_Voyage from England to Rio de Janeiro._
On the 11th of March, 1819, I took my departure, in the brig
_Echo_, Captain Henderson, from the River Thames, and on the 18th,
after contending with adverse winds, arrived in Portland Roads, where
we took shelter till the 21st. On our departure from thence we were
favoured with a fair wind for only a short period; and on the 24th it
opposed us from the westward with such violence, that it rendered our
attempts to beat out of the Channel abortive. We were in consequence
obliged to submit to the only alternative of running for safety to
Falmouth Harbour, and remained there till the 2d of April. Perhaps few
situations can be conceived more irksome than this. To a mind made up
for departure, every delay is deemed a misfortune in proportion as the
object in pursuit is of desirable attainment, and especially in the
consideration of its prolonging the time that is to re-unite us to
those we love best. A light breeze from the north-east enabled us to
clear the Channel on the 3d.
This part of a voyage from England, though trifling in point of
distance, is regarded by sailors as pregnant with impending dangers
and difficulties, the Channel being so situated that the prevailing
westerly winds, at certain seasons of the year, render the egress
extremely intricate. The constant anxiety of the captain and crew till
we passed the Islands of Scilly, contrasted with the happy security
which they then evinced, were proofs of the importance they attached
to it. The feelings of Englishmen on quitting the British shores must
be various, and, in many instances, exquisitely interesting in pensive
reflections. As for myself, the animated attachment for my native land
and those so dear to me left behind produced a melancholy, heightened
by the surrounding oceanic scene, which, on the other hand, was
alleviated not only by a humble reliance upon that Almighty, in whose
paternal hands is the greater or less share of happiness of all his
creatures, but also by the hope of a successful issue attending the
voyage--
“Hope that whispers promised pleasure,
And bids the lovely scenes at distance hail.”
We were favoured with a propitious breeze, which continued steady,
at the rate of seven, eight, and nine miles an hour. On the 12th,
we passed between the Island of Madeira and the African coast: the
vicinity of the former, although we did not see it, was announced by
the appearance of sea gulls, the only birds I had hitherto noticed,
excepting one swallow and the mother cary’s chicken, not unlike the
former at a distance, but rather larger, having white feathers above
the tail and under the belly, the rest of a brownish cast. It is said
to hatch and carry its young on the water, and is seen, I understand,
in every part of the Atlantic as well as the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
We met with the swallow in about 40° north latitude and 15° west
longitude; it made several attempts to alight upon the vessel, but was
prevented by the dog; apparently fatigued, it continued its flight in
a northerly direction. This is a phenomenon attending the migration of
those birds, favouring the opinion that they visit some southern or
tropical climate, during the cold season in England, and is opposed to
the hypothesis advanced by some of their immersion in ponds, and by
others of their taking refuge in old walls and ruins. That they assume
such a state of torpitude as the first would infer is very improbable.
On the morning of the 14th of April, we discovered the high peaks
of three of the Canary Islands at a great distance, Grand Canary
bearing south-west, and Lanzarote and Fortaventura south-east. The
world of waters which had hitherto, from its varied and sometimes
terrific agitation, filled the imagination with awe, was now changed
into a pacific, but grand expanse, that soothed and absorbed the mind
with its tranquil magnificence; and the weather, which had been cold
and gloomy, was changed into a balmy mildness and enlivening sunny
clearness. Towards the evening, we came close up to the north-west
side of Fortaventura, a long island, exhibiting a rugged tumulous
combination of peaks and mountains, rising irregularly one over
another, of the most barren and cheerless aspect. In vain the sun
extended his genial rays over its sterile wastes, where no salutary
plant appeared to take root, or the least verdure to quicken. With
the assistance of the glass, I could not discover one single hut or
human being along the whole face of it. There is a small port on the
opposite side, where the produce, as well as that of Lanzarote, is
barilla. The wind having changed, a passage could not be accomplished
round either end of this island. The signal of “about ship” was given,
and we stood for some hours to the northward. Pursuing a southerly
course again next day, we came, at noon, close up with land, which,
during the morning, a thick haze had obscured. The sun now bursting
forth, presented to our view the island of Grand Canary, with its town
of Palmas, furnishing a contrast of a very pleasing nature to the
island already mentioned. Its romantic and commanding peaks of immense
altitude had their tops concealed in clouds, which the lustre of the
sun seemed unable to dispel. Its amphitheatre of mountains, adorned
with lively patches of green from their very summits, fertilized by
increasing cultivation, and in the most luxuriant verdure, down to
the verge of the sea, concurred, with the town of Palmas, and a large
village extending some distance along the parterre, with detached
houses in the same direction of an elegant appearance, to render the
scene peculiarly animating and lovely. The town of Palmas, which does
not appear large, and the harbour, which is capacious and safe, are
commanded by batteries, stationed along a range of mountains to the
north of the town. Teneriffe and most of the other islands draw their
supplies of corn and cattle from Grand Canary. As we proceeded along
its shores, and before the close of the evening, we perceived that
its cultivation was not general. The next day, the Peak of Teneriffe
was indistinctly seen through the clouds that hung upon the horizon;
the height, for which it is so celebrated, is apparently diminished
by the elevation of the circumjacent mountains. A north-east trade
wind now wafted us forward with considerable rapidity, rendered more
agreeable by the delicious weather and salubrious atmosphere diffused
around. The familiar and accustomed possession of the prime bounties
of nature must be always gratifying to those whose senses and whose
imagination are even in tolerable vigour; but to an Englishman, blest
with a sound constitution, and over whom the vicissitudes of life had
not, as is too often the case, cast a mantle of despondency, to deaden
present pleasure and darken future prospects, and who had so recently
emerged from a dreary atmosphere, the enjoyment of this, to him,
new-born paradisaical climate, resembled more a feeling of sudden and
happy enchantment, than an elemental and natural delight, with which
Providence had blessed a particular portion of the globe.
On the 22d, we made the Cape de Verd Islands, and took our course
betwixt the islands of St. Anthony, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and St.
Nicholas, to the westward, Sal and Bonavista being to the eastward of
us. The isle of Sal is frequented by the Americans for salt, which is
collected upon it.
On the 23d, we ranged along the north-east side of St. Yago, the
largest of the Cape de Verd Islands, but it was so completely enveloped
in opaque clouds, that we could see no object distinctly upon it. It
is, I believe, more verdant than any of the others, possessing groves
of cocoa-nut trees, and bananas. The volcanic wastes of the island
of Mayo, lying to the eastward of St. Yago, were not obscured by a
single cloud, and the industry of man did not appear in any part of
it to have subdued the sterility of nature. It was completely bare of
vegetation, except an impoverished brushwood. I could only discover
two or three solitary cocoa-nut trees; notwithstanding, at the end
of this island nearest to us, there was a small town, possessing
some apparent neatness, but without a single tree or any shelter to
refrigerate the scorching rays of the sun. I observed a flag projecting
from a window, which probably was the house of the governador: there
was not an inhabitant to be seen, they were, no doubt, indulging
in a _sesta_. The officers of a British ship of war, who had
just come to anchor off the town, were preparing to go on shore, and
might perhaps rouse some of them from their lethargy. This was a ship
of about 20 guns, and we imagined she belonged to the Sierra Leone
or African station, in which those islands might be included. No
fortifications were visible any where, and it may be inferred, that the
mother country regards so little the importance of those islands, that
no precautions were ever adopted for their defence. The fogs by which
they are usually obscured are attributed by some to vapours arising
from the salt lakes; but as the same general law may be supposed to
govern such condensations of fog, common to them as well as to the
Canaries and other islands of a high elevation, I should be more
disposed to think that they originate in the profuse exhalations in
those latitudes, and in the increased power of attraction attached to
the volcanic materials of which those accumulated masses of land are
composed, thereby more effectually drawing around them this gloomy
mantle. And, although I am not informed as to the circumstance, it is
probable that the density and quantum of haziness are much greater
when the sun is in the northern tropic, and diminishes as he recedes
towards the southern. From the Cape de Verds, the same favouring
gale continued to swell our sails. In traversing this tropic, the
heavens present the most beautiful and romantic pictures, and the
ocean some of its gayest inhabitants for contemplation. It is here the
rapturous scene of the celestial spring. Towards the evening’s sun
especially, the firmament is seen glowing with purple, orange, and
every beauteous, delicate, and rich colour, of such transparency and
matchless brilliancy, that cannot be imagined, as it is never seen
in a northern latitude. The diffusion of such an infinite variety of
warm tints and other hues, mingled in elegant groups, around the whole
horizon, enhances the vigorous power of the sapphire back-ground, or
rather the rich blue ethereal canopy to which they form a deep edging,
or grand and resplendent fringe. In vain would the most accomplished
artist attempt its delineation; he could only look up with admiration
and amazement, and, lost in wonder, the hand would be found to refuse
guidance to his pencil.
“For who can paint like nature? Can Imagination boast,
In all her gay creation, hues like hers?”
When the beautiful and sublime scenes I have ineffectually attempted
to give a faint idea of, fade away in the shades of night, and are
succeeded by the glory of the stellar hemisphere, turn the eye to the
deep, and a blaze of marine illuminations, frequently seen around
the ship, in some degree compensates for their loss. This effect is
occasioned by the small blubber fish floating near the surface, and
Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like these. The brilliant
appearance, in these waters, of the bonita, albacore, pilot fish, &c.
is only surpassed by the extraordinary change and rapid suffusion of
delicate colours succeeding each other during the dying moments of
the dolphin. The flying fish are seen in large numbers, taking their
flight from the water, alarmed by the approach of the vessel, or the
pursuit of the dolphin and other fish, to which they are a prey. The
nautilus, commonly called by sailors “the Portuguese man of war,” moves
on in slow majesty, with its sail above the water, and secure from
the attacks of its neighbours by its poisonous qualities: it lowers
and erects its sail at pleasure, which is something like the slice of
a large lemon, only that the rind is of a pinkish hue, and the other
parts nicely shaded. Here also is the shark, which may be called the
destroying demon of the ocean, skulking “about, seeking whom he may
devour,” with understood horror of purpose both by man and the marine
inhabitants. His approach is soon announced by a general hue and cry
from the sailors, who are among his deadliest foes. All are instantly
up in arms. Their animated and entire devotion to their purpose, in
which every feeling is interested, can scarcely be equalled by the
pleasurable emotions of a sportsman at the moment a fox is breaking
cover. Every artifice is used by throwing out pieces of pork at the end
of ropes, which he voraciously follows to the side of the ship; the
weapons of death are ready; and, after striking him, and a struggle
ensuing to get him on board, if, by any effort of his strength, he
break away, which I have seen, great is the sullen vexation and
disappointment shown by the crew. He is usually accompanied by three
or four pilot fish, about the size of a whiting: they are extremely
beautiful, and appear in the water as if fastened upon his back, near
the head.
On the 23d of April, in 12° 34′ north latitude, I was, for the first
time in my life, under a vertical sun, now by degrees moving through
the northern tropic, and gradually dispensing his benign influence to
the regions of the north.
On the 1st of May, in 2° north latitude, and 22° west longitude, an
officer from the _Rockingham_, Captain Waugh, a free trader from
the East Indies, boarded us, to solicit some trifles they wanted,
and particularly newspapers, which their passengers, including some
ladies, he stated, were extremely desirous to see. There was a peculiar
pleasure in having even a transient intercourse with a ship at sea,
and being enabled to relieve, in any degree, their wants. The social
feelings, the fellow sympathies of man, were revived with renewed
vigour by the idea of our having, on the wide and solitary ocean, been
mutually so long separated from our own proper element and exposed to
the perils of the deep, and by the new sight of our countrymen, after
having been confined to the view only of those within the compass
of the few yards that enclosed the space of the brig. It increased
the kindly emotions in the awakened thoughts of absent country, and
especially of the dear family circle of home.
“Home! There is a magic in that little word!
It is a mystic circle that surrounds
Pleasures and comforts never known beyond
The hallow’d limit.”
About this time we lost the north-east trade wind, which was succeeded
by calms and squalls, that detained us seven or eight days near the
Line. Nothing can be experienced in a voyage much more unpleasant
than this vicissitude of weather. The irksomeness of a calm near the
equator is rendered almost insupportable by the ardent rays of the
sun; every one seems to languish: several, and often many hours drag
heavily on, while the vessel makes no progress, and only experiences
a disagreeable motion by the heaving of the glassy ocean, its surface
not being in the least ruffled by a breath of air. In the mean time, an
elemental war is brooding. A black and pitchy cloud is seen awfully and
slowly moving on, with fury in its train; all is alarm; with haste the
sails are lowered. The sullen langour of the atmosphere is succeeded
by the “maddening tempest,” so suddenly and with so little warning,
that sometimes, before every precaution can be taken, the sweeping
impetuosity lays the vessel instantaneously upon her side, and, in
that situation, she is hurried forward with immense velocity. These
conflicting winds are as quickly followed by solid torrents of rain.
In a short period, all is tranquillity again, and the returning sun,
in burning radiance, annihilates the last breeze that feebly curled
the face of the ocean. The same scenes alternately present themselves.
During the night these sudden squalls are the most dangerous, as their
approach cannot be so well ascertained.
On the first day that we were becalmed, notwithstanding the advances we
occasionally made by the transient operation of those gusts, we found
our latitude 1° 43′ north, and the preceding day it was only 1° 23′.
This can only be accounted for by the strong northerly currents now
prevailing here; and hence it would appear, that the same invariable
law of attraction governs them as well as the winds. The squalls I
have mentioned also came from the south and south-east, and the winds
beginning at this time to blow here, issue from the same quarter, in
consequence, no doubt, of the sun being in the northern tropic. If he
creates a vacuum in his vicinity by the rarefaction of the air, which
induces a great influx from the southern and northern hemispheres
of the atmosphere, in like manner the exuberant evaporations from
the sea may produce a rushing of the waters to supply what is lost
(_pro tempore_) by vapours. Various causes, however, operate to
prevent an uniform appearance in this respect, such as the occasional
counter-attraction of the moon and other celestial bodies, of
continents and other lands, as well as a prevailing repulsive power in
nature. Still if those effects could be minutely followed through their
various ramifications, it might be found that the winds and currents
originate in the combinations I have ventured to suggest. Is it not
possible, that the calms near the equator at this period may arise
from the equally poised contention of the south-east and north-east
winds meeting, and that the former, in the sun’s march through the
northern tropic, will gradually gain upon the latter in extent of
dominion proportioned to the sun’s declination, and _vice versa_
as he recedes through the southern tropic, or, more properly speaking,
in the earth’s oblique revolution round the sun? The rust, which at
this time constantly showed itself upon my razors, was probably owing
to some peculiar corrosive properties in the atmosphere, or it might
have arisen from some saline moisture insinuating itself every where
imperceptibly.
But to attempt to comprehend or explain the extraordinary operations
in the grand work of nature, in this and other latitudes, has in many
instances baffled the keenest sagacity and most laborious research.
Secondary causes of the phenomena in nature are often beyond the
clearest ken of human intellect, how then are the faculties of the mind
bewildered in the contemplation of the great First Cause! How lost and
absorbed in adoration of the Divine source, the essence of all those
wonderfully diversified appearances! The hand moves the pen with which
I now write; I can trace the power that impels it--the cause of this
effect, to the immediate impulse only, that is, to the muscles in the
arm, that, arising thence, connect themselves with the hand. But can
I go back any further? Can I ascertain what it is that produces this
admirable power in the muscles, this secondary cause? Reason here
discovers its confined limit as to remoter and efficient causes, but,
bounding at once over these concealed regions of knowledge, sees and
acknowledges the great original source of all finite existence, and in
the power of thinking, and in the movement of his bodily frame, man
feels that
“It is the Divinity that stirs within him.”
He has an undeniable and practical evidence of the existence, power,
and goodness of an invisible and eternal Being, from whom all creation
has emanated.
On the 6th of May, we crossed the Line in 23° west longitude. The calms
and squalls were succeeded by cloudy weather and light breezes from the
south and south-east, which in a few days assumed the steadiness of
the trade wind, but not accompanied with that beautiful serenity and
brightness of sky, which we experienced whilst in the north-east trade
wind. Neptune and his wife Amphitrite did not make their appearance;
or, to speak without mythological allusion, the usual ceremonies on
crossing the Line were not observed, owing, I presume, to the fatigue
and exhaustion sustained by the sailors, in consequence of the variable
weather.
[Illustration:
_On Stone by C. Shoosmith from a Sketch by Ja^s. Henderson._
_Printed by C. Hullmandel._
VIEW OF THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE BAY OF RIO DE JANEIRO, FROM THE
SUGAR LOAF MOUNTAIN TO THE CITY.]
On the 22d of May, we discovered, at a distance, Cape Frio, a
discovery which always fills with joy the breasts of those making
a voyage to this part of the world. And no wonder. For having
launched out upon the wide immeasurable ocean, where uncertainty
and dangers always accompany him, man, at this refreshing sight,
feels reassured of his safety, and obtains a promise of the eventual
success of his voyage. Besides, he experiences a rich glow of mind
at viewing the natural element of his support and existence, and a
feeling of deep interest on beholding, if for the first time, a new
portion of the world. From this promontory, the coast swells in a
north-east direction to Cape St. Roque, forming the most easterly
portion of territory in South America. Rio de Janeiro lies exactly
west from, and in the same latitude with, Cape Frio, at a distance
of about eighty miles. The coast betwixt them presents a continued
appearance of rugged mountains, and through every aperture they are
seen undulating in accumulated alpines far back into the interior of
this vast continent. Tremendous precipices, at every opening of the
nearer mountains, strike the imagination with wonder, snowy clouds
occasionally obscuring the contracted valleys at their feet, and
resting in detached and airy vapours upon their sides, whilst their
summits and other parts are brightened by the purest atmosphere and
sunshine. This scene conveys to the European traveller a grand idea and
foretaste of the peculiar magnificence of size and aspect, with which
nature has displayed herself in the new continent. After proceeding
about forty miles along this shore, a view is commanded from Cape
Frio to Gavea, or the Parrot’s Beak, a distance of near one hundred
miles. The entrance, through a narrow inlet amongst the mountains, to
the bay of Rio de Janeiro, is pointed out by one of a singular shape,
resembling a sugar-loaf, the strata of which it is composed appearing
to run perpendicularly. Here is presented one of the most picturesque
and beautiful scenes that can well be imagined. Abrupt and towering
precipices of wild and fanciful shapes, universally robed in verdant
shrubs of various kinds, surround this fine bay, containing nearly one
hundred islands, to the circumference of which the eye cannot extend.
The bases of these mountains, consisting of granite, are beautified
with numerous sweeping crescents of more perfect cultivation, edged
with white cottages and houses, from whence narrow valleys, adorned
with orange trees, are seen winding amongst the mountains. The clear,
sunny, and smiling face of nature; the verdant islands, which look in
their loveliness as if they were intended for the abode of beings more
refined in intellect and more pure in heart than weak and erring man;
the shipping dispersed about the bay, the city seen at a distance,
combined with an airy and elegant aqueduct, which conveys from the
mountains water for the supply of the town, all impressing the idea of
social happiness, of the comforts and elegancies produced by science
and civilized society, are, after a long and consequently tedious
voyage, welcome sights to the aquatic traveller, re-enlivening his
spirits, and, in the anticipation of the enjoyments of his proper
element, land, are the beginnings of the compensation it affords him
for the privations he has been enduring at sea. A little higher up, on
the opposite side to the sugar-loaf, is the fort of Santa Cruz, where
ships for a few minutes bring to, and answer various questions. From
hence a signal is made, which is repeated from a hill close by the
town, announcing to what country the ship arrived belongs. The vessel
then cast anchor off the island of Fort Villegagnon, to which place
she despatched a boat to bring on board a serjeant and two soldiers,
who remained as a guard, till nearly a day was consumed before the
captain of the port, a military officer, a doctor, &c. had, one after
the other, come off in boats, at their pleasure, to visit the ship,
creating an unnecessary and tedious delay. At last, the vessel moved
on to the vicinity of the Isle das Cobras, from whence, after a
custom-house guard had arrived, the soldiers conducted the Captain and
myself to the palace and other offices, where the ship’s name, &c. were
given in. On here taking leave of the brig, I must do justice to my
feelings by observing, that I received the most friendly attention from
the Captain, whose gentlemanly and well-regulated conduct were highly
honourable to him.
On landing, the prepossession regarding this place gives way to an
impression by no means favourable, produced by narrow streets, crowded
with negroes, whose black faces and savage songs, which they howl out
as an encouragement to each other under the burdens and loads which
they drag along, fill the mind of the stranger, unaccustomed to such
scenes, with dejection. The fairy visions in the bay, too recent yet
to have disappeared from the imagination, vanished at such discordant
sounds and uncouth appearances; and suffering, rather than satisfaction
and enjoyment, appeared to be resident here. The discordant sounds
afforded, perhaps, some consolatory relief to the poor negroes, by
dividing their attention in some degree from their toil. They were an
effort of nature, ever fertile in resources under calamity, to drive
away care; but they were on that account a proof of their misery.
They thus imparted a trifling gratification to the sable sufferers,
but they penetrated mournfully to my heart, unused as I was to such
misery-elicited minstrelsy, for it was slavery under a temporary
attempt at disguise. “Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery!”
said I, with Sterne, “still thou art a bitter draught! and though
thousands, in all ages, have been made to drink of thee, thou art no
less bitter on that account.”
[Illustration:
_On Stone by C. Shoosmith from a Sketch by Ja^s. Henderson._
_Redman Lithog._