Towards evening he became better, and was able to attend to a most
painful business. Last night a man belonging to the Morgiana was killed,
and the corporal of marines belonging to the ship severely wounded, on
shore. It appears that neither of these men had so much as seen the
murderer before. He had been drinking in the inner room of a venda with
some sailors, and having quarrelled with one of them, he fancied the
rest were going to seize him, when he drew his knife to intimidate them,
and rushed furiously out of the room. The young man who was killed was
standing at the outer door, waiting for one of his companions who was
within, and the murderer seeing him there, imagined he also wished to
stop him, and therefore stabbed him to the heart. Our corporal, who was
passing by, saw the deed, and of course attempted to seize him, and in
the attempt received a severe wound. It is said, I know not with what
truth, that Captain Finlaison is so hated here, on account of his
activity against the slave trade, that none of his people are safe, and
the death of the unfortunate man is attributed to that cause; but it
appears to have been the result of a drunken quarrel. The town, however,
appears to be in a sad disorderly state: besides our two men, a
Brazilian officer was dangerously wounded in the dark, and three
Brazilian soldiers and their corporal were found murdered last night.
Captain Graham had sent one of his officers to act for him on the
occasion, and to apply through the British consul to the police
magistrate, Francisco Jose Perreira, for redress.[74] He himself is
sensibly worse since he exerted himself to attend to this painful
business.
[Note 74: Mr. Pennell accordingly wrote to Mr. Perreira, stating the
circumstance and also that the prisoner was taken. The magistrate
assured him that he had laid his communication before the provisional
government, and that the punishment directed by law should be inflicted,
and the greatest sorrow was expressed by the junta for the accident.
Colonel Madera, commanding the active military police, also assured
Mr.---- the lieutenant of the Doris, on his honour, that the assassin
should be brought to trial. But it was not done while we remained in
Brazil, and it is probable not at all. The political state of Bahia
shortly afterwards would scarcely leave leisure for such a matter.]
The disorders of this climate are sadly enfeebling; they attack both
mind and body, producing a painful sensitiveness to the slightest
incident.
_November 18th._--Our invalids have been sadly disturbed by the rockets
which have been fired, ever since sunrise, from the church of our Lady
of Conception[75], whose feast is on the 8th of December. But the three
Sundays previous to it the church and convent are adorned, sermons are
preached, rockets are fired, contributions are made, and the shipping in
the harbour fire salooes at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset. The annual
expense of rockets, and other fireworks, is enormous. Those used in
Brazil all come from the East Indies and China. Sometimes, when
manufactured goods are unsaleable here, the merchant ships them on board
a Portuguese East Indiaman, and gets in return fireworks, which never
fail to pay well. I have seen a set of cut-glass sent to Calcutta for
the purpose, or a girandole, too handsome for Brazilian purchasers.
[Note 75: One of the two parishes of the lower town.]
Yesterday the ship's pinnace, which had been absent five days with the
master, my cousin Glennie, and young Grey, returned. They had gone to
examine the river of Cachoeira, and came back highly delighted with
their trip, though they had some very bad weather; however, with
tarpaulines, cloaks, and a blanket or two, which I insisted on their
taking, they managed so well as to have returned in good health.
Cachoeira, about fifty miles from Bahia, is a good town, where there is
one English merchant resident. It is populous[76] and busy; for it is
the place where the produce, chiefly cotton and tobacco, of a very
considerable district, is collected, in order to be shipped for Bahia.
It is divided into two unequal parts, by the river Paraguazu. Its parish
church is dedicated to our Lady of the Rosary. It has two convents, four
chapels, an hospital, a fountain, and three stone bridges over the small
rivers Pitanga and Caquende, on which there are very extensive
sugar-works. There are wharfs on both sides of the river. The streets
are well paved, and the houses built of stone, and tiled: the country is
flat, but agreeable. The river is not navigable more than two miles
above the town; it there narrows and becomes interrupted by rocks and
rapids, and there is a wooden bridge across it. About five miles from
Cachoeira, there is an insulated conical hill, called that of
Conception, whence there often proceed noises like explosions. These
noises are considered in this country as indicative of the existence of
metals. Near this place a piece of native copper was found, weighing
upwards of fifty-two arobas. It is now in the museum of Lisbon.
[Note 76: In 1804 it contained 1088 hearths.]
Our exploring party landed on several of the islands, on their way up
the river, and were every where received with great hospitality, and
delighted with the beauty and fertility of the country.
_22d._--At length all the invalids, excepting myself, are better; but,
with another blister on, I can do little but write, or look from the
cabin windows; and when I do look, I am sure to see something
disagreeable. This very moment, there is a slave ship discharging her
cargo, and the slaves are singing as they go ashore. They have left the
ship, and they see they will be on the dry land; and so, at the command
of their keeper, they are singing one of their country songs, in a
strange land. Poor wretches! could they foresee the slave-market, and
the separations of friends and relations that will take place there, and
the march up the country, and the labour of the mines, and the
sugar-works, their singing would be a wailing cry. But that "blindness
to the future kindly given," allows them a few hours of sad enjoyment.
This is the principal slave port in Brazil; and the negroes appear to me
to be of a finer, stronger race, than any I have ever seen. One of the
provisional junta of government is the greatest slave merchant here.
Yet, I am happy to say, the Bahia press has lately actually printed a
pamphlet against the slave trade. Within the last year, seventy-six
ships have sailed from this port for the coast of Africa; and it is well
known that many of them will slave to the northward of the line, in
spite of all treaties to the contrary: but the system of false papers is
so cunningly and generally carried on, that detection is far from easy;
and the difficulties that lie in the way of condemning any slave ship,
render it a matter of hazard to detain them. An owner, however, is well
satisfied, if one cargo in three arrives safe; and eight or nine
successful voyages make a fortune. Many Brazilian Portuguese have no
occupation whatever: they lay out a sum of money in slaves; which slaves
are ordered out every day, and must bring in a certain sum each night;
and these are the boatmen, chairmen, porters, and weavers of mats and
hats that are to be hired in the streets and markets, and who thus
support their masters.
_24th._--Yesterday the Morgiana sailed for Pernambuco, whence she will
return to the coast of Africa. To-day the Antigone French frigate,
commanded by Captain Villeneuve, nephew to the admiral of that name who
was at Trafalgar, came in. Whenever France and England are not at war,
the French and English certainly seek each other, and like each other
more than any other two nations: and yet they seem like two great heads
of parties, and the other nations take the French and English sides, as
if there were no cause of opposition but theirs. Others may account for
the fact, I am satisfied that it is so; and that whenever we meet a
Frenchman in time of peace, in a distant country, it is something akin
to the pleasure of seeing a countryman; and it is particularly the case
with French naval men. Frequent intercourse of any kind, even that of
war, begets a similarity of habits, manners, and ideas; so I suppose we
have grown alike by fighting, and are all the more likely to fight
again.
There is a report, but I believe not well founded, that placards are
stuck up about the city threatening that all Europeans, especially
Portuguese, who do not leave the place before the 24th of December,
shall be massacred. I listen to these things, because reports, even when
false, indicate something of the spirit of the times.
_December 8th._--This place is now so quiet that the merchants feel
quite safe, and therefore we are leaving Bahia. I have taken leave of
many hospitable persons who have shown us much attention; but my health
is so indifferent, that but for the sake of that civility which I felt
due to them, I should not have gone ashore again: however, it is all
done, and we are in the act of getting under weigh.
[Illustration]
_9th._--As we sailed out of the bay, we amused ourselves with
conjecturing the possible situation of Robinson Crusoe's plantation in
the bay of All Saints. Those who had been at Cachoeira chose that it
should be in that direction; while such as had been confined to the
neighbourhood of the city pitched on different sitios, all or any of
which might have answered the purpose. There is a charm in Defoe's works
that one hardly finds, excepting in the Pilgrim's Progress. The language
is so homely, that one is not aware of the poetical cast of the
thoughts; and both together form such a reality, that the parable and
the romance alike remain fixed on the mind like truth. And what is
truth? Surely not the mere outward acts of vulgar life; but rather the
moral and intellectual perceptions by which our judgment, and actions,
and motives, are directed. Then, are the wanderings of Christiana and
Mercy, and the sufferings of the shipwrecked mariner, true in the right
sense of the word truth? True as the lofty creations of Milton, and the
embodied visions of Michael Angelo; because they have their basis and
their home in the heart, and soul, and understanding of man.
But we are once more upon the ocean, and our young people are again
observing the stars, and measuring the distances of the planets. I
grieve that one of the most promising of them is now an inmate in my
cabin, in a very delicate state of health.
_12th._--Yesterday we found soundings, which indicated the neighbourhood
of the Abrolhos, and lay-to all night, that we might ascertain the exact
position of those dangerous shoals; which, at the distance of three
leagues, bearing N. W. by W., appeared like one long ragged island to
the westward, and two smaller very low to the east.
The banks extend very far out to the eastward. There is a deep passage
between them and the mainland. With a little attention, a most
profitable fishery might be established here.
_Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, December 15th, 1821_.--Nothing that I have
ever seen is comparable in beauty to this bay. Naples, the Firth of
Forth, Bombay harbour, and Trincomalee, each of which I thought perfect
in their beauty, all must yield to this, which surpasses each in its
different way. Lofty mountains, rocks of clustered columns, luxuriant
wood, bright flowery islands, green banks, all mixed with white
buildings; each little eminence crowned with its church or fort; ships
at anchor or in motion; and innumerable boats flitting about in such a
delicious climate,--combine to render Rio de Janeiro the most enchanting
scene that imagination can conceive. We anchored first close to a small
island, called Villegagnon, about two miles from the entrance of the
harbour. That island, however small, was the site of the first colony
founded by the Frenchman Villegagnon, under the patronage of Coligny,
whom he betrayed. The admiral had intended it as a refuge for the
persecuted Hugonots; but when Villegagnon had, by his means, formed the
settlement, he began to persecute them also: the colony fell into decay,
and became an easy conquest to Mem de Sa, the Portuguese captain-general
of Brazil.[77]
[Note 77: See Introduction, p. 15.]
We moved from this station to one more commodious nearer the town, and
higher up the harbour, towards the afternoon, which soon became so
rainy, that I gave up all hopes of getting ashore. I was really
disappointed to find that my excellent friend, the Hon. Capt. S. had
left the station with his frigate before we arrived; I had, however, the
pleasure of receiving a kind letter from him, and he had left me a copy
of the great Spanish dictionary. Nobody that has always lived at home,
can tell the value of a kindness like this in a foreign land.
_Sunday, 16th_.--I had the pleasure of seeing on board Mr. W. May, who
has long been a resident in Brazil, and with whom I had spent many happy
hours in early life. The pleasure such meetings give is of the purest
and wholesomest nature. It quiets the passions by its own tranquillity;
and, in recalling all the innocent and amiable feelings of youth, makes
us almost forget those harsher emotions which intercourse with the
world, and the operation of interest, passion, or suffering have raised.
_Monday, 17th_.--By the assistance of some friends ashore, we have
procured a comfortable house in one of the suburbs of Rio, called the
Catete, from the name of a little river which runs through it into the
sea. To this house I have brought my poor suffering midshipman,
Langford; and trust that free air, moderate exercise, and a milk diet,
will restore him. We have been visited by several persons, who all
appear hospitable and kind, particularly the acting consul-general, Col.
Cunningham, and his lady.
_December 18th_.--I have begun house-keeping on shore. We find
vegetables and poultry very good, but not cheap; fruit is very good and
cheap; butcher's meat cheap, but very bad: there is a monopolist
butcher, and no person may even kill an animal for his own use without
permission paid for from that person; consequently, as there is no
competition, he supplies the market as he pleases.[78] The beef is so
bad, that it can hardly be used even for soup meat, three days out of
four; and that supplied to the ships is at least as bad: mutton is
scarce and bad: pork very good and fine; it is fed principally on
mandioc and maize, near the town; that from a distance has the advantage
of sugar cane. Fish is not so plentiful as it ought to be, considering
the abundance that there is on the whole coast, but it is extremely
good; oysters, prawns, and crabs are as good as in any part of the
world. The wheaten bread used in Rio is chiefly made of American flour,
and is, generally speaking, exceedingly good. Neither the captaincy of
Rio, nor those to the north, produce wheat; but in the high lands of St.
Paul's, and the Minas Geraes, and in the southern provinces, a good deal
is cultivated, and with great success. The great article of food here is
the mandioc meal, or farinha; it is made into thin broad cakes as a
delicacy, but the usual mode of eating it is dry: when at the tables of
the rich, it is used with every dish of which they eat, as we take
bread; with the poor, it has every form--porridge, brose, bread; and no
meal is complete without it: next to mandioc, the feijoam or dry
kidney-bean, dressed in every possible way, but most frequently stewed
with a small bit of pork, garlic, salt, and pimento, is the favourite
food; and for dainties, from the noble to the slave, sweetmeats of every
description, from the most delicate preserves and candies to the
coarsest preparations of treacle, are swallowed wholesale.
[Note 78: This was no longer the case at my second visit to Rio, and
every thing eatable was much improved.]
We have hired a horse for our invalid, and I have borrowed one for
myself. These animals are rather pretty at Rio, but far from strong;
they are fed on maize and capim, or Guinea grass, which was introduced
of late years into Brazil, and thrives prodigiously: it is cultivated by
planting the joints; the stem and leaves are as large as those of
barley; it grows sometimes to the height of six or seven feet, and the
flower is a large loose pannicle. The quantity necessary for each horse
per day costs about eightpence, and his maize as much more. The common
horses here sell for from twenty to one hundred dollars; the fine Buenos
Ayres horses fetch a much higher price. Mules are generally used for
carriages, being much hardier, and more capable of bearing the summer
heat.
_December 19th_.--I walked by the side of Langford's horse up one of the
little valleys at the foot of the Corcorado: it is called the
Laranjeiros, from the numerous orange trees which grow on each side of
the little stream that beautifies and fertilises it. Just at the
entrance to that valley, a little green plain stretches itself on either
hand, through which the rivulet runs over its stony bed, and affords a
tempting spot to groups of washerwomen of all hues, though the greater
number are black; and they add not a little to the picturesque effect of
the scene: they generally wear a red or white handkerchief round the
head; and a full-plaited mantle tied over one shoulder, and passed under
the opposite arm, with a full petticoat, is a favourite dress. Some wrap
a long cloth round them, like the Hindoos; and some wear an ugly
European frock, with a most ungraceful sort of bib tied before them.
Round the washerwoman's plain, hedges of acacia and mimosa fence the
gardens of plantains, oranges, and other fruits which surround every
villa; and beyond these, the coffee plantations extend far up the
mountain, whose picturesque head closes the scene. The country-houses
here are neither large nor magnificent; but they are decorated with
verandas, and have often a handsome flight of steps up to the
dwelling-house of the master, beneath which are either store-houses, or
the habitations of the slaves: they have all a gateway, large and
handsome, whatever the house may be; and that gateway generally leads to
at least one walk where every kind of flower is cultivated. Brazil is
particularly rich in splendid creeping flowers and shrubs; and these are
mingled with the orange and lemon blossoms, and the jasmine and rose
from the East, till the whole is one thicket of beauty and fragrance. I
scarcely know whether my invalid or myself enjoyed the morning most. A
few more such, and I should think all sickness must disappear.
_December 20th._--Spent in paying and receiving visits in the
neighbourhood. The houses are built a good deal like those of the south
of Europe: there is generally a court, on one side of which is the
dwelling-house, and the others are formed by the offices and garden.
Sometimes the garden is immediately close to the house, and in the
suburbs this is generally the case. In town, very few houses have the
luxury of a garden at all. These gardens are rather like oriental
flower-plots, but they assimilate well with the climate. The flowers of
the parterres of Europe grow by the side of the gayer plants and shrubs
of the country, shaded by the orange, banana, bread-fruit (now nearly
naturalised here,) and the palms, between straight alleys of limes, over
whose heads the African melia waves its lilac blossoms; and on the
raised water channels, china vases are placed, filled with aloes and
tuberoses, and here and there a statue intermixed. In these gardens
there are occasionally fountains and seats under the trees, forming
places of no undelightful rest in this hot climate.
_Friday, December 21st._--Mr. Hayne, one of the commissioners of the
slave trade commission, and his sister, having proposed a party to see
the botanic gardens, we set off soon after daylight; and drove to
their house on the bay of Boto Fogo, perhaps the most beautiful spot in
the neighbourhood of Rio, rich as it is in natural beauty; and its
beauty is increased by the numerous and pretty country-houses which now
surround it. These have all grown up since the arrival of the court from
Lisbon; before that time, this lovely spot was only inhabited by a few
fishermen and gipsies, with, it might be, a villa or two on the sloping
banks by the fruit gardens. Beyond the bay, we drove through a beautiful
lane to the Lake of Rodrigo de Freitas: it is nearly circular, and about
five miles in circumference; it is surrounded by mountains and forests,
except where a short sandy bar affords an occasional outlet to the sea,
when the lake rises so high as to threaten inconvenience to the
surrounding plantations. It is impossible to conceive any thing richer
than the vegetation down to the very water's edge around the lake.
[Illustration]
We were to breakfast at the gardens, but as the weather is now hot, we
resolved first to walk round them. They are laid out in convenient
squares, the alleys being planted on either side with a very
quick-growing nut tree, brought from Bencoolen originally, now
naturalised here. The nut is as good as the filbert, and larger than the
walnut, and yields abundance of oil; the leaf is about the size, and not
unlike the shape, of that of the sycamore. The timber also is useful.
The quick growth of this tree is unexampled among timber trees, and its
height and beauty distinguish it from all others. The hedges between the
compartments are of a shrub which I should have taken for myrtle, but
that the leaves though firm are not fragrant. This garden was destined
by the King for the cultivation of the oriental spices and fruits, and
above all, of the tea plant, which he obtained, together with several
families accustomed to its culture, from China. Nothing can be more
thriving than the whole of the plants. The cinnamon, camphor, nutmeg,
and clove, grow as well as in their native soil. The bread-fruit
produces its fruit in perfection, and such of the oriental fruits as
have been brought here ripen as well as in India. I particularly
remarked the jumbo malacca, from India, and the longona (_Euphoria
Longona_), a dark kind of lechee from China. I was disappointed to find
no collection of the indigenous plants. However, so much has been done
as to give reasonable hopes of farther improvement, when the political
state of the country shall be quiet enough to permit attention to these
things.
The stream that waters the garden flows through a lovely valley, where
the royal powder-mills are situated; but being fearful of too much
exertion for Langford we put off visiting them to another day, and
returned to the garden gate to breakfast. His Majesty John VI. built a
small house there, with three or four rooms, to accommodate the royal
party, when they visited the gardens. Our breakfast was prepared in the
veranda of that house, from whence we had a charming view of the lake,
with the mountains and woods,--the ocean, with three little islands that
lie off the lake; and in the fore-ground a small chapel[79] and village,
at the extremity of a little smooth green plain.
[Note 79: Dedicated to St. John Baptist. I am not sure whether this
or N.S. da Cabeça is the mother church; the same clergyman officiates in
both.]
After waiting with our agreeable and well-informed friends till the
sea-breeze set in, we returned part of the way along the lake, and then
ascended to the parsonage of Nossa Senhora da Cabeça, where we were
joined by several other persons who had come to dine there with us. The
Padre Manoel Gomez received us very kindly, and our pic-nic was spread
in the ample veranda of his parsonage. Behind the veranda three small
rooms served for sleeping-room, kitchen, and pantry. Half a dozen small
cottages in the field behind contain the healthy-looking negroes who are
employed in his coffee-grounds, and a swarm of children of every shade,
between black and white. On a little eminence in the midst of these
stands the chapel of Our Lady, which is the parish church of a large
district. It is exceedingly small; but serves as the place where the
sacraments are administered, and the licences granted for marriages,
burials, and christenings. The owners of estates have generally private
chapels, where daily mass is performed for the benefit of their own
people; so that the parish church is only applied to on the
above-mentioned occasions. About a stone's throw behind the chapel, a
clear rivulet runs rapidly down the mountain, leaping from rock to rock,
in a thousand little cascades, and forming, here and there, delightful
baths. Nor is it without its inhabitants, which increase the simple
luxuries of the Padre's table. He tells me the crawfish in his stream
are better than any in the neighbourhood; the water itself is pure,
light, and delicate.