Nearly two months after leaving home we entered the harbour of Rio;
or, to borrow the spirited lines of Madame W. our poetess,--we were so
fortunate as to possess the species, both male and female,--
"We crossed the line in cheerful glee,
And anchored safe in Rio Janee."
We were nearly out of sight of the city; but its scattering suburbs
lay all around in the laps of the mountains, the white walls of the
houses contrasting finely with the deep green of the back ground. The
nearest mountain peaks stood with their naked feet in the very bottom
of the bay, presenting, on the water side, a smooth, and, in many
places, almost perpendicular wall, and enclosing between them long
winding coves, stretching away almost out of sight.
We were obliged to remain on board all the next morning, until the
officers had made their customary visit, but having endured this
formality with what patience we could, and eaten a dinner of "fresh,"
as it is called at sea, we went ashore in a boat manned by four slaves
entirely naked. We landed near the emperor's palace; and having no
particular object in view, strolled through the streets as chance
directed. Partly from thoughtlessness, and partly to obtain a better
view of the buildings, we walked carelessly along, in the middle of
the street, staring about us like a parcel of backcountrymen just
landed in the city of New York; at least so said the respectable
Busby, who never, in any case, forgot his propriety, and even now,
though nobody about him talked with an English tongue, or saw with
English eyes, conducted himself precisely as if he had been in his
favourite Broadway.
But we were too much engrossed with the strange objects about us,
to waste a thought on our own appearance. It was as if we had gone
back to the days of childhood, and recovered, for a season, that
delicious sense of novelty that gave those days their peculiar charm.
We resembled a piece of sponge, from which the last drop had been
squeezed, suddenly plunged into a vessel of water. Every sense, every
pore, seemed made the highway for a whole host of new ideas. We read
volumes at a glance, sucked up knowledge at every breath, and found
sermons in the very stones of the streets. Slaves were crossing the
great square in every direction, carrying on their heads tall jars
of water, baskets of clothes to be washed at the fountain, and large
trays full of fruit and flowers. They moved with a peculiar erect and
springing gait, balancing their awkward burdens with such dexterity as
made them seem rather a natural excrescence than anything they could
lay aside at pleasure. Others were basking in the sun, in the very
middle of the street, like so many bundles of old clothes.
When they were wanted for any purpose, and failed to arouse themselves
at the first signal, the impatient master would run upon them, and,
after an enlivening series of hearty kicks and thumps, hale them
along to their work like a refractory or worn-out horse; and indeed
they performed most of that work assigned to horses in more humane
countries. Every thing whose weight permitted they carried on their
heads or backs, and these burdens were often so heavy, that two or
three men were required to raise them. In other cases they made use of
a rude cart, with two low wheels, which was pushed and pulled along
by a dozen slaves. One usually took his station at each wheel, and
tugged, apparently very hard, at the spokes. But all were evidently
skillful adepts at the art of sogering; and a single horse, with a
properly constructed cart, would have drawn three times their ordinary
load.
As we were walking through a narrow street, about thirty slaves came
suddenly upon us, round a corner, moving at a slow trot, carrying on
their backs bales of sheeting, and keeping time to their step by a
loud, monotonous chant. They threw down their loads at a door we were
passing, and, stopping their music, one by one, hurried away like
the genii of the Arabian tales, who, having performed their master's
bidding, disappeared as mysteriously as they came.
The buildings of Rio are generally heavy and substantial, with little
exterior decoration. Their churches resemble, in this respect,
the shell of an oyster, rough and rude without, but of a metallic
brilliancy within. It was a festival of some sort at the close
of Lent, and the churches were all open, though we saw but few
worshippers. Little boys were dragging effigies of Judas about the
streets, and beating them with sticks, with the most edifying zeal and
devotion.
Having somewhat satiated our curiosity, we returned to the Hotel
Pharoux, to take a supplemental dinner. This was a French café in
spite of its Egyptian title; the cooking was excellent, and the idea
of being served by veritable Parlezvous highly gratifying, at least to
the provincials of our party, who had very likely never seen one of
those animals before.
"Here, garsong" cried Charley Bainbridge, with an air, "donny moy some
pully à potage, and some pang à boottre."
"Oui, monsieur" replied the ready Frenchman, who had acquired by long
practice a marvellous facility in interpreting the _patois_ of his
guests; but as the reader may be less successful, I would explain that
the mysterious substantives above, signified chicken and potatoes,
bread and butter.
Charley's example was, as usual, contagious, and presently there arose
a Babel of English, interspersed with such mongrel French and Spanish
as might have taxed the triple throat of Cerberus himself. Captain
Bill, whose whole stock in foreign languages, if we exclude that in
which we have already shown his proficiency, consisted of three words,
_si_, _monsieur_, and _mademoiselle_, traded upon this slender capital
with unequalled success. "Si monsieur," or "si mademoiselle" he
constantly repeated, whenever any of the waiters approached the table,
sometimes interrogatively, sometimes affirmatively, and sometimes
suggestively, but always with a bland smile, expressive of the highest
self-satisfaction and contentment.
Our dinner consisted of _bifstek_, potatoes, bread and butter, and
coffee, all of the finest quality--but we were somewhat alarmed, when
our bill was presented, at sight of a long row of figures swelling up
to a total of several thousands. A few words, however, soon removed
our apprehensions; the thousands were nothing but reys, twenty of
which make one cent. The milrey, or thousand reys, is a silver coin
equivalent to our half dollar. They have also a copper coin about
equal in value to two cents, of a very clumsy form, and appropriately
called a dump.
The Hotel Pharoux was our favourite lounge while we remained on shore.
It was constantly thronged with a motley crowd of Californians,
man-of-war's men, and others of various nations, presenting altogether
a scene of the most lively and amusing description. We now began, for
the first time, to feel the suck and swing of that mighty maelstrom
into which we had ventured. Sixty ships had been at Rio before
us--and, while we were there, the number of Californians in port was
over a thousand. We naturally regarded all these as, in some sort,
our rivals, and the excitement of competition was thus aggravated a
hundred-fold. It was impossible to get rid of the absurd notion, that
the whole country would be appropriated before we had set foot in it,
and that we should thus be in the awkward predicament of a dilatory
guest, who arrives only in time to be tantalized by sight of the
fragments of the feast.
The next day was Sunday. It was ushered in by the chiming of bells,
bursts of martial music, and the thunder of cannon. Going early
on shore, we found all the shops open as usual, and nothing to
distinguish the day but the increased display in the churches. Hearing
that the Emperor was to be present in the cathedral attached to his
palace, and fronting the great square, we went at an early hour for
the purpose of seeing his Majesty. After we had stood several hours,
he came in at a private entrance, attended by the Empress, and took
his seat on an elevated platform that afforded us a fine view of his
person. He was tall and finely formed, dressed in military uniform,
and was, altogether, just such a figure as one would naturally expect
in an Emperor.
The cathedral shone like a great jewel box, with gold and silver;
a numerous and enthusiastic band played martial airs with all
their might and main; and the Emperor, and the priests, and the
dignitaries of the Empire, and the foreign ambassadors, standing
meekly and foolishly in a row, like a class of school boys--and all
the congregation, save and except some unterrified Californian, and
the saints that stood in gold-and-silvery dignity around the sides of
the cathedral, kept kneeling down and getting up again in the most
unexpected manner.
After some time spent in this way, an ecclesiastic, richly dressed,
climbed up into a sort of martin-house that stood on one side;
and poking his head and shoulders out at the top, somewhat in the
manner of those ingenious bouncing toys with which children are so
deliciously frightened, he began to shout down to us below like
a sweep on top of a chimney. But no one regarded him, though he
doubtless talked very wisely, and in Latin, too; and, in fifteen
minutes, he came down again, very warm and red in the face, and again
the band struck up their music.
The long service being at length over, the Emperor left the cathedral,
and passed through the whole length of his palace to the principal
entrance, where a carriage was in readiness to convey him to his
country-seat. Having handed his empress into the carriage as politely
as if he had been only a private individual, he took his seat beside
her; the door was closed, and the six horses instantly set off at
full gallop, diagonally across the square, to the imminent danger of
his loyal subjects, who had much ado to get out of the royal road.
The whole scene reminded me very pleasantly of a picture I had often
studied, with great interest, in somebody's geography, representing
a nobleman--in Austria, I think--riding over a cripple, who held up
his wooden leg bayonetwise against the frightened horses. When the
emperor has thus swept away like a whirlwind, and his escort had gone
galloping after him on diminutive horses, his suit also got into
carriages, and followed, more soberly, in the same direction.
We spent Monday and Tuesday in wandering about the city, and in
purchasing a few luxuries for use at sea. Wednesday morning, I went,
with a small party, in one of the ship's boats, several miles up into
one of the arms of the bay, for the purpose of buying oranges. Leaving
the boat anchored a short distance from the beach, we struck into a
narrow lane or footpath leading up into the country, and shut in,
on both sides, by the queerest and most eccentric forest I had ever
seen. Every tree, shrub, and flower was a most decided humourist, and
had its own way of growing, entirely different from its neighbours.
Instead of harmonizing with each other, like the twin quakers of a
Northern forest, each one seemed trying to be as odd and outre as
possible.
There were beauties there of every description, but they needed a
cunning hand to sort and arrange them. The effect, though almost
bewildering by its brilliancy, was not, in the end, agreeable to
my plain republican notions. The eye is wearied by so much slovenly
magnificence, such wasted prodigality, and ostentatious vanity; and
would gladly turn to "the sober realm of leafless trees," even of our
own November.
Walking a mile over the deep, fine sand, we came to the plantation to
which we had been directed. The house, which was small and light, like
a huge bird-cage of bamboo, stood in the midst of an orange orchard,
where the fruit was hanging on the trees in the greatest profusion.
The price demanded was twenty-five cents a hundred; we were to gather
the oranges ourselves, and wherever we pleased, with the exception of
half a dozen trees, the fruit of which, being of a higher flavour,
was reserved by the owner for his own use. It was a very pleasant
novelty--this picking oranges as though they had been apples--tasting
one, here and there, and throwing it magnanimously away, if it were
not quite first-rate; but we had little leisure for such pastimes. We
selected the sweetest trees, and stopping only to pick the thickest of
the fruit, we had collected by noon more than five thousand oranges,
which we thought as many as our boat would hold.
After eating the dinner we had brought from the ship, we strolled
off to a neighbouring plantation, where we found a similar bird-cage
perched on a slight elevation, and its owner, a little, squat,
bandy-legged Frenchman, engaged in drying coffee on mats spread before
the door. He received us with the greatest cordiality; and after his
heart was a little warmed by the wine he had compelled us to drink
with him, he began to give us some account of his former history; and
at length informed us that he had served in the armies of the great
Emperor. Stripping up his sleeve, with characteristic vivacity, he
exhibited the wounds he had received in his service, with as much
pride and enthusiasm as if they had been the cross of the Legion of
Honour. It seemed strangely incongruous to find one who had played
a part, even though the humblest, in that stirring drama, mouldering
away, like a forgotten firebrand, in this woody solitude, long after
the fierce flame of battle had gone out on the field of Waterloo.
We were employed the whole afternoon in conveying our booty to the
boat. After working hard all the morning, we found little romance in
carrying one or two hundred oranges, in bags, on our heads, over the
hot yielding sand; and there was a general exclamation of satisfaction
when the last load came heavily down to the beach. We reached the ship
long after sundown, and bid a final farewell to Rio the next morning.