, among the rest Colonel
and Mrs. Macgregor; they were a little late, owing to a skirmish between
the Portuguese and Brazilians, that occurred close to their house, just
as they were setting off. Apparently it had not been premeditated, for
the parties were fighting with sticks and stones, as well as swords and
fire-arms. The combatants would not allow any officer in Portuguese
regimentals to pass, so that Colonel Macgregor was obliged to go back
and change his dress before he could come. All this appears to proceed
more from a want of police than any other cause.
_16th_.--Several of our young people and I myself have begun to feel the
bad effects of exposing ourselves too much to the sun and the rain.
Yesterday I was so unwell as to put on a blister for cough and pain in
my side, and several of the others have slight degrees of fever. But
generally speaking, the ship's company has been remarkably healthy.
_Friday, 16th_.--Captain Graham taken suddenly and alarmingly ill.
Towards evening he became better, and was able to attend to a most
painful business. Last night a man belonging to the Morgiana was killed,
and the corporal of marines belonging to the ship severely wounded, on
shore. It appears that neither of these men had so much as seen the
murderer before. He had been drinking in the inner room of a venda with
some sailors, and having quarrelled with one of them, he fancied the
rest were going to seize him, when he drew his knife to intimidate them,
and rushed furiously out of the room. The young man who was killed was
standing at the outer door, waiting for one of his companions who was
within, and the murderer seeing him there, imagined he also wished to
stop him, and therefore stabbed him to the heart. Our corporal, who was
passing by, saw the deed, and of course attempted to seize him, and in
the attempt received a severe wound. It is said, I know not with what
truth, that Captain Finlaison is so hated here, on account of his
activity against the slave trade, that none of his people are safe, and
the death of the unfortunate man is attributed to that cause; but it
appears to have been the result of a drunken quarrel. The town, however,
appears to be in a sad disorderly state: besides our two men, a
Brazilian officer was dangerously wounded in the dark, and three
Brazilian soldiers and their corporal were found murdered last night.
Captain Graham had sent one of his officers to act for him on the
occasion, and to apply through the British consul to the police
magistrate, Francisco Jose Perreira, for redress.[74] He himself is
sensibly worse since he exerted himself to attend to this painful
business.
[Note 74: Mr. Pennell accordingly wrote to Mr. Perreira, stating the
circumstance and also that the prisoner was taken. The magistrate
assured him that he had laid his communication before the provisional
government, and that the punishment directed by law should be inflicted,
and the greatest sorrow was expressed by the junta for the accident.
Colonel Madera, commanding the active military police, also assured
Mr.---- the lieutenant of the Doris, on his honour, that the assassin
should be brought to trial. But it was not done while we remained in
Brazil, and it is probable not at all. The political state of Bahia
shortly afterwards would scarcely leave leisure for such a matter.]
The disorders of this climate are sadly enfeebling; they attack both
mind and body, producing a painful sensitiveness to the slightest
incident.
_November 18th._--Our invalids have been sadly disturbed by the rockets
which have been fired, ever since sunrise, from the church of our Lady
of Conception[75], whose feast is on the 8th of December. But the three
Sundays previous to it the church and convent are adorned, sermons are
preached, rockets are fired, contributions are made, and the shipping in
the harbour fire salooes at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset. The annual
expense of rockets, and other fireworks, is enormous. Those used in
Brazil all come from the East Indies and China. Sometimes, when
manufactured goods are unsaleable here, the merchant ships them on board
a Portuguese East Indiaman, and gets in return fireworks, which never
fail to pay well. I have seen a set of cut-glass sent to Calcutta for
the purpose, or a girandole, too handsome for Brazilian purchasers.
[Note 75: One of the two parishes of the lower town.]
Yesterday the ship's pinnace, which had been absent five days with the
master, my cousin Glennie, and young Grey, returned. They had gone to
examine the river of Cachoeira, and came back highly delighted with
their trip, though they had some very bad weather; however, with
tarpaulines, cloaks, and a blanket or two, which I insisted on their
taking, they managed so well as to have returned in good health.
Cachoeira, about fifty miles from Bahia, is a good town, where there is
one English merchant resident. It is populous[76] and busy; for it is
the place where the produce, chiefly cotton and tobacco, of a very
considerable district, is collected, in order to be shipped for Bahia.
It is divided into two unequal parts, by the river Paraguazu. Its parish
church is dedicated to our Lady of the Rosary. It has two convents, four
chapels, an hospital, a fountain, and three stone bridges over the small
rivers Pitanga and Caquende, on which there are very extensive
sugar-works. There are wharfs on both sides of the river. The streets
are well paved, and the houses built of stone, and tiled: the country is
flat, but agreeable. The river is not navigable more than two miles
above the town; it there narrows and becomes interrupted by rocks and
rapids, and there is a wooden bridge across it. About five miles from
Cachoeira, there is an insulated conical hill, called that of
Conception, whence there often proceed noises like explosions. These
noises are considered in this country as indicative of the existence of
metals. Near this place a piece of native copper was found, weighing
upwards of fifty-two arobas. It is now in the museum of Lisbon.
[Note 76: In 1804 it contained 1088 hearths.]
Our exploring party landed on several of the islands, on their way up
the river, and were every where received with great hospitality, and
delighted with the beauty and fertility of the country.
_22d._--At length all the invalids, excepting myself, are better; but,
with another blister on, I can do little but write, or look from the
cabin windows; and when I do look, I am sure to see something
disagreeable. This very moment, there is a slave ship discharging her
cargo, and the slaves are singing as they go ashore. They have left the
ship, and they see they will be on the dry land; and so, at the command
of their keeper, they are singing one of their country songs, in a
strange land. Poor wretches! could they foresee the slave-market, and
the separations of friends and relations that will take place there, and
the march up the country, and the labour of the mines, and the
sugar-works, their singing would be a wailing cry. But that "blindness
to the future kindly given," allows them a few hours of sad enjoyment.
This is the principal slave port in Brazil; and the negroes appear to me
to be of a finer, stronger race, than any I have ever seen. One of the
provisional junta of government is the greatest slave merchant here.
Yet, I am happy to say, the Bahia press has lately actually printed a
pamphlet against the slave trade. Within the last year, seventy-six
ships have sailed from this port for the coast of Africa; and it is well
known that many of them will slave to the northward of the line, in
spite of all treaties to the contrary: but the system of false papers is
so cunningly and generally carried on, that detection is far from easy;
and the difficulties that lie in the way of condemning any slave ship,
render it a matter of hazard to detain them. An owner, however, is well
satisfied, if one cargo in three arrives safe; and eight or nine
successful voyages make a fortune. Many Brazilian Portuguese have no
occupation whatever: they lay out a sum of money in slaves; which slaves
are ordered out every day, and must bring in a certain sum each night;
and these are the boatmen, chairmen, porters, and weavers of mats and
hats that are to be hired in the streets and markets, and who thus
support their masters.
_24th._--Yesterday the Morgiana sailed for Pernambuco, whence she will
return to the coast of Africa. To-day the Antigone French frigate,
commanded by Captain Villeneuve, nephew to the admiral of that name who
was at Trafalgar, came in. Whenever France and England are not at war,
the French and English certainly seek each other, and like each other
more than any other two nations: and yet they seem like two great heads
of parties, and the other nations take the French and English sides, as
if there were no cause of opposition but theirs. Others may account for
the fact, I am satisfied that it is so; and that whenever we meet a
Frenchman in time of peace, in a distant country, it is something akin
to the pleasure of seeing a countryman; and it is particularly the case
with French naval men. Frequent intercourse of any kind, even that of
war, begets a similarity of habits, manners, and ideas; so I suppose we
have grown alike by fighting, and are all the more likely to fight
again.
There is a report, but I believe not well founded, that placards are
stuck up about the city threatening that all Europeans, especially
Portuguese, who do not leave the place before the 24th of December,
shall be massacred. I listen to these things, because reports, even when
false, indicate something of the spirit of the times.
_December 8th._--This place is now so quiet that the merchants feel
quite safe, and therefore we are leaving Bahia. I have taken leave of
many hospitable persons who have shown us much attention; but my health
is so indifferent, that but for the sake of that civility which I felt
due to them, I should not have gone ashore again: however, it is all
done, and we are in the act of getting under weigh.
[Illustration]
_9th._--As we sailed out of the bay, we amused ourselves with
conjecturing the possible situation of Robinson Crusoe's plantation in
the bay of All Saints. Those who had been at Cachoeira chose that it
should be in that direction; while such as had been confined to the
neighbourhood of the city pitched on different sitios, all or any of
which might have answered the purpose. There is a charm in Defoe's works
that one hardly finds, excepting in the Pilgrim's Progress. The language
is so homely, that one is not aware of the poetical cast of the
thoughts; and both together form such a reality, that the parable and
the romance alike remain fixed on the mind like truth. And what is
truth? Surely not the mere outward acts of vulgar life; but rather the
moral and intellectual perceptions by which our judgment, and actions,
and motives, are directed. Then, are the wanderings of Christiana and
Mercy, and the sufferings of the shipwrecked mariner, true in the right
sense of the word truth? True as the lofty creations of Milton, and the
embodied visions of Michael Angelo; because they have their basis and
their home in the heart, and soul, and understanding of man.
But we are once more upon the ocean, and our young people are again
observing the stars, and measuring the distances of the planets. I
grieve that one of the most promising of them is now an inmate in my
cabin, in a very delicate state of health.
_12th._--Yesterday we found soundings, which indicated the neighbourhood
of the Abrolhos, and lay-to all night, that we might ascertain the exact
position of those dangerous shoals; which, at the distance of three
leagues, bearing N. W. by W., appeared like one long ragged island to
the westward, and two smaller very low to the east.
The banks extend very far out to the eastward. There is a deep passage
between them and the mainland. With a little attention, a most
profitable fishery might be established here.
_Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, December 15th, 1821_.--Nothing that I have
ever seen is comparable in beauty to this bay. Naples, the Firth of
Forth, Bombay harbour, and Trincomalee, each of which I thought perfect
in their beauty, all must yield to this, which surpasses each in its
different way. Lofty mountains, rocks of clustered columns, luxuriant
wood, bright flowery islands, green banks, all mixed with white
buildings; each little eminence crowned with its church or fort; ships
at anchor or in motion; and innumerable boats flitting about in such a
delicious climate,--combine to render Rio de Janeiro the most enchanting
scene that imagination can conceive. We anchored first close to a small
island, called Villegagnon, about two miles from the entrance of the
harbour. That island, however small, was the site of the first colony
founded by the Frenchman Villegagnon, under the patronage of Coligny,
whom he betrayed. The admiral had intended it as a refuge for the
persecuted Hugonots; but when Villegagnon had, by his means, formed the
settlement, he began to persecute them also: the colony fell into decay,
and became an easy conquest to Mem de Sa, the Portuguese captain-general
of Brazil.[77]
[Note 77: See Introduction, p. 15.]
We moved from this station to one more commodious nearer the town, and
higher up the harbour, towards the afternoon, which soon became so
rainy, that I gave up all hopes of getting ashore. I was really
disappointed to find that my excellent friend, the Hon. Capt. S. had
left the station with his frigate before we arrived; I had, however, the
pleasure of receiving a kind letter from him, and he had left me a copy
of the great Spanish dictionary. Nobody that has always lived at home,
can tell the value of a kindness like this in a foreign land.
_Sunday, 16th_.--I had the pleasure of seeing on board Mr. W. May, who
has long been a resident in Brazil, and with whom I had spent many happy
hours in early life. The pleasure such meetings give is of the purest
and wholesomest nature. It quiets the passions by its own tranquillity;
and, in recalling all the innocent and amiable feelings of youth, makes
us almost forget those harsher emotions which intercourse with the
world, and the operation of interest, passion, or suffering have raised.
_Monday, 17th_.--By the assistance of some friends ashore, we have
procured a comfortable house in one of the suburbs of Rio, called the
Catete, from the name of a little river which runs through it into the
sea. To this house I have brought my poor suffering midshipman,
Langford; and trust that free air, moderate exercise, and a milk diet,
will restore him. We have been visited by several persons, who all
appear hospitable and kind, particularly the acting consul-general, Col.
Cunningham, and his lady.
_December 18th_.--I have begun house-keeping on shore. We find
vegetables and poultry very good, but not cheap; fruit is very good and
cheap; butcher's meat cheap, but very bad: there is a monopolist
butcher, and no person may even kill an animal for his own use without
permission paid for from that person; consequently, as there is no
competition, he supplies the market as he pleases.[78] The beef is so
bad, that it can hardly be used even for soup meat, three days out of
four; and that supplied to the ships is at least as bad: mutton is
scarce and bad: pork very good and fine; it is fed principally on
mandioc and maize, near the town; that from a distance has the advantage
of sugar cane. Fish is not so plentiful as it ought to be, considering
the abundance that there is on the whole coast, but it is extremely
good; oysters, prawns, and crabs are as good as in any part of the
world. The wheaten bread used in Rio is chiefly made of American flour,
and is, generally speaking, exceedingly good. Neither the captaincy of
Rio, nor those to the north, produce wheat; but in the high lands of St.
Paul's, and the Minas Geraes, and in the southern provinces, a good deal
is cultivated, and with great success. The great article of food here is
the mandioc meal, or farinha; it is made into thin broad cakes as a
delicacy, but the usual mode of eating it is dry: when at the tables of
the rich, it is used with every dish of which they eat, as we take
bread; with the poor, it has every form--porridge, brose, bread; and no
meal is complete without it: next to mandioc, the feijoam or dry
kidney-bean, dressed in every possible way, but most frequently stewed
with a small bit of pork, garlic, salt, and pimento, is the favourite
food; and for dainties, from the noble to the slave, sweetmeats of every
description, from the most delicate preserves and candies to the
coarsest preparations of treacle, are swallowed wholesale.
[Note 78: This was no longer the case at my second visit to Rio, and
every thing eatable was much improved.]
We have hired a horse for our invalid, and I have borrowed one for
myself. These animals are rather pretty at Rio, but far from strong;
they are fed on maize and capim, or Guinea grass, which was introduced
of late years into Brazil, and thrives prodigiously: it is cultivated by
planting the joints; the stem and leaves are as large as those of
barley; it grows sometimes to the height of six or seven feet, and the
flower is a large loose pannicle. The quantity necessary for each horse
per day costs about eightpence, and his maize as much more. The common
horses here sell for from twenty to one hundred dollars; the fine Buenos
Ayres horses fetch a much higher price. Mules are generally used for
carriages, being much hardier, and more capable of bearing the summer
heat.
_December 19th_.--I walked by the side of Langford's horse up one of the
little valleys at the foot of the Corcorado: it is called the
Laranjeiros, from the numerous orange trees which grow on each side of
the little stream that beautifies and fertilises it. Just at the
entrance to that valley, a little green plain stretches itself on either
hand, through which the rivulet runs over its stony bed, and affords a
tempting spot to groups of washerwomen of all hues, though the greater
number are black; and they add not a little to the picturesque effect of
the scene: they generally wear a red or white handkerchief round the
head; and a full-plaited mantle tied over one shoulder, and passed under
the opposite arm, with a full petticoat, is a favourite dress. Some wrap
a long cloth round them, like the Hindoos; and some wear an ugly
European frock, with a most ungraceful sort of bib tied before them.
Round the washerwoman's plain, hedges of acacia and mimosa fence the
gardens of plantains, oranges, and other fruits which surround every
villa; and beyond these, the coffee plantations extend far up the
mountain, whose picturesque head closes the scene. The country-houses
here are neither large nor magnificent; but they are decorated with
verandas, and have often a handsome flight of steps up to the
dwelling-house of the master, beneath which are either store-houses, or
the habitations of the slaves: they have all a gateway, large and
handsome, whatever the house may be; and that gateway generally leads to
at least one walk where every kind of flower is cultivated. Brazil is
particularly rich in splendid creeping flowers and shrubs; and these are
mingled with the orange and lemon blossoms, and the jasmine and rose
from the East, till the whole is one thicket of beauty and fragrance. I
scarcely know whether my invalid or myself enjoyed the morning most. A
few more such, and I should think all sickness must disappear.
_December 20th._--Spent in paying and receiving visits in the
neighbourhood. The houses are built a good deal like those of the south
of Europe: there is generally a court, on one side of which is the
dwelling-house, and the others are formed by the offices and garden.
Sometimes the garden is immediately close to the house, and in the
suburbs this is generally the case. In town, very few houses have the
luxury of a garden at all. These gardens are rather like oriental
flower-plots, but they assimilate well with the climate. The flowers of
the parterres of Europe grow by the side of the gayer plants and shrubs
of the country, shaded by the orange, banana, bread-fruit (now nearly
naturalised here,) and the palms, between straight alleys of limes, over
whose heads the African melia waves its lilac blossoms; and on the
raised water channels, china vases are placed, filled with aloes and
tuberoses, and here and there a statue intermixed. In these gardens
there are occasionally fountains and seats under the trees, forming
places of no undelightful rest in this hot climate.
_Friday, December 21st._--Mr. Hayne, one of the commissioners of the
slave trade commission, and his sister, having proposed a party to see
the botanic gardens, we set off soon after daylight; and drove to
their house on the bay of Boto Fogo, perhaps the most beautiful spot in
the neighbourhood of Rio, rich as it is in natural beauty; and its
beauty is increased by the numerous and pretty country-houses which now
surround it. These have all grown up since the arrival of the court from
Lisbon; before that time, this lovely spot was only inhabited by a few
fishermen and gipsies, with, it might be, a villa or two on the sloping
banks by the fruit gardens. Beyond the bay, we drove through a beautiful
lane to the Lake of Rodrigo de Freitas: it is nearly circular, and about
five miles in circumference; it is surrounded by mountains and forests,
except where a short sandy bar affords an occasional outlet to the sea,
when the lake rises so high as to threaten inconvenience to the
surrounding plantations. It is impossible to conceive any thing richer
than the vegetation down to the very water's edge around the lake.
[Illustration]
We were to breakfast at the gardens, but as the weather is now hot, we
resolved first to walk round them. They are laid out in convenient
squares, the alleys being planted on either side with a very
quick-growing nut tree, brought from Bencoolen originally, now
naturalised here. The nut is as good as the filbert, and larger than the
walnut, and yields abundance of oil; the leaf is about the size, and not
unlike the shape, of that of the sycamore. The timber also is useful.
The quick growth of this tree is unexampled among timber trees, and its
height and beauty distinguish it from all others. The hedges between the
compartments are of a shrub which I should have taken for myrtle, but
that the leaves though firm are not fragrant. This garden was destined
by the King for the cultivation of the oriental spices and fruits, and
above all, of the tea plant, which he obtained, together with several
families accustomed to its culture, from China. Nothing can be more
thriving than the whole of the plants. The cinnamon, camphor, nutmeg,
and clove, grow as well as in their native soil. The bread-fruit
produces its fruit in perfection, and such of the oriental fruits as
have been brought here ripen as well as in India. I particularly
remarked the jumbo malacca, from India, and the longona (_Euphoria
Longona_), a dark kind of lechee from China. I was disappointed to find
no collection of the indigenous plants. However, so much has been done
as to give reasonable hopes of farther improvement, when the political
state of the country shall be quiet enough to permit attention to these
things.
The stream that waters the garden flows through a lovely valley, where
the royal powder-mills are situated; but being fearful of too much
exertion for Langford we put off visiting them to another day, and
returned to the garden gate to breakfast. His Majesty John VI. built a
small house there, with three or four rooms, to accommodate the royal
party, when they visited the gardens. Our breakfast was prepared in the
veranda of that house, from whence we had a charming view of the lake,
with the mountains and woods,--the ocean, with three little islands that
lie off the lake; and in the fore-ground a small chapel[79] and village,
at the extremity of a little smooth green plain.
[Note 79: Dedicated to St. John Baptist. I am not sure whether this
or N.S. da Cabeca is the mother church; the same clergyman officiates in
both.]
After waiting with our agreeable and well-informed friends till the
sea-breeze set in, we returned part of the way along the lake, and then
ascended to the parsonage of Nossa Senhora da Cabeca, where we were
joined by several other persons who had come to dine there with us. The
Padre Manoel Gomez received us very kindly, and our pic-nic was spread
in the ample veranda of his parsonage. Behind the veranda three small
rooms served for sleeping-room, kitchen, and pantry. Half a dozen small
cottages in the field behind contain the healthy-looking negroes who are
employed in his coffee-grounds, and a swarm of children of every shade,
between black and white. On a little eminence in the midst of these
stands the chapel of Our Lady, which is the parish church of a large
district. It is exceedingly small; but serves as the place where the
sacraments are administered, and the licences granted for marriages,
burials, and christenings. The owners of estates have generally private
chapels, where daily mass is performed for the benefit of their own
people; so that the parish church is only applied to on the
above-mentioned occasions. About a stone's throw behind the chapel, a
clear rivulet runs rapidly down the mountain, leaping from rock to rock,
in a thousand little cascades, and forming, here and there, delightful
baths. Nor is it without its inhabitants, which increase the simple
luxuries of the Padre's table. He tells me the crawfish in his stream
are better than any in the neighbourhood; the water itself is pure,
light, and delicate.
At length all our friends had assembled, and we returned to the veranda
to dine. To judge by the materials of the feast, so blended were the
productions of every climate that we could scarcely have pronounced in
what part of the world we were, had not the profusion of ananas and
plantains, compared with the small quantity of apples and peaches,
reminded us of it. As is usual on such occasions, the oldest inhabitants
of Brazil praised most what came from afar; while _we_ all gave the
preference to the productions of the country.
I was soon drawn away from the table by the beauty of the prospect,
which I endeavoured to sketch. The coffee plantations are the only
cultivated grounds hereabouts; and they are so thickly set with orange
trees, lemons, and other tall shrubs, that they form in appearance
rather a variety in the woods, than that mixture of cultivated with wild
ground, which might be looked for so near a large city, where we expect
to see the labour of man encroaching in some degree on the wild beauties
of nature. But here vegetation is so luxuriant, that even the pruned and
grafted tree springs up like the native of the forest.
As every body was determined to be pleased, we all felt sorry when it
was time to separate; but Burns has made all the reflections one can
make on breaking up a pleasant party--
"Pleasures are like poppies spread,--
You seize the flower, the bloom is shed;
Or like the snow-falls in the river,--
A moment white, then lost for ever;
Or like the rainbow's fleeting form,
Evanishing amid the storm;
Or like the borealis race,
That flit ere you can point their place.
No man can tether time or tide:
The hour approaches,--_we_ must ride."
And so we did.--We walked down to the foot of the hill, and each took
his or her several conveyance; Colonel and Mrs. Cunningham their
comfortable English chariot, Mr. and Miss Hayne their pretty curricle,
and I my Rio caleche or _sege_,--a commodious but ugly carriage, very
heavy, but well enough adapted to the rough roads between the garden and
the town. The gentlemen all rode, and most of us carried home something.
Fruit and flowers attracted some; Langford got a number of diamond
beetles, and a magnificent butterfly, and I a most inadequate sketch of
the scene from the Padre's house.
_December 27th._--Since the jaunt to the botanical gardens, some of our
invalids have been gaining ground: others who were well have become
invalids, and I have done nothing but ride about or talk with them, and
look at the beautiful views of the neighbourhood, and get a little
better acquainted with the inhabitants; of whom the most amusing, so far
as I have yet seen, are certainly the negroes, who carry about the fruit
and vegetables for sale. The midshipmen have made friends with some of
them. One of them has become quite a friend in the house; and after he
has sold his master's fruit, earns a small gratuity for himself, by his
tales, his dances, and his songs. His tribe, it seems, was at war with a
neighbouring king, and he went out to fight when quite a boy, was taken
prisoner, and sold. This is probably the story of many: but our friend
tells it with action and emphasis, and shows his wounds, and dances his
war dance, and shouts his wild song, till the savage slave becomes
almost a sublime object. I have been for an hour to-night at a very
different scene, a ball given by Mr. B----, a respectable English
merchant. The Portuguese and Brazilian ladies are decidedly superior in
appearance to those of Bahia; they look of higher caste: perhaps the
residence of the court for so many years has polished them. I cannot
say the men partake of the advantage; but I cannot yet speak Portuguese
well enough to dare to pronounce what either men or women really are. As
to the English, what can I say? They are very like all one sees at home,
in their rank of life; and the ladies, very good persons doubtless,
would require Miss Austin's pen to make them interesting. However, as
they appear to make no pretensions to any thing but what they are, to me
they are good-humoured, hospitable, and therefore pleasing.
_Monday, 31st Dec. 1822_.--I went to town for the first time; our road
lay through the suburb of the Catete for about half a mile. Some
handsome houses are situated on either hand, and the spaces between are
filled with shops, and small houses inhabited by the families of the
shopkeepers in town. We then came to the hill called the Gloria, from
the name of the church dedicated to N.S. da Gloria, on the eminence
immediately overlooking the sea. The hill is green, and wooded and
studded with country-houses. It is nearly insulated; and the road passes
between it and another still higher, just where a most copious stream
issues from an aqueduct (built, I think, by the Conde de Lavradio), and
brings health and refreshment to this part of the town from the
neighbouring mountains. Farther on, after passing the beach of the
Gloria, we turned to the left, and entered the new part of that town
through the arches of the great aqueduct built in 1718 by the viceroy
Albuquerque. This supplies four copious fountains. The largest is the
Carioca[80], near the convent of Sant Antonio; it has twelve mouths, and
is most picturesque in itself: it is constantly surrounded by slaves,
with their water-barrels, and by animals drinking. Just beyond are
troughs of granite, where a crowd of washerwomen are constantly
employed; and over against these, benches are placed, on which there are
constantly seated new negroes for sale. The fountain of the Marecas is
opposite to the public gardens, and near the new barracks; and, besides
the spouts for water for the inhabitants, there are two troughs always
full for the animals. The third is a very handsome one, in the palace
square; and the fourth, called the Mouro, I did not see. The aqueduct
is of brick, and is supported on two ranges of arches across the valley
between two of the five hills of the city. The public buildings at Rio
have nothing very remarkable about them. Even the churches present no
architectural beauty, and owe the good effect they have in the general
view to their size and situation. There are seven parish churches, and
numerous chapels dependent on each. The first and eldest parish is that
of St. Sebastian; the church dedicated to whom is the royal chapel, the
only one I saw to-day. It is handsome within, richly gilt, and the
pictures on the ceiling are far from contemptible; but I cannot praise
that of the altar-piece, where Our Lady is covering with her cloak the
Queen Dona Maria, and all the royal family, on their arrival in Brazil.
The choir is served in a manner that would not disgrace Italy. I
attended at vespers, and have seldom been more gratified with the music
of the evening service. This the chapel owes to the residence of the
royal family, whose passion and talent for music are hereditary.
Adjoining to this chapel is the church and convent of the Carmelites,
which forms part of the palace; and within which is the royal library of
70,000 volumes, where on all days, except holidays, the public are
admitted to study from nine till one o'clock in the forenoon, and from
four o'clock till sunset. This part of the palace occupies one side of a
handsome square: the palace itself fills up another; a third has private
houses, built uniformly with the palace, besides the fish-market; and
the fourth is open to the sea. The water-edge is faced with a handsome
granite pier and steps, the blocks of which are bolted with copper. In
the centre of the pier there is a fountain, supplied from the aqueduct
of Albuquerque; and altogether the appearance of the palace square is
extremely handsome. We went thence into a street behind it, and saw the
front of the senate-house, which is connected with the palace, and the
cemetery of the Carmelite church, which is a prettier thing than
church-yards usually are. In the centre of a small quadrangle there is a
cross, and by it a young cypress tree: all around there are flowers, and
sweet herbs, and porcelain vases, containing roses and aloes placed on
little pedestals and on a broad low wall that surrounds the square. I
looked at first in vain for graves; at length I observed on these low
walls, and on the higher ones in the outer circle, indications of
arches, each being numbered. These are the places for the dead, who are
walled up there with quick-lime; and, at a certain period, the bones and
ashes are removed to make room for others. At the time of removal, if
the dead has a friend who wishes it, the remains are collected in urns
or other receptacles, and placed in a building appropriated for them, or
where the friend pleases; otherwise they go to the common receptacle,
and perish totally by the addition of more quick-lime. This is, I doubt
not, the wholesomest way of disposing of the dead; and, even to the
sense, is better than the horrid burials at Bahia, where they must
infect the air. But there seems to me so little feeling in thus getting
rid at once of the remains of that which has once been dear to us, that
I went away in disgust.
[Illustration]
[Note 80: The nickname of the inhabitants of Rio is Carioca, from
this fountain.]
The city of Rio is more like an European city than either Bahia or
Pernambuco; the houses are three or four stories high, with projecting
roofs, and tolerably handsome. The streets are narrow, few being wider
than that of the Corso at Rome, to which one or two bear a resemblance
in their general air, and especially on days of festivals, when the
windows and balconies are decorated with crimson, yellow, or green
damask hangings. There are two very handsome squares, besides that of
the palace. One, formerly the Roca, is now that of the Constitucao, to
which the theatre, some handsome barracks and fine houses, behind which
the hills and mountains tower up on two sides, give a very noble
appearance. The other, the Campo de Santa Anna, is exceedingly
extensive[81], but unfinished. Two of the principal streets run across
it, from the sea-side to the extremity of the new town, nearly a league,
and new and wide streets are stretching out in every direction. But I
was too tired with going about in the heat of the day to do more than
take a cursory view of these things, and could not even persuade myself
to look at the new fountain which is supplied by a new aqueduct.
[Note 81: It is 1713 feet square.]
There is in the city an air of bustle and activity quite agreeable to
our European eyes; yet the Portuguese all take their siesta after
dinner. The negroes, whether free blacks or slaves, look cheerful and
happy at their labour. There is such a demand for them, that they find
full employment, and of course good pay, and remind one here as little
as possible of their sad condition, unless, indeed, one passes the
street of the Vallongo; then the slave-trade comes in all its horrors
before one's eyes. On either hand are magazines of new slaves, called
here _peices_; and there the wretched creatures are subject to all the
miseries of a new negro's life, scanty diet, brutal examination, and the
lash.
_Tuesday, January 1st, 1823_.--I went to pay a second visit to an
illustrious exile, Count Hogendorp, one of the Emperor Napoleon's
generals: my first had been accidental. One morning last week, riding
with two of our young midshipmen, we came to a pleasant-looking cottage,
high on the side of the Corcovado, and at the door we saw a very
striking figure, to whom I instantly apologized for intruding on his
grounds, saying that we were strangers, and had come there accidentally.
He instantly, with a manner that showed him to be no common person,
welcomed us; asked our names, and on being told them, said he had heard
of us; and, but for his infirmities, would have called on us. He
insisted on our dismounting, as a shower was coming on, and taking
shelter with him. By this time I perceived it was Count Hogendorp, and
asked him if I had guessed rightly. He answered, yes; and added a few
words, signifying that his master's servants, even in exile, carried
that with them which distinguished them from other men.
The Count is the wreck of a once handsome man: he has not lost his
martial air: he is tall, but not too thin; his grey eyes sparkle with
intelligence, and his pure and forcible language is still conveyed in a
clear well-toned voice, though a little the worse for age. He ushered us
into a spacious veranda, where he passes most of the day, and which is
furnished with sofas, chairs, and tables: he then ordered his servant to
bring breakfast; we had coffee, milk, and fresh butter, all the produce
of his own farm; and, as we sat, we saw the showers passing by and
under us across the valley, which leads the eye to the bay below. The
General entered frankly into conversation, and during breakfast, and
while the shower lasted, spoke almost incessantly of his imperial
master. Early in life the Count had entered the army, a soldier of
fortune, under Frederick of Prussia. On his return to his native
country, Holland, he was employed by the States, successively, as
governor of the eastern part of Java, and as envoy to one of the German
courts. During his residence in Java, he had visited many of the English
settlements on the main land of India, and had learned English, which he
spoke well.
[Illustration]
On the annexation of Holland to France, he entered the French service
with the rank of full colonel. He was always a great favourite with
Napoleon, to whom his honesty and disinterestedness in money matters
seem to have been valuable, in proportion as these qualities were scarce
among his followers. The Count's affection for him is excessive, I
should have said unaccountable, had he not shown me a letter written to
him by the emperor's own hand, on the death of his child, in which,
besides much general kindness, there is even a touch of tenderness I had
not looked for. During the disastrous expedition to Russia, Hogendorp
was entrusted with the government of Poland, and kept his court at
Wilna. His last public service was performed in the defence of Hamburgh,
where he was lieutenant governor. He would fain have attended the
emperor into exile; but that not being allowed, he came hither, where,
with the greatest economy, and, I believe, some assistance from the
prince, who has great respect for him, he lives chiefly on the produce
of his little farm.
Most of these particulars I learnt from himself, while resting and
sheltered from the rain, which lasted nearly an hour. He then showed me
his house, which is small indeed, consisting of only three rooms,
besides the veranda; his study, where a few books, two or three casts
from antique bas reliefs, and some maps and prints, indicate the
retirement of a gentleman; his bedroom, the walls of which, with a
capricious taste, are painted black, and on that sombre ground,
skeletons of the natural size, in every attitude of glee, remind one of
Holbein's Dance of Death; and a third room occupied by barrels of orange
wine, and jars of liqueur made of the grumaxama, at least as agreeable
as cherry brandy which it resembles, the produce of his farm; and the
sale of which, together with his coffee, helps out his slender income.
The General, as he loves to be called, led us round his garden, and
displayed with even fondness, his fruits and his flowers, extolled the
climate, and only blamed the people, for the neglect and want of
industry, which wastes half the advantages God has given them. On
returning to the house, he introduced to me his old Prussian servant,
who has seen many a campaign with him, and his negroes, whom he freed on
purchasing them: he has induced the woman to wear a nose jewel, after
the fashion of Java, which he seems to remember with particular
pleasure. I was sorry to leave the count, but was afraid some alarm
might be felt at home concerning us, and therefore bade him adieu.
This evening I paid him another visit, and found him resting after
dinner in his veranda. We had a good deal of conversation concerning the
state of this country, from which, with prudence, every thing good may
be hoped; and then the Count told me he was engaged in writing his
memoirs, of which he showed me a part, telling me he meant to publish
them in England. I have no doubt they will be written with fidelity, and
will furnish an interesting chapter in the history of Napoleon. I was
sorry to see the old gentleman suffering a good deal; and his age and
infirmities seem to threaten a speedy termination to his active
life.[82]
[Note 82: Count Hogendorp died while I was in Chile. Napoleon had
left him by his will five thousand pounds sterling, but the old man did
not live to know this proof of the recollection of his old master. As he
approached his end, the Emperor Don Pedro sent to him such assistance,
and paid him such attention as his state required or admitted of, and
had given orders concerning his funeral; but it was found at his death
that he was a protestant, and one of the protestant consuls therefore
caused him to be properly interred in the English burial-ground. On
undressing him after death, his body was found to be tattooed like those
of the natives of the eastern islands. I never saw the count after the
1st of January.]
_January 8th, 1822._--The only variety in my quiet life since the first,
was afforded by a large and pleasant party at Miss Hayne's. There I saw
abundance of jewels on the heads and necks of the elderly Portuguese
ladies, and a good deal of beauty, and some grace, among the younger
ones, whom I begin to understand pretty well. We had some good music,
and there was a great deal of dancing, and not a little card-playing.
To-day we left the house on shore, and are again at home on board the
Doris, with all our invalids much better. Having settled every body
comfortably, I went ashore to the opera, as it is the benefit night of a
favourite musician, Rosquellas, whose name is known on both sides of the
Atlantic. The theatre is very handsome; in size and proportion, some of
our officers think it as large as the Haymarket, but I differ from them.
It was opened on the 12th of October, 1813, the Prince Don Pedro's
birth-day. The boxes are commodious, and I hear, that the unseen part of
the theatre is comfortable for the actors, dressers, &c.; but the
machinery and decorations are deficient. The evening's amusements
consisted of a very stupid Portuguese comedy, relieved between the acts
by scenes from an opera of Rossini's by Rosquellas, after which, he
wasted a great deal of fine playing on some very ugly music.
_Wednesday, January 9th._--To-day is expected to be a day of much
importance to the future fate of Brazil. But I must go back to the
arrival of a message from the cortes at Lisbon, intimating to the Prince
their pleasure, that he should forthwith repair to Europe, and begin his
education, and proceed to travel incognito through Spain, France, and
England. This message excited the most lively indignation not only in
His Royal Highness, but in the Brazilians from one end of the kingdom to
the other. The Prince is willing to obey the orders of his father and
the cortes, at the same time he cannot but feel as a man the want of
decency of the message, and being thus bid to go home; and especially
forbidden to carry any guards with him, as it should seem, lest they
might have contracted too much attachment for his person. The Brazilians
regard this step as preliminary to removing from this country the courts
of justice, which have for fourteen years been held here, and so
removing causes to Lisbon, by which means, Brazil would be again reduced
to the condition of a dependent colony instead of enjoying equal rights
and privileges with the mother country, a degradation they are by no
means inclined to submit to.
The feelings of the people are sufficiently shown, in the address sent
to the Prince, a few days ago, (24th of December,) from St. Paul's; as
follows:--
"SIR,
"We had already written to Your Royal Highness, before we received the
extraordinary gazette of the 11th instant, by the last courier: and we
had hardly fixed our eyes on the first decree of the Cortes concerning
the organization of the governments of the provinces of Brazil, when a
noble indignation fired our hearts: because we saw impressed on it a
system of anarchy and slavery. But the second, in conformity to which
Your Royal Highness is to go back to Portugal, in order to travel
_incognito_ only through Spain, France, and England, inspired us with
horror.
"They aim at no less than disuniting us, weakening us, and in short,
leaving us like miserable orphans, tearing from the bosom of the great
family of Brazil the only common father who remained to us, after they
had deprived Brazil of the beneficent founder of the kingdom, Your Royal
Highness's august sire. They deceive themselves; we trust in God, who is
the avenger of injustice; He will give us courage, and wisdom.
"If, by the 21st article of the basis of the constitution, which we
approve and swear to because it is founded on universal and public
right, the deputies of Portugal were bound to agree that the
constitution made at Lisbon could then be obligatory on the Portuguese
resident in that kingdom; and, that, as for those in the other three
parts of the world, it should only be binding when their legitimate
representatives should have declared such to be their will: How dare
those deputies of Portugal, without waiting for those of Brazil,
legislate concerning the most sacred interest of each province, and of
the entire kingdom? How dare they split it into detached portions, each
insulated, and without leaving a common centre of strength and union?
How dare they rob Your Royal Highness of the lieutenancy, granted by
Your Royal Highness's august father, the King? How dare they deprive
Brazil of the privy council, the board of conscience, the court of
exchequer, the board of commerce, the court of requests, and so many
other recent establishments, which promised such future advantage? Where
now shall the wretched people resort in behalf of their civil and
judicial interests? Must they now again, after being for twelve years
accustomed to judgment at hand, go and suffer, like petty colonists, the
delays and chicanery of the tribunals of Lisbon, across two thousand
leagues of ocean, where the sighs of the oppressed lose all life and all
hope? Who would credit it, after so many bland, but deceitful
expressions of reciprocal equality and future happiness!!!
"In the session of the 6th of August last, the deputy of the Cortes,
Pereira do Carmo, said, (and he spoke the truth,) that the constitution
was the social compact, in which, were expressed and declared the
conditions on which a nation might wish to constitute itself a body
politic: and that the end of that constitution, is the general good of
each individual, who is to enter into that social compact. How then
dares a mere fraction of the great Portuguese nation, without waiting
for the conclusion of this solemn national compact, attack the general
good of the principal part of the same, and such is the vast and rich
kingdom of Brazil; dividing it into miserable fragments, and, in a word,
attempting to tear from its bosom the representative of the executive
power, and to annihilate by a stroke of the pen, all the tribunals and
establishments necessary to its existence and future prosperity? This
unheard-of despotism, this horrible political perjury, was certainly not
merited by the good and generous Brazil. But the enemies of order in the
Cortes of Lisbon deceive themselves if they imagine that they can thus,
by vain words and hollow professions, delude the good sense of the
worthy Portuguese of both worlds.
"Your Royal Highness will observe that, if the kingdom of Ireland,
which makes part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, besides that it
is infinitely small compared to the vast kingdom of Brazil, and is
separated from England but by a narrow arm of the sea, which is passed
in a few hours, yet possesses a governor-general or viceroy, who
represents the executive power of the King of the United Kingdom, how
can it enter the head of any one who is not either profoundly ignorant,
or rashly inconsiderate, to pretend, that the vast kingdom of Brazil,
should remain without a centre of activity, and without a representative
of the executive power: and equally without a power to direct our
troops, so as that they may operate with celerity and effect, to defend
the state against any unforeseen attack of external enemies, or against
internal disorders and factions, which might threaten public safety, or
the reciprocal union of the provinces!
"Yes, august Sir! It is impossible that the inhabitants of Brazil, who
are honest, and who pride themselves on being men, particularly the
Paulistas, should ever consent to such absurdity and such despotism.
Yes, august Sir, Your Royal Highness must remain in Brazil, whatever may
be the projects of the constituent Cortes, not only for the sake of our
general good, but even for the sake of the future prosperity and
independence of Portugal itself. If Your Royal Highness, which is not to
be believed, were to obey the absurd and indecent decree of the 29th of
September, besides losing, in the world, the dignity of a man and of a
prince, by becoming the slave of a small number of factious men, you
would also have to answer before heaven for the rivers of blood which
would assuredly inundate Brazil on account of your absence: because its
inhabitants, like raging tigers, would surely remember the supine sloth
in which the ancient despotism kept them buried, and in which a new
constitutional Machiavelism aims even now to retain them.
"We therefore entreat Your Royal Highness with the greatest fervour,
tenderness, and respect to delay your return to Europe, where they wish
to make you travel as a pupil surrounded by, tutors and spies: We
entreat you to confide boldly in the love and fidelity of your
Brazilians, and especially of your Paulistas, who are all ready to shed
the last drop of their blood, and to sacrifice their fortunes, rather
than lose the adored Prince in whom they have placed their well-founded
hopes of national happiness and honour. Let Your Royal Highness wait at
least for the deputies named by this province, and for the magistracy of
this capital, who will as soon as possible present to Your Highness our
ardent desires and firm resolutions; and deign to receive them, and to
listen to them, with the affection and attention, which your Paulistas
deserve from you.
"May God preserve Your Royal Highness's august person many years.
"From the Government House of St. Paul's, 24th Dec. 1821.
John Carlos Augusto de Oeyenhausen, President.
Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Sylva, V. President.
Martim Francisco de Andrada, Secretary.
Lazaro Jose Goncalves, Secretary.
Miguel Jose de Oliveria Pinto, Secretary.
Manoel Rodrigues Jordaen.
Francisco Ignacio de Souza Guimaies.
Joao Ferreira de Oleveira Bueno.
Antonio Leite Pereira de Gama Lobo.
Daniel Pedro Muller.
Andre da Silva Gomes.
Francisco de Paulo e Oliveira.
Antonio Maria Quartini."[83]
[Note 83: The Prince answered this on the 4th of January, by
assuring the Paulistas that he had transmitted the letter to Lisbon, and
that His Royal Highness hoped from the wisdom of the Cortes that they
would take measures for the good and prosperity of Brazil.]
This letter to the Prince expresses the sentiments of all the southern
part of Brazil, and to a certain degree those of the northern
captaincies also. The latter are certainly as averse as the former to
the removal of the courts of justice to Lisbon, but they would prefer a
more northern city for the capital; while here, there is a wish among a
considerable number of persons to remove the capital to St. Paul's, on
account of its safety, and its neighbourhood to the mines, where the
greatest proportion of the riches, industry, and population of Brazil is
situated. His Royal Highness has not yet expressed his determination.
The officers of the Lisbon troops talk loudly of his being obliged to do
his duty, and obey the mandate of the Cortes. The Brazilians are earnest
in their hopes that he may stay, and there are even some that look
forward to his declaring openly for the independence of this country.
Whatever his resolution may be, it is feared that there will be much
disturbance, if not a civil war. Our English merchants are calling
meetings, I believe for the purpose of requesting this ship to remain,
at least until one of equal force shall arrive, fearing that their
persons and property will not be safe, and every body looks a little
anxious.
10_th._--Yesterday there was a meeting of the camara of Rio; and after a
short consultation the members went in procession, accompanied by a
great concourse of people, to the Prince, with a strong remonstrance
against his leaving the country, and an earnest entreaty that he would
remain among his faithful people. His Royal Highness received them
graciously, and replied, that since it appeared to be the wish of all,
and for the good of all, he would remain. This declaration was received
with shouts of enthusiasm, which were answered by the discharge of
artillery, and every mark of public rejoicing.
The day as usual, on any occasion of public interest, was ended at the
opera, but I unfortunately could not get ashore; however some of the
officers went. The house was illuminated. The Prince and Princess
appeared in full dress in the king's box, which is in the centre of the
house. They were received with enthusiasm by the people, the national
hymn was sung, and between the acts of the play the people called on
several of their favourite orators to address the Prince and people, on
the event of the day. This call was obeyed by several speakers, and some
of their addresses were printed and handed about the theatre; the best,
or at least the most applauded, was the following by Bernardo Carvalho.
"It is now only necessary to exhort you to UNION and
TRANQUILLITY!!![84] Expressions truly sublime, and which contain the
whole philosophy of politics. Without UNION you cannot be strong,
without strength you cannot command TRANQUILLITY. Portuguese! Citizens!
You have a Prince who speaks to you with kindness of your own work; who
invites you to rally with him round the constitution; who recommends to
you that moral force which embraces justice and is identified with
reason, and which can alone accomplish the great work we have begun.
To-day you burst the bonds which threatened you with suffocation. To-day
you assume the true attitude of free men. But yet all is not done.
Intrigue and discord, muttering furies, perhaps even now meditate fresh
plans, and still endeavour to sow division, and to overthrow the
trophies you have just raised to glory and to national honour. The same
enthusiasm, ill directed, might produce the greatest crimes. Fellow
citizens! UNION and TRANQUILLITY. The giddiness of party is unworthy of
free men. Fulfil your duties. Yield to the gentle exhortation of your
august Prince;... but in return say to him 'Sire! ENERGY and VIGILANCE.
Energy to promote good,--Vigilance to prevent evil. The whole world has
now its eyes fixed on you. The steps you are about to take, may place
you in the temple of memory, or confound you among the number of weak
princes, unworthy of the distinctions which adorn them. Perhaps you may
influence the destinies of the whole world. Perhaps even Europe,
anxiously and on tip-toe, reposes her hope upon you! PRINCE! ENERGY and
VIGILANCE. Glory is not incompatible with youth, and the hero of the
26th February may become the hero of the 9th January. Unite yourself
with a people which loves you, which offers you fortune, life,
everything. Prince! how sweet is it to behold the cordial expansion of
the feeling of free men! but how distressing to witness the withering in
the bud of hopes so justly founded! Banish, Sire, for ever from Brazil,
multiform flattery, hypocrisy of double face, discord with her viperous
tongue. Listen to truth, submit to reason, attend to justice. Be your
attributes frankness and loyalty. Let the constitution be the pole-star
to direct you: without it there can be no happiness for you nor for us.
Seek not to reign over slaves, who kiss the chains of ignominy. Rule
over free hearts. So shall you be the image of the divinity among
us;--so will you fulfil our hopes. ENERGY and VIGILANCE, and we will
follow your precept, UNION and TRANQUILLITY.'"
[Note 84: Referring to a speech of the Prince on determining to stay
in Brazil.]
A priest, one of the favourites of the people, was called on to speak
repeatedly. The national hymn[85] was sung again and again, and the
Prince and Princess, who were observed to be chiefly surrounded by
Brazilian officers, were again loudly cheered. And everything in the
city, which was brilliantly illuminated, went off in the utmost harmony.
[Note 85: Composed by the Prince.]
Nothing can be more beautiful of the kind than such an illumination seen
from the ship. The numerous forts at the entrance to the harbour, on the
islands, and in the town, have each their walls traced in light, so they
are like fairy fire-castles; and the scattered lights of the city and
villages, connect them by a hundred little brilliant chains.
To-day our friends the merchants are under fresh alarm, and have made a
formal request to the captain to stay. With that petty spirit which
passes for _diplomatic_, the deputy-consul and merchants, instead of
saying what they are afraid of, only say, "Sir, we are afraid,
circumstances make us so, and we hope you will stay till," &c. &c.; as
much as to say, "You are answerable for evil, if it happens," although
they are too much afraid of committing themselves to say why. I do not
trouble myself now about their official reports, which I perceive are
large sheets of paper, and large seals, without one word that might not
be published on every church wall, for their milk and water tenor, but
which I consider as absurd and mischievous, because they tend to excite
distrust and alarm where no danger is. The truth is now, that there
might be some cause of fear, if they would openly express it. The
language of the Portuguese officers is most violent. They talk of
carrying the Prince by main force to Lisbon, and so making him obey the
Cortes in spite of the Brazilians; and both parties are so violent, that
they will probably fight. In that fight there will doubtless be danger
to foreign property; but why not say so? why not say such is the case?
However, the wisest of the sons of men in modern times[86], has long ago
set in the second place those who could not afford to be open and candid
in matters of business; so _I_ may leave them alone.
[Note 86: Bacon, _Essay on Dissimulation and Simulation_.]
11_th_.--I went ashore last night to the opera, as it was again a gala
night, and hoped to have witnessed the reception of the Prince and
Princess. The Viscondeca do Rio Seco kindly invited me to her box, which
was close to theirs; but, after waiting some time, notice arrived that
the Prince was so busy writing to Lisbon, that he could not come. The
double guard was withdrawn, and the play went on. I had, however, the
pleasure of seeing the theatre illuminated, of hearing their national
hymn, and of seeing the ladies better dressed than I had yet had
occasion to do.
There is a great deal of uneasiness to-day. The Portuguese
commander-in-chief of the troops, General Avilez, has demanded and
received his discharge. It is said, perhaps untruly, that his
remonstrance to the Prince against his remaining here has been
ungentlemanlike and indecent. I hear the troops will not consent to his
removal, and they are particularly incensed that the choice of a
successor should fall on General Curado, a Brazilian, who, it is said,
will be called from St. Paul's to succeed Avilez. He is a veteran, who
has commanded with distinction in all the campaigns on the southern
frontier, and his actions are better known among his countrymen than
those distant battles in Europe, on which the Portuguese officers of
every rank are apt to pride themselves here, however slight the share
they had in them, to the annoyance of the Brazilians.
_12th_.--Yesterday the military commission for the government of the
army here was broke up, and Curada appointed commander-in-chief, and
minister of war. The Portuguese General Avilez made his appearance at
the barracks of the European soldiers to take leave of them; they were
under arms to receive him, and vowed not to part with him, or to obey
another commander, and were with difficulty reduced to such order as to
promise tolerable tranquillity for the day at least. It is said, that
as it had been understood that they had expressed some jealousy, because
the guard of honour at the opera-house had been for the two last
evenings composed of Brazilians, the Prince sent to the Portuguese
barracks for the guard of last night, but that they refused to go;
saying, that as His Royal Highness was so partial to the Brazilians, he
had better continue to be guarded by them. I am not sure this is true,
but from the circumstances of the day it is not improbable.
The opera-house was again brilliantly lighted. The Prince and Princess
were there, and had been received as well as on the ninth, when, at
about eleven o'clock, the Prince was called out of his box, and informed
that bodies of from twenty to thirty of the Portuguese soldiers were
parading the streets, breaking windows and insulting passengers in their
way from barrack to barrack, where everything wore the appearance of
determined mutiny. At the same time, a report of these circumstances
having reached the house, the spectators began to rise for the purpose
of going home; when the Prince, having given such orders as were
necessary, returned to the box, and going with the Princess, then near
her confinement, to the front, he addressed the people, assured them
that there was nothing serious, that he had already given orders to send
the riotous soldiers, who had been quarrelling with the blacks, back to
their barracks, and entreated them not to leave the theatre and increase
the tumult, by their presence in the street, but remain till the end of
the piece, as he meant to do, when he had no doubt all would be quiet.
The coolness and presence of mind of the Prince, no doubt, preserved the
city from much confusion and misery. By the time the opera was over the
streets were sufficiently clear to permit every one to go home in
safety.
Meantime the Portuguese troops, to the number of seven hundred, had
marched up to the Castle-hill, commanding the principal streets in the
town, and had taken with them four pieces of artillery, and threatened
to sack the town. The field-pieces belonging to the Brazilians, which
had remained in the town after the 26th of February, had been sent to
the usual station of the artillery, at the botanical gardens, no longer
ago than last week, so they entertained no fear of artillery. But they
were disappointed in their expectation of being joined by that part of
the Portuguese force which was stationed at San Cristova[)o]. This amounted
to about 500 men[87], who said the King had left them to attend on the
person of the Prince, and they had nothing to do with anything else; a
declaration that was looked on with suspicion by the Brazilians.
[Note 87: I am not sure of the correctness of these numbers, but I
believe I am nearly right.]
While the Portuguese were taking up their new and threatening position,
the Brazilians were not idle. Every horse and mule in the town was
pressed, and expresses despatched to all the militia regiments, and
other Brazilian troops, as well as to the head-quarters of the
artillery. The Prince was most active; so that by four o'clock this
morning (12th), he found himself at the head of a body of four thousand
men, in the Campo de Santa Anna, not only ready, but eager for action;
and though deficient in discipline, formidable from their numbers and
determination.
The Portuguese had by no means expected such promptness and decision;
they had besides not taken provision to the hill, and they were
convinced that it would be an easy matter to starve them, by means of
the immense superiority of numbers in the Campo. They therefore prepared
to obey an order which the Prince communicated to them early in the day,
to remove from the city to Praya Grande, on the other side of the
harbour, only conditioning to carry their arms with them. His Royal
Highness wished to have put them instantly on board of transports, to be
conveyed to Lisbon, but the port admiral reported that there was neither
shipping nor provision ready for the purpose; and therefore they are to
be quartered at Praya Grande, until such shall be provided.
I went ashore with an officer as early as I could, chiefly for the
purpose of seeing the troops in the Campo de Santa Anna. In consequence,
however, of the press of horses and mules, it was sometime before I
could get a chaise to convey me there, and it was much too hot to walk.
At length, however, I procured one, and determined to call on the
Viscondeca of Rio Seco in my way, to offer her refuge in the frigate. We
found her in a Brazilian dishabille, and looking harassed and anxious.
She had remained in the theatre as long as the Prince last night, and
had then hurried home to provide for the safety of her family and her
jewels: her family she had despatched to her estate in the country; for
the jewels, she had them all packed in small parcels, intending to
escape with them herself in disguise to us, in case of a serious attack
on the city; and she had left a quantity of valuable plate exposed in
different parts of the house to occupy the soldiers on their first
entrance. Everything, however, looks better now; and we assured her we
had seen the first part of one of the Lisbon regiments ready to embark
as we landed. We promised her, that on her making a signal from her
house, or sending a message, she should have protection. She appears
very apprehensive of evil from the liberation of the prisoners by the
Brazilians during the night, and says, that there are some fears that
the Portuguese will seize the forts on the other side, and hold them
till the arrival of the reinforcements daily expected from Lisbon. This
would, indeed, be disastrous; but I believe the apprehension to be ill
founded.
Having comforted my good friend as well as I could, we went on to the
Campo, and found the Brazilians housed for the most part in some
unfinished buildings. The men, though slight, looked healthy, active,
and full of spirit; their horses were the best I have seen in the
country; and, it might be fancy, but they gave me the idea of men
resolute in their purpose, and determined to guard their rights and
their homes.
The scene in the Campo presented all manner of varieties. Within the
enclosure where the artillery was placed, all was gravity and
business-like attention: the soldiers on the alert, and the officers in
groups, canvassing the events of the preceding night, and the
circumstances of the day; and here and there, both within and without
the circle, an orator was stationed with his group of auditors around
him, listening to his political discussions, or patriotic harangues. In
the open part of the Campo were straggling soldiers, or whole companies,
escaped from the heated crowd of the enclosure: horses, mules, and
asses, many of all lying down from sheer fatigue. In all directions,
negroes were coming, laden with capim or maize for the horses, or
bearing on their heads cool drink and sweetmeats for the men. In one
corner, a group of soldiers, exhausted with travel and watching, lay
asleep; in another, a circle of black boys were gambling: in short, all
ways of beguiling the time while waiting for a great event might be
seen; from those who silently and patiently expected the hour, in solemn
dread of what the event might be, to those who, merely longing for
action, filled up the interval with what might make it pass most
lightly. I was well pleased with the view I had of the people in the
Campo, and still better as the day wore away, for I staid sometime, to
feel assured that all was to pass without bloodshed, beyond the two or
three persons killed accidentally during the night.
On our return to the ship, we were stopped for some time in the palace
square, by a great concourse of people assembled to witness the entrance
of the first Brazilian guard into the palace, while the last Portuguese
guard marched out, amid the loud huzzas of the people; and on reaching
the stairs, where we were to embark, we found the last of one regiment,
and the first of another, about to sail for the Praya Grande, so that
the city may sleep in security to-night.
The inhabitants generally, but especially the foreign merchants, are
well pleased to see the Lisbon troops dismissed; for they have long been
most tyrannically brutal to strangers, to negroes, and not unfrequently
to Brazilians; and, for many weeks past, their arrogance has been
disgusting to both prince and people.[88]
[Note 88: The heavy step of the Portuguese infantry has earned for
them the nickname of _Pedechumbo_, or leaden foot; now applied to all
partisans of Portugal.]
The appearance of the city is melancholy enough: the shops are shut up,
guards are parading the streets, and every body looks anxious. The
shopkeepers are all employed as militia: they are walking about with
bands and belts of raw hides over their ordinary clothes, but their
arms and ammunition were all in good order, and excepting these and the
English, I saw nobody at all out of doors.
_13th_.--Every thing seems quiet to-day. From the ship we see the rest
of the troops going over to the Praya Grande. Yet there is necessarily a
great deal of anxiety among all classes of persons. Some persons have
sent some of their valuables on board the frigate, for safety; and a
message, I do not know on what authority, arrived to know if the Prince
and Princess, and family, could be received and protected on board.--The
answer, of course, is, that though the ship must observe the strictest
neutrality between the parties, yet that we are ready at once to receive
and protect the Princess and children, and also, whenever he has reason
to apprehend personal danger, the Prince himself. My cabin is therefore
ready. I hope they will not be forced to come afloat. The more they can
trust to the Brazilians the better for them, and for the cause of that
independence which is now so inevitable, that the only question is
whether it shall be obtained with or without bloodshed.
We have determined to have a ball on board, the day after to-morrow,
that the people may get acquainted with us,--and then if any thing
occurs to render it advisable to take refuge with us, they will know who
they are to come amongst.
_14th_.--The shops are open, and business going on as usual to-day. The
Prince is granting discharges to both officers and men of the Portuguese
regiments, who wish to remain in Brazil instead of returning to Europe.
This is stigmatised by the Portuguese as _licensing desertion_, from the
army of the King and Cortes; whatever they may call it, I am convinced
that the measure tends to the present tranquillity of the capital. The
Princess and children are gone to Santa Cruz, a country estate, formerly
belonging to the Jesuits, now to the crown, fourteen leagues on the road
towards St. Paul's.[89]
[Note 89: This journey was very disastrous, as it caused the death
of the infant Prince.]
_15th_.--Our ball went off very well: we had more foreigners than
English; and as there was excellent music from the opera-orchestra, and
a great deal of dancing, the young people enjoyed it much. I should have
done so also, but that Captain Graham was suffering with the gout so
severely, that I could have wished to put off the dance. I had
commissioned the Viscondeca do Rio Seco and some other ladies to bring
their Portuguese friends, which they did, and we had a number of pretty
and agreeable women, and several gentlemanlike men, in addition to our
English friends.
A dance on ship-board is always agreeable and picturesque: there is
something in the very contrast afforded by the furniture of the deck of
a ship of war to the company and occupation of a ball that is striking.
"The little warlike world within,
The well-reeved guns and netted canopy,"
all dressed with evergreens and flowers, waving over the heads of gay
girls and their smiling partners, furnish forth combinations in which
poetry and romance delight, and which one must be stoical indeed to
contemplate without emotion. I never loved dancing myself, perhaps
because I never excelled in it; but yet, a ball-room is to me a
delightful place. There are happy faces, and hearts not the less happy
for the little anxious palpitations that arise now and then, and
curiosity, and hope, and all the amiable feelings of youth and nature;
and if among it a little elderly gaiety mingles, and excites a smile, I,
for my part, rather reverence the youth of heart which lives through the
cares and vexations of this life, and can mingle in, without disturbing,
the hilarity of youth.
_17th_.--Nothing remarkable yesterday or to-day, but the perfect quiet
of the town. The Prince goes on discharging the soldiers.
_19th_.--This day the new ministers arrived from St. Paul's; the chief
of whom in station, as in talent, is Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva.
According to the opinion entertained of him by the people here, I should
say that Cowper had described him, when he wrote
Great offices will have
Great talents. And God gives to every man
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,
That lift him into life, and lets him fall
Just in the niche he was ordained to fill.
To the deliverer of an injured land
He gives a tongue to enlarge upon, a heart
To feel, and courage to redress her wrongs.
He had been sent early from Brazil to study at Coimbra, where he lay
sick at the time of the King's departure from Lisbon; and afterwards,
during the time of the French, he could not find means to return to his
native country; but upon the first rising of the people in the districts
round Oporto and Coimbra, he put himself at the head of the students of
the university, in their successful resistance to Junot, and afterwards
served in the campaign against Soult. When he returned to Lisbon, I
believe, he there entered the regular army; for after bearing arms
against Massena, I find that at the end of the war he had the rank of
lieutenant-colonel, with which he returned to Brazil in 1819. But his
whole time in Europe was not spent in warfare: he had travelled, and had
become acquainted with several among the most distinguished characters
in England, France, and Italy, and had contracted a particular esteem
for Alfieri. The object of his travels was rather to see and learn what
might be useful to his own country, than the mere pleasure of visiting
different parts of the world; and I am told, that he has particularly
attended to those branches of science which may improve the agriculture
and the mining of Brazil.
One of his brothers, Martin Francisco, is possessed of scarcely less
talent than himself; and their family, their character, and the esteem
in which they are held, add weight not only to their own interest, but
to the government which employs them.
The guards and patroles were doubled along the road, by which they and
the veteran General Corado arrived, as it was feared the Portuguese, who
since the 12th have been completely distinct from the Brazilians, might
have impeded their progress. However, every thing was perfectly
tranquil.
20_th_.--The Aurora arrived from Pernambuco and Bahia, at both which
places it appears that every thing is quiet. But as the meeting of the
camara of Bahia is to take place early next month, for the purpose of
chusing a new provisional government, the English are apprehensive of
some disturbance, and therefore we are to return thither to protect our
friends in case of need.
21_st_.--I went ashore to shop with Glennie. There are a good many
English shops, such as saddlers, and stores, not unlike what we call in
England an Italian warehouse, for eatables and drinkables; but the
English here generally sell their goods wholesale to native or French
retailers. The latter have a great many shops of mercery, haberdashery,
and millinery. For tailors, I think, there are more English than French,
and but few of either. There are bakers' shops of both nations, and
plenty of English pot-houses, whose Union Jacks, Red Lions, Jolly Tars,
with their English inscriptions, vie with those of Greenwich or
Deptford. The goldsmiths all live in one street, called by their name
_Rua dos Ourives_, and their goods are exposed in hanging frames at each
side of the shop-door or window, in the fashion of two centuries back.
The workmanship of their chains, crosses, buttons, and other ornaments,
is exquisite, and the price of the labour, charged over the weight of
the metal, moderate.
Most of the streets are lined with English goods: at every door the
words _London superfine_ meet the eye: printed cottons, broad cloths,
crockery, but above all, hardware from Birmingham, are to be had little
dearer than at home, in the Brazilian shops; besides silks, crapes, and
other articles from China. But any thing bought by retail in an English
or French shop is, usually speaking, very dear.
I am amused at the apparent apathy of the Brazilian shopkeepers. If they
are engaged, as now is not unfrequently the case, in talking politics,
or reading a newspaper, or perhaps only enjoying a cool seat in the back
of their shop, they will often say they have not the article enquired
for, rather than rise to fetch it; and if the customer persists and
points it out in the shop, he is coolly desired to get it for himself,
and lay down the money. This happened several times during the course
of our search for some tools for turning to-day along the Rua Direita,
where every second house is a hardware shop, furnished from Sheffield
and Birmingham.
_22d_.--The Princess's birth-day was celebrated by firing of cannon, a
review, and a drawing-room. Capt. Prescott, of the Aurora, and Capt.
Graham, attended it. It seems the Prince took little or no notice of
them, or any of the English. I think it probable that the Brazilians are
jealous of us, on account of our long alliance with Portugal; and
besides, they may take the converse of the maxim, "those that are not
against us are for us;" and think because we are not for them, we are
against them.[90]
[Note 90: I have since learned that some very warm expressions of
personal regard and sympathy used by an English officer (not, however,
belonging either to the Aurora or Doris) to a Portuguese, with whom he
had but a slight acquaintance, on occasion of his embarking for Praya
Grande, had led the Portuguese to believe that it meant something more,
and that, in case of need, the English would join with the Portuguese.
This at least was whispered in the town, and very naturally accounts for
the jealousy entertained against us.]
_24th_.--We sailed at daylight for Bahia. It was one of the finest
mornings of this fine climate, and the remarkable land behind the
Sugar-loaf was seen to its best advantage in the early light. The
extreme beauty of this country is such, that it is impossible not to
talk and think of it for ever; not a turn but presents some scene both
beautiful and new; and if a mountainous and picturesque country have
really the power of attaching its inhabitants, above all others, the
_Fluminenses_ ought to be as great patriots as any in the world.
_February 8th, Bahia_.--After a fortnight's sail, the two first days of
which were calm, followed by a gale of wind, which lasted nearly three
days, we anchored to-day in the bay of All Saints, which we found
looking as gaily beautiful as ever. The election of the new provisional
government took place yesterday, quite peaceably; and of the seven
members of the junta, only one is a native of Portugal.
I remark, that the language of the writers of gazettes here is much
bolder than at Rio; and I think that there is here a truly republican
spirit among a very considerable number of persons: whether it extends
throughout the province I cannot judge; but I am assured that a desire
for independence, and a resolution to possess it, is universal.
_10th_.--We went ashore yesterday. The advance of the season has ripened
the oranges and mangoes since we left Bahia, and has increased the
number of insects, so that the nights are no longer silent. The hissing,
chirping, and buzzing of crickets, beetles, and grasshoppers, continue
from sunset to sunrise; and all day long the trees and flowers are
surrounded by myriads of brilliant wings. The most destructive insects
are the ants, and every variety of them that can hurt vegetable life is
to be found here. Some form nests, like huge hanging cones, among the
branches of the trees, to which a covered gallery of clay from the
ground may be traced along the trunk: others surround the trunks and
larger branches with their nests; many more live under ground. I have
seen in a single night the most flourishing orange-tree stripped of
every leaf by this mischievous creature.
_16th_.--We sailed from Bahia, finding every thing, to all appearance,
quiet[91]; and no apprehension being entertained by the English, a ball
at the consul's, another at Mrs. N.'s, and a third at Mrs. R.'s, at each
of which, as many of our young men as could get ashore were present,
made them very happy, and we had some very pleasant rides into the
country. I had intended, if possible, visiting a huge mass, said to be
so similar to the meteoric stones that have fallen in different parts of
the world as to induce a belief that it is also one of them, although it
weighs many tons, and I hoped to get a piece of it; but I find it is
near Nazareth de Farinha, on the other side of the bay, and too far off
for this present visit to Bahia. The first time we were at Bahia, I
could not even learn where it was, so incurious are my countrymen here
about what brings no profit.
[Note 91: Very shortly after we sailed, I believe within a day or
two, those disturbances broke out at Bahia, which lasted until the 2d of
July, 1823.]
_24th. Rio de Janeiro_.--Nothing remarkable occurred on our passage here
from Bahia. The school-room proceeds exceedingly well, both with the
master and the scholars; and as we are all in tolerable health, we look
forward with no small pleasure to our voyage to Chile, for which we are
preparing.
During our absence, the Prince Don Pedro has been very active, and has
dismissed all the Portuguese troops. On the ships being provided to
transport them to Europe, they refused to embark, on which His Royal
Highness caused a heavy frigate to anchor opposite to their quarters,
and went on board himself the night before the morning appointed by him
for their sailing. The steam-vessel attended for the purpose of towing
the transports, in case of necessity; and several gun-vessels were
stationed so as to command the barracks of the refractory regiments,
while a body of Brazilian soldiers was stationed in the neighbourhood.
The Prince was, during the greater part of the night, in his barge,
going from vessel to vessel, and disposing every thing to make good his
threat, that if the Portuguese were not all on board by eight o'clock
the next morning, he would give them such a breakfast of Brazilian balls
as should make them glad to leave the country. This he had been provoked
to say, by a message from the officers and men, insolently delivered
that very night, desiring more time to prepare for their voyage. Seeing
His Royal Highness in earnest, which they could hardly be brought to
believe he was, they thought it most prudent to do as they were bid; and
accordingly embarked, to the no small joy of the Brazilians, who had
long cordially hated them.
_Friday, March 1st_.--The weather is now excessively hot, the
thermometer being seldom under 88 deg., and we have had it on board at 92 deg.
Fahrenheit. Capt. Graham has had a slight attack of gout, for which
reason I have not been ashore since our return from Bahia; but as he is
a little better to-day he has insisted on my accompanying a party of our
young men in an expedition up the harbour to see a country estate and
factory.
At one o'clock, our friend, Mr. N. called for us, with a large boat of
the country, which is better for the purpose than our ship's boats.
These vessels have a standing awning, and two very large triangular
sails: they are managed according to their sizes by four, six, eight, or
more negroes, besides the man at the helm: when rowing, the rowers rise
at every stroke, and then throw themselves back on their seats. I think
I have heard that within the memory of persons now in the navy it was
the fashion to row the admiral's barges so in England. The boatmen are
here universally negroes; some free, and owners of their boats; others
slaves, who are obliged to take home a daily fixed sum to their masters,
who often pass a life of total indolence, being fed in this way by their
slaves.
The place we were going to is Nossa Senhora da Luz, about twelve miles
from Rio, up the harbour, near the mouth of the river Guaxindiba, which
river rises in the hills of Taypu; and though its straight course is
only five miles, its windings would measure twenty or more: it is
navigable, and its banks are astonishingly fertile.
The evening was charming, and we sailed past many a smiling island and
gay wooded promontory, where gardens and country-houses are thickly
scattered, and whence provisions in innumerable boats and canoes cross
the bay every morning for the city. Our first view of N.S. da Luz
presented such a high red bank, half covered with grass and trees,
overhanging the water in the evening sun, as Cuyp would have chosen for
a landscape; and just as I was wishing for something to animate it, the
oxen belonging to the factory came down to drink and cool themselves in
the bay, and completed the scene. The cattle here are large and
well-shaped, something like our own Lancashire breed, and mottled in
colour, though mostly red. On doubling the point of the bank, we came
upon a small white church, with some venerable trees near it; beyond
that was the house, with a long veranda, supported by white columns; and
still farther on, the sugar-house, and the pottery and brick-work. We
landed close to the house; but as the beach is shallow and muddy, we
were carried ashore by negroes. Nothing can be finer than the scenery
here. From the veranda, besides the picturesque and domestic
fore-ground, we see the bay, dotted with rocky islands; one of these,
called Itaoca, is remarkable as having, in the opinion of the Indians,
been the residence of some divine person: it is connected with the
traditions concerning their benefactor, Zome, who taught them the use of
the mandioc, and whom the first missionaries here contrived to convert
into St. Thomas the apostle. It consists of one immense stone cleft
throughout, and a little earth and sand gathered round it, on which are
trees and shrubs of the freshest verdure; some of the other islets are
bare, and some again have houses and villages on them: the whole scene
is terminated by the Organ Mountains, whose spiry and fantastic summits
attracting the passing clouds, secure an everlasting variety to the eye.
We found, that owing to our neglect in not sending beforehand to
announce our visit, neither the master of the house nor his housekeeper
were at home: however, Mr. N. being an old friend, went into the poultry
yard, and ordered thence an excellent supper; and while it was
preparing, we went to look at the pottery, which is only for the
coarsest red ware. The wheel used here is the clumsiest and rudest I
ever saw, and the potter is obliged to sit sideways by it. The clay,
both for the pottery and the bricks, is dug on the spot; it is coarse
and red: it is tempered by the trampling of mules; but all that we use
spades and shovels for is done by the bare hands of the negroes: the
furnaces for baking the bricks and jars are partly scooped out of the
hill, and faced with brick. Leaving the pottery, we climbed the hill
that marks the first approach to N.S. da Luz; and on the way up its
steep and rugged side, our dogs disturbed a flock of sheep, as
picturesque and as ragged as Paul Potter himself could have desired:
they had been lying round the root of a huge old acacia, decorated with
innumerable parasite plants, some of which cling like ivy to the trunk,
and others climbing to the topmost boughs, fall thence in grey silky
garlands, or, like the tillandsia, adorn them with hundreds of pink and
white flowers; among these, many an ant and bee had fixed his nest, and
every thing was teeming with life and beauty.
The moon was up long before we returned from our ramble, and long before
our host arrived. Had the Neapolitan ambassador, who told George the
Third that the moon of his country was worth the sun of England, ever
been in Brazil, I could almost forgive the hyperbole. The clear mild
light playing on such scenery, and the cool refreshing breeze of
evening, after a day of all but intolerable heat, render the night
indeed the season of pleasure in this climate: nor were the rude songs
of the negroes, as they loaded the boats to be ready to sail down the
harbour with the morning's land-breeze, unpleasing.
As we were looking over the bay, a larger boat appeared: it neared the
shore; and our host, Mr. Lewis P., who superintends the fazenda, landed,
and kindly received our apology for coming without previous notice. The
visit had long been talked of; but now our time at Rio was likely to be
so short, that had we not come to-day, we might not have come at all. He
led the way to the garden, where we passed the time till supper was
ready. The midshipmen found more oranges, and better than they had yet
met with, and did full justice to them. The fruit and vegetables of
Europe and America, of the temperate and torrid zones, meet here; nor
are their flowers forgotten: over against the little parterre, an orange
and a tamarind tree shade a pleasant bench; close to which, in something
of oriental taste, the white stucco wall of the well is raised and
crowned with flower-pots, filled with roses and sweet herbs.
_2d._--I rose at daylight, and rode with Mr. N. through the estate,
while Mr. Dance, my cousin Glennie, and the two boys, went to shoot in
the marsh by the river side.
Every turn in our ride brought a new and varied landscape into view:
beneath, the sugar-cane in luxuriant growth; above, the ripening orange
and the palm; around and scattered through the plain enlivened by the
windings of the Guazindiba, the lime, the guava, and a thousand odorous
and splendid shrubs, beautified the path.--But all is new here. The long
lines of fazenda houses, that now and then take from the solitariness of
nature, suggest no association with any advance either of old or present
time, in the arts that civilise or that ennoble man. The rudest
manufactures, carried on by African slaves, one half of whom are newly
imported, (that is, are still smarting under the separation from all
that endears the home, even of a savage,) are all the approaches to
improvement; and though nature is at least as fine as in India or in
Italy, the want of some reference to man, as an intellectual and moral
being, robs it of half its charms. However, I returned well pleased from
my ride, and found my young sportsmen not less pleased with their
morning's ramble. Not, indeed, that they had shot snipes, as they
intended, but they had gotten a huge lizard (_Lacerta Marmorata_), of a
kind they had not seen before. They had seen the large land-crab
(_Ruricola_), and they had brought down a boatswain bird, a sort of
pelican, (_Pelicanus Lencocephalus_), which they proposed to stuff.
Accordingly after breakfast, as the weather was too hot to walk farther,
the bird and the lizard were both skinned, the guns were cleaned, and I
made a sketch of the landscape.
In the evening I took a long walk to a point of view whence the whole
bay with the city in the distance is distinctly seen, and on the way
stopped at a cottage, where Mr. P. who is, literally, here "king,
priest, and prophet," had some enquiry to make, concerning the health of
the indwellers: these were two negroes, who have grown old in the
service of the estate, and are no longer useful. I have seen examples of
such being freed, that is, turned out of doors to starve. Here they
would be entitled, by the rules of the estate, if not by law, to come
every day for the same allowance as the working negroes: but they do not
choose it. They indeed live in a hut, and on the ground of their master;
but they maintain themselves by rearing a few fowls, and making baskets:
so dear is the feeling of independence, even in old age, sickness, and
slavery.
_Sunday, 3d._--I went out before breakfast, with a negro carpenter for
my guide. This man, with little instruction, has learned his art so as
to be not only a good carpenter and joiner, but also a very tolerable
cabinet-maker, and in other respects displays a quickness of
understanding which gives no countenance to the pretended inferiority of
negro intellect. I was much pleased with the observations he made on
many things which I remarked as new, and with the perfect understanding
he seemed to have of all country works. After breakfast, I attended the
weekly muster of all the negroes of the fazenda; clean shirts and
trowsers were given the men, and shifts and skirts to the women, of very
coarse white cotton. Each, as he or she came in, kissed a hand, and then
bowed to Mr. P. saying, either "Father, give me blessing," or "The names
of Jesus and Mary be praised!" and were answered accordingly, either
"Bless you," or "Be they praised." This is the custom in old
establishments: it is repeated morning and evening, and seems to
acknowledge a kind of relationship between master and slave. It must
diminish the evils of slavery to one, the tyranny of mastership in the
other, to acknowledge thus a common superior Master on whom they both
depend.
As each slave passed in review, some questions were asked concerning
himself, his family, if he had one, or his work; and each received a
portion of snuff or tobacco, according to his taste. Mr. P. is one of
the few persons whom I have met conversant among slaves, who appears to
have made them an object of rational and humane attention. He tells me
that the creole negroes and mulattoes are far superior in industry to
the Portuguese and Brazilians; who, from causes not difficult to be
imagined, are for the most part indolent and ignorant. The negroes and
mulattoes have strong motives to exertion of every kind, and succeed in
what they undertake accordingly. They are the best artificers and
artists. The orchestra of the opera-house is composed of at least
one-third of mulattoes. All decorative painting, carving, and inlaying
is done by them; in short, they excel in all ingenious mechanical arts.
In the afternoon I attended Mr. P. to see the negroes receive their
daily allowance of food. It consisted of farinha, kidney-beans, and
dried beef, a fixed measure of each to every person. One man asked for
two portions, on account of the absence of his neighbour, whose wife had
desired it might be sent to her to make ready for him by the time he
returned. Some enquiries which Mr. P. made about this person, induced me
to ask his history. It seems he is a mulatto boatman, the most trusty
servant on the estate, and rich, because he is industrious enough to
have earned a good deal of private property, besides doing his duty to
his master. In his youth, and he is not now old, he had become attached
to a creole negress, born, like him, on the estate; but he did not marry
her till he had earned money enough to purchase her, in order that their
children, if they had any, might be born free. Since that time, he has
become rich enough to purchase himself, even at the high price which
such a slave might fetch; but his master will not sell him his freedom,
his services being too valuable to lose, notwithstanding his promise to
remain on the estate and work. Unfortunately these people have no
children; therefore on their death their property, now considerable,
will revert to the master. Had they children, as the woman is free, they
might inherit the mother's property; and there is nothing to prevent the
father's making over all he earns to her. I wish I had the talent of
novel writing, for the sake of this slave's story; but my writing, like
my drawing, goes no farther than sketching from nature, and I make
better artists welcome to use the subject.
The evening was very stormy: deep clouds had covered the Organ
Mountains; and vivid lightning, sharp rain, and boisterous wind, had
threatened the fazenda with a night of terror. But it passed away,
leaving all the grand and gloomy beauty of a departed thunder-storm in a
mountainous country; when the moon broke through the clouds, and the
night seemed, from the contrast with the last few hours, even lovelier
than the last. Then just as the
"Sable clouds
Turned forth their silver lining on the night,
And cast a gleam over the tufted grove."
I heard the sounds of music; not such, indeed, as Milton's echo, with
Henry Lawes's notes, would have made,--of which the night and the scene
had made me dream; but the voice of the slaves on this their night of
holiday, beguiling their cares with uncouth airs, played on rude African
instruments. Taking one of my ship-mates with me, I immediately went to
the huts of the married slaves, where all merry-makings are held; and
found parties playing, singing, and dancing to the moonlight. A
superstitious veneration for that beautiful planet is said to be pretty
general in savage Africa, as that for the Pleiades was among the
Indians of Brazil; and probably the slaves, though baptized, dance to
the moon in memory of their homes. As for the instruments, they are the
most inartificial things that ever gave out musical sounds; yet they
have not an unpleasing effect. One is simply composed of a crooked
stick, a small hollow gourd, and a single string of brass wire. The
mouth of the gourd must be placed on the naked skin of the side; so that
the ribs of the player form the sounding-board, and the string is struck
with a short stick. A second has more the appearance of a guitar: the
hollow gourd is covered with skin; it has a bridge, and there are two
strings; it is played with the finger. Another of the same class is
played with a bow; it has but one string, but is fretted with the
fingers. All these are called Gourmis. There were, besides, drums made
of the hollow trunks of trees, four or five feet long, closed at one end
with wood, and covered with skin at the other. In playing these, the
drummer lays his instrument on the ground and gets astride on it, when
he beats time with his hands to his own songs, or the tunes of the
gourmis. The small marimba has a very sweet tone. On a flat piece of
sonorous wood a little bridge is fastened; and to this small slips of
iron, of different lengths, are attached, so as that both ends vibrate
on the board, one end being broader and more elevated than the other.
This broad end is played with the thumbs, the instrument being held with
both hands. All these are tuned in a peculiar manner, and with great
nicety, especially the marimba[92]; but, as I am no musician, I cannot
explain their methods.
[Note 92: The simplest of these stringed instruments, and two kinds
of marimba, have found a place in the Jesuit Bonnanis' _Gabinetto
Armonica_, printed at Rome, 1722, and dedicated to Holy King David. The
great marimba consists of a large wooden frame; in which a number of
hollow canes, about nine inches long, are placed, with the mouth
upwards; across these open ends are laid pieces of sonorous wood, which
being struck with another yield a pleasant sound, like the wooden
armonicas of Malacca. The whole is suspended round the neck, like the
old man's psaltery in the Dance of Death. Each nation of negroes has its
own peculiar instrument, which its exiles have introduced here. A king
of each tribe is annually elected, to whom his people are obedient,
something in the way of the gipsy monarchy. Before 1806 the election
took place with great ceremony and feasting, and sometimes fighting, in
the Campo de Sta. Anna; and the king of the whole was seated during the
day in the centre of the square under a huge state umbrella. This
festival is now abolished.]
_4th_.--I was very sorry indeed this morning at sunrise, when I saw the
boats ready to convey us from N.S. da Luz, where we had enjoyed our
three days as much as possible; a cheerful party, a kind host, free
disposal of our time, and no business but such as might beseem the
individuals of this castle of indolence, "where every man strolled off
his own glad way."
"There freedom reigned without the least alloy;
Nor gossip's tale, nor ancient maiden's gall,
Nor saintly spleen, durst murmur at our joy,
And with envenomed tongue our pleasures pall.
For why? There was but one great rule for all;
To wit, that each should work his own desire."
We returned to the ship by a different way from that by which we went,
through the archipelago of beautiful islands on the eastern side of the
harbour; and I had the pleasure to find the Captain really better,
though still with tender feet.
_6th_.--His Majesty's ship, Slaney, Capt. Stanhope, sailed from Rio.
_7th_.--The Superb arrived from Valparaiso, bringing no news of
importance. Indeed, if she had, we are scarcely in a state to attend to
it: we have sat up all night with B., one of our midshipmen, who is
dangerously ill.
_8th_.--Captain Graham not feeling well enough to leave the ship, I went
with Captain Prescott of the Aurora, to visit the French Commodore
Roussin on board the Amazone. I have seldom been better pleased. The
captains of the other French ships were there, to receive us. All the
urbanity of Frenchmen, joined with the delightful frankness of the
profession, assured us we were welcome. The ship itself, every part of
which we saw, is a model of all that can be done, either in the
dock-yard at home, or by officers afloat, for comfort, health, and
cleanliness, and is well as a man of war. Her captain, however, is a
superior man; and many ships of every and any nation might be visited
before his equal would be met with. I wish it were possible that we
should introduce into our ships the oven on the lower deck, which gives
fresh bread twice a week for the whole ship's company, not only for the
sake of the bread, but the heating it must air and ventilate the ship.
_9th_.--The Portuguese squadron from Lisbon, with a reinforcement of
troops, arrived off the harbour. Troops are sent to reinforce the
garrisons in the forts, at the entrance; and the ships are forbidden to
enter, but promised victuals and water to carry them to Lisbon. I was on
shore all day on business, preparatory to our sailing for Valparaiso.
Captain Graham being too unwell to venture out of the ship himself, he
therefore undertook to nurse the invalid for me. I returned late. I
found B. dangerously ill, and Captain Graham very uneasy.
I received many persons on board, and took leave of many.
[Illustration]
_10th_.--We sailed at daylight from Rio, in full hope that the cool
weather we shall find on going round Cape Horn, and the fine climate of
Chile, will do us all good. I have not been in bed for three nights; my
invalids are in that state, that night watching is necessary for them.
_13th_.--In addition to our other troubles, the first lieutenant is
taken dangerously ill: but Captain Graham appears better, though not yet
able to go on deck.
_16th_.--Yesterday afternoon the mercury in the barometer sunk in a
very short space of time a whole inch, and we had a gale of wind. The
cold is sensibly increased. Fahrenheit's thermometer often stood at 92 deg.
in Rio harbour; it is now 68 deg., and we have many sick. B. is getting
better.
_17th_.--Wind and sea abated, and the barometer rising once more; the
mercury stands at 30 inches and two-tenths. I have lain down at four
o'clock these two mornings, Glennie having kindly relieved my watching
at that hour. We have removed the dead-lights from the cabin windows.
_18th_.--Every thing better. The young people again at school. Some
lunars taken. We are in 36 deg. 55' S. latitude, and the thermometer is at
68 deg..; barometer 30-2.
On the 19_th_ and 20_th_ the mercury in the barometer sunk gradually
from 30 to 29-02, and rose again as before on the 21st. It blew hard;
the thermometer fell to 58 deg., in latitude 42 deg. S. There are many
albatrosses and stormy petrels about the ship.
_22d_.--Latitude 46 deg. 25' S., longitude 52 deg. 40' W. The weather very cold,
though the thermometer is at 56 deg., barometer 29-08; a very heavy swell.
Great numbers of the Cape pigeon about the ship.
_24th_.--Latitude 50 deg. 30'; thermometer 44 deg. morning and evening, 47 deg. at
noon. Seeing two penguins to-day, we supposed some land must be near,
but found no bottom with 100 fathoms line. The cold weather seems to
have a good effect on our invalids. The barometer fell suddenly, and a
strong S.W. wind succeeded, and we were glad to light a fire in the
cabin.
I am sorry we have passed so far out of sight of the Falkland Islands,
Sir John Hawkins's maiden land. The idea of seeing a town left standing
as it was, by all its inhabitants at once, and of the tame animals
becoming wild, had something romantic. It seemed like a realisation of
the Arabian tale of the half-marble prince, and in real interest comes
near the discovery of the lost Greenland settlements. I do not know any
thing that gratifies the imagination, more than the situations and
incidents that by bringing distant periods of time together, places
them, as it were, at once within our own reach. I remember some years
ago spending a whole day with no companion but my guide at Pompeii, and
becoming so intimate with the ancients, their ways, and manners, that I
felt, when I went home to Naples, and its lazaroni, and its English
travellers, as I suppose, that one of the seven sleepers to have done,
who went to purchase bread with money five centuries old. As to the
marble cities of Moorish Africa, when we consider their exposure to the
sirocco, and read Dolomieu's Experiments on the Atmosphere, during the
prevalence of that wind at Malta, we shall find but too probable a
reason for their existence as reported.
_25th_.--Latitude 51 deg. 58' S., longitude 51 deg. W., thermometer 41 deg.. Strong
south-westerly gales and heavy sea. Just as our friends in England are
looking forward to spring, its gay light days and early flowers, we are
sailing towards frozen regions, where avarice' self has been forced to
give up half-formed settlements by the severity of the climate. We are
in the midst of a dark boisterous sea; over us, a dense, grey, cold sky.
The albatross, stormy petrel, and pintado are our companions; yet there
is a pleasure in stemming the apparently irresistible waves, and in
wrestling thus with the elements. I forget what writer it is who
observes, that the sublime and the ridiculous border on each other; I am
sure they approach very nearly at sea. If I look abroad, I see the
grandest and most sublime object in nature,--the ocean raging in its
might, and man, in all his honour, and dignity, and powers of mind and
body, wrestling with and commanding it: then I look within, round my
little home in the cabin, and every roll of the ship causes accidents
irresistibly ludicrous; and in spite of the inconveniences they bring
with them, one cannot choose but laugh. Sometimes, in spite of all usual
precautions, of cushions and clothes, the breakfast-table is suddenly
stripped of half its load, which is lodged in the lee scuppers, whither
the coal-scuttle and its contents had adjourned the instant before: then
succeed the school-room distresses of _capsized_ ink-stands, broken
slates, torn books, and lost places; not to mention the loss of many a
painful calculation, and other evils exquisite in their kind, but
abundantly laughable, especially, as it happened just now, if the
school-master is induced to measure his length on the deck, when in the
act of reprimanding the carelessness which subjects the slates and books
to these untoward chances.
_28th_.--Latitude 55 deg. 26' S., longitude 56 deg. 11' W. Captain Graham and
the first lieutenant still both very ill. At one o'clock this morning
the mercury in the barometer sunk to 28-09; at seven it rose again to
29-01. The thermometer is at 38 deg. of Fahrenheit, and we have had squalls
of snow and sleet, and a heavy sea. There are flocks of very small birds
about the ship, and we have seen a great many whales.
_30th_.--Latitude 56 deg. 51' S., longitude 59 deg. W.; the thermometer at 30 deg.
this morning, and 32 deg. at noon. A violent gale of wind from the
south-west; the only thing like a hard gale since we left England. I had
breakfast spread on the cabin deck, as it was not possible to secure any
thing on a table. Clarke, one of the quartermasters, had two ribs broken
by a fall on deck; and Sinclair, a very strong man, was taken ill after
being an hour at the wheel. We have made gloves for the men at the wheel
of canvass, lined with dreadnought; and for the people at night,
waistbands of canvass, with dreadnought linings. The snow and hail
squalls are very severe; ice forms in every fold of the sails. This is
hard upon the men, so soon after leaving Rio in the hottest part of the
year.
Yesterday morning, about an hour before sunrise, a bright meteor was
seen in the south-west. It was first taken for the signal lanterns of a
large ship; then the officer of the watch thought it was a blue light,
and we made no doubt of its being Sir T. Hardy in the Creole. It
remained a long time stationary; then it was lost behind the clouds, and
reappeared between them about 10 deg. high, when it disappeared.[93]
[Note 93: Frezier mentions seeing such a meteor in latitude 57 deg. 30'
S., and longitude 69 deg. W., in 1712.]
_April 1st_.--Latitude 57 deg. 46'; the weather much more mild and moderate.
Our young men have caught a number of birds, principally petrels; the P.
Pelagica, or Mother Cary's chicken, is the least; the P. Pintado is
gayest on the water; but the P. Glacialis, or fulmer, is most beautiful
when brought on board: I cannot enough admire the delicate beauty of the
snow-white plumage, unwet and unsoiled, amid the salt waves. The poets
have scandalised both the arctic and antarctic regions as
"A bleak expanse,
Shagg'd o'er with wavy rocks, cheerless and _void
Of ev'ry life_;"
yet, on Capt. Parry's approach to the north pole, he found the solitude
teeming with _life_; and the farther south we have sailed, the more
_life_ we have found on the waters. Yesterday the sea was covered with
albatrosses, and four kinds of petrel: the penguin comes near us; shoals
of porpoises are constantly flitting by, and whales for ever rising to
the surface and blowing alongside of the ship.
With the thermometer not lower than 30 deg., we feel the cold excessive.
Yesterday morning the main rigging was cased in ice; and the ropes were
so frozen after the sleet in the night, that it was difficult to work
them. I never see these things but I think of Thomson's description of
Sir Hugh Willoughby's attempt to discover the northwest passage, when
"He with his hapless crew,
Each full exerted at his several task,
Froze into statues; to the cordage glued
The sailor, and the pilot to the helm."
I was glad to-day, when the dead-lights were removed, to see the bright,
blue, but still boisterous sea, spreading with ample waves curled with
snowy tops, in the sunshine; it is many days since we have seen the sun,
and the white birds flying and chattering, or wrestling on the water,
while the ship, like them, sometimes bravely mounts the very top of the
wave, and sometimes quietly subsides with it. These are the things we
behold "who go down to the sea in ships, "and occupy our business in the
great waters." No one can imagine, who has not felt, the exhilaration
of spirits produced by a dry clear day of sunshine at sea, after a week
of rain and snow.
_April 2d_.--A few minutes after noon, an iceberg was reported on the
lee-bow. As I had never seen one, I went on deck for the first time
since we left Rio to see it.[94] It appeared like a moderately high
conical hill, and looked very white upon the bleak grey sky; it might be
about twelve miles from us. The temperature of the water was 36 deg. of
Fahrenheit's thermometer, that of the air 38 deg., when the ice was nearest.
[Note 94: We passed another on the 8th, which Glennie calculated to
be 410 feet high; it was near enough for us to see the waves break on
it. In conversing on this subject with the officers since,--for at the
time I was indeed unable to think of it,--I find there is reason to
think that, instead of an iceberg, we saw land on the 8th. It was seen
in the latitude and longitude of an island visited by Drake, marked in
the old charts.]
For some few days the violent motion of the ship, occasioned by the
heavy sea, has rendered writing and drawing irksome; for, as Lord
Dorset's song has it,
"Our paper, pens, and ink, and we,
Roll up and down our ships, at sea."
Nevertheless we are not idle. As the cabin has always a good fire in it,
it is the general rendezvous for invalids; and the midshipmen come in
and out as they please, as it is the school-room. In one corner Glennie
has his apparatus for skinning and dissecting the birds we take; and we
have constantly occasion to admire the beautiful contrivances of nature
in providing for her creatures. These huge sea-birds, that we find so
far from any land, have on each side large air-vessels adapted for
floating them in the air, or on the water; they are placed below the
wings, and the liver, gizzard, and entrails rest on them. In each
gizzard of those we have yet opened, there have been two small pebbles,
of unequal size; and the gizzard is very rough within. We have found
more vegetable than animal food in their stomachs.
_20th April, 1822_.--To-day we made the coast of Chile. I had continued
to write my Journal regularly; but though nearly two years are past
since I wrote it, I cannot bring myself to copy it: from the 3d of April
it became a register of acute suffering; and, on my part, of alternate
hopes and fears through days and nights of darkness and storms, which
aggravated the wretchedness of those wretched hours. On the night of the
ninth of April, I regularly undressed and went to bed for the first time
since I left Rio de Janeiro. All was then over, and I slept long and
rested; but I awoke to the consciousness of being alone, and a widow,
with half the globe between me and my kindred.
Many things very painful occurred. But I had comfort too. I found
sympathy and brotherly help from some; and I was not insensible to the
affectionate behaviour of _my boys_, as the midshipmen were called. And
I had the comfort to feel that no stranger hand had closed his eyes, or
smoothed his pillow.
Mr. London and Mr. Kift, the surgeon and assistant surgeon, never left
the bed-side; and, when my strength failed, my cousin Mr. Glennie, and
Mr. Blatchly, two passed midshipmen, did all that friends could do.
Mr. Dance, the second lieutenant,--though, from the illness of the first
lieutenant, the whole business of the ship devolved on him,--found time
to be near his friend's death-bed; and, whether at noon or midnight, was
never absent where kindness could be shown.
But what could any human kindness do for me? My comfort must come from
him who in his own time will "wipe off all tears from our faces."
SECOND VISIT TO BRAZIL.
Before I begin the Journal of my Second Visit to Brazil, from which I
was absent a year and three days, it will be necessary to give a short
account of the principal events which took place during that year, and
which changed the government of the country.
The Prince Regent had in vain sent the most pressing representations in
favour of Brazil to the Cortes. No notice whatever was taken of his
despatches; and the government at Lisbon continued to legislate for
Brazil as if it were a settlement on the coast of savage Africa. The
ministers who had served Don John had seen enough of the country, during
their residence in it, to be persuaded that Brazil, united, was at any
time competent to throw off all subjection to the mother country; the
object, therefore, became to divide it. Accordingly a scheme for the
government of Brazil was framed, by which each captaincy should be ruled
by a junta, whose acts were to be totally independent on each other, and
only recognisable by the authorities in Portugal; and the Prince was
ordered home in a peremptory and indecent manner. I have mentioned in my
Journal the reception those orders had met with, and the resolution His
Royal Highness had adopted of staying in Brazil. As soon as this
resolution became known to the provinces, addresses and deputations
poured in on all sides from every town and captaincy, excepting the city
of Bahia and the province of Maranliam, which had always had a
government independent of the rest of Brazil.
In December, 1821, the King had appointed General Madeira governor of
Bahia and commander of the troops. He entered on his office in February;
and shortly afterwards the first actual warfare between the Portuguese
and Brazilians began in the city of St. Salvador, on the 6th of the
month, when the Brazilians were defeated with some loss.[95] Meantime,
the province of St. Paul's had made every exertion to raise and arm
troops; and early in February 1100 men marched towards Rio, to put
themselves at the disposal of the Prince. Some recruits for the seamen
and marine corps were raised, and a naval academy established, the
object of all which was to prevent the carrying away the Prince by
force. It was now thought advisable that the Prince should visit the two
most important provinces, St. Paul's and the Mines; and on the 26th or
27th of March he left Rio for that purpose, leaving the executive
government in the hands of the minister Jose Bonifacio. His Royal
Highness was received every where with enthusiasm, until he arrived at
the last stage, on his way to Villa Rica, the capital of the province of
Minas Geraes; there he received intelligence of a party raised to oppose
his entrance by the Juiz de Fora, supported by a captain of one of the
regiments of Cacadores. He immediately caused some troops to be
assembled and joined with those which accompanied him, and then remained
where he was, and sent to the camara of the town, to say he was able to
enter by force, but had rather come among them as a friend and
protector. Several messages passed; the conspirators discovered that the
Prince was, indeed, sufficiently strong to overpower them; and besides,
they met with no support, as they had hoped, from the magistrates or
people. His Royal Highness, therefore, entered Villa Rica on the 9th of
April, and on the magistrates and people attending to compliment him, he
addressed them thus:--
"Brave Mineros! The shackles of despotism, which began to be loosened on
the 24th of August in Porto, are now bursting in this province. Be
free,--be constitutional! Unite with me, and proceed constitutionally. I
rely entirely on you. Do you depend on me. Let not yourselves be deluded
by those who seek the ruin of your province, and of the whole nation.
Viva, The Constitutional King!
Viva, Our Religion!
Viva, All honest men!
Viva, The Mineros!"
[Note 95: On the 25th of May following a solemn mass was performed
for the souls of those who had fallen on both sides, at the expense of
the Bahians resident at Rio, in the church of San Francesco de Paulo.
The cenotaph raised in the church was surrounded by inscriptions, in
Latin and Portuguese; one of the most striking is, "Eternal glory to
those who give their blood for their country."
("He quha dies for his cuntre
Sal herbyrit intil bewyn be," says _Barbour_.)
The day was one of those Brazilian rainy days, when it should seem
another deluge was coming: but the Prince and Princess were the first at
the ceremony.]
The next day the Prince held a general court, and remained eleven days
at Villa Rica. The only punishment inflicted on the conspirators, was
suspension from their offices; and this royal visit attached this
province to him, as firmly as those of St. Paul's and Rio.
He returned to Rio de Janeiro on the 25th, where he was received in the
most flattering manner, and where he became daily more popular; and on
the 13th of May, King John's birth-day, the senate and people bestowed
on him the title of Perpetual Defender of Brazil, and thenceforward his
style was, CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCE REGENT, AND PERPETUAL DEFENDER OF THE
KINGDOM OF BRAZIL.
The impossibility of continuing united to Portugal had become daily more
apparent. All the southern provinces were eager to declare their
independence. Pernambuco and its dependencies had long manifested a
similar feeling, and the province of Bahia was equally inclined to
freedom although the city was full of Portuguese troops under Madeira,
and receiving constant reinforcements and supplies from Lisbon.
The Cortes seemed resolved on bringing matters to extremities; the
language used in their sessions, with respect to the Prince, was highly
indecent. Such commanders either by sea or land as obeyed him, unless
by force, were declared traitors, and he was ordered home anew within
four months, under pain of submitting to the future disposition of the
Cortes; and they decreed that the whole means of government should be
employed to enforce obedience. The Brazilian members did indeed
remonstrate and protest formally against these proceedings; but they
were over-ruled; and the spectators in the galleries, on one occasion,
went so far as to cry, "Down with the Brazilian!"
In the months of June and July, Madeira began to make sallies into the
country around Bahia, as if it had been possessed by an enemy; and,
indeed, he quickly found one most formidable. The town of Cachoeira,
large and populous, and intimately connected with the hardy inhabitants
of the Certam, soon became the head-quarters of crowds of patriots, who
assembled there, and resolved to expel the Portuguese from their
capital.
They began to form regular troops; but though they were abundantly
supplied with beef and other provis |
