UP THEAMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS.CHAPTER I.Brazilian coast—True and false Salinas—Dangers of the mouth of the Amazon—Pará—Steamers on the Amazon—Amazon Steam Shipping Company, Limited—Vicinity of Pará—European residents—Climate.
UP THEAMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS.
Brazilian coast—True and false Salinas—Dangers of the mouth of the Amazon—Pará—Steamers on the Amazon—Amazon Steam Shipping Company, Limited—Vicinity of Pará—European residents—Climate.
After about twenty days’ steaming from Liverpool with southerly and westerly courses, the low-lying coast of the north of Brazil appears, and navigators who are not acquainted with the locality have considerable trouble in making out the pilot station of the Salinas.
The false Salinas are about half a day’s steam to the east of the true, which, again, are a few hours’ steam from the mouth of the Amazon River. At the true Salinas there is a lighthouse and a small village, a large red house, visible from the deck of the steamer, being the barrack in which the pilots for Pará live.
The steamer in which I had a passage had been chartered specially for the conveyance of the railway staff to which I belonged. The captain knew nothing at all of the spot to which he had undertakento navigate his ship, and took the vessel considerably to the east of the Salinas; we were therefore a night and a day coasting about in soundings. At dark, a slight gale gave the sea the most phosphorescent appearance that, in the course of a good many voyages, I have yet seen. Every wave, as it curled over, broke in vivid phosphorescent fire, and it appeared as though we were steaming through a sea of flaming spirits.
The mouth of the river Amazon has many shifting banks and reefs of which no accurate information exists, and vessels are frequently lost in attempting to get up to Pará without a pilot. In 1873, three vessels, laden with iron for the Madeira and Mamoré railway, were lost, one after another, on the reefs near the Braganza lightship, which had shifted from her moorings and remained away from her station for many months. More pilots are required at the station of Salinas, for it has often happened that captains of vessels have got tired of beating about, waiting for a pilot to come off, and have attempted to enter the river alone, only to lose their vessels and cargoes.
The river Pará may be termed an outlet or arm of the river Amazon, and on its right bank the city of Pará is situated. The land on the left bank of the river forms the island of Marajo, which appears to be subject to periodical inundations, but is valuable as a feeding-ground for cattle. The rise and fall of the river at Pará is about twenty feet at highest tides.
In front of the city the river affords splendid anchorage for almost any amount of shipping, butthe wharfage is very badly arranged, as there is no pier or jetty at which vessels can unload, consequently much time is lost in transhipping cargoes from the vessels into launches, and from these to the wharves. The practice has been to build out these wharves into the river at low water; and as each successive wharf has been completed, the river has silted up its frontage, and so rendered necessary the building of a new one further out. The “Rua da Praia,” which doubtless was the “Street of the Shore” some fifty years ago, is now the third line back from the river, and so the city is extending itself out into the water instead of backwards into the country. A wharf on screw piles, and a jetty with a cross-head wharf at its end, would probably not cause the silting, and would not cost more, while it would be more durable than the badly built stone walls that are now from time to time put up in front of each other.
The bay of Pará presents a cheerful aspect, from the number of vessels generally found there. The Red Cross line, owned and admirably maintained by Messrs. Singlehurst, Brocklehurst & Co., of Liverpool, Booth’s line, Garrison’s and another American line between Brazil and New York, all touch at Pará, and the Amazon Steam Shipping Company, Limited, always have some of their steamers lying in front of the wharves. The trade of the Amazon valley is already sufficient to maintain a considerable number of steamers in the river, the finest and largest of which, built by Messrs. Laird and Co. of Birkenhead, were formerly owned by the Baron Mauá. The Baron sold his steamers and workshops, with thesubventions from the Brazilian Government to the Amazon Steam Shipping Company, Limited, formed in London a few years ago. This company, being desirous of maintaining its purchased monopoly of the trade of the Amazon, has bought up the two Brazilian companies that also traded on the river. One was called the “Fluvial Paraense,” and traded from Pará to Manáos, and to several small towns on the islands near Pará. This company’s boats were all built by Messrs. Pusey, Jones & Co., of Delaware, on American principles, with cabins on upper deck, and are very suitable for river navigation. The other company was the “Alta Amazonas Company,” owners of three or four small steamers, built by Laird & Co., that traded on the upper waters of the Amazon, and on its confluents—the Madeira, Purus, and Rio Negro. There are also several other steamers on the river, owned by private firms, which pick up all the freights left by, and even give great opposition to, the powerful English company. A new enterprise has lately been started in London, with the object of placing tugs and barges on the Amazon, and the Madeira and Mamoré Railway Company will doubtless run its own craft between Pará and San Antonio, the terminus of its railway on the Madeira River. The Amazon, therefore, is likely in future years to bear a considerable increase of steam shipping on its broad bosom, for attention seems to be almost universally directed to the magnificent facilities that it offers, for the ready export to the European markets of the produce of Northern Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia.
The city of Pará has not much to boast of inarchitecture; nevertheless, from the river, it has an imposing appearance, from the number of its churches. The convent of San Merced and the president’s palace, amongst old buildings, and the new theatre, a very elegant structure, are all worthy of notice. The streets are mostly broad and well paved, fairly lighted with gas by an English company, and kept decently clean. There is a very good market-place, and water is now being laid on to every house. Excellent hired carriages ply, at moderate prices, for the accommodation of the richer city merchants; while a tramway, worked by a locomotive and cars, takes the humbler individual out to join his family circle in the cooler districts of Nazareth, a very pretty suburb of Pará, where the principal merchants have built many elegant villa residences. As most of the roads run down avenues of very handsome palm trees, the effect of the whole is charming. There are also two public gardens, maintained with a good deal of taste.
The Europeans resident in Pará are extremely hospitable, and the staff of engineers and others to which I was attached, took away with them to the solitudes of the Madeira River most grateful recollections of the kindness, attention, and good wishes bestowed on them during their stay in Pará, more especially by the English and German consuls.
Pará does not enjoy a very good reputation for its climate, but I do not think it is so bad as is generally supposed. It has a fair alternation of wet and dry seasons, and the air is so pure that it is said that persons suffering from consumption rapidly recover after a short stay there. Yellow fever andsmall-pox sometimes linger a long time amongst the lower classes, being maintained a good deal, I believe, by the exhalations at low tides from the silted-up mud in front of the river wall. As I have said, it is probable that this silting up could in future be avoided by erecting a screw-piled pier instead of a wharf wall; and if the country behind the town were cleared further inland, the plague of mosquitoes might be materially decreased.
A trip up the Amazon is extremely pleasant, for the steamers of the Amazon company are commanded by very accomplished and amiable Brazilian captains. The table is very fairly found for one that can accustom himself to Brazilian cookery, and a liberal ration of Portuguese “vino verde” is supplied to passengers. The upper deck, covered with a double-planked water-tight awning which protects one from the hot sun, affords an agreeable lounge during the day, whilst at night it forms the general dormitory where each passenger slings his hammock and mosquito net, if he has been thoughtful enough to provide himself with these indispensable articles of a travelling equipment for Brazil.