CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER IX.VOYAGE FROM PERNAMBUCO TO MARANHAM.—ST. LUIZ.—TRADE.—WILD INDIANS.—THE GOVERNOR.—ALCANTARA.—THE AUTHOR SAILS FROM ST. LUIZ, AND ARRIVES IN ENGLAND.EIGHT days after my return from Searà, arrived a vessel from England, bringing letters which obliged me to leave Pernambuco and proceed to Maranham. As a cargo could not be obtained for the brig at the former place, the consignee determined to send her to Maranham, and being myself desirous of taking advantage of the first opportunity, I prepared for the voyage, and sailed in the course of forty-eight hours.We weighed anchor on the 25th February, and had a prosperous passage of seven days. We were in sight of the land nearly the whole time, and occasionally, as the brig was small, and the master wished if possible to become acquainted with the points of land, we were very near to it. The Portugueze ships seldom come up this coast without a pilot, nor is it prudent to do otherwise; but we could not obtain one without delay, to which the master objected. He had scarcely ever before been out of the British seas; but their school is good, and now he found his way to Maranham with as much dexterity as an experienced pilot. This coast is generally known to be dangerous; and the land has for the most part a dreary and dismal look, particularly after passing Rio Grande. We entered the bay of St. Marcos with the lead going, took the channel to the eastward of thebaixo do meioor middle bank, passed the Fort of St. Marcos, andcame to an anchor opposite and very near to the sand banks at the mouth of the harbour of St. Luiz. As no pilot came off to us, the master and myself got into the boat, intending to fetch one; but on coming opposite to the Fort of St. Francisco, a gun without shot was fired, and the sentinel beckoned us back to the ship. We pulled for the fort, and when we approached it, an enormous speaking trumpet was produced, and through it we received orders not to proceed to the city. However we landed at the fort, and I told the officer that the master was particularly desirous of having a pilot, as he was unacquainted with the bay or port; but it is well known that they contain many sand banks. We were answered that the pilot would come in due time; and finding remonstrance of no avail, returned to the ship. When the pilot arrived, he was accompanied by a soldier and a custom-house officer. It was with some difficulty that I could persuade the master to allow the former to come into the vessel. Sailors and soldiers never very well agree, and the blunt Englishman said that he had no idea of his ship being taken from him by a fellow in a party-coloured jacket. This was a new regulation. Indeed in most of those regarding the port of Maranham, I could not avoid recollecting the old proverb of “much cry, &c.” As the brig came up the harbour, we received the health and custom-house visit. It was composed of several well-dressed men, some of whom wore cocked hats and swords; and all of them ate much bread and cheese, and drank quantities of porter. Theadministradorof the customs was among them, and was dressed in the uniform of a cavalry officer. I scarcely ever saw so much astonishment pictured in the countenance of any man as in that of the master of the brig. He had been accustomed to enter our own ports, where so much business is done in so quiet a manner; and he now said to me in half joke, half earnest, “Why it is not only one, but they are coming in shoals to take the ship from me.” After all these personages, and all the trouble they had given us, I was still obliged to pass the night on board, because theguardamor, the officer especially appointed to prevent smuggling, had not made his visit. Fortunately, I found means of havingthe letters conveyed on shore, otherwise the vessel would have arrived four and twenty hours before the merchant to whom she was consigned, could have obtained any information regarding her. To render the night still more agreeable, some heavy rain fell; the deck was leaky, and about midnight I was obliged to rise and look for a dry corner.The city of St. Luiz, situated upon the island of Maranham, and the metropolis of theestado, or state of Maranham, is the residence of a captain-general and the see of a bishop. It is built upon very unequal ground, commencing from the water’s edge, and extending to the distance of about one mile and a half in a N.E. direction. The space which it covers, ought to contain many more inhabitants than is actually the case; but the city is built in a straggling manner, and it comprises some broad streets and squares. This gives to it an airy appearance, which is particularly pleasant in so warm a climate. Its situation upon the western part of the island, and upon one side of a creek, almost excludes it from the sea breeze, by which means the place is rendered less healthy than if it was more exposed. The population may be computed at about 12,000 persons or more, including negroes, of which the proportion is great, being much more considerable than at Pernambuco. The streets are mostly paved, but are out of repair. The houses are many of them neat and pretty, and of one story in height; the lower part of them is appropriated to the servants, to shops without windows, to warehouses, and other purposes, as at Pernambuco. The family lives upon the upper story, and the windows of this reach down to the floor, and are ornamented with iron balconies. The churches are numerous, and there are likewise Franciscan, Carmelite, and other convents. The places of worship are gaudily decorated in the inside; but no plan of architecture is aimed at in the formation of the buildings themselves, with the exception of the convents, which preserve the regular features appertaining to such edifices. The governor’s palace stands upon rising ground, not far from the water side, with the front towards the town. It is a long uniform stone building of one story in height; the principalentrance is wide, but without a portico. The western end joins the town-hall and prison, which appear to be part of the same edifice; and the oblong piece of ground in its front, covered with grass, gives to it on the whole a handsome and striking appearance. One end of this is open to the harbour and to a fort in the hollow, close to the water; the other extremity is nearly closed by the cathedral. One side is almost taken up with the palace and other public buildings, and the opposite space is occupied by dwelling-houses and streets leading down into other parts of the city. The ground upon which the whole place stands, is composed of a soft red stone; so that the smaller streets leading from the town into the country, some of which are not paved, are full of gullies, through which the water runs in the rainy season. These streets are formed of houses consisting only of the ground floor, and having thatched roofs; the windows are without glass, and the dwellings have a most mean and shabby appearance. The city contains a custom-house and treasury; the former is small, but was quite large enough for the business of the place, until lately.The harbour is formed by a creek in the island, and is to be entered from the bay of St. Marcos. The channel is of sufficient depth for common sized merchant ships; but is very narrow, and not to be entered without a pilot. Opposite to the town the water is shallow at the ebb. It is worthy of remark, that the tide rises gradually more and more along the coast of Brazil, from south to north. Thus at Rio de Janeiro the rise is said to be trifling; at Pernambuco it is from five to six feet; at Itamaraca eight feet; and at Maranham, it is eighteen feet. The forts of Maranham are all of them said to be in bad order. I heard one person observe, half in earnest, that he did not suppose each fort contained more than four guns which were in a fit state to be fired. I did not see that of St. Marcos, which is situated at the entrance of the bay; but it is reported to be in the same state as the others. Those I saw are small, and built of stone. The soldiers were well dressed and well fed, and they looked respectable. The barracks are new and large comparativelyspeaking, and have been built in an airy situation, in the outskirts of the city. The garrison consists of one regiment of regular infantry of about one thousand men when complete; but these are much divided, being stationed in several forts. Recruits are formed of the lower orders of white persons, and of the people of colour. The men were never exercised with the artillery, and were merely accustomed to the common routine of mounting guard, though a few detachments have on some occasions been sent on to the main land at the back of the island, to assist the planters against the wild Indians.The island of Maranham forms the S.E. side of the bay of St. Marcos, consequently this bay is to the westward of it. To the eastward of the island is the bay of St. Joze. From some similarity between the point of Itacolomi, by which vessels are in part guided when about to enter the bay of St. Marcos, and another point of land upon the small island of St. Anna, which is at the entrance of the bay of St. Joze, instances have occurred of vessels mistaking the latter for the former, and entering the bay of St. Joze. This error causes great danger and inconvenience, because owing to the prevalence of easterly winds, it is next to impossible for a vessel to beat her way out of it. It is therefore necessary that she should go through the narrow channel between the main land and the island of Maranham, a passage of considerable difficulty[60]. The bay of St. Marcos is spotted with several beautifulislands, and is of sufficient extent to admit of considerable grandeur. The width from St. Luiz to the opposite shore is between four and five leagues; its length is much greater; towards the south end there are several sand banks, and the water is shallower. It receives here the waters of a river, along the banks of which are situated several cattle estates, but the river Itapicuru, which runs into the narrow channel between the main land and the island, enjoys the greatest share of cultivation; its banks are extremely fertile, and upon them have been established the principal plantations of cotton and rice, which are the two chief and almost only articles of commerce from the city of St. Luiz. The island is in itself very little cultivated. There is no considerable plantation upon it. A few of the rich merchants residing in the city have country houses distant from it about one league, but the remainder of the lands are left untouched, owing, as is said, to the unfitness of the soil for the purposes of agriculture[61].There is a horse-path through the island to a house which stands immediately opposite to the mouth of the river Itapicuru; at this is stationed a canoe, for the purpose of conveying people from one shore to the other. Another horse-path also leads to the village and chapel of St. Joze.The importance of the province has increased very rapidly. Previous to the last sixty years no cotton was exported, and I heard that when the first parcel was about to be shipped, a petition was made by several of the inhabitants to theCamaraor municipality, requesting that the exportation might not be permitted, for otherwise they feared that there would be a want of the article for the consumption of the country; this of course was not attended to, and now the number of bags exported annually is between forty and fifty thousand, averagingabout 180 lbs. weight each[62]. The quantity of rice grown there is likewise great[63]; but the sugar which is required for the consumption of the province is brought from the ports to the southward. Some sugar cane has lately been planted, but hitherto molasses only have been made. I heard many persons say, that the lands are not adapted to the growth of the sugar cane[64]. The cotton and rice are brought to St. Luiz in barks of about 25 or 30 tons burthen. These come down the rivers with the stream from the plantations; their return is not however so easy, as they are obliged to be rowed or warped, but being then empty, or nearly so, the difficulty is not very great.Considerable quantities of manufactured goods have been sent out from Great Britain since the opening of the trade, as has been done to the other principal ports upon the coast; but a ready sale has not been found for them here to any great amount. The province of Maranham will not bear comparison with that of Pernambuco. It is still in an infant state; there still exist wild Indians, and the plantations upon the main land are still in danger from their attacks. The proportion of free persons is much smaller; the slaves very much preponderate, but this class can of necessity use but little of what is in any degree expensive, of what in such a climate is mere luxury. There exists at St. Luiz a great inequality of ranks; the chief riches of the place are in the hands of a few men who possess landed property to a great extent, numerous gangs of slaves, and are also merchants. The wealth of these persons and the characters of some of the individuals who enjoy it, have raised them to great weight and consequence, and indeed one governor knows to his costthat without their concurrence it was useless to attempt the introduction of the innovations proposed, and impossible to trample long upon the rest of the community. But the great inequality of rank bespeaks the advancement of this place to have been less rapid than that of other settlements further south, where the society is more amalgamated, and property more divided. As a port of trade with Europe, St. Luiz may be accounted the fourth establishment upon the coast of Brazil in point of importance, giving precedence to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco.The wild Indians have occasionally crossed from the main land to the island, and have committed depredations upon the houses and gardens in the neighbourhood of St. Luiz. Some of these people have been at different times made prisoners and brought to the town, where very little pains, I fear, have been taken to conciliate them. I did not see any of them, but they were represented to me as most frightful beings; their features are excessively ugly, and their hair is black and preposterously long, both before and behind. They are of a dark copper colour, darker than Indians that have been domesticated. The last individuals taken, to the number of four or five, were brought into the town quite naked, were put into close confinement, and I was informed that there they died. I could not find out that any attempt had been made to send them back as mediators, or that any plan of conciliation had been entered into; and on mentioning something of this kind, I was in more than one instance told that it would be of no use, that rigour was the only method. I do not think that this is the general opinion regarding them, but I much apprehend that, but faint hopes can be entertained of any zeal being shown for their civilization. There are now no enthusiastic missionaries; the Jesuits no longer exist in that country, and the other orders of friars have become lazy and worse than useless. However the Indians cannot be enslaved; therefore, at least, they are not hunted down like wild cattle, as formerly was the practice. The name which is given generally both here and at Pernambuco to all wild Indians isTapuya; and that ofCaboclois applied to those who have been domesticated.Having thus given an outline of the place at which I had arrived, I may now leave my quarters on board the brig and be allowed to land, which I accomplished on the morning subsequent to that of our entrance into the harbour. I was received upon the quay by my friend, a young Portugueze with whom I had been intimate in England and at Pernambuco. He told me it was necessary to go to the palace, for the purpose of presenting my passport, as the regulations of the port had for some time been most strictly followed, and several indeed had been lately added. I then, for the first time, recollected that I had no passport, having forgotten to obtain one, owing to the haste with which I left Pernambuco. This produced a demur, as my friend was afraid that I should be imprisoned, the governor not being friendly to Englishmen; however I determined to call myself the supercargo of the brig. We proceeded to the palace, the entrance to which was guarded by two sentinels, and we passed several others in going up the stairs into the anti-chamber, where we were received by a gentlemanlike officer, who heard what I had to say, asked no questions, and soon dismissed us. I thought I had seen the great man himself, but was undeceived, and heard that he seldom honoured any one with an audience. The officer to whom we had spoken was the lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of regular infantry. The guard at the palace consisted of one company; the muskets were piled in front of the chief entrance and appeared to be in good order.I soon discovered that St. Luiz was ruled with most despotic sway; the people were afraid of speaking, as no man knew how soon it might be his fate to be arrested, from some trifling expression which he might allow to escape him. The governor was so tenacious of the honours due to his situation, that he required every person who crossed the area in front of the palace to remain uncovered until he had entirely passed the whole building. Not that the governor was himself always in view, but this adoration was thought necessary even to the building within which he dwelt. The distinction, until then reserved, by the Romish church for its highest dignitaries, was however not thought by His Excellency too exalted for himself; the bells of the cathedral rang every time he went out in his carriage. Persons,even of the first rank in the place, were to stop, if in their carriages or on horseback, when they met him, and were to allow him to pass before they were again to move forwards.I was introduced to several of the first merchants and planters, and particularly to the Colonels Joze Gonçalvez da Silva and Simplicio Dias da Silva; the latter is the sub-governor of Parnaiba, a small port situated about three degrees to the eastward of St. Luiz. They are both of them men of great wealth and of independent spirit. The former is an elderly man who has made a large fortune in trade, and latterly has increased it in planting cotton. He possesses between 1000 and 1500 slaves. On one occasion the mulatto driver of his carriage, though ordered by his master to stop, that the governor might pass, refused so to do. The following day an officer came to the old gentleman’s house with orders to arrest the man. The colonel sent for him and said, “Go, and I’ll take care of you,” adding to the officer, “tell His Excellency I have still several other drivers.” To the surprise of every person about the prison, two servants made their appearance in the evening with a tray, covered with a cloth which was handsomely embroidered, and filled with the best kinds of victuals; sweetmeats, &c. were not forgotten. All this was for the driver, and was repeated three times every day until the man received an order for his release.The Colonel Simplicio had been sent for by the governor to St. Luiz. Had it not been for the circumstances in which he was placed, I should have gone down to his residence at Parnaiba; he has there a most noble establishment, part of which consists of a band of musicians, who are his own slaves; some of them have been instructed at Lisbon and at Rio de Janeiro. It is through such men as these that improvements are to be expected. I likewise became acquainted with a gentleman who had been imprisoned for a trifling breach of some new port regulation. Any of his friends were allowed free ingress to see him, and I passed some pleasant evenings with him and other persons who were in the habit of assembling there; he was allowed two small rooms in the prison, and was confined in this manner for several months. TheOuvidorof the province was also suspended from exercising the functions of his office, was removed from St. Luiz, and imprisoned in one of the forts. TheJuiz de Fora, the second judicial officer, performed for the time the duties of the situation; he was a Brazilian, and a man of independent character, who spoke and acted freely, notwithstanding the ostensible place he held, and the danger of it under such a government. The master of an English merchant ship, I was told, had been arrested for some breach of port regulation, and was confined in a miserable dungeon for three days. I heard many more stories of the same nature; but these will, I think, suffice to shew the state of the city of St. Luiz at the time and just before I visited that place.i198Fishing Canoe.The governor was a very young man, and a member of one of the first noble families of Portugal[65]. There are few situations in which it is so greatly in a man’s power to be much beloved or much disliked as that of governor of a province in Brazil; in which a man may be either the benefactor or the scourge of the people over whom he is sent to rule.My friend’s residence, in which I staid during my visit to Maranham, was situated by the water side, and almost within hail of the ships at anchor in the harbour. I was amused sometimes at the rapidity with which the fishermen paddled their canoes; these are long and of just width sufficient to allow of two men sitting abreast. I have seen in one of them as many as sixteen men in two rows, with each a paddle, which they move with quickness and great regularity. The last men upon the bench steer the canoe when necessary, placing the paddle so as to answer the purpose of a rudder; one or other of the two men steering, according to the direction which the vessel is to take. These fellows are mostly dark-coloured mulattos and blacks, and are entirely naked excepting the hats which they wear upon their heads; but when they come on shore, they partially cloath themselves. The print will give some idea of the strange appearance which they make. The nakedness ofthe negro slaves is also not sufficiently concealed; neither males nor females have any covering from the waist upwards, excepting on Sundays and holidays. Though the climate may not require any more cloathing, decency certainly does. I speak here of slaves who are at work in the streets, for the household servants are at least tolerably covered, and some of them are neatly and even gaudily dressed. At Pernambuco, the slaves are always decently cloathed. The criminals who are to be seen chained together, as at Pernambuco, are here more numerous; and in walking the streets, the clanking of the chains is continually striking the ear, reminding every man of the state of the government under which he resides. Such is the power of a governor, that a respectable person might be sentenced to this dreadful punishment, at least until redress could be obtained from the seat of the supreme government at Rio de Janeiro, a period of four months or more intervening.I brought with me the horse which had carried me as far as Rio Grande on my journey to Searà, and took several rides in the neighbourhood of the city, with an English gentleman who was residing there. The roads are extremely bad, even in the immediate vicinity of St. Luiz, and our usual practice was to ride several times round the open piece of ground upon which the barracks stand. Maranham is again in this respect far behind the place I had lately left; the number of country houses is small; the paths are few, and no care is taken of them. Notwithstanding this, several persons have carriages, which are of a form similar to those used in Lisbon, and not unlike the cabriolets drawn by a pair of horses, which are to be seen in France and Flanders. The horses that may be purchased at St. Luiz are small, and few of them are well formed. Grass is scarce, and the inducements to take exercise on horseback are so few, that the number of these animals upon the island is not considerable; this too may be one cause why fine horses are not to be met with there; for if a ready sale was found for the beasts of this description, some would, doubtless, be carried from Piauhi to Maranham, which might be done with almost as little difficulty as is experiencedin conveying many of them from the interior of Pernambuco to Recife.An English gentleman with whom I was acquainted, arrived at Maranham, a short time after the opening of the trade to British shipping; he was riding in the vicinity of the city one afternoon, when he was accosted by an old woman, who said that she had heard of the arrival of an Englishman, and wished to know if it was true, as she was going to St. Luiz, and much desired to see thisbichoor animal. After some further conversation upon the subject, he told her that thebichoshe was speaking to, was the Englishman himself. Of the truth of this, some difficulty was found in persuading her; but when she was confident that it was so, she cried out, “Ai tam bonito,” O, how handsome. She expected to have been shown some horridly ugly beast, which it was dangerous to approach, and was consequently agreeably surprised to find that she was mistaken, and to see flesh and blood in human form, handsomely put together.I nearly lost a number of books which I had brought with me; the box containing them was carried to the custom-house; they were taken out, and I was desired to translate each title-page, which I did. Though the works were chiefly historical, still I found that the officer who looked over them, was not inclined to let me have them, and a hint was given to me by one of my acquaintance, that they might be considered as irrecoverable; however I made immediately a petition to the governor, to be allowed to send them on board again; this was granted, and thus I regained possession. If I had delayed, I am almost certain that I should not have seen them again. Such are the difficulties which are experienced with books in the parts of Brazil which I visited, that the only resource which remains is that of smuggling them into the country[66]. I hope, however, thatthe enlightened minister who is now at the head of affairs, at Rio de Janeiro, will put an end to this dreadful bar to improvement.I brought a letter from one of my acquaintance at Pernambuco to a gentleman who resided at Alcantara, a town on the opposite side of the bay of St. Marcos. My friend at St. Luiz, another young Portugueze, and myself, accompanied by two servants, agreed to hire a vessel and go over, for the purpose of making him a visit, and of seeing the place. We hired a small bark, and set sail one morning early, with a fair but light wind. The beauties of the bay are only to be seen in crossing it; the number of islands diversify the view every five minutes, from the discovery of some hidden point, or from a change in the form of the land, owing to the progress of the boat. The entrance into the harbour of Alcantara, the town itself, and the size of the vessel in which we were, reminded me much of the models of these realities. The place, the port, and our boat were all small, and of proportionate dimensions, having much the appearance of play-things. It was not like a small vessel entering a large harbour; for in our case, as there was but little water upon the bar, as much pilotage was necessary as with a large ship in coming to anchor at St. Luiz. We were about five hours in reaching the end of our voyage. The boatmen obtained for us a small cottage, near to the beach; we intended to be independent, and have our victuals cooked by our own servants; but soon after we were settled in our new habitation, the gentleman introduced himself to whom we were furnished with a letter. He said that he had heard of our arrival, and he insisted upon our removal to his house.The town is built upon a semi-circular hill, and at first sight from the port is very pretty; but it falls short of its promise on a nearerexamination. The houses are many of them of one story in height, and are built of stone; but the major part have only the ground floor. It extends back to some distance in a straggling manner, with gardens, and large spaces between each house; and many of the habitations in that situation are thatched, and some of them are out of repair. As the hill which rises from the water side is not high, and the land beyond rather declines in a contrary direction, the meaner part of the town is not seen at the first view. Alcantara is however a thriving place, and its importance increases rapidly as the lands in the neighbourhood are in request for cotton plantations. A handsome stone quay was building upon the inside of a neck of land, round which the harbour extends for small craft. The place contains a town-hall and prison, and several churches.The evening we passed with our new friend and his partner, both of whom were pleasant men. The latter took us to a neighbouring church, to hear a famous preacher, and to see all the fashion and beauty of the place. It was much crowded, and therefore we saw little or nothing of the congregation; but the preacher, a large handsome Franciscan friar, with a fine toned and clear voice, delivered a very florid discourse, with much energy and animation. This man and one other were the only persons of those I heard preach in Brazil, who deviated from the common praises usually given to the Virgin and to the Saints. It was a good practical sermon, inculcating moral duties; but by way of conformity to established custom, he now and then mentioned the worthy in whose honour the festival was given[67]. The next day was agreeably passed in conversation; and in the evening two guitars were introduced, and some of the young men of the place came in, and added to the amusement of the party; they sang and played, and there was much sport. There was no ceremony; butthe behaviour of these people was gentlemanly, and their conversation entertaining.I heard here of a certain estate, of which the slaves were numerous, but they had become rebellious; more than one steward had been killed by them, and for some time they remained without any person to direct them, but still they did not leave the place. When things had gone on in this manner for some time, a native of Portugal presented himself to the proprietor of the estate, and offered to take charge of it if he would allow him a salary of onecontoofreis, about 250l.annually (which is an enormous stipend); and if he would sign an agreement by which he should not become responsible for any slaves who might be killed in reducing the remainder to obedience. To all this no objection was made; and the man set off, accompanied by two other persons, his friends, and a guide, all of them being well provided with fire arms and ammunition. They arrived upon the scene of action one evening, and finding the door of the principal house open, took up their lodgings in it. In the morning, several of the negroes, on discovering the intentions of the persons who were in possession of the house, assembled in the area in front of it, but at some little distance. The new steward soon came to the door unarmed, not permitting his companions to appear, and called to one of the ring-leaders by name, as if nothing was amiss. The man answered and came out of the group, but said that he would not approach any nearer than the spot to which he had advanced. The steward made no reply, but quickly took a loaded musket, which stood immediately within the door, fired, and brought the man to the ground, and without delay, called to another of the slaves also by name. No answer being given, his companions came forwards, and all of them fired in among the slaves. Such was the effect of this summary manner of proceeding, that in two or three days all was quiet, and went on smoothly as had formerly been the case; a few only of the slaves absconding.On our return from Alcantara we had a disagreeable passage, as the wind blew hard and some heavy rain fell, which made us apprehensiveof not being able to fetch the harbour of St. Luiz. Our vessel had no cabin, but she was decked, and therefore as a matter of necessity we crept into the hold, in which we could not stand upright, and the bilge water occasionally reached our feet; but this produced much laughter, and we ultimately arrived in safety. Not far from the mouth of the port of Alcantara stands an island of three miles in length and about one in breadth, called theIlha do Livramento; it is inhabited by one man and woman, who have under their care a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Deliverance, which is visited by the inhabitants of the neighbouring shores, once every year for the purpose of celebrating by a festival this Invocation of the Virgin. My departure from Maranham sooner than I had purposed at first, prevented the fulfilment of my intention of landing and spending a day upon this spot. I know not what idea I might have formed of the island if I had more narrowly examined it, but the view I had of it at a distance was extremely beautiful. From what I heard of it, I think, that if any one was about to settle at Maranham, here it is that he should try to fix his residence.I was introduced by my friend to a respectable family of St. Luiz. We made them a visit one evening without invitation as is the custom, and were ushered into a tolerably sized room, furnished with a large bed, and three handsomely worked hammocks, which were slung across in different directions; there were likewise in the apartment a chest of drawers and several chairs. The mistress of the house, an elderly lady, was seated in a hammock, and a female visitor in another, but her two daughters and some male relations sat upon chairs. The company, which consisted of two or three men besides ourselves, formed a semicircle towards the hammocks. There was much ceremony, and the conversation was carried on chiefly by the men, and an occasional remark was made by one or other of the old ladies. An answer was given by the daughters to a question asked, but no more, and some of the subjects touched upon would not have been tolerated in mixed society in England. A part of the formality might perhaps have worn off on further acquaintance.The education however of women is not attended to, which of necessity curtails the possibility of their entering into conversation upon many subjects, even if so to do was accounted proper. Still the ladies of St. Luiz cannot be said to be generally thus reserved, for gaming among both sexes is much practised, and is carried to great excess. A young lady in one instance, when going out with her mother to some evening company, passed through the apartment in which her father was at play with several of his acquaintance. He spoke to his daughter, asking her to take a card, which she did. She went on playing until she had lost three hundredmil reis, about 80l., and then said she had no more money. A fresh supply was afforded to her, and she accompanied her mother to their party, where most probably play was likewise the entertainment of the evening. Dancing is an amusement much too violent for the climate, and is only resorted to on some grand occasion. The love of gaming may be easily accounted for where there is little or no taste for reading, and great sums of money are amassed without any means of expending them. Living is cheap; a fine house, a carriage, and a number of servants may be had for a small sum. The opening of the trade has however given to these people a new turn of expenditure, in the facility of obtaining articles of dress and furniture.Two English merchants only were established at St. Luiz; the commercial transactions of British houses of trade were entrusted chiefly to Portugueze merchants of the place[68]. Many of these were accustomed to little ceremony, and walked the streets in short jackets, some of them were without neckcloths and a few without stockings; but others dress according to the manner of persons in Europe. It was with much difficulty that I could persuade the generality of those with whom I conversed that I had no business to transact; they could not comprehend the motive by which a man could be actuatedwho was putting himself, by travelling, to certain inconveniences for the sake of amusement; indeed many persons would not be convinced, and thought that in so saying I had some sinister views.I had not many opportunities of gaining information respecting the interior, but still I will mention what I heard. The banks of the river Itapicuru, of which I have already spoken, though they are much cultivated compared to what they were a few years ago, are yet very wild, and there is space incalculable for new colonists. The captaincy of Piauhi and the interior of the State of Maranham abound in cattle, and these parts of the country are not subject to droughts. The town of Aldeas Altas[69], which is situated in the latter, and the city of Oeiras in the former and further inland, are said to be flourishing places. Great numbers of cattle are annually driven from these quarters of the Sertam to Bahia and Pernambuco. The proprietors of the estates which are situated in districts so far removed from the seat of government are at times unruly, and a party of soldiers, which was sent up to arrest one of these men, some time before I arrived at St. Luiz, returned without effecting its purpose.Among other anecdotes, I heard of a mulatto slave who ran away from his master, and in the course of years had become a wealthy man, by the purchase of lands which were overrun with cattle. He had, on one occasion, collected in pens great numbers of oxen which he was arranging with his herdsmen to dispatch to different parts for sale, when a stranger who came quite alone made his appearance, and rode up and spoke to him, saying that he wished to have some private conversation with him. After a little time they retired together, and when they were alone the owner of the estate said, “I thank you for not mentioning the connection between us, whilst my people were present.” It was his master, who had fallen into distressedcircumstances, and had now made this visit in hopes of obtaining some trifle from him. He said that he should be grateful for any thing his slave chose to give to him. To reclaim him, he well knew, was out of the question—he was in the man’s power, who might order him to be assassinated immediately. The slave gave his master several hundred oxen, and directed some of his men to accompany him with them to a market, giving out among his herdsmen that he had thus paid a debt of old standing for which he had only now been called upon. A man who could act in this manner well deserved the freedom which he had resolved to obtain.As it was my intention to pass the ensuing summer in England, and no ships arrived from thence, I was afraid of being delayed some months for a conveyance, therefore I thought it better to take my passage in one of the ships which were about to sail. I preferred the Brutus, as I was intimate with the supercargo, a young Portugueze. We set sail from St. Luiz on the 8th of April, in company of another British ship; but we were soon out of sight of each other, owing to one vessel holding a better wind. On the 18th we reached variable winds, in lat. 22° N. lon. 50° W. It is not usual to find them so far to the southwards, therefore we might consider ourselves remarkably fortunate. We passed our time pleasantly, as the weather was fine and the wind favourable. On the 7th of May, the wind freshened, but we had a good ship and plenty of sea-room. A wave struck the stern and entered the cabin on the 8th in the morning, setting every thing afloat; this occurred soon after we had risen. On the 9th we discovered two vessels at a great distance a-head and rather to windward, both of them were laying to, but soon each appeared to stand on different tacks. One proved to be an English brig loaded with timber; she was water-logged and about to sink, and the latter was an American ship, which had lain to, and was in the act of assisting the people in leaving her. If the brig had not been loaded with timber she must have gone down long before. As the American ship was bound to her own country, we took the crew on board the Brutus, nine persons; they were in most woeful plight; some lame,others nearly naked, and all of them half starved with cold and hunger. The vessel had sprung a leak, which increased so rapidly, as to oblige them to retreat from the deck into the foretop, where they had been for three days and two nights, almost destitute of provisions.We arrived safe off Falmouth on the 20th of May. Here the supercargo and myself landed, and proceeded to London.CHAPTER X.THE AUTHOR SETS SAIL FROM GRAVESEND AND ARRIVES AT PERNAMBUCO.—STATE OF RECIFE.—JOURNEY TO BOM JARDIM WITH A CAPITAM-MOR, AND RETURN TO RECIFE.AT the commencement of the winter my friends again recommended a return to a more temperate climate than that of England; and therefore understanding that the Portugueze ship Serra Pequeno was upon the point of sailing, I took my passage in her. She was lying at Gravesend, and on the 4th October, 1811, I embarked again for Pernambuco.Contrary winds detained the ship at Portsmouth for about six weeks. On the 20th November, the wind came round to the northward and eastward, and the signal guns from the ships of war, appointed as convoys, awakened us. All was bustle and confusion at Cowes, where great numbers of persons, belonging to the ships, who were circumstanced as we were, had stationed themselves. In a few hours the vessels were under weigh, and before the night closed in, all of them had cleared the Needles. The Serra Pequeno and other Portugueze ships had taken instructions from a frigate, which was bound to the Mediterranean, intending to keep company with her as far as her destination and their’s obliged them to follow the same course; but in the morning we discovered that we were with another frigate, which was bound to Lisbon. We soon left her, and were accompanied by other two Portugueze ships. On the night of the 22d, we fell in with the Kangaroo sloop of war, which was boundto the coast of Africa, with a few vessels under convoy. On the 24th we parted from this convoy, and on the 26th proceeded with only one Portugueze ship. Our passage was most prosperous; we had no boisterous weather, and few calms. On the 3d December, we fell in with the Arethusa frigate, when in sight of the Canary islands. The captain of the Serra was obliged to take the papers of his ship on board the frigate. The regulations regarding the slave trade, which is carried on by the Portugueze, perhaps occasioned more enquiry than would otherwise have been deemed necessary. We crossed the line on the 22d. In the evening of the 26th we stood for the land, supposing that we had reached the latitude of our port, but that we were much to the eastward of it; however, we made the land about two o’clock in the morning, which was sooner by several hours than the officers of the ship imagined we should. This frequently occurs on board of those vessels which do not carry chronometers; the calculation of longitude without their assistance being of course rendered extremely liable to error. At day-break, it was discovered that we were somewhat to the northward of Olinda. We entered the port about nine o’clock, and came to anchor in the lower harbour called the Poço.The Serra Pequeno is one of the heavy deep-waisted Brazil ships, requiring a great number of hands to manage her. The business of the ship was carried on in a manner similar in almost all points to that which is practised on board of British merchant vessels; there was however less cleanliness observed, and more noise was made. The second officer, who is called in the British merchant service the mate, bears in Portugueze vessels that of pilot; and the regulations of their marine confine him to the navigation of the ship, giving up to an inferior officer the duty of attending to the discharging or stowage of the hold when loading or unloading, and all other minutiæ of the affairs either at sea or in a harbour.I was received on shore by all those persons with whom I had before had the pleasure of being acquainted, with the same friendliness which I always experienced at Pernambuco. Several English gentlemen offered me an apartment in their houses, until Iobtained one of my own. I accepted the offer which was made to me by him through whose great kindness my health had been so much benefited, after the severe attack of fever which I had suffered in the preceding year. The first few weeks were passed in visits to my friends and acquaintance, with some of whom I occasionally staid a few days in the neighbourhood of the town, which was now much deserted, according to the usual custom, at this season of the year.I perceived a considerable difference in the appearance of Recife and of its inhabitants, although I had been absent from the place for so short a period. Several houses had been altered; the heavy sombre lattice work had given place, in many instances, to glass windows and iron balconies. Some few families had arrived here from Lisbon, and three from England; the ladies of the former had shown the example of walking to mass in broad day-light; and those of the latter were in the habit of going out to walk towards the close of the day, for amusement. These improvements being once introduced and practised by a few persons, were soon adopted by some, who had been afraid to be the first, and by others who found that they were pleasant. Formal silks and satins too were becoming a less usual dress on high days and holidays, and were now much superseded by white and coloured muslins, and other cotton manufactures. The men, likewise, who had in former times daily appeared in full dress suits of black, gold buckles, and cocked hats, had now, in many instances, exchanged these for nankeen pantaloons, half boots, and round hats. Even the high and heavy saddle was now less in use, and that of more modern form was all the fashion. The sedan chairs, in which the ladies often go to church, and to pay visits to their friends, had now put on a much smarter appearance, and the men who carried them were dressed more dashingly. These cannot fail to attract the attention of strangers, in their gay cloaths, their helmets and feathers, and their naked legs. The annexed print represents one of these equipages.i213A Lady going to Visit.The country residences which had been lately built, were also numerous; lands in the vicinity of Recife had risen in price; the trade of brick-making was becoming lucrative; work-people were in request; and besides many other spots of land, the track between the villages of Poço da Panella and Monteiro, in extent about one mile, which in 1810 was covered with brushwood, had now been cleared; houses were building and gardens forming upon it. The great church of Corpo Santo, situated in that part of the town which is properly called Recife, was now finished, and various improvements were meditated[70]. The time of advancement was come, and men, who had for many years gone on without making any change either in the interior or exterior of their houses, were now painting and glazing on the outside, and new furnishing within; modernizing themselves, their families, and their dwellings.This spirit of alteration produced, in one case, rather ludicrous consequences. There was a lady of considerable dimensions, who had entered into this love of innovation, and carried it to a vast extent. She was almost equal in circumference and height, but notwithstanding this unfortunate circumstance, personal embellishments were not to be despised; she wished to dress in English fashion, and was herself decidedly of opinion that she had succeeded. Upon her head she wore a very small gypsey hat tied under the chin. Stays have only lately been introduced, but this improvement she had not yet adopted; still her gown was to be in English fashion too, and therefore was cut and slashed away, so as to leave most unmercifully in view several beauties which otherwise would have remained concealed. This gown was of muslin, and was worked down the middle and round the bottom in several colours; her shoes were as small ascould be allowed; but the unfortunate redundance of size also reached the ankles and the feet, and thus rendering compression necessary; the superabundance which nature had lavishly bestowed, projected and hung down over each side of the shoes.I became acquainted and somewhat intimate with theCapitam-morof a neighbouring district, from frequently meeting him, in my evening visits to a Brazilian family. He was about to make the circuit of his district in the course of a few weeks, and invited one of my friends and myself to accompany him in this review or visit to his officers, to which we readily agreed. It was arranged that he should make us acquainted in due time with the day which he might appoint for setting out, that we might meet him at his sugar-plantation, from whence we were to proceed with him and his suite further into the country.TheCapitaens-mores, captains-major, are officers of considerable power. They have civil as well as military duties to perform, and ought to be appointed from among the planters of most wealth and individual weight in the severalTermos, boundaries or districts; but the interest of family or of relations about the Court, have occasioned deviations from this rule; and persons very unfit for these situations, have been sometimes nominated to them. The whole aspect of the government in Brazil is military. All men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, must be enrolled either as soldiers of the line, as militia-men, or as belonging to the body ofOrdenanças. Of the regular soldiers, I have already spoken in another place. Of the second class, each township has a regiment, of which the individuals, with the exception of the major and adjutant, and in some cases the colonel, do not receive any pay. But they are considered as embodied men, and as such are called out upon some few occasions, in the course of the year, to assemble in uniform, and otherwise accoutred. The expense which must be incurred in this respect, of necessity, precludes the possibility of many persons becoming members of this class, even if the Government was desirous of increasing the number of militia regiments. The soldiers of these aresubject to their captains, to the colonel, and to the governor of the province. The colonels are either rich planters, or the major or lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of the line is thus promoted to the command of one of these; in this case, and in this case only, he receives pay. I am inclined to think that he ought to possess some property in the district, and that any deviation from this rule is an abuse; but I am not certain that the law so ordains. The majors and the adjutants are likewise occasionally promoted from the line; but whether they are regularly military men or planters, they receive pay, as their trouble in distributing orders, and in other arrangements connected with the regiment is considerable.The third class, that of theOrdenanças, consisting of by far the largest portion of the white persons and of free mulatto men of all shades, have for their immediate chiefs theCapitaens-mores, who serve without pay, and all the persons who are connected with theOrdenanças, are obliged likewise to afford their services gratuitously. Each district contains oneCapitam-mor, who is invariably a person possessing property in the part of the country to which he is appointed. He is assisted by a major, captains, andalferes, who are lieutenants or ensigns, and by sergeants and corporals. The duties of theCapitam-morare to see that every individual under his command has in his possession some species of arms; either a firelock, a sword, or a pike. He distributes the governor’s orders through his district, and can oblige any of his men to take these orders to the nearest captain, who sends another peasant forwards to the next captain, and so forth, all which is done without any pay. ACapitam-morcan also imprison for twenty-four hours, and send under arrest for trial a person who is accused of having committed any crime, to the civil magistrate of the town to which his district is immediately attached. Now, the abuses of this office ofCapitam-morare very many, and the lower orders of free persons are much oppressed by these great men, and by their subalterns, down to the corporals. The peasants are often sent upon errands which have no relation to public business; for leagues and leagues these poor fellows are made to travel, for thepurpose of carrying some private letter of the chief, of his captains, or of his lieutenants, without any remuneration. Indeed, many of these men in place, seldom think of employing their slaves on these occasions, or of paying the free persons so employed. This I have witnessed times out of number; and have heard the peasants in all parts of the country complain: it is a most heavy grievance. Nothing so much vexes a peasant as the consciousness of losing his time and trouble in a service which is not required by his Sovereign. Persons are sometimes confined in the stocks for days together, on some trifling plea, and are at last released without being sent to the civil magistrate, or even admitted to a hearing. However, I am happy to say, that I am acquainted with some men, whose conduct is widely different from what I have above stated; but the power given to an individual is too great, and the probability of being called to an account for its abuse too remote, to insure the exercise of it in a proper manner.The free mulattos and free negroes whose names are upon the rolls, either of the militia regiments which are commanded by white officers, or by those of their own class and colour, are not, properly speaking, subject to theCapitaens-mores. These officers and the colonels of militia are appointed by the supreme government, and the subaltern officers are nominated by the governor of each province.The above explanation of the state of internal government I thought necessary, that the reader might understand the grounds upon which I was about to undertake the journey, of which some account will immediately be given.On the 28th January, 1812, theCapitam-morsent one of his servants to summon us to his plantation, and to be our guide. Early on the morning following, my friend, myself, our own two servants, and the boy who had been sent to us by theCapitam-mor, set forth on horseback in high spirits; my friend and I expecting to see something new and strange. I had before, as has been already related, travelled into the less populous parts of the country; but I had had very little communication with the planters. On that occasion, I proceededtoo rapidly to obtain as much knowledge of their manners and customs as I wished.We proceeded to Olinda, and passed through its wretchedly paved streets, with much care; and when we were descending the hill, upon which it stands on the land side, there was laid open to us a considerable extent of marshy ground, which was partly covered with mandioc, planted upon raised beds or hillocks, which were made of a circular form, that the water might not reach the roots of the plants; the remainder of the land was still undrained and unproductive. The darkness of the green of the plants which grow upon marshy ground immediately points out the lands that are in this state. The country which was to be seen in the distance was covered with wood. We crossed a rivulet, communicating with the marshy land on each side of the road, and passed on over some rising ground, and by several scattered cottages, until we reached, distant from Olinda one league, the low lands surrounding the hill which forms the site of the sugar plantation of Fragozo. From hence the lands are low and damp, almost without any rising ground, to the sugar plantation of Paulistas. The beautiful spots upon this track of country are numerous; cottages are oftentimes to be met with, half concealed among the trees and brushwood; they are built of mud, and are covered with the leaves of coco-trees. They have usually a projecting pent-house with a small area in front, which is clear of weeds; under this pent-house is slung the hammock, with its dark-coloured owner, idly swinging backwards and forwards, who raises his head as he hears the horses’ footsteps; the dog is basking in the sun, or lying under the shade, or running out to annoy the traveller; and the fishing baskets and the gourds hang as chance directs upon the protruding stems of the coco-leaves, which cover the lowly hut. Some times the sight of these rude dwellings is enlivened by the figure of a female, who runs off, and conceals herself, as the passenger upon the road looks down the narrow path which leads to the cottage. The road itself was likewise narrow, (for this was not the great cattle track) and all view of the country was generally shut out, by thewood on each side, against which the legs of the horseman are often brushing, and into which he is obliged to force his horse, if he should chance to meet a carrier, with his panniers or his cotton bags on either side of his beast, or one of the carts which are employed upon the plantations. The print represents one of the cotton-carriers. In the fore ground is described the species of palm tree called Tucum[71], and immediately behind it is the Mamoeiro, which produces its fruit upon the stem; the fruit is large, and the pulp of it is soft, having much resemblance in consistence and in taste to a melon that is too ripe; the appearance of the fruit has some similarity likewise to a small round melon.To those who are unaccustomed to a country that is literally covered with woods, which prevent an extensive view of the surrounding objects, and the free circulation of air, the delightful sensations which are produced by a fine green field, opening all at once to the sight, and swept by a refreshing breeze, cannot possibly be felt. The plantation of Paulistas is so situated. The buildings were numerous, but most of them were low, and somewhat out of repair. These are the dwelling-house of the owner, which is spacious, and has one story above the ground floor; the chapel, with its large wooden cross erected upon the centre of the gable end; the mill, a square building without walls, its roof being supported upon brick pillars; the long row of negro huts, the steward’s residence, and several others of minor importance. These edifices are all of them scattered upon a large field, which is occupied by a considerable number of tame cattle; this is skirted by a dike which runs in front, but somewhat at a distance from the dwelling-house of the owner, and through it runs the water which turns the mill. On the opposite side of the field is the chaplain’s cottage, with its adjoining lesser row of negro huts, its plantain garden, and its wide spreading mango trees behind it. Beyond the principal house, are low and extensive cane and meadow lands, which are skirted on one side by the buildings of another small plantation, and bordered at a great distance by woods, which are situated upon the sides and summit of rising ground.i221A Cotton Carrier.This valuable and beautiful plantation was in the possession of a near relation of ourCapitam-mor. We were acquainted with the son of the owner, who was chaplain to the estate, and had invited us to make his residence our resting-place; this we did. He was prepared to receive us, and after having breakfasted, we proceeded to pay a visit to the old gentleman at the Great House, as the dwellings of the owners of plantations are called. He was unwell, and could not be seen; but we were received by his wife and two daughters. They made many enquiries about England, and conversed upon other subjects which they supposed we might be acquainted with. This estate was not much worked; the slaves led a most easy life, and the Great House was full of young children. Of these urchins several came in and out of the room, they were quite naked, and played with each other, and with some large dogs which were lying at full length upon the floor. These ebony cupids were plainly great favourites, and seemed to employ the greater part of the thoughts of the good ladies, the youngest of whom was on the wrong side of fifty; and even the priest laughed at their gambols. These excellent women and the good priest possess a considerable number of slaves, who are their exclusive property. It is their intention eventually to emancipate all of them, and that they may be prepared for the change, several of the men have been brought up as mechanics of different descriptions; and the women have been taught needle-work, embroidery, and all branches of culinary knowledge. Thus, by the death of four individuals, who are now approaching to old age, will be set free about sixty persons, men, women, and children. As these people have been made acquainted with the intentions of their owners respecting them, it is not surprising that the behaviour of many of them should be overbearing. To some, the deeds of manumission have been already passed conditionally, obliging them to serve as slaves until the death of the individual to whom they aresubject. These papers cannot be revoked, and yet no ingratitude was feared; but among so considerable a number of persons, some instances of it cannot, I fear, fail to be experienced. The owners said that all their own immediate relations are rich, and not at all in need of assistance; and that therefore independent of other reasons connected generally with the system of slavery, these their children had no right to work for any one else. Of the slaves in question, only a few are Africans, the major part being mulattos and creole negroes.We returned to the cottage of the priest to dinner, and in the afternoon proceeded to the sugar plantation of Aguiar, belonging to theCapitam-mor, which is distant from Paulistas five leagues, where we arrived about ten o’clock at night, much fatigued. Immediately beyond Paulistas is the narrow but rapid stream of Paratibi, which near to its mouth changes this name for that of Doce. In the rainy season it overflows its banks, and becomes unfordable. The width of it, when it is in the usual state, near to Paulistas, is not above twenty yards. In its course to the sea, it runs through much marshy ground. We passed by four sugar-mills this afternoon; that which bears the name of Utringade baixo, is situated in an amphitheatre, being surrounded by high hills, covered with large trees. These woods have not been much disturbed, and therefore give refuge to enormous quantities of game, among which theporco do mato, or pig of the woods, is common. I never saw this animal, and therefore cannot pretend to describe it; but I have often heard it spoken of, as being extremely destructive to mandioc, and that its flesh is good. This animal is not large, and is not unlike the common hog[72]. Many criminalsand runaway negroes are harboured in these woods. The inhabitants of Utinga seem to be shut out from all the rest of the world, as the path which leads from it is not immediately distinguished. The last three leagues, which we traversed in the dark, were covered with almost unbroken woods; the path through them is narrow, and the branches of the trees cross it in all directions; our guide rode in front, and many times did his head come in contact with them.The dwelling of theCapitam-moris a large building of one story above the ground floor: the lower part of which forms the warehouse for the sugar and other articles which the estate produces. We ascended a wooden staircase, erected on the outside of the building, entered a small anti-chamber, and were received by our host and one of his sons, who conducted us into a spacious apartment beyond. A long table, and one of rather less dimensions, a couple of benches, and a few broken and unpainted chairs formed the whole furniture of these rooms. Four or five black boys, who were of a size too far advanced to wear the bow and arrow, but who were quite as little encumbered with dress as if they still might wield these dangerous weapons in the character of cupids, stood all astonishment to view the strange beings that had just arrived; and at all the doors were women’s heads peeping to see whom we might be. The supper consisted as is usual of great quantities of meat, placed upon the table without arrangement.At five o’clock in the morning, thecapitam-mor, my friend, myself, and three servants proceeded to the distance of three leagues without any addition to our party; but we were soon joined by the adjutant of the district and several other officers, in uniforms of dark blue with yellow facings most monstrously broad—the gay cuffs reaching half way up to the elbows; they wore round hats with short feathers, straight swords of most prodigious length, and very loose nankeen pantaloons and boots; the former were thrust within the latter, which caused the higher part of the pantaloons to appear to be of preposterous width. We dismounted at a sugar plantation, being the third we hadpassed through this morning; here we were invited to stay to breakfast, but this we could not do, and were therefore regaled with pine-apples and oranges. The owner of this place had taken great pains with his garden, and had reared several fruits which require much care; but it is strange that, although there are many which may be raised with very little trouble, still upon far the greater number of plantations even oranges are not to be found. The ant is, I well know, a great persecutor of this tree, but when care is taken in this respect, and a little water is afforded during the dry months for two or three years, none else is necessary. Upon the same plantation have been practised the most monstrous cruelties; the conduct of the owner towards his slaves is often spoken of with abhorrence, but yet he is visited and treated with the same respect which is paid to an individual of unblemished character. It is however almost the only instance of which I heard of systematic, continued, wanton enormity; but it has here occurred and has passed unpunished, and this one is sufficient, even if none other existed, to stamp the slave system as an abomination which ought to be rooted out. The estate was inherited by the person in question, with sixty good slaves upon it; fifteen years have elapsed since that time to the period of which I speak, and there were then remaining only four or five individuals who were able to work. Some have fled and have escaped, others have died, God knows how, and others again have committed suicide in sight of their master’s residence.We arrived at mid-day at Santa Cruz, and had now reached the cotton country. The track through which we had passed was for the most part well watered and well wooded; the marshy lands being less frequently interspersed than upon the journey of the preceding day. The sugar plantations were numerous; we saw eight of them this morning. The ground was often uneven, and we crossed one rather steep hill. The lands upon which we had now arrived and those to which we were advancing are altogether higher, and the grass upon them was now much burnt up, the “first waters” not having yet fallen. The soil in these parts retains less moisture than thatof the country which we had left, and soon becomes too hard to be worked. The party was now much increased, and in the afternoon we proceeded to Pindoba, a cotton plantation of considerable extent; the owner of it is wealthy and possesses many slaves. He received us in his dressing-gown, under which he wore a shirt, drawers, and a pair of stockings. After the first greetings were over, he brought out a small bottle of liqueur made in the country, to which he himself helped his guests, one solitary glass, which was filled, and then emptied by each person, being made use of by the whole party. After supper a guitar player belonging to the house entertained us until a late hour, whilst our host sat upon a table smoking from a pipe of fully six feet in length. Several hammocks were slung in two large apartments, and each person either talked or went to sleep, or occasionally did one and the other, no form or ceremony being observed.The peasants began to assemble early on the following morning, as three companies of theOrdenançaswere to be reviewed. These were the first which were to undergo inspection, as thecapitam-morpurposed visiting again the places through which we had passed on his return, and intended then to perform this duty. The men wore their usual dress of shirt and drawers, and perhaps a nankeen jacket and pantaloons were added, and most of them had muskets. Thecapitam-morcame forth this day in his scarlet uniform, and sat himself down near to a table. The captain of the company which was about to be reviewed stood near to him with the muster-roll. The names of the privates were called over by the captain, and as each name was repeated by the sergeant, who stood at the door-way, the individual to whom it belonged came in and presented arms to thecapitam-mor, then turned about and retired. It was truly ridiculous, but at the same time painful, to see the fright which the countenances of some of the poor fellows expressed, and their excessive awkwardness when they came to present themselves; whilst others displayed evident self-sufficiency; these were well-dressed and performed every manœuvre with as much neatness and promptitude as they were capable of, expressive of superior knowledge and in hopes of admiration.There were of course many absentees, and for the non-appearance of these some reason was given by one of the officers of the company to which the man belonged, or by a neighbour. The excuses were usually received as all-sufficient, without any further enquiry being made. However the absence of one of the captains was not thus quietly acquiesced in, and therefore an officer was dispatched to his house to bring him to Pindoba under an arrest. Whether this proceeded from some private pique, or from zeal for the public service, I do not pretend to determine, but he soon arrived in custody. He was put into one of the apartments of the house which we were inhabiting, and a sergeant was stationed at the door as a sentinel. Thecapitam-morsoon however relented, upon which he was released and allowed to return home.At dinner the great man took the head of the table, and the owner of the house stood by and waited upon him. Every thing was served up in enormous quantities, for the party was large and this is the custom; there was no sort of regularity observed; every man helped himself to the dish which pleased him best, and this was oftentimes done, with the knife which the person had been making use of upon his own plate, and by reaching across two or three of his neighbours for the purpose. A nice bit was not safe even upon one’s own plate, being occasionally snatched up, and another less dainty given in return. Much wine was drank during dinner, and the glasses were used in common. We soon rose from table, and the party, generally speaking, took the accustomedsestaor nap after dinner which is usual in warm climates. My friend and I walked out in the afternoon, but there was nothing to tempt us to go far, for the neighbourhood possessed no natural beauty and the dry weather had burnt up the grass, and had made the face of the country extremely dreary.Early on the morrow about forty persons sallied forth for the village of Bom Jardim. It is distant from Pindoba one league and a half. We arrived there at seven o’clock. This village is built in the form of a square; the houses are low, but the church is large and handsome. Like the huts of Açu and of some other places, those of Bom Jardim are not white-washed, and therefore the mud of whichthey are composed remains in its original colour. The place contains about 500 inhabitants. We ascended a steep hill to arrive at it, and on the opposite side still another of equal height is to be surmounted in proceeding farther inland. The village is situated upon a break of the hill. The soil is chiefly composed of red earth, approaching in places to a bright scarlet, with veins of yellow running through it; this is the description of soil, which is said to be the best adapted to the growth of cotton. Bom Jardim is a great rendezvous for the hawkers who are proceeding to the Sertam, and for others who merely advance thus far. It is distant from Recife twenty good leagues, in a N. E. direction.My friend and I walked out and descended the hill by a path which led us to the bed of the river, for there was now no water in it. Great want of water is often experienced at Bom Jardim, but I think that if wells of sufficient depth were dug, a supply might be obtained[73]. On our return to the village, we discovered that Mass was about to be said, and therefore we accompanied some of our party to the church. It was crowded; indeed it is a remark which I was frequently led to make, that on Sundays and Holidays when the peasantry assemble at the church doors, their numbers must astonish those persons who merely pass through the country without opportunities being afforded to them of a more minute examination. The cottages upon the road side do not promise so numerous a population as is on these occasions to be seen; but from the thickness of the woods and the lowness of the huts, even when a view of the country is by any accident to be obtained from a high hill, the dwellings of the lower orders of people are not to be perceived; they are scattered all over the country; and narrow paths which appear impassable or nearly so, and are scarcely to be observed, often lead to four or five huts, situated in the centre of a wood or upon some low ground, adapted to the cultivation of mandioc and maize.One company was reviewed at Bom Jardim, and from hence a captain was deputed to continue the review further into the country. We rode this afternoon one league to the house of Captain Anselmo, being so far upon our return. On our way to this place we saw the woods on one side of the road on fire. In the dry season the grass and brushwood become so completely parched, that the least spark sets a whole track of country in a blaze. I mean that the fire will sometimes run on for a league, and even more. It will occasionally blaze forth most violently, and catching the branches of the large trees, the flames will at intervals flash above their summit;—it will then subside, but continue smothered in the hollow of some aged tree, or in a heap of leaves which still retain some moisture; but a breath of air spreads it abroad, and it again runs on with violence. The peasants almost invariably smoke as they go along, and oftentimes they ask for a lighted piece of wood at a cottage which they may chance to pass. It is astonishing to see with what unconcern they will hurl this from them still unextinguished, knowing, as they do full well, the consequences which frequently have ensued. The act of setting fire to a wood is subject to punishment by law, if intention or even carelessness can be proved. The crop of canes of some estates have, in many instances, been injured by these means.Captain Anselmo resides upon a cotton plantation which is his own property, and is cultivated by about forty negroes. The house is situated upon the shelf of a steep hill, with a beautiful plain below, upon which trees are thickly scattered. At the foot of the hill is a large fishpond, through which a rivulet runs in the rainy season. The owner has lately inclosed a piece of land, and was making a garden upon the borders of the pond. The dwelling-house was new and had a second floor; it was very clean and well furnished. This was the most pleasantly situated and the best arranged mansion which we visited during this journey; the huts for the slaves were well built and looked comfortable. Here we were entertained with such music as has as yet found its way into these parts of the country. Threenegroes with bagpipes attempted to play a few tunes whilst we were at dinner, but they seemed to play in different keys from each other, and sometimes each appeared to have struck up a tune of his own composing. I think I never heard so bad an attempt at producing harmonious sounds as thecharameleirosmade. The possession of a band of these bespeaks a certain degree of superiority, consequently the planters pride themselves upon their musicians.Our party could not let pass this opportunity of being together without practising the amusement of theintrudo[74], although the usual time of its celebration was yet distant one week. On the day subsequent to that of our arrival, dinner was scarcely over before thefarinha, the bananas, the rice, and other dainties upon the table, were hurled at each other’s heads; soon the smart uniform coats were taken off, and in his shirt sleeves each man began this civil war with heart and soul. Every thing was borne with perfect good humour, and at last, fatigued and bedaubed, all of us retired to the hammocks which had been provided for the party. But as our evil stars would have it, a brave captain closed quietly all the shutters (as the moon was shining very bright into the room) and then he placed himself near to an enormous jar of water, which stood in one corner of the apartment, and with a small pitcher in his hand soon dealt around him its contents, awakening us with repeated showers, and obliging us to take shelter under the chairs and tables. This, and other jokes allied to it, continued until the break of day, when we prepared for a continuation of our journey. One company was reviewed here.We proceeded to the house of Captain Paulo Travasso, distant one league. As was our usual custom, my friend and I walked out soonafter our arrival, and in returning, instead of pursuing the path, which was rather circuitous, we attempted to climb up a bank, that we might the sooner reach the house; my friend was before me, and as he scrambled up it, his foot slipped, which caused him to catch at the stump of a small plant, that grew upon the side of the bank. He gave up his idea of going by that way to the house, and returned to me, bringing with him the plant, with its root and the earth about it. On going to throw it away, he perceived upon his hand the glitter of a substance which made us return to the spot. We gathered some more of the earth, and this gentleman, who had long resided upon the coast of Africa, judged the substance which was mixed with it to be gold dust.At this place theintrudowas continued more violently than before; for even the blackened pots and pans from the kitchen were introduced to besmear each other’s faces. We obtained here a view of the females belonging to the house; but every where else, they had been too rigorously guarded, or were naturally too reserved to enable us to see them. Some excuse was made by the young men who were acquainted with the family, to draw them into the sport; and the ladies and their slaves were nothing loath to see and to participate in what was going forwards. A circumstance occurred which created much laughter, and which is but too characteristic. One man whom we met at this place, had all along begged of those who were engaged in the sport, that they would not wet him, because he was unwell; however it was seen that he did not observe towards others that forbearance which he entreated from them towards himself. One of our party seeing this, attacked him with a large silver ladle filled with water; the man ran out of the house, and the other followed; but when they were at some distance from it, he turned upon his pursuer, and drawing his knife, stood at some distance, threatening to stab him if he advanced. The other, striking his left side at the place in which knives are usually carried, likewise threatened him, and without delay advanced towards him, having picked up a thick stick as he approached. But his adversary did not like thethoughts of a close combat, and soon set off at full speed, with his knife in his hand. In this manner, he entered the back door of the house, whilst he of the silver ladle took the front door. They met in the apartment from which they had started, when the latter opened his waistcoat and shewed that he had not a knife; thus proving before the whole party, that he of the knife had run away from one who was unarmed. This was quite sufficient; the women made a general attack upon him: he went to the stable, mounted his horse, and set forth; but his misfortunes had not yet ended, for the path by which he must retreat lay under two of the windows of the house, and as he passed, two large tubs of water drenched him and his steed, which immediately quickened its pace, amidst the hooting of every one present.We continued our journey in the afternoon to a sugar plantation, the property of Captain Joam Soares, where we remained until the following day. Some of us were tired of theintrudo, and therefore sought shelter in the mill and adjoining out-houses, when we saw the sport again commencing; but we were about to be attacked, when we gained the roofs of one of the buildings, and from hence could not be dislodged.I had frequently seen thesaboeiroor soap tree, which is to be chiefly found in these districts. It is a large shrub, which puts forth numerous branches in every direction, so that when it is in full leaf, it has somewhat the appearance of trees that have been clipped, (as was formerly practised in gardens,) which is increased by the leaves being small and growing very close to each other. The receptacle of the seed is about the size of a small plum; when this is put into water, and rubbed with some violence, it produces the same effect as that which is caused by soap in water, and it has the same property of cleansing[75]. Thepao do alhoor garlic tree, is to be met with ingreat abundance in these districts. The name is derived from the similitude of the smell of the leaves and the wood of this plant to garlic. The tree abounds so greatly, and, I suppose, reminded the first settlers so much of one of their favourite European culinary ingredients, that it has given name to a town, and to a whole district.About five o’clock in the afternoon we proceeded to Limoeiro, a large and thriving village[76]. It is composed of one street of about three quarters of a mile in length, which is closed at one end by the church and vicarage: this building belonged formerly to the Jesuits. The trade of Limoeiro with the interior is considerable, and particularly on the day of the market, which is held weekly, the bustle is excessive. These days seldom pass without some murders being committed, or at least many wounds and blows being given; but the markets of Nazareth or Lagoa d’Anta are those which are particularly famed for the disturbances that usually take place there. These became so considerable at one time, that the governor found it necessary to issue orders for a patrole to keep the peace on market days.Limoeiro contains about six hundred inhabitants, and is increasing daily. It stands upon the banks of the river Capibaribe, which was at this time quite dry. The distance from Recife is fourteen good leagues. We were entertained by the vicar, who has taken very little pains to have a decent residence, and cannot fail to be somewhat indifferent about his own life, for every step to which we advanced as we ascended to the apartments above, promised to be the last that would hold us. The floors of the rooms into which we were ushered, seemed to be laid out as traps to ensnare those who might not tread cautiously; some of the boards were broken, and large holes remained; others were loose, and it was dangerous to pass over them;and besides the several perils of this mansion, substances which are not pleasant to the nose might unwarily be trampled upon. Never did I see so miserable a dwelling, whose inhabitant might with so much ease have bettered the state in which we found it. However, I ought not to complain, for to counterbalance all this, we had a teapot, sugar basin, and other parts of the equipage of silver.TheCapitam-morhad still several posts to visit, which would delay him for a considerable time; therefore as my friend was anxious to return to Recife, we left our party, with much regret, and were accompanied in the morning by the adjutant, who was about to return home. I had been greatly amused, and wished to have seen the conclusion of the affair. At Limoeiro, several companies were to be reviewed, and from thence theCapitam-morproceeded to Pao do Alho[77]and Nazareth, or Lagoa d’Anta[78], two large villages of considerable importance. Both of them are within a few leagues of the place from which we separated from our companions. We returned to Santa Cruz, passed through that village, and were entertained at the house of the adjutant. We reached Aguiar in the afternoon, being received at that place by one of theCapitam-mor’s sons, a young man of eighteen years of age; and we also saw theCapitam-mor’s interesting wife, who is likewise his niece; she was about fifteen years of age, he being about forty-six. We slept there, and stopped at Paulistas on the following day at noon, from whence we proceeded to Recife on the evening of the 6th February.I heard one of the sugar planters bitterly complaining of his poverty, and that his want of hands to work his mill obliged him togive up the cultivation of much of the best land of his estate. Soon after he had uttered these complaints, the conversation turned upon saddle-horses and their trappings; and he then told us that he had lately purchased a new saddle and bridle, which he wished us to see. These new trappings were most superb affairs; the saddle was made of morocco leather and green velvet, and silver headed nails and plates of the same metal were profusely scattered and placed upon all parts of this and of the bridle. He told us that the whole had cost him four hundredmil reis, about 110l.This sum of money would have purchased four slaves. But the matter did not end here, for he opened a drawer in which were strewed several broken silver spoons, spurs, &c. and he said that he was collecting a sufficient quantity of this metal for the purpose of having his groom’s horse ornamented in the same manner as his own.The free persons of colour who inhabit the track of country through which we passed are more numerous than I had previously imagined. The companies of Ordenanças vary much in strength; some consist of one hundred and fifty men and more, and others of not above fifty. The peasantry of theMata, that is, of the country which lies between the plentiful well-watered districts of the coast and the Sertoens, have not a general good character. The miserable life which they, oftener than others, are obliged to lead from the want of water and of provisions, seems to have an unfavourable effect upon them; they are represented as being more vindictive and more quarrelsome, and less hospitable than their neighbours. To say that a man is amatuto da mata, a woodman of the wood, is no recommendation to him.During this journey I heard the following story; and as I was acquainted with the person to whom the circumstances occurred, I can vouch for its veracity. A Brazilian who had been wealthy, but who had, through many imprudencies, and from many deeds which deserve a much severer name, reduced himself to a state of comparative poverty, resided in this part of the country at the time I travelled through it. He was a man of loose morals and savage disposition,but of most pleasant manners. He had in one particular instance, which pre-eminently stamped his character, behaved in a most shameful manner to a lady to whom he professed himself to be attached. He had possessed many slaves; but at the time the following occurrences took place three or four only remained, and of these one alone was in health. Apprehensive of being assassinated by some of the persons whom he had injured and insulted, he usually kept the doors and windows of his residence well secured, excepting one entrance which was likewise closed at dusk. One evening, three men knocked at the door, and asked leave to pass the night in some of the out-houses of the plantation; the owner answered from within, but did not open the door, saying that they might sleep in the mill. About an hour afterwards there was another knock, and a person requested that some fruit might be sold to him. The owner fetched some, and inconsiderately opened the door to give it to the man; but when he looked out, all the three were there, and as he reached the fruit to one of them, a second fired, and the greatest part of the shot entered the abdomen. The known courage of the wounded man made these fellows hesitate in approaching him immediately, by which means he had time to reach his sword, which stood near to where he was, and he was enabled to close and bolt the door. This being done, he reached his bed with great difficulty, expecting that every minute would be his last. The men tried to gain admittance through some of the doors or windows; but not succeeding in this, they rode off. As soon as the slave who was in health heard the report of the gun, and saw his master wounded, he left the house, recollecting (which is somewhat surprising) to lock the door; he made all haste to a neighbouring plantation, distant one league. The owner of the place to which the slave had fled, ordered a hammock to be prepared, and set off with sixteen negroes; he was accompanied by his chaplain, who brought with him a candle, and all the other necessary appendages to the bed-side of a dying Catholic. They arrived, and found the wounded man in a state which led them to suppose that he couldnot live many hours; but he was confessed, and anointed with the holy oil, and thus prepared for the worst. Then they put him into the hammock, and his neighbour had him conveyed to his residence. The person who related this story to me, did not fail to add, that a lighted candle was carried in a lantern, that the wounded man should not run the risk of dying without having the light in his hand, as is the custom. A surgeon was sent for to Iguaraçu, which is distant several leagues, and he succeeded in extracting almost all the shot. Notwithstanding the delay, and other unfavourable circumstances, I saw this man in good health in 1813. Whilst he still remained in a dangerous state at the house of his friend, a Sertanejo Indian, well armed, passed through the place, and asked one of the negroes if he was still alive. It was generally said that he must remove to some far distant part of the country, otherwise he might daily expect another attack, and particularly as his enemies were Sertanejos. The men who had attempted to murder him were dressed after the manner of these people, and were seen on the following day travelling towards the interior. They mentioned at some of the cottages at which they stopped, that they believed they had prevented one man from eating any morepiram, which is equal to an European using in the same manner the word bread. The person whom they had attacked could not be sure of the quarter from whence the blow proceeded; for many were those from which he might have expected it. In Brazil, injured persons or their relatives must either allow their own wrongs and those of their families to go unpunished, or they must themselves undertake the chastisement of him who has committed the crime. The evil proceeds, immediately, from the vastness of the country, and from the want of attention in the government to counteract this disadvantage.

CHAPTER IX.VOYAGE FROM PERNAMBUCO TO MARANHAM.—ST. LUIZ.—TRADE.—WILD INDIANS.—THE GOVERNOR.—ALCANTARA.—THE AUTHOR SAILS FROM ST. LUIZ, AND ARRIVES IN ENGLAND.EIGHT days after my return from Searà, arrived a vessel from England, bringing letters which obliged me to leave Pernambuco and proceed to Maranham. As a cargo could not be obtained for the brig at the former place, the consignee determined to send her to Maranham, and being myself desirous of taking advantage of the first opportunity, I prepared for the voyage, and sailed in the course of forty-eight hours.We weighed anchor on the 25th February, and had a prosperous passage of seven days. We were in sight of the land nearly the whole time, and occasionally, as the brig was small, and the master wished if possible to become acquainted with the points of land, we were very near to it. The Portugueze ships seldom come up this coast without a pilot, nor is it prudent to do otherwise; but we could not obtain one without delay, to which the master objected. He had scarcely ever before been out of the British seas; but their school is good, and now he found his way to Maranham with as much dexterity as an experienced pilot. This coast is generally known to be dangerous; and the land has for the most part a dreary and dismal look, particularly after passing Rio Grande. We entered the bay of St. Marcos with the lead going, took the channel to the eastward of thebaixo do meioor middle bank, passed the Fort of St. Marcos, andcame to an anchor opposite and very near to the sand banks at the mouth of the harbour of St. Luiz. As no pilot came off to us, the master and myself got into the boat, intending to fetch one; but on coming opposite to the Fort of St. Francisco, a gun without shot was fired, and the sentinel beckoned us back to the ship. We pulled for the fort, and when we approached it, an enormous speaking trumpet was produced, and through it we received orders not to proceed to the city. However we landed at the fort, and I told the officer that the master was particularly desirous of having a pilot, as he was unacquainted with the bay or port; but it is well known that they contain many sand banks. We were answered that the pilot would come in due time; and finding remonstrance of no avail, returned to the ship. When the pilot arrived, he was accompanied by a soldier and a custom-house officer. It was with some difficulty that I could persuade the master to allow the former to come into the vessel. Sailors and soldiers never very well agree, and the blunt Englishman said that he had no idea of his ship being taken from him by a fellow in a party-coloured jacket. This was a new regulation. Indeed in most of those regarding the port of Maranham, I could not avoid recollecting the old proverb of “much cry, &c.” As the brig came up the harbour, we received the health and custom-house visit. It was composed of several well-dressed men, some of whom wore cocked hats and swords; and all of them ate much bread and cheese, and drank quantities of porter. Theadministradorof the customs was among them, and was dressed in the uniform of a cavalry officer. I scarcely ever saw so much astonishment pictured in the countenance of any man as in that of the master of the brig. He had been accustomed to enter our own ports, where so much business is done in so quiet a manner; and he now said to me in half joke, half earnest, “Why it is not only one, but they are coming in shoals to take the ship from me.” After all these personages, and all the trouble they had given us, I was still obliged to pass the night on board, because theguardamor, the officer especially appointed to prevent smuggling, had not made his visit. Fortunately, I found means of havingthe letters conveyed on shore, otherwise the vessel would have arrived four and twenty hours before the merchant to whom she was consigned, could have obtained any information regarding her. To render the night still more agreeable, some heavy rain fell; the deck was leaky, and about midnight I was obliged to rise and look for a dry corner.The city of St. Luiz, situated upon the island of Maranham, and the metropolis of theestado, or state of Maranham, is the residence of a captain-general and the see of a bishop. It is built upon very unequal ground, commencing from the water’s edge, and extending to the distance of about one mile and a half in a N.E. direction. The space which it covers, ought to contain many more inhabitants than is actually the case; but the city is built in a straggling manner, and it comprises some broad streets and squares. This gives to it an airy appearance, which is particularly pleasant in so warm a climate. Its situation upon the western part of the island, and upon one side of a creek, almost excludes it from the sea breeze, by which means the place is rendered less healthy than if it was more exposed. The population may be computed at about 12,000 persons or more, including negroes, of which the proportion is great, being much more considerable than at Pernambuco. The streets are mostly paved, but are out of repair. The houses are many of them neat and pretty, and of one story in height; the lower part of them is appropriated to the servants, to shops without windows, to warehouses, and other purposes, as at Pernambuco. The family lives upon the upper story, and the windows of this reach down to the floor, and are ornamented with iron balconies. The churches are numerous, and there are likewise Franciscan, Carmelite, and other convents. The places of worship are gaudily decorated in the inside; but no plan of architecture is aimed at in the formation of the buildings themselves, with the exception of the convents, which preserve the regular features appertaining to such edifices. The governor’s palace stands upon rising ground, not far from the water side, with the front towards the town. It is a long uniform stone building of one story in height; the principalentrance is wide, but without a portico. The western end joins the town-hall and prison, which appear to be part of the same edifice; and the oblong piece of ground in its front, covered with grass, gives to it on the whole a handsome and striking appearance. One end of this is open to the harbour and to a fort in the hollow, close to the water; the other extremity is nearly closed by the cathedral. One side is almost taken up with the palace and other public buildings, and the opposite space is occupied by dwelling-houses and streets leading down into other parts of the city. The ground upon which the whole place stands, is composed of a soft red stone; so that the smaller streets leading from the town into the country, some of which are not paved, are full of gullies, through which the water runs in the rainy season. These streets are formed of houses consisting only of the ground floor, and having thatched roofs; the windows are without glass, and the dwellings have a most mean and shabby appearance. The city contains a custom-house and treasury; the former is small, but was quite large enough for the business of the place, until lately.The harbour is formed by a creek in the island, and is to be entered from the bay of St. Marcos. The channel is of sufficient depth for common sized merchant ships; but is very narrow, and not to be entered without a pilot. Opposite to the town the water is shallow at the ebb. It is worthy of remark, that the tide rises gradually more and more along the coast of Brazil, from south to north. Thus at Rio de Janeiro the rise is said to be trifling; at Pernambuco it is from five to six feet; at Itamaraca eight feet; and at Maranham, it is eighteen feet. The forts of Maranham are all of them said to be in bad order. I heard one person observe, half in earnest, that he did not suppose each fort contained more than four guns which were in a fit state to be fired. I did not see that of St. Marcos, which is situated at the entrance of the bay; but it is reported to be in the same state as the others. Those I saw are small, and built of stone. The soldiers were well dressed and well fed, and they looked respectable. The barracks are new and large comparativelyspeaking, and have been built in an airy situation, in the outskirts of the city. The garrison consists of one regiment of regular infantry of about one thousand men when complete; but these are much divided, being stationed in several forts. Recruits are formed of the lower orders of white persons, and of the people of colour. The men were never exercised with the artillery, and were merely accustomed to the common routine of mounting guard, though a few detachments have on some occasions been sent on to the main land at the back of the island, to assist the planters against the wild Indians.The island of Maranham forms the S.E. side of the bay of St. Marcos, consequently this bay is to the westward of it. To the eastward of the island is the bay of St. Joze. From some similarity between the point of Itacolomi, by which vessels are in part guided when about to enter the bay of St. Marcos, and another point of land upon the small island of St. Anna, which is at the entrance of the bay of St. Joze, instances have occurred of vessels mistaking the latter for the former, and entering the bay of St. Joze. This error causes great danger and inconvenience, because owing to the prevalence of easterly winds, it is next to impossible for a vessel to beat her way out of it. It is therefore necessary that she should go through the narrow channel between the main land and the island of Maranham, a passage of considerable difficulty[60]. The bay of St. Marcos is spotted with several beautifulislands, and is of sufficient extent to admit of considerable grandeur. The width from St. Luiz to the opposite shore is between four and five leagues; its length is much greater; towards the south end there are several sand banks, and the water is shallower. It receives here the waters of a river, along the banks of which are situated several cattle estates, but the river Itapicuru, which runs into the narrow channel between the main land and the island, enjoys the greatest share of cultivation; its banks are extremely fertile, and upon them have been established the principal plantations of cotton and rice, which are the two chief and almost only articles of commerce from the city of St. Luiz. The island is in itself very little cultivated. There is no considerable plantation upon it. A few of the rich merchants residing in the city have country houses distant from it about one league, but the remainder of the lands are left untouched, owing, as is said, to the unfitness of the soil for the purposes of agriculture[61].There is a horse-path through the island to a house which stands immediately opposite to the mouth of the river Itapicuru; at this is stationed a canoe, for the purpose of conveying people from one shore to the other. Another horse-path also leads to the village and chapel of St. Joze.The importance of the province has increased very rapidly. Previous to the last sixty years no cotton was exported, and I heard that when the first parcel was about to be shipped, a petition was made by several of the inhabitants to theCamaraor municipality, requesting that the exportation might not be permitted, for otherwise they feared that there would be a want of the article for the consumption of the country; this of course was not attended to, and now the number of bags exported annually is between forty and fifty thousand, averagingabout 180 lbs. weight each[62]. The quantity of rice grown there is likewise great[63]; but the sugar which is required for the consumption of the province is brought from the ports to the southward. Some sugar cane has lately been planted, but hitherto molasses only have been made. I heard many persons say, that the lands are not adapted to the growth of the sugar cane[64]. The cotton and rice are brought to St. Luiz in barks of about 25 or 30 tons burthen. These come down the rivers with the stream from the plantations; their return is not however so easy, as they are obliged to be rowed or warped, but being then empty, or nearly so, the difficulty is not very great.Considerable quantities of manufactured goods have been sent out from Great Britain since the opening of the trade, as has been done to the other principal ports upon the coast; but a ready sale has not been found for them here to any great amount. The province of Maranham will not bear comparison with that of Pernambuco. It is still in an infant state; there still exist wild Indians, and the plantations upon the main land are still in danger from their attacks. The proportion of free persons is much smaller; the slaves very much preponderate, but this class can of necessity use but little of what is in any degree expensive, of what in such a climate is mere luxury. There exists at St. Luiz a great inequality of ranks; the chief riches of the place are in the hands of a few men who possess landed property to a great extent, numerous gangs of slaves, and are also merchants. The wealth of these persons and the characters of some of the individuals who enjoy it, have raised them to great weight and consequence, and indeed one governor knows to his costthat without their concurrence it was useless to attempt the introduction of the innovations proposed, and impossible to trample long upon the rest of the community. But the great inequality of rank bespeaks the advancement of this place to have been less rapid than that of other settlements further south, where the society is more amalgamated, and property more divided. As a port of trade with Europe, St. Luiz may be accounted the fourth establishment upon the coast of Brazil in point of importance, giving precedence to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco.The wild Indians have occasionally crossed from the main land to the island, and have committed depredations upon the houses and gardens in the neighbourhood of St. Luiz. Some of these people have been at different times made prisoners and brought to the town, where very little pains, I fear, have been taken to conciliate them. I did not see any of them, but they were represented to me as most frightful beings; their features are excessively ugly, and their hair is black and preposterously long, both before and behind. They are of a dark copper colour, darker than Indians that have been domesticated. The last individuals taken, to the number of four or five, were brought into the town quite naked, were put into close confinement, and I was informed that there they died. I could not find out that any attempt had been made to send them back as mediators, or that any plan of conciliation had been entered into; and on mentioning something of this kind, I was in more than one instance told that it would be of no use, that rigour was the only method. I do not think that this is the general opinion regarding them, but I much apprehend that, but faint hopes can be entertained of any zeal being shown for their civilization. There are now no enthusiastic missionaries; the Jesuits no longer exist in that country, and the other orders of friars have become lazy and worse than useless. However the Indians cannot be enslaved; therefore, at least, they are not hunted down like wild cattle, as formerly was the practice. The name which is given generally both here and at Pernambuco to all wild Indians isTapuya; and that ofCaboclois applied to those who have been domesticated.Having thus given an outline of the place at which I had arrived, I may now leave my quarters on board the brig and be allowed to land, which I accomplished on the morning subsequent to that of our entrance into the harbour. I was received upon the quay by my friend, a young Portugueze with whom I had been intimate in England and at Pernambuco. He told me it was necessary to go to the palace, for the purpose of presenting my passport, as the regulations of the port had for some time been most strictly followed, and several indeed had been lately added. I then, for the first time, recollected that I had no passport, having forgotten to obtain one, owing to the haste with which I left Pernambuco. This produced a demur, as my friend was afraid that I should be imprisoned, the governor not being friendly to Englishmen; however I determined to call myself the supercargo of the brig. We proceeded to the palace, the entrance to which was guarded by two sentinels, and we passed several others in going up the stairs into the anti-chamber, where we were received by a gentlemanlike officer, who heard what I had to say, asked no questions, and soon dismissed us. I thought I had seen the great man himself, but was undeceived, and heard that he seldom honoured any one with an audience. The officer to whom we had spoken was the lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of regular infantry. The guard at the palace consisted of one company; the muskets were piled in front of the chief entrance and appeared to be in good order.I soon discovered that St. Luiz was ruled with most despotic sway; the people were afraid of speaking, as no man knew how soon it might be his fate to be arrested, from some trifling expression which he might allow to escape him. The governor was so tenacious of the honours due to his situation, that he required every person who crossed the area in front of the palace to remain uncovered until he had entirely passed the whole building. Not that the governor was himself always in view, but this adoration was thought necessary even to the building within which he dwelt. The distinction, until then reserved, by the Romish church for its highest dignitaries, was however not thought by His Excellency too exalted for himself; the bells of the cathedral rang every time he went out in his carriage. Persons,even of the first rank in the place, were to stop, if in their carriages or on horseback, when they met him, and were to allow him to pass before they were again to move forwards.I was introduced to several of the first merchants and planters, and particularly to the Colonels Joze Gonçalvez da Silva and Simplicio Dias da Silva; the latter is the sub-governor of Parnaiba, a small port situated about three degrees to the eastward of St. Luiz. They are both of them men of great wealth and of independent spirit. The former is an elderly man who has made a large fortune in trade, and latterly has increased it in planting cotton. He possesses between 1000 and 1500 slaves. On one occasion the mulatto driver of his carriage, though ordered by his master to stop, that the governor might pass, refused so to do. The following day an officer came to the old gentleman’s house with orders to arrest the man. The colonel sent for him and said, “Go, and I’ll take care of you,” adding to the officer, “tell His Excellency I have still several other drivers.” To the surprise of every person about the prison, two servants made their appearance in the evening with a tray, covered with a cloth which was handsomely embroidered, and filled with the best kinds of victuals; sweetmeats, &c. were not forgotten. All this was for the driver, and was repeated three times every day until the man received an order for his release.The Colonel Simplicio had been sent for by the governor to St. Luiz. Had it not been for the circumstances in which he was placed, I should have gone down to his residence at Parnaiba; he has there a most noble establishment, part of which consists of a band of musicians, who are his own slaves; some of them have been instructed at Lisbon and at Rio de Janeiro. It is through such men as these that improvements are to be expected. I likewise became acquainted with a gentleman who had been imprisoned for a trifling breach of some new port regulation. Any of his friends were allowed free ingress to see him, and I passed some pleasant evenings with him and other persons who were in the habit of assembling there; he was allowed two small rooms in the prison, and was confined in this manner for several months. TheOuvidorof the province was also suspended from exercising the functions of his office, was removed from St. Luiz, and imprisoned in one of the forts. TheJuiz de Fora, the second judicial officer, performed for the time the duties of the situation; he was a Brazilian, and a man of independent character, who spoke and acted freely, notwithstanding the ostensible place he held, and the danger of it under such a government. The master of an English merchant ship, I was told, had been arrested for some breach of port regulation, and was confined in a miserable dungeon for three days. I heard many more stories of the same nature; but these will, I think, suffice to shew the state of the city of St. Luiz at the time and just before I visited that place.i198Fishing Canoe.The governor was a very young man, and a member of one of the first noble families of Portugal[65]. There are few situations in which it is so greatly in a man’s power to be much beloved or much disliked as that of governor of a province in Brazil; in which a man may be either the benefactor or the scourge of the people over whom he is sent to rule.My friend’s residence, in which I staid during my visit to Maranham, was situated by the water side, and almost within hail of the ships at anchor in the harbour. I was amused sometimes at the rapidity with which the fishermen paddled their canoes; these are long and of just width sufficient to allow of two men sitting abreast. I have seen in one of them as many as sixteen men in two rows, with each a paddle, which they move with quickness and great regularity. The last men upon the bench steer the canoe when necessary, placing the paddle so as to answer the purpose of a rudder; one or other of the two men steering, according to the direction which the vessel is to take. These fellows are mostly dark-coloured mulattos and blacks, and are entirely naked excepting the hats which they wear upon their heads; but when they come on shore, they partially cloath themselves. The print will give some idea of the strange appearance which they make. The nakedness ofthe negro slaves is also not sufficiently concealed; neither males nor females have any covering from the waist upwards, excepting on Sundays and holidays. Though the climate may not require any more cloathing, decency certainly does. I speak here of slaves who are at work in the streets, for the household servants are at least tolerably covered, and some of them are neatly and even gaudily dressed. At Pernambuco, the slaves are always decently cloathed. The criminals who are to be seen chained together, as at Pernambuco, are here more numerous; and in walking the streets, the clanking of the chains is continually striking the ear, reminding every man of the state of the government under which he resides. Such is the power of a governor, that a respectable person might be sentenced to this dreadful punishment, at least until redress could be obtained from the seat of the supreme government at Rio de Janeiro, a period of four months or more intervening.I brought with me the horse which had carried me as far as Rio Grande on my journey to Searà, and took several rides in the neighbourhood of the city, with an English gentleman who was residing there. The roads are extremely bad, even in the immediate vicinity of St. Luiz, and our usual practice was to ride several times round the open piece of ground upon which the barracks stand. Maranham is again in this respect far behind the place I had lately left; the number of country houses is small; the paths are few, and no care is taken of them. Notwithstanding this, several persons have carriages, which are of a form similar to those used in Lisbon, and not unlike the cabriolets drawn by a pair of horses, which are to be seen in France and Flanders. The horses that may be purchased at St. Luiz are small, and few of them are well formed. Grass is scarce, and the inducements to take exercise on horseback are so few, that the number of these animals upon the island is not considerable; this too may be one cause why fine horses are not to be met with there; for if a ready sale was found for the beasts of this description, some would, doubtless, be carried from Piauhi to Maranham, which might be done with almost as little difficulty as is experiencedin conveying many of them from the interior of Pernambuco to Recife.An English gentleman with whom I was acquainted, arrived at Maranham, a short time after the opening of the trade to British shipping; he was riding in the vicinity of the city one afternoon, when he was accosted by an old woman, who said that she had heard of the arrival of an Englishman, and wished to know if it was true, as she was going to St. Luiz, and much desired to see thisbichoor animal. After some further conversation upon the subject, he told her that thebichoshe was speaking to, was the Englishman himself. Of the truth of this, some difficulty was found in persuading her; but when she was confident that it was so, she cried out, “Ai tam bonito,” O, how handsome. She expected to have been shown some horridly ugly beast, which it was dangerous to approach, and was consequently agreeably surprised to find that she was mistaken, and to see flesh and blood in human form, handsomely put together.I nearly lost a number of books which I had brought with me; the box containing them was carried to the custom-house; they were taken out, and I was desired to translate each title-page, which I did. Though the works were chiefly historical, still I found that the officer who looked over them, was not inclined to let me have them, and a hint was given to me by one of my acquaintance, that they might be considered as irrecoverable; however I made immediately a petition to the governor, to be allowed to send them on board again; this was granted, and thus I regained possession. If I had delayed, I am almost certain that I should not have seen them again. Such are the difficulties which are experienced with books in the parts of Brazil which I visited, that the only resource which remains is that of smuggling them into the country[66]. I hope, however, thatthe enlightened minister who is now at the head of affairs, at Rio de Janeiro, will put an end to this dreadful bar to improvement.I brought a letter from one of my acquaintance at Pernambuco to a gentleman who resided at Alcantara, a town on the opposite side of the bay of St. Marcos. My friend at St. Luiz, another young Portugueze, and myself, accompanied by two servants, agreed to hire a vessel and go over, for the purpose of making him a visit, and of seeing the place. We hired a small bark, and set sail one morning early, with a fair but light wind. The beauties of the bay are only to be seen in crossing it; the number of islands diversify the view every five minutes, from the discovery of some hidden point, or from a change in the form of the land, owing to the progress of the boat. The entrance into the harbour of Alcantara, the town itself, and the size of the vessel in which we were, reminded me much of the models of these realities. The place, the port, and our boat were all small, and of proportionate dimensions, having much the appearance of play-things. It was not like a small vessel entering a large harbour; for in our case, as there was but little water upon the bar, as much pilotage was necessary as with a large ship in coming to anchor at St. Luiz. We were about five hours in reaching the end of our voyage. The boatmen obtained for us a small cottage, near to the beach; we intended to be independent, and have our victuals cooked by our own servants; but soon after we were settled in our new habitation, the gentleman introduced himself to whom we were furnished with a letter. He said that he had heard of our arrival, and he insisted upon our removal to his house.The town is built upon a semi-circular hill, and at first sight from the port is very pretty; but it falls short of its promise on a nearerexamination. The houses are many of them of one story in height, and are built of stone; but the major part have only the ground floor. It extends back to some distance in a straggling manner, with gardens, and large spaces between each house; and many of the habitations in that situation are thatched, and some of them are out of repair. As the hill which rises from the water side is not high, and the land beyond rather declines in a contrary direction, the meaner part of the town is not seen at the first view. Alcantara is however a thriving place, and its importance increases rapidly as the lands in the neighbourhood are in request for cotton plantations. A handsome stone quay was building upon the inside of a neck of land, round which the harbour extends for small craft. The place contains a town-hall and prison, and several churches.The evening we passed with our new friend and his partner, both of whom were pleasant men. The latter took us to a neighbouring church, to hear a famous preacher, and to see all the fashion and beauty of the place. It was much crowded, and therefore we saw little or nothing of the congregation; but the preacher, a large handsome Franciscan friar, with a fine toned and clear voice, delivered a very florid discourse, with much energy and animation. This man and one other were the only persons of those I heard preach in Brazil, who deviated from the common praises usually given to the Virgin and to the Saints. It was a good practical sermon, inculcating moral duties; but by way of conformity to established custom, he now and then mentioned the worthy in whose honour the festival was given[67]. The next day was agreeably passed in conversation; and in the evening two guitars were introduced, and some of the young men of the place came in, and added to the amusement of the party; they sang and played, and there was much sport. There was no ceremony; butthe behaviour of these people was gentlemanly, and their conversation entertaining.I heard here of a certain estate, of which the slaves were numerous, but they had become rebellious; more than one steward had been killed by them, and for some time they remained without any person to direct them, but still they did not leave the place. When things had gone on in this manner for some time, a native of Portugal presented himself to the proprietor of the estate, and offered to take charge of it if he would allow him a salary of onecontoofreis, about 250l.annually (which is an enormous stipend); and if he would sign an agreement by which he should not become responsible for any slaves who might be killed in reducing the remainder to obedience. To all this no objection was made; and the man set off, accompanied by two other persons, his friends, and a guide, all of them being well provided with fire arms and ammunition. They arrived upon the scene of action one evening, and finding the door of the principal house open, took up their lodgings in it. In the morning, several of the negroes, on discovering the intentions of the persons who were in possession of the house, assembled in the area in front of it, but at some little distance. The new steward soon came to the door unarmed, not permitting his companions to appear, and called to one of the ring-leaders by name, as if nothing was amiss. The man answered and came out of the group, but said that he would not approach any nearer than the spot to which he had advanced. The steward made no reply, but quickly took a loaded musket, which stood immediately within the door, fired, and brought the man to the ground, and without delay, called to another of the slaves also by name. No answer being given, his companions came forwards, and all of them fired in among the slaves. Such was the effect of this summary manner of proceeding, that in two or three days all was quiet, and went on smoothly as had formerly been the case; a few only of the slaves absconding.On our return from Alcantara we had a disagreeable passage, as the wind blew hard and some heavy rain fell, which made us apprehensiveof not being able to fetch the harbour of St. Luiz. Our vessel had no cabin, but she was decked, and therefore as a matter of necessity we crept into the hold, in which we could not stand upright, and the bilge water occasionally reached our feet; but this produced much laughter, and we ultimately arrived in safety. Not far from the mouth of the port of Alcantara stands an island of three miles in length and about one in breadth, called theIlha do Livramento; it is inhabited by one man and woman, who have under their care a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Deliverance, which is visited by the inhabitants of the neighbouring shores, once every year for the purpose of celebrating by a festival this Invocation of the Virgin. My departure from Maranham sooner than I had purposed at first, prevented the fulfilment of my intention of landing and spending a day upon this spot. I know not what idea I might have formed of the island if I had more narrowly examined it, but the view I had of it at a distance was extremely beautiful. From what I heard of it, I think, that if any one was about to settle at Maranham, here it is that he should try to fix his residence.I was introduced by my friend to a respectable family of St. Luiz. We made them a visit one evening without invitation as is the custom, and were ushered into a tolerably sized room, furnished with a large bed, and three handsomely worked hammocks, which were slung across in different directions; there were likewise in the apartment a chest of drawers and several chairs. The mistress of the house, an elderly lady, was seated in a hammock, and a female visitor in another, but her two daughters and some male relations sat upon chairs. The company, which consisted of two or three men besides ourselves, formed a semicircle towards the hammocks. There was much ceremony, and the conversation was carried on chiefly by the men, and an occasional remark was made by one or other of the old ladies. An answer was given by the daughters to a question asked, but no more, and some of the subjects touched upon would not have been tolerated in mixed society in England. A part of the formality might perhaps have worn off on further acquaintance.The education however of women is not attended to, which of necessity curtails the possibility of their entering into conversation upon many subjects, even if so to do was accounted proper. Still the ladies of St. Luiz cannot be said to be generally thus reserved, for gaming among both sexes is much practised, and is carried to great excess. A young lady in one instance, when going out with her mother to some evening company, passed through the apartment in which her father was at play with several of his acquaintance. He spoke to his daughter, asking her to take a card, which she did. She went on playing until she had lost three hundredmil reis, about 80l., and then said she had no more money. A fresh supply was afforded to her, and she accompanied her mother to their party, where most probably play was likewise the entertainment of the evening. Dancing is an amusement much too violent for the climate, and is only resorted to on some grand occasion. The love of gaming may be easily accounted for where there is little or no taste for reading, and great sums of money are amassed without any means of expending them. Living is cheap; a fine house, a carriage, and a number of servants may be had for a small sum. The opening of the trade has however given to these people a new turn of expenditure, in the facility of obtaining articles of dress and furniture.Two English merchants only were established at St. Luiz; the commercial transactions of British houses of trade were entrusted chiefly to Portugueze merchants of the place[68]. Many of these were accustomed to little ceremony, and walked the streets in short jackets, some of them were without neckcloths and a few without stockings; but others dress according to the manner of persons in Europe. It was with much difficulty that I could persuade the generality of those with whom I conversed that I had no business to transact; they could not comprehend the motive by which a man could be actuatedwho was putting himself, by travelling, to certain inconveniences for the sake of amusement; indeed many persons would not be convinced, and thought that in so saying I had some sinister views.I had not many opportunities of gaining information respecting the interior, but still I will mention what I heard. The banks of the river Itapicuru, of which I have already spoken, though they are much cultivated compared to what they were a few years ago, are yet very wild, and there is space incalculable for new colonists. The captaincy of Piauhi and the interior of the State of Maranham abound in cattle, and these parts of the country are not subject to droughts. The town of Aldeas Altas[69], which is situated in the latter, and the city of Oeiras in the former and further inland, are said to be flourishing places. Great numbers of cattle are annually driven from these quarters of the Sertam to Bahia and Pernambuco. The proprietors of the estates which are situated in districts so far removed from the seat of government are at times unruly, and a party of soldiers, which was sent up to arrest one of these men, some time before I arrived at St. Luiz, returned without effecting its purpose.Among other anecdotes, I heard of a mulatto slave who ran away from his master, and in the course of years had become a wealthy man, by the purchase of lands which were overrun with cattle. He had, on one occasion, collected in pens great numbers of oxen which he was arranging with his herdsmen to dispatch to different parts for sale, when a stranger who came quite alone made his appearance, and rode up and spoke to him, saying that he wished to have some private conversation with him. After a little time they retired together, and when they were alone the owner of the estate said, “I thank you for not mentioning the connection between us, whilst my people were present.” It was his master, who had fallen into distressedcircumstances, and had now made this visit in hopes of obtaining some trifle from him. He said that he should be grateful for any thing his slave chose to give to him. To reclaim him, he well knew, was out of the question—he was in the man’s power, who might order him to be assassinated immediately. The slave gave his master several hundred oxen, and directed some of his men to accompany him with them to a market, giving out among his herdsmen that he had thus paid a debt of old standing for which he had only now been called upon. A man who could act in this manner well deserved the freedom which he had resolved to obtain.As it was my intention to pass the ensuing summer in England, and no ships arrived from thence, I was afraid of being delayed some months for a conveyance, therefore I thought it better to take my passage in one of the ships which were about to sail. I preferred the Brutus, as I was intimate with the supercargo, a young Portugueze. We set sail from St. Luiz on the 8th of April, in company of another British ship; but we were soon out of sight of each other, owing to one vessel holding a better wind. On the 18th we reached variable winds, in lat. 22° N. lon. 50° W. It is not usual to find them so far to the southwards, therefore we might consider ourselves remarkably fortunate. We passed our time pleasantly, as the weather was fine and the wind favourable. On the 7th of May, the wind freshened, but we had a good ship and plenty of sea-room. A wave struck the stern and entered the cabin on the 8th in the morning, setting every thing afloat; this occurred soon after we had risen. On the 9th we discovered two vessels at a great distance a-head and rather to windward, both of them were laying to, but soon each appeared to stand on different tacks. One proved to be an English brig loaded with timber; she was water-logged and about to sink, and the latter was an American ship, which had lain to, and was in the act of assisting the people in leaving her. If the brig had not been loaded with timber she must have gone down long before. As the American ship was bound to her own country, we took the crew on board the Brutus, nine persons; they were in most woeful plight; some lame,others nearly naked, and all of them half starved with cold and hunger. The vessel had sprung a leak, which increased so rapidly, as to oblige them to retreat from the deck into the foretop, where they had been for three days and two nights, almost destitute of provisions.We arrived safe off Falmouth on the 20th of May. Here the supercargo and myself landed, and proceeded to London.

VOYAGE FROM PERNAMBUCO TO MARANHAM.—ST. LUIZ.—TRADE.—WILD INDIANS.—THE GOVERNOR.—ALCANTARA.—THE AUTHOR SAILS FROM ST. LUIZ, AND ARRIVES IN ENGLAND.

EIGHT days after my return from Searà, arrived a vessel from England, bringing letters which obliged me to leave Pernambuco and proceed to Maranham. As a cargo could not be obtained for the brig at the former place, the consignee determined to send her to Maranham, and being myself desirous of taking advantage of the first opportunity, I prepared for the voyage, and sailed in the course of forty-eight hours.

We weighed anchor on the 25th February, and had a prosperous passage of seven days. We were in sight of the land nearly the whole time, and occasionally, as the brig was small, and the master wished if possible to become acquainted with the points of land, we were very near to it. The Portugueze ships seldom come up this coast without a pilot, nor is it prudent to do otherwise; but we could not obtain one without delay, to which the master objected. He had scarcely ever before been out of the British seas; but their school is good, and now he found his way to Maranham with as much dexterity as an experienced pilot. This coast is generally known to be dangerous; and the land has for the most part a dreary and dismal look, particularly after passing Rio Grande. We entered the bay of St. Marcos with the lead going, took the channel to the eastward of thebaixo do meioor middle bank, passed the Fort of St. Marcos, andcame to an anchor opposite and very near to the sand banks at the mouth of the harbour of St. Luiz. As no pilot came off to us, the master and myself got into the boat, intending to fetch one; but on coming opposite to the Fort of St. Francisco, a gun without shot was fired, and the sentinel beckoned us back to the ship. We pulled for the fort, and when we approached it, an enormous speaking trumpet was produced, and through it we received orders not to proceed to the city. However we landed at the fort, and I told the officer that the master was particularly desirous of having a pilot, as he was unacquainted with the bay or port; but it is well known that they contain many sand banks. We were answered that the pilot would come in due time; and finding remonstrance of no avail, returned to the ship. When the pilot arrived, he was accompanied by a soldier and a custom-house officer. It was with some difficulty that I could persuade the master to allow the former to come into the vessel. Sailors and soldiers never very well agree, and the blunt Englishman said that he had no idea of his ship being taken from him by a fellow in a party-coloured jacket. This was a new regulation. Indeed in most of those regarding the port of Maranham, I could not avoid recollecting the old proverb of “much cry, &c.” As the brig came up the harbour, we received the health and custom-house visit. It was composed of several well-dressed men, some of whom wore cocked hats and swords; and all of them ate much bread and cheese, and drank quantities of porter. Theadministradorof the customs was among them, and was dressed in the uniform of a cavalry officer. I scarcely ever saw so much astonishment pictured in the countenance of any man as in that of the master of the brig. He had been accustomed to enter our own ports, where so much business is done in so quiet a manner; and he now said to me in half joke, half earnest, “Why it is not only one, but they are coming in shoals to take the ship from me.” After all these personages, and all the trouble they had given us, I was still obliged to pass the night on board, because theguardamor, the officer especially appointed to prevent smuggling, had not made his visit. Fortunately, I found means of havingthe letters conveyed on shore, otherwise the vessel would have arrived four and twenty hours before the merchant to whom she was consigned, could have obtained any information regarding her. To render the night still more agreeable, some heavy rain fell; the deck was leaky, and about midnight I was obliged to rise and look for a dry corner.

The city of St. Luiz, situated upon the island of Maranham, and the metropolis of theestado, or state of Maranham, is the residence of a captain-general and the see of a bishop. It is built upon very unequal ground, commencing from the water’s edge, and extending to the distance of about one mile and a half in a N.E. direction. The space which it covers, ought to contain many more inhabitants than is actually the case; but the city is built in a straggling manner, and it comprises some broad streets and squares. This gives to it an airy appearance, which is particularly pleasant in so warm a climate. Its situation upon the western part of the island, and upon one side of a creek, almost excludes it from the sea breeze, by which means the place is rendered less healthy than if it was more exposed. The population may be computed at about 12,000 persons or more, including negroes, of which the proportion is great, being much more considerable than at Pernambuco. The streets are mostly paved, but are out of repair. The houses are many of them neat and pretty, and of one story in height; the lower part of them is appropriated to the servants, to shops without windows, to warehouses, and other purposes, as at Pernambuco. The family lives upon the upper story, and the windows of this reach down to the floor, and are ornamented with iron balconies. The churches are numerous, and there are likewise Franciscan, Carmelite, and other convents. The places of worship are gaudily decorated in the inside; but no plan of architecture is aimed at in the formation of the buildings themselves, with the exception of the convents, which preserve the regular features appertaining to such edifices. The governor’s palace stands upon rising ground, not far from the water side, with the front towards the town. It is a long uniform stone building of one story in height; the principalentrance is wide, but without a portico. The western end joins the town-hall and prison, which appear to be part of the same edifice; and the oblong piece of ground in its front, covered with grass, gives to it on the whole a handsome and striking appearance. One end of this is open to the harbour and to a fort in the hollow, close to the water; the other extremity is nearly closed by the cathedral. One side is almost taken up with the palace and other public buildings, and the opposite space is occupied by dwelling-houses and streets leading down into other parts of the city. The ground upon which the whole place stands, is composed of a soft red stone; so that the smaller streets leading from the town into the country, some of which are not paved, are full of gullies, through which the water runs in the rainy season. These streets are formed of houses consisting only of the ground floor, and having thatched roofs; the windows are without glass, and the dwellings have a most mean and shabby appearance. The city contains a custom-house and treasury; the former is small, but was quite large enough for the business of the place, until lately.

The harbour is formed by a creek in the island, and is to be entered from the bay of St. Marcos. The channel is of sufficient depth for common sized merchant ships; but is very narrow, and not to be entered without a pilot. Opposite to the town the water is shallow at the ebb. It is worthy of remark, that the tide rises gradually more and more along the coast of Brazil, from south to north. Thus at Rio de Janeiro the rise is said to be trifling; at Pernambuco it is from five to six feet; at Itamaraca eight feet; and at Maranham, it is eighteen feet. The forts of Maranham are all of them said to be in bad order. I heard one person observe, half in earnest, that he did not suppose each fort contained more than four guns which were in a fit state to be fired. I did not see that of St. Marcos, which is situated at the entrance of the bay; but it is reported to be in the same state as the others. Those I saw are small, and built of stone. The soldiers were well dressed and well fed, and they looked respectable. The barracks are new and large comparativelyspeaking, and have been built in an airy situation, in the outskirts of the city. The garrison consists of one regiment of regular infantry of about one thousand men when complete; but these are much divided, being stationed in several forts. Recruits are formed of the lower orders of white persons, and of the people of colour. The men were never exercised with the artillery, and were merely accustomed to the common routine of mounting guard, though a few detachments have on some occasions been sent on to the main land at the back of the island, to assist the planters against the wild Indians.

The island of Maranham forms the S.E. side of the bay of St. Marcos, consequently this bay is to the westward of it. To the eastward of the island is the bay of St. Joze. From some similarity between the point of Itacolomi, by which vessels are in part guided when about to enter the bay of St. Marcos, and another point of land upon the small island of St. Anna, which is at the entrance of the bay of St. Joze, instances have occurred of vessels mistaking the latter for the former, and entering the bay of St. Joze. This error causes great danger and inconvenience, because owing to the prevalence of easterly winds, it is next to impossible for a vessel to beat her way out of it. It is therefore necessary that she should go through the narrow channel between the main land and the island of Maranham, a passage of considerable difficulty[60]. The bay of St. Marcos is spotted with several beautifulislands, and is of sufficient extent to admit of considerable grandeur. The width from St. Luiz to the opposite shore is between four and five leagues; its length is much greater; towards the south end there are several sand banks, and the water is shallower. It receives here the waters of a river, along the banks of which are situated several cattle estates, but the river Itapicuru, which runs into the narrow channel between the main land and the island, enjoys the greatest share of cultivation; its banks are extremely fertile, and upon them have been established the principal plantations of cotton and rice, which are the two chief and almost only articles of commerce from the city of St. Luiz. The island is in itself very little cultivated. There is no considerable plantation upon it. A few of the rich merchants residing in the city have country houses distant from it about one league, but the remainder of the lands are left untouched, owing, as is said, to the unfitness of the soil for the purposes of agriculture[61].There is a horse-path through the island to a house which stands immediately opposite to the mouth of the river Itapicuru; at this is stationed a canoe, for the purpose of conveying people from one shore to the other. Another horse-path also leads to the village and chapel of St. Joze.

The importance of the province has increased very rapidly. Previous to the last sixty years no cotton was exported, and I heard that when the first parcel was about to be shipped, a petition was made by several of the inhabitants to theCamaraor municipality, requesting that the exportation might not be permitted, for otherwise they feared that there would be a want of the article for the consumption of the country; this of course was not attended to, and now the number of bags exported annually is between forty and fifty thousand, averagingabout 180 lbs. weight each[62]. The quantity of rice grown there is likewise great[63]; but the sugar which is required for the consumption of the province is brought from the ports to the southward. Some sugar cane has lately been planted, but hitherto molasses only have been made. I heard many persons say, that the lands are not adapted to the growth of the sugar cane[64]. The cotton and rice are brought to St. Luiz in barks of about 25 or 30 tons burthen. These come down the rivers with the stream from the plantations; their return is not however so easy, as they are obliged to be rowed or warped, but being then empty, or nearly so, the difficulty is not very great.

Considerable quantities of manufactured goods have been sent out from Great Britain since the opening of the trade, as has been done to the other principal ports upon the coast; but a ready sale has not been found for them here to any great amount. The province of Maranham will not bear comparison with that of Pernambuco. It is still in an infant state; there still exist wild Indians, and the plantations upon the main land are still in danger from their attacks. The proportion of free persons is much smaller; the slaves very much preponderate, but this class can of necessity use but little of what is in any degree expensive, of what in such a climate is mere luxury. There exists at St. Luiz a great inequality of ranks; the chief riches of the place are in the hands of a few men who possess landed property to a great extent, numerous gangs of slaves, and are also merchants. The wealth of these persons and the characters of some of the individuals who enjoy it, have raised them to great weight and consequence, and indeed one governor knows to his costthat without their concurrence it was useless to attempt the introduction of the innovations proposed, and impossible to trample long upon the rest of the community. But the great inequality of rank bespeaks the advancement of this place to have been less rapid than that of other settlements further south, where the society is more amalgamated, and property more divided. As a port of trade with Europe, St. Luiz may be accounted the fourth establishment upon the coast of Brazil in point of importance, giving precedence to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco.

The wild Indians have occasionally crossed from the main land to the island, and have committed depredations upon the houses and gardens in the neighbourhood of St. Luiz. Some of these people have been at different times made prisoners and brought to the town, where very little pains, I fear, have been taken to conciliate them. I did not see any of them, but they were represented to me as most frightful beings; their features are excessively ugly, and their hair is black and preposterously long, both before and behind. They are of a dark copper colour, darker than Indians that have been domesticated. The last individuals taken, to the number of four or five, were brought into the town quite naked, were put into close confinement, and I was informed that there they died. I could not find out that any attempt had been made to send them back as mediators, or that any plan of conciliation had been entered into; and on mentioning something of this kind, I was in more than one instance told that it would be of no use, that rigour was the only method. I do not think that this is the general opinion regarding them, but I much apprehend that, but faint hopes can be entertained of any zeal being shown for their civilization. There are now no enthusiastic missionaries; the Jesuits no longer exist in that country, and the other orders of friars have become lazy and worse than useless. However the Indians cannot be enslaved; therefore, at least, they are not hunted down like wild cattle, as formerly was the practice. The name which is given generally both here and at Pernambuco to all wild Indians isTapuya; and that ofCaboclois applied to those who have been domesticated.

Having thus given an outline of the place at which I had arrived, I may now leave my quarters on board the brig and be allowed to land, which I accomplished on the morning subsequent to that of our entrance into the harbour. I was received upon the quay by my friend, a young Portugueze with whom I had been intimate in England and at Pernambuco. He told me it was necessary to go to the palace, for the purpose of presenting my passport, as the regulations of the port had for some time been most strictly followed, and several indeed had been lately added. I then, for the first time, recollected that I had no passport, having forgotten to obtain one, owing to the haste with which I left Pernambuco. This produced a demur, as my friend was afraid that I should be imprisoned, the governor not being friendly to Englishmen; however I determined to call myself the supercargo of the brig. We proceeded to the palace, the entrance to which was guarded by two sentinels, and we passed several others in going up the stairs into the anti-chamber, where we were received by a gentlemanlike officer, who heard what I had to say, asked no questions, and soon dismissed us. I thought I had seen the great man himself, but was undeceived, and heard that he seldom honoured any one with an audience. The officer to whom we had spoken was the lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of regular infantry. The guard at the palace consisted of one company; the muskets were piled in front of the chief entrance and appeared to be in good order.

I soon discovered that St. Luiz was ruled with most despotic sway; the people were afraid of speaking, as no man knew how soon it might be his fate to be arrested, from some trifling expression which he might allow to escape him. The governor was so tenacious of the honours due to his situation, that he required every person who crossed the area in front of the palace to remain uncovered until he had entirely passed the whole building. Not that the governor was himself always in view, but this adoration was thought necessary even to the building within which he dwelt. The distinction, until then reserved, by the Romish church for its highest dignitaries, was however not thought by His Excellency too exalted for himself; the bells of the cathedral rang every time he went out in his carriage. Persons,even of the first rank in the place, were to stop, if in their carriages or on horseback, when they met him, and were to allow him to pass before they were again to move forwards.

I was introduced to several of the first merchants and planters, and particularly to the Colonels Joze Gonçalvez da Silva and Simplicio Dias da Silva; the latter is the sub-governor of Parnaiba, a small port situated about three degrees to the eastward of St. Luiz. They are both of them men of great wealth and of independent spirit. The former is an elderly man who has made a large fortune in trade, and latterly has increased it in planting cotton. He possesses between 1000 and 1500 slaves. On one occasion the mulatto driver of his carriage, though ordered by his master to stop, that the governor might pass, refused so to do. The following day an officer came to the old gentleman’s house with orders to arrest the man. The colonel sent for him and said, “Go, and I’ll take care of you,” adding to the officer, “tell His Excellency I have still several other drivers.” To the surprise of every person about the prison, two servants made their appearance in the evening with a tray, covered with a cloth which was handsomely embroidered, and filled with the best kinds of victuals; sweetmeats, &c. were not forgotten. All this was for the driver, and was repeated three times every day until the man received an order for his release.

The Colonel Simplicio had been sent for by the governor to St. Luiz. Had it not been for the circumstances in which he was placed, I should have gone down to his residence at Parnaiba; he has there a most noble establishment, part of which consists of a band of musicians, who are his own slaves; some of them have been instructed at Lisbon and at Rio de Janeiro. It is through such men as these that improvements are to be expected. I likewise became acquainted with a gentleman who had been imprisoned for a trifling breach of some new port regulation. Any of his friends were allowed free ingress to see him, and I passed some pleasant evenings with him and other persons who were in the habit of assembling there; he was allowed two small rooms in the prison, and was confined in this manner for several months. TheOuvidorof the province was also suspended from exercising the functions of his office, was removed from St. Luiz, and imprisoned in one of the forts. TheJuiz de Fora, the second judicial officer, performed for the time the duties of the situation; he was a Brazilian, and a man of independent character, who spoke and acted freely, notwithstanding the ostensible place he held, and the danger of it under such a government. The master of an English merchant ship, I was told, had been arrested for some breach of port regulation, and was confined in a miserable dungeon for three days. I heard many more stories of the same nature; but these will, I think, suffice to shew the state of the city of St. Luiz at the time and just before I visited that place.

i198

Fishing Canoe.

Fishing Canoe.

Fishing Canoe.

The governor was a very young man, and a member of one of the first noble families of Portugal[65]. There are few situations in which it is so greatly in a man’s power to be much beloved or much disliked as that of governor of a province in Brazil; in which a man may be either the benefactor or the scourge of the people over whom he is sent to rule.

My friend’s residence, in which I staid during my visit to Maranham, was situated by the water side, and almost within hail of the ships at anchor in the harbour. I was amused sometimes at the rapidity with which the fishermen paddled their canoes; these are long and of just width sufficient to allow of two men sitting abreast. I have seen in one of them as many as sixteen men in two rows, with each a paddle, which they move with quickness and great regularity. The last men upon the bench steer the canoe when necessary, placing the paddle so as to answer the purpose of a rudder; one or other of the two men steering, according to the direction which the vessel is to take. These fellows are mostly dark-coloured mulattos and blacks, and are entirely naked excepting the hats which they wear upon their heads; but when they come on shore, they partially cloath themselves. The print will give some idea of the strange appearance which they make. The nakedness ofthe negro slaves is also not sufficiently concealed; neither males nor females have any covering from the waist upwards, excepting on Sundays and holidays. Though the climate may not require any more cloathing, decency certainly does. I speak here of slaves who are at work in the streets, for the household servants are at least tolerably covered, and some of them are neatly and even gaudily dressed. At Pernambuco, the slaves are always decently cloathed. The criminals who are to be seen chained together, as at Pernambuco, are here more numerous; and in walking the streets, the clanking of the chains is continually striking the ear, reminding every man of the state of the government under which he resides. Such is the power of a governor, that a respectable person might be sentenced to this dreadful punishment, at least until redress could be obtained from the seat of the supreme government at Rio de Janeiro, a period of four months or more intervening.

I brought with me the horse which had carried me as far as Rio Grande on my journey to Searà, and took several rides in the neighbourhood of the city, with an English gentleman who was residing there. The roads are extremely bad, even in the immediate vicinity of St. Luiz, and our usual practice was to ride several times round the open piece of ground upon which the barracks stand. Maranham is again in this respect far behind the place I had lately left; the number of country houses is small; the paths are few, and no care is taken of them. Notwithstanding this, several persons have carriages, which are of a form similar to those used in Lisbon, and not unlike the cabriolets drawn by a pair of horses, which are to be seen in France and Flanders. The horses that may be purchased at St. Luiz are small, and few of them are well formed. Grass is scarce, and the inducements to take exercise on horseback are so few, that the number of these animals upon the island is not considerable; this too may be one cause why fine horses are not to be met with there; for if a ready sale was found for the beasts of this description, some would, doubtless, be carried from Piauhi to Maranham, which might be done with almost as little difficulty as is experiencedin conveying many of them from the interior of Pernambuco to Recife.

An English gentleman with whom I was acquainted, arrived at Maranham, a short time after the opening of the trade to British shipping; he was riding in the vicinity of the city one afternoon, when he was accosted by an old woman, who said that she had heard of the arrival of an Englishman, and wished to know if it was true, as she was going to St. Luiz, and much desired to see thisbichoor animal. After some further conversation upon the subject, he told her that thebichoshe was speaking to, was the Englishman himself. Of the truth of this, some difficulty was found in persuading her; but when she was confident that it was so, she cried out, “Ai tam bonito,” O, how handsome. She expected to have been shown some horridly ugly beast, which it was dangerous to approach, and was consequently agreeably surprised to find that she was mistaken, and to see flesh and blood in human form, handsomely put together.

I nearly lost a number of books which I had brought with me; the box containing them was carried to the custom-house; they were taken out, and I was desired to translate each title-page, which I did. Though the works were chiefly historical, still I found that the officer who looked over them, was not inclined to let me have them, and a hint was given to me by one of my acquaintance, that they might be considered as irrecoverable; however I made immediately a petition to the governor, to be allowed to send them on board again; this was granted, and thus I regained possession. If I had delayed, I am almost certain that I should not have seen them again. Such are the difficulties which are experienced with books in the parts of Brazil which I visited, that the only resource which remains is that of smuggling them into the country[66]. I hope, however, thatthe enlightened minister who is now at the head of affairs, at Rio de Janeiro, will put an end to this dreadful bar to improvement.

I brought a letter from one of my acquaintance at Pernambuco to a gentleman who resided at Alcantara, a town on the opposite side of the bay of St. Marcos. My friend at St. Luiz, another young Portugueze, and myself, accompanied by two servants, agreed to hire a vessel and go over, for the purpose of making him a visit, and of seeing the place. We hired a small bark, and set sail one morning early, with a fair but light wind. The beauties of the bay are only to be seen in crossing it; the number of islands diversify the view every five minutes, from the discovery of some hidden point, or from a change in the form of the land, owing to the progress of the boat. The entrance into the harbour of Alcantara, the town itself, and the size of the vessel in which we were, reminded me much of the models of these realities. The place, the port, and our boat were all small, and of proportionate dimensions, having much the appearance of play-things. It was not like a small vessel entering a large harbour; for in our case, as there was but little water upon the bar, as much pilotage was necessary as with a large ship in coming to anchor at St. Luiz. We were about five hours in reaching the end of our voyage. The boatmen obtained for us a small cottage, near to the beach; we intended to be independent, and have our victuals cooked by our own servants; but soon after we were settled in our new habitation, the gentleman introduced himself to whom we were furnished with a letter. He said that he had heard of our arrival, and he insisted upon our removal to his house.

The town is built upon a semi-circular hill, and at first sight from the port is very pretty; but it falls short of its promise on a nearerexamination. The houses are many of them of one story in height, and are built of stone; but the major part have only the ground floor. It extends back to some distance in a straggling manner, with gardens, and large spaces between each house; and many of the habitations in that situation are thatched, and some of them are out of repair. As the hill which rises from the water side is not high, and the land beyond rather declines in a contrary direction, the meaner part of the town is not seen at the first view. Alcantara is however a thriving place, and its importance increases rapidly as the lands in the neighbourhood are in request for cotton plantations. A handsome stone quay was building upon the inside of a neck of land, round which the harbour extends for small craft. The place contains a town-hall and prison, and several churches.

The evening we passed with our new friend and his partner, both of whom were pleasant men. The latter took us to a neighbouring church, to hear a famous preacher, and to see all the fashion and beauty of the place. It was much crowded, and therefore we saw little or nothing of the congregation; but the preacher, a large handsome Franciscan friar, with a fine toned and clear voice, delivered a very florid discourse, with much energy and animation. This man and one other were the only persons of those I heard preach in Brazil, who deviated from the common praises usually given to the Virgin and to the Saints. It was a good practical sermon, inculcating moral duties; but by way of conformity to established custom, he now and then mentioned the worthy in whose honour the festival was given[67]. The next day was agreeably passed in conversation; and in the evening two guitars were introduced, and some of the young men of the place came in, and added to the amusement of the party; they sang and played, and there was much sport. There was no ceremony; butthe behaviour of these people was gentlemanly, and their conversation entertaining.

I heard here of a certain estate, of which the slaves were numerous, but they had become rebellious; more than one steward had been killed by them, and for some time they remained without any person to direct them, but still they did not leave the place. When things had gone on in this manner for some time, a native of Portugal presented himself to the proprietor of the estate, and offered to take charge of it if he would allow him a salary of onecontoofreis, about 250l.annually (which is an enormous stipend); and if he would sign an agreement by which he should not become responsible for any slaves who might be killed in reducing the remainder to obedience. To all this no objection was made; and the man set off, accompanied by two other persons, his friends, and a guide, all of them being well provided with fire arms and ammunition. They arrived upon the scene of action one evening, and finding the door of the principal house open, took up their lodgings in it. In the morning, several of the negroes, on discovering the intentions of the persons who were in possession of the house, assembled in the area in front of it, but at some little distance. The new steward soon came to the door unarmed, not permitting his companions to appear, and called to one of the ring-leaders by name, as if nothing was amiss. The man answered and came out of the group, but said that he would not approach any nearer than the spot to which he had advanced. The steward made no reply, but quickly took a loaded musket, which stood immediately within the door, fired, and brought the man to the ground, and without delay, called to another of the slaves also by name. No answer being given, his companions came forwards, and all of them fired in among the slaves. Such was the effect of this summary manner of proceeding, that in two or three days all was quiet, and went on smoothly as had formerly been the case; a few only of the slaves absconding.

On our return from Alcantara we had a disagreeable passage, as the wind blew hard and some heavy rain fell, which made us apprehensiveof not being able to fetch the harbour of St. Luiz. Our vessel had no cabin, but she was decked, and therefore as a matter of necessity we crept into the hold, in which we could not stand upright, and the bilge water occasionally reached our feet; but this produced much laughter, and we ultimately arrived in safety. Not far from the mouth of the port of Alcantara stands an island of three miles in length and about one in breadth, called theIlha do Livramento; it is inhabited by one man and woman, who have under their care a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Deliverance, which is visited by the inhabitants of the neighbouring shores, once every year for the purpose of celebrating by a festival this Invocation of the Virgin. My departure from Maranham sooner than I had purposed at first, prevented the fulfilment of my intention of landing and spending a day upon this spot. I know not what idea I might have formed of the island if I had more narrowly examined it, but the view I had of it at a distance was extremely beautiful. From what I heard of it, I think, that if any one was about to settle at Maranham, here it is that he should try to fix his residence.

I was introduced by my friend to a respectable family of St. Luiz. We made them a visit one evening without invitation as is the custom, and were ushered into a tolerably sized room, furnished with a large bed, and three handsomely worked hammocks, which were slung across in different directions; there were likewise in the apartment a chest of drawers and several chairs. The mistress of the house, an elderly lady, was seated in a hammock, and a female visitor in another, but her two daughters and some male relations sat upon chairs. The company, which consisted of two or three men besides ourselves, formed a semicircle towards the hammocks. There was much ceremony, and the conversation was carried on chiefly by the men, and an occasional remark was made by one or other of the old ladies. An answer was given by the daughters to a question asked, but no more, and some of the subjects touched upon would not have been tolerated in mixed society in England. A part of the formality might perhaps have worn off on further acquaintance.The education however of women is not attended to, which of necessity curtails the possibility of their entering into conversation upon many subjects, even if so to do was accounted proper. Still the ladies of St. Luiz cannot be said to be generally thus reserved, for gaming among both sexes is much practised, and is carried to great excess. A young lady in one instance, when going out with her mother to some evening company, passed through the apartment in which her father was at play with several of his acquaintance. He spoke to his daughter, asking her to take a card, which she did. She went on playing until she had lost three hundredmil reis, about 80l., and then said she had no more money. A fresh supply was afforded to her, and she accompanied her mother to their party, where most probably play was likewise the entertainment of the evening. Dancing is an amusement much too violent for the climate, and is only resorted to on some grand occasion. The love of gaming may be easily accounted for where there is little or no taste for reading, and great sums of money are amassed without any means of expending them. Living is cheap; a fine house, a carriage, and a number of servants may be had for a small sum. The opening of the trade has however given to these people a new turn of expenditure, in the facility of obtaining articles of dress and furniture.

Two English merchants only were established at St. Luiz; the commercial transactions of British houses of trade were entrusted chiefly to Portugueze merchants of the place[68]. Many of these were accustomed to little ceremony, and walked the streets in short jackets, some of them were without neckcloths and a few without stockings; but others dress according to the manner of persons in Europe. It was with much difficulty that I could persuade the generality of those with whom I conversed that I had no business to transact; they could not comprehend the motive by which a man could be actuatedwho was putting himself, by travelling, to certain inconveniences for the sake of amusement; indeed many persons would not be convinced, and thought that in so saying I had some sinister views.

I had not many opportunities of gaining information respecting the interior, but still I will mention what I heard. The banks of the river Itapicuru, of which I have already spoken, though they are much cultivated compared to what they were a few years ago, are yet very wild, and there is space incalculable for new colonists. The captaincy of Piauhi and the interior of the State of Maranham abound in cattle, and these parts of the country are not subject to droughts. The town of Aldeas Altas[69], which is situated in the latter, and the city of Oeiras in the former and further inland, are said to be flourishing places. Great numbers of cattle are annually driven from these quarters of the Sertam to Bahia and Pernambuco. The proprietors of the estates which are situated in districts so far removed from the seat of government are at times unruly, and a party of soldiers, which was sent up to arrest one of these men, some time before I arrived at St. Luiz, returned without effecting its purpose.

Among other anecdotes, I heard of a mulatto slave who ran away from his master, and in the course of years had become a wealthy man, by the purchase of lands which were overrun with cattle. He had, on one occasion, collected in pens great numbers of oxen which he was arranging with his herdsmen to dispatch to different parts for sale, when a stranger who came quite alone made his appearance, and rode up and spoke to him, saying that he wished to have some private conversation with him. After a little time they retired together, and when they were alone the owner of the estate said, “I thank you for not mentioning the connection between us, whilst my people were present.” It was his master, who had fallen into distressedcircumstances, and had now made this visit in hopes of obtaining some trifle from him. He said that he should be grateful for any thing his slave chose to give to him. To reclaim him, he well knew, was out of the question—he was in the man’s power, who might order him to be assassinated immediately. The slave gave his master several hundred oxen, and directed some of his men to accompany him with them to a market, giving out among his herdsmen that he had thus paid a debt of old standing for which he had only now been called upon. A man who could act in this manner well deserved the freedom which he had resolved to obtain.

As it was my intention to pass the ensuing summer in England, and no ships arrived from thence, I was afraid of being delayed some months for a conveyance, therefore I thought it better to take my passage in one of the ships which were about to sail. I preferred the Brutus, as I was intimate with the supercargo, a young Portugueze. We set sail from St. Luiz on the 8th of April, in company of another British ship; but we were soon out of sight of each other, owing to one vessel holding a better wind. On the 18th we reached variable winds, in lat. 22° N. lon. 50° W. It is not usual to find them so far to the southwards, therefore we might consider ourselves remarkably fortunate. We passed our time pleasantly, as the weather was fine and the wind favourable. On the 7th of May, the wind freshened, but we had a good ship and plenty of sea-room. A wave struck the stern and entered the cabin on the 8th in the morning, setting every thing afloat; this occurred soon after we had risen. On the 9th we discovered two vessels at a great distance a-head and rather to windward, both of them were laying to, but soon each appeared to stand on different tacks. One proved to be an English brig loaded with timber; she was water-logged and about to sink, and the latter was an American ship, which had lain to, and was in the act of assisting the people in leaving her. If the brig had not been loaded with timber she must have gone down long before. As the American ship was bound to her own country, we took the crew on board the Brutus, nine persons; they were in most woeful plight; some lame,others nearly naked, and all of them half starved with cold and hunger. The vessel had sprung a leak, which increased so rapidly, as to oblige them to retreat from the deck into the foretop, where they had been for three days and two nights, almost destitute of provisions.

We arrived safe off Falmouth on the 20th of May. Here the supercargo and myself landed, and proceeded to London.

CHAPTER X.THE AUTHOR SETS SAIL FROM GRAVESEND AND ARRIVES AT PERNAMBUCO.—STATE OF RECIFE.—JOURNEY TO BOM JARDIM WITH A CAPITAM-MOR, AND RETURN TO RECIFE.AT the commencement of the winter my friends again recommended a return to a more temperate climate than that of England; and therefore understanding that the Portugueze ship Serra Pequeno was upon the point of sailing, I took my passage in her. She was lying at Gravesend, and on the 4th October, 1811, I embarked again for Pernambuco.Contrary winds detained the ship at Portsmouth for about six weeks. On the 20th November, the wind came round to the northward and eastward, and the signal guns from the ships of war, appointed as convoys, awakened us. All was bustle and confusion at Cowes, where great numbers of persons, belonging to the ships, who were circumstanced as we were, had stationed themselves. In a few hours the vessels were under weigh, and before the night closed in, all of them had cleared the Needles. The Serra Pequeno and other Portugueze ships had taken instructions from a frigate, which was bound to the Mediterranean, intending to keep company with her as far as her destination and their’s obliged them to follow the same course; but in the morning we discovered that we were with another frigate, which was bound to Lisbon. We soon left her, and were accompanied by other two Portugueze ships. On the night of the 22d, we fell in with the Kangaroo sloop of war, which was boundto the coast of Africa, with a few vessels under convoy. On the 24th we parted from this convoy, and on the 26th proceeded with only one Portugueze ship. Our passage was most prosperous; we had no boisterous weather, and few calms. On the 3d December, we fell in with the Arethusa frigate, when in sight of the Canary islands. The captain of the Serra was obliged to take the papers of his ship on board the frigate. The regulations regarding the slave trade, which is carried on by the Portugueze, perhaps occasioned more enquiry than would otherwise have been deemed necessary. We crossed the line on the 22d. In the evening of the 26th we stood for the land, supposing that we had reached the latitude of our port, but that we were much to the eastward of it; however, we made the land about two o’clock in the morning, which was sooner by several hours than the officers of the ship imagined we should. This frequently occurs on board of those vessels which do not carry chronometers; the calculation of longitude without their assistance being of course rendered extremely liable to error. At day-break, it was discovered that we were somewhat to the northward of Olinda. We entered the port about nine o’clock, and came to anchor in the lower harbour called the Poço.The Serra Pequeno is one of the heavy deep-waisted Brazil ships, requiring a great number of hands to manage her. The business of the ship was carried on in a manner similar in almost all points to that which is practised on board of British merchant vessels; there was however less cleanliness observed, and more noise was made. The second officer, who is called in the British merchant service the mate, bears in Portugueze vessels that of pilot; and the regulations of their marine confine him to the navigation of the ship, giving up to an inferior officer the duty of attending to the discharging or stowage of the hold when loading or unloading, and all other minutiæ of the affairs either at sea or in a harbour.I was received on shore by all those persons with whom I had before had the pleasure of being acquainted, with the same friendliness which I always experienced at Pernambuco. Several English gentlemen offered me an apartment in their houses, until Iobtained one of my own. I accepted the offer which was made to me by him through whose great kindness my health had been so much benefited, after the severe attack of fever which I had suffered in the preceding year. The first few weeks were passed in visits to my friends and acquaintance, with some of whom I occasionally staid a few days in the neighbourhood of the town, which was now much deserted, according to the usual custom, at this season of the year.I perceived a considerable difference in the appearance of Recife and of its inhabitants, although I had been absent from the place for so short a period. Several houses had been altered; the heavy sombre lattice work had given place, in many instances, to glass windows and iron balconies. Some few families had arrived here from Lisbon, and three from England; the ladies of the former had shown the example of walking to mass in broad day-light; and those of the latter were in the habit of going out to walk towards the close of the day, for amusement. These improvements being once introduced and practised by a few persons, were soon adopted by some, who had been afraid to be the first, and by others who found that they were pleasant. Formal silks and satins too were becoming a less usual dress on high days and holidays, and were now much superseded by white and coloured muslins, and other cotton manufactures. The men, likewise, who had in former times daily appeared in full dress suits of black, gold buckles, and cocked hats, had now, in many instances, exchanged these for nankeen pantaloons, half boots, and round hats. Even the high and heavy saddle was now less in use, and that of more modern form was all the fashion. The sedan chairs, in which the ladies often go to church, and to pay visits to their friends, had now put on a much smarter appearance, and the men who carried them were dressed more dashingly. These cannot fail to attract the attention of strangers, in their gay cloaths, their helmets and feathers, and their naked legs. The annexed print represents one of these equipages.i213A Lady going to Visit.The country residences which had been lately built, were also numerous; lands in the vicinity of Recife had risen in price; the trade of brick-making was becoming lucrative; work-people were in request; and besides many other spots of land, the track between the villages of Poço da Panella and Monteiro, in extent about one mile, which in 1810 was covered with brushwood, had now been cleared; houses were building and gardens forming upon it. The great church of Corpo Santo, situated in that part of the town which is properly called Recife, was now finished, and various improvements were meditated[70]. The time of advancement was come, and men, who had for many years gone on without making any change either in the interior or exterior of their houses, were now painting and glazing on the outside, and new furnishing within; modernizing themselves, their families, and their dwellings.This spirit of alteration produced, in one case, rather ludicrous consequences. There was a lady of considerable dimensions, who had entered into this love of innovation, and carried it to a vast extent. She was almost equal in circumference and height, but notwithstanding this unfortunate circumstance, personal embellishments were not to be despised; she wished to dress in English fashion, and was herself decidedly of opinion that she had succeeded. Upon her head she wore a very small gypsey hat tied under the chin. Stays have only lately been introduced, but this improvement she had not yet adopted; still her gown was to be in English fashion too, and therefore was cut and slashed away, so as to leave most unmercifully in view several beauties which otherwise would have remained concealed. This gown was of muslin, and was worked down the middle and round the bottom in several colours; her shoes were as small ascould be allowed; but the unfortunate redundance of size also reached the ankles and the feet, and thus rendering compression necessary; the superabundance which nature had lavishly bestowed, projected and hung down over each side of the shoes.I became acquainted and somewhat intimate with theCapitam-morof a neighbouring district, from frequently meeting him, in my evening visits to a Brazilian family. He was about to make the circuit of his district in the course of a few weeks, and invited one of my friends and myself to accompany him in this review or visit to his officers, to which we readily agreed. It was arranged that he should make us acquainted in due time with the day which he might appoint for setting out, that we might meet him at his sugar-plantation, from whence we were to proceed with him and his suite further into the country.TheCapitaens-mores, captains-major, are officers of considerable power. They have civil as well as military duties to perform, and ought to be appointed from among the planters of most wealth and individual weight in the severalTermos, boundaries or districts; but the interest of family or of relations about the Court, have occasioned deviations from this rule; and persons very unfit for these situations, have been sometimes nominated to them. The whole aspect of the government in Brazil is military. All men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, must be enrolled either as soldiers of the line, as militia-men, or as belonging to the body ofOrdenanças. Of the regular soldiers, I have already spoken in another place. Of the second class, each township has a regiment, of which the individuals, with the exception of the major and adjutant, and in some cases the colonel, do not receive any pay. But they are considered as embodied men, and as such are called out upon some few occasions, in the course of the year, to assemble in uniform, and otherwise accoutred. The expense which must be incurred in this respect, of necessity, precludes the possibility of many persons becoming members of this class, even if the Government was desirous of increasing the number of militia regiments. The soldiers of these aresubject to their captains, to the colonel, and to the governor of the province. The colonels are either rich planters, or the major or lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of the line is thus promoted to the command of one of these; in this case, and in this case only, he receives pay. I am inclined to think that he ought to possess some property in the district, and that any deviation from this rule is an abuse; but I am not certain that the law so ordains. The majors and the adjutants are likewise occasionally promoted from the line; but whether they are regularly military men or planters, they receive pay, as their trouble in distributing orders, and in other arrangements connected with the regiment is considerable.The third class, that of theOrdenanças, consisting of by far the largest portion of the white persons and of free mulatto men of all shades, have for their immediate chiefs theCapitaens-mores, who serve without pay, and all the persons who are connected with theOrdenanças, are obliged likewise to afford their services gratuitously. Each district contains oneCapitam-mor, who is invariably a person possessing property in the part of the country to which he is appointed. He is assisted by a major, captains, andalferes, who are lieutenants or ensigns, and by sergeants and corporals. The duties of theCapitam-morare to see that every individual under his command has in his possession some species of arms; either a firelock, a sword, or a pike. He distributes the governor’s orders through his district, and can oblige any of his men to take these orders to the nearest captain, who sends another peasant forwards to the next captain, and so forth, all which is done without any pay. ACapitam-morcan also imprison for twenty-four hours, and send under arrest for trial a person who is accused of having committed any crime, to the civil magistrate of the town to which his district is immediately attached. Now, the abuses of this office ofCapitam-morare very many, and the lower orders of free persons are much oppressed by these great men, and by their subalterns, down to the corporals. The peasants are often sent upon errands which have no relation to public business; for leagues and leagues these poor fellows are made to travel, for thepurpose of carrying some private letter of the chief, of his captains, or of his lieutenants, without any remuneration. Indeed, many of these men in place, seldom think of employing their slaves on these occasions, or of paying the free persons so employed. This I have witnessed times out of number; and have heard the peasants in all parts of the country complain: it is a most heavy grievance. Nothing so much vexes a peasant as the consciousness of losing his time and trouble in a service which is not required by his Sovereign. Persons are sometimes confined in the stocks for days together, on some trifling plea, and are at last released without being sent to the civil magistrate, or even admitted to a hearing. However, I am happy to say, that I am acquainted with some men, whose conduct is widely different from what I have above stated; but the power given to an individual is too great, and the probability of being called to an account for its abuse too remote, to insure the exercise of it in a proper manner.The free mulattos and free negroes whose names are upon the rolls, either of the militia regiments which are commanded by white officers, or by those of their own class and colour, are not, properly speaking, subject to theCapitaens-mores. These officers and the colonels of militia are appointed by the supreme government, and the subaltern officers are nominated by the governor of each province.The above explanation of the state of internal government I thought necessary, that the reader might understand the grounds upon which I was about to undertake the journey, of which some account will immediately be given.On the 28th January, 1812, theCapitam-morsent one of his servants to summon us to his plantation, and to be our guide. Early on the morning following, my friend, myself, our own two servants, and the boy who had been sent to us by theCapitam-mor, set forth on horseback in high spirits; my friend and I expecting to see something new and strange. I had before, as has been already related, travelled into the less populous parts of the country; but I had had very little communication with the planters. On that occasion, I proceededtoo rapidly to obtain as much knowledge of their manners and customs as I wished.We proceeded to Olinda, and passed through its wretchedly paved streets, with much care; and when we were descending the hill, upon which it stands on the land side, there was laid open to us a considerable extent of marshy ground, which was partly covered with mandioc, planted upon raised beds or hillocks, which were made of a circular form, that the water might not reach the roots of the plants; the remainder of the land was still undrained and unproductive. The darkness of the green of the plants which grow upon marshy ground immediately points out the lands that are in this state. The country which was to be seen in the distance was covered with wood. We crossed a rivulet, communicating with the marshy land on each side of the road, and passed on over some rising ground, and by several scattered cottages, until we reached, distant from Olinda one league, the low lands surrounding the hill which forms the site of the sugar plantation of Fragozo. From hence the lands are low and damp, almost without any rising ground, to the sugar plantation of Paulistas. The beautiful spots upon this track of country are numerous; cottages are oftentimes to be met with, half concealed among the trees and brushwood; they are built of mud, and are covered with the leaves of coco-trees. They have usually a projecting pent-house with a small area in front, which is clear of weeds; under this pent-house is slung the hammock, with its dark-coloured owner, idly swinging backwards and forwards, who raises his head as he hears the horses’ footsteps; the dog is basking in the sun, or lying under the shade, or running out to annoy the traveller; and the fishing baskets and the gourds hang as chance directs upon the protruding stems of the coco-leaves, which cover the lowly hut. Some times the sight of these rude dwellings is enlivened by the figure of a female, who runs off, and conceals herself, as the passenger upon the road looks down the narrow path which leads to the cottage. The road itself was likewise narrow, (for this was not the great cattle track) and all view of the country was generally shut out, by thewood on each side, against which the legs of the horseman are often brushing, and into which he is obliged to force his horse, if he should chance to meet a carrier, with his panniers or his cotton bags on either side of his beast, or one of the carts which are employed upon the plantations. The print represents one of the cotton-carriers. In the fore ground is described the species of palm tree called Tucum[71], and immediately behind it is the Mamoeiro, which produces its fruit upon the stem; the fruit is large, and the pulp of it is soft, having much resemblance in consistence and in taste to a melon that is too ripe; the appearance of the fruit has some similarity likewise to a small round melon.To those who are unaccustomed to a country that is literally covered with woods, which prevent an extensive view of the surrounding objects, and the free circulation of air, the delightful sensations which are produced by a fine green field, opening all at once to the sight, and swept by a refreshing breeze, cannot possibly be felt. The plantation of Paulistas is so situated. The buildings were numerous, but most of them were low, and somewhat out of repair. These are the dwelling-house of the owner, which is spacious, and has one story above the ground floor; the chapel, with its large wooden cross erected upon the centre of the gable end; the mill, a square building without walls, its roof being supported upon brick pillars; the long row of negro huts, the steward’s residence, and several others of minor importance. These edifices are all of them scattered upon a large field, which is occupied by a considerable number of tame cattle; this is skirted by a dike which runs in front, but somewhat at a distance from the dwelling-house of the owner, and through it runs the water which turns the mill. On the opposite side of the field is the chaplain’s cottage, with its adjoining lesser row of negro huts, its plantain garden, and its wide spreading mango trees behind it. Beyond the principal house, are low and extensive cane and meadow lands, which are skirted on one side by the buildings of another small plantation, and bordered at a great distance by woods, which are situated upon the sides and summit of rising ground.i221A Cotton Carrier.This valuable and beautiful plantation was in the possession of a near relation of ourCapitam-mor. We were acquainted with the son of the owner, who was chaplain to the estate, and had invited us to make his residence our resting-place; this we did. He was prepared to receive us, and after having breakfasted, we proceeded to pay a visit to the old gentleman at the Great House, as the dwellings of the owners of plantations are called. He was unwell, and could not be seen; but we were received by his wife and two daughters. They made many enquiries about England, and conversed upon other subjects which they supposed we might be acquainted with. This estate was not much worked; the slaves led a most easy life, and the Great House was full of young children. Of these urchins several came in and out of the room, they were quite naked, and played with each other, and with some large dogs which were lying at full length upon the floor. These ebony cupids were plainly great favourites, and seemed to employ the greater part of the thoughts of the good ladies, the youngest of whom was on the wrong side of fifty; and even the priest laughed at their gambols. These excellent women and the good priest possess a considerable number of slaves, who are their exclusive property. It is their intention eventually to emancipate all of them, and that they may be prepared for the change, several of the men have been brought up as mechanics of different descriptions; and the women have been taught needle-work, embroidery, and all branches of culinary knowledge. Thus, by the death of four individuals, who are now approaching to old age, will be set free about sixty persons, men, women, and children. As these people have been made acquainted with the intentions of their owners respecting them, it is not surprising that the behaviour of many of them should be overbearing. To some, the deeds of manumission have been already passed conditionally, obliging them to serve as slaves until the death of the individual to whom they aresubject. These papers cannot be revoked, and yet no ingratitude was feared; but among so considerable a number of persons, some instances of it cannot, I fear, fail to be experienced. The owners said that all their own immediate relations are rich, and not at all in need of assistance; and that therefore independent of other reasons connected generally with the system of slavery, these their children had no right to work for any one else. Of the slaves in question, only a few are Africans, the major part being mulattos and creole negroes.We returned to the cottage of the priest to dinner, and in the afternoon proceeded to the sugar plantation of Aguiar, belonging to theCapitam-mor, which is distant from Paulistas five leagues, where we arrived about ten o’clock at night, much fatigued. Immediately beyond Paulistas is the narrow but rapid stream of Paratibi, which near to its mouth changes this name for that of Doce. In the rainy season it overflows its banks, and becomes unfordable. The width of it, when it is in the usual state, near to Paulistas, is not above twenty yards. In its course to the sea, it runs through much marshy ground. We passed by four sugar-mills this afternoon; that which bears the name of Utringade baixo, is situated in an amphitheatre, being surrounded by high hills, covered with large trees. These woods have not been much disturbed, and therefore give refuge to enormous quantities of game, among which theporco do mato, or pig of the woods, is common. I never saw this animal, and therefore cannot pretend to describe it; but I have often heard it spoken of, as being extremely destructive to mandioc, and that its flesh is good. This animal is not large, and is not unlike the common hog[72]. Many criminalsand runaway negroes are harboured in these woods. The inhabitants of Utinga seem to be shut out from all the rest of the world, as the path which leads from it is not immediately distinguished. The last three leagues, which we traversed in the dark, were covered with almost unbroken woods; the path through them is narrow, and the branches of the trees cross it in all directions; our guide rode in front, and many times did his head come in contact with them.The dwelling of theCapitam-moris a large building of one story above the ground floor: the lower part of which forms the warehouse for the sugar and other articles which the estate produces. We ascended a wooden staircase, erected on the outside of the building, entered a small anti-chamber, and were received by our host and one of his sons, who conducted us into a spacious apartment beyond. A long table, and one of rather less dimensions, a couple of benches, and a few broken and unpainted chairs formed the whole furniture of these rooms. Four or five black boys, who were of a size too far advanced to wear the bow and arrow, but who were quite as little encumbered with dress as if they still might wield these dangerous weapons in the character of cupids, stood all astonishment to view the strange beings that had just arrived; and at all the doors were women’s heads peeping to see whom we might be. The supper consisted as is usual of great quantities of meat, placed upon the table without arrangement.At five o’clock in the morning, thecapitam-mor, my friend, myself, and three servants proceeded to the distance of three leagues without any addition to our party; but we were soon joined by the adjutant of the district and several other officers, in uniforms of dark blue with yellow facings most monstrously broad—the gay cuffs reaching half way up to the elbows; they wore round hats with short feathers, straight swords of most prodigious length, and very loose nankeen pantaloons and boots; the former were thrust within the latter, which caused the higher part of the pantaloons to appear to be of preposterous width. We dismounted at a sugar plantation, being the third we hadpassed through this morning; here we were invited to stay to breakfast, but this we could not do, and were therefore regaled with pine-apples and oranges. The owner of this place had taken great pains with his garden, and had reared several fruits which require much care; but it is strange that, although there are many which may be raised with very little trouble, still upon far the greater number of plantations even oranges are not to be found. The ant is, I well know, a great persecutor of this tree, but when care is taken in this respect, and a little water is afforded during the dry months for two or three years, none else is necessary. Upon the same plantation have been practised the most monstrous cruelties; the conduct of the owner towards his slaves is often spoken of with abhorrence, but yet he is visited and treated with the same respect which is paid to an individual of unblemished character. It is however almost the only instance of which I heard of systematic, continued, wanton enormity; but it has here occurred and has passed unpunished, and this one is sufficient, even if none other existed, to stamp the slave system as an abomination which ought to be rooted out. The estate was inherited by the person in question, with sixty good slaves upon it; fifteen years have elapsed since that time to the period of which I speak, and there were then remaining only four or five individuals who were able to work. Some have fled and have escaped, others have died, God knows how, and others again have committed suicide in sight of their master’s residence.We arrived at mid-day at Santa Cruz, and had now reached the cotton country. The track through which we had passed was for the most part well watered and well wooded; the marshy lands being less frequently interspersed than upon the journey of the preceding day. The sugar plantations were numerous; we saw eight of them this morning. The ground was often uneven, and we crossed one rather steep hill. The lands upon which we had now arrived and those to which we were advancing are altogether higher, and the grass upon them was now much burnt up, the “first waters” not having yet fallen. The soil in these parts retains less moisture than thatof the country which we had left, and soon becomes too hard to be worked. The party was now much increased, and in the afternoon we proceeded to Pindoba, a cotton plantation of considerable extent; the owner of it is wealthy and possesses many slaves. He received us in his dressing-gown, under which he wore a shirt, drawers, and a pair of stockings. After the first greetings were over, he brought out a small bottle of liqueur made in the country, to which he himself helped his guests, one solitary glass, which was filled, and then emptied by each person, being made use of by the whole party. After supper a guitar player belonging to the house entertained us until a late hour, whilst our host sat upon a table smoking from a pipe of fully six feet in length. Several hammocks were slung in two large apartments, and each person either talked or went to sleep, or occasionally did one and the other, no form or ceremony being observed.The peasants began to assemble early on the following morning, as three companies of theOrdenançaswere to be reviewed. These were the first which were to undergo inspection, as thecapitam-morpurposed visiting again the places through which we had passed on his return, and intended then to perform this duty. The men wore their usual dress of shirt and drawers, and perhaps a nankeen jacket and pantaloons were added, and most of them had muskets. Thecapitam-morcame forth this day in his scarlet uniform, and sat himself down near to a table. The captain of the company which was about to be reviewed stood near to him with the muster-roll. The names of the privates were called over by the captain, and as each name was repeated by the sergeant, who stood at the door-way, the individual to whom it belonged came in and presented arms to thecapitam-mor, then turned about and retired. It was truly ridiculous, but at the same time painful, to see the fright which the countenances of some of the poor fellows expressed, and their excessive awkwardness when they came to present themselves; whilst others displayed evident self-sufficiency; these were well-dressed and performed every manœuvre with as much neatness and promptitude as they were capable of, expressive of superior knowledge and in hopes of admiration.There were of course many absentees, and for the non-appearance of these some reason was given by one of the officers of the company to which the man belonged, or by a neighbour. The excuses were usually received as all-sufficient, without any further enquiry being made. However the absence of one of the captains was not thus quietly acquiesced in, and therefore an officer was dispatched to his house to bring him to Pindoba under an arrest. Whether this proceeded from some private pique, or from zeal for the public service, I do not pretend to determine, but he soon arrived in custody. He was put into one of the apartments of the house which we were inhabiting, and a sergeant was stationed at the door as a sentinel. Thecapitam-morsoon however relented, upon which he was released and allowed to return home.At dinner the great man took the head of the table, and the owner of the house stood by and waited upon him. Every thing was served up in enormous quantities, for the party was large and this is the custom; there was no sort of regularity observed; every man helped himself to the dish which pleased him best, and this was oftentimes done, with the knife which the person had been making use of upon his own plate, and by reaching across two or three of his neighbours for the purpose. A nice bit was not safe even upon one’s own plate, being occasionally snatched up, and another less dainty given in return. Much wine was drank during dinner, and the glasses were used in common. We soon rose from table, and the party, generally speaking, took the accustomedsestaor nap after dinner which is usual in warm climates. My friend and I walked out in the afternoon, but there was nothing to tempt us to go far, for the neighbourhood possessed no natural beauty and the dry weather had burnt up the grass, and had made the face of the country extremely dreary.Early on the morrow about forty persons sallied forth for the village of Bom Jardim. It is distant from Pindoba one league and a half. We arrived there at seven o’clock. This village is built in the form of a square; the houses are low, but the church is large and handsome. Like the huts of Açu and of some other places, those of Bom Jardim are not white-washed, and therefore the mud of whichthey are composed remains in its original colour. The place contains about 500 inhabitants. We ascended a steep hill to arrive at it, and on the opposite side still another of equal height is to be surmounted in proceeding farther inland. The village is situated upon a break of the hill. The soil is chiefly composed of red earth, approaching in places to a bright scarlet, with veins of yellow running through it; this is the description of soil, which is said to be the best adapted to the growth of cotton. Bom Jardim is a great rendezvous for the hawkers who are proceeding to the Sertam, and for others who merely advance thus far. It is distant from Recife twenty good leagues, in a N. E. direction.My friend and I walked out and descended the hill by a path which led us to the bed of the river, for there was now no water in it. Great want of water is often experienced at Bom Jardim, but I think that if wells of sufficient depth were dug, a supply might be obtained[73]. On our return to the village, we discovered that Mass was about to be said, and therefore we accompanied some of our party to the church. It was crowded; indeed it is a remark which I was frequently led to make, that on Sundays and Holidays when the peasantry assemble at the church doors, their numbers must astonish those persons who merely pass through the country without opportunities being afforded to them of a more minute examination. The cottages upon the road side do not promise so numerous a population as is on these occasions to be seen; but from the thickness of the woods and the lowness of the huts, even when a view of the country is by any accident to be obtained from a high hill, the dwellings of the lower orders of people are not to be perceived; they are scattered all over the country; and narrow paths which appear impassable or nearly so, and are scarcely to be observed, often lead to four or five huts, situated in the centre of a wood or upon some low ground, adapted to the cultivation of mandioc and maize.One company was reviewed at Bom Jardim, and from hence a captain was deputed to continue the review further into the country. We rode this afternoon one league to the house of Captain Anselmo, being so far upon our return. On our way to this place we saw the woods on one side of the road on fire. In the dry season the grass and brushwood become so completely parched, that the least spark sets a whole track of country in a blaze. I mean that the fire will sometimes run on for a league, and even more. It will occasionally blaze forth most violently, and catching the branches of the large trees, the flames will at intervals flash above their summit;—it will then subside, but continue smothered in the hollow of some aged tree, or in a heap of leaves which still retain some moisture; but a breath of air spreads it abroad, and it again runs on with violence. The peasants almost invariably smoke as they go along, and oftentimes they ask for a lighted piece of wood at a cottage which they may chance to pass. It is astonishing to see with what unconcern they will hurl this from them still unextinguished, knowing, as they do full well, the consequences which frequently have ensued. The act of setting fire to a wood is subject to punishment by law, if intention or even carelessness can be proved. The crop of canes of some estates have, in many instances, been injured by these means.Captain Anselmo resides upon a cotton plantation which is his own property, and is cultivated by about forty negroes. The house is situated upon the shelf of a steep hill, with a beautiful plain below, upon which trees are thickly scattered. At the foot of the hill is a large fishpond, through which a rivulet runs in the rainy season. The owner has lately inclosed a piece of land, and was making a garden upon the borders of the pond. The dwelling-house was new and had a second floor; it was very clean and well furnished. This was the most pleasantly situated and the best arranged mansion which we visited during this journey; the huts for the slaves were well built and looked comfortable. Here we were entertained with such music as has as yet found its way into these parts of the country. Threenegroes with bagpipes attempted to play a few tunes whilst we were at dinner, but they seemed to play in different keys from each other, and sometimes each appeared to have struck up a tune of his own composing. I think I never heard so bad an attempt at producing harmonious sounds as thecharameleirosmade. The possession of a band of these bespeaks a certain degree of superiority, consequently the planters pride themselves upon their musicians.Our party could not let pass this opportunity of being together without practising the amusement of theintrudo[74], although the usual time of its celebration was yet distant one week. On the day subsequent to that of our arrival, dinner was scarcely over before thefarinha, the bananas, the rice, and other dainties upon the table, were hurled at each other’s heads; soon the smart uniform coats were taken off, and in his shirt sleeves each man began this civil war with heart and soul. Every thing was borne with perfect good humour, and at last, fatigued and bedaubed, all of us retired to the hammocks which had been provided for the party. But as our evil stars would have it, a brave captain closed quietly all the shutters (as the moon was shining very bright into the room) and then he placed himself near to an enormous jar of water, which stood in one corner of the apartment, and with a small pitcher in his hand soon dealt around him its contents, awakening us with repeated showers, and obliging us to take shelter under the chairs and tables. This, and other jokes allied to it, continued until the break of day, when we prepared for a continuation of our journey. One company was reviewed here.We proceeded to the house of Captain Paulo Travasso, distant one league. As was our usual custom, my friend and I walked out soonafter our arrival, and in returning, instead of pursuing the path, which was rather circuitous, we attempted to climb up a bank, that we might the sooner reach the house; my friend was before me, and as he scrambled up it, his foot slipped, which caused him to catch at the stump of a small plant, that grew upon the side of the bank. He gave up his idea of going by that way to the house, and returned to me, bringing with him the plant, with its root and the earth about it. On going to throw it away, he perceived upon his hand the glitter of a substance which made us return to the spot. We gathered some more of the earth, and this gentleman, who had long resided upon the coast of Africa, judged the substance which was mixed with it to be gold dust.At this place theintrudowas continued more violently than before; for even the blackened pots and pans from the kitchen were introduced to besmear each other’s faces. We obtained here a view of the females belonging to the house; but every where else, they had been too rigorously guarded, or were naturally too reserved to enable us to see them. Some excuse was made by the young men who were acquainted with the family, to draw them into the sport; and the ladies and their slaves were nothing loath to see and to participate in what was going forwards. A circumstance occurred which created much laughter, and which is but too characteristic. One man whom we met at this place, had all along begged of those who were engaged in the sport, that they would not wet him, because he was unwell; however it was seen that he did not observe towards others that forbearance which he entreated from them towards himself. One of our party seeing this, attacked him with a large silver ladle filled with water; the man ran out of the house, and the other followed; but when they were at some distance from it, he turned upon his pursuer, and drawing his knife, stood at some distance, threatening to stab him if he advanced. The other, striking his left side at the place in which knives are usually carried, likewise threatened him, and without delay advanced towards him, having picked up a thick stick as he approached. But his adversary did not like thethoughts of a close combat, and soon set off at full speed, with his knife in his hand. In this manner, he entered the back door of the house, whilst he of the silver ladle took the front door. They met in the apartment from which they had started, when the latter opened his waistcoat and shewed that he had not a knife; thus proving before the whole party, that he of the knife had run away from one who was unarmed. This was quite sufficient; the women made a general attack upon him: he went to the stable, mounted his horse, and set forth; but his misfortunes had not yet ended, for the path by which he must retreat lay under two of the windows of the house, and as he passed, two large tubs of water drenched him and his steed, which immediately quickened its pace, amidst the hooting of every one present.We continued our journey in the afternoon to a sugar plantation, the property of Captain Joam Soares, where we remained until the following day. Some of us were tired of theintrudo, and therefore sought shelter in the mill and adjoining out-houses, when we saw the sport again commencing; but we were about to be attacked, when we gained the roofs of one of the buildings, and from hence could not be dislodged.I had frequently seen thesaboeiroor soap tree, which is to be chiefly found in these districts. It is a large shrub, which puts forth numerous branches in every direction, so that when it is in full leaf, it has somewhat the appearance of trees that have been clipped, (as was formerly practised in gardens,) which is increased by the leaves being small and growing very close to each other. The receptacle of the seed is about the size of a small plum; when this is put into water, and rubbed with some violence, it produces the same effect as that which is caused by soap in water, and it has the same property of cleansing[75]. Thepao do alhoor garlic tree, is to be met with ingreat abundance in these districts. The name is derived from the similitude of the smell of the leaves and the wood of this plant to garlic. The tree abounds so greatly, and, I suppose, reminded the first settlers so much of one of their favourite European culinary ingredients, that it has given name to a town, and to a whole district.About five o’clock in the afternoon we proceeded to Limoeiro, a large and thriving village[76]. It is composed of one street of about three quarters of a mile in length, which is closed at one end by the church and vicarage: this building belonged formerly to the Jesuits. The trade of Limoeiro with the interior is considerable, and particularly on the day of the market, which is held weekly, the bustle is excessive. These days seldom pass without some murders being committed, or at least many wounds and blows being given; but the markets of Nazareth or Lagoa d’Anta are those which are particularly famed for the disturbances that usually take place there. These became so considerable at one time, that the governor found it necessary to issue orders for a patrole to keep the peace on market days.Limoeiro contains about six hundred inhabitants, and is increasing daily. It stands upon the banks of the river Capibaribe, which was at this time quite dry. The distance from Recife is fourteen good leagues. We were entertained by the vicar, who has taken very little pains to have a decent residence, and cannot fail to be somewhat indifferent about his own life, for every step to which we advanced as we ascended to the apartments above, promised to be the last that would hold us. The floors of the rooms into which we were ushered, seemed to be laid out as traps to ensnare those who might not tread cautiously; some of the boards were broken, and large holes remained; others were loose, and it was dangerous to pass over them;and besides the several perils of this mansion, substances which are not pleasant to the nose might unwarily be trampled upon. Never did I see so miserable a dwelling, whose inhabitant might with so much ease have bettered the state in which we found it. However, I ought not to complain, for to counterbalance all this, we had a teapot, sugar basin, and other parts of the equipage of silver.TheCapitam-morhad still several posts to visit, which would delay him for a considerable time; therefore as my friend was anxious to return to Recife, we left our party, with much regret, and were accompanied in the morning by the adjutant, who was about to return home. I had been greatly amused, and wished to have seen the conclusion of the affair. At Limoeiro, several companies were to be reviewed, and from thence theCapitam-morproceeded to Pao do Alho[77]and Nazareth, or Lagoa d’Anta[78], two large villages of considerable importance. Both of them are within a few leagues of the place from which we separated from our companions. We returned to Santa Cruz, passed through that village, and were entertained at the house of the adjutant. We reached Aguiar in the afternoon, being received at that place by one of theCapitam-mor’s sons, a young man of eighteen years of age; and we also saw theCapitam-mor’s interesting wife, who is likewise his niece; she was about fifteen years of age, he being about forty-six. We slept there, and stopped at Paulistas on the following day at noon, from whence we proceeded to Recife on the evening of the 6th February.I heard one of the sugar planters bitterly complaining of his poverty, and that his want of hands to work his mill obliged him togive up the cultivation of much of the best land of his estate. Soon after he had uttered these complaints, the conversation turned upon saddle-horses and their trappings; and he then told us that he had lately purchased a new saddle and bridle, which he wished us to see. These new trappings were most superb affairs; the saddle was made of morocco leather and green velvet, and silver headed nails and plates of the same metal were profusely scattered and placed upon all parts of this and of the bridle. He told us that the whole had cost him four hundredmil reis, about 110l.This sum of money would have purchased four slaves. But the matter did not end here, for he opened a drawer in which were strewed several broken silver spoons, spurs, &c. and he said that he was collecting a sufficient quantity of this metal for the purpose of having his groom’s horse ornamented in the same manner as his own.The free persons of colour who inhabit the track of country through which we passed are more numerous than I had previously imagined. The companies of Ordenanças vary much in strength; some consist of one hundred and fifty men and more, and others of not above fifty. The peasantry of theMata, that is, of the country which lies between the plentiful well-watered districts of the coast and the Sertoens, have not a general good character. The miserable life which they, oftener than others, are obliged to lead from the want of water and of provisions, seems to have an unfavourable effect upon them; they are represented as being more vindictive and more quarrelsome, and less hospitable than their neighbours. To say that a man is amatuto da mata, a woodman of the wood, is no recommendation to him.During this journey I heard the following story; and as I was acquainted with the person to whom the circumstances occurred, I can vouch for its veracity. A Brazilian who had been wealthy, but who had, through many imprudencies, and from many deeds which deserve a much severer name, reduced himself to a state of comparative poverty, resided in this part of the country at the time I travelled through it. He was a man of loose morals and savage disposition,but of most pleasant manners. He had in one particular instance, which pre-eminently stamped his character, behaved in a most shameful manner to a lady to whom he professed himself to be attached. He had possessed many slaves; but at the time the following occurrences took place three or four only remained, and of these one alone was in health. Apprehensive of being assassinated by some of the persons whom he had injured and insulted, he usually kept the doors and windows of his residence well secured, excepting one entrance which was likewise closed at dusk. One evening, three men knocked at the door, and asked leave to pass the night in some of the out-houses of the plantation; the owner answered from within, but did not open the door, saying that they might sleep in the mill. About an hour afterwards there was another knock, and a person requested that some fruit might be sold to him. The owner fetched some, and inconsiderately opened the door to give it to the man; but when he looked out, all the three were there, and as he reached the fruit to one of them, a second fired, and the greatest part of the shot entered the abdomen. The known courage of the wounded man made these fellows hesitate in approaching him immediately, by which means he had time to reach his sword, which stood near to where he was, and he was enabled to close and bolt the door. This being done, he reached his bed with great difficulty, expecting that every minute would be his last. The men tried to gain admittance through some of the doors or windows; but not succeeding in this, they rode off. As soon as the slave who was in health heard the report of the gun, and saw his master wounded, he left the house, recollecting (which is somewhat surprising) to lock the door; he made all haste to a neighbouring plantation, distant one league. The owner of the place to which the slave had fled, ordered a hammock to be prepared, and set off with sixteen negroes; he was accompanied by his chaplain, who brought with him a candle, and all the other necessary appendages to the bed-side of a dying Catholic. They arrived, and found the wounded man in a state which led them to suppose that he couldnot live many hours; but he was confessed, and anointed with the holy oil, and thus prepared for the worst. Then they put him into the hammock, and his neighbour had him conveyed to his residence. The person who related this story to me, did not fail to add, that a lighted candle was carried in a lantern, that the wounded man should not run the risk of dying without having the light in his hand, as is the custom. A surgeon was sent for to Iguaraçu, which is distant several leagues, and he succeeded in extracting almost all the shot. Notwithstanding the delay, and other unfavourable circumstances, I saw this man in good health in 1813. Whilst he still remained in a dangerous state at the house of his friend, a Sertanejo Indian, well armed, passed through the place, and asked one of the negroes if he was still alive. It was generally said that he must remove to some far distant part of the country, otherwise he might daily expect another attack, and particularly as his enemies were Sertanejos. The men who had attempted to murder him were dressed after the manner of these people, and were seen on the following day travelling towards the interior. They mentioned at some of the cottages at which they stopped, that they believed they had prevented one man from eating any morepiram, which is equal to an European using in the same manner the word bread. The person whom they had attacked could not be sure of the quarter from whence the blow proceeded; for many were those from which he might have expected it. In Brazil, injured persons or their relatives must either allow their own wrongs and those of their families to go unpunished, or they must themselves undertake the chastisement of him who has committed the crime. The evil proceeds, immediately, from the vastness of the country, and from the want of attention in the government to counteract this disadvantage.

THE AUTHOR SETS SAIL FROM GRAVESEND AND ARRIVES AT PERNAMBUCO.—STATE OF RECIFE.—JOURNEY TO BOM JARDIM WITH A CAPITAM-MOR, AND RETURN TO RECIFE.

AT the commencement of the winter my friends again recommended a return to a more temperate climate than that of England; and therefore understanding that the Portugueze ship Serra Pequeno was upon the point of sailing, I took my passage in her. She was lying at Gravesend, and on the 4th October, 1811, I embarked again for Pernambuco.

Contrary winds detained the ship at Portsmouth for about six weeks. On the 20th November, the wind came round to the northward and eastward, and the signal guns from the ships of war, appointed as convoys, awakened us. All was bustle and confusion at Cowes, where great numbers of persons, belonging to the ships, who were circumstanced as we were, had stationed themselves. In a few hours the vessels were under weigh, and before the night closed in, all of them had cleared the Needles. The Serra Pequeno and other Portugueze ships had taken instructions from a frigate, which was bound to the Mediterranean, intending to keep company with her as far as her destination and their’s obliged them to follow the same course; but in the morning we discovered that we were with another frigate, which was bound to Lisbon. We soon left her, and were accompanied by other two Portugueze ships. On the night of the 22d, we fell in with the Kangaroo sloop of war, which was boundto the coast of Africa, with a few vessels under convoy. On the 24th we parted from this convoy, and on the 26th proceeded with only one Portugueze ship. Our passage was most prosperous; we had no boisterous weather, and few calms. On the 3d December, we fell in with the Arethusa frigate, when in sight of the Canary islands. The captain of the Serra was obliged to take the papers of his ship on board the frigate. The regulations regarding the slave trade, which is carried on by the Portugueze, perhaps occasioned more enquiry than would otherwise have been deemed necessary. We crossed the line on the 22d. In the evening of the 26th we stood for the land, supposing that we had reached the latitude of our port, but that we were much to the eastward of it; however, we made the land about two o’clock in the morning, which was sooner by several hours than the officers of the ship imagined we should. This frequently occurs on board of those vessels which do not carry chronometers; the calculation of longitude without their assistance being of course rendered extremely liable to error. At day-break, it was discovered that we were somewhat to the northward of Olinda. We entered the port about nine o’clock, and came to anchor in the lower harbour called the Poço.

The Serra Pequeno is one of the heavy deep-waisted Brazil ships, requiring a great number of hands to manage her. The business of the ship was carried on in a manner similar in almost all points to that which is practised on board of British merchant vessels; there was however less cleanliness observed, and more noise was made. The second officer, who is called in the British merchant service the mate, bears in Portugueze vessels that of pilot; and the regulations of their marine confine him to the navigation of the ship, giving up to an inferior officer the duty of attending to the discharging or stowage of the hold when loading or unloading, and all other minutiæ of the affairs either at sea or in a harbour.

I was received on shore by all those persons with whom I had before had the pleasure of being acquainted, with the same friendliness which I always experienced at Pernambuco. Several English gentlemen offered me an apartment in their houses, until Iobtained one of my own. I accepted the offer which was made to me by him through whose great kindness my health had been so much benefited, after the severe attack of fever which I had suffered in the preceding year. The first few weeks were passed in visits to my friends and acquaintance, with some of whom I occasionally staid a few days in the neighbourhood of the town, which was now much deserted, according to the usual custom, at this season of the year.

I perceived a considerable difference in the appearance of Recife and of its inhabitants, although I had been absent from the place for so short a period. Several houses had been altered; the heavy sombre lattice work had given place, in many instances, to glass windows and iron balconies. Some few families had arrived here from Lisbon, and three from England; the ladies of the former had shown the example of walking to mass in broad day-light; and those of the latter were in the habit of going out to walk towards the close of the day, for amusement. These improvements being once introduced and practised by a few persons, were soon adopted by some, who had been afraid to be the first, and by others who found that they were pleasant. Formal silks and satins too were becoming a less usual dress on high days and holidays, and were now much superseded by white and coloured muslins, and other cotton manufactures. The men, likewise, who had in former times daily appeared in full dress suits of black, gold buckles, and cocked hats, had now, in many instances, exchanged these for nankeen pantaloons, half boots, and round hats. Even the high and heavy saddle was now less in use, and that of more modern form was all the fashion. The sedan chairs, in which the ladies often go to church, and to pay visits to their friends, had now put on a much smarter appearance, and the men who carried them were dressed more dashingly. These cannot fail to attract the attention of strangers, in their gay cloaths, their helmets and feathers, and their naked legs. The annexed print represents one of these equipages.

i213

A Lady going to Visit.

A Lady going to Visit.

A Lady going to Visit.

The country residences which had been lately built, were also numerous; lands in the vicinity of Recife had risen in price; the trade of brick-making was becoming lucrative; work-people were in request; and besides many other spots of land, the track between the villages of Poço da Panella and Monteiro, in extent about one mile, which in 1810 was covered with brushwood, had now been cleared; houses were building and gardens forming upon it. The great church of Corpo Santo, situated in that part of the town which is properly called Recife, was now finished, and various improvements were meditated[70]. The time of advancement was come, and men, who had for many years gone on without making any change either in the interior or exterior of their houses, were now painting and glazing on the outside, and new furnishing within; modernizing themselves, their families, and their dwellings.

This spirit of alteration produced, in one case, rather ludicrous consequences. There was a lady of considerable dimensions, who had entered into this love of innovation, and carried it to a vast extent. She was almost equal in circumference and height, but notwithstanding this unfortunate circumstance, personal embellishments were not to be despised; she wished to dress in English fashion, and was herself decidedly of opinion that she had succeeded. Upon her head she wore a very small gypsey hat tied under the chin. Stays have only lately been introduced, but this improvement she had not yet adopted; still her gown was to be in English fashion too, and therefore was cut and slashed away, so as to leave most unmercifully in view several beauties which otherwise would have remained concealed. This gown was of muslin, and was worked down the middle and round the bottom in several colours; her shoes were as small ascould be allowed; but the unfortunate redundance of size also reached the ankles and the feet, and thus rendering compression necessary; the superabundance which nature had lavishly bestowed, projected and hung down over each side of the shoes.

I became acquainted and somewhat intimate with theCapitam-morof a neighbouring district, from frequently meeting him, in my evening visits to a Brazilian family. He was about to make the circuit of his district in the course of a few weeks, and invited one of my friends and myself to accompany him in this review or visit to his officers, to which we readily agreed. It was arranged that he should make us acquainted in due time with the day which he might appoint for setting out, that we might meet him at his sugar-plantation, from whence we were to proceed with him and his suite further into the country.

TheCapitaens-mores, captains-major, are officers of considerable power. They have civil as well as military duties to perform, and ought to be appointed from among the planters of most wealth and individual weight in the severalTermos, boundaries or districts; but the interest of family or of relations about the Court, have occasioned deviations from this rule; and persons very unfit for these situations, have been sometimes nominated to them. The whole aspect of the government in Brazil is military. All men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, must be enrolled either as soldiers of the line, as militia-men, or as belonging to the body ofOrdenanças. Of the regular soldiers, I have already spoken in another place. Of the second class, each township has a regiment, of which the individuals, with the exception of the major and adjutant, and in some cases the colonel, do not receive any pay. But they are considered as embodied men, and as such are called out upon some few occasions, in the course of the year, to assemble in uniform, and otherwise accoutred. The expense which must be incurred in this respect, of necessity, precludes the possibility of many persons becoming members of this class, even if the Government was desirous of increasing the number of militia regiments. The soldiers of these aresubject to their captains, to the colonel, and to the governor of the province. The colonels are either rich planters, or the major or lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of the line is thus promoted to the command of one of these; in this case, and in this case only, he receives pay. I am inclined to think that he ought to possess some property in the district, and that any deviation from this rule is an abuse; but I am not certain that the law so ordains. The majors and the adjutants are likewise occasionally promoted from the line; but whether they are regularly military men or planters, they receive pay, as their trouble in distributing orders, and in other arrangements connected with the regiment is considerable.

The third class, that of theOrdenanças, consisting of by far the largest portion of the white persons and of free mulatto men of all shades, have for their immediate chiefs theCapitaens-mores, who serve without pay, and all the persons who are connected with theOrdenanças, are obliged likewise to afford their services gratuitously. Each district contains oneCapitam-mor, who is invariably a person possessing property in the part of the country to which he is appointed. He is assisted by a major, captains, andalferes, who are lieutenants or ensigns, and by sergeants and corporals. The duties of theCapitam-morare to see that every individual under his command has in his possession some species of arms; either a firelock, a sword, or a pike. He distributes the governor’s orders through his district, and can oblige any of his men to take these orders to the nearest captain, who sends another peasant forwards to the next captain, and so forth, all which is done without any pay. ACapitam-morcan also imprison for twenty-four hours, and send under arrest for trial a person who is accused of having committed any crime, to the civil magistrate of the town to which his district is immediately attached. Now, the abuses of this office ofCapitam-morare very many, and the lower orders of free persons are much oppressed by these great men, and by their subalterns, down to the corporals. The peasants are often sent upon errands which have no relation to public business; for leagues and leagues these poor fellows are made to travel, for thepurpose of carrying some private letter of the chief, of his captains, or of his lieutenants, without any remuneration. Indeed, many of these men in place, seldom think of employing their slaves on these occasions, or of paying the free persons so employed. This I have witnessed times out of number; and have heard the peasants in all parts of the country complain: it is a most heavy grievance. Nothing so much vexes a peasant as the consciousness of losing his time and trouble in a service which is not required by his Sovereign. Persons are sometimes confined in the stocks for days together, on some trifling plea, and are at last released without being sent to the civil magistrate, or even admitted to a hearing. However, I am happy to say, that I am acquainted with some men, whose conduct is widely different from what I have above stated; but the power given to an individual is too great, and the probability of being called to an account for its abuse too remote, to insure the exercise of it in a proper manner.

The free mulattos and free negroes whose names are upon the rolls, either of the militia regiments which are commanded by white officers, or by those of their own class and colour, are not, properly speaking, subject to theCapitaens-mores. These officers and the colonels of militia are appointed by the supreme government, and the subaltern officers are nominated by the governor of each province.

The above explanation of the state of internal government I thought necessary, that the reader might understand the grounds upon which I was about to undertake the journey, of which some account will immediately be given.

On the 28th January, 1812, theCapitam-morsent one of his servants to summon us to his plantation, and to be our guide. Early on the morning following, my friend, myself, our own two servants, and the boy who had been sent to us by theCapitam-mor, set forth on horseback in high spirits; my friend and I expecting to see something new and strange. I had before, as has been already related, travelled into the less populous parts of the country; but I had had very little communication with the planters. On that occasion, I proceededtoo rapidly to obtain as much knowledge of their manners and customs as I wished.

We proceeded to Olinda, and passed through its wretchedly paved streets, with much care; and when we were descending the hill, upon which it stands on the land side, there was laid open to us a considerable extent of marshy ground, which was partly covered with mandioc, planted upon raised beds or hillocks, which were made of a circular form, that the water might not reach the roots of the plants; the remainder of the land was still undrained and unproductive. The darkness of the green of the plants which grow upon marshy ground immediately points out the lands that are in this state. The country which was to be seen in the distance was covered with wood. We crossed a rivulet, communicating with the marshy land on each side of the road, and passed on over some rising ground, and by several scattered cottages, until we reached, distant from Olinda one league, the low lands surrounding the hill which forms the site of the sugar plantation of Fragozo. From hence the lands are low and damp, almost without any rising ground, to the sugar plantation of Paulistas. The beautiful spots upon this track of country are numerous; cottages are oftentimes to be met with, half concealed among the trees and brushwood; they are built of mud, and are covered with the leaves of coco-trees. They have usually a projecting pent-house with a small area in front, which is clear of weeds; under this pent-house is slung the hammock, with its dark-coloured owner, idly swinging backwards and forwards, who raises his head as he hears the horses’ footsteps; the dog is basking in the sun, or lying under the shade, or running out to annoy the traveller; and the fishing baskets and the gourds hang as chance directs upon the protruding stems of the coco-leaves, which cover the lowly hut. Some times the sight of these rude dwellings is enlivened by the figure of a female, who runs off, and conceals herself, as the passenger upon the road looks down the narrow path which leads to the cottage. The road itself was likewise narrow, (for this was not the great cattle track) and all view of the country was generally shut out, by thewood on each side, against which the legs of the horseman are often brushing, and into which he is obliged to force his horse, if he should chance to meet a carrier, with his panniers or his cotton bags on either side of his beast, or one of the carts which are employed upon the plantations. The print represents one of the cotton-carriers. In the fore ground is described the species of palm tree called Tucum[71], and immediately behind it is the Mamoeiro, which produces its fruit upon the stem; the fruit is large, and the pulp of it is soft, having much resemblance in consistence and in taste to a melon that is too ripe; the appearance of the fruit has some similarity likewise to a small round melon.

To those who are unaccustomed to a country that is literally covered with woods, which prevent an extensive view of the surrounding objects, and the free circulation of air, the delightful sensations which are produced by a fine green field, opening all at once to the sight, and swept by a refreshing breeze, cannot possibly be felt. The plantation of Paulistas is so situated. The buildings were numerous, but most of them were low, and somewhat out of repair. These are the dwelling-house of the owner, which is spacious, and has one story above the ground floor; the chapel, with its large wooden cross erected upon the centre of the gable end; the mill, a square building without walls, its roof being supported upon brick pillars; the long row of negro huts, the steward’s residence, and several others of minor importance. These edifices are all of them scattered upon a large field, which is occupied by a considerable number of tame cattle; this is skirted by a dike which runs in front, but somewhat at a distance from the dwelling-house of the owner, and through it runs the water which turns the mill. On the opposite side of the field is the chaplain’s cottage, with its adjoining lesser row of negro huts, its plantain garden, and its wide spreading mango trees behind it. Beyond the principal house, are low and extensive cane and meadow lands, which are skirted on one side by the buildings of another small plantation, and bordered at a great distance by woods, which are situated upon the sides and summit of rising ground.

i221

A Cotton Carrier.

A Cotton Carrier.

A Cotton Carrier.

This valuable and beautiful plantation was in the possession of a near relation of ourCapitam-mor. We were acquainted with the son of the owner, who was chaplain to the estate, and had invited us to make his residence our resting-place; this we did. He was prepared to receive us, and after having breakfasted, we proceeded to pay a visit to the old gentleman at the Great House, as the dwellings of the owners of plantations are called. He was unwell, and could not be seen; but we were received by his wife and two daughters. They made many enquiries about England, and conversed upon other subjects which they supposed we might be acquainted with. This estate was not much worked; the slaves led a most easy life, and the Great House was full of young children. Of these urchins several came in and out of the room, they were quite naked, and played with each other, and with some large dogs which were lying at full length upon the floor. These ebony cupids were plainly great favourites, and seemed to employ the greater part of the thoughts of the good ladies, the youngest of whom was on the wrong side of fifty; and even the priest laughed at their gambols. These excellent women and the good priest possess a considerable number of slaves, who are their exclusive property. It is their intention eventually to emancipate all of them, and that they may be prepared for the change, several of the men have been brought up as mechanics of different descriptions; and the women have been taught needle-work, embroidery, and all branches of culinary knowledge. Thus, by the death of four individuals, who are now approaching to old age, will be set free about sixty persons, men, women, and children. As these people have been made acquainted with the intentions of their owners respecting them, it is not surprising that the behaviour of many of them should be overbearing. To some, the deeds of manumission have been already passed conditionally, obliging them to serve as slaves until the death of the individual to whom they aresubject. These papers cannot be revoked, and yet no ingratitude was feared; but among so considerable a number of persons, some instances of it cannot, I fear, fail to be experienced. The owners said that all their own immediate relations are rich, and not at all in need of assistance; and that therefore independent of other reasons connected generally with the system of slavery, these their children had no right to work for any one else. Of the slaves in question, only a few are Africans, the major part being mulattos and creole negroes.

We returned to the cottage of the priest to dinner, and in the afternoon proceeded to the sugar plantation of Aguiar, belonging to theCapitam-mor, which is distant from Paulistas five leagues, where we arrived about ten o’clock at night, much fatigued. Immediately beyond Paulistas is the narrow but rapid stream of Paratibi, which near to its mouth changes this name for that of Doce. In the rainy season it overflows its banks, and becomes unfordable. The width of it, when it is in the usual state, near to Paulistas, is not above twenty yards. In its course to the sea, it runs through much marshy ground. We passed by four sugar-mills this afternoon; that which bears the name of Utringade baixo, is situated in an amphitheatre, being surrounded by high hills, covered with large trees. These woods have not been much disturbed, and therefore give refuge to enormous quantities of game, among which theporco do mato, or pig of the woods, is common. I never saw this animal, and therefore cannot pretend to describe it; but I have often heard it spoken of, as being extremely destructive to mandioc, and that its flesh is good. This animal is not large, and is not unlike the common hog[72]. Many criminalsand runaway negroes are harboured in these woods. The inhabitants of Utinga seem to be shut out from all the rest of the world, as the path which leads from it is not immediately distinguished. The last three leagues, which we traversed in the dark, were covered with almost unbroken woods; the path through them is narrow, and the branches of the trees cross it in all directions; our guide rode in front, and many times did his head come in contact with them.

The dwelling of theCapitam-moris a large building of one story above the ground floor: the lower part of which forms the warehouse for the sugar and other articles which the estate produces. We ascended a wooden staircase, erected on the outside of the building, entered a small anti-chamber, and were received by our host and one of his sons, who conducted us into a spacious apartment beyond. A long table, and one of rather less dimensions, a couple of benches, and a few broken and unpainted chairs formed the whole furniture of these rooms. Four or five black boys, who were of a size too far advanced to wear the bow and arrow, but who were quite as little encumbered with dress as if they still might wield these dangerous weapons in the character of cupids, stood all astonishment to view the strange beings that had just arrived; and at all the doors were women’s heads peeping to see whom we might be. The supper consisted as is usual of great quantities of meat, placed upon the table without arrangement.

At five o’clock in the morning, thecapitam-mor, my friend, myself, and three servants proceeded to the distance of three leagues without any addition to our party; but we were soon joined by the adjutant of the district and several other officers, in uniforms of dark blue with yellow facings most monstrously broad—the gay cuffs reaching half way up to the elbows; they wore round hats with short feathers, straight swords of most prodigious length, and very loose nankeen pantaloons and boots; the former were thrust within the latter, which caused the higher part of the pantaloons to appear to be of preposterous width. We dismounted at a sugar plantation, being the third we hadpassed through this morning; here we were invited to stay to breakfast, but this we could not do, and were therefore regaled with pine-apples and oranges. The owner of this place had taken great pains with his garden, and had reared several fruits which require much care; but it is strange that, although there are many which may be raised with very little trouble, still upon far the greater number of plantations even oranges are not to be found. The ant is, I well know, a great persecutor of this tree, but when care is taken in this respect, and a little water is afforded during the dry months for two or three years, none else is necessary. Upon the same plantation have been practised the most monstrous cruelties; the conduct of the owner towards his slaves is often spoken of with abhorrence, but yet he is visited and treated with the same respect which is paid to an individual of unblemished character. It is however almost the only instance of which I heard of systematic, continued, wanton enormity; but it has here occurred and has passed unpunished, and this one is sufficient, even if none other existed, to stamp the slave system as an abomination which ought to be rooted out. The estate was inherited by the person in question, with sixty good slaves upon it; fifteen years have elapsed since that time to the period of which I speak, and there were then remaining only four or five individuals who were able to work. Some have fled and have escaped, others have died, God knows how, and others again have committed suicide in sight of their master’s residence.

We arrived at mid-day at Santa Cruz, and had now reached the cotton country. The track through which we had passed was for the most part well watered and well wooded; the marshy lands being less frequently interspersed than upon the journey of the preceding day. The sugar plantations were numerous; we saw eight of them this morning. The ground was often uneven, and we crossed one rather steep hill. The lands upon which we had now arrived and those to which we were advancing are altogether higher, and the grass upon them was now much burnt up, the “first waters” not having yet fallen. The soil in these parts retains less moisture than thatof the country which we had left, and soon becomes too hard to be worked. The party was now much increased, and in the afternoon we proceeded to Pindoba, a cotton plantation of considerable extent; the owner of it is wealthy and possesses many slaves. He received us in his dressing-gown, under which he wore a shirt, drawers, and a pair of stockings. After the first greetings were over, he brought out a small bottle of liqueur made in the country, to which he himself helped his guests, one solitary glass, which was filled, and then emptied by each person, being made use of by the whole party. After supper a guitar player belonging to the house entertained us until a late hour, whilst our host sat upon a table smoking from a pipe of fully six feet in length. Several hammocks were slung in two large apartments, and each person either talked or went to sleep, or occasionally did one and the other, no form or ceremony being observed.

The peasants began to assemble early on the following morning, as three companies of theOrdenançaswere to be reviewed. These were the first which were to undergo inspection, as thecapitam-morpurposed visiting again the places through which we had passed on his return, and intended then to perform this duty. The men wore their usual dress of shirt and drawers, and perhaps a nankeen jacket and pantaloons were added, and most of them had muskets. Thecapitam-morcame forth this day in his scarlet uniform, and sat himself down near to a table. The captain of the company which was about to be reviewed stood near to him with the muster-roll. The names of the privates were called over by the captain, and as each name was repeated by the sergeant, who stood at the door-way, the individual to whom it belonged came in and presented arms to thecapitam-mor, then turned about and retired. It was truly ridiculous, but at the same time painful, to see the fright which the countenances of some of the poor fellows expressed, and their excessive awkwardness when they came to present themselves; whilst others displayed evident self-sufficiency; these were well-dressed and performed every manœuvre with as much neatness and promptitude as they were capable of, expressive of superior knowledge and in hopes of admiration.There were of course many absentees, and for the non-appearance of these some reason was given by one of the officers of the company to which the man belonged, or by a neighbour. The excuses were usually received as all-sufficient, without any further enquiry being made. However the absence of one of the captains was not thus quietly acquiesced in, and therefore an officer was dispatched to his house to bring him to Pindoba under an arrest. Whether this proceeded from some private pique, or from zeal for the public service, I do not pretend to determine, but he soon arrived in custody. He was put into one of the apartments of the house which we were inhabiting, and a sergeant was stationed at the door as a sentinel. Thecapitam-morsoon however relented, upon which he was released and allowed to return home.

At dinner the great man took the head of the table, and the owner of the house stood by and waited upon him. Every thing was served up in enormous quantities, for the party was large and this is the custom; there was no sort of regularity observed; every man helped himself to the dish which pleased him best, and this was oftentimes done, with the knife which the person had been making use of upon his own plate, and by reaching across two or three of his neighbours for the purpose. A nice bit was not safe even upon one’s own plate, being occasionally snatched up, and another less dainty given in return. Much wine was drank during dinner, and the glasses were used in common. We soon rose from table, and the party, generally speaking, took the accustomedsestaor nap after dinner which is usual in warm climates. My friend and I walked out in the afternoon, but there was nothing to tempt us to go far, for the neighbourhood possessed no natural beauty and the dry weather had burnt up the grass, and had made the face of the country extremely dreary.

Early on the morrow about forty persons sallied forth for the village of Bom Jardim. It is distant from Pindoba one league and a half. We arrived there at seven o’clock. This village is built in the form of a square; the houses are low, but the church is large and handsome. Like the huts of Açu and of some other places, those of Bom Jardim are not white-washed, and therefore the mud of whichthey are composed remains in its original colour. The place contains about 500 inhabitants. We ascended a steep hill to arrive at it, and on the opposite side still another of equal height is to be surmounted in proceeding farther inland. The village is situated upon a break of the hill. The soil is chiefly composed of red earth, approaching in places to a bright scarlet, with veins of yellow running through it; this is the description of soil, which is said to be the best adapted to the growth of cotton. Bom Jardim is a great rendezvous for the hawkers who are proceeding to the Sertam, and for others who merely advance thus far. It is distant from Recife twenty good leagues, in a N. E. direction.

My friend and I walked out and descended the hill by a path which led us to the bed of the river, for there was now no water in it. Great want of water is often experienced at Bom Jardim, but I think that if wells of sufficient depth were dug, a supply might be obtained[73]. On our return to the village, we discovered that Mass was about to be said, and therefore we accompanied some of our party to the church. It was crowded; indeed it is a remark which I was frequently led to make, that on Sundays and Holidays when the peasantry assemble at the church doors, their numbers must astonish those persons who merely pass through the country without opportunities being afforded to them of a more minute examination. The cottages upon the road side do not promise so numerous a population as is on these occasions to be seen; but from the thickness of the woods and the lowness of the huts, even when a view of the country is by any accident to be obtained from a high hill, the dwellings of the lower orders of people are not to be perceived; they are scattered all over the country; and narrow paths which appear impassable or nearly so, and are scarcely to be observed, often lead to four or five huts, situated in the centre of a wood or upon some low ground, adapted to the cultivation of mandioc and maize.

One company was reviewed at Bom Jardim, and from hence a captain was deputed to continue the review further into the country. We rode this afternoon one league to the house of Captain Anselmo, being so far upon our return. On our way to this place we saw the woods on one side of the road on fire. In the dry season the grass and brushwood become so completely parched, that the least spark sets a whole track of country in a blaze. I mean that the fire will sometimes run on for a league, and even more. It will occasionally blaze forth most violently, and catching the branches of the large trees, the flames will at intervals flash above their summit;—it will then subside, but continue smothered in the hollow of some aged tree, or in a heap of leaves which still retain some moisture; but a breath of air spreads it abroad, and it again runs on with violence. The peasants almost invariably smoke as they go along, and oftentimes they ask for a lighted piece of wood at a cottage which they may chance to pass. It is astonishing to see with what unconcern they will hurl this from them still unextinguished, knowing, as they do full well, the consequences which frequently have ensued. The act of setting fire to a wood is subject to punishment by law, if intention or even carelessness can be proved. The crop of canes of some estates have, in many instances, been injured by these means.

Captain Anselmo resides upon a cotton plantation which is his own property, and is cultivated by about forty negroes. The house is situated upon the shelf of a steep hill, with a beautiful plain below, upon which trees are thickly scattered. At the foot of the hill is a large fishpond, through which a rivulet runs in the rainy season. The owner has lately inclosed a piece of land, and was making a garden upon the borders of the pond. The dwelling-house was new and had a second floor; it was very clean and well furnished. This was the most pleasantly situated and the best arranged mansion which we visited during this journey; the huts for the slaves were well built and looked comfortable. Here we were entertained with such music as has as yet found its way into these parts of the country. Threenegroes with bagpipes attempted to play a few tunes whilst we were at dinner, but they seemed to play in different keys from each other, and sometimes each appeared to have struck up a tune of his own composing. I think I never heard so bad an attempt at producing harmonious sounds as thecharameleirosmade. The possession of a band of these bespeaks a certain degree of superiority, consequently the planters pride themselves upon their musicians.

Our party could not let pass this opportunity of being together without practising the amusement of theintrudo[74], although the usual time of its celebration was yet distant one week. On the day subsequent to that of our arrival, dinner was scarcely over before thefarinha, the bananas, the rice, and other dainties upon the table, were hurled at each other’s heads; soon the smart uniform coats were taken off, and in his shirt sleeves each man began this civil war with heart and soul. Every thing was borne with perfect good humour, and at last, fatigued and bedaubed, all of us retired to the hammocks which had been provided for the party. But as our evil stars would have it, a brave captain closed quietly all the shutters (as the moon was shining very bright into the room) and then he placed himself near to an enormous jar of water, which stood in one corner of the apartment, and with a small pitcher in his hand soon dealt around him its contents, awakening us with repeated showers, and obliging us to take shelter under the chairs and tables. This, and other jokes allied to it, continued until the break of day, when we prepared for a continuation of our journey. One company was reviewed here.

We proceeded to the house of Captain Paulo Travasso, distant one league. As was our usual custom, my friend and I walked out soonafter our arrival, and in returning, instead of pursuing the path, which was rather circuitous, we attempted to climb up a bank, that we might the sooner reach the house; my friend was before me, and as he scrambled up it, his foot slipped, which caused him to catch at the stump of a small plant, that grew upon the side of the bank. He gave up his idea of going by that way to the house, and returned to me, bringing with him the plant, with its root and the earth about it. On going to throw it away, he perceived upon his hand the glitter of a substance which made us return to the spot. We gathered some more of the earth, and this gentleman, who had long resided upon the coast of Africa, judged the substance which was mixed with it to be gold dust.

At this place theintrudowas continued more violently than before; for even the blackened pots and pans from the kitchen were introduced to besmear each other’s faces. We obtained here a view of the females belonging to the house; but every where else, they had been too rigorously guarded, or were naturally too reserved to enable us to see them. Some excuse was made by the young men who were acquainted with the family, to draw them into the sport; and the ladies and their slaves were nothing loath to see and to participate in what was going forwards. A circumstance occurred which created much laughter, and which is but too characteristic. One man whom we met at this place, had all along begged of those who were engaged in the sport, that they would not wet him, because he was unwell; however it was seen that he did not observe towards others that forbearance which he entreated from them towards himself. One of our party seeing this, attacked him with a large silver ladle filled with water; the man ran out of the house, and the other followed; but when they were at some distance from it, he turned upon his pursuer, and drawing his knife, stood at some distance, threatening to stab him if he advanced. The other, striking his left side at the place in which knives are usually carried, likewise threatened him, and without delay advanced towards him, having picked up a thick stick as he approached. But his adversary did not like thethoughts of a close combat, and soon set off at full speed, with his knife in his hand. In this manner, he entered the back door of the house, whilst he of the silver ladle took the front door. They met in the apartment from which they had started, when the latter opened his waistcoat and shewed that he had not a knife; thus proving before the whole party, that he of the knife had run away from one who was unarmed. This was quite sufficient; the women made a general attack upon him: he went to the stable, mounted his horse, and set forth; but his misfortunes had not yet ended, for the path by which he must retreat lay under two of the windows of the house, and as he passed, two large tubs of water drenched him and his steed, which immediately quickened its pace, amidst the hooting of every one present.

We continued our journey in the afternoon to a sugar plantation, the property of Captain Joam Soares, where we remained until the following day. Some of us were tired of theintrudo, and therefore sought shelter in the mill and adjoining out-houses, when we saw the sport again commencing; but we were about to be attacked, when we gained the roofs of one of the buildings, and from hence could not be dislodged.

I had frequently seen thesaboeiroor soap tree, which is to be chiefly found in these districts. It is a large shrub, which puts forth numerous branches in every direction, so that when it is in full leaf, it has somewhat the appearance of trees that have been clipped, (as was formerly practised in gardens,) which is increased by the leaves being small and growing very close to each other. The receptacle of the seed is about the size of a small plum; when this is put into water, and rubbed with some violence, it produces the same effect as that which is caused by soap in water, and it has the same property of cleansing[75]. Thepao do alhoor garlic tree, is to be met with ingreat abundance in these districts. The name is derived from the similitude of the smell of the leaves and the wood of this plant to garlic. The tree abounds so greatly, and, I suppose, reminded the first settlers so much of one of their favourite European culinary ingredients, that it has given name to a town, and to a whole district.

About five o’clock in the afternoon we proceeded to Limoeiro, a large and thriving village[76]. It is composed of one street of about three quarters of a mile in length, which is closed at one end by the church and vicarage: this building belonged formerly to the Jesuits. The trade of Limoeiro with the interior is considerable, and particularly on the day of the market, which is held weekly, the bustle is excessive. These days seldom pass without some murders being committed, or at least many wounds and blows being given; but the markets of Nazareth or Lagoa d’Anta are those which are particularly famed for the disturbances that usually take place there. These became so considerable at one time, that the governor found it necessary to issue orders for a patrole to keep the peace on market days.

Limoeiro contains about six hundred inhabitants, and is increasing daily. It stands upon the banks of the river Capibaribe, which was at this time quite dry. The distance from Recife is fourteen good leagues. We were entertained by the vicar, who has taken very little pains to have a decent residence, and cannot fail to be somewhat indifferent about his own life, for every step to which we advanced as we ascended to the apartments above, promised to be the last that would hold us. The floors of the rooms into which we were ushered, seemed to be laid out as traps to ensnare those who might not tread cautiously; some of the boards were broken, and large holes remained; others were loose, and it was dangerous to pass over them;and besides the several perils of this mansion, substances which are not pleasant to the nose might unwarily be trampled upon. Never did I see so miserable a dwelling, whose inhabitant might with so much ease have bettered the state in which we found it. However, I ought not to complain, for to counterbalance all this, we had a teapot, sugar basin, and other parts of the equipage of silver.

TheCapitam-morhad still several posts to visit, which would delay him for a considerable time; therefore as my friend was anxious to return to Recife, we left our party, with much regret, and were accompanied in the morning by the adjutant, who was about to return home. I had been greatly amused, and wished to have seen the conclusion of the affair. At Limoeiro, several companies were to be reviewed, and from thence theCapitam-morproceeded to Pao do Alho[77]and Nazareth, or Lagoa d’Anta[78], two large villages of considerable importance. Both of them are within a few leagues of the place from which we separated from our companions. We returned to Santa Cruz, passed through that village, and were entertained at the house of the adjutant. We reached Aguiar in the afternoon, being received at that place by one of theCapitam-mor’s sons, a young man of eighteen years of age; and we also saw theCapitam-mor’s interesting wife, who is likewise his niece; she was about fifteen years of age, he being about forty-six. We slept there, and stopped at Paulistas on the following day at noon, from whence we proceeded to Recife on the evening of the 6th February.

I heard one of the sugar planters bitterly complaining of his poverty, and that his want of hands to work his mill obliged him togive up the cultivation of much of the best land of his estate. Soon after he had uttered these complaints, the conversation turned upon saddle-horses and their trappings; and he then told us that he had lately purchased a new saddle and bridle, which he wished us to see. These new trappings were most superb affairs; the saddle was made of morocco leather and green velvet, and silver headed nails and plates of the same metal were profusely scattered and placed upon all parts of this and of the bridle. He told us that the whole had cost him four hundredmil reis, about 110l.This sum of money would have purchased four slaves. But the matter did not end here, for he opened a drawer in which were strewed several broken silver spoons, spurs, &c. and he said that he was collecting a sufficient quantity of this metal for the purpose of having his groom’s horse ornamented in the same manner as his own.

The free persons of colour who inhabit the track of country through which we passed are more numerous than I had previously imagined. The companies of Ordenanças vary much in strength; some consist of one hundred and fifty men and more, and others of not above fifty. The peasantry of theMata, that is, of the country which lies between the plentiful well-watered districts of the coast and the Sertoens, have not a general good character. The miserable life which they, oftener than others, are obliged to lead from the want of water and of provisions, seems to have an unfavourable effect upon them; they are represented as being more vindictive and more quarrelsome, and less hospitable than their neighbours. To say that a man is amatuto da mata, a woodman of the wood, is no recommendation to him.

During this journey I heard the following story; and as I was acquainted with the person to whom the circumstances occurred, I can vouch for its veracity. A Brazilian who had been wealthy, but who had, through many imprudencies, and from many deeds which deserve a much severer name, reduced himself to a state of comparative poverty, resided in this part of the country at the time I travelled through it. He was a man of loose morals and savage disposition,but of most pleasant manners. He had in one particular instance, which pre-eminently stamped his character, behaved in a most shameful manner to a lady to whom he professed himself to be attached. He had possessed many slaves; but at the time the following occurrences took place three or four only remained, and of these one alone was in health. Apprehensive of being assassinated by some of the persons whom he had injured and insulted, he usually kept the doors and windows of his residence well secured, excepting one entrance which was likewise closed at dusk. One evening, three men knocked at the door, and asked leave to pass the night in some of the out-houses of the plantation; the owner answered from within, but did not open the door, saying that they might sleep in the mill. About an hour afterwards there was another knock, and a person requested that some fruit might be sold to him. The owner fetched some, and inconsiderately opened the door to give it to the man; but when he looked out, all the three were there, and as he reached the fruit to one of them, a second fired, and the greatest part of the shot entered the abdomen. The known courage of the wounded man made these fellows hesitate in approaching him immediately, by which means he had time to reach his sword, which stood near to where he was, and he was enabled to close and bolt the door. This being done, he reached his bed with great difficulty, expecting that every minute would be his last. The men tried to gain admittance through some of the doors or windows; but not succeeding in this, they rode off. As soon as the slave who was in health heard the report of the gun, and saw his master wounded, he left the house, recollecting (which is somewhat surprising) to lock the door; he made all haste to a neighbouring plantation, distant one league. The owner of the place to which the slave had fled, ordered a hammock to be prepared, and set off with sixteen negroes; he was accompanied by his chaplain, who brought with him a candle, and all the other necessary appendages to the bed-side of a dying Catholic. They arrived, and found the wounded man in a state which led them to suppose that he couldnot live many hours; but he was confessed, and anointed with the holy oil, and thus prepared for the worst. Then they put him into the hammock, and his neighbour had him conveyed to his residence. The person who related this story to me, did not fail to add, that a lighted candle was carried in a lantern, that the wounded man should not run the risk of dying without having the light in his hand, as is the custom. A surgeon was sent for to Iguaraçu, which is distant several leagues, and he succeeded in extracting almost all the shot. Notwithstanding the delay, and other unfavourable circumstances, I saw this man in good health in 1813. Whilst he still remained in a dangerous state at the house of his friend, a Sertanejo Indian, well armed, passed through the place, and asked one of the negroes if he was still alive. It was generally said that he must remove to some far distant part of the country, otherwise he might daily expect another attack, and particularly as his enemies were Sertanejos. The men who had attempted to murder him were dressed after the manner of these people, and were seen on the following day travelling towards the interior. They mentioned at some of the cottages at which they stopped, that they believed they had prevented one man from eating any morepiram, which is equal to an European using in the same manner the word bread. The person whom they had attacked could not be sure of the quarter from whence the blow proceeded; for many were those from which he might have expected it. In Brazil, injured persons or their relatives must either allow their own wrongs and those of their families to go unpunished, or they must themselves undertake the chastisement of him who has committed the crime. The evil proceeds, immediately, from the vastness of the country, and from the want of attention in the government to counteract this disadvantage.

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