Port of Bahia.--A Quaint Old City.--Former Capital of
Brazil.--Whaling Interests.--Beautiful
Panorama.--Tramways.--No Color Line Here.--The Sedan
Chair.--Feather Flowers.--Great Orange Mart.--Passion Flower
Fruit.--Coffee, Sugar, and Tobacco.--A Coffee
Plantation.--Something about Diamonds.--Health of the
City.--Curious Tropical Street Scenes.
Bahia,--pronounced Bah-ee'ah,--situated three hundred and fifty miles
south of Pernambuco, is the capital of a province of the same name in
Brazil, and contains nearly two hundred thousand inhabitants. It is
admirably situated on elevated ground at the entrance of All Saints
Bay,--_Todos os Santos_,--just within Cape San Antonio, eight hundred
miles or thereabouts north of Rio Janeiro. The entrance of the bay is
seven miles broad. For its size, there are few harbors in the world
which present a more attractive picture as one first beholds it on
entering from the open Atlantic. The elevated site of the city, with its
close array of neat, white three and four story houses, breaks the
sky-line in front of the anchorage, while the town forms a half moon in
shape, extending for a couple of miles each way, right and left. Near
the water's edge, on the lower line of the city, are many substantial
warehouses, official establishments, the custom house, and the like.
Between the lower and the upper town is a long reach of green terraced
embankment, intense in its bright verdure. Probably no other city on the
globe, certainly not so far as our experience extends, is so peculiarly
divided.
A sad episode marked our first experience here. We came to anchor in the
harbor, according to custom, at what is known as the Quarantine. About a
cable's length from us lay a large European steamship, flying the yellow
flag at the fore. She came into port from Rio Janeiro on the previous
evening; five of her passengers who had died of yellow fever on the
passage were buried at sea, while two more were down with it, and were
being taken to the lazaretto on shore, as we dropped our anchor.
Probably they went there to die. This was naturally depressing, more so,
perhaps, as we were bound direct for Rio Janeiro; but as we now came
from a northern port with a clean bill of health, we were finally
released from quarantine and permitted to land. It is late in the
season--last of May--for this pest of the coast to prevail, but the year
1891 has been one of unusual fatality in the South American ports, and
none of them have been entirely exempt from the scourge, some showing a
fearful list of mortality among both citizens and strangers. We were
conversant with many instances of a particularly trying and sad nature,
if any distinction can be made where death intervenes with such a rude
hand. Victims who were in apparent good health in the morning were not
infrequently buried on the evening of the same day! But we will spare
the reader harrowing details.
Americus Vespucius discovered Bahia in 1503, while sailing under the
patronage of Portugal, and as it was settled in 1511, it is the oldest
city in the country, being also the second in size, though not in
commercial importance. The excellent harbor is so spacious as to form a
small inland sea, the far-reaching shores of which are beautified by
mingled green foliage and pretty villas stretching along the bay, while
the business portion gives evidence of a growing and important foreign
trade. This deduction is also corroborated by the presence of numerous
European steamships, and full-rigged sailing vessels devoted to the
transportation of merchandise. The buildings are generally of a
substantial appearance, whether designed as residences or for business
purposes, but are mostly of an antique pattern, old and dingy. Though
the city is divided into the lower and the upper town, the latter two or
three hundred feet above the former, it is made easily accessible by
mechanical means. A large elevator, run by hydraulic power, is employed
for the purpose, which was built by an energetic Yankee, and has been in
successful operation several years, taking the citizens from the lower
to the upper town, as we pass from basement to attic in our tall North
American buildings. Between the two portions of Bahia there are streets
for the transportation of merchandise, which wind zigzag fashion along
the ravine to avoid the abruptness of the ascent. Besides these means,
there are narrow stone steps leading upwards to the first level, among
the tropical verdure, the deep green branches and leaves nodding to one
from out of narrow lanes and quiet nooks. There is still another way of
reaching the upper town, namely, a cable road, of very steep grade, one
car ascending while another descends, thus forming a sort of
counterbalance. By all these facilities united, the population manage
very comfortably to overcome the topographical difficulties of the
situation.
Though there are few buildings of any special note in Bahia, the general
architecture being quaint and nondescript, still the combined view of
the city, as we have endeavored to show, is of no inconsiderable beauty.
We approached it from the north, doubling Light House Point in the early
morning, just as the rising sun lighted up the bay. Seen from the
harbor, the large dome of the cathedral overlooks the whole town very
much like the gilded dome which forms so conspicuous an object on
approaching the city of Boston. The dark, low-lying, grim-looking fort,
which presides over the quarantine anchorage, is built upon a natural
ledge of rock, half a mile from the shore of the town, and looks like a
huge cheese-box.
In the upper portion of Bahia the streets are narrow, and the houses so
tall as to nearly exclude the sun when it is not in the zenith. They are
built of a native stone, and differ from the majority of South American
dwellings, which are rarely over two stories in height, and generally of
one only. We have heard it argued that it is advantageous to build
tropical cities with narrow streets, so as to exclude the heat of the
sun's rays and thus keep the houses cooler. This is not logical. Wide
avenues and broad streets give ventilation which cannot be obtained in
any other way in populous centres. Narrow lanes invite epidemics,
fevers, and malarial diseases; broad thoroughfares give less opportunity
for their lodgment. A beehive of human beings, crowded together in a
narrow space, exhausts the life-giving principle of the surrounding
atmosphere, but this is impossible where plenty of room is given for the
circulation of fresh air.
These tall houses of Bahia have overhanging ornamental balconies, which
towards evening are filled with the female portion of the families,
laughing, chatting, singing, and smoking, for the ladies of these
latitudes smoke in their domestic circles. Narrow as the streets of
Bahia are, room is found for a well patronized tramway to run through
them. No one thinks of walking, if it be for only a couple of hundred
rods, on the line of the street cars. All of the civilized world seems
to have grown lazy since the introduction of this modern facility for
cheap transportation.
Bahia was the capital of Brazil until 1763, during which year the
headquarters of the government were removed to Rio Janeiro.
This is a sort of New Bedford, so to speak, having been for more than a
century extensively engaged in the whaling business, an occupation which
is still pursued to a limited extent. Whales frequent the bay of Bahia,
where they are sometimes captured by small boats from the shore. It is
supposed that the favorite food of this big game is found in these
waters. There was a time when the close pursuit by fishing fleets fitted
out in nearly all parts of the world rendered the whales wary and
scarce. The catching and killing of so many seemed to have thinned out
their number in most of the seas of the globe. Then came the great
discovery of rock oil, which rapidly superseded the whale oil of
commerce in general use. Thereupon the pursuit of the gigantic animal
ceased to be of any great moment, while there was oil enough
spontaneously pouring out of the wells of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere,
to fully satisfy the demand of the world at large. Being no longer
hunted, the whales gradually became tame and increased in numbers, so
that to-day there are probably as many in the usual haunts of these
leviathans in either hemisphere as there ever were. The briefest sea
voyage can hardly be made without sighting one or more of them, and
sometimes in large schools.
There is a portion of the elevated section of Bahia which is called
Victoria, a really beautiful locality, having delightful gardens,
attractive walks, and myriads of noble shade trees. From here the
visitor overlooks the bay, with its islands and curving shore decked
with graceful palms, bamboos, and mango groves; upon the water are
numerous tiny boats, while white winged sailing ships and dark, begrimed
steamers unite in forming a picture of active life and maritime beauty.
In the distance lies the ever green island of Itaparica, named after the
first governor's Indian bride, while still farther away is seen range
after range of tall, purple hills, multiplied until lost in the
distance.
A few grim looking convents and monasteries, which have gradually come
into the possession of the government, are now used as free schools,
libraries, and hospitals. There is a medical college here which has a
national reputation for general excellence, and many students come from
Rio Janeiro, eight hundred miles away, to avail themselves of its
advantages, receiving a diploma after attending upon its three years'
course of studies. From subsequent inquiry, however, not only here but
in Rio and elsewhere, we are satisfied that the science of medicine and
surgery stands at a very low ebb throughout this great southland.
Foreign doctors are looked upon with great distrust and jealousy;
indeed, it is very difficult for them to obtain a suitable license to
practice in Brazil. This does not apply to dentistry, of which
profession there are many American experts in the country, who have
realized decided pecuniary and professional success. There were six or
eight on board the Vigilancia, who had been on a visit to their North
American homes during the summer season, at which time the fever is most
to be dreaded here.
The city contains over sixty churches, some of which are fine edifices,
built of stone brought from Europe. This could easily be done without
much extra expense, as the vessels visiting the port in those early days
required ballast with which to cross the ocean. They brought no other
cargo of any account, but were sure at certain seasons of the year to
obtain a suitable return freight, which paid a good profit on the round
voyage. Several of these churches are in a very dilapidated condition,
and probably will not be repaired. The cathedral is one of the largest
structures of the sort in Brazil, and is thought by many to be one of
the finest. The cathedral at Rio, however, is a much more elaborate
structure, and far more costly. It takes enormous sums, wrung from the
poorest class of people, to maintain these gorgeous temples and support
the horde of fat, licentious, useless priests attached to them, while
the mass of humanity find life a daily struggle with abject want and
poverty. Does any thoughtful person believe for one moment that such
hollow service can be grateful to a just and merciful Supreme Being?
Bahia was a flourishing port before Rio Janeiro was known commercially,
and was the first place of settlement by English traders on this coast.
The present population is of a very mixed character, composed of nearly
all nationalities, white and black, European and natives. There is no
prejudice evinced as regards color. Mulatto or negro may once have been
a slave, but he is a freeman now, both socially and in the eyes of the
law. He is eligible for any position of trust, public or private, if he
develops the requisite degree of intelligence. Men who have been slaves
in their youth are now filling political offices here, with credit to
themselves and satisfaction to the public. The actual reform from being
a degraded land of slavery to one of human freedom is much more radical
and thorough in Brazil than it is in our own Southern States, where the
pretended equality of the colored race is simply a burlesque upon
constitutional liberty.
The occasional use of that quaint mode of conveyance, the sedan chair,
was observable, taking one back to the days of Queen Anne. Only a few
years ago it was the one mode of transportation from the lower to the
upper part of the town; but modern facilities, already referred to, have
thrown the sedan chair nearly out of use. A few antique representatives
of this style of vehicle, some quite expensive and elaborately
ornamented, are still seen obstructing the entrances to the houses. The
local name they bear is _cadeira_. When these chairs are used, they are
borne upon the shoulders of two or four stalwart blacks, and are hung
upon long poles, like a palanquin, after the fashion so often seen in
old pictures and ancient tapestry.
We have spoken of the narrowness of the streets through which the
tramways pass. In many places, pedestrians are compelled to step into
the doorways of dwellings to permit the cars to pass them. This is not
only the case at Bahia, but also in half the busy portion of South
American cities. These mule propelled cars are now adopted all over this
country and Mexico; even fourth class cities have tramways, and many
towns which have not yet risen to the dignity of having a city
organization are thus supplied with transportation. The Bahia tramway,
on its route to the suburbs, passes through fertile districts of great
rural beauty, among groves of tropical fruits, orange orchards, tall
overshadowing mangoes, and cultivated flowers. There is an attempt at a
public garden, though it is an idea only half carried out; but there is
a terrace in connection here called "The Bluff," from whence one gets a
magnificent view, more especially of the near and the distant sea. These
delightful and comprehensive natural pictures are photographed upon the
memory, forming a charming cabinet of scenic views appertaining to each
special locality, choice, original, and never to be effaced.
We must not omit to mention a specialty of this city, an article
produced in one or two of the charitable institutions, as well as in
many humble family circles, namely, artificial flowers made from the
choicest feathers of the most brilliant colored birds. None of these
articles are poor, while some of them are exquisite in design and
execution, produced entirely from the plumage of native birds. A
considerable aggregate sum of money is realized by a certain portion of
the community, in the regular manufacture of these delicate ornaments.
Girls begin to learn the art at a very early age, and in a few years
arrive at a marvelous degree of perfection, producing realistic pictures
which rival the brush and pencil of a more pretentious department of
art. Nearly all visitors carry away with them dainty examples of this
exquisite and artistic work, which has a reputation beyond the seas.
Thousands of beautiful birds are annually sacrificed to furnish the
necessary material. Thus the delicate family of the humming-bird, whose
variety is infinite in Brazil, has been almost exterminated in some
parts of the country. There is one other specialty here, namely, the
manufacture of lace, which gives constant employment to many women of
Bahia, their product being much esteemed all over South America for the
beauty of the designs and the perfection of the manufacture.
The special fruit of this province, as already intimated, is oranges,
and it is safe to say that none produced elsewhere can excel them. They
are not picked until they are thoroughly ripe, and are therefore too
delicate, in their prime condition, to sustain transportation to any
considerable distance. Those sold in our northern cities are picked in a
green condition and ripened off the trees, a process which does not
injure some fruits, but which detracts very materially from the orange
and the pineapple. The oranges of Bahia average from five to six inches
in diameter, have a rather thin skin, are full of juice, and contain no
pips; in short, they are perfectly delicious, being delicately sweet,
with a slight subacid flavor. The first enjoyment of this special fruit
in Bahia is a gastronomic revelation. The maracajus is also a favorite
fruit here, but hardly to be named beside the orange. It is the product
of the vine which bears the passion flower, but this we could not
relish. It is a common fruit in Australia and New Zealand, where the
author found it equally unpalatable, yet people who have once acquired
the taste become very fond of it. The vine with its flower is common
enough in the United States, but we have never seen it in a
fruit-bearing condition in our country.
The province of Bahia has an area of two hundred thousand square miles,
and is represented as containing some of the most fertile land in
Brazil, capable of producing immense crops of several important staples.
It is especially fertile near the coast, where there are some large and
thriving tobacco, sugar, and coffee plantations. The first mentioned
article, owing to some favorable peculiarity of the soil in this
vicinity, is held to be nearly equal to the average Cuban product, and
it is being more and more extensively cultivated each year. Bahia cigars
are not only very cheap, but they are remarkably fine in flavor. It was
observed that old travelers on this coast made haste to lay in a goodly
supply of them for personal use.
A coffee plantation situated not far from this city was visited,
affording a small party of strangers to the place much pleasure and
information. The coffee plant is an evergreen, and thus the foliage is
always fresh in appearance, yielding two harvests annually. Boa Vista,
the plantation referred to, covers about one hundred acres, much of
which is also devoted to the raising of fodder, fruit, corn, and beans,
with some special vegetables, forming the principal sustenance of the
people and animals employed upon the estate. At first, in laying out
such a plantation, the coffee sprouts are started in a nursery, and when
they have had a year's growth are transplanted to the open field, where
they are placed with strict uniformity in long rows at equal distances
apart. After the second year these young plants begin to bear, and
continue to do so for twenty-five or thirty years, at which period both
the trees and the soil become in a measure exhausted, and a new tract of
land is again selected for a plantation. By proper management the new
plantation can be made to begin bearing at the same time that the old
one ceases to be sufficiently productive and remunerative to cultivate
for the same purpose. The coffee-tree is thought to be in its prime at
from five to ten years of age. Fruit trees, such as bananas, oranges,
mandioca, guavas, and so on, are planted among the coffee-trees to
afford them a partial shelter, which, to a certain degree, is requisite
to their best success, especially when they are young and throwing out
thin roots. The coffee bushes are kept trimmed down to about the height
of one's head, which facilitates the harvesting of the crop, and also
throws the sap into the formation and growth of berries. The
coffee-tree, when permitted to grow to its natural height, reaches
between twenty and thirty feet, and, with its deep green foliage, is a
handsome ornamental garden tree, much used for this purpose in Brazil.
The coffee pods, when ripe, are scarlet in color, and resemble cherries,
though they are much smaller. Each berry contains two seeds, which, when
detached from the pod and properly dried, form the familiar article of
such universal domestic use. A coffee plantation well managed, in
Brazil, is an almost certain source of ample fortune. The crop is sure;
that is to say, it has scarcely any drawbacks, and is always in demand.
Of course there are inconveniences of climate, and other things needless
to enumerate, as regards entering into the business, but the growth and
ripening of a coffee crop very seldom fail.
As has been intimated, this port is famous for the production of oranges
and tobacco; so Rio is famous for coffee, Pernambuco for sugar, and Para
for crude india-rubber.
We must not forget to mention one other, and by no means insignificant
product of Brazil which is exported from Bahia, namely, diamonds of the
very first quality, which for purity of color far exceed those of Africa
and elsewhere. It appears that a syndicate in London control the world's
supply of this peculiar gem from all the mines on the globe, permitting
only a certain quantity of diamonds to go on to the market annually, and
thus keeping up the selling price and the market value. No one is
permitted to know the real product of the mines but the managers of this
syndicate. The quantity of the sparkling gems which are held back by the
dealers in London, Paris, and Vienna is really enormous; were they to be
placed in the retail dealers' hands as fast as they are produced from
the various sources of supply, they would be erelong as cheap and plenty
as moonstones. This sounds like an extravagant assertion, but still
there is far more truth in it than is generally realized. One of the
public journals of London lately spoke of a proposed corporation, to be
known as the "Diamond Trust," which is certainly a significant evidence
that the market requires to be carefully controlled as to the quantity
which is annually put upon it. In old times a diamond was simply valued
as a diamond; its cutting and polishing were of the simplest character.
A series of irregular plane surfaces were thought to sufficiently bring
out its reflective qualities, but the stone is now treated with far more
care and intelligence. A large portion of the value of a diamond has
come to consist in the artistic, and we may say scientific, manner in
which it is cut. By this means its latent qualities of reflection of
light are brought to perfection, developing its real brilliancy.
Accomplished workmen realize fabulous wages in this employment. A stone
of comparatively little value, by being cut in the best manner, can be
made to outshine a much finer stone which is cut after the old style.
Amsterdam used to control the business of diamond cutting, but it is now
as well done in Boston and New York as in any part of the world.
The largest diamond yet discovered came from Brazil, and is known as the
Braganza. The first European expert in precious stones has valued this
extraordinary gem, which is still in the rough, at three hundred million
sterling! Its actual weight is something over one pound troy. In the
light of such a statement, we pause to ask ourselves, What is a diamond?
Simply carbon crystallized, that is, in its greatest purity, and carbon
is the combustible principle of charcoal. The author was told, both here
and in Rio Janeiro, that there is a considerable and profitable mining
industry carried on in this country, of which the general public hear
nothing. The results are only known to prominent and interested
Brazilians, the whole matter being kept as secret as possible for
commercial reasons. No one reads anything about the products of the
diamond mines in the local papers.
We cannot say that the city of Bahia is a very healthy locality, though
it certainly seems that it ought to be, it is so admirably situated.
Yellow fever and other epidemics prevail more or less every year. The
lower part of the town, on the water front, is so shamefully filthy as
to induce fever. Upon first landing, the stranger finds himself almost
nauseated by the vile smells which greet him. This section of the town
is also very hot, the cliff, or upper town, shutting off almost entirely
the circulation of air. It is here that sailors, particularly, indulge
in all sorts of excesses, especially in drinking the vile, raw liquor
sold by negresses, besides eating unripe and overripe fruit, thus
inviting disease. One favorite drink produced here, very cheap and very
potent, is a poisonous but seductive white rum.
The trade and people in this part of the town form a strange
conglomerate,--monkeys, parrots, caged birds, tame jaguars, mongrel
puppies, pineapples, oranges, mangoes, and bananas, these being flanked
by vegetables and flowers. The throng is made up of half-naked boatmen,
indolent natives from the country, with negresses, both as venders and
purchasers. As we look at the scene, in addition to what we have
depicted there is a jovial group of sailors from a man-of-war in the
harbor enjoying their shore leave, while not far away a small party of
yachtsmen from an English craft are amusing themselves with petty
bargains, close followed by half a dozen Americans, who came hither in
the last mail steamer. A polyglot scene of mixed tongues and gay colors.
In passing into and out of the harbor of Bahia, one can count a dozen
forts and batteries, all constructed after the old style, and armed in
the most ineffective manner. These would count as nothing in a contest
with modern ships of war having plated hulls and arms of precision. Land
fortifications, designed to protect commercial ports from foreign
enemies, have not kept pace with the progress in naval armament.
Bahia is connected by submarine telegraph with Pernambuco, Para, and Rio
Janeiro, and through them with all parts of the civilized world.