By the 18th of September both ships were completed with wood and water,

every man, from the captain downwards, assisting in sawing and splitting

up drift-wood, found in abundance along the shores of the harbour, an

American axe having been provided for each person on board, together with

cross-cut saws and iron wedges, for such object, before leaving England.

This day, being the ‘diesiocho,’ or great anniversary of the Chilian

Independence, Captain Peacock caused a beacon, 30 feet high, with a large

diamond-shaped head, to be erected on the heights of Santa Anna, the

western point of the entrance; and, hoisting the Chilian flag upon it at

noon, saluted the same from the guns of both ships, accompanied by three

hearty British cheers; and having buried a parchment manuscript at the

foot of the beacon, in a sealed jar, descriptive of this event and the

particulars of the voyage, &c., together with a few new coins of the year

1840, the steamers proceeded into the Pacific, accomplishing the passage

from ocean to ocean, a distance of 300 miles, in 30 hours’ steaming. Four

years subsequently, the Chilian government sent a vessel of war, and took

formal possession of this harbour, for a convict establishment, naming

it Port Bulnes, after the President at that time in power, when a fort

was built round the before mentioned beacon, the jar was dug up, and the

manuscript, &c., taken to St. Jago, the capital, and there lodged in the

government archives. Upon the arrival of the steamers at Valparaiso, by

a representation to the government, the privileges of the company were

immediately renewed for a period of ten years; and probably nothing has

contributed so much to the advancement, welfare, and prosperity of the

Chilian and Peruvian republics, as the successful establishment of steam

navigation upon this coast, where the names of Don Guilliermo Wheelwright

and Don Jorje Peacock, will perhaps never be forgotten, as they certainly

ought not to be. The Chilian government, in the course of last year,

(1853) renewed its relations with the Pacific Company for continuing

steam communication with England, through the Straits, and also for

extending steam intercourse to other parts of Europe, in connection with

the vessels now rounding the Horn, granting liberal subsidies for that

purpose. See end of chapter on Amazon.

[13] Captain Denham, R.N., who has been sent on an exploratory cruise in

the various Archipelagoes of the Southern Pacific, in hope of meeting

with an eligible depôt for convicts, whom the cessation of transportation

to Australia (or at least to all except the Western portion) has thrown

on the hands of the home government, very much to the embarrassment of

the executive, and to the consternation of the community; for, as was

foreseen when the project was first mooted, not only do the British

public dread the introduction among them of the class known in France as

_libres forçats_, but the former honest associates of these domesticated

‘emancipatists,’ to use an antipodean phrase, will not consort with them;

hasten to denounce them to their employers as ‘black sheep;’ forcibly

drive them from amongst them; and, in fact, surround them with such

annoyances that their existence becomes intolerable in the society of

any but those who are qualifying for, or have already graduated at, the

hulks. The consideration of this subject will be found pursued at some

length in treating of the Falklands. These islands are in every way

admirably adapted, both to meet the difficulties just mooted, as to the

disposal of our felonrie, and to supersede the labour of Capt. Denham,

should he even be successful in discovering a spot in the southern

hemisphere that is not open to innumerable objections on the score—1st,

of propinquity to other islands; 2nd, being at double the distance of the

Falklands from the mother country; and 3rd, the cost of conveyance being

proportionably great; saying nothing of the expensiveness of founding a

new settlement in a place that is already deserted, or from which the

aborigines, if any, must be removed.

[14] The History of Brazil—his _opus majus_, a work on which he hoped

to base the remembrance of his name—now appeared, the most conspicuous

and elaborate of his works, and written _con amore_. It forms a branch

of the more extensive History of Portugal, which he had no leisure

to complete. The materials from which this work was constructed had

been collected by his uncle, the Rev. Herbert Hill, were unrivalled in

value, and accessible to him alone. No political bias interrupted the

straightforwardness and breadth of his judgment; and his poetic fervour

found scope in the character of the clime, the productions of the soil,

and the features of savage life, which he describes in the most glowing

colours.—Life of Southey, by Charles T. Brown.—London: Chapman and Hall.

1854.

[15] Travels in the Interior of Brazil; principally through the Northern

Provinces and the Gold and Diamond Districts, during the years 1836-41.

By the late GEORGE GARDNER, M.D., F.L.S., Superintendent of the Royal

Botanic Gardens, Ceylon.—London: Reeve and Co. 1853.

[16] Sketches of Brazil; including New Views on Tropical and European

Fever. With Remarks on a Premature Decay of the System, incident to

Europeans, on their return from Hot Climates. By ROBERT DUNDAS, M.D.,

Physician to the Northern Hospital, Liverpool; formerly Acting Surgeon

to H.M. 60th Regiment; and for twenty-three years Medical Superintendent

of the British Hospital, Bahia. 8vo., price 9s.—London: John Churchill,

Prince’s-street, Soho. Liverpool: Deighton and Laughton, and Rockliff and

Sons.

[17] Buenos Ayres and the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata: from their

Discovery and Conquest by the Spaniards to the Establishment of their

Political Independence. With some Account of their Present State, Trade,

Debt, etc.; an Appendix of Historical and Statistical Documents; and a

Description of the Geology and Fossil Monsters of the Pampas. By Sir

WOODBINE PARISH, K.C.H., F.R.S., G.S., Vice-President of the Royal

Geographical Society of London, and many years Chargé-d’affaires of

H.B.M. at Buenos Ayres. Second Edition, enlarged, with a New Map and

Illustrations.—London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1852.

[18] Two Thousand Miles’ Ride through the Argentine Provinces: being

an Account of the Natural Products of the Country, and Habits of the

People; with a Historical Retrospect of the Rio de la Plata, Monte Video,

and Corrientes. By WILLIAM MAC CANN, Author of the Present Position of

Affairs on the River Plate. With Illustrations. In Two Volumes.—London:

Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill. Smith, Taylor, and Co., Bombay. 1853.

[19] 1. A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, with an

Account of the Native Tribes, and Observations on the Climate, Geology,

and Natural History of the Amazon Valley. By ALFRED R. WALLACE. With

a Map and Illustrations.—London: Reeve and Co., Henrietta Street,

Covent Garden. 1853. 2. The Amazon, and the Atlantic Slopes of South

America. A Series of Letters under the Signature of ‘Inca.’ By M. F.

MAURY, LL.D., Lieut. U. S. Navy; who, under date, Washington City,

January, 1853, says: ‘These Letters were originally published by the

National Intelligencer and the Union, of this City. They treat of one

of the most important commercial questions of the age: they are eagerly

sought after in all parts of the country; and though they have been

extensively read, the demand for them in a more permanent shape than

that of a newspaper is such that the Publisher has obtained leave of

their Author to re-issue them in their present form.’ On the recent

visit of Professor Silliman to Humboldt, at Berlin, the veteran explorer

expressed his great gratification at the progress which enterprise was

making throughout South America, especially in the region of the Amazon;

and made particular mention of the Professor’s countryman, Lieutenant

Maury, of whose work we are now speaking, and from which we shall draw

copiously hereafter. In giving the gallant Lieutenant all praise,

however, we should not omit to acknowledge how much the reading public

of this quarter of the globe are indebted for their previous knowledge

of the same region to another countryman of his, whose excellent little

volume has lately been re-issued in England in a cheap form, by Murray,

viz., A Voyage up the River Amazon, including a Residence at Pará, by W.

H. EDWARDS; of which it was justly said that it was a work valuable for

the information it gave on this very little known part of the world, and

likely to excite many adventurous young men to explore the Amazon, so

that going back on the traces of Orellana, and crossing to the Pacific,

may probably become, ere long, as familiar to our countrymen as a voyage

up the Rhine or the Nile. Mr. Edwards’ charming little volume has led

to such exploration; and the interesting results will be found in our

chapter upon the Amazon, which we are particularly desirous of drawing

attention to.

[20] According to the official returns for the twelvemonth ending March

last, the amount of British tonnage entered inwards from Portugal

consisted of 7 steam and 735 sailing-vessels; the total amount of both

class of vessels being 71,536 tons. The amount of British tonnage cleared

outwards for Portugal consisted of 7 steam and 716 sailing-vessels; the

total amount of tonnage being 76,662. Great Britain receives nearly

a half of all the exports of Portugal, and Portugal only receives

one-fiftieth of all the exports of Great Britain.—It appears from

M’Gregor’s ‘Synthetical View of Legislation,’ that in 1851, the total

amount of the exportations of Great Britain and Ireland was about

£75,000,000, of which only £1,048,356 was to Portugal! being less than

the amount sent by Great Britain and Ireland to Chili and Peru! Whereas,

in the United States the consumption of British goods has doubled since

1841, and now amounts to nearly one-fifth of all the British manufactures

exported.

[21] It is so needless to tell any one entering the Tagus, much less any

one who has entered, how topographically accurate is the description in

‘Childe Harold,’ that the stanzas are quoted merely to save the reader

the trouble of referring to the volume itself, in case he do not quite

remember the lines:—

The horrid crags, by toppling convent crown’d,

The cork-trees hoar that clothe the shaggy steep,

The mountain-moss by scorching skies embrown’d,

The sunken glen, whose sunless shrubs must weep,

The tender azure of the unruffled deep,

The orange tints that gild the greenest bough,

The torrents that from cliff to valley leap,

The vine on high, the willow branch below,

Mix’d in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow.

Then slowly climb the many-winding way,

And frequent turn to linger as you go,

From loftier rocks new loveliness survey,

And rest ye at ‘Our Lady’s house of woe;’

Where frugal monks their little relics show,

And sundry legends to the stranger tell:

Here impious men have punish’d been, and lo!

Deep in yon cave Honorius long did dwell,

In hope to merit Heaven by making earth a hell.

[22] Next to Byron, the great modern English literary name associated

with this part of Portugal, and not merely from his residence here, but

from his delightful and extraordinary pourtrayal of the conventual life

of the neighbourhood, in his almost posthumous work, the ‘Monasteries

of Alcobaça and Batalha,’ is he whom the noble bard alludes to in the

well-known lines:—

On sloping mounds, or in the vale beneath,

Are domes where whilome kings did make repair;

But now the wild flowers round them only breathe;

Yet ruin’d splendour still is lingering there,

And yonder towers the Prince’s palace fair:

There thou, too, Vathek! England’s wealthiest son,

Once form’d thy Paradise, as not aware

When wanton Wealth her mightiest deeds hath done,

Meek Peace voluptuous lures was ever wont to shun.

Beckford, as is well known, soon after his return to England, built

the fairy-like structure of Fonthill Abbey, gorgeous as his own Caliph

Vathek, and, like it, as unsubstantial; for, on its being sold to Mr.

Farquharson for some £40,000, about one-seventh of what it cost, [the

catalogues describing its contents were in prodigious demand at a guinea

a piece] it fell to the ground. He died in 1844, aged 84; and was father

to the late Duchess of Hamilton, and father-in-law to the present Duke of

Hamilton and Duchess of Newcastle.

[23] At this convent was educated Don John VI., grandfather to the

late ‘Lusian’s luckless Queen,’ who died in 1816 in Brazil, from the

melancholy derangement from which Dr. Willis, who had attended George

III. for a similar malady, was unable to recover her. The young prince

was placed here with the idea of his wearing the cowl as abbot, prior to

attaining the highest ecclesiastical honours; but the unexpected death

of his elder brother made him heir to the throne, which he afterwards

filled. Of the suitability of the structure for so august an inmate,

the late Lord Carnarvon, who visited it in 1827, says:—I rode through a

bleak but not unpleasant country to Mafra. The convent and palace united

constitute an immense pile of building, which excites admiration rather

from its vast extent than from any architectural merits, and forms a

quadrangle, measuring 760 feet from east to west, and 670 feet from north

to south. The church is situate in the centre, and three hundred cells

are placed behind the choir; the palace might perhaps contain without

inconvenience all the courts of Europe. The thermometer had risen to more

than 90°, and it was indeed no common luxury to exchange such intolerable

heat for the refreshing temperature of the convent galleries, which are

built of stone, and are high, wide, dark, and apparently interminable.

Within those massive walls the fluctuations of the external atmosphere

are never felt; and rarely indeed do any external sounds pierce through

those mighty barriers. The monks showed us the refectory, a spacious

apartment, and the library, well stored with books.—Portugal and Galicia,

with a Review of the Social and Political State of the Basque Provinces.

By the Earl of CARNARVON. Third Edition.—London: John Murray, Albemarle

Street. 1848.

[24] The mention of the English burial-ground, in Lisbon, induces us

to correct an error into which the recent religious persecutions in

Italy have betrayed some of our countrymen at home, as to the supposed

existence of such practices in Portugal. Such a mistake is perfectly

natural, but it is wholly unfounded; for, though the religion of the

state is strictly Roman Catholic, of the most unmitigated character,

still, like Brazil, though unlike Spain, there is toleration for all

religions, and no impediment thrown in the way of their being observed.

A Portuguese resident in London, writing to a leading journal on the

point raised in consequence of the iniquitous treatment of the Madiai

and others by the Duke of Tuscany, says:—‘The liberality and toleration

of the Portuguese government towards Protestants, either resident

or travelling, in Portugal, has existed for ages past. That line of

conduct has never been altered, and for the truth of this assertion

I appeal to the British Legation at Lisbon, and to the very numerous

and respectable British commercial body connected with that country. A

British subject has as much civil and religious liberty in Portugal as

he can possibly enjoy in his own country. Christianity and civilization

were first carried to Asia, Africa, and America, by that nation which

his Lordship so much depreciates, and the door of that vast empire which

Great Britain possesses in India was opened by the inhabitants of that

soil.’ The imputation on the religious liberality of Portugal excites

some indignation in that country, and a letter from Lisbon, in one of

the papers, at the beginning of the year, says:—Not only since the

establishment of the constitution, but even during the absolute regime,

a large measure of toleration was always allowed to all other religions.

The English and German Protestants have long had churches and cemeteries

of their own, and, unlike their brethren in Spain, are allowed to bury

their dead with as much ‘pomp and publicity’ as they please. The only

restriction imposed upon people of other persuasions is, that they shall

not, by word of mouth, or in writing, revile and insult the established

religion of the country. This restriction, which was formerly operative,

has now, however, become a dead letter, the real religion of the liberal

party generally being materialism, against which nobody here seems

disposed to declaim. At the beginning of the present year, (1854), a

statement, signed by many of the principal British residents in Oporto,

appeared in the London journals, setting forth that the most unreserved

liberty for the performance of Protestant Service, with any degree of

publicity, was allowed in that city, and had been for a great number of

years.

[25]

Lo! Cintra’s glorious Eden intervenes

In variegated maze of mount and glen.

Ah, me! what hand can pencil guide, or pen,

To follow half on which the eye dilates,

Though views more dazzling unto mortal ken

Than those whereof such things the bard relates,

Who to the awe-struck world unlock’d Elysium’s gates?

Sir Wm. Napier’s correction, in his History of the Peninsular War, of the

blunder about the supposed site of the convention, is well known, but

deserves to be repeated:—

“The armistice, the negotiations, the convention itself,

and the execution of its provisions, were all commenced,

conducted, and concluded, at the distance of thirty miles

from Cintra, with which place they had not the slightest

connection, political, military, or local; yet Lord Byron has

gravely asserted, in prose and verse, that the convention was

signed at the Marquis of Marialva’s house at Cintra; and the

author of ‘The Diary of an Invalid,’ improving from a poet’s

discovery, detected the stains of the ink spilt by Junot upon

the occasion.”

[26]

As when to them who sail

Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past

Mozambic, off at sea, north-east winds blow

Sabean odours from the spicy shore

Of Araby the blest.—Paradise Lost, Book iv.

The voyage from Portugal to India was, in those days, more perilous

than will easily be believed in these. The seas swarmed with pirates,

shipwrecks were dreadfully frequent, and even when these dangers were

escaped, the common mortality was so great, that Vieyra says—‘If the

dead, who had been thrown overboard between the coast of Guinea and the

Cape of Good Hope, and between that cape and Mozambique, could have

monuments placed for them each on the spot where he sunk, the whole way

would appear like one continued cemetery.’ Hyperbolical as this is, it

shows how enormous the expenditure of life must have been, which could

thus be spoken of in the pulpit! The ship in which Camoens sailed was the

only one of the fleet which reached its destination.

[27] The middle classes promenade with their families until the sun

begins to have effect, when they return to breakfast and to business.

Dinner is usually served from noon till 2 p.m., and consists of sopa,

vaca cozida, e arroz, (soup, boiled beef, and rice,) with occasionally

hum prato do meio (a dish of roast for the centre). Potatoes are seldom

or never used, excepting in the kitchen. Fish is only eaten on fast-days,

and the delicious sardine (because common and plentiful) shares the

fate of the potatoes. The common vin ordinaire of the country is drunk

at table out of small tumblers, being supplied from a neighbouring

tenda (wine-store) daily or hourly, as it may be required, at a price

never exceeding 2d. per pint. Fine old bottled wine (such as we are

acquainted with) is altogether unknown in Portugal, and it would be

almost as rare to find in any house a couple of dozen bottles of wine,

as it would be to discover as many books. Fire-places have not yet

become general in dwelling-houses. In cold weather, gentlemen in society

wear capotes (large cloth cloaks), and ladies wrap up in thick shawls.

Dinner-parties are quite uncommon; but social evening meetings, where

tea and simple biscuits are the only refreshments, are of constant

occurrence.—_Forrester’s Essay._

[28] These peculiar latine sails are exquisitely beautiful when seen in

profile and, when beheld in front, resemble a butterfly perched on a dark

ground with expanded wings.—_Carnarvon._ British naval architects will

probably be surprised to hear that the Portuguese craft of every kind are

all prime built and beautiful models, the elegance of their lines being

a source of admiration to every critic. The Oporto fishing-boats, in

particular, are fine specimens of the country’s capacity for this sort of

excellence, and, when under sail, fly through the water at the rate of 12

to 14 knots an hour.

[29] In the days of Pliny, we are told, the provinces of Minho, Galicia,

and Asturias paid not less than a million and a half octaves of gold to

the Roman Empire, as a tribute on the ore extracted from various mines

then in active operation, and yet, in the present day, the revenues

derived by the Portuguese Government from all their mines does not amount

to more than £72 17_s._ The Romans worked mines of gold, silver, iron,

lead, coal, antimony, copper, quicksilver, bismuth, arsenic, and tin,

in Portugal: and Faria e Souza graphically remarks, ‘Hardly is there a

river, or mountain-base that it laves, which does not cover precious

stones and grains of gold.’ This language may be considered poetic,

but there is no doubt that ‘le sol de Portugal est essentiellement

metalifere,’—that metals abound throughout the whole country; but

the mines are not worked; neither can their value be correctly

ascertained, in the absence of every means of transport, and internal

communication.—_Forrester._

[30] Hints to Travellers in Portugal, in Search of the Beautiful and the

Grand. With an Itinerary of some of the most Interesting Parts of that

Remarkable Country.—London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1852.

[31] The Oliveira Prize-Essay on Portugal: with the Evidence Regarding

that Country taken before a Committee of the House of Commons in

May, 1852; and the Author’s Surveys of the Wine-Districts of the

Alto-Douro, as Adopted and Published by order of the House of Commons.

Together with a Statistical Comparison of the Resources and Commerce

of Great-Britain and Portugal. By JOSH. JAMES FORRESTER, Wine-Grower

in the Alto-Douro.—London: John Weale, 59, High Holborn. John Menzies,

Edinburgh. Coutinho, Oporto. 1852.

[32] There is scarcely any difficulty now in going to Portugal, for a

steamer sails from Southampton for Lisbon on the 7th, 17th, and 27th

of every month, or on the following day, when any of those days should

fall on a Sunday, and generally enters Vigo Bay in three days; and,

weather permitting, calls off Oporto, and arrives in five or six days

at Lisbon, from which city a steamer occasionally sails for Oporto, at

which place the traveller is recommended to commence his excursions,

the province of Minho excelling all others in Portugal in whatever is

fertile and picturesque, and being equal, if not superior, in grandeur to

the district of the Estrella Mountains. The ordinary mode of travelling

is on horses or mules, which can be hired for about 5_s._ 6_d._ per

day, including their food; but the arrieros who accompany them must be

maintained at the cost of him who hires them, and he likewise expects to

receive a gratuity. The money of the country is calculated in reis, and

taking the mil rei, or 1,000 reis, to be equal to 4_s._ 6_d._, the value

of the current coin will be nearly as follows:—_In Silver_: The Cruzado

_novo_, or 480 reis = 2_s._ 2_d._; the 12 Vintem piece, or 240 reis =

1_s._ 1_d._; the 6 Vintem piece, or 120 reis= 6½; the 3 Vintem piece, or

60 reis = 3¼_d._; the testoon, or 100 reis = 5½_d._; the Half Testoon, or

50 reis = 2⅓_d._—_In Gold_: Moidore, or 4,800 reis = £1 1_s._ 8_d._; the

small gold piece, or 5000 reis = £1 2_s._ 6_d._; the gold piece, or 8000

reis = £1 16_s._ The English sovereign circulates in Portugal for 4500

reis. The copper coins in general circulation are the following:—The 5

reis, equal to little more than 0¼_d._; the 10 reis, equal to little more

than 0½_d._; the 20 reis, or Vintem, equal to little more than 1_d._; the

40 reis, or Pataca, equal to little more than 2_d._

Our political relationship with Portugal, from the personal family

alliances between the two countries, and from other causes, has of late

years been kept up at great expense; and, according to some critics,

with very little good to any but the individuals at whose instance and

on whose behalf British interference has taken place, the Portuguese

population being understood to be as little pleased with its effects as

English taxpayers are enamoured of its expense. Ostensibly our diplomatic

and consular corps now in Portugal consists of the following members, and

at the salaries annexed to their names:—Envoy extraordinary and minister

plenipotentiary, Rt. Hon. Sir Richard Pakenham, K.C.B., salary £4000 per

ann.; and house-rent £500; secretary of legation, W. R. Ward, salary

£500; paid attaché, Jos. Hume Burnley, £250; unpaid attachés, Hon. W. G.

Cornwallis Elliot, and Hon. Francis Pakenham. Consuls:—Lisbon, William

Smith, £600; vice-consul, Jeremiah Meagher, £300; Oporto, Edwin Johnston,

£500; Loanda, Geo. Brand, vice-consul, £50; St. Michael (Azores) T. C.

Hunt, consul, £400; Fayal, J. Minchin, vice-consul, £100; Terciera, J.

Read, vice-consul, £100. Of the officers at Madeira and Cape Verds,

(Portuguese possessions) due mention will be made under those heads. The

Portuguese diplomatic and consular staff in England consists of:—Envoy

extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, Count de Lavradrio, 12,

Gloucester Place, Portman Square; secretary of legation, Chevalier Pinto

de Soveral; attachés, E. F. de la Figaniere, J. C. Stone, and Geo.

Manders; consul-general, F. J. Vanzeller, 5, Jeffrey Square, St. Mary

Axe; consuls: Liverpool, Almeida Campos; Bristol, Ant. B. de Mascarenhas;

Cork, Geo. Manders.

[33] A Sketch of Madeira; containing Information for the Traveller, or

Invalid Visitor. By EDWARD VERNON HARCOURT, Esq. With Sketches by Lady

Susan Vernon Harcourt.—London; John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1851.

[34] You must not look for many pretty faces in Madeira after the age of

thirteen: amongst the upper classes inertness, and amongst the lower,

hard work, reduce the standard of beauty. The upper class of women

are hardly ever seen in the streets, save on their road to mass, or

when going to pay a visit; on these occasions all the jewels, plate,

and ribbons, of apparently very ancient families, are to be seen in

full display. The ladies generally live on their balconies, watching

passers-by. The English ladies, going to church draw forth many fair

beholders and critics, and on Sundays the balconies are lined with native

fashion. The glory of the Madeira women is their hair, which is of the

richest growth and blackest hue, and their eyes, which are dark and

bright.—_Harcourt._

[35] One of these traditions is very gracefully and attractively told

by Mr. Charles Knight, in his agreeable volumes, published by Murray, a

couple of months back, and entitled ‘Once upon a Time.’

[36] Lodgings in Madeira are plentiful and good. For a family, the most

comfortable plan is to take a _Quinta_, that is to say, a house with a

garden, standing in the suburbs of the town. The price asked for the

season of six months varies according to their size, from £50 to £200.

In such cases the tenant is supplied with everything but plate and house

linen. For single persons the boarding-houses are least troublesome, as

well as most economical: a bed-room, sitting-room, attendance, and board

are obtained there for fifty dollars, or £10 8_s._ 4_d._ a month. These

houses are conducted on a liberal scale, and every English comfort is

provided. If a _Quinta_ is taken, a supply of servants, board, plate

and linen, may be procured at a given rate. It is inconceivable what

annoyances you are saved by such an arrangement; besides the endless

impositions practised upon the ignorance of foreigners by servants and

tradesmen, it is no small luxury to be able to pay a given sum down

monthly, instead of the interminable daily payments which the ready money

system of Madeira requires. Plate, furniture, pianofortes, saddles, guns,

and, in fact, any things that are brought out as _luggage_, are allowed

to pass through the Custom House free of charge, on the bond of some

resident householder being given that the owner of the property will

export it in eighteen months. Portuguese servants may be hired for house

and kitchen work at the rate of about from four to six dollars per month

for the former, and from six to eight dollars for the latter, service.

Those who are content with a plain table, average honesty, and moderate

attention, have no reason to be dissatisfied. Provisions of all sorts are

cheap. English bread, which is sold at 2½_d._ the pound, is the dearest

article of food; the quality of it, however, is excellent. Mutton, which

is an indifferent meat, fetches from 3½_d._ to 4_d._ a pound; beef, which

is good, from 3½_d._ to 4_d._; and veal, from 4_d._ to 5_d._ Fowls may be

purchased at from 10_d._ to 1_s._ 3_d._ a couple. The markets are held at

daybreak, and all the meat, the best fish, and best fruits are brought at

that time. Tea, soap, and tobacco are contraband, but the Custom House

is not inexorable. A common English wardrobe, with the addition of a few

lighter articles, and a waterproof covering for the mountains, suffice

for clothing.—_Harcourt._

[37] Two distinct species of finch (_Carduelis_) appear to have afforded

the different varieties of singing bird, familiarly known by this name.

The one which is best known in its wild state is the _Carduelis canaria_

of Cuvier, and is very abundant in Madeira, where its characters and

habits have been observed with much attention by Dr. Heineken. ‘It

builds,’ says this naturalist, ‘in thick, bushy, high shrubs and trees,

with roots, moss, feathers, hair, &c.; pairs in February; lays from four

to six pale blue eggs; and hatches five, and often six times in the

season. It is a delightful songster, with, beyond doubt, much of the

nightingale’s and sky-lark’s, but none of the wood-lark’s, song.’—‘A

pure wild song from an island canary, at liberty, in full throat, in a

part of the country so distant from the haunts of men that it is quite

unsophisticated, is unequalled, in its kind, by any thing I have ever

heard in the way of bird-music’ The canary-bird was brought into Europe

as early as the 16th century, and is supposed to have spread from the

coast of Italy, where a vessel, which was bringing to Leghorn a number of

these birds, besides its merchandise, was wrecked. As, however, they were

males chiefly which were thus introduced, they were for some time scarce;

and it is only of late years that their education and the proper mode of

treating them have been known.—_Brande_, 1853.

[38] Brazil, as before stated, was originally so named from its valuable

dye-wood, called Braziletto or ‘Cisaljuna Braziletto,’ or Pernambuco,

Wood of Saint Martha, or Sipan, according to the place which produces

it, and by Linnæus, _Cæsalpinia custa_, which was for many years the

richest dye in Europe, and from which the famous Turkey red colours were

produced, rivalling the ancient Tyrian purple, and, like it, passing into

oblivion, after vast popularity; for other drugs having been substituted,

Brazil wood became comparatively little used. It was a close monopoly

of the government, who derived a large revenue from its sale, from £100

a ton upwards being the current price in London, and only 8 years ago

4,500 tons were imported into Great Britain. Brazil timber also possesses

qualities not generally known, one of which is mentioned by Sir W. G.

Ouseley, and accounts for the infrequency of conflagrations in some

of the cities of South America, as compared with what happens in the

northern portion of the continent, where fire brigades are among the

most prominent institutions of the country, and yet do not by any means

prevent the mischief they are meant to guard against. He says:—‘A proof

of the incombustible nature of Brazil wood was afforded at this house

(the Mangueiras) previous to my arrival at Rio de Janeiro, when it was

occupied by Baron Palencia, at that time Russian Minister to the Imperial

Court. One night an attempt was made to set fire to the outside door-like

shutters of one of the windows, with a view, doubtless, to getting into

and robbing the apartments. In the morning was discovered a heap of

still smoking, combustible materials, partially consumed, applied to the

outside of the shutter, the planks of which were little injured, although

their surface was charred, as the fire had been in actual contact with

the wood probably for some hours.’ Brazil wood (the dye now so called) is

very small sized—sticks, comparatively speaking,—and is not used at all

for building purposes, being much too valuable. The ordinary timber of

the country is of quite another description.

[39] Of the simultaneousness of these discoveries, Humboldt says:—‘The

course of great events, like the results of natural phenomena, is ruled

by eternal laws, with few of which we have any perfect knowledge.

The fleet which Emanuel, King of Portugal, sent to India, under the

command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, on the course discovered by Gama, was

unexpectedly driven on the coast of Brazil on the 22nd April, 1500. From

the zeal which the Portuguese had manifested since the expedition of

Diaz in 1487, to circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope, a recurrence of

fortuitous circumstances, similar to those exercised by oceanic currents

on Cabral’s ships, could hardly fail to manifest itself. The African

discoveries would thus probably have brought about that of America south

of the Equator; and thus Robertson was justified in saying that it was

decreed in the destinies of mankind that the new continents should be

made known to European navigators before the close of the fifteenth

century.’

[40] It is after this beautiful quarter of the city of Pernambuco that

the second vessel of the ocean line of the South American and General

Steam Navigation Company was called. Olinda is situated on several hills,

clothed with the most luxuriant tropical vegetation, from the midst

of which the convents, churches, snow-white cathedral, and numerous

private residences, mostly of the same colour, are seen to great effect,

though, on a near approach, in a sadly decayed state. Olinda, however,

may be regarded in something of the light of an East End to St. Antonio,

the West End, or official quarter, where are situate the principal

governmental departments and offices; while Recife is the actual place

of business, and where all the foreign merchants are located. The value

of the exports from Pernambuco annually exceeds a million and a half

sterling; and that of the imports from England is about £800,000.

[41] Few spots in the New World are more indebted to nature than the

environs, all possible combinations of scenery being included in one

magnificent perspective. One of the best views is from the Corcovado

Mountain, which although upwards of 3,000 feet in height, can be ascended

on horseback. Like most mountains around, it is rather a rock, or titanic

monolith, than a mountain, and it may be compared with the gnomon of a

gigantic sun-dial; and, in fact, its shadow in particular localities

supplies the place of a parish clock. Its sides are still in great part

covered with forest and ‘matta,’ or jungle, notwithstanding numerous

fires by which it has been devastated, the immediate result of the last

being a deficiency in the supply of water to parts of the capital, for

the destruction of trees here, as elsewhere, causes a scarcity of the

aqueous element, and the springs which rise on and around this mountain

feed the conduits and aqueducts that convey that fluid into Rio. From the

summit may be seen the whole extent of the harbour and city; the Organ

Mountains in the distance, several lakes along the coast, a wide expanse

of ocean, and innumerable ravines and spurs of the mountain clothed with

richest foliage. The most remarkable, however, of all the mountains near

the capital, is the Gavia, with a flattened summit, sometimes called by

the English the Table Mountain, in Portuguese, the ‘square topsail,’ to

which it bears a resemblance. It is reputed to be inaccessible, at least

it has not yet, as far as can be ascertained, been ascended. Opening into

the outer harbour is Botafogo Bay, a short distance from the capital,

where many foreign merchants reside to enjoy the cool sea breezes,

and where the buildings are of a superior description, with beautiful

gardens attached, many being luxuriantly planted with oranges and lemons,

bananas, pomegranates, palm trees, and a vast variety of shrubs and

vegetables peculiar to Brazil, including the universal cabbage plant in

great profusion. The aqueduct, which is passed in several places in the

ascent of the Corcovado, is a well-built and striking object, crossing

several streets of Rio, and conveying excellent water from the heights of

that mountain to the different fountains in the town.

[42] The only publication relative to Brazil that has appeared since I

left England, or at least that I have seen since my return, is one which,

though it touches but lightly on the country, as might be expected in ‘A

Sketcher’s Tour Round the World,’ [by Mr. Robert Elwes], contains some of

the best word-painting of Brazilian city life anywhere to be met with.

The following description, for instance, will be readily recognized as

most just by all who have been long in the capital; and the concluding

passage in particular, I fear, is but too applicable:—

‘The town of Rio Janeiro (its proper name is St. Sebastiano) is the

largest and best in South America, and the population about equals that

of Liverpool. It is laid out in regular squares: the streets are narrow,

which, at first sight, seems objectionable to an Englishman, but he

soon finds that it affords protection from the scorching sun; and the

thoroughfares are tolerably well-paved and lighted, and have _trottoirs_

at the sides. To obviate the inconvenience arising from the narrowness

of the streets, carriages are only allowed to go one way, up one street

and down the next, and a hand is painted up on the corners to show which

way the traffic is to flow. The best street, Rua d’Ouvidor, is nearly

all French, so that one can almost fancy oneself in the Palais Royal;

and nearly everything that is to be found in London or Paris may be

bought in Rio. Many English merchants have houses in the city, but most

of the shopkeepers are French; and this proves a perfect blessing to

visitors, for a Brazilian shopman is so careless and indolent, that he

will hardly look for anything in his stores, and will often say he has

not got the article asked for, to save himself the trouble of looking for

it. The best native shops are those of the silversmiths, who work pretty

well, and get a good deal of custom, for Brazilians and blacks revel in

ornament, often wearing silver spurs and a silver-hafted knife though

perhaps they may not have any shoes to their feet. The Brazilians are

very fond of dress; and though it seems so unsuitable for the climate,

wear black trowsers and an evening suit to walk about the streets in.

Strangers will find no curiosities in Rio Janeiro except the feather

flowers, which are better here than in Madeira, and fetch a higher price.

A Frenchwoman, who employs a number of girls of all complexions in her

business, is the principal manufacturer. They are made (or ought to be)

entirely of undyed feathers, the best being those of a purple, copper,

or crimson colour, from the breasts and heads of humming-birds. One of

these wreaths has a beautiful effect, and reflects different-coloured

light. The wing cases of beetles are also used, and glitter like precious

stones. Madame has her patterns from Paris, so the wreaths are generally

in good style and newest fashion. The worst shops are kept by English,

and this will be found a general rule in these foreign towns. The

merchants are good and honest; but if one wishes to be well taken in, go

to a shop kept by an Englishman.’

[43] The Bank, Exchange, Custom House, and Arsenal, (of late years

greatly extended,) are in the Rua Direita. Besides these, the chief

public edifices are, the Imperial Palace, a plain brick building; the

Old Palace, on the shore, used for public offices; a Public Hospital,

alluded to elsewhere, erected in 1841; a National Library, with 800,000

printed volumes, and many valuable MSS.; and a well supported Opera

House, which has supplied Europe with some very popular performers,

especially in the ballet line, as witness that general favourite, Madame

Celeste, who came from Rio, in 1830, with her sister Constance, another

danseuse, and appeared for the first time in England at Liverpool, in

the divertissement in Masaniello, Sinclair being Auber’s hero. The

educational establishments are, the Imperial College of Don Pedro II.;

the College of St. José; Schools of Medicine and Surgery; Military and

Naval Academy; and many Public Schools. It has also many Scientific

Institutions; a Museum rich in Ornithology, Entomology, and Mineralogy;

and a fine Botanic Garden. Of Churches there are upwards of fifty, not of

much external elegance, but mostly sumptuously decorated in the interior.

[44] The inhabitants of Rio Janeiro are fond of carriages, but the

specimens generally seen would hardly do for Hyde Park, being chiefly

old-fashioned coaches, drawn by four scraggy mules, with a black coachman

on the box, and a postillion in jack-boots on the leaders, sitting

well back, and with his feet stuck out beyond the mule’s shoulders.

The liveries are generally gorgeous enough, and there is no lack of

gold lace on the cocked hats and coats; but a black slave does not

enter into the spirit of the thing, and one footman will have his hat

cocked athwartships, the other fore and aft; one will have shoes and

stockings, with his toes peeping through, the other will dispense with

them altogether. But the old peer rolls on unconscious, and I dare say

the whole thing is pronounced a neat turn-out. The Brazilians are great

snuff-takers, and always offer their box, if the visitor is a welcome

guest. It is etiquette to take the offered pinch with the left hand.

Rapé is the Portuguese for snuff, hence our word rappee. They do not

smoke much. The opera was good, the house very large, tolerably lighted,

but not so thickly attended as it might be. The ladies look better by

candle-light, their great failing being in their complexions, the tint

of which may be exactly described by the midshipman’s simile of snuff

and butter. The orchestra was good, many of the performers being blacks

or mulattos, who are excellent musicians. The African race seem to like

music, and generally have a pretty good ear. Both men and women often

whistle well, and I have heard the washerwomen at their work whistling

polkas with great correctness. I was amused one evening on going out of

the opera when it was half over: offering my ticket to a decent-looking

man standing near the door, he bowed, but refused it, saying that men

with jackets were not allowed in the house.—_Elwes._

[45] The population of Rio, on the arrival of the royal family, did not

amount to 50,000, but afterwards rapidly augmented; so that in 1815,

when declared independent, the number had nearly doubled, and now is

estimated at about 400,000, with the suburbs and the provincial capital

of Nitherohy, on the opposite shore of the Bay. This increase is partly

to be ascribed to the afflux of Portuguese, who have at different times

left their country in consequence of the civil commotions which have

disturbed its peace, as well as of English, French, Dutch, Germans,

and Italians, who, after the opening of the port, settled here, some

as merchants, others as mechanics, and have contributed largely to its

wealth and importance. These accessions of Europeans have effected a

great change in the character of the population, for at the commencement

of the century, and for many years afterwards, the blacks and coloured

persons far exceeded the whites, whereas now they are reduced to less

than half the number of inhabitants. In the aggregate population of the

empire, however, the coloured portion is still supposed to be treble the

white.

[46] Senhor Pereira de Andrade, the Brazilian gentleman referred to in

the next note, in the course of his examination before the committee

on the 19th of July, 1853, is asked by Sir George Pechell:—‘You stated

what must have given very great pleasure to this committee, that you

considered Brazil had done its duty with regard to the fulfilment of

its treaties, and also that the feeling of the country was generally

in favour of employing free labour?’—Andrade answered, there can be no

doubt of it. Question.—Do you think that a candidate for election to the

Parliament of Brazil would have any chance of being elected if he were

in favour of the importation of slaves? Answer.—Certainly not; not a man

in Brazil now would dare utter a single word in Parliament in favour of

the slave trade. Question.—In short the popular cry would be all against

it? Answer.—Yes. All his answers are to the same effect; and upon these

answers, as well as those of the other witnesses, the committee made the

report adverted to in the adjoining page.

[47] Those who would fully understand the bearings of this

most interesting subject, concerning which an infinite deal of

misunderstanding was, I may almost say designedly, propagated in England,

so perverse was the determination, in certain quarters, to disbelieve

everything that redounded to the credit, and to swallow implicitly all

that was supposed to tell to the discredit, of Brazil, will find it

fully set forth in the evidence given before the committee on Slave

Trade Treaties, which sat in the course of last session, under the

chairmanship of Mr. Hume. On that committee were several gentlemen who

had been most strenuous in their resistance to all remonstrance on the

part of Brazil, against the too often wanton, and almost always violent

and irritating, conduct of our cruisers; gentlemen who were incessant in

their appeals for vigorous measures on the part of our squadron on the

coast, and of our ambassadors at the court, of Brazil; yet the committee

so composed reported as follows:—The importation of slaves into Brazil,

in ’47, was 56,172: in ’48, 60,000; in ’49, 54,000; but in ’51, it had

diminished to 3,287, and in ’52, to 700, of which last importation a

considerable portion had been seized by the Brazilian Government. Mr.

Consul Porter reported to Viscount Palmerston in ’48, that 74 slave-trade

vessels had sailed from Bahia in the year ’47, and 93 in ’48;—that the

slave traffic was carried on with great activity; and, as an example, he

stated that one vessel, the ‘Andorinha,’ of 80 tons burden, which cost

£2,000 sterling, had made eight successful voyages with slaves from the

West Coast of Africa, having actually landed at Bahia 3,392 slaves, and

received for freight 120 milreis per head, or £40,704 sterling, giving

a profit of 800 per cent.; also that towards the end of ’50, and in

’51, stringent orders had arrived at Bahia for the suppression of the

trade, and that when he left Bahia in the end of ’51, ‘the slave trade

was perfectly suspended.’ He thinks that the British ships alone cannot

stop the trade, but that if the Brazilian Government be sincere, it will

certainly be put down. Your committee invite the attention of the House

to the evidence of Senhor D’Andrade and others, and to the reports of the

Brazilian Ministers, for an explanation of the manner in which so great a

change has been effected in the Brazils. The speech of the Emperor to the

assembly of this year, on the subject of the slave trade; the stringent

laws that have been passed, and others that are in progress, by the

Brazilian Government against the slave trade; and, above all, the seizure

and banishment of some Portuguese merchants, who, were suspected of an

intention to renew the trade, convince your committee that the Brazilian

Government is sincere, and that the slave trade is actually abolished in

the Brazils. Your committee refer to the correspondence of the Earl of

Aberdeen with the Brazilian Government, in 1845, to explain the state of

the slave question at that time, and the reasons that induced Parliament

to pass the 8 and 9 Vict. c. 122. The favourable change which has taken

place in the councils and conduct of the Brazilian Government respecting

slavery, whether accelerated by the active services of Captain Schomberg

or not, may induce Parliament to repeal that Act, as intimated in his

Lordship’s letter of the 2d July 1845.—It is to be hoped that this

recommendation of the committee will be carried out in the course of the

present session.

[48] We have said that of all public securities those of Brazil rank the

highest, next to those of Great Britain itself. It may not be amiss to

give the following ‘monetary’ evidence of the same fact from a well-known

dispassionate Stock Exchange authority, the last edition of _Fortune’s

Epitome of the Funds_, under the head of Brazilian Five per Cents, 1843.

Capital £732,000. This was a transference of a portion of the claim of

Portugal to Brazil, ‘that land of wonders, whose rivers roll over beds

of gold, where the rocks glow with topazes, and the sands sparkle with

diamonds, where nature assumes her richest dress beneath the blaze of

tropical suns, and birds of the gaudiest plumage vie with the splendid

efflorescence of the forests they inhabit; this gorgeous picture, drawn

in dazzling, but not false colours, leaves unnoticed the greatest riches

of Brazil, which consist in her almost unlimited power of producing the

staple commodities of life and commerce. Possessed of the finest climate,

and of a virgin soil of the richest fertility, cotton, coffee, sugar, in

fact every production of the tropics, as well as of the temperate zone,

may be cultivated to any extent, and at small expense. Numerous sea

ports, with safe harbours, and noble rivers, which, at a comparatively

small cost, might be rendered navigable, afford the means of turning

these natural facilities to the best advantage; and, judging from the

rapid increase of the commerce of late years, the Brazilians are not

altogether negligent in availing themselves of these sources of boundless

and lasting wealth. The progress of Brazil has been remarkable during the

last ten years, the revenue having been nearly doubled. The punctuality

of the payment of the dividends, the disposition evinced to preserve

the credit of the country, and the presumption that it will be well

maintained, gives Brazilian stock a good position in the market, as an

investment; and prices have not latterly experienced much fluctuation.

[49] The following letter, illustrative of some of the scenes on that

occasion, appeared in the ‘Journal do Commercio’:—‘I was expecting

my family in this capital, from Rio Grande do Sul, by the steamer

Pernambucana, when the melancholy and lamentable shipwreck of this

vessel took place; and I must confess my eternal obligation and sincere

gratitude for the heroic and brilliant action performed by the very

distinguished, valiant, and intrepid mariner, Simon, belonging to the

crew of the steamer, who was the only one of them that came forward and

contributed, in a manner without example, to the salvation, besides many

unhappy individuals who were looking on death as certain, of persons

so dear to me as my wife, eight children, and three slaves, who were

more than 24 hours on board the steamer after she had struck, without

any other resource than Divine Providence, who sent them a protector,

the black Simon; so that my loss consisted only of a little daughter, a

female slave, and all the baggage.—Rio de Janeiro, 5th Nov., 1853.—LOUIS

VIEIRA DA COSTA.’

As a frightful contrast to the conduct of the brave Simon, it appears

that even on board the steamer the other sailors broke open the trunks

of the passengers, with knife in hand, to get possession of the money

they contained; and afterwards committed the most shocking atrocities on

shore, such as cutting the fingers off the bodies that had been washed on

land for the sake of the rings.

[50] RESUME OF THE PORT REGULATIONS ISSUED BY THE BRITISH VICE-CONSUL

AT BELEM CASTLE, LISBON.—‘[If not asked for, retain these papers until

the consignee is on board.] Deliver to the Custom-house Officer who

conducts your vessel to the anchorage ground, off the Lisbon Custom house

(quadrangle), your manifest list of stores and every single article on

board; whatever you omit to declare will be seized, and liable you to

imprisonment, and seizure of the vessel. You must declare in writing:

if your cargo, or any part is destined to any other Port. The cause you

put in for, orders, wind bound, or from other casualties. If any part of

cargo has been thrown overboard; or picked up any articles at sea. If

fish laden, or cargo on speculation, or even in ballast, by declaring you

ask franquia for cargo, or vessel, you will avoid part of port charges,

on proceeding to sea. Be particular to give correct account of all

packages, parcels, and other articles not manifested; list of passengers,

with correct note of luggage; list of crew, with a note of their tobacco,

soap, and slops; list of provisions, stores, live stock, slops, nautical

instruments, new clothes, &c.; separate list of all tobacco, segars,

and soap, every particular, with crew and passengers to produce all

they have; if any is found concealed, you are liable to transportation

and seizure of vessel. Deliver up all letters, except letter for the

consignee of vessel; if any are found on board you will pay nine times

the amount of postage; deliver up all your gunpowder. Allow no ballast,

dunnage, sweepings, or any kind of rubbish to be thrown overboard, as

you will pay a penalty of 5 shillings for every ton register. To have

buoys, and buoy ropes on anchors. To house jibboom, and flying jibboom.

Only to have long boat astern, and the painters not to have more scope

than six fathoms. To have spare bower anchor at bows, always ready to

let go in case of necessity. Not to have top-gallant-masts an end during

bad weather. Take care the vessel is never slack moored. Always to keep

watch, and assist other vessels in best way possible, in order to avoid

damage. As soon as you anchor in anchorage ground (quadrangle), land at

the custom house quay; be sure on sending your boat off, or on leaving

the vessel, that you give orders to your boat to go alongside of the

nearest gun boat; if you omit, the boat will be seized. You cannot go on

board of any vessel at anchor in the quadrangle, nor can you leave your

vessel, or return on board after sunset without an order, as your boat

will be seized. On leaving your vessel you are liable to be searched. I

draw your particular attention to these regulations of the port, as the

authorities are very severe, allow nothing to pass, and take advantage of

the least omission; a strict search is made over the vessel’s rigging and

sails.—Belem. J. Philipps.’

[51] Whilst making this general observation, only in a spirit and with a

desire that the Brazilians may see their true interests, in applying a

remedy to these absurdities, and follow out the principles of free-trade

in their regulation of commercial matters, I must not omit to acknowledge

the exemptions made in favour of the steam company which I represented.

In all the ports of the empire we were not only freed from ordinary

restrictions and delays that could possibly be dispensed with, but

everywhere met with the most kind and cordial reception; indeed, I may

say, we were welcomed with open arms.

[52] Since my return these anticipations have been to a considerable

extent realized; for previous to the close of the last session the

chambers passed a law, conferring power on the imperial government to

alter a great variety of duties in the Brazilian tariff, effecting a

reduction on the principal articles of import from England of from 25

to 30 per cent. Though the extremely flourishing state of the imperial

revenue has admitted of this improvement without any serious sacrifice,

even for the moment, it must also be attributed in a great degree to the

progress of a knowledge of sound commercial policy, not only among the

discerning men to whom the administration is committed, but among the

representatives by whose support alone they are able to carry out such

judicious views. It will be seen, also, that other portions of the South

American continent, both on the West and the East coast, have acted in a

like spirit; and now that the vast internal streams are opening to the

tide of European commerce and civilization, there begins to loom in the

not distant future the certainty of those magnificent conceptions of Mr.

Canning being realized, when he spoke of calling into political being

these states of the new world to redress the balance of the old.

[53] That the Brazilian capital should be deemed a pleasant place for the

residence of many Europeans will be inferred from what Mr. Elwes says of

the profusion find varieties of its supplies of food:—

The market of Rio is a fine large building, to the north of the

principal square. It is well supplied with fish; but the price

is always very high, as the fishermen have a sort of monopoly,

and will only bring a certain quantity to market, in order

to keep it up. The best fish is the garoupa; immense prawns

(camaroes) are very plentiful. Strangers are often told, as a

joke, that these are kept in pits, and fed with the dead bodies

of slaves thrown in from time to time; and I have known people

who would never touch them on that account. Parrots, monkeys,

&c., are very common, and a few game birds. Occasionally,

large lizards of two or three feet in length are brought to

market, and they are said to be excellent eating. Deer are

sometimes killed in the woods; but I have never seen them in

the market, though there is a small animal, called the paca,

to be had, the flesh of which is very good. Fruit is supplied

in great abundance. Oranges and bananas are to be had all

the year. The oranges were superior to anything I had before

tasted, and excel the Maltese. They are said to be better in

Bahia, and better still in Pernambuco; so it appears that the

hotter the climate, the more suitable it is to this fruit, as

the Maltese and the Egyptian are certainly far superior to

those of Portugal and Sicily. The banana (_Musa paradisaica_,

called ‘plantano’ by the Spaniards, and ‘plantain’ in the West

Indies,) is a most nutritious fruit; but few people like it at

first, as the taste is rather sickly and insipid. There are

a variety of sorts, which bear fruit of different sizes, but

the short thick one is the best. It is very nutritious and

productive; and it is said that forty square feet, planted

with bananas, will support a man for a year. The plant itself

is very handsome, and the great leaves, ten or twelve feet

in length, and two in breadth, make a splendid feature in

the landscape of the tropics. Each plant bears one bunch of

fruit, after which it should be cut down, when suckers spring

up in all directions from the root, so that it is a vegetable

more suited for idle people than even the potato, as it does

not require planting, and the fruit can be eaten without the

trouble of cooking it. The fruta do Conde, or chirimoya of the

Spaniard, and custard-apple of the West Indies, is delicious,

but varies a good deal in quality. The maricuja, Spanish

granadilla, the fruit of the passion-flower, is very good.

It is about as large as a swan’s egg, with a pulp and seeds

like a gooseberry. The alligator or avocada pear, the mammon,

papaw, or mammy apple, are common fruits, not so good as those

before-named. Pine-apples are common enough, but not very good.

[54] The Brazil government have adopted measures to introduce immigrants

to supply the place of slaves, they have established some large colonies

from Germany, France, and Portugal, principally by private speculation

and by the government; and those colonies of private individuals are

the surest guarantee for the abolition of the slave trade, because

those parties are now interested by the larger profit they derive from

free labour, in keeping this system instead of the other, especially in

coffee. They are greatly prized for their steady industry, peaceable

disposition, and easy adaptation of themselves to the manners and

usages of the people among whom they come to reside. As is the case in

Australia, and in most parts of North America, they are very general

favourites with the inhabitants of all classes, and, on the whole,

are preferred probably to any other Europeans. The number of German

immigrants now in Brazil may be considered as amounting to somewhere

about 15,000; and to these considerable additions are still being made

from the large importations which are now daily taking place from the Old

World. They bear coffee labour pretty well, but most of them are employed

in the province of Rio Janeiro and Rio Grande; the government is very

solicitous to treat them as well as possible, and it has established

those colonies in the provinces which are best for it, more like the

climate of Europe; the provinces of Rio Grande and St. Catherine are the

coldest provinces in the country. They imported, besides those Germans,

a great many Portuguese, a different set of people altogether. They are

from Madeira, and from all parts of Portugal, and from their islands;

they generally arrive in greater numbers than the Germans. Very few

Chinese have been tried. The white natives of Brazil do not work much

upon the sugar and coffee plantations; they only serve like what we

call headmen, superintendents; not in any other way. The Germans are

contracted with and brought to Brazil; the Portuguese come on their own

account; they do not contract them in Portugal; they come of themselves

by hundreds; they generally get employment about the towns, about the gin

shops, and gin taverns, and small businesses. For particulars of this

kind, see the Report on Slave Trade Treaties. It is calculated that the

sugar crop this year, 1854, will be about 30,000 tons less than the last.

[55] Yesterday an experiment was tried with a locomotive steam-engine

on the rails of a finished portion of the road from Mauá to the

Estrella mountain. Our ‘Weekly Correspondent’ sent us last night the

following communication respecting this trip:—Whilst the political

world was agitated this morning, and the sword of Damocles, ceasing its

oscillations for a moment, fell on the ministry, myself, and some other

curiosity seekers, amongst whom were noticed the ministers of England

and of Austria, risked ourselves in a trial of the first steam-carriage

that travelled over the first railway in Brazil. We crossed the bay in a

vessel, also moved by Fulton’s agency, and in two hours (the steamer was

of small power) we arrived at Mauá. The first part only of the pier for

disembarking being laid, we climbed up by the aid of ropes, and threaded

our way amongst a succession of loose and insecure planks to the shore,

at the risk of taking a mud-bath. A few paces distant we saw a single,

graceful-looking locomotive, with the certificate of the year of its

birth and the name of its worthy papa engraved on the central wheels. The

letters, in yellow metal, were as follows: ‘Wm. Fairbairn & Son, 1853.

Manchester.’ The proper carriage was not yet attached; they substituted

for it a rough waggon, used for the conveyance of materials, and without

further delay we squatted ourselves at the bottom of this impromptu

vehicle. Suddenly a prolonged and roaring shriek, a whistle with the

force of 50 sopranos, screamed through the air, deafening the hearers,

and causing us to raise our hands to our ears. It was the signal for

departure; the warning to those who might be on the line to guard against

a mortal blow; an announcement made by a tube attached to the locomotive

itself. Swifter than an arrow, than the flight of a swallow, the

locomotive threaded the rails, swung about, ran, flew, devoured space,

and, passing through fields, barren wastes, and affrighted animals, it

stopped at last breathless, at the point where the road does not yet

afford a safe passage. The space traversed was a mile and three quarters,

and the time occupied in the transit four minutes. It is just that we

should here record the names of Messrs. Trever and Bragg; the first,

for having had the boldness to undertake the enterprise, the other, for

executing, with zeal and skill, the respective works. Mr. Hadfield,

who also went on this excursion, appeared greatly delighted. One of

his dreams for many years past has been the application of railroads

and steam in this empire. Being amongst us as the representative of a

company which undertook the line of steamers from Liverpool, towards the

establishment of which he greatly contributed, he could see his dreams

realized, as our Latin masters would say, terrâ marique. Whether it was

George Stephenson or Trevithick, as the English assert, the Brothers

Sequin, according to the French, or Oliver Evans, as the Americans

pretend,—whoever was the inventor of locomotives, what is certain is,

that humanity has taken a gigantic stride since that acquisition. The

Peace Congress ought to commemorate in annual session so prodigious an

invention, which can, more than half-a-dozen pompous discourses, cement

the bonds of union of nations, bring nations together into one family,

and develop commerce, that most powerful element of peace and greatness.

What a brilliant future for Brazil do we see in the wheels of that

locomotive! Happy those amongst us who may have long lives—they will pass

by great cities, by great rural establishments, recollecting that on

their sites were swamps and forests. Oh! if the existence of man was not

so short; if, at least, we could return to this world invisible shadows,

wandering in our native country, how small we should find ourselves,

comparing our past, that is, our present of to-day, with the progress

made by the generation then before us. But human beings are like the

workmen who assist each other in raising an edifice: each age deposits

its stone towards the completion of the great work. Our first stone has

been laid on the plain of Mauá. The edifice is already commenced; let us

not be discouraged; and if death should overtake us in the midst of the

work, here are our generations to continue it. Peace, in the meantime,

and eternal rest to the poor Mauar race. The invisible power has come

to replace their services, with the first-fruits and benefits of which

a bright morning succeeds to a dark and ugly night. May the material

improvements of the country come, and with them peace and industry; and,

to commence the sooner the better, let us have the roads of Minas and San

Paulo.

[56] Exports of staple productions of Rio Janeiro, the result of slave

labour, during 1851: coffee, 2,037,305 bags, value, 4,756,794_l._;

sugar, 12,832 cases, value, 234,980_l._; rosewood, 36,813 planks,

value, 82,000_l._ In addition to these, other articles of produce, such

as hides, horns, rice, tobacco, tapioca, rum, &c., were exported, the

value of which may be estimated at 264,000_l._, making the total value

of produce shipped in that year 5,337,074_l._ Exports of the staple

productions of Rio Janeiro, the result of slave labour, during 1852:

coffee, 1,906,336 bags, value, 4,265,800_l._; sugar, 13,960 cases, value,

160,000_l._; rosewood, 25,500 planks, value, 55,000_l._ The value of the

other articles cannot be correctly ascertained, but may be estimated at

about 290,000_l._, making the total value of produce exported in that

year 4,770,800_l._ Rio Janeiro, February 24th, 1853. J. J. C. WESTWOOD,

Acting Consul.

[57] Steamers running from Brazil to the United States, starting, say,

from Rio, touching at Bahia, Pernambuco, Maranham, Pará, and one or more

of the most important of the West India Islands, would prove a lucrative

undertaking. The importance of this line of steamers to those interested

in the trade between the two countries must impress itself upon all who

are conversant with the trade carried on; but although a considerable

amount of freight may be relied on, the passenger traffic will probably

be far more important. Besides the Americans and others interested in

this trade, many English and Brazilians intending to travel from South

America to Europe, and vice versa, would go _viâ_ the United States,

some for business purposes, and many to visit that country. Another

very important object would also be attained, viz. the completion of

the communication between all the large maritime towns of Brazil and

the capital of the Empire, by efficient steam-ships. At present the

communication, from Pernambuco to Pará, is carried on by small steamers

belonging to a native company, which is subsidised by the government,

and the reason given for the continuation of the subsidy was, that,

although English steam companies now put some of the northern ports in

rapid communication with the capital, those beyond Pernambuco still

relied solely on these small steamers. Although the trade between the

West Indies and Brazil is unimportant, these countries are at present

so thoroughly devoid of means of intercommunication that advantages

could not fail to be derived by the establishment of this line. At

present, a person wishing to leave a Brazilian port for the West Indies

will generally find that he must go _viâ_ England or the United States,

and this even from the most northern ports. The importance of such an

undertaking to Brazil would be immense, and I have no doubt that the

Brazilian government would be fully alive to the advantages they would

derive from it, and that they would be ready to grant a liberal amount

for mails, &c.—_Contributed._

[58] A Monte Videan writer in the City article of the _Times_ on the

17th of last month, has the following remarks, at once explanatory of

the condition of the government of the Banda Oriental, and of Brazilian

relations to it, and of the feelings prevailing in the Uruguay as to the

tendency it is desired that such relationship should assume:—

By a decree of the Provisional Government, Berro, the

ex-Minister of Giro, having been detected in fomenting the

civil war, has been outlawed. Any person is authorized to

kill him. This decree does not meet with the approbation of

the people, but in these countries public opinion has little

influence with governments. Brazil, it is said, has been

offered the protectorate of this republic, and refused it;

but she will use force, if necessary, to exact the fulfilment

of treaties; and it is generally believed here that the Banda

Oriental will soon be occupied by troops from the empire, to

restore and maintain order and support any constitutionally

established government. This news is as generally agreeable

as it is credited. The respectable portion of the Orientals

are convinced the country cannot be governed without foreign

aid, and the numerous foreigners residing here, of course,

rejoice in the prospect of peace and order. The Government

has authorized its agent in Paris to contract a loan of

12,000,000 duros, at 70 per cent., interest payable half-yearly

at the rate of 6 per cent. on the nominal capital; also to

grant a privilege for ten years to a company (with a capital

of 3,000,000 duros) of a bank of issue and discount on the

principles of the Bank of France; and, lastly, to concede

lands to an association which undertakes to despatch several

thousands of emigrant agricultural families to this republic.

These three projects are connected with each other. If Brazil

maintains order in the country for a few years, no doubt the

immigration scheme would be as beneficial to the immigrants as

to the republic.

[59] Brazil has long been diplomatically represented in this country

by M. Sergio Teixeira de Macedo, envoy extraordinary and minister

plenipotentiary, 5, Mansfield-street, Portland-place, a gentleman whose

high breeding, varied intelligence, and conciliatory manner towards

all who have business at the Legation have rendered him deservedly

popular, both with the _corps diplomatique_ and the public. He writes

and speaks English with ease and accuracy, and having married an English

lady (lately deceased) of rare accomplishments, by whom he has had a

numerous family, he is necessarily almost as familiar with the manners

and usages of society amongst us as a native. His staff consists of

J. T. do Amaral, Esq., secretary of legation, and Chevaliers H. C.

d’Albuquerque, J. A. da Silva Maya, A. de P. Lopes Gama, H. de T. M. de

Montezuma, and J. P. d’Andrada, attachés. The Brazilian consul-general

is Admiral Grenfell, Liverpool, who has distinguished himself in the

Brazilian service, and whose biography will be found in a subsequent

page; vice-consul, L. A. da Costa, Esq., 14, Cooper’s-row, Tower-hill,

London. A Brazilian vice-consul has lately been appointed at the Bahama

Islands, in the person of Mr. George W. G. Robins, of Nassau, a gentleman

who has already filled many honorary posts there with much distinction,

and is qualified in every way to secure to the imperial flag the same

respect that attaches to those of France, Spain, the United States,

&c., in that thriving British dependency. England is represented in

Brazil by Mr. H. F. Howard, who was attached to the mission at Munich in

1828, appointed paid attaché at Berlin in 1832, secretary of legation

at the Hague in 1845, and in 1846 at Berlin, where he was several times

chargé d’affaires. He was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister

plenipotentiary at Rio Janeiro in 1853, with a salary of 4000_l._, and

500_l._ per annum for house-rent. His secretary of legation is the Hon.

W. G. Jerningham, who was attached to the missions at Munich and Berlin

in 1834, to the embassy at Vienna in 1836, appointed paid attaché at

the Hague in 1839, and to his present post, with a salary of 550_l._

per year, in 1850. The British consuls are—at Rio Janeiro, where he

had previously been vice-consul, Mr. J. J. C. Westwood, 800_l._; at

Bahia, Mr. J. Morgan, who was attached to the legation at Rio Janeiro

as translator in 1845, appointed consul at Rio Grande in 1847, and

transferred to Bahia, where his salary is 800_l._ per annum, in 1852;

vice-consul at Bahia, Mr. J. Wetherell; at Pernambuco, Mr. H. A. Cowper,

formerly consul at Pará, 500_l._; at Maranham, Mr. H. W. Ovenden,

300_l._; at Pará, Mr. S. Vines, 450_l._; at Paraiba, Mr. B. M. Power,

400_l._; at Rio Grande do Sul, the Hon. H. P. Vereker, who was appointed

to a clerkship under the Commissioners of Railways in 1848, a clerkship

in the Board of Trade in 1851, and to his present post, with 800_l._

per annum, in 1852; and at St. Catherine’s, Mr. R. Callander, 500_l._

These salaries are all exclusive of fees, which, in many instances, are

very considerable, emoluments frequently arising from commissions on

Australian gold dust left at Brazilian ports for shipment to Europe; but

that source of gain is far more lucrative on the west than on the east

coast of South America, and hence the increasing pecuniary importance of

consular appointments in the Chilian and Peruvian ports.

[60] This was one of the most appalling disasters ever known at sea,

and the sensation it produced exceeded, perhaps, that occasioned by

any similar incident since the memorable destruction of the Kent East

Indiaman. The Ocean Monarch American emigrant ship left Liverpool, bound

for Boston, August 24th, 1848, having 396 passengers on board. She had

not advanced far into the Irish Channel, being within six miles of Great

Ormshead, Lancashire, when she took fire, and in a few hours was burnt

to the water’s edge. The Brazilian steam-frigate Alfonso happened to

be out on a trial trip at the time, with the Prince and Princess de

Joinville and the Duke and Duchess de Aumale on board, who witnessed

the catastrophe, and aided in rescuing and comforting the sufferers

with exceeding humanity. They, with the crews and passengers of the

Alfonso and the yacht Queen of the Ocean, so effectually rendered their

heroic and unwearied services as to save 156 persons from their dreadful

situation, and 62 others escaped by various means. But the rest, 178 in

number, perished in the flames or the sea. The conduct of the New York

sailor, Jerom, on this occasion, was scarcely less distinguished for

bravery and self-sacrifice than that of the black sailor, Simon, at the

wreck of the Pernambucana, as described at page 132.

[61] A writer in the 8th edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, now

publishing, says, ‘Nearly all the branches of this noble stream are

navigable to a great distance from their junction with the main trunk;

and, collectively, the whole affords an extent of water communication

unparalleled in any other part of the globe. What adds to this advantage

is, that as the wind and the current are always opposed to each other,

a vessel can make her way either up or down with great facility, by

availing herself of her sails in the one case, and committing herself to

the force of the current in the other.’

[62] Mr. Edwards, in his ‘Voyage up the Amazon,’ before alluded to,

says, that Pará contains an area of 950,000 square miles, nearly half

the area of the United States, and all its territories. Its soil is

everywhere of exhaustless fertility, and but an exceedingly small

portion of it is unfitted for cultivation. The noblest rivers of the

world open communication with its remotest parts, and lie spread like a

net-work over its surface.… There is scarcely a product raised in the

two countries in which Brazil could not undersell the United States in

every market of the world were it not for the export-tax. Its cotton

and rice, even during the past year, have been shipped from Pará to New

York; its tobacco is preferable to the best Virginian, and can be raised

in inexhaustible quantities.… Sooner or later, the Amazon must be the

channel of a vast commerce, and Pará must be, from the advantages of its

situation, one of the largest cities in the world.—_Edwards’s Voyage up

the Amazon._

The value of the exports from Pará in 1848 was about £148,720, of which

one-fourth was taken by the United States, a like quantity by Portugal,

one-fifth by France, one-sixth by Great Britain, and the remainder by the

Hanseatic towns, Belgium, Genoa, and Denmark. The value of foreign goods

imported in the same year was about £147,322, principally from the United

States, Great Britain, Portugal, and France. The increase in the trade

of this port will be seen by comparing the preceding statement with the

exports and imports of 1851. In that year the value of the former was

about £356,200, and that of the latter about £273,067. Proportionately

with the aggregate increase, the American and British shares of the trade

had slightly advanced; while the French share had declined to one-eighth,

and the Portuguese had diminished more than one-half. The trade with

Genoa had ceased; but that with Sweden, which had declined since 1846,

showed very promising signs of a revival. The principal articles of

export from Pará are caoutchouc and cocoa, the mean yearly value of the

trade in the former being about £138,000, and of the latter, £67,725.

Among the articles of export in which a lesser trade is carried on may be

enumerated rice, piasaba rope, annatto, sarsaparilla, hides, nuts, sugar,

isinglass, and cotton.

[63] Every one whom I conversed with on the subject of the Amazon

advocates with earnestness the free navigation of the river, and says

that they will never thrive until the river is thrown open to all, and

foreigners are invited to settle on its banks. I think that they are

sincere, for they have quite intelligence enough to see that they will be

benefited by calling out the resources of the country.—_Herndon._

[64] Piasaba is a species of palm from the bark of which is made nearly

all the rope used upon the Amazon. The appearance of the rope made from

it is similar to that of the East India coir. The fibres of the bark are

brought down the rivers Negro and Branco, and made into ropes at Barra.

[65] The Brazilian nutmeg is the fruit of a large tree that grows

abundantly in the low moist lands between the rivers Negro and Yapurá,

above Barcellos, a village on the first named river. The fruit is round,

and has a hard shell, containing two seeds, which are ligneous and

aromatic, but not equal in flavour to the Ceylon nutmeg; though this may

be owing to the want of cultivation.

[66] Since my departure from the banks of the Orinoco and the Amazon, a

new era unfolds itself in the social state of the nations of the West.

The fury of civil discussions will be succeeded by the blessings of peace

and a freer development of the arts of industry. The bifurcation of the

Orinoco, the isthmus of Tuamini, so easy to pass over by an artificial

canal, will fix the attention of commercial Europe. The Cassiquiari—as

broad as the Rhine, and the course of which is one hundred and eighty

miles in length—will no longer form in vain a navigable canal between

two basins of rivers, which have a surface of 190,000 square leagues.

The grain of New Grenada will be carried to the banks of the Rio Negro;

boats will descend from the sources of the Napo and the Ucayali, from the

Andes of Quito and upper Peru, to the mouths of the Orinoco—a distance

which equals that from Timbuctoo to Marseilles. A country nine or ten

times larger than Spain, and enriched with the most varied productions,

is navigable in every direction by the medium of the natural canal of the

Cassiquiari and the bifurcation of the rivers. This phenomenon, which

one day will be so important for the political connexions of nations,

unquestionably deserves to be carefully examined.—_Humboldt._

[67] Bolivia has but one sea-port on the Pacific, that is Cobija, an open

roadstead and a miserable village, at the head of the great desert of

Atacama. The land transportation between this port and the agricultural

districts of the republic is too rough, too tedious, and too expensive

ever to admit of its becoming a commercial emporium. The direction in

which Bolivia looks for an outlet to a market for her produce, is along

her navigable water-courses that empty into the Amazon, and then down

that stream to the sea.—_Maury’s Valley of the Amazon._

[68] Vast, many, and great, doubtless, are the varieties of climates,

soils, and productions within such a range. The importance to the

world of settlement, cultivation, and commerce in the Valley of the

Amazon cannot be over-estimated. With the climates of India, and of

all the habitable portions of the earth, piled one above the other in

quick succession, tillage and good husbandry here would transfer the

productions of the East to this magnificent river-basin, and place them

within a few days’ easy sail of Europe and the United States. Only a few

miles back we had first entered the famous mining districts of Peru. A

large portion of the silver which constitutes the circulation of the

world was dug from the range of mountains upon which we were standing,

and most of it came from that slope of them which is drained off into

the Amazon. Is it possible for commerce and navigation up and down this

majestic water-course and its beautiful tributaries to turn back this

stream of silver from its western course to the Pacific, and conduct it,

with steamers, down the Amazon to the United States, there to balance the

stream of gold with which we are likely to be flooded from California and

Australia?—_Herndon’s Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon._

[69] On the subject of climate, I refer to the annexed chapter by my

valued friend, Dr. Dundas, who has kindly complied with my solicitation

to enrich this volume with a contribution in which he has epitomised, for

popular use, and in a most simple form, some of the results of his great

professional experience and scientific research; and I am sure I only

anticipate the verdict of the reader, whether medical or otherwise, in

declaring the annexed pages to be as completely exhaustive of the subject

treated of as any reasonable limits of a work of this nature would

possibly admit.

[70] Mr. Wallace, in his ‘Travels on the Amazon and the Rio Negro,’

observes—‘In the districts we passed through, sugar, cotton, coffee,

and rice might be grown in any quantity, and of the finest quality. The

navigation is always safe and uninterrupted, and the whole country is so

intersected by igaripès and rivers that every estate has water carriage

for its productions. But the indolent disposition of the people, and the

scarcity of labour, will prevent the capabilities of this fine country

from being developed till European or North American colonies are formed.

There is no country where people can produce for themselves so many of

the necessaries and luxuries of life.… And then what advantages there

are in a country where there is no stoppage of agricultural operations

during winter, but where crops may be had, and poultry be reared, all

the year round; where the least possible amount of clothing is the most

comfortable, and where a hundred little necessaries of a cold region are

altogether superfluous.

[71] Its capacities for trade and commerce are inconceivably great.

Its industrial future is the most dazzling; and to the touch of steam,

settlement, and cultivation, this rolling stream and its magnificent

water-shed would start up into a display of industrial results that would

make the Valley of the Amazon one of the most enchanting regions on the

face of the earth. From its mountains you may dig silver, iron, coal,

copper, quicksilver, zinc, and tin; from the sands of its tributaries

you may wash gold, diamonds, and precious stones; from its forests you

may gather drugs of virtues the most rare, spices of aroma the most

exquisite, gums and resins of the most useful properties, dyes of hues

the most brilliant, with cabinet and building woods of the finest polish

and most enduring texture. Its climate is an everlasting summer, and its

harvest perennial.—_Herndon._

[72] Comte-rendu de l’Académie des Sciences de Juillet, 1843, and Les

Mémoires des Savants étrangers de 1843.

[73] Within the last few years this censure does not so strongly apply.

[74] Since the above lines were written, we have had later intelligence

(14th January, 1854,) from Brazil, stating the important fact that the

disease had totally disappeared from all the seaports of the empire.

[75] By late accounts from Pernambuco we notice the death of Anna Vieira,

aged 150.

[76] Since the above was written, we have learned incidentally that a

letter exists from a near relative of the late Sir William Ouseley, who

took a great interest in genealogical studies, and had traced the Ouseley

family to a high antiquity, in which the writer, after relating how he

had been foiled in endeavouring to trace a particular ancestor, adds, ‘I

have proved our descent lineally from the Carlovingian, Merovingian, and

Capetian monarchs of France, the Saxon and Norman kings of England, and

the ancient kings of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. I think that is enough

in all conscience, in addition to nineteen of King John’s twenty-five

barons.’

[77] Gold (coined or in bullion,) is admitted duty free; wrought gold

and silver at an ad valorem duty of 5 per cent.; wools and furs, 10

per cent.; raw and sewing silk, 12 per cent.; woollen, flax, cotton,

hardware, and paper manufactures, 15 per cent.; clothes, boots and shoes,

saddlery, sugar, coffee, tobacco, tea, olive oil, and generally all

edibles, 20 per cent.; spirituous liquors, 25 per cent.; wheat and Indian

corn, small fixed duties. By chapter 2nd, relating to maritime exports,

horse skins are charged with a duty of one dollar each; sheep skins,

three dollars a dozen; other skins 4 per cent. on their marketable value;

salt tongues four reals a dozen; tallow 12 reals an arroba; hair and

wool, two dollars an arroba; horns, 4 per cent. on their value. All other

products of the province of Buenos Ayres, and in general all the fruits

and production of the Argentine provinces, duty free. The introduction

landwards of foreign merchandise is prohibited. The tariff is subject to

annual revision.

[78] _The Trade of London with the River Plate_ has materially increased

during the last few years, and is very different now from what it was

twenty years ago. Then vessels used to be a long time on the berth, or

were partly loaded with manufactured goods, and afterwards filled up with

coals, or called at the Cape de Verds to load salt, as the remainder

of their cargo; whereas, now they are despatched with full cargoes of

manufactured goods every two or three weeks. This marked improvement

arises partly from the comparative tranquillity of the River Plate

provinces, and the greater wants of the people, and partly from the more

expeditious and commercial mode of carriage in this country, by means of

which considerable parcels of goods from the manufacturing districts are

now forwarded to London for shipment by the vessels regularly despatched

by Messrs. Martin and Scott, the London and River Plate ship-brokers,

who afford merchants every facility in shipping by their vessels, the

expenses of goods thus forwarded never exceeding and, in many cases,

being very considerably less, by this than by any other route whatever.

The number of vessels despatched from London within the last four years

has been about 60, averaging 15 ships, aggregating 2,745 tons’ register,

or 4,423 tons of actual storeage, shipped annually. Of this number, 37

were British and 23 foreign, chiefly of the Danish flag; 25 of these

vessels were sent to Buenos Ayres direct, 12 to Monte Video direct, and

23 to Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, the restrictions formerly existing

between Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, so that no vessel touching at

the one port could discharge at the other, having been abolished since

the deposition of Rosas. The goods shipped from London are coals, when

required for ballast, iron, zinc, and other metals, paint, oil, anchors

and chains, hardware, hollow ware, tools and agricultural implements,

earthenware, rope, beer, &c. There are also considerable shipments of

linen, cotton, and woollen goods, hosiery, haberdashery, together with

a considerable quantity of millinery, silks, and fancy goods, wines,

spirits, furniture, toys, and pianos. Of these goods, anchors and chains,

tools and agricultural implements, earthenware, and cotton goods are,

for the most part, sent up specially from the inland manufacturing

districts for shipment. The produce of the River Plate arriving in London

is very considerable, and consists of salted and dry ox and cow-hides,

horse-hides, tallow, mares’ grease, bone-ash, animal manure, wool, hair,

horns, and bones. There is also, occasionally, a small quantity of

Paraguay tobacco, ostrich and vulture feathers, nutria, chinchilla, and

other skins. These remarks apply in an increased degree to Liverpool,

between which port and the Plate the commercial intercourse is infinitely

greater than between London and the Plate, the imports and exports being

necessarily much the same as to quality. The trade between Liverpool and

the ports of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video for 1853 collectively amounted

to 64 vessels, consisting of 11,850 tons.

[79] Sir William Gore Ouseley was the British Minister here referred to.

It is alike foreign to the purposes of this volume, and to the wishes

of the writer, to express any opinion on the policy pursued by England,

in the affairs of the Plate, at the period mentioned; but he deems it

the merest justice to the reputation of the diplomatist just named for

sagaciously judging of ‘coming events’ by the ‘shadows cast before,’

to record a fact familiar to every one who has sojourned, for ever so

brief a period, in the River Plate, viz., that the inhabitants of all

classes, without exception, native or foreign, are as unanimous now in

their approving remembrance of his conduct, as they were at the time it

elicited their spontaneous applause in an enduring and complimentary

form. Not less than 800 native Monte Videans, embracing the elite of

the whole community[A] not actually in the interest of the enemy,

tendered their grateful thanks for his efforts to preserve the national

independence—efforts which, had they not been thwarted in quarters where

the utmost assistance should have been accorded, would have secured

that object, while avoiding years of war and bloodshed, and saving some

millions of property lost to the commerce of the world by a continuance

of the disturbances by Rosas. His exertions for the promotion of commerce

formed the most marked item of eulogium in the address from the French[B]

inhabitants, and is particularly deserving of being dwelt upon, now

that the mercantile course of action he recommended so strenuously, as

to the opening of the rivers, has been ratified in respect to Paraguay,

whither he sent our recent Plenipotentiary there no less than eight

years ago, as we shall see when we come to speak of that country. Of the

sense entertained of his merits by the English at Monte Video, their

address,[C] subjoined below, is sufficiently explanatory; but something

still more significant is the circumstance that, though Sir William was

a party to the unfortunate loan by British capitalists, and though it

has been hitherto found impossible to obtain payment thereof, principal

or interest, in any form, no word of censure is vented against him; for

it is felt that the loan was a wise and prudent measure at the time,

and that had the spirit in which it was entered into on both sides been

carried out in the sense then understood, as it readily might have been,

but for shortsightedness at home, the lenders would have been paid with

at least as much regularity as the French government, who continued their

assistance long after England had backed out of the engagement, to the

same effect. And, undoubtedly, the French government have every right

to be paid; for, without their continuous aid Monte Video must have

fallen, and Rosas would at this moment have been Dictator of the whole

Argentine Confederation, of which the Uruguay, and probably Paraguay

also, would have been component parts. It is further felt that even after

the untoward turn affairs have taken, as regards the original engagement

about the loan, the interest might readily be continued to be paid, were

the customs’ receipts administered in the judicious mode initiated when

Sir William obtained the money for the government, viz., by a committee,

composed chiefly of foreign merchants, who collected the dues with so

small an expense that there was always a considerable surplus; whereas in

native hands the aggregate received barely paid the cost of collection.

It is gratifying to find, even at the twelfth hour, years after

misrepresentations to the contrary had effected their momentary object

in causing the recall of Sir William from an arena where the cajolery

and the bullying of Rosas were rendered alike abortive by the tact and

vigour of the British Minister, that these truths are now recognized, not

merely by the Anglo South American public, but by the English authorities

at home, whose _esprit de corps_ renders them ever reluctant to admit

that an injustice can be committed against a servant of the Crown, and

still more reluctant to make any reparation for it.[D] On the accession

of the Derby administration, one of the first acts of the Foreign

Minister, Lord Malmesbury, who, in common with the Imperial ruler of

France, had devoted a great deal of consideration to questions of South

American commercial policy, was to despatch Sir C. Hotham on a mission

for the completion of the work in which that gallant officer had been

previously engaged at the instance of Sir William; and the noble lord,

rightly feeling how much was due to the originator of the same design,

obtained the Order of the Bath for the late minister to the Plate,

expressly on the ground of the services he had rendered to his country

and to humanity during his mission there, and which are specially alluded

to in the addresses presented to him, as quoted in the foregoing page.

Though the present administration do not, or at least did not, appear

to attach the same importance as their predecessors to the recent South

American commercial treaties, it is understood that they have not failed

to express their appreciation of the pioneer in the path of progress

in that direction; and that they have admitted that a very hasty, and

consequently very erroneous, judgment had been passed on his political

conduct in the Plate. Why that judgment should have been hasty, why it

should have been formed on the representations of those whose policy and

whose patron, (the Dictator,) have since been swept away, and are now

only mentioned to be derided, is a secret which it would require the

penetrative perseverance of Mr. Urquhart himself to detect. But it is, at

least, satisfactory to know that the _amende_ has been made as liberally

as it is in the nature of the official genus to do these things; and

that a gentleman in whose family the diplomatic faculty may be said

to be hereditary,[E] and with whom we have reason to hope it will not

terminate,[F] has been authoritatively pronounced to have proved himself

worthy of his antecedents. It is, however, more immediately in reference

to his services to commerce that his name is introduced here; for it is

impossible to allude to the late South American treaties of ’53 without

feeling that Sir W. Gore Ouseley’s labours of ’46 in that cause place him

in the same relation to what has been accomplished by Lord Malmesbury and

Sir C. Hotham as the inquiries of the Import Duties’ Committee placed

Mr. Hume in respect to the Free-trade achievements of Messrs. Cobden and

Bright.

[A] Senor. Los infrascriptos Ciudadanos naturales de la Republica

Oriental del Uruguay sienten la necesidad de manifestar a V. E. el

altisimo aprecio en que tienen la lealtad de su caracter, y los muchos

y relevantes servicios que V. E. en el desempeno de las funciones

que le habia confiado el Gobierno de S. M. su Augusta Soberana, ha

prestado a la causa de la Independencia de nuestra Patria. La guerra que

devasta el suelo en que hemos nacido es, en todo rigor, de parte de los

Orientales, una lucha de defensa legitima y de Independencia—lucha que

no hemos provocado, y en cuyo termino no buscamos ni apetecemos mas que

la conservacion de la situacion en que nos coloco el pacto celebrado

en 1828 entre el Imperio del Brazil y la Republica Argentina—que nos

esta reconocida por todas las Naciones, y virtual, pero solemnemente

garantida por la Inglaterra y la Francia. Ciertos de la eficacia de esta

garantia y del interes politico y comercial que tienen esas dos grandes

potencias en el mantenimiento de la Nacionalidad Oriental,—con todas sus

consecuencias, y en que no que—de absorvida por un Poder anti-social

y repulsivo de toda idea civilizadora, los Orientales procuraron su

apoyo y una alianza justa y decorosa. El principio en que esta alianza

se basaba era honroso, y los fines, a mas de honrosos civilizadores y

fecundos en resultados beneficos, para la paz externa de estas regiones,

y para la paz interior de nuestro pais que deseamos, con toda la fuerza

de que somos capaces, teniendo por mira unica, que reconciliada la

familia Oriental a que pertenecemos, fuera de toda coaccion e influencia

estrana, pueda elegir en libertad, y en la forma consagrada en sus

leyes, un Gobierno suyo, que la rija con suecion a la Constitucion y

a los intereses Orientales. Los dos Agentes encargados en 1845 por la

Inglaterra y la Francia de dar apoyo a la nacionalidad Oriental volviendo

la paz a nuestros hogares, y los Senores Almirantes Inglefield y Lainé,

que han tenido el mando de las fuerzas interventoras, han desempenado

mision tan noble del modo mas cordial, mas conforme al pensamiento

esplicitamente declarado por sus Gobiernos al pensamiento y al deseo

del nuestro, y de todos los buenos Orientales; por lo que reconocemos

deberles sincera y profunda gratitud. Permitanos V.E. consagrar en esta

carta, respecto de su persona, la espresion de ese sentimiento; que

agreguemos a ella la de los votos que hacemos por sus prosperidades—y

le pidamos conserve siempre la memoria de nuestra Patria y la de los

Ciudadanos que interpretes, sin dudaen, este acto, de la sociedad en que

viven—tenemos el honor de ofrecer a V.E. el homenage del respeto, de

la adhesion y de la amistad que le profesamos y con que somos. De V.E.

affmos Servidores.

[TRANSLATION]