_Conclusive Observations._
The great disparity between the actual condition of the Brazil and
that which, from its pure climate, fertile soil, numerous rivers, and
immense extent, it is capable of attaining, is the main circumstance
that will be suggested to the reader by the perusal of the foregoing
pages. The climate is indeed generally so salubrious that diseases are
as rare as in any part of the globe, much less as fatal as they are
often found to be in similar latitudes. In a region so extensive the
climates are necessarily various, but, with the exception of some of
the _pantanos_, or morasses, and stagnant waters remaining after
inundations, the country is for the main part exceedingly wholesome;
and, as far as my own information and observation has extended, the
provinces immediately bordering upon the equator, are equally, if
not more healthful than many nearer the tropical line. The soil is
so fertile that a much less portion of culture is requisite for its
abundant production than is found necessary for most other countries of
the world, and is, indeed, to a very large extent, almost spontaneously
productive.
The facilities are incalculable which it might supply to commerce, and
towards increasing and aggrandizing its people from the multitudinous
rivers that pour beauty, comfort, and health, into its extensive tract.
The advantages already mentioned, with its diversified aspect, its
champaign and its hilly surface, its noble mountains and woods, where
sport a great variety of beautiful and useful animals, its groves of
numerous kinds of fruit, and of balsamic and spice trees, peopled with
birds of luxuriant plumage or of alimentary utility, would, with the
addition of that agricultural and commercial improvement of which it is
so immensely susceptible, and the introduction of literature, science,
and art, and the consequent prevalence of a social, liberal, and
hospitable feeling, advance it to a state of beauty, prosperity, and
happiness not to be surpassed by any other portions of the globe, and
equalled but by few.
It is obvious that at present these numerous provinces, each of which
might, when thus improved, constitute a kingdom, are mainly in a
primeval state, and hitherto the religious bigotry, the unlettered
ignorance, the unsocial manners, the commercial defects, the narrow,
civil, and ecclesiastical polity have for centuries checked the natural
growth of every thing that adorns and gives power to an empire.
But a nobler view of this fine country is rising before us. The
adoption by the Brazilians of the free constitution of government
recently determined upon by the mother country, and sanctioned by the
beneficent disposition of their monarch, as well as by the highly
honourable, judicious, and decided approbation of the Prince Royal,
will, it is hoped, rouze the latent energies of this fine country, and
produce an immediate advance towards that flourishing and distinguished
state we have been contemplating. Indeed it cannot be otherwise if the
constitution is adopted with stability and energy; for liberty, civil
and religious, is richly productive of every thing that is honourable
and beneficial to mankind, and those have been the most truly glorious
who have enjoyed it most, giving, as it does to man, when wisely
tempered, an open and happy countenance and heart, and a firm and erect
attitude, step, and character. Such has been Greece in ancient and such
is Britain in modern times.
The want of similar blessings in the Brazil has greatly paralysed
industry in the pursuits of husbandry and commerce, engendered apathy,
and an almost total depression of any desire to emerge from a state of
profound ignorance in literature and the arts. Education, partially
derived from Royal professors, whose pompous denominations are a
mockery upon learning, will now surely soar to excellence, by means of
the establishment of seminaries of learning, with professors of real
talent. The diffusion of knowledge, and the interest which a share
in a popular constitution will give the people in their government,
will change their listless character into one of life and energy. The
amelioration of the laws respecting property in land, the adoption
of new regulations in favour of commerce, and the curtailing the
mind-degrading and extortionate influence of a numerous and slothful
priesthood, will give the Brazilians the desire and the power of giving
effect to the immense physical means of felicity and glory afforded by
a country so extraordinarily favoured by nature.
When so barren, so foggy, so unproductive, and so small a country as
Holland, has rendered itself so rich and distinguished among European
states, infinitely more blessed by nature, what may not be anticipated
of a land so immense, so luxuriant in soil, and so favourable in
climate as the Brazil, capable as it is of largely producing almost
whatever nature has bestowed upon other countries. What may not be
anticipated now that such a land has exchanged slavery for freedom.
The philosopher, the man of business, and the philanthropist, already
exult in the change, and are felicitated by the prospect so richly
and grandly opening before them. To the first, improved facilities
will be afforded, in one of the most magnificent and varied fields
in the world, for his delightful pursuits in Natural History. To
the British merchant particularly an immense augmentation of his
commercial dealings will be opened, by a wiser administration of the
Brazilian government relative to the exchange of commodities with
other countries, and by the increased industry and prosperity of the
Brazilian people. The well-wisher to the happiness of his fellow
men will be cheered with the prospect of the gradual if not speedy
abolition of the hateful slave-trade; thus conferring the enjoyment
of freedom not only upon their sable brethren in South America, but
cutting off one of the main sources of the wars, slavery, and misery
of the people of Africa. The revered names of Clarkson and Wilberforce
will then sound as gratefully as they now do odiously to the Brazilian
planter and dealer, who at present, from a prejudiced and narrow
conception of what best contributes to the prosperity of individuals
and of nations, and from an ignorant and ill-founded notion of the
faculties of the negro, misconceive the labours of those excellent
men. The picture which we have drawn of the future advancement of
this country permits us also to indulge the hope that the blessings
of civilization will be carried with Jesuitical earnestness among the
numerous untamed Indians, and that the envenomed dart, rudely-painted
skin, and distorted features, will give place to the customs of social
life, thereby converting their native wilds into scenes of fertility,
such as formerly beautified the missions of Paraguay, where groves of
fruit trees, where sweetest plants and flowers, plantations of roots,
of rice, and Indian corn, numerous useful animals, together with a mild
paternal government, ensured plenty and prosperity to the inhabitants.
The king sailed from Rio de Janeiro for Lisbon on the 26th of April,
1821, and arrived at the latter city the beginning of July, accompanied
by upwards of four thousand persons, which will tend to produce a
temporary depression of the commercial spirit and consequence of the
Brazilian capital. When it is known, however, that a considerable
portion of those individuals were hangers-on upon the royal bounty, and
that a great many others were not permanent residents, but merely drawn
thither from Portugal, for a certain period, to obtain some object with
the government, (and from the known partiality of the king in detaining
European Portuguese in the Brazil, the number under those circumstances
were always considerable,) the impression will be diminished of any
lengthened or serious check upon the prosperity of this city by their
removal. It will be gratifying to the Brazilians to have still amongst
them the Conde dos Arcos, who fulfilled the duties of viceroy, on the
arrival of the royal family at the Brazil, to the general satisfaction
of the people, and who is appointed prime-minister to His Royal
Highness Don Pedro.