was cool, and the horses eager to return; but we did not reach Mr. S.'s
till two hours after sunset, when we found that, after the party had
waited till six o'clock, Captain Graham had insisted on their dining.
The governor was uneasy, and offered to send a party of Caçadores in
search, as he kindly said, of me,--but this, of course, was refused; the
captain assuring his excellency, that if the patriots detained his
lieutenant, he would take him back with his own men, and that as to me,
while I was with my two companions, he had not the least fear concerning
me. We were accompanied by the same officer, who had been our companion
on the latter part of the ride to head-quarters, back almost to the town
lines; and when we told this to the governor, he was sorry we did not
know his name, that in case he should ever have it in his power to show
him kindness, he might do so. A pleasant chat on the adventures of our
ride, a hearty supper, and a little concert closed the day, which, upon
the whole, was to me a most agreeable one.
_Thursday, 4th._--Received Madame do Rego, one of her daughters, Miss
S., and several gentlemen, on board. Most of the party were sea-sick,
from the rolling of the ship, caused by the heavy swell at the
anchorage. They were, however, highly charmed with their visit,
particularly with the fireworks with which we saluted the ladies, who
had never been on board a British frigate before, on their departure.
_Friday, 5th._--According to the agreement made with the patriot
officers, on Wednesday, one launch and the second cutter went to Rio
Doce to receive bullocks and other provisions. The officers and men were
most kindly received, and returned with many presents of fresh stock and
vegetables, which the patriots forced upon them. A military band
attended them on landing, and conducted them to the place of meeting
with the chiefs.
Messrs. Biddle and Glennie, being on shore surveying, near Cabo de Sant
Augustin[56], were detained as prisoners for a few hours, by a patriot
detachment; but, as it appeared to be only for the purpose of obtaining
money, and done by some subaltern, no notice was taken of it.
[Note 56: The easternmost land of South America. It has two little
harbours, for small vessels, each of which is defended by a small fort,
and has a celebrated chapel to our Lady of Nazareth.]
_Saturday, 6th._--The frigate got under weigh to take a cruize, and if
possible find a quieter anchorage. Mr. Dance with a party went for more
provisions, to Rio Doce. The surf at the landing place was so high, that
they were obliged to get into canoes, and leave the boats grappled at
some distance from the beach. A guard of honour and military band
attended them, as on the former day, and they were, moreover, pressed to
dine with the commander of the post, which they gladly did. The
dining-room was a long hut, built of wood and plaited palm leaves. In
the centre, was a long table spread with a clean and very handsome
cloth. The few chairs the place afforded were appropriated to the
strangers, and the rest of the company stood during the meal. To the
strangers, also, were given the spoons and forks, but the want of them
did not appear to incommode the Brazilians. To each person a small
basin of good beef broth, _bien dorée_, was served, and for the rest
every man put his hand in the dish. Two principal messes occupied the
centre of the table, one, a platter, containing a quantity of mandioc
flour, raw; and the other a pile of fish, dressed with oil, garlic, and
pimento. Each person began by stirring a quantity of the flour into his
broth, till it acquired the consistence of brose, and then helping
himself to the fish, which was cut up in convenient pieces, dipped it
into the brose, and eat it with his fingers. Around the two principal
dishes, were others of a most savoury nature,--eels fried with sweet
herbs, shellfish stewed with wine and pimento, and others of the same
kind. Into these also each man put his hand indiscriminately, and
dipping his morsel into his basin, set our officers the example of
eating that substitute for wheaten bread, and of swallowing, without
regard to neatness or order, all manner of messes, mixed together, and
touched by all hands. After dinner, a slave handed round a silver basin,
with water and towels, after which a number of toasts were given, and
the entertainment concluded with vivas, when the guard and band attended
the officers to the boats, where the bullocks were ready to embark, and
slaves to carry the English through the surf to the canoes, which
conveyed them to the boats. On their return, I saw for the first time,
the pitanga, a berry of which an excellent preserve is made; it grows
upon a beautiful shrub, scarcely to be distinguished, either in flower
or leaf, from the broad-leaved myrtle; the berry is as large as a
filbert, and divided and coloured like the large red love-apple. Mr.
Dance brought me, also, a beautiful green paroquet, the tamest,
loveliest thing, with his emerald coat, and sparkling eye, I ever
saw.[57]
[Note 57: All the parrot tribe in Brazil is beautiful: but neither
parrots nor parroquets talk well. However, no slave ship comes from
Africa without a grey parrot or two; so that in the towns they are
almost as numerous as the native birds, and much more noisy, for they
talk incessantly.]
_Sunday, 7th._--We continued to cruize opposite to Olinda and Recife,
and alarmed some of our friends on shore, by sailing round the English
bank, a thing hitherto believed impossible, for so large a ship.
_Monday, 8th._--We find to-day, on anchoring, that terms have been
entered into with the patriots, by which their deputies are to be in the
council, and take an equal share in the administration, and on the other
hand, they are to withdraw the investing troops, and leave Luis do Rego
at the head of the military department, until the arrival of the next
despatches from Lisbon. These pacific measures were brought about by the
Paraiban deputies whom we met on Wednesday.
_Tuesday, 9th._--Mr. Dance, Mr. Glennie, and I, were deputed to take
charge of a large party of midshipmen, who had not been able before to
take a run on shore, to spend the day on Cocoa-nut Island, which lies a
good way up the harbour, and within the reef of Pernambuco. As we sailed
along the rock, we observed that it is covered with echini, polypii,
barnacles, limpets, and crusted with white bivalves less than oysters or
cockles, yet containing a fish not unlike the latter in appearance, and
the former in flavour. We had not exactly calculated the effect of the
tide so far up the harbour as Cocoa-nut Island, consequently we got
aground in the outer channel, at a considerable distance from the shore.
The sailors pushed me over one flat bank in the gig, and then carried me
to the beach; the midshipmen waded, and the officers and boats with the
crews, went in search of a deeper passage, where they might approach
with our provisions. Meantime the boys and I had full leisure to examine
the island. It is perfectly flat and covered with white sand; the shore
scattered with fragments of shells and coral. As its name imports, it is
one grove of cocoa-nut trees, excepting where the present occupant has
cleared space for a market-garden and fishponds. These last are very
extensive; and as they secure a supply of fish at times when the rough
seas of the outer roads prevent the canoes from going out, they have
answered extremely well to the speculator. The garden produces European
as well as Brazilian vegetables, in great perfection: Fruit-trees also
thrive very well.[58] In the cuts for the fishponds I observed below
the sand, a rich black earth, full of decayed vegetables, which probably
renders this apparently sandy land, so fertile. The ponds were half
covered with the white water-lily, and some other aquatic plants of the
country. The whole island abounds in gay shrubs and gaudy flowers[59],
where the humming-bird, here called the _beja flor_ or kiss-flower, with
his sapphire wings and ruby crest, hovers continually, and the painted
butterflies vie with him and his flowers in tints and beauty. The very
reptiles are beautiful here. The snake and the lizard are singularly so,
at least in colour. We found a very large rough caterpillar, each hair
or prickle of which is divided into five or six branches; the rings of
its body are scarlet, yellow, and brown; and the country people believe
that it hurts the udders of cows, and prevents their giving milk, if it
does not actually suck them. They are therefore very unpopular here,
because the whole island that is not garden-ground is pasture, and
supplies a great deal of the milk for the market of Recife.
[Note 58: All the orange and lemon tribe, papaws, cashew nuts,
melons and gourds, pomegranates, guavas, &c.]
[Note 59: The Madagascar perriwinkle is the most common, many
parasitic plants, and almost all the papilionaceous and the bell-shaped
creepers: the passion flowers also are common.]
While we were endeavouring to forget our hunger by examining the island,
and drinking cocoa-nut juice, and wondering at many an ordinary thing,
though new to young untravelled eyes, and such were those of most of the
party, our boats were taking a circuitous track, and at length at ten
o'clock landed our provisions, when we made a hearty breakfast, sitting
on a sail spread under the palm shade. The elder boys with their guns,
then accompanied Mr. Dance and the captain of a merchant vessel, who
volunteered to act as Cicerone, to shoot; and the younger ones staid
with me to collect flowers, gather vegetables, and with the assistance
of the boats' crews, to superintend the preparations for dinner. At four
o'clock the sportsmen returned, bringing red-crested woodpeckers,
finches of various hues, humming-birds, black and yellow pies, and
others of gay plumage and delicate shape, quite new to us all. A merrier
party certainly never met, but the best of the expedition was to come.
The tide was now favourable; and we determined to do a spirited thing,
and instead of going all the way down the harbour, which would have
kept us out beyond the time allowed us, we ran through a passage in the
reef called Mother Cary's passage, because few things but the birds
think of swimming there. The merchant-boat went first, our gig next, and
as I sat in the stern of the large boat that was to follow, it was
beautiful, but something fearful, to see them dash through that boiling
surf between the rocks and rise over the wave secure beyond it, nor was
the sensation less mixed when we followed. There is at all times
something triumphant in the sensation of sailing over the waters; but
when they are roughened by storms, or rendered fearful by rocks or
shoals, the triumph approaches to the sublime, and in it there is a
secret dread, though not of ocean, and a raising of the soul to him who
made the ocean, and gave man mind to master it. I am not ashamed to own,
that as I looked round on my young charge, when Mr. Dance whispered "sit
still and say nothing," and then stepping to the bow of the boat called
aloud to the helmsman, "steady!" I had a moment, though but a moment, of
exquisite anxiety. But we were through in an instant, and soon alongside
of the frigate, where we were praised for doing what few had done
before, and having shown the possibility of doing that safely, which at
some future time it might be of importance to know could be done at all.
_Wednesday, 10th._--We went on shore early for the first time since the
armistice. The guns are removed from the streets and a few of the shops
are re-opened; the negroes are no longer confined within doors, and the
priests have reappeared; their broad hats and ample cloaks give them an
importance among the crowd, which now is busy and active, and seemingly
intent on redeeming the time lost to trade by the siege. I was struck by
the great preponderance of the black population. By the last census, the
population of Pernambuco, including Olinda was seventy thousand, of
which not above one third are white: the rest are mulatto or negro. The
mulattoes are, generally speaking, more active, more industrious, and
more lively than either of the other classes. They have amassed great
fortunes, in many instances, and are far from being backward in
promoting the cause of independence in Brazil. Few even of the free
negroes have become very rich. A free negro, when his shop or garden has
repaid his care, by clothing him and his wife each in a handsome black
dress, with necklace and armlets for the lady, and knee and shoe buckles
of gold, to set off his own silk stockings, seldom toils much more, but
is quite contented with daily food. Many, of all colours, when they can
afford to purchase a negro, sit down exempt from further care. They make
the negro work for them, or beg for them, and so as they may eat their
bread in quiet, care little how it is obtained.
The European Portuguese, are extremely anxious to avoid intermarriage
with born Brazilians, and prefer giving their daughters and fortunes to
the meanest clerk of European birth, rather than to the richest and most
meritorious Brazilian. They have become aware of the prodigious
inconvenience, if not evil, they have brought on themselves by the
importation of Africans, and now no doubt, look forward with dread to
the event of a revolution, which will free their slaves from their
authority, and, by declaring them all men alike, will authorise them to
resent the injuries they have so long and patiently borne.
_Thursday, 11th._--As every thing seems quietly settled between the
royalist and patriot chiefs, we are preparing to take leave of
Pernambuco, and it is not without regret, for we have been kindly
treated by the Portuguese, and hospitably received by our own
countrymen. We went on shore to provide necessaries and comforts for our
farther voyage. Among the latter I bought some excellent sweetmeats[60],
which are made in the interior, and brought to market in neat little
wooden kegs, each containing six or eight pounds. It is astonishing to
see the weight brought from two and three hundred miles' distance, by
the small and slight but very swift horses of the country. The baggage
horses are not shod any more than those for riding: the latter are
almost universally trained to a kind of running pace, easy in itself,
but not very agreeable at first, to those accustomed to English horses.
To-day I saw and tasted the jerked beef, _charqui_, of Spanish South
America. It appears, when hanging in bales at the shop-doors, like
bundles of thick ragged leather. It is prepared by cutting the flesh in
wide strips, clean off the bones, slightly salting, pressing, and drying
in the air. In this state it might well have served for saddle-cloths to
the Buccaneers, as tradition says they dressed their meat under their
saddles. However that may be, the beef is good. Here the common mode of
using it is to cut it in small squares, and boil it in the mandioc
pottage, which is the principal food of the poorer inhabitants and the
slaves.
[Note 60: The convents are, generally speaking, the places where the
more delicate preserves are made. Those I bought were of Guava, cashew
apple, citron, and lime. The cashew particularly good. They go by the
general name of _Doce_.]
After I had ended my marketing, I went to call on a Portuguese family,
and as it was the first private Portuguese house I had been in, I was
curious to notice the difference between it and the English houses here.
The building and general disposition of the apartments are the same, and
the drawing-room only differed in being better furnished, and with every
article English, even to a handsome piano of Broadwood's; but the
dining-room was completely foreign; the floor was covered with painted
cloth, and the walls hung round with English prints and Chinese
pictures, without distinction of subject or size. At one end of the room
was a long table, covered with a glass case, enclosing a large piece of
religious wax-work; the whole _præsepia_, ministering angels, three
kings, and all, with moss, artificial flowers, shells and beads,
smothered in gauze and tiffany, bespangled with gold and silver, San
Antonio and St. Christopher being in attendance on the right and left;
the rest of the furniture consisted of ordinary chairs and tables, and a
kind of beaufet or sideboard: from the ceiling, nine bird-cages were
hanging, each with its little inhabitant; canaries, grey finches with a
note almost as fine, and the beautiful widow-bird, were the favourites.
In larger cages in a passage room, there were more parrots and paroquets
than I should have thought agreeable in one house; but they are
well-bred birds, and seldom scream all together. We were no sooner
seated in the dining-room, than biscuit, cake, wine, and liqueurs, were
handed round, the latter in diminutive tumblers; a glass of water was
then offered to each, and we were pressed to taste it, as being the very
best in Recife; it proceeds from a spring in the garden of the convent
of Jerusalem, two miles from town, and the only conduit from that spring
leads to the garden of a sister convent here. From the lady, I learned,
that the porous jars for cooling water, that we find here, are all made
in the neighbourhood of Bahia, there being no manufactory here, except a
few coarse cottons for clothing for the slaves. The air and manners of
the family we visited, though neither English nor French, were perfectly
well bred, and the dress pretty much that of civilised Europe, only that
the men wore cotton jackets instead of cloth coats, and were without
neck-cloths; when they go out of doors, however, they dress like
Englishmen.
Returning from our visit, we met a monk, carried out to be buried by
several of his brethren, with candle, book, and bell, and all the
solemnities which human feeling has invented to solace its own fears and
griefs, under the pretence of honouring the dead, and to which the
Romish church has in such cases as these, added all her pageantry. I
could not help contrasting it with the burials on the beach of Olinda,
and smiling at the vanities that attach themselves even to corruption.
"But man, vain man, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as
make the angels weep."
But our horses were awaiting us, and we left our indignation and our
pity for the follies of some, and the miseries of others, to enjoy, for
the first time since the posts were free, the country air. When we went
to Bibiriba, soldiers stopped us to question at every turn; piles of
arms, and horses ready accoutred at the door of every considerable
residence, showed that military posts had taken place of the pleasures
of the country-houses, and accounted for the solitariness of the roads.
Now the scene is changed--the paths are crowded with negroes, young and
old, in their picturesque, though gaudy dresses, with baskets of fruit,
fish, and other provisions, on their heads; little carts, of which we
had not before seen one, begin to appear, and the fine oxen which draw
them form no bad contrast to the half-starved bullocks of the town.
'Twas a cool evening, and the sun was just low enough to gild the edges
of the palms and other tall trees, which shot up with their deep black
shadows into the thin pure light, making an effect, that even Titian's
landscape pencil has not reached. Our ride extended to Mr. S.'s
country-house, which is, I believe, on the same plan with all the others
hereabouts, and which I can only compare to an Oriental bungalow; one
story very commodiously laid out, a veranda surrounding it, and standing
in the midst of a little paddock, part of which is garden ground, and
part pasture, generally hedged with limes and roses, and shaded with
fruit trees, is the general description of the country sitios about
Pernambuco; the difference arising from the taste of the inhabitant, or
the situation of the ground, being allowed for. The low rent of these
pleasant little gardens is surprising; but it arises in great measure
from the indolence and consequent poverty of the holders of original
grants of land here: as long as their negroes and estates maintained
them, they paid no attention to the particular parts that, being near
the town, might have been at all times productive. Now, that sugar and
cotton are no longer in such demand, nearly half the fazendas or
factories are ruined, and such is become the indolent temper of the
people, that rather than seek to redeem their estates, they will take
the smallest annuity for a portion.
On our way to the sitio, we stopped at a kind of public-house or venta;
it is like an English huckster's, and contains a little of every thing,
cloth and candles, fruit and lard, wine and pimento, which are retailed
at no very extravagant profit to the poor; the draught wine is really
good, being port of excellent quality, without the quantity of brandy
which the English market requires. By the time we repassed it on our way
home, many a negro was spending his day's savings, and becoming as happy
as wine could make him; and many a traveller was regaling himself with
bread, garlic, and salt, and preparing to spread his mat, and lie down
in the open air for the night. Night within the tropics is always a
gayer and more peopled time than with us; the heat of the day detains
many within doors all day, and evening and night become the favourite
hours for walking. As we returned through Boa Vista we passed many
groups enjoying like ourselves the pleasant air, and gazing idly on the
reflections of the white houses and waving trees in the water; while the
fire flies flitting from bush to bush, seemed like fragments of stars
come down to adorn the moonlight.
_Friday, 12th._--- The Prince Royal of Portugal's birth-day. There is a
levee at the palace. The company bow first to the governor, then to the
Prince's picture, which is placed in the middle of the audience-room, to
receive its due honours; and then the _beja mano_, or kiss hands, takes
place. The forts and ships saluted; we of course did the same; and the
people all dressed and went to mass, as on a holiday. One thing
contributed, however, in no small degree to the enjoyment of the day.
The troops, which lately arrived from Bahia, re-embarked in order to
return. Their whole behaviour had been disorderly, and their drunkenness
and riot, during the ten days they were here, had quite disgusted the
people; while the disposition they manifested to join the patriots, had
rendered them but suspicious auxiliaries to the governor.
_Saturday, 13th._--I took leave of my amiable friends at the palace.
Madame do Rego gave me several specimens of amethyst, and the stone
called minha nova (like aqua marine), and also a fine piece of gold ore
of the province. She told me that Luiz do Rego had sent home many fine
minerals from the captaincy, and also some fossils. She described some
enormous bones, which may have belonged to the elephant or the mammoth,
found at no great distance from Recife in digging a well, and, as far as
I could understand, in such soil as I had observed lay under the sand in
Cocoa-nut Island.[61]
[Note 61: The Sugar-loaf Hill, in the ridge of Priaca, about eight
leagues N.E. of the villa of Penedo, has a lake on its western
declivity, where enormous bones have been found; and on the north side
there is a fearful cavern.--_Chor. Brazil._]
A great dinner was given to-day, by the merchants, to the captain and
officers. The governor, and other persons of dignity in the town, met
them; I am told it was a very handsome dinner, that there was plenty of
every kind of wine, and that nothing could exceed the friendly
politeness of the governor and his party. I had remained at Mr. S.'s,
where most of the company visited me after tea; and then we took leave
of Pernambuco, where we had received much kindness, and had at least the
enjoyment of novelty. The scene at our embarking was very pretty. Our
friends went with us to the jetty, and our boats lying in the clear
moonshine beneath it, with sailors going up and down preparing for us,
the harbour and the shipping doubled by the clear reflection in the
still water, heightened and set off the sparkling of the breakers that
dashed against the outer fort and light-house. Through these we soon
made our way and reached the ship, where I have once more taken
possession of my cabin, and put it in order for sea.
We leave Pernambuco, with a firm persuasion that this part of Brazil at
least will never again tamely submit to Portugal. Where the firmness and
conduct of Do Rego have failed to hold the captaincy in obedience, it
will be in vain for other governors to attempt it, particularly so long
as the state of the mother country is such as that she can neither fight
with nor for her colonies; and while she considers them only as taxable
parts of her states, that are bound to support her in her weakness.[62]
[Illustration]