brought the news of the war between France and Spain. This news is, of
course, interesting here, as Portugal is considered to be implicated in
the disputes in Europe; and then, the part England may take, and how
that may affect this country, is a subject of anxious speculation. The
more domestic news is not quite agreeable. The Imperial General Lecor,
in the south, has suffered some loss in an action with the Portuguese:
however, it is not considerable enough to give any serious uneasiness.
The same vessel that brought the news from Lecor, also gives
intelligence that the head of the Buenos Ayrian government, Rodriguez,
having taken the field against some Indian tribes, who have lately
committed great ravages in his territories, an attempt was made by one
of the ex-chiefs to subvert his government; happily, without success. I
say happily, because I am convinced that every week and month passed
without change, is of infinite consequence both to the present and
future wellbeing of the Spanish colonies. While they had still to
struggle for their independence, while they had to amend the abuses of
their old government, frequent changes were unavoidable, but natural;
but now that they are independent, and that they have constitutions,
which, if not perfect, contain the principles of freedom and greatness,
those principles should have time and peace to grow, and to suit
themselves to the genius of the people.
_15th_.--Glennie has been gaining so much strength lately, that he has
determined on joining the Commodore at Bahia; and this day he left me,
to sail in His Majesty's ship Beaver.
After having had him to attend to for six months, and being used to
constant intercourse with an intelligent inmate, I feel so very lonely,
that I believe I must leave off some of my sedentary habits, and visit a
little among my neighbours.
_25th_.--A French brig of war came in to-day from Bahia. We learn that
the ships seen by the Tartar were only a frigate, with a convoy of
transports, on board of which was a reinforcement for Madeira of 1500
men. They will but increase the distress of the garrison, which is
represented as very great, as they have brought no provisions.
_28th_.--I spent the day with Miss Hayne, and accompanied her in the
evening to compliment Dona Ana, the wife of Senhor Luis Jose de Carvalho
e Mello, on her birth-day. The family were at their country-house at
Botafogo; and a most excellent house it is, very handsomely built and
richly furnished. The walls are decorated with French papers in
compartments, with gold mouldings, and every thing corresponds. But the
best decoration, was this night, the presence of a number of the
handsomest women I have seen in Brazil, most of them sisters, or
cousins, or nieces of the lady of the house, whose mother, the Baronesa
de Campos, may boast of one of the finest families in the world. The
daughter of the house, Dona Carlota, is distinguished here by talent and
cultivation beyond her fellows. She speaks and writes French well, and
has made no small progress in English. She knows the literature of her
own country, draws correctly, sings with taste, and dances gracefully.
Several of her cousins and aunts speak French fluently; so that I had
the pleasure of conversing freely with them, and received a good deal of
information on subjects that only women attend to. Soon after all the
company was assembled, the ladies sitting all together in a formal
circle, the gentlemen walking about generally in other rooms, the
ceremony of tea-drinking commenced, and was conducted pretty much as in
England; the servants handing round tea, coffee, and cakes, on broad
silver salvers. But we all sat and took our refreshments at leisure,
instead of standing with cups in our hands, and elbowing our way through
crowds of persons, who all look as if they were bound on some particular
business, and could scarcely afford time to recognise their passing
acquaintance. We then adjourned to the music-room, where the
music-master[103] attended to accompany the ladies, many of whom sang
extremely well; but when it came to Dona Rosa's turn, I was ready to
exclaim with Comus--
"Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?"
[Note 103: This man is brother to the instructor of Catalani.]
The music ended, and who was not sorry at its conclusion? the dancing
commenced, and then those who like myself were not dancers sat by to
gossip. An Englishman who has been in this country many years, seeing me
full of admiration of the beautiful and gay creatures before me, began
to give me such a picture of the private morals in Brazil, as was
beginning to darken their countenances and to dim their eyes, when
luckily he went a step too far, and offered to wager, (the true English
way of affirming,) that there were in that room not less than ten
ladies, each provided with her note to slip into the hand of her
gallant, and that the married and unmarried were alike; and referred me
to my friend M----, who has long been here, and knows the people well.
He looked slowly round the room, and I began to fear,--but he said, "No,
not here; though I do not deny that such things are done in Rio. But,
Mrs. G., do not you know, as well as I, that in all great cities, in
your country and in mine as well as in this, a certain portion of every
class of society is less moral than the rest? In some countries
immorality is more refined indeed; and when manners lose their
grossness, they are stripped apparently of half their vice. But suppose
the fact, that women, even the unmarried, are less pure here than in
Europe, remember that with us, besides the mother, there is the nurse of
the family, or the governess, or even the waiting-maid of every young
woman, who is supposed to be well brought up, and of good character and
morals. These are all checks on conduct, and form a guardianship only
inferior to a mother's. But here the servants are slaves; therefore
naturally the enemies of their masters, and ready and willing to deceive
them, by assisting in the corruption of their families." Here then is
another curse of slavery; and this view of the subject has opened my
eyes on many points, on which I have hitherto been wondering ignorantly.
There were several very pleasant French naval officers here to-night,
and a few, very few English. I conversed with some sensible and
well-bred Brazilians, so that I was scarcely aware of the lateness of
the hour, when I left my younger friends dancing at midnight.
While at the ball, the tragic story of two lovely girls was told me.
When mere children, they had accompanied their mother to some gala, and
on returning at night, just as the mother advanced from the carriage,
she was shot from the veranda of her own house. All search for the
murderer was vain: but conjecture points to two possible causes of the
crime. One, the jealousy of a woman, who it seems had been injured, and
who hoped to succeed her rival as the wife of the man she loved; but he
has not married again. Another conjecture is, that she was acquainted
with some political secrets, and that fear caused her death. However it
was, the girls have ever since lived with their grandmother, who cannot
sleep if they are not both in the room with her. The family attachments
here are quite beautiful; they are as close and as intimate as those of
clanship in Scotland: but they have their inconveniences, in the
constant intermarriages between near relations, as uncles with their
nieces, aunts with their nephews, &c.; so that marriages, instead of
widening connections, diffusing property, and producing more general
relations in the country, seems to narrow all these, to hoard wealth,
and to withdraw all the affections into too close and selfish a circle.
_30th_.--I went early to town, and found that the English packet had
arrived. She fell in with Lord Cochrane's squadron near Bahia, so that
His Lordship must be there long ere this time; she brings reports that
the royalist party are becoming too strong for the Cortes at Lisbon.
I spent the day with Madame do Rio Seco. Her house is really a
magnificent one; it has its ball-room, and its music-room, its grotto
and fountains, besides extremely handsome apartments of every kind, both
for family and public use, with rather more china and French clocks than
we should think of displaying, but which do not assort ill with the
silken hangings and gilt mouldings of the rooms.
The dinner was small, as we were only three persons, but excellently
dressed. Soup of wild-fowl, a variety of small birds, and sweetmeats of
the country, were rarities to me: the rest of the dinner might have been
English or French; it was served in plate. I heard a great many
anecdotes to-day of a great many persons of all degrees, for which M.
Dutems would have given any price to enrich the _souvenirs_ of the
_voyageur qui se repose_ withal, but which I will not write, because I
think it neither honest nor womanly to take the protection of the laws
and the feelings of a foreign country, and--record the foibles of its
inhabitants so as to give others the opportunity of laughing at them. We
know well enough the weak parts of human nature: if they are treated
tenderly, they may mend. Vice indeed may require the lash, but weakness
and folly should meet with indulgence. In a society rising like this, I
am persuaded that men may be flattered into virtue. If a general calls
his soldiers brave before the battle, it becomes a point of honour to
prove so. And were it in my power, I had rather persuade the Brazilians
that they have every virtue under heaven, than make them so familiar
with the least of their failings, as to lose the shame of it.
_May 1st_.--I have this day seen the Val Longo; it is the slave-market
of Rio. Almost every house in this very long street is a depôt for
slaves. On passing by the doors this evening, I saw in most of them long
benches placed near the walls, on which rows of young creatures were
sitting, their heads shaved, their bodies emaciated, and the marks of
recent itch upon their skins. In some places the poor creatures were
lying on mats, evidently too sick to sit up. At one house the half-doors
were shut, and a group of boys and girls, apparently not above fifteen
years old, and some much under, were leaning over the hatches, and
gazing into the street with wondering faces. They were evidently quite
new negroes. As I approached them, it appears that something about me
attracted their attention; they touched one another, to be sure that all
saw me, and then chattered in their own African dialect with great
eagerness. I went and stood near them, and though certainly more
disposed to weep, I forced myself to smile to them, and look cheerfully,
and kissed my hand to them, with all which they seemed delighted, and
jumped about and danced, as if returning my civilities. Poor things! I
would not, if I could, shorten their moments of glee, by awakening them
to a sense of the sad things of slavery; but, if I could, I would appeal
to their masters, to those who buy, and to those who sell, and implore
them to think of the evils slavery brings, not only to the negroes but
to themselves, not only to themselves but to their families and their
posterity.
After all, slaves are the worst and most expensive servants; and one
proof of it is this, I think. The small patch that each is allowed to
cultivate for his own use on many estates generally yields at least
twice as much in proportion as the land of the master, though fewer
hours of labour are bestowed upon it.[104] I have hitherto endeavoured,
without success, to procure a correct statement of the number of slaves
imported into all Brazil. I fear, indeed, it will be hardly possible for
me to do so, on account of the distance of some of the ports; but I will
not rest till I procure at least a statement of the number entered at
the custom-house here during the last two years. The number of ships
from Africa that I see constantly entering the harbour, and the
multitudes that throng the slave-houses in this street, convince me that
the importation must be very great. The ordinary proportion of deaths on
the passage is, I am told, about one in five.
[Note 104: Since I returned to England, I have seen the account of
the proceedings of Joshua Steele in Barbadoes. I need not add one word
on this part of the subject; but I present the reader with the two
following statements of custom-house entries at Rio for the years 1821
and 1822.
1821.
_January_ | _April_ | _October_ |
Muzambique 483 | Angola 430 | Angola 452 |
Muzambique 337 | Quilumana 280 | Angola 375 |
Amhuebe 352 | Cabinda 287 | Benguela 510 |
Cabinda 348 | Cabinda 451 | ---- |
Luanda 549 | ---- | 1337 |
Benuela 396 | 1448 | ---- |
---- | ---- | |
2914 | | |
| _May_ | _November_ |
---- | | |
_February_ | Angola 342 | Ambuiz 220 |
Cabinda 193 | Angola 361 | Benguela 390 | ABSTRACT
Cabinda 342 | Angola 231 | Angola 579 | OF 1821
Cabinda 514 | Quilumana 225 | Angola 544 | January 2914
Muzambique 277 | Muzambique 122 | Angola 388 | February 1926
Muzambique 600 | ---- | Quilumana 446 | March 3170
---- | 1281 | ---- | April 1448
1926 | ---- | 2567 | May 1281
---- | _June_ | ---- | June 680
_March_ | Angola 680 | | August 2578
Quilumana 311 | | _December_ | September 685
Quilumana 385 | _August_ | Angola 516 | October 1337
Quilumana 342 | Luanda 514 | Angola 523 | November 2567
Quilumana 257 | Luanda 460 | Angola 309 | December 2634
Quilumana 260 | Luanda 734 | Muzambique 394 | -----
Quilumana 291 | Luanda 304 | Muzambique 330 | 21,199
Quilumana 287 | Luanda 227 | Cabinda 562 | ------
Angola 345 | Benguela 339 | ---- |
Angola 433 | ---- | 2634 |
Angola 259 | 2578 | ---- |
---- | ---- | |
3170 | | |
---- | _September_ | |
| Angola 685 | |
1822
_January_ | _April_ | _September_ |
Cabinda 744 | Quilumana 323 | Angola 572 |
Cabinda 417 | Quilumana 203 | Angola 534 |
Cabinda 459 | Angola 519 | Cabinda 466 |
Cabinda 144 | Angola 418 | Benguela 524 |
Muzambique 305 | Cabinda 291 | Benguela 298 |
Muzambique 278 | Cabinda 377 | ---- |
---- | ---- | 2394 |
2347 | 2181 | ---- |
---- | ---- | |
_February_ | _May_ | _October_ |
Muzambique 421 | Angola 398 | Luanda 467 |
Muzambique 419 | Benguela 388 | Benguela 428 |
Muzambique 399 | ---- | Cabinda 434 | ABSTRACT OF 1822.
Muzambique 520 | 786 | Cabinda 337 |
Angola 406 | ---- | ---- | January 2347
Angola 400 | | 1666 | February 4273
Angola 406 | _June_ | ---- | March 4401
Quilumana 436 | Cabinda 432 | | April 2131
Quilumana 446 | Cabinda 533 | _November_ | May 786
Benguela 420 | Angola 302 | Cabinda 417 | June 2418
---- | Angola 761 | Cabinda 499 | July 1118
4273 | Benguela 390 | Luanda 561 | September 2394
---- | ---- | Benguela 425 | October 1666
| 2418 | ---- | November 1902
_March_ | ---- | 1902 | December 1498
Cabinda 667 | | | ------
Cabinda 400 | _July_ | _December_ | 24,934
Quilumana 504 | Cabinda 427 | Luanda 514 | ------
Quilumana 487 | Angola 691 | Cabinda 534 |
Quilumana 406 | ---- | Quilumana 450 |
Muzambique 452 | 1118 | ---- |
Muzambique 455 | ---- | 1498 |
Angola 305 | | ---- |
Angola 354 | | |
Angola 371 | | |
---- | | |
4401 | | |
---- | | |
]
_May 3d_.--Early this morning the French naval captain, La Susse, called
on me to take me in his boat to town, for the purpose of going to Senhor
Luis Jose's house in the Rua do Ouvidor, to see the Emperor go in state
to the opening of the Constituent and Legislative Assembly. All the
great officers of state, all the gentlemen of the household, most of the
nobility, and several regiments accompanied him. First marched the
soldiers, then the carriages of the nobility and other persons having
the entree, nobody driving more than a pair, such being the express
order of the Emperor, in order that the rich might not mortify the poor;
then the royal carriages, containing the household, the ladies of
honour, and the young Princess Dona Maria da Gloria; the Emperor and
Empress followed in a state-coach with eight mules. The crown was on the
front seat. The Emperor wore the great cape of state, of yellow
feathers, over his green robes. The Empress, much wrapped up on account
of a recent indisposition, was seated by him, and the procession was
closed by more troops.
The carriages displayed to-day would form a curious collection for a
museum in London or Paris. Some were the indescribable sort of caleche
used here; and in the middle of these was a very gay pea-green and
silver chariot, evidently built in Europe, very light, with silver
ornaments, silver fellies to the wheels, silver where any kind of metal
could be used, and beautiful embossed silver plates on the harness of
the mules. Many other gala carriages seemed as if they had been built in
the age of Louis XIV. Such things! mounted on horizontal leathern bands,
and all other kind of savage hangings; besides paint and gilding, and,
by-the-bye, some very handsome silver and silver gilt harnesses. Then
there were splendid liveries, and all manner of gaudiness, not without
some taste.
The houses were hung with all the damask and satin of every colour that
they could supply; and the balconies stored with ladies, whose bright
eyes rain influence, dressed in gala dresses, with feathers and diamonds
in profusion; and as the royal carriages passed, we waved our
handkerchiefs, and scattered flowers on their heads.
When the procession had passed, I found it was expected that we should
await its return, which I was well pleased to do. My young friend Dona
Carlota improves on acquaintance; and as I begin to venture to speak
Portuguese, I am becoming intimate with the elder part of the family. I
was taken into the study, and for the first time saw a Brazilian private
gentleman's library. As he is a judge, of course the greater part is
law; but there are history and general literature, chiefly French, and
some English books. I was introduced to several Portuguese authors; and
Don Carlota, who reads remarkably well, did me the favour to read some
of Diniz's fine verses to me, and to lend me his works. We then returned
to our station at the window, and saw the procession return in the order
in which it came, when our pleasant party dispersed.
Yesterday, the assembly having finished its preliminary sittings, sent a
deputation, headed by Jose Bonifacio, to His Imperial Majesty, to
entreat that he would honour the assembly with his presence at their
first sitting as a legislative body, and he was pleased to name half
past eleven o'clock to-day for that purpose.[105]
[Note 105: Various ordinances of the 3d and 19th June and the 3d of
August, 1822, and of the 20th and 22d February, 1823, had been published
for the assembling or regulating the election of deputies from the
provinces of Brazil, to form a constituent assembly. Early in April,
1823, the greater number of those who could be collected in the present
state of the country had arrived in the capital. On the 14th of that
month, the Emperor fixed their first meeting for the 17th. Accordingly
on the 17th of April, 1823, the deputies, in number 52, entered their
house of assembly at nine o'clock in the morning, and proceeded to elect
a temporary president and secretary, when the Right Reverend Don Jose
Caetano da Silva Coutinho, bishop and grand chaplain, was elected
president, and Manoel Jose de Sousa França secretary.
The first act was to name two committees; one of five members, to hold a
scrutiny on the election of the deputies generally; and the other of
three, to examine those of the five. This necessary business, and some
consequent discussion, occupied the whole of the first and greater part
of the second session; towards the end of the latter, the form of the
oath to be administered to the members, was decided:--
"I swear to fulfil, faithfully and truly, the obligations of deputy to
the General Constituent and Legislative Assembly of Brazil, convoked in
order to frame a political constitution for the empire of Brazil, and to
make indispensable and urgent reforms. Maintaining always the Roman
Catholic and Apostolic religion, and the integrity and independence of
the empire; without admitting any other nation whatever to any bond of
union or federation which might oppose that independence. Maintaining
also the constitutional empire, and the dynasty of the Lord Don Peter,
our first Emperor, and his issue."
The third session was occupied in regulating the forms of the assembly.
The throne to be placed at one end of the hall; on the first step on the
right-hand side, the President shall have his chair when the Emperor
presides, otherwise the chair to be in front of the throne, with a small
table, separate from the table of the members, and on it the Gospel, a
copy of the constitution, and a list of the members. When the Emperor
opens the assembly, his great officers may accompany him, and the
ministers may sit on his right; proper places are appointed for
ambassadors, and a gallery is open to strangers. Some other forms as to
the reception of the Emperor, or a regent, or a minister commissioned by
him, were also settled; and then the 1st of May was fixed on for the
whole body of the members to go to the chapel royal, and after hearing
the mass of the Holy Ghost, to take their oaths. The 2d was appointed
for a deputation to wait on the Emperor, and inform him that they were
ready to proceed on the 3d, and with his assistance to open the
important business on which they had met.]
This morning, therefore, the people of Rio de Janeiro had strewed the
way with evergreens, sweet herbs, and flowers, from the bridge without
the town by the street of St. Peter's, the Campo de Santa Anna, now
Praça da Acclamaçaŏ, the Theatre Square, and the streets Do Ouvidor and
Direita to the palace; troops lined the whole space; the houses were
decorated, and the bands of the different regiments relieved each other
as their Imperial Majesties passed. I observe the Brazilians never say
_the_ Emperor, but _our_ Emperor, _our_ Empress; and seldom name either,
without some epithet of affection.
In the House of Assembly, a throne had been prepared for the Emperor,
and on his right hand a tribune for the Empress, the Princess, and their
ladies. As soon as it was known that the Imperial party had arrived, a
deputation from the assembly went to the door of the house to meet them,
and conducted the Emperor, with his crown[106] on his head, to the
throne; the Empress, Princess, and ladies, being at the same time placed
in the tribune.
[Note 106: The crown is of a purple velvet, enriched with diamonds.
There was some mistake or misunderstanding about the fact of wearing the
crown at the opening of the assembly. As the crown is only a ceremonial
badge of dignity, it should have been worn during the ceremony; but
owing to the mistake alluded to, it was not.]
The Emperor having deposited the crown and sceptre with the proper
officer, and received the oaths of several of the deputies, spoke as
follows; and it was remarked, that so far from the speech having the air
of a thing read from a paper or studied, that it was spoken as freely as
if it was the spontaneous effusion of the moment, and excited a feeling
as free in his favour.
"This is the greatest day that Brazil has ever seen; a day on which, for
the first time, it may show that it is an empire, and a free empire. How
great is my delight, to behold real representatives from almost every
one of its provinces, consulting together on its true interests, and on
these founding a just and liberal constitution to govern them! We ought
long since to have enjoyed a national representation. But either the
nation did not in time perceive its real interests, or, perceiving them,
was unable to declare them, on account of the forces and ascendancy of
the Portuguese party; which, perceiving clearly to what a degree of
weakness, littleness, and poverty, Portugal was reduced, and to how low
a state it had fallen, would never consent (notwithstanding their
proclamation of liberty, fearing a separation,) that the people of
Brazil should enjoy a representation equal to what they themselves then
possessed. They had miscalculated their plans for conquest, and from
that miscalculation arises our good fortune.