The slave-ships arriving at the Brazil present a terrible picture
of human wretchedness, the decks being crowded with beings as
closely stowed as it is possible, whose melancholy black faces, and
gaunt naked bodies, are of themselves sufficient to transfix with
horror an individual unused to such scenes, independently of the
painful reflections connected with a consideration of the debasing
circumstances and condition of this portion of mankind. A great many
of them, as they are seen proceeding from the ships to the warehouses
where they are to be exposed for sale, actually appear like walking
skeletons, particularly the children; and the skin, which scarcely
seems adequate to keep the bones together, is covered with a
loathsome disease, which the Portuguese call _sarna_, but may more
properly be denominated the scurvy. The poor wretches undergo painful
remedies to prepare them as speedily as possible for market. If a
visit to the street of warehouses appropriated to their reception be
occasioned by a desire of gratifying curiosity, the sentiments brought
into operation by such a scene will soon hurry the visitor away in pity
and disgust. They are crowded together without regard to sex, and made
to sit down in rows upon the ground, being by turns roughly forced
upon their feet, for the purpose of exhibiting their bodily powers to
a purchaser. Negroes are become very dear; those that might have been
procured three years ago for thirty-five or forty pounds, are now worth
sixty or seventy.
Strangers coming here are also subject to the _sarna_, as well
as the natives, which is an irruption attended with considerable
irritation and itching about the legs, feet, and ancles, and becomes
troublesome unless great care is taken, by washing them every night
with warm water and _cachaça_. The _bicho_ is also another
annoyance peculiar to the climate, ever filling the air, the water, and
the earth with new and infinite animation. This insect generates in
the dust and sand, and penetrating the foot not larger than an atom at
first, increases to the size of a small white worm, giving considerable
pain till extracted; in doing which, it is necessary to remove all the
little eggs which it leaves behind, otherwise they would soon acquire
life, and, if allowed, eat away the foot. I have seen numbers of
negroes, whose legs and feet, with the aid of the _sarna_, have
been literally destroyed, and almost corroded away by them. The little
black boys sitting down, and extracting them from their feet with a
pin, reminded me of the celebrated bronze figure of a boy, in the
attitude of taking a thorn from his foot, which occupies a place in the
Salle de Laocoon, at the Louvre.
In traversing the woods, the _carrapato_, with which the branches
frequently swarm, is an annoying and dangerous enemy. It is similar
in appearance to a sheep-tick, and introduces the head and main part
of the body into the flesh, when, if taken away forcibly, it leaves a
disagreeable wound. One of these vermin penetrated the leg of the King,
and, being injudiciously forced away, caused a wound, which has been
occasionally troublesome to his Majesty ever since. The application of
oil is deemed an efficacious mode of removing them; but I found this
ineffectual, after using it copiously for about half an hour on one
that was nearly buried in the ear of a negro-boy.
On first arriving here, the inharmonious sounds which begin to annoy
the ear about Avi Maria, sent forth by field-crickets, frogs, toads,
and other reptiles, are quite alarming to a stranger, who anticipates
at every step, if he walks into a shacara, to encounter some venomous
creature. It is custom alone that reconciles this loud, unceasing,
nocturnal clamour. Lizards are very numerous, some of a green colour.
They are timid, and are constantly seen running across the roads, up
walls, or rustling amongst the hedges. The vampire-bat is very large
here, and if they can get access to the stables will fix upon a horse,
and suck the blood. I have seen the back of a horse quite saturated
with it, in consequence of a bite from one of them. They are said to
fan their wings, during this sanguinary proceeding, in order to assuage
the pain which their bite creates. It is supposed that they would fix
upon the human body in the same way; and this is probable, from the
following circumstance. In consequence of the excessive heat, I was
in the habit of leaving open the shutter of my bed-room. One evening
I discovered a vampire-bat, as large as two hands, upon the bed-post,
and, by a blow, stunned it, so that it could not escape by the window,
but secreted itself in the room. During the night it got twice upon the
bed, but the heat preventing a sound sleep, I was quickly awakened by
its attempts.
It is too well known, perhaps, to remark that the Brazil is not the
seat of literature; in fact, its total absence is marked by the
prohibition of books generally, and the want of any single medium
through which its inhabitants can attain even to a knowledge of the
existing state of the world, or what is passing in it. The inhabitants
are principally involved in great ignorance and pride, its usual
consequence; an acquirement of the modes and ceremonies attached to
the pompous observance of their religion appearing to be deemed quite
adequate to all the purposes of the present system of society. A
liberal literary institution of any kind throughout the state, or a
stimulus to a man of talent, would be looked for in vain. A gazette,
published twice a week, is printed at the royal press, the only one
established here; but it affords to the people no intelligence of
the state of their own country or that of others. It is the size of
a sheet of small letter-paper, and is filled with the arrivals and
departures of vessels, and some advertisements, while occasionally two
or three heads are extracted with caution from the English newspapers.
In the whole of the Brazil there is only one other gazette, and that
is published at Bahia. Its neighbouring colony of Spanish South
America has already begun to dispel the ignorance in which it was
alike enveloped, by the establishment of several public colleges in
different places, and the liberal and free introduction of books,
which will fast promote the spirit of learning that partially begins
to dawn. Jealousy, which acquires a greater sway, from this confined
state of education and knowledge, obtains unbounded influence over
the minds of many of the Brazilians, and operates in some instances
to such a degree that its victims are degraded much below the savage:
they do not declare their resentment openly, and demand frankly that
redress or explanation which a man sustaining a real or imaginary
injury from another has a right to require; but they seek in privacy
the destruction of the object who may have created in their breasts
sentiments of revenge, frequently resting upon a false and unjust
foundation, but which the inveteracy of this diabolical passion will
allow them neither to investigate nor to solicit what in Europe is
deemed a fair and honourable satisfaction. Jealousy is a highly
praiseworthy feeling when it is regulated with candour and justice,
but allied with the vile cowardice of clandestine assassination,
perpetrated by the hands of the party themselves, or through the medium
of a hired agent, it is of all others the most wicked and hellish that
can actuate the human mind.
That instances have occurred in the Brazil wherein both those modes
have been practised, for the gratification of this passion, unjustly
indulged, is but too true. An English gentleman, who has resided in
the Brazil nearly forty years, informed me of a circumstance which
he witnessed in this city, previously to the arrival of the royal
family. A British officer, whose ship was taking in refreshments here,
on passing through the Palace Square to a boat waiting to take him
on board his vessel, suddenly received a _facada_ by a person
who drew a knife from under a capote, or cloak, (which the Brazilians
are in the habit of wearing), concealed for the purpose, and which
terminated his existence. It was said that this wretch had unjustly
encouraged a feeling of jealousy against the British officer in regard
to his wife, or some part of his family. Many of the Brazilians carry
knives, hid under the sleeve of their capotes, which they throw and use
with great dexterity. I was horror-struck to see at Rio the samples of
an importation of knives from England, manufactured expressly for this
purpose. In cases of quarrels amongst themselves they frequently use
them, and quickly fold the capote around the left arm, which serves for
a sort of shield.
Religious _festas_, as has been before stated, are occurring
weekly, and amongst other _funçons_, as they are called, one
annually takes place in the beautiful island of Paquata, one of the
fairest and most picturesque in the bay. The English merchants are
generally applied to for subscriptions for this festival, which they
accord with their accustomed liberality. It is a delightful water
excursion, which, added to the charms of the island itself, induce
all the world to be of the party, and under the religious cloak of
these occasions, females always appear in public. A worthy captain
of an English merchantman was induced, upon one of those festivals,
recently, to accompany a party in his own boat; and, the mode of
refreshment being of the pic-nic kind, he came in contact with an
adjoining group, including several females, to whom he was tempted to
pay some attention, and thereby unconsciously excited the jealousy of
a monster in the shape of a human being, who was of the party; and
at the moment of his departure from the island, the boat having only
proceeded some yards, a knife was thrown with such unerring aim at
him that it produced his immediate death. That blacks, slaves, and
others, are hired to commit such atrocities, by the payment of a small
recompense, is a fact affirmed to be notorious; one authenticated
instance will be sufficient to show that it is too correct. It is
within a short period that the inhabitants of Pria Flemingo were much
shocked at the discovery of a dead body upon that beach, decapitated,
and in a state of nudity, so that no trace was left to find out who
the unfortunate individual might be. This mysterious circumstance
excited deep interest, and produced the offer of a reward for the
detection of the perpetrator of so foul a deed. During the interval
that the matter was involved in uncertainty, it was known to the friars
of a monastery that one of their members was missing; but, it would
appear, nothing was said by them regarding the lost brother, from
the apprehension, probably, that something vicious or improper might
arise out of the investigation, not quite honourable to their sect.
At last, from a fear of detection, and a consciousness of guilt, the
real culprit came to the determination of communicating the affair
to the King, presuming upon the known mercy of his Majesty, which is
so unbounded that few persons have suffered the punishment of death
since he ascended the throne, although it is possible the royal
forbearance may have frustrated, in some instances, the just expiation
of guilt.[14] On this occasion also the criminal was not brought to
justice, who, it is ascertained, was a fidalgo, whose jealousy was
roused by the frequent visits the friar already mentioned paid to his
wife, for the professed purpose of exacting the confessional duties
of herself and family. It is not ascertained whether he had any real
cause or not for the excitement of this passion; he unquestionably
conceived he had, from the measures which he adopted of engaging two
or three blacks to embrace an opportunity of murdering the friar,
severing the head from the body, and divesting him of his sacerdotal
robes. The discovery of the body was made under circumstances that did
not involve those who found it in any difficulty; but it is possible
that an innocent individual finding a dead person, unacquainted with
the customs of the country, might be subjected to some inconvenience;
and I had almost got into such a predicament myself. Not far from the
Campo de St. Christovao, a beach leading to the point of Cajú affords
an interesting view of the bay. I had just entered upon it one evening,
in September, on horseback, when I was startled at the appearance of
a dead man extended upon the sand, which the receding tide had just
deposited there: he was very well dressed, in the habit of a sailor,
and, the hair being of an auburn colour, I concluded he was the mate of
an English ship. My endeavours to procure the aid of some Portuguese
at a short distance were unavailing; no one would approach; and two
or three persons in a cabriolet, who passed close by, regarded me and
the dead sailor with indifference. I also addressed myself to the next
person who came up on horseback; he dismounted, and I immediately
found that he was an Englishman: he turned the body over, when the
face appeared terribly mangled; he suggested that the property upon
the person should be secured, which amounted to upwards of one pound
in Portuguese money, a silver watch, a gold brooch, and other things,
of which an account was taken and delivered to my care, with which I
purposed going directly to the minister of police, and to request that
the body might be taken care of, as it was impossible to get any one
in the neighbourhood to take it in, or even come near the place. After
paying two negroes to move the body from the beach, and place it under
a hedge, I set off to carry my intentions into effect. On the road
to the city I met an English gentleman, to whom I stated the matter;
he requested me by no means to go to the police-office, as I should
unquestionably be detained and lodged in prison till I proved that I
was not the cause of the man’s death. This information deterred me
from proceeding farther; but the idea that this unfortunate individual
might have a wife, children, and friends at home, determined me to
prepare an account of his person, with a view of posting it at the
custom-house next morning, which might have led to an identification of
his person. I previously called upon Mr. Harrison, a highly-respectable
and long-resident merchant here, and he effectually convinced me of the
hazardous consequences of a further interference in it. One gentleman
said, “If you see a dead body, gallop off;” another, “If you perceive a
dispute, from which one of the parties is likely to lose his life, fly,
or you may be compelled to prove that you were not accessory to his
death.” I immediately deposited the property at the British Consul’s
office, being under some apprehension, but I never heard more of the
matter. No doubt the body became a prey to the dogs and wild birds, and
the friends of this poor man will most probably never hear of his fate.
Upon being detected in the commission of a crime, the perpetrator
frequently flies to the altar of a contiguous church; where I once saw
a criminal remain for several hours, being privileged from capture till
an order was obtained from the bishop for his arrest. This, like many
other observances of the Roman Catholics, is a practice derived from
the Mosaic law.
The circumstances attending the execution of the criminal alluded to
in the last note were rather singular, although common here upon such
occasions. He was conducted on foot for a considerable distance through
the streets, accompanied by padres, to the place of execution. There he
was laid upon his back against the upper part of the ladder attached to
the scaffold, and, on the rope being fastened round his neck, he was
pushed off, with a negro upon his shoulders to accelerate his death.
The head and hands were afterwards severed from the body and placed at
each angle of the gallows, as represented in the plate.
The regular military force of Rio de Janeiro, and the immediately
surrounding district, may be estimated at five thousand men, consisting
of two regiments of infantry and one of cassadores from Portugal, some
regiments of Brazilian infantry and cavalry, mulattoes and blacks,
including the royal guard, exceedingly ill mounted and ineffective.
The police of the city consists of a regiment of infantry and cavalry;
this department appears to be well arranged. Although the principal
plan for the protection of the Brazil is the militia law, to which
all the inhabitants are liable, yet, in point of discipline they are
very deficient, but in dress and equipment they reach mediocrity.
None of the regular regiments are in a state of good discipline;
those from Portugal are the best, but they are dissatisfied with the
Brazilian service, and I was assured by one of their officers that
they have relaxed very much in their duty. The mining districts and
the other adjoining provinces are furnished with light cavalry, to
which may be added the militia, who are usually called out for exercise
on Sundays and holidays. The force at Monte Video amounts to eight
thousand men, under General Le Cour, and the troops under General
Rego (the Captain-General) at Pernambuco, are decidedly under the best
discipline. Those two officers served with Lord Wellington in the
peninsular campaign. The thirty-eighth British regiment proceeding to
the Cape of Good Hope put into Rio de Janeiro for refreshment; the
men being permitted occasionally to go on shore were soon recognised
by one of the regiments from Portugal as their companions in war. The
salutations which occurred between them induced the King to make some
inquiries respecting this regiment, when he expressed his desire to
see them reviewed, which the commanding officer acceded to. Boats were
furnished to convey them up the bay to the Campo of St. Christovao,
where they went through their evolutions with such precision that the
royal family, and nearly the whole population of Rio and its vicinity,
assembled upon the spot, were much gratified, and spoke highly of their
fine military appearance.
Since the removal of the court to the Brazil, a bank has been
established in this city, which commenced upon the plausible plan of
affording great facility to commerce, by discounting bills at the
rate of six per cent.; but this banking company soon curtailed these
accommodations, on finding that, through private channels and agents,
they could obtain ten, twelve, and fifteen per cent. by making loans,
and advancing their notes upon securities not of the first character
and validity. In order to provide against this sort of traffic, and
acquire an unfair advantage over the public, they had the address
to convince the King that they were entitled to have a prior claim
over the property of an insolvent before other creditors, and, in
consequence, his Majesty, (then Prince Regent,) passed laws, of the
24th September, 1814, and the 16th February, 1816, conceding to them
certain preferences; and, by a decree of the 29th November, 1818, he
granted them the full privilege of a first and distinct claim, before
all other creditors, which is tantamount to the important public right
the British government, by virtue of extents, have over the national
property in the hands of any individual, and which every state can,
with equal justice, practise for the security of its revenue. But that
such a preference should be allowed to a body of merchants, trading
for gain, over other claimants precisely in the same circumstances,
is an innovation upon the laws of commerce not founded in justice. In
most instances, our own countrymen will be found to be the greatest
sufferers, their liberal accommodations being too often unfairly
taken advantage of. The bank declared a dividend of twenty per cent.
last year; and, notwithstanding the profitable operations which
afforded such a result, it was very recently involved in a temporary
embarrassment, arising principally from the want of a competent
knowledge of those financial arrangements, foresight, and ingenuity,
so important and essential in the direction of a banking concern. In
this dilemma, the directors received effectual pecuniary aid from the
English house of Messrs. Samuels, Phillips, and Co. established here,
with the same promptitude which marks the financial transactions of its
connexions in Europe.
The revenue raised in the Brazil is computed at from six to seven
millions sterling, including the pecuniary aid the government receives
from Portugal, but which sum is not adequate to the demands upon the
treasury; many remaining in arrears, and others, with more influence,
getting their claims liquidated, after much delay. The military
establishment would not appear to require a very large sum, the militia
not creating an item of much expense, and the navy being in a very
inefficient state: it would, therefore, be difficult, on a first view
of the subject, to account for an expenditure at all proportionate to
the income arising from any apparent establishments for the security
of the state; but as no details of the financial situation of the
country, or the appropriation of the revenue, are ever published, the
cause of the embarrassment under which the treasury labours can only
be arrived at through the medium of piece-meal information. From the
aggregate of such intelligence it is fair to conclude that the great
item which disorganizes the financial wheel has its origin not only
in the great accumulation of individuals about the court, but also
in every department of the state. The King is a man of an easy and
amiable disposition, and, from a wish to do something for every one,
it is manifest, he has been led to sanction the increase of public
situations to an extent beyond what is required. Few European courts,
comparatively speaking, have so many persons attached to them as
the Brazilian, consisting of fidalgos, ecclesiastics, and numerous
attendants. Few governments have so prodigious a number employed
in the discharge of public affairs, compared with those holding
appointments here. In addition to the three hundred mules and horses at
St. Christovao, there is an equal number in the stables at the city,
not kept for the use of the royal family alone, but for the supply of
fidalgos and the numerous individuals composing the retinue of the
court; and, with all this expense, there is no appearance of splendour
or elegance. The carriages are large unwieldly cabriolets, drawn by
mules; and a fidalgo will be seen using the whip rigorously from his
seat in the vehicle, although a postilion is mounted upon one of the
mules, to whose management one would expect the whole matter to be
left.
The extraordinary number of persons about the court and government are
easily distinguished from their practice of wearing cocked hats. The
ribands and orders at the button-holes of clerks, and the prodigious
display of stars by fidalgos, merchants, and even shopkeepers, which
their taste for public show induces them daily to exhibit, prove that
these sort of decorations are procured with much facility in the
capital.
Many of the claims upon the treasury are satisfied by bills upon
the other captaincies, and few military or other persons, receiving
appointments to distant places, do not take an order upon the treasury
of that province for the liquidation of their arrears; and the
provincial _erarios_ are frequently in the same difficulties, in
consequence of those demands. The treasury of Rio draws largely upon
Bahia and Pernambuco. The latter has generally of late liquidated such
demands to the amount of thirty contas of reas (about £9000) per month;
but it is not unusual for English merchants receiving those securities
to hold them for a long period before payment can be obtained.
The Brazilian government unquestionably might boast of being one of
the richest in the world, if the immense capabilities of the country
were administered with energy and spirit, and a due regard paid to
the measures requisite to derive only a fair portion from them of the
advantages they present. The revenue of the Brazil arises principally
from the following imposts, viz. one-fifth upon all gold; a decimo upon
all productions of the land, upon the annual value of all houses and
shacaras, upon slaves, upon the exchange of proprietorship of slaves
and property. A duty upon all articles passing the river Parahiba
into the mining and interior districts, is collected at a register
established for the purpose; and imposts are paid on passing various
rivers with mules and horses. New negroes also pay an additional duty
on entering the interior districts. All cattle entering the province of
Rio de Janeiro pay a tax of nearly ten per cent.; the beef, besides,
pays a duty of five reas per pound.
The customs are a very important branch of revenue, and may be
estimated to produce at Rio from five to six hundred thousand pounds
sterling per annum, of which the English merchants pay upwards of three
hundred thousand pounds, and that body collectively do not contribute
upon the whole much less than six hundred and fifty thousand pounds
sterling annually to the Brazilian customs: fifteen per cent. is paid
by them upon all imports, (which by-the-bye is at present very unfairly
levied, but more of that hereafter,) and certain duties upon produce
exported, which does not appear to be at all equal at the different
maritime towns. At Pernambuco fox instance, cotton pays six hundred
reas per arobe. White sugar sixty reas per arobe, and brown sugar
thirty reas, which, upon the average price of those articles when I
left that city, was from six to ten per cent. And at Rio a duty of two
per cent. at the market price was, in 1819, laid, generally, upon all
produce exported. Coffee previously paid eighty reas per arobe, at a
fixed price of two milreas and a half per arobe; and the price in 1819
being about four milreas and two hundred reas, the government collected
the two per cent. upon the difference betwixt the two milreas and a
half and the current value, which created some perplexity in levying
the tax upon that article; and as eighty reas upon the fixed price is
about two per cent. it would obviate this difficulty by repealing that
law, and allowing the two per cent. to apply to the market price of
coffee as well as other articles. The only advantage to be obtained
by the government, by continuing this mode, would be in the event of
coffee falling in value below two milreas and a half.
The government retain the diamond district of Serro Frio under their
own management, and it is extraordinary that, during the last fifty
years, it has been so conducted, that this important branch of revenue
has been unproductive, and the establishment is considered to be
embarrassed. The company, who had it by contract some years previous to
its reverting to the government, acquired considerable wealth, partly,
however, by intrigue, as their engagement bound them to a fixed number
of negroes, and by bribery they introduced a great many more to work
the grounds, consisting of twelve or fourteen hundred square miles.
Tijuco is the residence of the governor of the diamond works, which
are, and have been some years, under the jurisdiction of Senhor Camara.
The mode pursued of hiring all negroes, and making all purchases
for the establishment upon the spot, will tend to preclude its ever
becoming lucrative in the hands of the government. All persons who hold
situations under the governor are allowed the privilege of supplying a
certain number of negroes, and the eagerness, intrigue, and influence,
exercised by all classes, to get their negroes employed, is a strong
testimony of some ulterior object, beyond the mere wages which can be
thus acquired, and no doubt exists that an illicit traffic in diamonds,
through this medium, is carried on to an immense extent. The royal
family have the selection of the finest diamonds; and it is said that
the King possesses the best collection of gems in the world, worth
upwards of two millions sterling. The diamonds are conveyed to Rio from
Tijuco, a distance of six hundred miles, under a strong military
guard, and deposited in the treasury, till despatched for London, which
is now their great mart. The gold mines are a much less profitable
source of revenue than they were formerly.
[Illustration:
_On Stone by C. Shoosmith from a Sketch by Jas. Henderson._
_Printed by C. Hullmandel._