SÃO JERONYMO TO THE DOWNS.
Voyage down the Rio Negro--Arrive at Barra--Obtaining a
Passport--State of the City--Portuguese and Brazilian
Enterprise--System of Credit--Trade--Immorality, and its
Causes--Leave Barra--A Storm on the Amazon--Sarsaparilla--A Tale
about Death--Pará--The Yellow Fever--Sail for England--Ship takes
Fire--Ten Days in the Boats--Get picked up--Heavy Gales--Short of
Provisions--Storm in the Channel--Arrive at Deal.
AT length, on the 23rd of April, I bade adieu, with much pleasure, to
São Jeronymo. I stopped at several places to buy beiju, fish, pacovas,
and any parrots I could meet with. My Indians went several times,
early in the morning, to the gapó to catch frogs, which they obtained
in great numbers, stringing them on a sipó, and, boiling them entire,
entrails and all, devoured them with much gusto. The frogs are mottled
of various colours, have dilated toes, and are called Juí.
On the 26th we reached São Joaquim, where I stayed a day, to make some
cages for my birds, and embark the things I had left with Senhor Lima.
On the 28th I went on to São Gabriel, and paid my respects to the new
Commandante, and then enjoyed a little conversation with my friend Mr.
Spruce. Several of my birds died or were lost here, and at São Joaquim.
A little black monkey killed and devoured two which had escaped from
their cages, and one of my most valuable and beautiful parrots (a
single specimen) was lost in passing the falls. I had left São Joaquim
with fifty-two live animals (monkeys, parrots, etc.), which, in a small
canoe, were no little trouble and annoyance.
I was lucky enough to get the Commandante to send a soldier with me in
charge of the Correio, or post, and thus ensured my passage to Barra
without further delays, a point on which I had been rather uneasy.
Leaving São Gabriel I stayed for the night at the house of Senhor
Victoríno, of whom I bought several green parrots, and a beautiful
"anacá," or purple and red-necked crested parrot, in place of the one
which had gone overboard while passing the falls at São Gabriel. The
following day I reached the house of Senhor Palheta, and thought myself
fortunate to purchase of him another anacá for seven shillings; but the
very next morning it died from cold, having flown into the river, and
become completely chilled before it could be rescued.
On the 2nd of May I arrived at the sitio of my old friend Senhor
Chagas, who made me breakfast with him, and sold me some farinha,
coffee, and a lot of guinea-fowls' eggs; and embraced me with great
affection at parting, wishing me every happiness. The same night I
reached Castanheiro, where I particularly wished to get a pilot,
to take me down the east bank of the river, for the purpose of
making a sketch-survey of that side, and ascertaining the width of
this extraordinary stream. Senhor Ricardo, who is the Capitão dos
Trabalhadores, immediately gave me an order to embark a man, whose
house I should pass the next day, and who, he said, was perfectly
acquainted with that side of the river. After breakfasting with
him the next morning, I left, well satisfied to have a prospect of
accomplishing this long-cherished scheme. On arriving at the house,
however, it was empty, and there was no sign of it having been
inhabited for some weeks, so that I had to give up all hopes of
completing my project.
I applied again to the Subdelegarde, João Cordeiro, whose house I
reached the next day, and also to the lieutenant of Senhor Ricardo,
but without effect; all making the usual reply, "Não ha gente nenhum
aqui" (there is not a single person about there); so I was reluctantly
compelled to proceed down the river by the same course which I had
already traversed three times, as, by attempting to go on the other
route without a pilot, I might lose my way, and not get to Barra for a
month.
The fever and ague now attacked me again, and I passed several days
very uncomfortably. We had almost constant rains; and to attend to my
numerous birds and animals was a great annoyance, owing to the crowded
state of the canoe, and the impossibility of properly cleaning them
during the rain. Some died almost every day, and I often wished I had
had nothing whatever to do with them, though, having once taken them in
hand, I determined to persevere.
On the 8th I reached Barcellos, and here I was annoyed by having
to give an account of what I had in my canoes, and pay duty, the
new Government of Barra not allowing anything to escape without
contributing its share.
On the 11th we passed the mouth of the Rio Branco, and I noticed for
the first time the peculiar colour of the water, which is a very pale
yellow-olive, almost milky, very different from, and much whiter than,
the waters of the Amazon, and making its name of the "White River" very
appropriate. In the dry season the waters are much clearer.
In the morning I reached Pedreiro, and purchased a turtle, which we
stopped to cook, a short distance below the village; it was a very
large and fat one, and we fried the greater part of the meat in fat
for the rest of the voyage. At a sitio, in the evening, I bought
two parrots, and the next morning, at Ayrão, five more; and in the
afternoon, at another sitio, a blue macaw, a monkey, a toucan, and a
pigeon. At night we had a storm of rain and wind, and for a long time
beat about in the middle of the river, tossed by the waves, without
being able to find the shore.
On the 15th we reached "Ai purusá," where I bought some fish and maize.
Here was lying a fine harpy eagle, which Senhor Bagatta had shot the
day before, and, having plucked out some of the wing-feathers, had
left it to rot; I thus just missed, by a day, getting a specimen of
this bird, which I so much desired, and which I had never been able to
procure during a four years' residence in the country. We had plenty
more rain every night, making the journey very disagreeable; and at
length, on the 17th, reached Barra do Rio Negro, now the capital of the
new Province of Amazonas.
I was here kindly received by my friend Henrique Antony; and I spent
all the day in searching for some house or lodging, which was very
hard to be procured, every house being occupied, and rents having much
risen, from the influx of strangers and traders consequent on the
arrival of the new Government. However, by the evening I succeeded
in getting a small mud-floored, leaky-roofed room, which I was glad
to hire, as I did not know how long I might be obliged to remain in
Barra, before I could obtain a passage to Pará. The next morning I
could not disembark my things till the new Custom-house opened, at
nine o'clock; when I had to pay duties on every article, even on my
bird-skins, insects, stuffed alligators, etc., and so it was night
before I got everything on shore. The next day I paid off my Indians,
and settled myself to wait patiently and attend to my menagerie, till I
could get a passage to Pará.
For three weeks I had been nearly lame, with a sore and inflamed toe,
into which the chegoes had burrowed under the nail, and rendered
wearing a shoe, or walking, exceedingly painful; having been compelled
to move about the last few days, it had inflamed and swelled, and I
was now therefore glad to remain quietly at home, and by poultices and
plaisters endeavour to cure it. During the short time the Indians had
remained in charge of my canoe, while I was looking after a house,
they had lost three of my birds; but I soon found I had quite enough
left to keep me constantly employed attending to them. My parrots, in
particular, of which I had more than twenty, would persist in wandering
about into the street, and I lost several of my best, which were,
no doubt, safely domiciled in some of the adjoining houses. I was
much annoyed, too, by persons constantly coming to me, to sell them
parrots or monkeys; and my repeated assurances, that I myself wanted
to buy more, did not in the least check the pertinacity of my would-be
customers.
The city was now full of fashionably-dressed young men, who received
the public money for services they did not know how to perform. Many
of them could not fill up a few dozen words in a printed form without
making blunders, or in a shorter time than two or three hours; their
contemplations seeming scarcely to rise beyond their polished-leather
boots and gold watch-chains. As it was necessary to get a passport,
I presented myself at the office of the "Chef de Policia," for the
purpose; but was told that I must first advertise my intention of
leaving in the newspaper. I accordingly did so, and about a week
after went again. I was now requested to bring a formal application
in writing, to have a passport granted me: I returned, and prepared
one, and the next day went with it; now the Chef was engaged, and he
must sign the requisition before anything else could be done. I called
again the next day, and now that the requisition was signed, I had
a blank form given me to go and get stamped in another office, in a
distant part of the city. Off I had to go,--get the stamp, which took
two clerks to sign, and paid my eight vintems for it; armed with this,
I returned to the police-office, and now, to my surprise, the passport
was actually made out and given me; and on paying another twelve
vintems (sixpence), I was at liberty to leave Barra whenever I could;
for as to leaving it whenever I pleased, that was out of the question.
The city of Barra, the capital of the Province and the residence of
the President, was now in a very miserable condition. No vessel had
arrived from Pará for five months, and all supplies were exhausted.
Flour had been long since finished, consequently there was no bread;
neither was there biscuit, butter, sugar, cheese, wine, nor vinegar;
molasses even, to sweeten our coffee, was very scarce; and the spirit
of the country (caxaça) was so nearly exhausted, that it could only be
obtained retail, and in the smallest quantities: everybody was reduced
to farinha and fish, with beef twice a week, and turtle about as often.
This state of destitution was owing to there having been a vessel lost
a month before, near Barra, which was coming from Pará; and at this
time of the year, when the river is full, and the winds adverse, the
passage frequently takes from seventy days to three months,--having
to be performed almost entirely by warping with a rope sent ahead in
a canoe, against the powerful current of the Amazon. It may therefore
be well imagined that Barra was not the most agreeable place in the
world to reside in, when, joined to the total absence of amusement
and society which universally prevails there, the want of the common
necessaries of life had also to be endured.
Several vessels were leaving for Pará, but all were so completely
filled as not to have room for me or my baggage; and I had to wait in
patience for the arrival of a small canoe from the Solimões, in which
Senhor Henrique guaranteed me a passage to Pará.
Before proceeding with my journey, I will note the few observations
that occur to me on the character and customs of the inhabitants of
this fine country. I of course speak solely of the province of Pará,
and it is probable that to the rest of Brazil my remarks may not in
the least apply; so different in every respect is this part of the
Empire from the more southern and better-known portion. There is,
perhaps, no country in the world so capable of yielding a large return
for agricultural labour, and yet so little cultivated; none where the
earth will produce such a variety of valuable productions, and where
they are so totally neglected; none where the facilities for internal
communication are so great, or where it is more difficult or tedious to
get from place to place; none which so much possesses all the natural
requisites for an immense trade with all the world, and where commerce
is so limited and insignificant.
This may well excite some wonder, when we remember that the
white inhabitants of this country are the Portuguese and their
descendants,--the nation which a few centuries ago took the lead in
all great discoveries and commercial enterprises,--which spread its
colonies over the whole world, and exhibited the most chivalric spirit
of enterprise in overcoming the dangers of navigation in unknown seas,
and of opening a commercial intercourse with barbarous or uncivilised
nations.
But yet, as far as I myself have been able to observe, their national
character has not changed. The Portuguese, and their descendants,
exhibit here the same perseverance, the same endurance of every
hardship, and the same wandering spirit, which led and still leads them
to penetrate into the most desolate and uncivilised regions in pursuit
of commerce and in search of gold. But they exhibit also a distaste for
agricultural and mechanical labour, which appears to have been ever a
part of their national character, and which has caused them to sink to
their present low condition in the scale of nations, in whatever part
of the world they may be found. When their colonies were flourishing in
every quarter of the globe, and their ships brought luxuries for the
supply of half the civilised world, a great part of their population
found occupation in trade, in the distribution of that wealth which
set in a constant stream from America, Asia, and Africa, to their
shores; but now that this stream has been diverted into other channels
by the energy of the Saxon races, the surplus population, averse from
agriculture, and unable to find a support in the diminished trade of
the country, swarm to Brazil, in the hope that wealth may be found
there, in a manner more congenial to their tastes.
Thus we find the province of Pará overrun with traders, the greater
part of whom deserve no better name than pedlars, only they carry
their goods in a canoe instead of upon their backs. As their distaste
for agriculture, or perhaps rather their passionate love of trade,
allows scarcely any of them to settle, or produce anything for others
to trade in, their only resource is in the indigenous inhabitants of
the country; and as these are also very little given to cultivation
except to procure the mere necessaries of life, it results that the
only articles of commerce are the natural productions of the country,
to catch or collect which requires an irregular and wandering life,
better suited to an Indian's habits than the settled and continued
exertions of agriculture. These products are principally dried fish,
and oil from the turtles' eggs and cow-fish, for the inland trade; and
sarsaparilla, piassaba, india-rubber, Brazil-nuts, balsam of capivi,
and cacao, for the exports. Though the coffee-plant and sugar-cane
grow everywhere almost spontaneously, yet coffee and sugar have to
be imported from other parts of Brazil for home consumption. Beef is
everywhere bad, principally because there are no good pastures near
the towns where cattle brought from a distance can be fattened, and no
one thinks of making them, though it might easily be done. Vegetables
are also very scarce and dear, and so are all fruits, except such as
the orange and banana, which once planted only require the produce
to be gathered when ripe; fowls in Pará are 3_s._ 6_d._ each, and
sugar as dear as in England. And all this because nobody will make it
his business to supply any one of these articles! There is a kind of
gambling excitement in trade which outshines all the steady profits of
labour, and regular mechanics are constantly leaving their business to
get a few goods on credit and wander about the country trading.
There is, I should think, no country where such a universal and
insecure system of credit prevails as here. There is hardly a trader,
great or small, in the country, that can be said to have any capital of
his own. The merchants in Pará, who have foreign correspondents, have
goods out on credit; they sell on credit to the smaller merchants or
shopkeepers of Pará; these again supply on credit the negociantes in
the country towns. From these last the traders up the different rivers
get their supplies also on credit. These traders give small parcels of
goods to half-civilised Indians, or to any one who will take them,
to go among the wild Indian tribes and buy up their produce. They,
however, have to give credit to the Indians, who will not work till
they have been paid six months beforehand; and so they are paid for
sarsaparilla or oil, which is still in the forest or the lake. And at
every step of this credit there is not the slightest security; and
robbery, waste, and a profuse squandering away of the property of
others, is of constant occurrence. To cover all these chances of loss,
the profits are proportionably great at every step, and the consumer
often has to pay two shillings a yard for calico worth twopence, and
everything else in like proportion. It is these apparently enormous
profits that lead mechanics and others into trade, as they do not
consider the very small business that can be done in a given time,
owing to the poverty of the country and the enormous number of traders
in proportion to the purchasers. It seems a very nice and easy way of
getting a living, to sell goods at double the price you pay for them,
and then again to sell the produce you receive at double what you
pay for it; but as the greater part of the small traders do not get
rid of more than a hundred pounds' worth of goods in a year, and the
expenses of Indians and canoes, their families and bad debts, wines
and liquors, and the waste which always takes place where everything
is obtained upon credit, are often double that sum, it is not to be
wondered at that they are almost all of them constantly in debt to
their correspondents, who, when they have once thus got a hold on them,
do not allow them easily to get free.
It is this universal love of trade which leads, I think, to three great
vices very prevalent here--drinking, gambling, and lying,--besides
a whole host of trickeries, cheatings, and debaucheries of every
description. The life of a river trader admits of little enjoyment
to a man who has no intellectual resources; it is not therefore to
be wondered at that the greater part of these men are more or less
addicted to intoxication; and when they can supply themselves on credit
with as much wine and spirits as they like, there is little inducement
to break through the habit. A man who, if he had to pay ready money,
would never think of drinking wine, when he can have it on credit takes
twenty or thirty gallons with him in his canoe, which, as it has cost
him nothing, is little valued, and he perhaps arrives at the end of
his voyage without a drop. In the towns in the interior every shop
sells spirits, and numbers of persons are all day drinking, taking
a glass at every place they go to, and, by this constant dramming,
ruining their health perhaps more than by complete intoxication at
more distant intervals. Gambling is almost universal in a greater or
less degree, and is to be traced to that same desire to gain money by
some easier road than labour, which leads so many into commerce; and
the great number of traders, who have to get a living out of an amount
of business which would not be properly sufficient for one-third the
number, leads to the general use of trickery and lying of every degree,
as fair means to be employed to entrap a new customer or to ruin a
rival trader. Truth, in fact, in matters of business is so seldom
made use of, that a lie seems to be preferred even when it can serve
no purpose whatever, and where the person addressed must be perfectly
aware of the falsehood of every asseveration made; but Portuguese
politeness does not permit him by word or look to throw any doubt on
his friend's veracity. I have been often amused to hear two parties
endeavouring to cheat each other, by assertions which each party knew
to be perfectly false, and yet pretended to receive as undoubted fact.
On the subjects of the most prevalent kind of immorality, it is
impossible to enter, without mentioning facts too disgusting to be
committed to paper. Vices of such a description as at home are never
even alluded to, are here the subjects of common conversation, and
boasted of as meritorious acts, and no opportunity is lost of putting
the vilest construction upon every word or act of a neighbour.
Among the causes which tend to promote the growth of such wide-spread
immorality, we may perhaps reckon the geographical position and
political condition of the country, and the peculiar state of
civilisation in which it now exists. To a native, a tropical climate
certainly offers fewer pleasures, pursuits, and occupations than a
temperate one. The heat in the dry, and the moisture in the rainy
season do not admit of the outdoor exercise and amusements, in which
the inhabitants of a temperate zone can almost constantly indulge.
The short twilights afford but a few moments between the glare of
the descending sun and the darkness of night. Nature itself, dressed
in an eternal and almost unchangeable garb of verdure, presents but
a monotonous scene to him who has beheld it from childhood. In the
interior of the country there is not a road or path out of the towns,
along which a person can walk with comfort or pleasure; all is dense
forest, or more impassable clearings. Here are no flower-bespangled
meadows, no turfy glades, or smooth shady walks to tempt the lover of
nature; here are no dry gravelled roads, where, even in the intervals
of rain, we may find healthy and agreeable exercise; here are no
field-side paths among golden corn or luxuriant clover. Here are no
long summer evenings, to wander in at leisure, and admire the slowly
changing glories of the sunset; nor long winter nights, with the
blazing hearth, which, by drawing all the members of a family into
close contact, promote a social intercourse and domestic enjoyment,
which the inhabitants of a tropical clime can but faintly realise.
At length the canoe arrived in which I was to go to Pará, and I soon
agreed for my passage, and set to work getting my things together. I
had a great number of cases and boxes, six large ones which I had left
with Senhor Henrique the year before, being still in his possession,
because the great men of Barra were afraid they might contain
contraband articles, and would not let them pass.
I now got them embarked, by making a declaration of their contents, and
paying a small duty on them. Out of a hundred live animals which I had
purchased or had had given to me, there now only remained thirty-four,
consisting of five monkeys, two macaws, twenty parrots and paroquets of
twelve different species, five small birds, a white-crested Brazilian
pheasant, and a toucan.
On the 10th of June we left Barra, commencing our voyage very
unfortunately for me; for, on going on board, after bidding adieu to my
friends, I missed my toucan, which had, no doubt, flown overboard, and
not being noticed by any one, was drowned. This bird I esteemed very
highly, as he was full-grown and very tame, and I had great hopes of
bringing him alive to England.
On the 13th we reached Villa Nova, at which place, being the last in
the new Province, we had to disembark to show our passports, as if
entering into another kingdom; and not content with this, there is
another station half a day further down, on the exact boundary-line,
where all vessels have to stay a second time, and again present their
papers, as if the great object of the Government were to make their
regulations as annoying and expensive as possible. At Villa Nova I was
glad to get some butter and biscuits; quite a treat, after the scanty
luxuries of Barra. Here, too, I met the kind priest, Padre Torquato,
who had entertained us so hospitably on our ascent of the river. He
received me with great kindness, and regretted I could not stay longer
with him; he gave me a curious animal, which I had heard of but never
seen before, a forest-dog,--an animal somewhat resembling a fox, in its
bushy tail and great taste for poultry, and apparently very tame and
docile.
The next day we passed Obydos, the strong current of the river, now at
its height, carrying us down with great rapidity; and the succeeding
night we had a tremendous storm, which blew and tossed our little
vessel about in a very alarming manner. The owner of the canoe, an
Indian, was much frightened; he called upon the Virgin, and promised
her several pounds of candles, if she would but save the canoe; and,
opening the door of the little cabin where I was sleeping, cried out in
a most piteous voice, "Oh! meu amigo, estamos perdidos" (Oh! my friend,
we are all lost). In vain I tried to comfort him with assurances that,
as the vessel was new and strong, and not too heavily laden, there was
no danger,--although the night was pitch dark, and the wind blew in the
most fierce and furious gusts imaginable. We did not know whether we
were in the middle of the river or near the side, and the only danger
we were exposed to, was of our drifting ashore or running aground.
After about an hour, however, the canoe came to a stop, without any
shock whatever, and remained perfectly still, although the wind still
blew. It was so dark that nothing was to be seen, and it was only by
stretching his arm down over the side, that the master ascertained
that we had drifted into one of the large compact beds of floating
grass which, in many places, line the banks of the Amazon for hundreds
of yards from the shore. Here, therefore, we were safely moored, and
waited for the morning, sleeping comfortably, with the knowledge that
we were out of all danger.
The next day, by noon, we reached the mouth of the Tapajoz, and went in
the montaria to Santarem, to make some purchases and visit my friends.
I found old Captain Hislop; but Mr. Bates, whom I most wished to see,
had left a week before on an excursion up the Tapajoz. Having laid in a
stock of sugar, vinegar, oil, biscuits, and fresh bread and meat, we
proceeded on our journey, which we were anxious to complete as soon as
possible.
On the 18th we passed Gurupá; and on the 19th entered the narrow
channels which form the communication with the Pará river,--bidding
adieu to the turbid mighty flood of the never-to-be-forgotten Amazon.
We here met a vessel from Pará, fifty days out, having made a much
shorter distance than we, descending the river, had come in five.
On the 22nd we reached Breves, a neat little village with well-supplied
shops, where I bought half a dozen of the pretty painted basins, for
the manufacture of which the place is celebrated; we here also got some
oranges, at six for a halfpenny.
The next day we stayed at a sitio built upon piles, for the whole
country about here is covered at spring-tides. The master of the canoe
had a lot of sarsaparilla to put up properly for the Pará market, and
stayed a day to do it. The sarsaparilla is the root of a prickly,
climbing plant, allied to our common black bryony; the roots are dug by
the Indians, and tied up in bundles of various lengths and sizes; but,
as it is a very light cargo, it is necessary to form it into packages
of a convenient and uniform size and length, for closer stowage;--these
are cylindrical, generally of sixteen pounds each, and are about three
and a half feet long and five or six inches in diameter, cut square and
even at the ends, and wound round closely from end to end with the long
flexible roots of a species of _Pothos_, which, growing on the tops
of lofty trees, hang down often a hundred feet or more, and, when the
outer bark is scraped off, are universally used for this purpose. It
was to do this binding we stayed here, the sarsa having been already
done up in proper packages; and while the crew were busy about it, I
occupied myself making some sketches of palms, which were yet wanting
to complete my collection.
In two days more we reached the mouth of the Tocantíns, where there is
a great bay,--so wide, that the further shore is not visible. As there
are some dangerous sandbanks here, there is a pilot who takes canoes
over, and we waited all day in order to start with the morning's tide,
which is considered the most favourable for the passage. While here
I got a few shells, and amused myself by talking with the pilot, his
wife, and two very lively daughters. Our conversation turned upon the
shortness and uncertainty of life; which the old woman illustrated by a
tale, which seemed to be another version of the "three warnings."
"A man and his wife were conversing together, and remarking on the
unpleasantness of being subject to death. 'I should like to make
friends with Death, some way,' said the man; 'then perhaps he will not
trouble me.' 'That you can easily do,' said his wife; 'invite him to
be padrinho (godfather) to our little boy, who is to be baptized next
week; you will then be able to talk to him on the subject, and he will
surely not be able to refuse a slight favour to his "compadre."' So he
was invited accordingly, and came; and after the ceremony and the feast
were over, as he was going away, the man said to him, 'Compadre Death,
as there are plenty of people in the world for you to take, I hope you
will never come for me.' 'Really, Compadre,' replied Death, 'I cannot
promise you that, for when God sends me for anybody I must go. However,
I will do all I can, and I will at all events promise you a week's
notice, that you may have time to prepare yourself.' Several years
passed on, and Death at last came to pay them a visit. 'Good-evening,
Compadre,' says he, 'I'm come on a disagreeable business: I have
received orders to fetch you this day week, so I'm come to give you the
notice I promised you.' 'Oh! Compadre,' said the man, 'you've come very
soon; it's exceedingly inconvenient for me to go just now, I'm getting
on very nicely, and shall be a rich man in a few years, if you will
but let me alone: it's very unkind of you, Compadre; I'm sure you can
arrange it if you like, and take some one else instead of me.' 'Very
sorry,' said Death, 'but it can't be done, nohow: I've got my orders,
and I must obey them. Nobody ever gets off when the order's once given,
and very few get so long a notice as I've been able to give you.
However, I'll try all I can, and if I succeed, you won't see me this
day week; but I don't think there's any hope,--so goodbye.'
When the day came, the man was in a great fright, for he did not
expect to escape; his wife, however, hit upon a plan, which they
resolved to try. They had an old Negro man in the house, who used to
be generally employed in the kitchen. They made him exchange clothes
with his master, and sent him away out of the house; the master then
blacked his face, and made himself as much like the old nigger as he
could. On the evening appointed Death came. 'Good-evening, Compadre,'
said he; 'where is my compadre?--I'm obliged to take him with me.'
'Oh! Compadre,' said she, 'he didn't at all expect you, and is gone
on some business into the village, and won't be back till late.' 'Now
I'm in a pretty mess,' said Death; 'I did not expect my compadre
would have treated me so; it's very ungentlemanly of him to get me
into this scrape after all I've done for him. However, I must take
somebody;--who is there in the house?' 'The woman was rather alarmed
at this question, for she expected he would immediately have started
off to the village in search of her husband: however, she considered it
best to be civil, so replied, 'There's only our old nigger, that's in
the kitchen, getting supper ready. Sit down, Compadre, and take a bit,
and then perhaps my husband will be in; I'm very sorry he should give
you so much trouble.' 'No, I can't stay,' said Death; 'I've got a long
way to go, and must take somebody, so let's see if the old nigger will
do?' and he walked into the kitchen, where the man was pretending to be
busily engaged over the fire. 'Well, if Compadre won't come, I suppose
I must take the old nigger,' said Death; and before the wife could
speak a word, he stretched out his hand, and down fell her husband a
corpse."
"So you see," said the old woman to me, "when a man's time is come he
must go: neither doctors nor anything else can stop him, and you can't
cheat Death nohow." To which sentiment I did not think it worth while
to make any objection.
About two days before had been St. John's day, when it is the custom to
make bonfires and jump over and through them, which act is considered
by the common people as an important religious ceremony. As we were
talking about it, the old lady gravely asked if we knew that animals
also passed through the fire? We replied that we were not aware of the
fact; upon which she informed us that we might hereafter believe it,
for that she had had ocular demonstration of it. "It was last year,"
said she, "on the day after St. John's, my son went out to hunt, and
brought home a cotía and a pacá, and both of them were completely
scorched all along the belly: they had evidently passed through the
fire the night before." "But where do they get the fire from?" I
asked. "Oh! God prepares it for them," said she; and on my hinting that
fires were not often found in the forest unless lit by human hands, she
at once silenced my objections by triumphantly asking me, "if anything
was impossible with God?" at the same time observing that perhaps I
was a Protestant, and did not believe in God or the Virgin. So I was
obliged to give up the point; and though I assured her that Protestants
did generally believe in God and went to church, she replied that she
did not know, but had always heard to the contrary.
At length, on the 2nd of July, we reached Pará, where I was kindly
received by my friend Mr. C, and was glad to learn that there was a
vessel in port that would probably sail for London in about a week.
Several times on the voyage down I had had fits of ague, and was
still very weak and quite unable to make any exertion. The yellow
fever, which the year before had cut off thousands of the inhabitants,
still attacked new-comers, and scarcely a ship was in port but had
a considerable portion of her crew in the hospital. The weather was
beautiful; the summer or dry season was just commencing, vegetation
was luxuriantly verdant, and the bright sky and clear fresh atmosphere
seemed as if they could not harbour the fatal miasma which had crowded
the cemetery with funeral crosses, and made every dwelling in the city
a house of mourning. Once or twice I attempted to walk out into the
forest, but the exertion generally brought on shiverings and sickness,
so I thought it best to remain as quiet as possible till the time of my
departure.
Since I had left the city it had been much improved. Avenues of almond
and other trees had been formed along the road to Nazaré and round
the Largo de Palacio; new roads and drives had been made, and some
new buildings erected: in other respects the city was the same. The
dirty, straggling, uncovered market, the carts of hacked beef, the loud
chanting of the Negro porters, and the good-humoured smiling faces of
the Indian and Negro girls selling their fruits and "doces," greeted me
as of old. Fowls had risen in price from about 2_s._ to 3_s._ 6_d._,
and fruits and vegetables in about the same proportion; while in
changing English money for Brazilian I now got about ten per cent. less
than I used, and yet everybody complained of trade being very bad, and
prices quite unremunerative. I heard many stories of miraculous cures
of the yellow fever, when at its worst stage, and after the parties
had been given up by the doctors. One had been cured by eating ices,
another by drinking a bottle of wine; ices, in fact, had got into great
favour as a fine tonic, and were taken daily by many persons as a most
useful medicine.
I agreed for my passage in the brig _Helen_, two hundred and
thirty-five tons, Captain John Turner, whose property she was; and on
the morning of Monday, the 12th of July, we got aboard, and bade adieu
to the white houses and waving palm-trees of Pará. Our cargo consisted
of about a hundred and twenty tons of india-rubber, and a quantity of
cocoa, arnotto, piassaba, and balsam of capivi. About two days after
we left I had a slight attack of fever, and almost thought that I was
still doomed to be cut off by the dread disease which had sent my
brother and so many of my countrymen to graves upon a foreign shore. A
little calomel and opening medicines, however, soon set me right again;
but as I was very weak, and suffered much from sea-sickness, I spent
most of my time in the cabin. For three weeks we had very light winds
and fine weather, and on the 6th of August had reached about latitude
30° 30´ north, longitude 52° west.
On that morning, after breakfast, I was reading in the cabin, when the
Captain came down and said to me, "I'm afraid the ship's on fire; come
and see what you think of it," and proceeded to examine the lazaretto,
or small hole under the floor where the provisions are kept, but no
signs of fire were visible there. We then went on deck to the forepart
of the ship, where we found a dense vapoury smoke issuing from the
forecastle. The fore hatchway was immediately opened, and, the smoke
issuing there also, the men were set to work clearing out part of
the cargo. After throwing out some quantity without any symptom of
approaching the seat of the fire, we opened the after hatchway; and
here the smoke was much more dense, and in a very short time became
so suffocating, that the men could not stay in the hold to throw out
more cargo, so they were set to work pouring in water, while others
proceeded to the cabin, and now found abundance of smoke issuing from
the lazaretto, whence it entered through the joints of the bulkhead
which separated it from the hold. Attempts were now made to break
this bulkhead down; but the planks were so thick and the smoke so
unbearable that it could not be effected, as no man could remain in
the lazaretto to make more than a couple of blows. The cabin table was
therefore removed, and a hole attempted to be cut in the cabin floor,
so as to be able to pour water immediately on the seat of the fire,
which appeared to be where the balsam was stowed. This took some time,
owing to the suffocating smoke, which also continued to pour in dense
volumes out of the hatchway. Seeing that there was now little chance of
our being able to extinguish the fire, the Captain thought it prudent
to secure our own safety, and called all hands to get out the boats,
and such necessaries as we should want, in case of being obliged to
take to them. The long-boat was stowed on deck, and of course required
some time to get it afloat. The gig was hung on davits on the quarter,
and was easily let down. All now were in great activity. Many little
necessaries had to be hunted up from their hiding-places. The cook
was sent for corks to plug the holes in the bottoms of the boats. Now
no one knew where a rudder had been put away; now the thowl-pins were
missing. The oars had to be searched for, and spars to serve as masts,
with proportionate sails, spare canvas, twine, cordage, tow-ropes,
sail-needles, nails and tacks, carpenters' tools, etc. The Captain was
looking after his chronometer, sextant, barometer, charts, compasses,
and books of navigation; the seamen were getting their clothes into
huge canvas bags; all were lugging about pilot-coats, blankets,
south-westers, and oilskin coats and trousers; and I went down into the
cabin, now suffocatingly hot and full of smoke, to see what was worth
saving. I got my watch and a small tin box containing some shirts and
a couple of old note-books, with some drawings of plants and animals,
and scrambled up with them on deck. Many clothes and a large portfolio
of drawings and sketches remained in my berth; but I did not care to
venture down again, and in fact felt a kind of apathy about saving
anything, that I can now hardly account for. On deck the crew were
still busy at the boats; two barrels of bread were got in, a lot of raw
pork, some ham and cases of preserved meats, some wine and a large cask
of water. The cask had to be lowered into the boat empty, for fear of
any accident, and after being securely fixed in its place, filled with
buckets from those on board.
The boats, having been so long drying in a tropical sun, were very
leaky, and were now half full of water, and books, coats, blankets,
shoes, pork, and cheese, in a confused mass were soaking in them. It
was necessary to put two men in each, to bale; and everything necessary
being now ready, the rest of the crew were called off again to pour
water into the hatchways and cabin, from which rose volumes of thick
yellow smoke. Now, too, we could hear in the hold the balsam bubbling,
like some great boiling caldron, which told of such intense heat, that
we knew the flames must soon break out. And so it was, for in less than
half an hour the fire burst through the cabin-floor into the berths,
and consuming rapidly the dry pine-wood, soon flamed up through the
skylight. There was now a scorching heat on the quarter-deck, and we
saw that all hope was over, and that we must in a few minutes be driven
by the terrible element to take refuge on the scarcely less dangerous
one, which heaved and swelled its mighty billows a thousand miles on
every side of us. The Captain at length ordered all into the boats, and
was himself the last to leave the vessel. I had to get down over the
stern by a rope into the boat, rising and falling and swaying about
with the swell of the ocean; and, being rather weak, rubbed the skin
considerably off my fingers, and tumbled in among the miscellaneous
articles already soaking there in the greatest confusion. One sailor
was baling with a bucket, and another with a mug; but the water not
seeming at all to diminish, but rather the contrary, I set to work
helping them, and soon found the salt-water producing a most intense
smarting and burning on my scarified fingers.
We now lay astern of the ship, to which we were moored, watching the
progress of the fire. The flames very soon caught the shrouds and
sails, making a most magnificent conflagration up to the very peak,
for the royals were set at the time. Soon after, the fore rigging and
sails also burnt, and flames were seen issuing from the fore hatchway,
showing how rapidly the fire was spreading through the combustible
cargo. The vessel, having now no sails to steady her, rolled heavily,
and the masts, no longer supported by the shrouds, bent and creaked,
threatening to go overboard every minute. The main-mast went first,
breaking off about twenty feet above the deck; but the foremast stood
for a long time, exciting our admiration and wonder, at the time it
resisted the heavy rolls and lurches of the vessel; at last, being
partly burned at the bottom, it went over, more than an hour after its
companion. The decks were now a mass of fire, and the bulwarks partly
burnt away. Many of the parrots, monkeys, and other animals we had on
board, were already burnt or suffocated; but several had retreated
to the bowsprit out of reach of the flames, appearing to wonder what
was going on, and quite unconscious of the fate that awaited them. We
tried to get some of them into the boats, by going as near as we could
venture; but they did not seem at all aware of the danger they were in,
and would not make any attempt to reach us. As the flames caught the
base of the bowsprit, some of them ran back and jumped into the midst
of the fire. Only one parrot escaped: he was sitting on a rope hanging
from the bowsprit, and this burning above him let him fall into the
water, where, after floating a little way, we picked him up.
Night was now coming on. The whole deck was a mass of fire, giving out
an intense heat. We determined to stay by the vessel all night, as the
light would attract any ship passing within a considerable distance of
us. We had eaten nothing since the morning, and had had plenty to do
and to think of, to prevent our being hungry; but now, as the evening
air began to get cool and pleasant, we all found we had very good
appetites, and supped well on biscuits and water.
We then had to make our arrangements for the night. Our mooring ropes
had been burnt, and we were thus cast adrift from the ship, and were
afraid of getting out of sight of it during the night, and so missing
any vessel which might chance to be attracted by its light. A portion
of the masts and rigging were floating near the ship, and to this
we fastened our boats; but so many half-burnt spars and planks were
floating about us, as to render our situation very perilous, for there
was a heavy swell, and our boats might have been in an instant stove in
by coming in contact with them.
We therefore cast loose again, and kept at a distance of a quarter or
half a mile from the ship by rowing when requisite. We were incessantly
baling the whole night. Ourselves and everything in the boats were
thoroughly drenched, so we got little repose: if for an instant we
dozed off into forgetfulness, we soon woke up again to the realities
of our position, and to see the red glare which our burning vessel
cast over us. It was now a magnificent spectacle, for the decks had
completely burnt away, and as it heaved and rolled with the swell of
the sea, presented its interior towards us filled with liquid flame,--a
fiery furnace tossing restlessly upon the ocean.
At length morning came; the dangers of the night were past, and with
hopeful hearts we set up our little masts, and rigged our sails, and,
bidding adieu to the still burning wreck of our ship, went gaily
bounding along before a light east wind. And then pencils and books
were hunted out, and our course and distance to Bermuda calculated;
and we found that this, the nearest point of land in the vast waste of
waters round us, was at least seven hundred miles away. But still we
went on full of hope, for the wind was fair, and we reckoned that, if
it did not change, we might make a hundred miles a day, and so in seven
days reach the longed-for haven.
As we had supped but scantily the night before, we had now good
appetites, and got out our ham and pork, biscuit and wine and water,
and made a very hearty meal, finding that even uncooked meat was not to
be despised where no fire could be got to cook it with.
The day was fine and warm, and the floating seaweed, called gulf-weed,
was pretty abundant. The boats still required almost incessant baling,
and though we did not ship many seas, yet there was quite enough spray
to keep us constantly wet. At night we got a rope fastened to the
long-boat, for her to tow us, in order that we might not get separated;
but as we sailed pretty equally, we kept both sails up. We passed
a tolerable night under the circumstances. The next day, the 8th,
was fine, gulf-weed still floated plentifully by us, and there were
numerous flying-fish, some of which fell into our boats, and others
flew an immense distance over the waves. I now found my hands and face
very much blistered by the sun, and exceedingly sore and painful. At
night two boobies, large dusky sea-birds with very long wings, flew
about us. During the night I saw several meteors, and in fact could not
be in a better position for observing them, than lying on my back in a
small boat in the middle of the Atlantic. We also saw a flock of small
birds fly by, making a chirping noise; the sailors did not know what
they were.
The 9th was again fine and hot, and my blistered hands were very
painful. No ship appeared in sight, though we were crossing the track
of the West India vessels. It was rather squally, and I passed a
nervous, uncomfortable night; our boats did not, however, now leak so
much, which was a great satisfaction.
The 10th was squally, and the wind veered to the south-west, so that
we could not make our course for Bermuda, but were obliged to go to
the north of it. The sea ran very high, and sudden gusts of wind would
frequently heel us over in a manner very alarming to me. We had some
heavy showers of rain, and should have liked to have caught some fresh
water, but could not, as all our clothes and the sails were saturated
with salt. Our position at noon was in latitude 31° 59´ north,
longitude 57° 22´ west.
The 11th was still rough and squally. There was less gulf-weed now.
The wind got still more to the westward, so that we were obliged to go
nearly north. Our boats had now got swollen with the water, and leaked
very little. This night I saw some more falling stars.
On the 12th the wind still kept foul, and we were getting quite out of
the track of ships, and appeared to have but little chance of reaching
Bermuda. The long-boat passed over some green water to-day, a sign of
there being soundings, probably some rock at a moderate depth. Many
dolphins swam about the boats; their colours when seen in the water are
superb, the most gorgeous metallic hues of green, blue, and gold: I was
never tired of admiring them.
On the 13th the wind was due west, blowing exactly from the point we
wanted to go to. The day was very fine, and there were several stormy
petrels, or Mother Cary's chickens, flying about us. We had now been a
week in the boats, and were only halfway to the Islands, so we put all
hands on short allowance of water before it was too late. The sun was
very hot and oppressive, and we suffered much from thirst.
The 14th was calm, and we could not get on at all. The sun was
scorching and we had no shelter, and were parched with thirst the whole
day. Numerous dolphins and pilot-fish were about the boats. At night
there was a very slight favourable breeze, and as we had by this time
got our clothes pretty dry we slept well.
On the 15th the wind again died away, and we had another calm. The
sea was full of minute _Medusæ_, called "blubber" by the sailors:
some were mere whitish oval or spherical lumps, others were brown,
and beautifully constructed like a little cap, swimming rapidly along
by alternate contractions and expansions, and so expelling the water
behind them. The day was very hot, and we suffered exceedingly from
thirst. We were almost in despair about seeing a ship, or getting on
to the Islands. At about 5 P.M., while taking our dinner, we saw the
long-boat, which was at some distance from us, tack. "She must see
a sail," said the captain, and looking round we saw a vessel coming
nearly towards us, and only about five miles distant. We were saved!
The men joyfully drank the rest of their allowance of water, seized
their oars, and pulled with hearty goodwill, and by seven o'clock we
were alongside. The captain received us kindly on board. The men went
first to the water-casks, and took long and hearty draughts, in which
we joined them, and then enjoyed the almost forgotten luxury of tea.
From having been so long cramped in the boats, I could hardly stand
when I got on board.
That night I could not sleep. Home and all its pleasures seemed now
within my grasp; and crowding thoughts, and hopes and fears, made
me pass a more restless night than I should have done, had we still
been in the boats, with diminished hopes of rescue. The ship was the
_Jordeson_, Captain Venables, from Cuba, bound for London, with a cargo
of mahogany, fustic, and other woods. We were picked up in latitude 32°
48´ north, longitude 60° 27´ west, being still about two hundred miles
from Bermuda.
For several days afterwards we had fine weather and very light winds,
and went creeping along about fifty miles a day. It was now, when
the danger appeared past, that I began to feel fully the greatness
of my loss. With what pleasure had I looked upon every rare and
curious insect I had added to my collection! How many times, when
almost overcome by the ague, had I crawled into the forest and been
rewarded by some unknown and beautiful species! How many places, which
no European foot but my own had trodden, would have been recalled
to my memory by the rare birds and insects they had furnished to my
collection! How many weary days and weeks had I passed, upheld only
by the fond hope of bringing home many new and beautiful forms from
those wild regions; everyone of which would be endeared to me by the
recollections they would call up,--which should prove that I had not
wasted the advantages I had enjoyed, and would give me occupation and
amusement for many years to come! And now every thing was gone, and I
had not one specimen to illustrate the unknown lands I had trod, or to
call back the recollection of the wild scenes I had beheld! But such
regrets I knew were vain, and I tried to think as little as possible
about what might have been, and to occupy myself with the state of
things which actually existed.
On the 22nd of August we saw three water-spouts, the first time I had
beheld that curious phenomenon. I had much wished once to witness a
storm at sea, and I was soon gratified.
Early in September we had a very heavy gale. The barometer had fallen
nearly half an inch during the night; and in the morning it was blowing
strong, and we had a good deal of canvas up when the captain began to
shorten sail; but before it could be taken in, four or five sails were
blown to pieces, and it took several hours to get the others properly
stowed. By the afternoon we were driving along under double-reefed
topsails. The sea was all in a foam, and dashed continually over us. By
night a very heavy sea was up, and we rolled about fearfully, the water
pouring completely over the bulwarks, deluging the decks, and making
the old ship stagger like a drunken man. We passed an uncomfortable
night, for a great sea broke into the cabin skylight and wetted us all,
and the ship creaked and shook, and plunged so madly, that I feared
something would give way, and we should go to the bottom after all; all
night, too, the pumps were kept going, for she leaked tremendously, and
it was noon the next day before she was got free of water. The wind had
now abated, and we soon had fine weather again, and all hands were busy
bending new sails and repairing the old ones.
We caught at different times several dolphins, which were not bad
eating. I did not see so much to admire in the colours of the dying
dolphin; they are not to be compared with the colours of the living
fish seen in the blue transparent water.
We were now getting rather short of provisions, owing to the increased
number of mouths: our cheese and ham were finished,--then our peas gave
out, and we had no more pea-soup,--next the butter came to an end,
and we had to eat our biscuit dry,--our bread and pork, too, got very
short, and we had to be put upon allowance. We then got some supplies
from another ship; but our voyage was so much prolonged, and we had
adverse winds and another heavy gale, so that we were again in want,
finished our last piece of meat, and had to make some scanty dinners
off biscuit and water. Again we were relieved with a little supply of
pork and some molasses, and so managed pretty well.
We were in the Channel on the night of the 29th of September, when
a violent gale occurred, that did great damage to the shipping, and
caused the destruction of many vessels much more seaworthy than our
own. The next morning we had four feet of water in the hold.
On the 1st of October the pilot came on board, and Captain Turner and
myself landed at Deal, after an eighty days' voyage from Pará; thankful
for having escaped so many dangers, and glad to tread once more on
English ground.