CHAP. XXVI.
Conclusive Observations.
The great disparity between the actual condition of the Brazil and that which, from its pure climate, fertile soil, numerous rivers, and immense extent, it is capable of attaining, is the main circumstance that will be suggested to the reader by the perusal of the foregoing pages. The climate is indeed generally so salubrious that diseases are as rare as in any part of the globe, much less as fatal as they are often found to be in similar latitudes. In a region so extensive the climates are necessarily various, but, with the exception of some of thepantanos, or morasses, and stagnant waters remaining after inundations, the country is for the main part exceedingly wholesome; and, as far as my own information and observation has extended, the provinces immediately bordering upon the equator, are equally, if not more healthful than many nearer the tropical line. The soil is so fertile that a much less portion of culture is requisite for its abundant production than is found necessary for most other countries of the world, and is, indeed, to a very large extent, almost spontaneously productive.
The facilities are incalculable which it might supply to commerce, and towards increasing and aggrandizing its people from the multitudinous rivers that pour beauty, comfort, and health, into its extensive tract. The advantages already mentioned, with its diversified aspect, its champaign and its hilly surface, its noble mountains and woods, where sport a great variety of beautiful and useful animals, its groves of numerous kinds of fruit, and of balsamic and spice trees, peopled with birds of luxuriant plumage or of alimentary utility, would, with the addition of that agricultural and commercial improvement of which it is so immensely susceptible, and the introduction of literature, science, and art, and the consequent prevalence of a social, liberal, and hospitable feeling, advance it to a state of beauty, prosperity, and happiness not to be surpassed by any other portions of the globe, and equalled but by few.
It is obvious that at present these numerous provinces, each of which might, when thus improved, constitute a kingdom, are mainly in a primeval state, and hitherto the religious bigotry, the unlettered ignorance, the unsocial manners, the commercial defects, the narrow, civil, and ecclesiastical polity have for centuries checked the natural growth of every thing that adorns and gives power to an empire.
But a nobler view of this fine country is rising before us. The adoption by the Brazilians of the free constitution of government recently determined upon by the mother country, and sanctioned by the beneficent disposition of their monarch, as well as by the highly honourable, judicious, and decided approbation of the Prince Royal, will, it is hoped, rouze the latent energies of this fine country, and produce an immediate advance towards that flourishing and distinguished state we have been contemplating. Indeed it cannot be otherwise if the constitution is adopted with stability and energy; for liberty, civil and religious, is richly productive of every thing that is honourable and beneficial to mankind, and those have been the most truly glorious who have enjoyed it most, giving, as it does to man, when wisely tempered, an open and happy countenance and heart, and a firm and erect attitude, step, and character. Such has been Greece in ancient and such is Britain in modern times.
The want of similar blessings in the Brazil has greatly paralysed industry in the pursuits of husbandry and commerce, engendered apathy, and an almost total depression of any desire to emerge from a state of profound ignorance in literature and the arts. Education, partially derived from Royal professors, whose pompous denominations are a mockery upon learning, will now surely soar to excellence, by means of the establishment of seminaries of learning, with professors of real talent. The diffusion of knowledge, and the interest which a share in a popular constitution will give the people in their government, will change their listless character into one of life and energy. The amelioration of the laws respecting property in land, the adoption of new regulations in favour of commerce, and the curtailing the mind-degrading and extortionate influence of a numerous and slothful priesthood, will give the Brazilians the desire and the power of giving effect to the immense physical means of felicity and glory afforded by a country so extraordinarily favoured by nature.
When so barren, so foggy, so unproductive, and so small a country as Holland, has rendered itself so rich and distinguished among European states, infinitely more blessed by nature, what may not be anticipated of a land so immense, so luxuriant in soil, and so favourable in climate as the Brazil, capable as it is of largely producing almost whatever nature has bestowed upon other countries. What may not be anticipated now that such a land has exchanged slavery for freedom.
The philosopher, the man of business, and the philanthropist, already exult in the change, and are felicitated by the prospect so richly and grandly opening before them. To the first, improved facilities will be afforded, in oneof the most magnificent and varied fields in the world, for his delightful pursuits in Natural History. To the British merchant particularly an immense augmentation of his commercial dealings will be opened, by a wiser administration of the Brazilian government relative to the exchange of commodities with other countries, and by the increased industry and prosperity of the Brazilian people. The well-wisher to the happiness of his fellow men will be cheered with the prospect of the gradual if not speedy abolition of the hateful slave-trade; thus conferring the enjoyment of freedom not only upon their sable brethren in South America, but cutting off one of the main sources of the wars, slavery, and misery of the people of Africa. The revered names of Clarkson and Wilberforce will then sound as gratefully as they now do odiously to the Brazilian planter and dealer, who at present, from a prejudiced and narrow conception of what best contributes to the prosperity of individuals and of nations, and from an ignorant and ill-founded notion of the faculties of the negro, misconceive the labours of those excellent men. The picture which we have drawn of the future advancement of this country permits us also to indulge the hope that the blessings of civilization will be carried with Jesuitical earnestness among the numerous untamed Indians, and that the envenomed dart, rudely-painted skin, and distorted features, will give place to the customs of social life, thereby converting their native wilds into scenes of fertility, such as formerly beautified the missions of Paraguay, where groves of fruit trees, where sweetest plants and flowers, plantations of roots, of rice, and Indian corn, numerous useful animals, together with a mild paternal government, ensured plenty and prosperity to the inhabitants.
The king sailed from Rio de Janeiro for Lisbon on the 26th of April, 1821, and arrived at the latter city the beginning of July, accompanied by upwards of four thousand persons, which will tend to produce a temporary depression of the commercial spirit and consequence of the Brazilian capital. When it is known, however, that a considerable portion of those individuals were hangers-on upon the royal bounty, and that a great many others were not permanent residents, but merely drawn thither from Portugal, for a certain period, to obtain some object with the government, (and from the known partiality of the king in detaining European Portuguese in the Brazil, the number under those circumstances were always considerable,) the impression will be diminished of any lengthened or serious check upon the prosperity of this city by their removal. It will be gratifying to the Brazilians to have still amongst them the Conde dos Arcos, who fulfilled the duties of viceroy, on the arrival of the royal family at the Brazil, to the general satisfaction of the people, and who is appointed prime-minister to His Royal Highness Don Pedro.