CHAPTER X.

THE AMAZON.

Sources of the Marañon.—Rapids and cataracts.—Embouchures of the Amazon.—Its volume, compared with the Ganges and the Brahmapootra.—Its discovery by Pinzon.—Expedition of Orellana.—Gold-seeking expedition of Pedro de Orsua.—Settlement of Pará, and discovery of the Rio Negro.—The Missions of the Jesuits, and their expulsion.—Discovery of the communication between the Amazon and the Orinoco.—Revolution of 1835.—Pará: its streets and public buildings.—Explorations of M. Castelnau and Lieutenant Herndon.—Tributaries and settlements of the Tocantins.—Lieutenant Gibbon’s exploration of the Madera.—His interview with General Belzu.—What is wanted to turn the stream of tropical South American commerce eastward.—Herndon’s descent of the Huallaga.—Tarapoto, and its future prospects.—Chasuta; its trade with Lima and Pará.—Yurimaguas, and the Cachiyacu.—Steam-boat communication between Nauta and Pará.—Progress of a piece of cotton from Liverpool to Sarayacu.—Estimated cost and profit of steam vessels on the Amazon.—Trade of Egas.—The new province of Amazonas.—Exports of Barra.—The Rio Negro, and its tributaries.—Communication by the Cassiquiari between the Amazon and the Orinoco.—Productions of Amazonas.—Santarem.—The Tapajos, and its tributaries.—Rapids of the Parú, and the Xingù.—Climate and products of Pará.—Benefits to be expected from the opening of the Amazon and European immigration.

Though the Brazilian mission of the writer in connection with the original object of this volume virtually terminates at the close of the preceding chapter, his desire to communicate, however cursorily, an adequate idea of the immensity of extent and natural resources of the Brazilian empire would be altogether unfulfilled if some additional data were not offered respecting the illimitable and inexhaustible region of the Amazon. In conversing with enlightened inhabitants of Brazil, natives of the capital or elsewhere, on the vastness and fertility of their country, and on the magnificent destiny it is certain to attain, they concur with you, as a matter of course, but conclude with an intimation that you estimate but half of the reality, and a fourth of the probability of what is in store; for you leave out of your calculation the wondrous but almost unknown district of the Amazon. _There_, indeed, they imply, are the germs of marvellous and unmatched natural greatness to be sought; for, prodigal as nature has everywhere been to the country in every possible respect, it is there that she has been most profuse; and there are her bounties most accessible to man, if he would only make the slightest exertion to secure them. These views are entertained in a like degree by many of the most intelligent citizens of the United States, the attention of which country is being drawn in an increasingly marked degree to the commercial capabilities of the Amazon; and the frequency of the publications respecting it, and the wide and general circulation they obtain throughout the Union, attest the interest wherewith North America regards the locale of what one of their writers describes as the future inevitably greatest mercantile entrepot (Pará) in the world. With what justice this anticipation is formed it is the design of the annexed few pages to exhibit, consisting, as they do, in a great degree, of a digest of the more influential of the publications alluded to. Considering the magnitude of the existing relations between England and Brazil, and how large a share Great Britain will derive from the enterprises that are now being directed to the opening up of the Amazon, it is conceived that a summary of the most recent circumstances connected with the countries and peoples bordering on that mighty stream will not fail to be acceptable, the more so as, with the exception of Mr. Wallace’s volume already alluded to, and which is not a commercial, nor yet geographical, nor descriptive work, there has been in this country no recent publication of an analogous nature to those of the United States’ writers we shall presently enumerate.

The Amazon, the largest river in the world, traverses the tropical regions of South America from west to east, discharging its immense volume of water into the Atlantic, nearly under the equator. The Tanguragua, or Upper Marañon, is regarded as its principal head-stream, and rises in the Lake of Llanricocha, 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, in the region of nearly perpetual snow. For about 120 miles from its source it flows through a ravine, and is full of rapids and cataracts, having a fall in that distance of more than 11,000 feet. Near Huary the ravine opens into a wide valley, through which the river flows gently for about 380 miles, and is navigable for canoes. Its course is then interrupted by the rapids of the Pongo Rentema, and turns eastward, in which direction it runs nearly 180 miles, leaving the mountain region by the Pongo de Manseriche, a rapid seven miles long. In this part of its course the current is so strong that it can be descended only by floats; but from the rapids of Manseriche the river passes through an extensive plain, its entire length exceeding 3,000 miles.

A great number of tributaries pour their waters into the Amazon in the lower part of its course. On the north side the first from the west, below the rapids of Manseriche, is the Morona, and then come in succession the Pastaça, Tigre, Napo, Iça, Yapurà, Rio Negro, and Oximina. From the south it receives, proceeding from west to east, the Huallaga, Ucayali, Yavari, Jutai, Jurua, Teffé, Coavy, Purus, Madera, Tapajos, Xingù, and Tocantins. Most of these affluents discharge their waters into the Amazon by more than one mouth, which frequently are widely apart. Thus the two most distant of the four mouths of the Yapurà are more than 200 miles asunder, and the outer embouchures of the Purus are about 100 miles from each other. In the upper portion of its course the Amazon divides Equador from Peru, between which its width varies from half a mile to a mile; beyond the limits of Equador it increases to two miles, and below the Madera (its most considerable tributary, having a course little less than 2,000 miles in length) it is nearly three miles. Between Faro and Obydos, to which place the tide reaches, it decreases to less than a mile; but below Obydos it widens again, and after the junction of the Tapajos it is nearly seven miles across. The width of the channel of Braganza do Norte, the northern mouth of this vast river, is 30 miles opposite the island Marajó, and 50 at its embouchure; that of the Tangipurà channel is 18 miles at the junction of the Tocantins, and 30 at its mouth. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the Amazon is the immense volume of water which it discharges into the ocean, which is ascribable to the forests which cover so large an extent of the immense region which it flows through, and attract a much greater quantity of rain than the scorched _Llanos_ of the Orinoco, and the treeless _pampas_ of the Rio Plata. While the principal branch of the Ganges discharges 80,000 cubic feet of water per second, and the Brahmapootra pours forth 176,188 cubic feet per second, the volume of water which flows through the Narrow of Obydos per second is calculated at 550,000 cubic feet.

Next in importance to the Madera among the tributaries of the Amazon, is the Rio Negro, which, after a course of 1400 miles, falls into the Father of Waters twelve miles below the town of Barra, where it is a mile and a half wide. The Xingù has a course of 1000 miles, the Tapajos and the Yapurà each 900 miles, and the Napo and Iça each of 700.[61]

According to the best writers, the first expedition up the Amazon occurred in 1500, when a Portuguese named Pinzon discovered the mouth of the river, and took possession of its left bank. In 1540, Francisco Orellana descended the Napo and the Amazon to its mouth, and finding the native women in arms to oppose him, gave the name of Amazonia to the country, and conferred his own upon the river, by which it is still called by some geographers. In 1560, Pedro de Orsua, commissioned to explore the country in search of gold, descended the Jutai and Jurua, but was prevented by a mutiny from proceeding farther. In 1615 the governor of Maranham, Alexandro de Moura, in order to establish the sovereignty of Portugal, sent an expedition to the Amazon under Francisco Caldeira, who sailed up the Tocantins, and formed a settlement where Pará now stands. In 1648 a party of Portuguese discovered the Rio Negro, and reached Quito overland, which was regarded as a remarkable feat. Shortly afterwards, the Jesuits commenced their settlements on the banks of the Marañon; and during the reign of Philip III., when Portugal was united to Spain, it was seriously contemplated to make the Amazon the means of transit for the treasures of Peru and Chili, by which the sea-voyage would be much shortened, and the dangers from English and French cruisers more than proportionately lessened.

The Jesuits warmly espoused the cause of the cruelly treated Indians, but, unfortunately, their zeal outran their discretion, and, in 1604, they were expelled. Several settlements were made about this time on the Marañon and the Rio Negro, among others that of San José, now the town of Barra; and in the expeditions which took place between 1726 and 1730, the communication between the Rio Negro and the Orinoco was discovered. During the next twenty or thirty years, colonization appears to have made rapid strides, so much so that, in 1784, a commission was despatched from Portugal to explore the country for botanical and other scientific objects. Settlements continued to be formed, but no event worthy of record occurred until the change of dynasty in 1823. Since then the only occurrence of consequence has been the revolution of 1835, when the president of the province was assassinated, the citizens of Pará fled, and the whole of the province, with the exception of the town of Cametá, on the Tocantins, fell under the power of the insurgents, who sacked the towns, and carried off the slaves and the cattle. Quarrels between the insurgent leaders increased the miseries of the country, and several presidents succeeded each other. At length, (see memoir of Admiral Grenfell), President Andrea arrived from Rio Janeiro with a sufficient force, and succeeded in recovering possession of Pará. The inland places gradually returned to their allegiance, and though the effects of these disturbances are still felt in some districts, Pará has fully recovered its former prosperity.

The province of Pará, though naturally the richest portion of the immense empire of Brazil, of which it is the most northern part, is little known, and at present of but little commercial importance.[62] Pará, the capital, contains about 15,000 inhabitants, and has a pretty appearance from the river. Most of the houses are white, which, against the dark green of the forest that surrounds it on the land side, and with the clear blue sky above, give it a pleasing aspect. The small islands in the river are wooded to the water’s edge, and canoes are constantly passing, paddled by negroes or Indians. The custom-house, formerly a convent, is a large and handsome building, and there are several churches that will bear comparison with those of Europe. The squares are more like village greens, being covered with a rank growth of weeds, but the graceful-looking palms which are planted in their midst impart a picturesque appearance in the eyes of a stranger. The principal street is the Rua dos Mercadores (street of merchants), which contains the only good shops in the town, and this, or rather a part of it, is the only portion that is paved. The other streets are very narrow, and some not free from holes.

What most strikes the observer is the number and size of the public buildings of Pará, which are far beyond the present wants of the place, but form a good foundation for its future requirements as the great depôt of the Amazon. The palace is large and massive, but has no pretensions to architectural beauty. In its rear is the theatre, unfinished, and overgrown with vines and climbing shrubs. Near these buildings is the cathedral, the largest in Brazil, the bells of whose two steeples, with those of the numerous churches, seem to be continually ringing. Near the arsenal, and sufficiently removed from the city to be no nuisance to the inhabitants, is the public slaughter-house, in the neighbourhood of which many vultures are always to be seen.

Most of the towns and villages of the extensive country watered by the Amazon, are situated on that river and its tributaries; and the rest is an impenetrable forest, trodden only by the Indian and the jaguar. Very little is known of the greater portion of the interior, but M. Castlenau, who explored the valley of the Amazon in 1843, and Lieutenant Herndon, of the United States Navy, who descended the ‘King of Rivers’ in 1852, have supplied considerable information respecting the Tocantins, the Madera, and Huallaga. The first-named flows through a fertile and healthy country, and has many flourishing settlements on its banks. Among them is Salinas, famous for its salt works, near which is the Lake of Pearls, surrounded by beautiful scenery, and inhabited by numbers of aquatic birds. The town of Goyaz, with a population of about 7,500, is situated on the Vermelho, a branch of the Tocantins, and can be reached by vessels from Pará. The voyage occupies five months, the up freight being about 20s., and the down one fourth, per 100 lbs. Large canoes are paddled up the river as far as Porto Imperial, and take down hides, which at Goyaz are worth fifty cents, and at Pará are sold for a dollar and a half. Pará also trades with the inland town of Diamantino, by means of the Tapajos, the voyage up and down occupying eight months. The foreign merchandise that reaches Diamantino by this route is sold at an advance, on the average, of 850 per cent. on its price at Pará, which is from 50 to 100 per cent. on New York prices. When steam-boats are introduced on these waters trade will be largely increased, and prices reduced by competition and the facility of transit, so that both producer and consumer will be greatly benefitted.

It is a matter which gives a promising aspect to the question of future commercial intercourse with the interior that the elements of a large and profitable trade already exist in abundance. Cinchona to the value of two millions of dollars is annually exported from the eastern slopes of Bolivia, but, at present, for the want of steam-boats on the Amazon and its tributaries, it is carried over the Andes on the backs of llamas and mules to the ports of Peru. Large quantities of wool, clipped on the banks of the Bolivian tributaries of the Amazon, instead of going down the river to Pará, for shipment to England or the United States, are carried over the Andes in the same manner, and have then to make the voyage round Cape Horn.

The Madera runs through a beautiful valley, clothed with verdure, and abounding in scenery the most striking and picturesque. It is among the upper tributaries of this river that the traditions of the country place the lost mines of Urucumaguam, the riches of which equalled those of Potosi. When Lieutenant Gibbon, who was sent by the United States government to explore the valley of the Madera, was at Cochabamba, the attention of the Bolivian government was called to the establishment, on the navigable waters of that river, of ports of entry to foreign commerce, and of steam communication with the Amazon. Belzu, the President of Bolivia, received him in the most gracious manner, and is said to have promised to grant privileges to a company for that purpose, if application were made to him in due form. The course of the Madera is interrupted by cataracts and rapids, but the former only commence 450 miles from its mouth, and the latter may be passed by canoes. The cataracts passed, the river is navigable into the heart of Bolivia by its tributaries, the Beni and the Mamoré, and quite through the Brazilian province of Matto Grosso by the Guaporé. Mr. Clay, the United States chargé d’affaires at Lima, was told that a Brazilian war-schooner had ascended the Madera above the rapids as far as Exaltacion, which is in Bolivia, above the junction of the Beni.

About one-half of Bolivia, two-thirds of Peru, three-fourths of Equador, and one-half of New Grenada are drained by the Amazon and its tributaries. For the want of steam communication, the trade of all these parts of those countries goes west over the Andes to Callao. There it is shipped, and after doubling Cape Horn, and sailing eight or ten thousand miles, it is then only off the mouth of the Amazon, on its way to Europe or the United States; whereas, if the navigation of the Amazon were free, and steam-vessels placed on its waters, the produce of the interior could be landed at Pará for what it costs to convey it across the Andes to the ports of the Pacific.

Lieutenant Herndon embarked on the Huallaga at Tinga-Maria, the head of canoe navigation, and 335 miles from the city of Lima, and descended to its junction with the Amazon, and thence to the mouth of the latter, a distance of not less than 3,500 miles. The first place he came to was Tarapoto, situated in a beautiful plain, watered by many rivulets, and producing cotton, coffee, sugar, cocoa, and drugs in great abundance. The district is very healthy, and free from annoying insects. Indigo grows wild, and storax, cinnamon, and gums may be procured of the Indians in any quantity, and at prices merely nominal. A great deal of good cotton cloth is made here by the women, and exchanged at Egas for straw hats and English prints brought from Pará. There is very little money in circulation, cotton cloth, wax, and balls of sewing cotton being used instead. English goods brought over the Andes sell in Tarapoto for four times their value in Lima. All the land carriage is performed by Indians, for want of roads: an Indian will carry 75 lbs. of goods on his shoulders from Tarapoto to Juan Guerra, whence he paddles in a canoe to Tinga-Maria, and there shoulders his burthen again, and carries it to Huanaco, the distance of which town from Tarapoto is 390 miles. The population of the place in 1848 was 3,500. Concerning its natural advantages and future prospects, Lieutenant Herndon thus speaks:—

‘I spoke with an active and intelligent young Spanish trader, named Morey, about the feasibility of a steamboat enterprise upon these rivers, bringing American goods and taking return-cargoes of coffee, tobacco, straw-hats, hammocks, and sarsaparilla to the ports of Brazil on the river. He thought that it could not fail to enrich any one who would attempt it; but that the difficulty lay in the fact that my proposed steamer would never get as far as this, for that my goods would be bought up and paid for in return-cargoes long before she reached Peru. He thought, too, that the Brazilians along the river had money which they would be glad to exchange for comforts and luxuries. Were I to engage in any scheme of colonization for the purpose of evolving the resources of the Valley of the Amazon, I think I should direct the attention of settlers to this district of Tarapoto. It combines more advantages than any other I know; it is healthy, fertile, and free from the torment of musquitoes and sand-flies. Wheat may be had from the high lands above it; cattle thrive well; and its coffee, tobacco, sugar-cane, rice, and maize are of fine quality. It is true that vessels cannot come up to Shapaja, the port of the town of Tarapoto; but a good road may be made from this town eighteen miles to Chasuta, to which vessels of five feet draught may come at the lowest stage of the river, and any draught at high water. Tarapoto is situated on an elevated plain twenty miles in diameter; is seventy miles from Moyobamba, the capital of the province, a city of seven thousand inhabitants; and has close around it the villages of Lamas, Tabalosas, Juan Guerra, and Shapaja. The Ucayali is navigable higher up than this point, and the quality of cotton and coffee seems better, within certain limits further from the equator. But the settler at the head-waters of the Ucayali has to place himself in a profound wilderness, with the forest and the savage to subdue, and entirely dependent upon his own resources. I think he would be better placed near where he can get provisions and assistance whilst he is clearing the forest and planting his fields. I am told that the governors of the districts in all the province of Mainas have authority to give titles to land to any one who desires to cultivate it.’

Six leagues below Tarapoto is Chasuta, with a population of 1,200. The annual value of the trade between this place and the ports below is 1,500 dollars; but all articles which can be carried on the backs of Indians or mules come from Lima. Implements of iron, copper kettles, guns, earthenware, and glass, come from Pará, and obtain prices which afford very large profits. Though the distance from this place to the mouth of the Amazon is above 3,000 miles, a 74-gun ship would find water enough, during the greater part of the year, to reach it from the sea. The villages of Yurimaguas, Santa Cruz, and Chamizuras, respectively 24, 35, and 89 leagues below Chasuta, have each a population of about 320, and in the woods around the last, valuable resins and gums abound. Half a mile below Yurimaguas is the mouth of the Cachiyacu, which is navigable for large canoes, from January to June, as far as Balza Puerto, a considerable village, five days’ journey from Moyobamba, between which and the ports of the Amazon this river is the general route. It also serves as a means of communication with the many villages which dot the fine country between the Marañon and the Huallaga, so that Yurimaguas is probably destined to become an important place in the future. Laguna, 44 leagues below Chasuta, and four above the mouth of the Huallaga, has a population of 1,044. Urarinas, a village on the Amazon, five leagues from the mouth of the Huallaga, contains only 80 inhabitants, but the immense number in the vicinity of the trees which produce gum copal mark it as an important place in the future. Nauta, on the right bank of the Amazon, 46 leagues below the junction of the Huallaga, has a population of 1,000. It is to this place that Brazil, by treaty with Peru, has engaged to run steamers, under the Brazilian flag, from Pará, the contractors to have the monopoly of steam-boat navigation on the Amazon for thirty years, with an annual bonus of 100,000 dollars for the first fifteen. The voyage is to be performed by two steamers, one ascending the Amazon from Pará, the other descending it from Nauta, and meeting the up boat at Barra. Passing Omaguas, with its 240 inhabitants, Iquitos with its 227, and Arau with its 80, the mouth of the Napo is reached; and thirteen leagues lower down is Pebas, with a population of 387. This place is embosomed in the immense forest, producing in abundance sarsaparilla, vanilla, storax, copal, caoutchouc, and wax, which may be obtained from the Indians in exchange for cotton goods, needles, beads, &c. Thirty-four pounds of sarsaparilla may be bought for 24 yards of common cotton, and other articles at a like proportionate price; but the great sarsaparilla country is along the banks of the Ucayali and the Ahuaytia, where 100 lbs. of the drug, which are worth fully £5 at Pará, and twice as much in Europe, may be bought for eight yards of cotton.

As an illustration of the circumambulatory manner in which the commerce of this extensive region is carried on, let us trace the progress of the cotton goods from the warehouse in Liverpool to the banks of the Ucayali. The goods have to be carried round Cape Horn to Callao, where duty is charged upon them, and whence it is conveyed to Lima, and across the Andes, on the backs of mules. Freight, land carriage, and commission cost more than the goods, and in about twelve months from the time of their leaving Liverpool they reach the mouth of the Ucayali, whence they are sent up by boat to Sarayacu, the centre of the sarsaparilla country, a distance of 300 miles. It is now exchanged for 100 lbs. of sarsaparilla, the value of which is 9 dollars at Nauta, 10½ at Tabatinga, 25 at Pará, and from 40 to 60, according to the markets, in Liverpool. The voyage is long, tedious, and circumgyratory, but the profits are enormous. Now, if the navigation of the Amazon were free, and ports of entry, open to all nations, were established at such places as Chasuta and Nauta, not only would the trade be considerably increased, to the benefit of both parties, but the people of Peru and Brazil instead of eight yards of cotton for 100 lbs. of sarsaparilla, would get three or four hundred yards. Such will soon be the case.

Concerning the cost and profit of steam vessels on the Amazon, and the arrangements that would have to be made, Lieut. Herndon says:—

‘I have estimated the annual cost of running a small steamer between Loreto, the frontier port of Peru and Chasuta, a distance of eight hundred miles, entirely within the Peruvian territory, at twenty thousand dollars, including the establishment of blacksmiths’ and carpenters’ shops at Nauta for her repairs. According to the estimate of Arebalo, (and I judge that he is very nearly correct,) the value of the imports and exports to and from Brazil is twenty thousand dollars annually. I have no doubt that the appearance of a steamer in these waters would at once double the value; for it would, in the first place, convert the thousand men who are now employed in the fetching and carrying of the articles of trade into producers, and would give a great impulse to trade by facilitating it. A loaded canoe takes eighty days to ascend these eight hundred miles. A steamer will do it in twelve, giving ample time to take in wood, to land and receive cargo at the various villages on the river, and to lay by at night.’

Nearly midway between Loreto and Barra, and near the mouths of the Jurua, the Yapurá, and the Teffé, is Egas, with a population of about 800, which is the most thriving place above Barra. It has eight or ten commercial houses that carry on a brisk trade between Peru and Pará, besides employing agents to ascend the neighbouring rivers, and collect from the Indians the produce of the country. Schooners of between 30 and 40 tons average five months in the round trip between Egas and Pará, a distance of 1250 miles, the expenses being 150 dollars, including wages and rations of crew, and a tax of 13 per cent. Sarsaparilla and salt-fish are the principal exports, which are sold at Pará for double what they cost at Egas, to which the vessels return with cotton goods, earthenware, and hardware, all of the commonest description, to be sold at an advance of 20 per cent. on Pará prices. There are five vessels engaged in this trade, making two trips a year, so that the annual value of the trade between Egas and Pará may be estimated at 38,000 dollars. Between Egas and Peru it is about 20,000 dollars. The vessels engaged in this trade are not well adapted to it; they are too broad in the beam, and their sails are two small, so that the voyage occupies a great deal more time than it might be performed in by clipper-built and properly rigged vessels.

The Comarca of the Rio Negro, one of the territorial divisions of the immense province of Pará, has, within the last year, been erected into a province, with the title of Amazonas. A custom-house will probably soon be established at Barra, at the mouth of the Rio Negro, for the collection of the duties now paid at Pará, and there can be no doubt that commercial enterprise will, in a few years, bring the manufactures of Europe from Demerara by the Essequibo and the Rio Branco. The president of the new province, Senhor Joâo B. de F. T. Aranha, is labouring for the good of the district, and has had many conferences with the chiefs of the Indian tribes with the view of inducing them to settle and engage in systematic agricultural labour. Lieutenant Herndon was told that Brazil would give titles to vacant lands to any foreigners who would settle there, and the President expressed a wish that he would bring out a thousand Americans to set an example of energy and industry to the natives.[63] The value in dollars of the exports of the entire Comarca in 1840 was as follows:—Sarsaparilla, 12,000; oil of turtle-eggs, 6,000; salt fish, 4,250; coffee, 1,000; copaiba, 1,000; tobacco, 720; cocoa, 600; heavy boards, 600; hammocks, 500; Brazil nuts, 350; pitch, tow, hides, tapioca, &c., 1,203; total, 28,323. That the trade is increasing will be seen by the exports of the town of Barra alone for the year 1850, the value of which in dollars was as follows: Salt-fish, 7,001; Brazil nuts, 5,203; sarsaparilla, 3,144; oil of turtle-eggs, 1,818; piasaba, 1,802[64]; ropes, 896; cocoa, 631; hammocks, 785; coffee, 474; tobacco, 616; planks, 250; Brazilian nutmegs, 100[65]; copaiba, hides, tow, &c., 304; total, 22,975. It will be seen that the exports of Barra alone in 1850 were not in value far below those of the whole province in 1840. It is probable that the value of the imports is nearly double that of the exports, so that the trade of Barra with Pará may fairly be estimated at £15,000 per annum.

The population of Barra in 1848 was 3,848 persons; the marriages in the year had been 115, the births 250, and the deaths 25. The number of inhabited houses was 470, so that upon an average of five persons to each family, there must be nearly two families to every house; but 234 of the population were slaves, and probably the children exceed the adults in a greater proportion than the usual ratio of three to two. The Rio Negro, opposite the town, is a mile and a half wide, and very beautiful. It is navigable for almost any draught as far as Rio Maraya, a distance of about 400 miles; there the rapids commence, and the further ascent must be made in canoes. A few miles above Barcellos is the mouth of the river Quiuni, which is known to run nearly up to the Yapurá; and nearly opposite to San Isabel, two days journey from Barcellos, is the mouth of the Jurubashea, which also runs up to within a very short distance of the same river. Between these rivers the country is very low, and is often inundated; it is from this place that the Brazilian nutmegs are brought. Just above San Isabel great quantities of Brazil nuts are grown, and a little further up is the mouth of the Cababuri, where the finest sarsaparilla is produced. Cocoa of very superior quality is produced in abundance about San Carlos, at the mouth of the Cassiquiari, which is the frontier port of Venezuela. Most of the vessels which ply both on the Rio Negro and the Orinoco are built at this place, the Cassiquiari forming a natural canal connecting those two rivers. Lieutenant Herndon calculates that a flat-bottomed iron-steamer, constructed to pass the rapids, would make seventy-five miles a day against the current on the Rio Negro, and 125 miles a day with the current on the Orinoco. The distance from Barra to San Carlos is about 660 miles, from thence to the Orinoco 180 miles, from the junction of the Cassiquiari and the Orinoco to Angostura 780 miles, and from Angostura to the mouth of the Orinoco 250 miles. The voyage between Barra and the mouth of the last-named river might thus be made by such a vessel in 19½ days, allowing time to take in wood and receive and discharge cargo; and a canal cut through the isthmus of Tuamini would shorten the voyage by five days.[66]

The Rio Branco, the principal tributary of the Negro, is navigable for large craft for about 300 miles from its mouth, but from thence it is interrupted by rapids, only passable by flat-bottomed boats. Its banks are very thickly wooded below the rapids, but above them the country is a wide plain, which affords pasturage to immense herds of cattle. The downward passage from San Joachim, near the sources of the river, to Barra, a distance of 500 miles, may be made in twelve days; but the ascent is very tedious, owing to the rapids and the strong north-easterly winds.

Scarcely any attempt at regular cultivation has yet been made in any part of Amazonas; but the natural productions of its teeming soil are numerous as they are varied and valuable. The forests contain many trees which afford solid and durable timber, and others that furnish excellent cabinet woods, among which may be mentioned the beautiful _muirapinima_, or tortoise-shell wood. There are numerous plants, unknown in Europe, famous for their medicinal uses; and others which produce valuable resins and oils. Wild cotton, with a fine glossy fibre, like silk, grows abundantly, and is used at Guayaquil to stuff mattresses. Some silk manufacturers in France, to whom specimens of this cotton were sent by Mr. Clay, the United States chargé d’affaires at Lima, thought that, mixed with silk, a cheap and pretty fabric might be wove from it.

Santarem, a mile above the mouth of the Tapajos, which is there a mile and a half wide, is the largest town in the province after Pará. In 1849 the population was 6,768, the number of marriages 32, of births 289, of deaths 42; but in this return is included the inhabitants of a large surrounding district. Lieut. Herndon estimated the population of the town alone at about 2,000. There is a church, and two or three primary schools. The situation is picturesque, and there are many agreeable rides in the environs. It is a thriving town, as is shown by the increase in the exports between 1843 and 1846. For three months of the former year the quantity of cocoa exported was 12,808 arrobas, and in the same period of 1846 it was 19,940 arrobas. Sarsaparilla increased from 665 to 4,836 arrobas, pitch from 64 to 933, tobacco from 499 to 3,352, cloves from 226 to 998, cotton from 24 to 226, oil of copaiba from 427 pots to 3,056 pots, and oil of turtle-eggs from 420 to 1,628 pots. Hides and piasaba rope appear in the list for the first time in 1846, the number of the former exported being 664. The trade in farina had considerably decreased, probably owing to the increased importation of flour from the United States. The trade between Santarem and Pará is carried on in schooners of about a hundred tons, of which there were five or six lying off the town when Mr. Herndon was there. The average passage downward is thirteen, and upward twenty-five days.

From Santarem to Itaituba, a distance of about 200 miles, the Tapajos is navigable for large vessels, though the current is very strong; but above the latter place the ascent can be made only by boats, as there are fifteen or twenty rapids to pass, where the boats have to be unloaded, and the cargoes carried round on the backs of the crew. At one or two of the rapids the boat itself has to be hauled over the land. The voyage to the head of navigation on the Rio Preto occupies about two months. From this point the cargoes are carried on the backs of mules to Diamantino, a distance of fifteen miles, and from thence to Cuiaba, the capital of the rich province of Matto Grosso, a further distance of ninety miles. In 1850 a nearer route was discovered, by ascending the Arinos, below the mouth of the Preto, and employing oxen to drag the boat eighteen miles to the river Cuiaba, which is navigable thence to the town of that name; but, for some reason or other, the trade is still carried on by the old route. Cuiaba receives from Santarem salt, iron, wines, arms, and earthenware, which it pays for with diamonds, gold-dust, and hides. M. Alphonse M. de Lincourt, who ascended the Tapajos a few years since, says that the forests, which extend from its banks far away on both sides, are inhabited by hostile Indians, who paint and tattoo themselves, and wear caps of feathers, and collars and bracelets of beads, shells, and jaguars’ teeth. The Mundrucus, the most warlike tribe of the Amazon, number from fifteen to twenty thousand warriors, and are the terror of all the other tribes.

Ninety miles below Santarem is the village of Prainha, situate on a green eminence on the left bank of the Amazon, with a population of about 500. Fifty-five miles below this place is the mouth of the little river Parú, our only knowledge of which is derived from the Indians, who report that the country through which it flows produces sarsaparilla and cloves, but that its current is very strong, its course broken by rapids, and the Indians who live on its banks are hostile. Seventy miles below the mouth of the river, and on the right bank, is the village of Gurupá, with a population of 300, and a small trade in caoutchouc. Near this place is the mouth of the Xingù, of which very little is known; but the municipal judge of Porto de Moz, near its mouth, who met Mr. Herndon at the house of the military commandant of Gurupá, informed that gentleman that it was obstructed by rapids within four days’ journey from its mouth, and that boats could not ascend far up on account of the hostility of the Indian tribes on its banks.

Thirty-five miles below Gurupá the Amazon spreads out to a width of nearly 150 miles, but it is divided into numerous channels by a multitude of islands, the principal of which is Marajó, which contains about 10,000 square miles, and occupies about the middle of the river. The village of Breves, on this island, exports annually to Pará about 3,000 arrobas of caoutchouc: it has a church and several shops, and has a thriving appearance. Three days’ sailing lower down is the mouth of the Tocantins, which falls into the Bay of Limoeiro, a deep and wide indentation of the right bank of the Amazon. The Tocantins, according to M. Castelnau, who descended it in 1846, is an almost continuous succession of cataracts and rapids; but by unloading the boats at three places, and dragging them with ropes, it can be ascended as high as Porto Imperial, the voyage to which place from Pará occupies from four to five months, but, owing to the fall in the river, the downward voyage may be performed in from twenty-five to thirty days.

The opening of new markets to commercial enterprise must always tend to increase the prosperity of the countries concerned, and the free navigation of the Amazon has become a question of the greatest importance. According to General Villamil, the Secretary of State of the republic of Equador, the Pastaça is navigable nearly up to Quito, and nothing is wanting but the removal of the restrictions which have unwisely been placed upon the navigation of the Amazon to enable the merchants of Europe and the United States to send the manufactured goods of their respective countries to the very foot of the Andes, and take back in exchange the raw produce with which the Atlantic slopes of those mountains so largely abound. But because the mouth of the river is within Brazil, she once persisted in shutting out New Grenada, Equador, Bolivia,[67] and Peru from the advantages which the Creator, in rolling its broad stream through their fertile plains and teeming valleys, intended they should enjoy. The reciprocal interests of all nations now imperatively demand that the barrier which these restrictions present to the progress of civilization in the interior of South America should be removed. One of the first results of the opening up of the vast regions watered by the Amazon and its tributaries to Anglo-Saxon enterprise would be a large influx of immigrants, and this is precisely what is wanted to develope the boundless natural resources of those countries.[68] Brazil is alive to the necessity. Persons unacquainted with the country, forming their opinion from other tropical regions, are apt to conclude that the climate is unhealthy, but this is very far from being the case. Similarity of latitude by no means produces similarity of climate; for England and Labrador are under the same parallel, but how different the climates of the two countries. The elevation of a country is a better means of estimating its climate than its latitude, and the extent of wood and water have also to be taken into account. The province of Caxamarca which is watered by the Peruvian tributaries of the Amazon, is one of the most healthy portions of the globe. Mr. Edwards, who, as already observed, ascended the Amazon in 1846, and resided some time at Pará, says:—

‘It seems singular that, directly under the equator, where, through a clear atmosphere, the sun strikes vertically upon the earth, the heat should be less oppressive than in the latitude of New York; this is owing to several causes. The days are but twelve hours long, and the earth does not become so intensely heated as where they are sixteen. The vast surface of water constantly cools the air by its evaporation, and removes the irksome dryness that, in temperate regions, renders a less degree of heat insupportable. And, finally, the constant winds blowing from the sea refresh and invigorate the system.’

He adds that the temperature is so equable, that the climate is peculiarly favourable to health, that no form of epidemic disease is known, and that the average duration of life is probably as high as in New York. The salubrity of the climate,[69] therefore, the fertility of the soil, its mineral riches, and the number and length of its navigable rivers, combine to render the region watered by the Amazon and its tributaries a most eligible field for the emigrant.[70] All that the country wants is increased facilities for commerce and for developing its immense natural resources, and these would be given to it by the opening of the Amazon and immigration.[71]

ON BRAZIL: ITS CLIMATE AND PEOPLE.

BY ROBERT DUNDAS, M.D.,

PHYSICIAN TO THE NORTHERN HOSPITAL, LIVERPOOL; FORMERLY SURGEON TO HER MAJESTY’S 60TH REGIMENT; AND FOR TWENTY-THREE YEARS MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT OF THE BRITISH HOSPITAL, BAHIA.

Climate of Brazil.—Its salubrity.—Proofs of, causes of, objections to.—Northern, southern, and central provinces. —Equability of temperature.—Heat.—Humidity.—Rain.—Winds.— Electricity.—Hail.—Ice.—Tropical heat and light.—Influence on Europeans.—In health and in disease.—Acclimatization.—Increase of certain diseases.—Others modified.—Insanity.—Yellow fever.—Its probable disappearance.—Ancient writers on the epidemics of Brazil: Rocha Pita, Père Labat, Fereira da Rosa.—Physical, social, and moral condition of the Brazilians.—Habits and religion of the people.—Prophylactic measures.

In a publication like the present, any elaborate disquisition on the climate and people of Brazil would be obviously misplaced, at the same time that a brief notice of these important subjects should not be altogether omitted. The Brazilian empire placed chiefly in the southern hemisphere, extending from 4° 20″ N. lat. to 33° 55″ S., is widely intersected by lakes rivers and mountains, and bounded by the South Atlantic, by the highest mountains, and by the two most magnificent rivers in the world: it enjoys, beyond dispute, one of the finest climates of the globe, and may be fairly designated as ‘the Italy’ of the New World. The heat, intense at Pará on the equator, moderates as we approach the central provinces of the empire, and becomes altogether European on reaching the southern regions of Rio Grande and the Uruguay; whilst the climate of the entire line of coast is tempered by a cool and never-failing breeze. It should however be borne in mind that climate cannot be justly measured by latitude, and that we must, in all instances, take into consideration the position and the elevation of the district, the nature and surface of the soil, and its consequent capacity for the absorption and the radiation of heat. First, then, as regards heat, which may be termed the distinctive element of the climate of Brazil.

The mean heat of Brazil ranges from 88° to 81° F., according to the different seasons of the year.

RIO GRANDE DO SUL.—The summer temperature is 87° to 88°; the winter, 40° to 44°.

SAINT CATHERINE.—The summer heat never passes 90° in the sun; and descends to 54° in winter—June and July.

SAINT PAUL.—Mean temperature, 72°.

MINAS GERAES.—Max., 84° summer; min., 54° winter.

RIO JANEIRO.—The mean temperature of 30 years was 73°: in December, the max., 89½°; min., 70°; mean, 79°; in July (coldest month), max., 79°; min., 66°; mean, 73½°.

BAHIA.—Summer: 74° morning; noon, 80°; evening, 75½°.

PERNAMBUCO.—Summer: Varies from 77° to 86°, with a slight decline in the rainy season.

CEARA.—95° in the hottest months; 83° in the coldest.

MARANHAM.—St. Louis reaches 93°; and Pará, on the line, maintains about the same temperature.

The hottest period of the day, on the sea coast, is about 11 a.m., when the sea-breeze commonly sets in and moderates the temperature. The thermometer ranges in the northern provinces on the coast, at midday, 75° to 77° from March to September, and 77° to 85° from September to March; whilst at forty to fifty miles inland a high range of temperature almost invariably prevails. The barometrical variations are less extensive than those of the thermometer; but the range of the hygrometer is considerable in the southern provinces. The object, however, of the present work prohibits our entering minutely on these questions, or on the geology of Brazil; and we must therefore refer our readers to the scientific labours of M.M. Eschwège, Sellow, Spix and Martius, and Saint Hilaire, and especially to the valuable and more recent investigations of M. Pissis, who has explored the country from 13° to 26° south latitude, and 40° to 52° west longitude, including in this vast polygon the provinces of Minas Geraes, St. Paul, Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo, and Bahia.[72] The observations of Herschel, Humboldt and others, prove that both heat and cold, up to 34th degree of latitude, are much more moderate in the southern than in the northern hemisphere; in addition to which, Brazil, covered by extensive forests and consequent moisture, the surface clothed with perpetual verdure, from which the solar heat is but feebly reflected, its skies ever bright and a never-failing breeze, constitute a climate of unequalled mildness in any other region of the tropical world.

HUMIDITY: This grand and universal source of vegetable life in high latitudes is infinitely more detrimental to man than even the highest solar heat. Humidity, indeed, is the great modifier of all climates, and constitutes the chief element of their insalubrity. The hygrometrical variations of Brazil have been studied by numerous observers, amongst whom the most accurate as well as the most recent is M. Pissis, and to his conclusions we shall briefly allude, confining ourselves to the climate of the capital, Rio de Janeiro, which, notwithstanding its clear atmosphere, holds in solution just double the quantity of aqueous vapour sustained by the sombre, foggy air of Paris! a fact explained however by the high temperature of the one, as compared with the low temperature of the other, the capacity of air for retaining moisture being in nearly exact proportion to its temperature. M. Pissis arrives at the following results:—

1. From May to October, when the air is serene, the quantity of vapour varies little throughout the day. During the other months, the minimum corresponds with sunrise, and attains its maximum about 4 p.m.; but the variations are trifling.

2. That on rainy days the air is always near its point of saturation, though the amount of vapour dissolved little exceeds that of the preceding clear weather: this is due to the lower temperature of the rainy days.

3. That humidity increases from the month of June to February, when it attains its maximum, which is about double that of June; from this maximum it declines until it reaches its former amount in June and July.

4. That the absorbing power of the air is lowest at sunrise, and attains its maximum about 2 p.m., the hottest period of the day. In like manner as regards the year, it augments in proportion as the sun advances to the southern tropic, and attains its maximum in December and January, and then declines until the cloudy months of June and July.

RAIN: The wet season sets in at different epochs along the coast of Brazil, and is subject to great variation. At RIO the rains commonly commence in March, and last till September; at ST. PAUL, in October and November, and continue till April; whilst at ST. CATHERINE the four seasons are, as in Europe, pretty distinctly defined—July and the following three months wet, cloudy, and boisterous. These latter provinces, placed just beyond the Tropic of Capricorn, enjoy the advantages of a tropical climate without its inconveniences. RIO GRANDE DO SUL is wet and stormy in the winter months, but otherwise healthy. In the provinces north of RIO, including BAHIA and PERNAMBUCO, the rains set in commonly about the end of March, and continue until August; and as we follow the coast to the equator, including the provinces of CEARA, MARANHAM, and PARÁ, storms are frequent, and the rains commence in December or January; August, September, October, and November being the dryest or summer months. The foregoing may be taken as the rule, but the exceptions are numerous; and the winter of the coast does not extend beyond 100 miles into the interior, which is watered, chiefly, by frequent storms.

WINDS: The general winds of tropical regions are eastern; and in Brazil the prevailing currents along the coast, from St. Catherine to Maranham, are E.S.E., and S.S.E., during the southern, and E.N.E. and N.N.E. during the northern monsoon; subject however to much irregularity. The land breeze sets in from 9 to 11 p.m., and lasts till morning, increasing in force and regularity as we approach the equator; and its strength is generally in proportion to that of the sea breeze which precedes it. As in other tropical countries, the sea breeze prevails more in the hot, and the land breeze in the cold season of the year; they favour the appearance of certain maladies and check others, and constitute, after heat and moisture the chief element in the determination of disease—the salubrity of any country depending more, perhaps, on its winds than on its latitude.

ELECTRICITY: All tropical regions are distinguished by intensity of electrical phenomena, and Brazil forms no exception to the law. Réaumur maintains, and we believe justly, that a difference of 5° in the thermometer decidedly affects the nervous system; and that all living organisms are powerfully influenced by electrical changes no close observer in equatorial regions can for an instant question. In Brazil, the most intense variations are noticed about the change of the monsoons, and the storms of lightning and thunder originating in the great chain of the Organ Mountains, which burst over Rio, are grand and awful beyond the possibility of description; whilst the profound influence of these changes on individuals is strongly pourtrayed in the moral and physical prostration of some, and the high nervous excitement of others. Saussure has shown that an excess of watery saturation diminishes atmospheric pressure; and the effect of certain conditions of the atmosphere on the human economy in tropical climates cannot for a moment be denied: for example, when the weather is wet and cloudy, the sun obscured, and the air calm; all animal life languishes. The Brazilians distinguish this state of atmosphere by a particular term, ‘mormaço,’ and during its continuance, especially in summer, the mental and bodily powers of man seem alike paralysed, and are only restored to activity when the rain has descended and the breeze resumed its power over the close and stagnant atmosphere. Here electricity plays an important part. In connection with this subject, it is remarkable that Brazil should have hitherto escaped those formidable earthquakes which have so often desolated the fairest regions of South America. FOGS are rare in Brazil, and seen only in the morning, on low and marshy grounds, and in the neighbourhood of rivers and lakes. HAIL often falls in Minas, St. Paul, and the south, and even occasionally at Rio. ICE is sometimes met with at Rio Grande in the winter, and even on the Organ Mountains, close to Rio, but never snow. WATERSPOUTS have been, at long intervals, observed on the coast and in the interior; the last of any importance was observed at San Marcos in 1823.

Based on the foregoing and other data, we shall now submit certain general conclusions on the climate of Brazil, and its influence on the human constitution in health and disease; these conclusions must be taken as more especially referring to the seaboard and the large cities on the coast; and the reader should bear in mind that some allowance must also be made for the difference in position and latitude of the northern, the southern, and the central provinces. We would further premise, that these observations are founded on our own personal experience of nearly a quarter of a century, and prior to the advent of the yellow fever which, for the last four or five years, has infested the maritime cities of the empire, and on which we shall presently offer some remarks.

The great characteristic of Brazil, as compared with other countries, is the general equability of its climate, and which constitutes, in fact, the chief element of its salubrity. This unparalleled uniformity of temperature must be chiefly ascribed to the absence of high and mountainous regions, and of all arid and sandy deserts, aided by the genial influence of refreshing showers at all seasons of the year; it is further maintained by the perpetual verdure of the country, and by a cool, powerful, and never-failing monsoon, laden with moisture, and sweeping along the entire line of coast direct from the Southern Atlantic. Thus, even in the height of summer, the diurnal heat is rarely found oppressive to the European, and the nights are almost invariably serene and beautiful, and unattended with much deposition of dew, especially in the northern and central provinces; so that the delightful coolness of tropical moonlight may be enjoyed undisturbed by those visions of fever and malaria which float before the imagination in less favoured lands. If precautions be observed to avoid exposure to direct currents of air, the windows of the sleeping chamber may also be left open with impunity at all seasons of the year; an advantage that can scarcely be over estimated in high latitudes, as disposing to sound and refreshing sleep; which, more perhaps than any other influence enables the European constitution to resist the deleterious effects of climate, just as a succession of hot and sleepless nights invariably predisposes the human system to be impressed by every tropical malady.

In proof of the singular salubrity of Brazil, we need only state that, until within the last four years, although its provinces have been at intervals visited by revolutions, wars, and famine, the country has hitherto escaped from all those epidemic and endemic scourges—_yellow fever_, _cholera_, _influenza_, _typhus_, and _dysentery_—which have so frequently desolated other, and the fairest regions of the globe. In this favoured land the solar heat proves scarcely less influential and salutary to animal than to vegetable life; and years of subsequent exhaustion can never entirely efface from the recollection of the European sojourner the buoyancy of spirit, unclouded mind, and exquisite appreciation of mere animal existence which marked the first years of his residence in Brazil. These vivid sensations may be in part determined by the novelty and splendour of a New World, its brilliant skies, perpetual verdure, and the variety, luxuriance, and beauty of its vegetable life; but they are chiefly due to the direct influence of the heat and light of a tropical sun, supplying a new and powerful stimulus to the performance of all the functions of animal and organic life. The medal, unfortunately, has its reverse: this favourable condition of the animal economy proves, as in vegetable life under similar circumstances, but of limited duration; and from five to seven years may be set down as the average period at which a tropical residence begins to affect the European constitution to such an extent as to influence longevity or injure health; the precise epoch being determined by the constitution, occupation, predisposition, and habits of the individual. It should be here stated that the month of April is that best suited to the stranger’s arrival in Brazil, as affording time for his gradual acclimatisation to the summer heat of December, January, and February; though we may observe, and the fact is singular, that the European suffers but little inconvenience from the highest temperature during the first years of his residence, just as the Brazilian seldom complains of the winter cold on his first arrival in Europe. The chief objection to the climate is, in addition to high temperature, its great humidity; shown in the rapid decomposition of all organized, and certain inorganic matter, the quick oxidation of metals, deliquescence of salts, destruction of wood, &c. &c.; and after a certain interval, the depression of moral and physical energy in man. The deleterious effects of this condition of atmosphere on the animal economy is happily tempered, if not entirely corrected in Brazil, by the general equability of its climate, and the influence of a cool and _never-failing breeze_, so that a stagnant, or even calm, state of the atmosphere is almost entirely unknown. Were this otherwise, the chief cities of Brazil inundated by the most offensive animal and vegetable exhalations,[73] and with an almost total neglect of those policial and sanatory regulations so essential to the public health in other countries, would, we are satisfied, prove no less fatal to man than the charnel houses of Africa and the West Indies.

In estimating, however, the influence of climate on the public health, the moral and physical condition of the people demands especial consideration. The Brazilian is in general well-formed, compact, and of healthy organization, but not of athletic frame. His intellectual faculties are acute, though little developed by cultivation. Descended from European ancestors, he has still a considerable admixture of African, and some native American blood. He is indolent by nature, and indisposed for active exertion or industry; but he is protected against the evil influence of the former on his health by a simple and abstemious diet, and the injurious consequences of the latter to his social position are obviated by the fact that the four great wants of the humbler classes in Europe press but lightly on the Brazilian. Fuel he scarcely requires, clothing but little; his primitive habitation is simply constructed, and one day’s labour will amply provide for the moderate demands of the whole week. With passions naturally quick, he is nevertheless placable; his disposition is kindly; the future rarely disturbs him with its doubts, or the past with its regrets: the struggles and vicissitudes of European life are unknown. The contentions of party, the yearnings of ambition, the bitterness of fanaticism, never disturb his repose; and after gliding down the stream of time, unscathed by the tumultuous passions and harassing cares which so frequently embitter the existence and undermine the constitution of man in other countries, he meets at length the inevitable doom, if not with philosophy, at least with resignation, satisfied of his claims to eternal felicity in the confident assurance of an infallible church.

From the preceding account of Brazil and its inhabitants, we would be led to conclude, _à priori_, that disease would there assume a mild and tractable character; and this inference we find fully borne out, until within the last twenty years, by the medical and general history of the country. Within the last thirty years, however, vast changes—moral, social, and political—have been developed in Brazil, and it interests alike the philosopher and the physician to mark how profoundly these changes have already impressed and modified the manners, habits, and diseases—nay, even the physiognomy of its people. After a brief struggle, the establishment of Brazil as an independent empire was effected in 1823; and since that epoch the country and its population have undergone a series of remarkable and comprehensive political and social changes. From the strict and simple forms of despotic government they have passed, at a bound, to one almost of license; including household suffrage, popular legislative assemblies (imperial and provincial), open courts of law, trial by jury, local justices, and a national guard elected on popular principles. This sudden and premature concession of political privileges to a people yet in the infancy of civilization has been naturally attended by great and numerous evils, mingled, it must be admitted, with many and great advantages. In the intoxication of a new-born freedom, the empire has committed numerous excesses; province has been arrayed against province, in a succession of intestine broils; the laws have been inefficiently or corruptly administered; and a lax morality has but too generally pervaded the whole community. On the other hand, an extensive and well-organized system of national education has been established throughout the empire; the slumbering intellectual powers of the nation have been aroused; wealth and intelligence developed; political and military ambition awakened; commercial enterprise created; agriculture revived; and of all those mighty powers which move and mould societies, the controlling influence of religion has alone remained stationary. The priesthood, deprived of wealth, power, and influence, has utterly-lost its _prestige_, unless, perhaps, with the very lowest classes of the community—a question of curious speculation as regards the cause, and of vast importance as regards its future results on the character and institutions of the Brazilian people. In addition to the foregoing rapid transition of society into new forms and combinations of social existence, we find the face of the country changed by the march of civilization and agricultural improvement,—woods cleared, roads opened, internal and external navigation developed, population largely increased, and the great maritime cities of the empire assuming an importance second to none, and superior to most, of the cities of the new world.

Coeval with these great and rapidly advancing changes, we can already discern some of those evils too commonly attendant on increased wealth, luxury, and intelligence: anxieties, excesses, passions are largely multiplied, and the medical observer cannot fail to distinguish, amongst certain ranks of the hitherto contented and indolent Brazilians, unequivocal traces of that premature ‘wear and tear,’ so strongly and painfully characteristic of high civilization. It now only remains that we should briefly notice the extent to which certain great classes of disease have been influenced and modified by the preceding moral and physical agencies. This is chiefly manifested in the increasing number of cerebral and pulmonary maladies, and diseases of the heart and great vessels. Insanity has also become much more frequent than formerly, though still rare as compared with other nations; which, indeed, might be inferred from the fact that the ‘Mad Doctor’ is a species of the profession as yet unknown to Brazil. Suppurative inflammation of the liver has increased, but of all the acute diseases, fevers have been the most profoundly modified; they partake much more generally of the low, or asthenic character, and assume the remittent and continued type, and are greatly more fatal in their results than formerly. This naturally brings us to the important question of the ‘yellow fever,’ which for the last four or five years has ravaged the great maritime cities of the empire. Its origin has given rise to the most conflicting views, amongst the best observers;—for example, Dr. Pennell of Rio, and Dr. Paterson of Bahia, both men of undoubted talent and great professional experience, entertain precisely opposite opinions; the former contending for the indigenous, the latter for the foreign origin of the disease; and both offer cogent arguments and striking facts in support of these opposite conclusions. The scope of this work does not admit of medical discussion, yet as the facts observed by Dr. Pennell are highly important, and as his conclusions entirely coincide with our own experience, we will condense them here. Dr. Pennell states that for some years the fevers of the country had been clearly changing their character, that the genuine remittent had been little seen for three years; that it was replaced in 1847, ’48, and ’49, by a fever of its own class, popularly known as the ‘polka fever,’ but in reality a remittent; and that this fever was, in its turn, superseded by the ‘yellow fever,’ a disease with similar features: he adds the following words, ‘coincident with these and other changes in the diseases of Brazil, the climate, in its broad features, has altered strangely: thunder-storms, formerly of daily occurrence, at a certain hour, during the summer, are now but seldom heard, &c.,’ and concludes, ‘that bilious remittent and yellow fever are essentially the same disease,’—a proposition entirely in accordance with my own experience in Brazil and other countries. The abettors of the foreign origin of yellow fever insist that it was imported by a certain ship from New Orleans into Bahia, and thence diffused throughout the empire; whilst the facts adduced by Dr. Pennell go far to establish, as already stated, its indigenous parentage. In support of this opinion we have the strong additional fact that, for the last forty years, there has existed uncontrolled by any efficient quarantine laws, an extensive intercourse with the United States, Africa, and the West Indies, the very hot-beds of yellow fever; and yet, up to 1849, Brazil remained perfectly healthy. Can we then in reason believe, if the disease be deemed really importable, that the maritime cities of Brazil could, under such circumstances, have escaped infection for a period of forty years? It is moreover important to know that several of the older writers, as Rocha Pita in 1666, Père Labat in 1686, Fereira da Rosa in 1694, have recorded the appearance of epidemics closely resembling the yellow fever, and which, after persisting for some years and desolating several of the large cities on the coast, finally passed away. Some seventy years ago, the capital itself was visited by an epidemic fever no less fatal to the population than that from which it now suffers.

From the above and other facts, we are firmly convinced that the yellow fever which now afflicts Brazil is not an _imported_ disease, but owes its origin to certain obscure atmospheric disturbances, embracing variations of temperature, hygrometric influence, electrical tension, atmospheric pressure, &c.; and judging from the previous history of Brazil, we believe that these unfavourable conditions are but temporary and will pass away, and that the country will again resume its former character of unparalleled salubrity amongst the tropical regions of the globe.[74]

PROPHYLACTIC MEASURES.—A few words on the precautions to be adopted by temporary as well as permanent residents in Brazil may perhaps prove useful. In the first place, all the ordinary hygienic laws should be attended to; the habitation selected should be in a dry locality, on a moderate elevation, and well ventilated, but at the same time protected against strong currents of wind; lengthened or direct exposure to the sun’s rays should be avoided, and all sudden vicissitudes of temperature guarded against. Loose waistcoats without sleeves, of fine flannel, should be worn next the skin, during the day, but never slept in; sleeping in the open air or unprotected, should be avoided. After exposure to rain, the clothes should be immediately changed; after exhaustion by exercise, or from any other cause, collapse or chill must be carefully guarded against, by avoiding for a time exposure to the cool breeze or by taking some slight stimulant, as coffee, wine, or a little spirits. Spirits, otherwise, should be altogether avoided, and wine resorted to only at dinner, in great moderation, and by those accustomed to its use. Generally, animal food should be used only at dinner; no supper; and no stimulating drinks, _however diluted_, should be taken between meals. Ripe fruit may be used before breakfast, and after the middle of the day, but never after the principal meal. Moderation IN EVERY SENSE must be observed. When compelled to go out early in the morning, the individual should take some support. In warm and swampy districts, over fatigue, or prolonged exposure to the sun, cannot be too carefully avoided, and the use of quinine, in moderate doses, should never be neglected; the cold bath, or cold sponging, every morning on getting out of bed, should be constantly resorted to. The sleeping apartments should be cool and well ventilated, but not exposed to strong currents of air.

Of all the above principles, refreshing sleep is the most efficient preservative to the European constitution against the inroads of tropical disease; but unless the above rules are pretty closely observed, sound and refreshing sleep in equatorial latitudes is unattainable. The _morale_ must never be lost sight of, and a calm and cheerful disposition of mind should be especially encouraged. The above prophylactic measures apply with equal or greater force to the European seaman on arrival in Brazil. In addition, awnings by day and by night are absolutely indispensable to health. Fatigue and dockyard duties, and watering expeditions, should never be permitted during the mid-day heat, nor should the seaman ever be permitted to sleep out of his vessel. The high importance of this latter injunction will be obvious from the fact that a difference of _fifty degrees_ will be found often to obtain between the heat of a mid-day tropical sun and the air near the earth’s surface at sun-rise. Surely, then, we need not evoke the phantom Malaria to account for the sudden supervention of malignant or fatal disease in seamen, or others, exposed during sleep to such great and sudden transitions of temperature, especially when their animal and organic powers have been depressed by previous exertion and profuse perspiration under a tropical sun, aided, too often, by intemperance and other excesses.

Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus.

Finally, we are profoundly convinced, by long and large observation, that if the foregoing principles are attended to, the most formidable localities of southern climates may be encountered with impunity, and especially as regards that dreaded, but visionary enemy, Malaria or marsh poison.[75]

RIO DE LA PLATA.

The sea-like Plata, to whose dread expanse, Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course, Our floods are rills. With unabated force, In silent dignity they sweep along; And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wilds, And fruitful deserts, worlds of solitude! Where the sun smiles and seasons teem in vain, Unseen, and unenjoyed. Forsaking these, O’er peopled plains they fair-diffusive flow; And many a nation feed; and circle safe, In their soft bosom, many a happy isle; The seat of blameless Pan, yet undisturbed By Christian crimes and Europe’s cruel sons. Thus pouring on they proudly seek the deep, Whose vanquished tide, recoiling from the shock, Yields to this liquid weight of half the globe; And Ocean trembles for his green domain. But what avails this wondrous waste of wealth, This gay profusion of luxurious bliss? This pomp of Nature? what their balmy meads, Their powerful herbs, and Ceres void of pain, By vagrant birds dispersed, and wafting winds? What their unplanted fruits? What the cool draughts, The ambrosial food, rich gums, and spicy health, Their forests yield? Their toiling insects what? Their silky pride, and vegetable robes? Whate’er the humanizing Muses teach; The god-like wisdom of the tempered breast; Progressive truth; the patient force of thought; Investigation calm, whose silent powers Command the world; the LIGHT that leads to HEAVEN; Kind equal rule; the government of laws, And all-protecting Freedom, which alone Sustains the name and dignity of Man; These are not theirs.—THOMSON.

NOTE TO THE PORTRAIT.—The sketch in the preceding page is copied from an early likeness, but can hardly be considered an accurate one now. In a book of this nature, which owes much of whatever attractiveness it may possess to his permission to avail of the pictorial and literary memoranda of his prolonged sojourn in South America, and especially in a chapter on the River Plate, in whose affairs he played so important a part in the chief crisis of its history, full biographical details of Sir W. Gore Ouseley’s career may reasonably be anticipated. For such purpose, however, the writer has access only to the ordinary data to be found in works of public reference; nor, if others of a private nature were open, would it, perhaps, be in the best taste to insert them here, as they would necessarily be supposed to be used with an unduly partial bias. Without entering at length into details more fitted for a genealogical work than for our pages, it will suffice to say that, previous to the sixteenth century, the Ouseley family was allied to several of the most ancient and honourable patrician names of this country, and thus their ancestry can be traced to a remote period. The Irving family, into which the late Sir W. Ouseley (father of Sir W. Gore Ouseley) married, is allied to the Douglases, the Rollos, and many other noble Scotch families. Referring to ‘Burke’s Baronetage,’ and ‘Landed Gentry,’ ‘Dod’s Knightage’ for 1854, and other cognate authorities, we find that Sir W. G. Ouseley is descended from an ancient Shropshire family who settled in Northamptonshire in 1571, the then head of the family, Richard Ouseley Ouseley, having received from Queen Elizabeth, under whom he was a judge, a grant of the estate of Courteen Hall, in that county, with many of the most eminent families in which the Ouseleys were connected, such as the Actons of Alderham, as also the Barons Giffard of Brinsfield, and Barons Lestrange of Blackmere.[76] Nicholas Ouseley, a relative of Richard Ouseley Ouseley, was envoy to the courts of Spain and Portugal, and some of his correspondence with Sir Francis Walsingham is preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. John, son of Richard Ouseley, was knighted by James I. in 1603, for his gallant conduct during the war in Ireland with the turbulent Earl of Tyrone. The diplomatic services of Sir John are mentioned in a subsequent note, and by Purchas in his ‘Pilgrims.’ Sir Richard Ouseley, his son, held the commission of major in the royalist army during the civil war between Charles I. and the Parliament, and in consequence of debts incurred in support of the royal cause he was obliged to sell Courteen Hall in 1650. The family then settled in Ireland, where they held Ballinasloe Castle, and afterwards Dunmore Castle, in the county of Galway, which latter remained in the family until the death of Major Ralph Ouseley, grandfather of Sir William Gore Ouseley. The major was a great antiquarian, and had a very fine collection of Irish antiquities, MSS., &c. His eldest son, Sir William Ouseley, served in the 8th Dragoons during the unfortunate campaign in Holland, where the British forces were commanded by the Duke of York; but after attaining the rank of major, he abandoned war for the more congenial pursuit of literature, and became a member of most of the learned and scientific societies of Europe. He published ‘Travels in Persia,’ (to which country he accompanied his brother, Sir Gore Ouseley, in 1810,) and many other works on Eastern antiquities and literature, in which he has left a mine of Oriental and classical learning that will always remain a monument of his great industry and talent. Sir G. Ouseley was the first ambassador accredited from the court of St. James’s to that of Persia, though Sir Harford Jones, Sir John Malcolm, and others, had previously been sent by the East India Company to that country. He was chairman of the Oriental Translation Society, to whose papers, and those of the Asiatic Society, he was a contributor. Sir William, who married the daughter of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Irving, (son of General Sir Paulus E. Irving, governor-general of Canada,) left a numerous family, the eldest of whom, Sir William Gore Ouseley, entered the diplomatic service at a very early age. He was attached to the mission at Stockholm in 1817, and in 1825 was appointed paid attaché at Washington. While in that capital, he married the daughter of Mr. Van Ness, formerly governor of the state of Vermont, and subsequently the United States envoy at Madrid. He was next appointed acting secretary of legation at Brussels during Sir R. Adair’s special embassy, and subsequently at Rio Janeiro, at which court he represented our government for several years as chargé d’affaires. In 1844 Sir William was named minister plenipotentiary at Buenos Ayres, and in 1845 special minister to the states of La Plata. In tardy acknowledgment of his important diplomatic services in South America, he received the Order of the Bath in 1852. He is the author of ‘Remarks on the Slave Trade,’ ‘South American Sketches,’ and several political pamphlets. We cannot forbear quoting a few lines from a critique on his ‘Remarks on the Statistics and Political Institutions of the United States,’ in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for December, 1832, which, although opposed to the views taken in that periodical of the United States and their institutions, had the fairness to say,—‘We have no desire to be severely critical on the _coup d’essai_ of a young author—one, we believe, of a family in which diplomatic ability may be called an hereditary possession.’ Some facts in connection with Sir William’s memorable mission to the River Plate will be found a few pages further on, as also in the notice of Rosas, whose enmity our minister had the honour of provoking in an eminent degree, by firmly protecting the persons and interests of his countrymen, and acting up to the spirit of his instructions. How deservedly he did so will be seen when we come to speak of one, at least, of those transactions of which the guilt has been incontestibly fixed upon the ex-Dictator within the last few months, but for accusing him of which at the time, our unsuspecting innocents at home deemed the British representative very culpable indeed, or, at least, very troublesome. Doubtless, so he was, as compared with certain of his predecessors and successors in the same post, who quietly winked at the atrocities of the despot without appealing to England against their continuance.