EN ROUTE TO RIO
PARA is one of the most beautiful of Brazilian cities, with large cool
houses, and squares and gardens gay with wonderful orchids,--purple,
crimson, gold and white.
The weeks spent at grandmamma's were full of delight to Affonzo and
Lola, and they enjoyed all the pleasant happenings of life in the city.
One day in October they sat in the garden playing with the pet monkey,
a saucy little creature with a thousand cunning tricks and ways, almost
human in his intelligence.
"I wonder how soon we shall go home," said Affonzo. "I begin to weary
of doing nothing."
"I do not know," said Lola. "But I heard mamma say something strange
about it to-day. She and my father were talking while I was playing
with the cockatoo and mamma said, 'It will be a long trip and I should
dislike to leave them behind.' 'It would do you little good to go with
them,' said my father, and mamma replied that the worry of leaving
them would take away all the pleasure of the trip if they were not to
accompany her; then she saw me looking and bade my father be silent.
What trip could they mean?"
"I am sure I do not know, and you should never remember a conversation
not meant for you," said Affonzo, virtuously. Then, his curiosity
getting the better of his virtue, "I wonder where they can be intending
to go!"
"But if I should not remember what I hear, then you should not either,"
said Lola pertly, for she did not like to have Affonzo correct her.
"We are two quite different people," said Affonzo. "I am much older
than you."
"When one is old, one should behave better than one who is young," Lola
retorted.
"Both are quite old enough not to quarrel," said their mother's voice
sternly, as she came up unnoticed. "What are you quarrelling about?"
Both children were silent and ashamed.
"If you dare not tell the cause, then cease the quarrel," said the
Senhora. "And remember that well-bred children do not dispute. Now sit
down while I tell you what is going to happen.
"Your father has intended for some time to make a business trip to Rio
de Janeiro, going by boat from Para. He wishes me to go with him, for I
have not been well of late, and he thought best to leave you two with
your grandmother. I wished you to accompany me, and some news has just
come which has caused him to give his consent.
"Your Uncle Juan, who went to study medicine in Philadelphia, married
there a beautiful North American lady, and has a little daughter the
age of Affonzo. She is named Maria and she had the great misfortune to
lose her mother a few months ago. She grieves terribly and her father
is bringing her to Brazil in the hope that among his people she will
grow well and strong again. They will reach Rio de Janeiro in a short
time, and we want to be there to see them. Would you like to go with us
on this trip?"
"Indeed yes, mamma!" cried both in one breath. "When do we start?"
"To-morrow," she replied. "I did not tell you before, because I feared
you would too much excite yourselves. Then too I thought something
might happen to prevent our going and you would be disappointed."
"Hurrah," cried Affonzo. "We shall see Uncle Hilario!"
"And I shall see my cousin Martim!" cried Lola.
"Yes, we shall visit my dear brother, and you shall have a very happy
time with two cousins to play with.
"Now you must be good children and give me a chance to pack up your
clothes. No questions!" She held up her finger playfully. "Those you
may save to ask me on ship-board. Here is a map which shows just where
we are going, and you may trace out the course and Affonzo can tell you
about all the places from his geography, Lola," and she left the two
children poring over the geography, their tongues fairly clacking in
their excitement.
The _Icamiaba_ is a large steamer plying from Mañaos to Rio, and by
noon the next day the little party of four were safely embarked and
the steamer made its way out of the beautiful harbour. The long voyage
was begun, but to Affonzo and Lola it was not tedious, for, the only
children on board, they soon became pets with all and were in a fair
way to being spoiled with attention. The second day out the steamer
made its first stop at Pernambuco on the easternmost point of Brazil,
and the children watched the entrance into the harbour with great
interest.
"Pernambuco is called the Venice of America," said their father.
"You know Venice is an Italian city built on islands, with waterways
instead of streets, and here there are so many canals and arms of
water reaching in from the sea that Pernambuco is called the Venice of
America."
"What a lot of steamers there are!" exclaimed Affonzo as they
approached the reef which protects the harbour. This reef runs
along the Brazilian coast for hundreds of miles, forming a natural
breakwater, sometimes twelve feet above high tide.
"N-I-L-E," spelled Affonzo as they passed a huge steamer anchored
outside the harbour. "What kind of a boat is that?"
"English," said his father. "The English run a line of steamers from
Southampton to Lisbon, and thence to Rio Janeiro. These boats carry a
thousand passengers, and are so large that they cannot go through the
cut in the breakwater."
"Oh, papa! What a queer building! What is it?" asked Lola, as they
passed an odd-looking fort on the rocks.
"That is a relic of Dutch days in Brazil," said the Senhor. "You know
the Dutch once laid claim to all this part of the country."
"Did they?" asked Lola in surprise. "How did they get here and what
became of them?"
"It is a long story, little one, but quite an interesting one," said
her father. "You know Brazil was discovered by a Portuguese, Pedro
Alvarez Cabral, who sailed into the Bay of Porto Seguro at Bahia, April
25, 1500, and took possession of the land in the name of the Portuguese
crown, naming it Vera Cruz. The Spaniards had made discoveries in the
north of South America, the English and French had come in along
the Amazon and within the next few years the Dutch entered the river
and built forts on the Xingu. Then came a long struggle between the
Dutch and the Portuguese as to who should possess the land. In 1624,
a Dutch admiral took possession of Bahia, but a handful of Portuguese
recaptured the place the next year; then came a succession of battles,
first the Dutch being victorious, then the Portuguese. At last the
Dutch sent Prince Maurice of Nassau as Governor General of their
possessions in Brazil, but he returned to Holland in 1644 and from that
time on the Portuguese were successful. They laid siege to Pernambuco
(then called Recife) and blockaded the port with sea forces while the
land army assaulted it on the other side. The Dutch surrendered in 1654
and Brazil became a Portuguese colony."
"Then I suppose everything was peaceful," said Affonzo, but his father
laughed and said,
"There has not been much peace in Brazil since the Portuguese first
discovered it. After the foreigners left, the Indians remained
unconquered, and the Portuguese sent many expeditions against the
natives in the interior. Many adventurers went on these expeditions,
and they were called Bandierantes.[9] They treated the Indians cruelly
and enslaved many, although the Pope had forbidden making slaves of the
Indians.
"Another fight which took place near here was with negro slaves. Some
of them escaped and fled to the forest of Palmeiras, in the Province of
Alagoas. Here they maintained a colony for sixty years and were only
subdued in 1697. Some of their chiefs leaped from a high rock into the
sea rather than be captured."
"How did they get slaves in our country?" asked Lola.
"That's a rather big subject for such a little girl," said her father.
"The early settlers could not get any one to work for them, so
they brought black people from Africa, as did most of the Southern
countries. One good thing was that here slavery was abolished without
a drop of blood being shed, while in North America they had a terrible
war.
"Now we are entering the harbour, Affonzo. See how many ships! In one
year there were one thousand one hundred and eighty-one ships here!
They come from all parts of the world, laden with all manner of things,
but they nearly all go away freighted with sugar. There are thousands
of tons of it exported every year. The boat will stop here some hours,
so we will go ashore and drive about the city."
"Oh, thank you, papa," cried the children, and their mother added, "It
will be a pleasant change from the ship."
So the four went ashore and drove about the cheerful city, with its
gaily painted houses, passing one public building glazed in yellow and
green tiles, another in imitation pink marble trimmed in sky blue.
Crossing a long bridge, they saw magnificent gardens with brilliant
flowering plants, and the fine fruit-market where they purchased the
luscious Pernambuco _abacoxi_ the finest-flavoured pineapple in the
world.
"It is a very fine city," said Affonzo as they returned to the steamer.
"But not as handsome as Para," said Lola. "That's the prettiest city in
all Brazil," and her father laughed.
When they steamed into Bahia two days later just at twilight, she still
insisted that Para was the most beautiful place in the world, but
Affonzo was delighted with Bahia.
"Capt. Diego Alvarez was one of the early explorers here," said the
Senhor, as they sat upon the deck in the moonlight, watching the
crescent of lights which rise from the harbour toward heaven, for the
main portion of Bahia is built upon a high bluff overlooking the river.
"He was captured by the Indians and was about to be killed, when the
chief's daughter threw herself in front of him and saved his life.
Alvarez fell in love with her and married her, taking her with him to
France, where she was honoured and cared for all her life. Some of the
best families in Bahia boast that she is their ancestor."
"What are sent out from here?" asked Affonzo.
"Thousands and thousands of cocoanuts, for one thing," said the Senhor.
"It is a fortune for a family to have a cocoa plantation, for the trees
produce from fifty to eighty years, and need little attention after
the first year or two. They are very easy to raise. After planting,
the weeds are kept away from the trees, and during the first year,
banana plants are grown between the rows to shade the young trees.
The fourth year the first crop is gathered and the trees produce two
hundred clusters of fruit with thirty or forty nuts each. People net
about sixty thousand dollars a year from a plantation of fifty thousand
trees."
"It must pay to raise cocoanuts at that rate," said Affonzo. "Does
_manaioca_ pay as well?"
"Not quite, but it is about as easy to raise. Everyone has to have
_manaioca_. The rich use if for puddings and desserts in the form of
tapioca, while the poor people use the _fariulia de manaioca_[10] as
their chief food. It also makes good starch, for the roots ground up in
water deposit their starch as a fine white powder.
"A farm of twelve acres belonging to a friend of mine and planted with
forty thousand plants produces eighty thousand pounds of tapioca, which
at the lowest price brings two thousand four hundred and twenty-five
dollars."
"The children are growing to be regular little encyclopedias," said the
Senhora. "They must go to bed now, or I am afraid their brains will
burst with so much knowledge."
"Not much danger of that," laughed the Senhor. "Most of it goes in
at one ear and comes out the other," but Lola and Affonzo exclaimed
indignantly, "Oh, no, papa, indeed it does not."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: Flag bearers.]
[Footnote 10: Tapioca meal.]