Barra do Rio GrandeSanta MariaFloresPilao ArcadoAssumpçaoSymbres.
The town of Barra do Rio Grande is at the northern angle of the confluent which affords it the name, is in a state of mediocrity, well supplied with meat and fish, and has some commerce. The church is dedicated to St. Francisco das Chagas; and the number of its inhabitants is included in one thousand and thirty-six families. The passage of the St. Francisco, here a mile wide, is much frequented.
Pilao Arcado, created a town in 1810, is one hundred miles below the preceding, and is well situated near a small hill upon the margin of the St. Francisco, its only resource for water, and whose greatest inundations always visit it with some injury. The church, dedicated to St. Antonio, is new, and solidly built with bricks and lime. The houses are generally earth and wood, and many of them covered with straw. It has three hundred families, which are increasing, and, with those of its vast district, comprise five thousand inhabitants, who cultivate mandioca, maize, vegetables, good melons, and water-melons, upon the margins of the river. The land around it is generally wild and sterile, and alone appropriated to the breeding of cattle, which are subject to the horrible mortality, produced by frequent droughts. There are a great many small lakes, at various distances from the river, all more or less brackish, and upon whose margins the salt,formed by the ardent heat of the sun, appears like hoarfrost. The water of these lakes (and even soft water) filtered through a contiguous earth in wooden vessels, or leather finely perforated, and exposed on boards to the weather, in eight days of heat crystallizes, becoming salt as white as marine salt. Although in lands which have proprietors, they are, like auriferous soils, reputed common to all those who wish to benefit by them, and are a great resource for the poor, almost all the salt here produced is transmitted to the centre of Minas Geraes.
Villa Real de Santa Maria, situated upon an island three miles long, and a great distance below the preceding, has the aspect of an aldeia, with one hundred and sixty families, chiefly Indians, who are hunters, fishermen, and agriculturists, and are exempt from tribute. Their wives spin and weave cotton, and work in the manufactory of earthenware, of which a considerable portion is exported.
The town of N. Senhora d’Assumpçao takes the name from the patroness of its church. The inhabitants, comprising one hundred and fifty-four families, are all Indians; they fish, hunt, and cultivate mandioca, maize, water-melons, hortulans, and cotton. It is at the western extremity of an island eighteen miles long, and the same distance below the preceding town. In front of this island is the middling arraial and julgado of Quebrobo, with a church of Conceiçao, whose parishioners, about eighteen hundred and twenty-seven families of all complexions, are mostly dispersed over its vast district. Cotton and cattle are their productions.
Flores, erected into a town in the year 1810, is yet small and in the vicinity of the river Pajehu. A filial chapel of the parish of Quebrobo serves it for a church. The inhabitants draw their subsistence from the breeding of cattle, and the culture of cotton.
Symbres, formerly Ororoba, is a small town of Chucuru Indians, with some whites and mesticos, cultivators of cotton and the provisions of the country. The wives of the first make earthenware with considerable art, and spin and weave cotton. They utter great lamentations when their husbands do not bring home game from the woods. The church is dedicated to the Lady of the Mountain; and its population consists of four hundred and eighty families.
The considerable arraial, julgado, and parish of St. Antonio, in the district of Garanhuns, bordering upon the preceding, is of this comarca, having been, with the latter one, dismembered from that of the Recife. Its people grow cotton.
In this ouvidorship is also the parish of St. Anna do Sacramento do Angical, dismembered from that of Campo Largo, from which it is distant thirty miles, and ten from the margin of the Rio Grande.
Having concluded the description of the province, we will now proceed to a consideration of its capital, commonly called Pernambuco, (which name is a corruption of Paranabuco, by which the Cahetes designated the port, where at the present day the smallest class of vessels anchor,) and is understood to comprehend two distinct places, the city of Ollinda and the town of Recife, (so called from the reef in front of it,) with an interval of a league, communicating by a narrow sand-bank from north to south, also by an arm of the sea that enters the small river Biberibe, which runs along the said sand-bank from one place to the other, and likewise by a road on the main land, at no great distance from the western margin of the same river.
Recife, which is the official designation of the capital, the government documents being so signed, is large, populous, and commercial, with tolerable houses, handsome churches, a convent of priests of the congregation of Oratorio, another of Franciscans, a third of slippered Carmelites, an alms and entertaining house of Terra Santa, another of Italian Barbonios, a recolhimento of women, an episcopal palace, and an hospital of Lazarettos. The Jesuits had a college here, which now constitutes the palace of the governors. This town is divided into three portions, or districts, by the river Capibaribe, namely, Recife, St. Antonio, and Boavista. Each of these forms a separate parish, and they communicate by two bridges; that of Boavista, which is chiefly of wood, and paved, is three hundred and twenty paces long; that of St. Antonio, two hundred and ninety paces across, was in great part of stone, but having given way, the remainder is imperfectly supplied with wood, not admitting of the passage of a carriage, and has been allowed to remain for a considerable time in this condition, so disreputable to the town. At each end it has a stone arch of rather an elegant construction, above which there are small chapels, niches, and saints, where mass is celebrated. In the street, fronting the niches with saints, many of the inhabitants prostrate themselves, at dusk, for some time in a posture of devotion. The bridges are flat and not many feet above the level of the sea.
The first part, or the Recife, occupies a peninsula, and is the emporium of the town’s commerce, the stores of the merchants being situated in it. The tongue of land, or sand-bank before mentioned, which extends itself from Ollinda to the south between the sea and the river Biberibe, terminates here.It is the site of the custom-house, which of itself is an indifferent edifice. The Rua das Cruzes is the best street, and although short is wide and neat; the others are mostly paved, but are narrow and inelegant. Its church, which is handsome, and commonly designated Corpo Santo, has for its nominal patron St. Pedro Gonsalvez.
The second portion of the town, called St. Antonio, occupies another peninsula, which is the northern extremity of the island, formed by two arms of the Capibaribe. It was first planted with cocoa-nut trees by Prince Nassau, the Dutch governor, who erected Fribourg House for his own residence, and founded the town of Mauritius upon it. It has better streets than the Recife, although generally sandy, and not paved, with high footways laid with bricks. Here is a small square, surrounded with neat houses, having only a ground floor, with a piazza to the interior front, and may be denominated a species of bazar, consisting solely of shops, where a variety of articles are sold. The mother church is dedicated to SS. Sacramento. The treasury and the governor’s palace are situated here. The latter is not the residence of the governor, but contains various public offices, and is used for a sort of levee, held upon occasions of the birthday of any of the royal family.
The third part of the town, called Boavista, is the only portion susceptible of any considerable increase, being situated on the continent. It has advanced in magnitude with the others, but is destitute of regularity, which may be attributed to the negligence of the senate in not having marked out the streets in right lines at its commencement. Its church is also dedicated to SS. Sacramento. Here also the Dutch governor built the first house, which he called Boavista, and, being a Portuguese name, the place has retained it. These three portions, running in a line from east to west, form this large and flourishing town, which, besides the governor, has an ouvidor, a port admiral, a Juiz de Fora, each of them having various inspections, and three royal professors of Latin, one of philosophy, and another of eloquence and poetry. The usual junta, or council da fazenda real, to decide upon all matters relative to the province, is composed of the governor, the ouvidor, the Juiz de Fora, the attorney-general, the port admiral, the chief of the treasury, and the judge or comptroller of the custom-house, who hold their sittings at the treasury. The suburbs are an extensive plain, with handsome cocoa-nut tree groves, interspersed withsitios, or country-houses. The inhabitants drink the water principally of the Biberibe, collected into a reservoir at Ollinda, formed by a sortof barrier, denominated avaradoiro, which impedes the further advance of the tide, and accumulates the fresh water above. This bulwark, which also serves as a bridge or passage over the river to Ollinda, is in part covered by a handsome archway, below which the water passes through circular spouts, and at the other parts by larger and square channels; presenting altogether twenty-four mouths, from whence the water issues in spray, forming many pleasing cascades. From hence it is conveyed in covered canoes for the supply of the Recife. The water of the Capibaribe is also brought in canoes from Monteiro.
The port of Recife, which is not deep enough for vessels of a large class, is amongst the most wonderful works of nature. A recife, or chain of reef, which extends itself from the entrance of Bahia to Cape St. Roque, parallel with and at no great distance from the shore, in no part appears so much like an operation of human art as here. It is prolonged for the space of a league in a direct line with and about two hundred yards from the beach, having the aspect of a large flat wall, being always above the level of the sea, and at low water six feet is discovered. This reef, which is perpendicular on the land side, and gradually declining on the other, here suddenly disappears opposite the most northern part of the Recife, having on its extremity the fort of Picao, and forming a fine harbour, which must have been the sole inducement for the foundation of the capital in this situation. Vessels entering the port navigate as near as possible to the internal side of the reef, where they require much depth till they arrive at the most commodious place of anchorage. The occasionally agitated ocean here finds its bounds, and dashes in tumultuous and angry waves against the reef, the foaming spray not disturbing the smooth water within, but affording a delightfully cooling freshness, as well as an interesting spectacle, to the houses situated upon the beach, and principally occupied in stores by the merchants. Large ships anchor to the north of the fort of Picao, in a bay without shelter, fronting the forts of Brun and Buraco, situated upon the before-mentioned sand-bank. The fort of Brun, which the Dutch commenced on the 25th of June, 1631, and gave it the name of a maternal relative of their General Theodore, had for some time among the Pernambucanans the appellation of Perreril.
This place, while yet of little consequence, was taken by the Dutch in 1630, who retained it for twenty-four years, and did more for it in public works during that time, as was candidly admitted to me by a Portuguese gentleman holding a public situation here, than has ever been done since. Among the monuments which attest the spirit of improvement that marked the Dutch possessionof this part of the Brazil, there is (or was a few years ago) a stone of European marble bearing the following inscription:
Op GebouwtonderD’Hooge RegeringevanPræsidten Raden,Anno MDCLII.[40]
This stone was seen by several of the English merchants within the last three years at the door of the church of Corpo Santo, among the masonry work destined for the completion of this fine edifice; but it certainly is not introduced into the walls of the building, nor could I discover any trace of it.
The before-mentioned forts, and that of Cinco Pontas, at the southern extremity of St. Antonio, are the principal ones that defend the place; the two first are in good order.
A league to the south of Recife, near the southern arm of the Capibaribe, is the arraial of Affogadas, which is increasing, and is ornamented with three hermitages, of Nossa Senhora of Paz, of Rozario, and of St. Miguel. There is here a wooden bridge communicating with St. Antonio.
The city of Ollinda, which, as has been observed, constitutes a part of Pernambuco, was burnt by the Dutch in 1631, and is beautifully situated upon a cluster of eminences, which are the commencement of a small cordillera, that extends itself towards the interior of the continent. It was in former times rich, flourishing, and powerful, and was erected into an episcopal city in the year 1676, but continued to fall into decay, and is at present poor and thinly inhabited, owing to the vicinity of the town of Recife, which has deprived it of all its commerce. It is, however, a fine retreat for the studious, convalescent, or misanthropical, who seek retirement from the tumult and bustle of the world. It has a house of misericordia, with its hospital, a recolhimento, or Magdalenhouse, a convent of Franciscans, one of unslippered Carmelites, another of slippered Carmelites, and a fourth of Benedictines; a palace in which the governors in former times were obliged to reside six months in the year; an episcopal palace, finely situated, but much deteriorated, being unoccupied in consequence of the death of the bishop; a seminary in the ex-Jesuitical college, with schools, and professors of Greek, Latin, French, geography, rhetoric, universal history, philosophy, drawing, ecclesiastical history, dogmatical and moral theology, a great number of hermitages, and a garden of trees and exotic plants, chiefly Asiatic, from whence the farmers can transplant them into their own grounds. It has also the bread-fruit tree and Otaheitan cane, and occupies an advantageous situation, but is not kept in good order. This city is divided into two parishes, one of them being of the cathedral, which is a magnificent edifice, with three naves, dedicated to St. Salvador, and contains eight hundred and eighty houses; the other has for parochial the church of St. Pedro Martin, and comprises three hundred and fifteen houses.
The senate is rich; almost all the houses pay to it atestoon(three hundred reas) of tax for each span of front. Almost all have large gardens, but generally of little or no utility. The ground is appropriated to the cultivation of fruitful trees, of which mangoes are the principal.
The last donatory of this province affirmed that Ollinda, when it was burned, had two thousand five hundred houses, which were estimated to contain twenty-five thousand inhabitants.
The decay of Ollinda was considered by many of its inhabitants as a punishment for the pride of its rich and leading persons, whose libertinism had arrived at such a pitch, that an orator preaching on a festival day in one of the parish churches, and energetically declaiming against the vices prevailing in the country, some of the principal people commanded him to be silent, and dragged him with violence from the pulpit, without the auxiliary priests being able to prevent the outrage.
The convents, which are handsome and well-built, occupy the finest situations in Ollinda, generally upon the acclivity or summits of the eminences, from whence the views are interesting. Some of these religious establishments have now but few friars, and one of them was occupied by a military detachment. The walls surrounding the grounds of several, I observed, were broken down in many parts, and in a state of dilapidation; and the enclosures, which would have formed fine pleasure grounds, were barren, unplanted, and quite neglected.
A MATUTO RETURNING FROM PERNAMBUCO.
A MATUTO RETURNING FROM PERNAMBUCO.
On proceeding from hence by the sand-bank to the Recife, I was suddenlystartled at the appearance of a human skull and bones, near a pillar or beacon situated between the two forts. Considerably impressed by so unexpected a sight, and moving slowly forward with such feelings as it was calculated to excite, not having any other idea but that they were the remains of some murdered person, I found myself in the midst of human bones, over-spreading the summit of the sand-bank. I now began to surmise that it was the cemetery of the blacks, which was confirmed on my arrival at the Recife. The dead bodies of the negroes are wrapped up in a piece of coarse cotton cloth, and being thinly covered with sand is the reason of their remains soon becoming thus indecently exposed. I understand that the white people were at one time also interred here. The English have a burying-ground at St. Amaro, not far from Boavista.
The roads branching off from Pernambuco into the interior are very good for a few miles, although sandy, and in some parts deep. They soon begin to contract into narrow bridle-ways, and are the tracks of troops of horses coming from the certams with cotton principally, and some other produce. The horses here are, from the sandy nature of the roads, never shod, and those driven from the interior by themattutos[41](inhabitants of the mattos, or woods) are generally very miserable and poor, and seem almost to give way under the burden of two bags of cotton, attached one on each side to a rudely constructed pack-saddle. Cords are commonly used by these persons for stirrups, into which they introduce the great toe. Their dress, consisting of a coarse cotton shirt hanging loosely over drawers, or trowsers, reaching to the calf of the leg, with a large slouching straw or black hat, a gun occasionally borne over one shoulder, and a sword in a wooden sheath, awkwardly suspended from a leathern belt, gives them a singular appearance. Some of these groups are rather of a superior order, being dressed in brown leathern overalls, a jacket, and a low round hat of the same. Parties of men and horses are thus continually arriving at and departing from Pernambuco. The men exhibit a great variety of complexions, and not one is to be seen that can be said to be of pure European descent, all having a mixture of Indian and African physiognomy. They are generally active and well formed. Few are Indians, more are mesticos.
The cotton planters, as well as proprietors of sugar works, visit the emporium of Pernambucan commerce in their gayest vestments, with their horses caparisonedin all the trappings and paraphernalia of Portuguese saddlery. The Brazilians generally, when they go from home, are fond of external show, without regard to much neatness, and upon those occasions they form a striking contrast to their general disgusting appearance in their domestic circles. There the men are usually seen with a dressing gown, or a shirt worn loosely over drawers, without stockings, their breasts exposed, and indulging inert and slovenly propensities. The females, having this example before them, claim some allowance for their loose and slatternly mode of dressing, when at home, and their worse habit of generally expectorating, without regard to person, time, or place. Young females are entitled to much consideration also, on account of the illiberal system pursued in their education and manner of bringing up. They are, it may be said, almost excluded from society; and the suspicious treatment they experience from their parents must tend to extinguish every liberal and moral sentiment; in fact, it cannot be considered that those very parents themselves possess much, or they would not subject them to an ungracious and scrutinizing watch, by generally keeping them shut up, so that they do not enjoy even the necessary exercise for health, to which their Turkish mode of sitting on the ground or upon mats, is not very congenial. If a family walk out, the daughters precede the father and mother, and the negroes, frequently composing the whole household, bring up the rear. Their grand opportunities for displaying their persons are religious holidays and festivals, and the midnight masses at the churches are said to be fully attended by the females.
The lady of General Rego, the governor, who is a very accomplished woman, has endeavoured, very amiably but ineffectually, to introduce a social intercourse amongst the families, and particularly the females, of Pernambuco; and although this lady succeeded in making a commencement, it was afterwards declined by the families themselves, from the ridiculous excuse that it would become expensive to have new dresses for every fresh visit. The general also gave a public ball to the inhabitants, which was followed by one on the part of the English merchants; but it would appear, with the exception of some of the leading persons, that the inhabitants, from their little intercourse with the world, are yet inimical to any refined system of society.
The cotton planters, and senhors d’engenho in the interior, are stated to be liberal and hospitable to strangers; and many of them, who have been recently acquiring considerable property, live in a comparatively comfortable style.
Apathy is a strong characteristic in the lower orders of Brazilians. In my various excursions near Pernambuco, I have seen men, at all hours of the day,stretched out upon tables, upon mats, or in redes, (nets,) slumbering their time away. If this class of people can obtain sufficient to satisfy the wants of the day, their views extend no further, and industry is no where seen amongst them; besides, the agricultural arm is paralysed nearly one-third of the year by holidays and saint days.
I was very hospitably entertained during a portion of my stay at Pernambuco by John Lempriere, Esq. the British consul, whose sitio is at the Solidado, a small hamlet, in which is situated a palace, formerly belonging to the bishop. It is a fine edifice, and built with uniformity, but is now rapidly sinking into decay, which will not be less accelerated by the use to which it is at present appropriated—that of a barrack. I brought a letter of introduction to Mr. Cockshott, when we immediately recognised each other as old acquaintances, his family and mine having been upon the most intimate terms of friendship for many years. I experienced great kindness from him, as well as many of the English merchants residing here, and spent a portion of my time at his country sitio, pleasantly situated at Ponta de Cho, upon the margin of the Capibaribe, from whence I was accompanied by Mr. Ray, the American consul, who also has a house here, to visit many of the neighbouring places, and cannot upon this occasion refrain from doing justice to my feelings, in acknowledging his frank and spontaneous attention and liberality.
The rides from Recife to Ponta de Cho, by several roads, are equally delightful, being partly bordered with lime hedges, and fences formed of the cocoa branch, interspersed with verdant foliage, and all the variety of fruit trees peculiar to the clime; groups of the high towering cocoa-nut tree heighten the beauty of the scenery, every where richly wooded.
The roads branching from Boavista, and meeting in one, about half-way to Ponta de Cho, are adorned with some elegant white houses, in a very excellent state of exterior repair, the grounds being enclosed by lofty walls, and many of the front entrances, consisting of a handsome portico, excelling any thing in this style near Rio de Janeiro. Every hundred yards, places of this character are met with to Ponta de Cho, where the river opens out and presents a very pleasing scene, the road running for a short distance along its margin, fronted by the residence of the governor, not very gracefully ornamented with a chapel in the middle of the entrance court. From hence the main road leaves the river, and for about two miles presents many neat houses to the Poco de Panela, some of them being the residences of English merchants.
In this interval the village of Casa Forte is passed, celebrated for having beenone of the scenes of contest between the Dutch and Portuguese. The village of Poço de Panela is upon the left bank of the river, and is enlivened with houses of much more taste and neatness than a stranger would expect to see, with the impressions made upon his mind on landing at Recife.
It must be observed, that although the environs of Pernambuco have a fertilized appearance, in consequence of being well wooded, the soil is in a miserable state of cultivation, and not rendered so productive, by two-thirds, as it might be, being very generally uncleared of the brushwood, and a great portion remaining in its primeval condition. Proceeding from Ponta de Cho, by the Cruz das Almas road, which leads to Ollinda, a great proportion of the surrounding country is in a wild state; here and there are seen small patches of mandioca, groves of cocoa-nut, and other fruit trees, but the general aspect demonstrates the want of industry, for it would be expected that every yard of ground so near to a commercial city, with nearly one hundred vessels of different classes usually lying in its port, would be in progress at least of agricultural improvement. It is also remarkable, that between Recife and Ollinda, which latter city was formerly the seat of government and the centre of commerce, there is not a good road the whole way, parts of it for a considerable distance assuming the appearance of a mere track. The present governor has ordered a road to be commenced by a nearer route, and in many places the germ of improvement in this essential point is observable, new roads being partly made and staked out. Intelligence and civilization is only diffused through a country by facility of communication, and to General Rego, the Pernambucanans are indebted for promoting this blessing; the roads in the immediate vicinity of the town have been widened and otherwise improved by his orders; and it is highly to be wished that such a spirit, tending so much to the real benefit of the province, may be encouraged. The revolution here, in 1817, is said to have materially retarded improvement, as that measure was brought about, not from any genuine sentiments of liberty, the four or five persons at the head of it being only desirous of procuring their individual aggrandizement; and it is said that such jealousy at last existed amongst them, that they attended the council secretly armed. They were men of no talent, and the principal actor, Senhor Martyens, was a decayed Portuguese merchant, from London. They, as well as many others, paid the forfeit of their lives for prematurely attempting a change which they did not understand, but which the lapse of a few years has, happily for the advancement of this country, brought about.
STYLE OF HOUSES AT POCO DE FERNELLA.
STYLE OF HOUSES AT POCO DE FERNELLA.
NEGROES IMPELLING A CANOE WITH THE YARA & SCENERY AT PONTA DECHO.
NEGROES IMPELLING A CANOE WITH THE YARA & SCENERY AT PONTA DECHO.
The new constitution of Portugal, already adopted at Para and Bahia, wasspontaneously acceded to by the governor, the different public officers, and the people, without any effusion of blood, in the month of January, 1821. The imprisonment at Bahia, since 1818, of some of the first men of Pernambuco, arrested on suspicion of being implicated in the revolution, will now no doubt have its termination. That event brought upon Pernambuco a strict military government, and at the corner of every street after dusk, the ear was assailed by the military watch-word; under such a system, the inhabitants could not have been more fortunate than in the selection of General Rego for their governor, whose military experience was acquired with much credit in the Peninsular campaign, and whose gentlemanly and friendly conduct would tend to soften the rigours of a military occupation of the town. To the ready assistance and attention of the governor to all matters in which their interests are concerned, the English merchants bear their united testimony.
During the Christmas holidays, and the hottest weather, Poço de Panela, Ponta de Cho, and the neighbouring, and more distant villages of Monteiro (the road to which partly leads by a bridle-way through woods) and of Caxanga, (where there is a spring of chalybeate water, approached also by a bye-way after crossing the river,) are fully occupied by the families of Recife, in their gayest attire and the ladies are frequently seen at the windows or at the doors, the men devoting the days of the holidays to gambling, seated in the verandas, playing at cards or backgammon. At this season the roads are also enlivened with horsemen going their evening rounds to these places of resort. Another very pleasing excursion to Ponta de Cho, Poço de Panela, and Monteiro, is by the river Capibaribe, whose winding banks are bordered with white cottages and houses, some of a very superior appearance, also inhabited during this period, and each having a bathing house rudely enough formed of the branches of the cocoa-nut tree. Innumerable canoes are seen gliding along the river, impelled with more velocity than by the oar or the paddle, by two vara men, who are negroes dressed in white cotton trowsers, exhibiting all the muscular movements of their naked arms and bodies in the exertion of using the vara, which, when well and regularly executed, is rather a graceful labour. A whole family, with furniture, and all the et ceteras, are moved up the river to their summer abode in this manner; and the ladies, in their smart dresses, with French hats and white plumes nodding to the river’s breeze, do not seem to regret that it is but transient liberty they are going to enjoy, and which they indulge in by a more free exhibition of themselves, and also by daily bathing in the river, probably two or three times, remaining in the water an hour or an hour and a half atonce. They are said to be more expert divers and swimmers than the men, and it is not rare to see parties of them swimming about with much confidence, their hair being generally neatly dressed and bound up. One evening, on approaching the banks of the river beyond Monteiro, with Mr. Ray, some females were bathing, and amongst them were an old gentleman and his young wife, with whom Mr. R. was acquainted. We took off our hats, and the compliment was very cordially returned by the whole party, by a low dip in the water; on re-passing a considerable time afterwards we observed them still enjoying this refreshing amusement. Previously to my leaving Ponta de Cho, thepremier chuvas(first rains) were setting in, and the river already conveyed many canoes with families and their furniture on the return. The heaviest rains begin about March, when this part of the country is partially inundated and forsaken till the dry season recommences. There are various religious festivals during the holidays at different churches, in honour of saints. Those that appeared to attract the most attention were at the church of the Mount at Ollinda, at St. Amaro, and the Poço de Panela; to the latter, the English subscribed a certain sum each. Many people were assembled, and the houses were dedicated to the purposes of gambling. The multitude seemed to loiter about without any object, and there was a deadness and want of spirit and gaiety in their general demeanor. The church was open, which I entered in the midst of the ceremony of christening a child; a large lighted wax candle was as quickly introduced into my hand, and I was thus enlisted into the ranks. A band of music was playing in the gallery, to dissipate the shrill notes of the youngster, who was fingered rather roughly by the padre in the course of various ceremonies he performed, and in which he applied a considerable portion of salt. When the infant, after undergoing the last form of having a silver crown placed upon its head, was returned to its mother, it appeared quite exhausted; and a pretty general round of embracing concluded the ceremony. The master of the festa, and his wife and daughters were there: the females were splendidly dressed, but the absence of the graces prevented these adornments from having their due effect upon the imagination. The fire-works supplied by the subscription, and which concluded this festival, were, I understood, very indifferent.
THE HOUSE OF THE SENHOR D’ENGENHO DE TORRE. NEAR PERNAMBUCO.
THE HOUSE OF THE SENHOR D’ENGENHO DE TORRE. NEAR PERNAMBUCO.
The Christmas holidays are deemed by the merchants a great interruption to commerce, as no shipments can be made or business transacted during that period. The English establishments here amount to sixteen, and through their medium this province is supplied with every species of English manufactures. They labour, as has been previously stated, under considerable difficulties, inconsequence of the mal-operation of the pauta. The produce shipped from hence, consists principally of cotton and sugar; of the latter, about twenty-five thousand cases annually, nearly one-half to England, and the remainder to Lisbon: the quantity of the former averages about eighty thousand bags, sixty thousand being sent to Great Britain, and the remainder principally to Lisbon. The Pernambuco cotton is the best in the Brazil, arising in part from the rigid inspection which it undergoes. A new inspection house was erected here, upon the beach, called the Forte do Matto, in the year 1815. The cotton is bought by the merchant at a certain price, when it is submitted to inspection and divided into three qualities; for the second quality, which is permitted to pass with the first, the merchant receives an allowance of five hundred reas per arrobe, from the planter; the third quality is totally rejected. The bags are then weighed for the merchant to pay the export duty, and as one bag is only weighed at a time, there has been considerable delay in getting the cotton through the inspection house for shipment. The present governor attended here, and attempted to make arrangements for weighing the cotton quicker, but matters shortly afterwards reverted to their anterior state. Sugar is classed into nine different qualities, and distinguished by the following marks, commencing with the finest and continuing by gradations downwards.
The sugar engenhos are some of them very considerable, and the two accompanying plates are representations of the exterior and interior of the Engenho de Torre not far from the right margin of the Capibaribe. The owner, who has amassed a respectable property, very politely allowed four gentlemen with myself to see this establishment. The juice is extracted by the compressure of the cane between three upright rollers, the centre one moving the other two, and being itself constantly carried round by relays of mares, which have a singular appearance from their ears being closely cropped. The juice flows along a channel to a lower apartment in the building, where it goes through the differentprocesses of boiling, and when completed is much inferior to the West-Indian sugar, and generally in a very dirty state.
The English merchants were desirous of getting a clergyman from England, having been without the performance of divine service for a considerable period; and, besides the want of an opportunity to fulfil one of the most essential and important duties in life, an unfavourable impression could not but operate against them in the minds of the inhabitants, from their having no public observance of religion. The contribution fund, in the hands of the committee, amounts to upwards of five thousand pounds, which those gentlemen have been anxious to apply to the purposes for which it is intended, that of building a church and an hospital, and the payment of a clergyman and a medical man, which latter appointment is filled by Dr. Ramsay, a gentleman of great acquirements in his profession, and deservedly and universally beloved and esteemed.
I accompanied him and some of the merchants, upon one occasion, amongst many others in which they had been endeavouring to obtain suitable buildings for a church, hospital, and residences for the doctor and a clergyman. The building which we saw had been recently erected, was very spacious, surrounded with some grounds, and well adapted for the purpose; the reason it was not rented or purchased arose from the proprietor demanding an exorbitant price.[42]
We, at the same time, paid a visit to Mr. Koster, (a gentleman known to the literary world by the publication of his travels in the northern part of the Brazil,) who had just arrived at Recife from Goyanna, from whence, in consequence of his indifferent state of health, he travelled in a net suspended between two horses, which was rendered, he said, a less disagreeable mode of conveyance, by the ambling pace of the horses. Mr. Koster had removed his residence to Goyanna, in hopes that the climate would be more suitable to his health and constitution; but his very delicate appearance indicated a rapid decline, and I regret to say that he did not long survive.
On Stone by C. Shoosmith from a Sketch by JasHenderson.Printed by C. Hullmandel.THE SUGAR ENGENHO DE TORRE, AND A PLAN OF ITS INTERIOR.
On Stone by C. Shoosmith from a Sketch by JasHenderson.
Printed by C. Hullmandel.
THE SUGAR ENGENHO DE TORRE, AND A PLAN OF ITS INTERIOR.
THE SITE AND REMAINS OF FRIBOURG HOUSE, FORMERLY THE RESIDENCE OF PRINCE MAURICE OF NASSAU.
THE SITE AND REMAINS OF FRIBOURG HOUSE, FORMERLY THE RESIDENCE OF PRINCE MAURICE OF NASSAU.
The population of Pernambuco is estimated at about sixty-five thousand persons, St. Antonio containing much the greatest proportion. I endeavoured to discover the site and remains of Fribourg House, the first edifice built upon it by Prince Maurice of Nassau; and was finally assured that its remains constitute the present Casa de Fazenda Real, which, though exhibiting some antiquity in its aspect, in consequence of being white-washed, could not be identified with positive certainty. But its appearance, (pretty correctly represented in theplate,) combined with the tradition that it is actually the remains of Fribourg House, does not leave much room to doubt the fact. The convent fronting it has a great many cocoa-nut trees, which no doubt are the fruits of those he so copiously planted upon the island. A Prince who did so much for Pernambuco, in so short a time, and who here built the first two bridges that were known in the Brazil, is not undeserving of some monument in this place to his memory. There is a theatre in St. Antonio; but the performances are exceedingly indifferent, and the house, which is small, but thinly attended, no spirit existing for the encouragement of such an establishment.