Chapter 13

The European Portuguese, are extremely anxious to avoid intermarriage with born Brazilians, and prefer giving their daughters and fortunes to the meanest clerk of European birth, rather than to the richest and most meritorious Brazilian. They have become aware of the prodigious inconvenience, if not evil, they have brought on themselves by the importation of Africans, and now no doubt, look forward with dread to the event of a revolution, which will free their slaves from their authority, and, by declaring them all men alike, will authorise them to resent the injuries they have so long and patiently borne.

_Thursday, 11th._--As every thing seems quietly settled between the royalist and patriot chiefs, we are preparing to take leave of Pernambuco, and it is not without regret, for we have been kindly treated by the Portuguese, and hospitably received by our own countrymen. We went on shore to provide necessaries and comforts for our farther voyage. Among the latter I bought some excellent sweetmeats[60], which are made in the interior, and brought to market in neat little wooden kegs, each containing six or eight pounds. It is astonishing to see the weight brought from two and three hundred miles' distance, by the small and slight but very swift horses of the country. The baggage horses are not shod any more than those for riding: the latter are almost universally trained to a kind of running pace, easy in itself, but not very agreeable at first, to those accustomed to English horses. To-day I saw and tasted the jerked beef, _charqui_, of Spanish South America. It appears, when hanging in bales at the shop-doors, like bundles of thick ragged leather. It is prepared by cutting the flesh in wide strips, clean off the bones, slightly salting, pressing, and drying in the air. In this state it might well have served for saddle-cloths to the Buccaneers, as tradition says they dressed their meat under their saddles. However that may be, the beef is good. Here the common mode of using it is to cut it in small squares, and boil it in the mandioc pottage, which is the principal food of the poorer inhabitants and the slaves.

[Note 60: The convents are, generally speaking, the places where the more delicate preserves are made. Those I bought were of Guava, cashew apple, citron, and lime. The cashew particularly good. They go by the general name of _Doce_.]

After I had ended my marketing, I went to call on a Portuguese family, and as it was the first private Portuguese house I had been in, I was curious to notice the difference between it and the English houses here. The building and general disposition of the apartments are the same, and the drawing-room only differed in being better furnished, and with every article English, even to a handsome piano of Broadwood's; but the dining-room was completely foreign; the floor was covered with painted cloth, and the walls hung round with English prints and Chinese pictures, without distinction of subject or size. At one end of the room was a long table, covered with a glass case, enclosing a large piece of religious wax-work; the whole _præsepia_, ministering angels, three kings, and all, with moss, artificial flowers, shells and beads, smothered in gauze and tiffany, bespangled with gold and silver, San Antonio and St. Christopher being in attendance on the right and left; the rest of the furniture consisted of ordinary chairs and tables, and a kind of beaufet or sideboard: from the ceiling, nine bird-cages were hanging, each with its little inhabitant; canaries, grey finches with a note almost as fine, and the beautiful widow-bird, were the favourites. In larger cages in a passage room, there were more parrots and paroquets than I should have thought agreeable in one house; but they are well-bred birds, and seldom scream all together. We were no sooner seated in the dining-room, than biscuit, cake, wine, and liqueurs, were handed round, the latter in diminutive tumblers; a glass of water was then offered to each, and we were pressed to taste it, as being the very best in Recife; it proceeds from a spring in the garden of the convent of Jerusalem, two miles from town, and the only conduit from that spring leads to the garden of a sister convent here. From the lady, I learned, that the porous jars for cooling water, that we find here, are all made in the neighbourhood of Bahia, there being no manufactory here, except a few coarse cottons for clothing for the slaves. The air and manners of the family we visited, though neither English nor French, were perfectly well bred, and the dress pretty much that of civilised Europe, only that the men wore cotton jackets instead of cloth coats, and were without neck-cloths; when they go out of doors, however, they dress like Englishmen.

Returning from our visit, we met a monk, carried out to be buried by several of his brethren, with candle, book, and bell, and all the solemnities which human feeling has invented to solace its own fears and griefs, under the pretence of honouring the dead, and to which the Romish church has in such cases as these, added all her pageantry. I could not help contrasting it with the burials on the beach of Olinda, and smiling at the vanities that attach themselves even to corruption. "But man, vain man, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as make the angels weep."

But our horses were awaiting us, and we left our indignation and our pity for the follies of some, and the miseries of others, to enjoy, for the first time since the posts were free, the country air. When we went to Bibiriba, soldiers stopped us to question at every turn; piles of arms, and horses ready accoutred at the door of every considerable residence, showed that military posts had taken place of the pleasures of the country-houses, and accounted for the solitariness of the roads. Now the scene is changed--the paths are crowded with negroes, young and old, in their picturesque, though gaudy dresses, with baskets of fruit, fish, and other provisions, on their heads; little carts, of which we had not before seen one, begin to appear, and the fine oxen which draw them form no bad contrast to the half-starved bullocks of the town. 'Twas a cool evening, and the sun was just low enough to gild the edges of the palms and other tall trees, which shot up with their deep black shadows into the thin pure light, making an effect, that even Titian's landscape pencil has not reached. Our ride extended to Mr. S.'s country-house, which is, I believe, on the same plan with all the others hereabouts, and which I can only compare to an Oriental bungalow; one story very commodiously laid out, a veranda surrounding it, and standing in the midst of a little paddock, part of which is garden ground, and part pasture, generally hedged with limes and roses, and shaded with fruit trees, is the general description of the country sitios about Pernambuco; the difference arising from the taste of the inhabitant, or the situation of the ground, being allowed for. The low rent of these pleasant little gardens is surprising; but it arises in great measure from the indolence and consequent poverty of the holders of original grants of land here: as long as their negroes and estates maintained them, they paid no attention to the particular parts that, being near the town, might have been at all times productive. Now, that sugar and cotton are no longer in such demand, nearly half the fazendas or factories are ruined, and such is become the indolent temper of the people, that rather than seek to redeem their estates, they will take the smallest annuity for a portion.

On our way to the sitio, we stopped at a kind of public-house or venta; it is like an English huckster's, and contains a little of every thing, cloth and candles, fruit and lard, wine and pimento, which are retailed at no very extravagant profit to the poor; the draught wine is really good, being port of excellent quality, without the quantity of brandy which the English market requires. By the time we repassed it on our way home, many a negro was spending his day's savings, and becoming as happy as wine could make him; and many a traveller was regaling himself with bread, garlic, and salt, and preparing to spread his mat, and lie down in the open air for the night. Night within the tropics is always a gayer and more peopled time than with us; the heat of the day detains many within doors all day, and evening and night become the favourite hours for walking. As we returned through Boa Vista we passed many groups enjoying like ourselves the pleasant air, and gazing idly on the reflections of the white houses and waving trees in the water; while the fire flies flitting from bush to bush, seemed like fragments of stars come down to adorn the moonlight.

_Friday, 12th._--- The Prince Royal of Portugal's birth-day. There is a levee at the palace. The company bow first to the governor, then to the Prince's picture, which is placed in the middle of the audience-room, to receive its due honours; and then the _beja mano_, or kiss hands, takes place. The forts and ships saluted; we of course did the same; and the people all dressed and went to mass, as on a holiday. One thing contributed, however, in no small degree to the enjoyment of the day. The troops, which lately arrived from Bahia, re-embarked in order to return. Their whole behaviour had been disorderly, and their drunkenness and riot, during the ten days they were here, had quite disgusted the people; while the disposition they manifested to join the patriots, had rendered them but suspicious auxiliaries to the governor.

_Saturday, 13th._--I took leave of my amiable friends at the palace. Madame do Rego gave me several specimens of amethyst, and the stone called minha nova (like aqua marine), and also a fine piece of gold ore of the province. She told me that Luiz do Rego had sent home many fine minerals from the captaincy, and also some fossils. She described some enormous bones, which may have belonged to the elephant or the mammoth, found at no great distance from Recife in digging a well, and, as far as I could understand, in such soil as I had observed lay under the sand in Cocoa-nut Island.[61]

[Note 61: The Sugar-loaf Hill, in the ridge of Priaca, about eight leagues N.E. of the villa of Penedo, has a lake on its western declivity, where enormous bones have been found; and on the north side there is a fearful cavern.--_Chor. Brazil._]

A great dinner was given to-day, by the merchants, to the captain and officers. The governor, and other persons of dignity in the town, met them; I am told it was a very handsome dinner, that there was plenty of every kind of wine, and that nothing could exceed the friendly politeness of the governor and his party. I had remained at Mr. S.'s, where most of the company visited me after tea; and then we took leave of Pernambuco, where we had received much kindness, and had at least the enjoyment of novelty. The scene at our embarking was very pretty. Our friends went with us to the jetty, and our boats lying in the clear moonshine beneath it, with sailors going up and down preparing for us, the harbour and the shipping doubled by the clear reflection in the still water, heightened and set off the sparkling of the breakers that dashed against the outer fort and light-house. Through these we soon made our way and reached the ship, where I have once more taken possession of my cabin, and put it in order for sea.

We leave Pernambuco, with a firm persuasion that this part of Brazil at least will never again tamely submit to Portugal. Where the firmness and conduct of Do Rego have failed to hold the captaincy in obedience, it will be in vain for other governors to attempt it, particularly so long as the state of the mother country is such as that she can neither fight with nor for her colonies; and while she considers them only as taxable parts of her states, that are bound to support her in her weakness.[62]

[Note 62: We left Pernambuco on the 14th Oct. 1821. Before Nov. 18th of the same year, the Cortes of Lisbon had recalled Luiz do Rego and all the European troops; had repented of that recal, and had countermanded it, and sent reinforcements. But by the time they arrived, the captain-general had embarked on board a French ship for Europe; and the junta, after provisioning the ships with the troops, forbid them to land, and sent them towards Rio Janeiro.]

_Sunday, Oct. 14th._--We got under weigh after breakfast, and soon lost sight of Pernambuco. All Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, we coasted along within sight of the shores of Brazil. They are hilly and very woody, the green of the sloping banks being often interrupted by bright white patches, which seem to be of sand. In the evening of Tuesday the 16th, we anchored in the bay of All Saints, opposite to the town of St. Salvador, commonly called Bahia. It was quite dark before we got in, so that we lost the first entrance-view of that magnificent harbour; but the scattered lights show us the great extent and high situation of the town.

_Wednesday, 17th._--This morning, at day-break, my eyes opened on one of the finest scenes they ever beheld. A city, magnificent in appearance from the sea, is placed along the ridge and on the declivity of a very high and steep hill: the richest vegetation breaks through the white houses at intervals, and beyond the city, reaches along to the outer point of land on which the picturesque church and convent of Sant Antonio da Barre is placed. Here and there the bright red soil shows itself in harmony with the tiling of the houses. The _tracery_ of forts, the bustle of shipping, hills melting in the distance, and the very form of the bay, with its promontories and islands, altogether finish this charming picture; then the fresh sea-breeze gives spirit to enjoy it, notwithstanding its tropical climate.

Early in the day we moved our anchorage closer in-shore; and then, on the invitation of Mr. Pennell, the British consul, we went ashore to spend the day with him. We landed at the arsenal, or rather dock-yard, where there is nothing of the neatness observable in such establishments at home. The first object we saw, however, was a fine 58-gun frigate on the stocks, the model of which I hear connoisseurs praise as beautiful. There is nothing besides the new ship, and some handsome pieces of old brass cannon, worth looking at. Every thing is visibly either suspended or on the decline, and there will probably be no improvement, until the political state of Brazil is a little more settled. We find things here, though not quite so unquiet as at Pernambuco, yet tending the same way.

The street into which we proceeded through the arsenal gate, forms, at this place, the breadth of the whole lower town of Bahia, and is, without any exception, the filthiest place I ever was in. It is extremely narrow, yet all the working artificers bring their benches, and tools into the street: in the interstices between them, along the walls, are fruit-sellers, venders of sausages, black-puddings, fried fish, oil and sugar cakes, negroes plaiting hats or mats, caderas, (a kind of sedan chair,) with their bearers, dogs, pigs, and poultry, without partition or distinction; and as the gutter runs in the middle of the street, every thing is thrown there from the different stalls, as well as from the windows; and there the animals live and feed! In this street are the warehouses and counting-houses of the merchants, both native and foreign. The buildings are high, but neither so handsome nor so airy as those of Pernambuco.

It was raining when we landed; therefore, as the streets leading out of the filthy lower town do not admit of the use of wheeled carriages, on account of the steepness of the ascent, we hired caderas, and found them, if not comfortable, at least commodious. They consist of a cane arm-chair, with a foot-board and a canopy covered with leather; curtains, generally of moreen, with gilt bordering and lined with cotton or linen, are contrived to draw round, or open at pleasure; and the whole is slung by the top to a single pole, by which two negroes carry it at a quick pace upon their shoulders, changing occasionally from right to left.[63]

[Note 63: When Frezier travelled, a cotton hammock with a canopy was used.]

As we ascended from the street, every step brought us in sight of some beautiful scene, generally terminated by the bay and shipping. There is something in the landscape here peculiarly agreeable. The verdure, the wood, the steep banks, and gently sloping lawns, generally opening to the sea or the lake behind the town, have a freshness and amenity that I scarcely remember seeing before. We saw but little of the upper city, but that little was handsome, in our way to the consul's. His house, like those of all the British merchants, is a little way out of town, and is in the suburb Vittoria, which occupies the greater part of a long narrow ridge extending from the town towards Sant Antonio: between it and the town is Fort Pedro, built, I think, originally of mud, by the Dutch. It was faced with stone, on the recovery of Bahia from the Dutch, about the beginning of the last century. We found the Consul and his daughter ready to receive us at their very pleasant garden-house, which literally overhangs the bay,--flowers and fruits mingle their sweets even down to the water's edge,--while

"Seaborn gales their gelid wings expand, To winnow fragrance round the smiling land."

Eager to seize the opportunity of walking out after our voyage, we accepted Miss Pennell's kind offer, to show us some of the surrounding country before dinner, and accompanied her as far as the church dedicated to N.S. da Graça. It was the first offering of piety, I believe, to Christian worship by a native Brazilian.

When the famous Caramuru was wrecked, together with the Donatory Coutinho, on Itaparica, Coutinho was put to death; but, Caramuru, being beloved by the natives, was spared, and he returned to his old settlement of Villa Velha. His wife, Catherine Paraguaza, who had accompanied him to France, saw an apparition in the camp of the Indians, and believing it to be a real European female, Caramuru followed in the direction his wife pointed out: he discovered, accordingly, in one of the huts, an image of N.S. da Graça; and according to the directions his wife had received from the vision, built and dedicated the church, and bestowed it, and a house by it, on the Benedictines. It was at first of mud, but soon after was built of stone.

_Thursday, 18th._--We rode out before breakfast, through landscape so fine, that I wished for a poet or a painter at every step. Sometimes we went through thick wild wood into bushy hollows; then emerged on clear lawns, sprinkled with palm trees, through which country-houses, farms, and gardens were seen; and from every eminence, the bay, the sea, or the lake, formed part of the scene. Here and there the huge gamela tree[64] stands like a tower, adorned, besides its own leaves, with numberless parasite plants, from the stiff cactus, to the swinging air plant[65]; and the frequent tower of church and monastery soften and improve the features of the country.

[Note 64: The gamela, like the banyan, easily takes root in other trees, and its branches meet together in the same manner. It is the tree of which the canoes of Brazil are made, and serves besides for troughs of various kinds.]

[Note 65: Air-plant or Tillandsia, of which there are several sorts. The Tillandsia Lingulata is the largest, and agrees with Jaquin's plate; the others are different from those described by him, and are much more beautiful.].

Mr. Pennell has most kindly given our young men a general invitation to his house; and accordingly, to-day several of them dined with him, and we had a party in the evening, when some of the ladies played quadrilles, while others danced.

_Friday, 19th._--I accompanied Miss Pennell in a tour of visits to her Portuguese friends. As it is not their custom to visit or be visited in the forenoon, it was hardly fair to take a stranger to see them. However, my curiosity, at least, was gratified. In the first place, the houses, for the most part, are disgustingly dirty: the lower story usually consists of cells for the slaves, stabling &c.; the staircases are narrow and dark; and, at more than one house, we waited in a passage while the servants ran to open the doors and windows of the sitting-rooms, and to call their mistresses, who were enjoying their undress in their own apartments. When they appeared, I could scarcely believe that one half were gentlewomen. As they wear neither stay nor bodice, the figure becomes almost indecently slovenly, after very early youth; and this is the more disgusting, as they are very thinly clad, wear no neck-handkerchiefs, and scarcely any sleeves. Then, in this hot climate, it is unpleasant to see dark cottons and stuffs, without any white linen, near the skin. Hair black, ill combed, and dishevelled, or knotted unbecomingly, or still worse, _en papillote_, and the whole person having an unwashed appearance. When at any of the houses the bustle of opening the cobwebbed windows, and assembling the family was over, in two or three instances, the servants had to remove dishes of sugar, mandioc, and other provisions, which had been left in the best rooms to dry. There is usually a sofa at each end of the room, and to the right and left a long file of chairs, which look as if they never could be moved out of their place. Between the two sets of seats is a space, which, I am told, is often used for dancing; and, in every house, I saw either a guitar or piano, and generally both. Prints and pictures, the latter the worst daubs I ever saw, decorate the walls pretty generally; and there are, besides, crucifixes and other things of the kind. Some houses, however, are more neatly arranged; one, I think belonging to a captain of the navy, was papered, the floors laid with mat, and the tables ornamented with pretty porcelain, Indian and French: the lady too was neatly dressed in a French wrapper. Another house belonging to one of the judges was also clean, and of a more stately appearance than the rest, though the inhabitant was neither richer nor of higher rank. Glass chandeliers were suspended from the roof; handsome mirrors were intermixed with the prints and pictures. A good deal of handsome china was displayed round the room; but the jars, as well as the chairs and tables, seemed to form an inseparable part of the walls. We were every where invited, after sitting a few moments on the sofa, to go to the balconies of the windows and enjoy the view and the breeze, or at least amuse ourselves with what was passing in the street. And yet they did not lack conversation: the principal topic, however, was praise of the beauty of Bahia; dress, children, and diseases, I think, made up the rest; and, to say the truth, their manner of talking on the latter subject is as disgusting as their dress, that is, in a morning: I am told they are different after dinner. They marry very early, and soon lose their bloom. I did not see one tolerably pretty woman to-day. But then who is there that can bear so total a disguise as filth and untidiness spread over a woman?

_Saturday, 20th._--As the charts of this coast hitherto published are very incorrect, the captain asked permission from government to sound and survey the bay: it is refused on the ground of policy; as if it could be policy to keep hidden rocks and shoals, for one's own as well as other people's ships.