The open spaces of the city, denominated squares, consist of the
Palace Square, one hundred and fifty yards long, and eighty wide,
with two good landing stairs from the bay; of the Roceo, one hundred
and eighty yards long, and one hundred wide; and the Capim, recently
called Peloirinho. In the Cidado Nova, there is one which occupies
the intermediate space of the crossing of four streets; but, although
these are open spaces, they have little regularity or semblance to any
thing that produces the idea of a square. The Royal Palace which has
more the appearance of a manufactory than the residence of a king, is
composed of that formerly occupied by the viceroys, the convent of
the Carmelites, and the senate-house, united by passages, the first
forming the southern side of the square, and the latter the western.
The northern side consists of a row of houses, which are private
property, with two stories the same as the others. The first portion
has twenty-four windows on the side, and nine in front towards the
bay, the lower part of which is occupied by the guards and some public
offices, the rooms above are generally used by the King for public
levees. Some of the merchants and groups of the male inhabitants
frequent every evening that part of the square, and the walls adjoining
the landing places and bordering the bay afford convenient seats, which
are fully occupied. Here the arrival of vessels is ascertained, and the
sea-breeze enjoyed.
The mint, the armory, the naval arsenal, and that of the military,
(called _trem_,) and the custom house, are the principal public
buildings; but of themselves present nothing particularly worthy
of remark. There are various public trapiches, or warehouses for
the deposit of produce. The public gardens, which are stated by
some travellers to have been fully and gaily attended some twelve
or fourteen years ago, are now quite unfrequented, and sunk into
neglect. This place of resort in former times consists of about two
acres of ground, bordering upon the bay, enclosed with a high wall,
and neatly laid out in walks of trees, overhung with a variety of
evergreen foliage. There is a stone terrace at the end, ascended by
two flights of steps, commanding a view of the bay, with the remains
of two pavilions, and other mutilated objects. This place is not left
without regret, that so cool and agreeable a situation, and so well
calculated for a public promenade, is permitted to fall into decay.
For the administration of justice the same tribunals exist here as at
Lisbon. At the period of the suppression of the board of inspection,
in 1808, was created the tribunal of the royal junta of commerce,
agriculture, manufactures, and navigation, composed of ten deputies,
a president, a secretary, and an official maior, (officiating mayor.)
The Jesuitical library is open to the public; it contains about sixty
thousand volumes, amongst which there are but few modern works, and a
great many old ones on theology. I was in the habit of frequenting it,
and as is the custom at the national library in Paris, the librarian
attends, immediately brings any book that may be required, and places
it upon a small reading desk on the table, with which each person is
accommodated. The very small number who attended consisted generally
of priests and friars. Manufactories have yet acquired no footing in
this city; there is however, one of sail-cloth, and another of silk
stockings; also, a few miles distant, at Andrahi, there are works for
printing cottons upon a small scale, and conducted by a person who has
been in England. Coarse cottons are manufactured in the interior of
Brazil, and they pass the shuttle with the hand, according to the mode
used in England formerly.
The only place of amusement in Rio is the theatre, erected within
the last few years, and which, in point of external appearance, is
beyond mediocrity. It contains four tiers of boxes on each side of the
house, thirteen in each tier, making, in the whole, one hundred and
four boxes, which are extremely gloomy, being shut in at the sides.
The royal box occupies the whole of the space fronting the stage,
above which there is a small gallery; and the pit contains about four
hundred persons. The orchestra is esteemed very tolerable; but the
performances are indifferent. Two French dancers and their wives are at
present the magnets of attraction; and there is great emulation between
them for the palm of superiority. The Campo St. Anna contains a large
building, erected for the purpose of bull-baiting; but the Brazilian
bull not possessing the fire and fury of this animal in Europe, was the
reason of its falling into disuse, and creditable would it be if so
irrational and cruel an amusement was discontinued. Within the last two
years, this building was the scene of the various feats in horsemanship
of Mr. Southby and his troop, for which it is well adapted. The clown,
soon acquiring some of the local peculiarities of the people, produced
amongst them a fund of merriment they had been little accustomed to;
and they expressed themselves more highly astonished and pleased
with those performances, and the wonderful display of agility by
Mrs. Southby on the tight rope, than any thing they had ever before
witnessed.
The city of Rio de Janeiro was taken by the French, in the year 1711,
under M. Duguay Truin, and afterwards recovered by the people. In the
preceding year, M. du Clerc had entered the town, conducted by two
fugitive negroes, from Ilha Grande.
There are three principal roads leading from this city, none of which
are adapted to the use of a carriage for more than six or seven miles.
The first, leading to the southward, after passing the public gardens
and the Lapa, proceeds, for a short distance, along the banks of the
bay, commanding a view of its entrance, which is soon interrupted by
the Gloria Hill, behind which the road passes, and continues in a
parallel line with the Pria Flemingo, which is adorned with several
neat houses, many of them occupied by English merchants. The Hon. Mr.
Thornton had taken up a temporary residence in one of them. After
crossing a small bridge at the Cateta, the road conducts, for about a
mile and a half, betwixt luxuriant and verdant hedges, to the beach
or Pria of Bota-fogo, which is a fine bay, shut in by picturesque
promontories and headlands, leaving only a narrow channel for the
ingress and egress of its waters. This beach is edged with some of the
neatest and most elegant houses in the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro,
many of them occupied by fidalgos, and others by English merchants;
one of which, in the possession of Mr. Harrison, exhibits all the
beauty, elegance, and comfort of an English villa. Bye-roads lead from
hence to the Pria Vermelha, to the royal powder manufactory, and the
botanical garden already mentioned. In many parts the Cateta road is
in a very bad state of repair, and the holes and hollow places form
pools of water after the least fall of rain. The other two roads lead
to the north of the city, both branching from the Campo St. Anna, and
again communicate in passing Matta Porcas. The first and principal one
proceeds from the right of the Campo, and continues for about a mile
and a half, to the wooden bridge of St. Diogo, across a marshy flat,
which eight or ten years ago was impassable, and is now denominated the
Cidade Nova, of which it may in time constitute a portion. The road
of the Cidade Nova, being the daily route of the royal family, is kept
in pretty good order, as well as the whole road as far as the palace
of Christovao, which at Matta Porcas turns to the right, and continues
for about two miles along a level, with amphitheatres of various and
picturesque mountains in every direction. After crossing the third
brook, by a small bridge, the way to the palace turns to the left,
when a handsome entrance is discovered, not in unison with the palace,
but consisting of a wall and iron palisades, extending about thirty
yards on each side of it, without any contiguous lodge or building.
From hence the road sweeps to the left, up a gentle acclivity, to
the eminence upon which the palace stands, fronted by a square, not
embellished with shrubs and grass-plots, but of deep sand, which is
entered by the left corner, and not by the grand entrance, composed of
the elegant gates, a counterpart of those at Sion House, and sent as a
present to his Majesty by the Duke of Northumberland. They are placed
in the centre betwixt pillars of granite, peculiar to the country,
and two lodges, the remainder on each side along the whole front of
the palace being completed with palisades of Portuguese workmanship.
It will excite some surprise in the reader to be informed, that the
outer part, which should form a road to this entrance, is allowed to
remain in its natural state of hollow and uneven ground, when no very
great labour would be required to render it complete. At present, the
gates are in disuse, the lodges closed, and, with the aid of the dirt
and gunpowder arising from the fire-works ranged along their front,
on occasions of religious festivals, the whole already appears in a
course of dilapidation. The palace is one story high, perfectly plain,
without any pretensions to elegance, or the semblance of any order of
architecture, and can boast of nothing but the beauty of its situation.
It might, indeed, be mistaken, at a distance, for a manufactory, in
consequence of the windows being so crowded together, and particularly
at night, when it is lighted up.
The road, from the point which leads to the palace, continues by
either turning a little further on to the left, and ascending a hill,
or by the Campo St. Christovao, which sweeps round the hill and meets
the other road on the opposite side, and afterwards leads on to the
province of St. Paulo and Minas Geraes. It is the grand track of
the miners and others coming from distant districts, and presents
successive troops of mules, laden with different produce, attached to
their curious and rudely constructed pack-saddles, by straps of raw
hides.
The road of St. Christovao and the Cidade Nova, are generally crowded
by these caravans, their drivers of all complexions, dressed in cotton
shirts and trowsers, with slouching hats, and combined with the horses
and mules, carrying persons of rather a superior order coming also from
the interior, amount to the aggregate number of at least two thousand
passing and re-passing daily. It would be difficult to describe the
variety of costume and rude appearance of the latter persons, many of
whom are dressed in black or dirty white hats, with prodigious rims,
a capote, or cloak, frequently of sky-blue, thrown round the front
part of the body, and being crossed behind them, hangs in folds on
each side of the mule. The bits of their bridles, their saddles, and
stirrups, are of various antiquated and fantastic shapes. Some wear
boots of brown leather, closely fitted to the leg, bound round the top
with a strap and large buckle; others with capotes, large hats, &c.
wear neither shoes nor boots, but introduce the great toes only into
the stirrups, and with large heavy spurs upon the naked heels, are not
the least remarkable among these burlesque figures. I have frequently
ridden with them, and always found that they were communicative and
civil. Their mules, which had performed journeys of two and three
months, did not appear to have sustained much injury. These people
mostly frequent certain streets in the city for disposal of their
produce, and the purchase of manufactured goods. The Rua de Candelaria
is the great mart for cheeses, brought from the interior. The Rua de
Violas, Rua de St. Pedro, &c. are visited by the miners; and some of
the shopkeepers, of whom they buy their return cargo, occasionally
purchase from the English merchants three or four thousand pounds of
goods in one bargain.
The other road leading from the Campo St. Anna, does not present so
much traffic as the last, and is denominated the old road. It proceeds
through the village of Catimby, and from thence to Matta Porcas, one
end of which it passes, and advances through the valley, having many
good houses by its sides, to Andrahi, contracting afterwards betwixt
the mountains into a narrow bridle way, leading to the district of
Tejuco. From this road, near the Pedro Mountain, a cross road, with
some good houses, the principal one recently occupied by Mr. Gill,
an English merchant, conducts through the extremity of the valley of
Engenho Velho, and at a distance of about half a mile unites itself
with a road coming through another portion of the same valley, from the
stone bridge near the turn to the palace. After this junction, the road
proceeds through the valley of Engenho Novo, and communicates with the
great road to the mines.
The road which turns off at the stone bridge last mentioned is a lane
much frequented by the royal family, and is bounded by beautifully
verdant hedges, and some neat shacaras, and is not dissimilar in
appearance to the green lanes, leading from London to Southgate. It
is the limit of the King’s shacara on the right. About three quarters
of a mile from its commencement is situated the Casa de Don Pedro,
recently erected in the form of a castle, with a flag-staff at the top,
the ground-floor consisting of one good sized room, and four smaller,
covered with India matting, and furnished with chairs and sofas, but by
no means in a royal style. From the palace to this casa is a favourite
walk of the King’s; the interval forms the royal shacara, and is
laid out in walks, crossing each other at right angles, shaded by an
abundant variety of trees, which have been planted only within the last
few years, and demonstrate by their state of maturity, the exuberant
fertility of the soil and climate.
The road continues from hence, across a brook, by a wooden bridge,
which bounds the King’s shacara on that side; and very near to it is
the royal mill, which is yet far from being completed, although it was
begun five or six years ago. It is intended to have one water-wheel and
four pair of mill-stones. The model of the building and the machinery
were sent from Lisbon. When the mill is finished, it is expected to
grind forty sacks of wheat during the day and night, for which the
public will be charged two crusades (about five shillings) per sack, of
three alqueiras, or about three and a half of Winchester bushels.
One hundred yards further is situated Bella-fonta, the fine shacara of
Mr. Wright, under whose roof I received every kindness and hospitality
possible, during my residence at Rio; and am happy in this opportunity
of acknowledging, in common with all who know him, the high estimation
I entertain of his character.
Within the circuit of the roads described, the valley of Engenho
Velho is adorned with numerous neat shacaras, abounding with walks
formed of oranges, and all the fruit trees of the tropics. Many give
the preference to a residence on the Cateta side; but, in consequence
of the royal family frequenting this quarter, I think the spirit of
improvement shows itself more decidedly in this direction, and although
the sea breezes do not reach it, the land breezes from the adjacent
mountains, sweeping along the valley, render the mornings and evenings
particularly delightful. The dews are here profuse.
[Illustration:
_On Stone by G. Hurley; the figures by Shoosmith from a Sketch by
Ja^s. Henderson._
_Printed by Romney & Fayter._
_A Pedlar & His Slave._