Part 44

The most noticeable thing that strikes one when he lands at one of the Brazilian ports is the extraordinary economy observed in the matter of wearing apparel. The children in the streets up to eight or ten years are usually entirely naked, playing in groups around the door-ways, and in the corners sheltered from the sun. Nearly every woman you meet has a big basket of something or other on her head, or a naked baby in her arms; the number of babies to be seen at the windows or in the streets is astonishing. The yellow-fever and other epidemics carry off a large percentage of the population every summer, but the increase from natural causes more than keeps pace with the mortality. When the girls get to be eight or ten years of age they put on a white cotton tunic, which hangs loosely from the shoulders, and the women wear a plain white chemise, with the arms and shoulders bare. The boys and men have cotton trousers or drawers, and, if they are prosperous, add a speckled shirt to their wardrobe, which hangs loosely over the pantaloons, and flaps in the breeze with cheerful _négligé_. A society for the encouragement of modesty among the men, women, and children of Brazil would find a fruitful field for missionary work. They act and live like animals; but the younger women show some sense of shame, and gather their scanty drapery around them as the stranger passes. Among their own kind they are as regardless of the proprieties of civilization as the mangy dogs which stretch out in the sun at their feet. The priests, under whose control they yield an absolute submission, and whose authority here is even greater than in Rome, are said to teach no lessons of chastity or modesty, but to practise a licentiousness which makes one shudder when he hears common anecdotes told.

The sun always rises and sets very suddenly in the tropics. There is no “rosy blush of morn to herald the coming of a newborn day,” and so on, nor is there a gorgeous glow in the west when the twilight comes; but old Sol gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night without any ceremony, and with a startling suddenness. You awaken at the noise of carts in the street, find it dark as midnight, with the stars more brilliant than you ever saw them at home, turn over, doze a little, and in a few moments jump up, supposing it to be noonday. The sun jumps into the air out of the darkness and drops below the horizon as if he had been shot. There are only two periods in the twenty-four hours--midnight and high noon. There is gas in most of the large towns, but it is seldom used in any except the finest modern residences. Candles or kerosene lamps throw light upon domestic circles, but there are always plenty of gas-lamps in the streets, and they light them in an odd way. One fellow goes ahead with a long stick and turns on the gas; another follows him with a torch and gives it light. Sometimes the latter stops to gossip on the corner, and the consequence is a strong odor of gas all over the town.

On every block is a policeman or watchman, whose business

is to sing out at certain intervals to inform the inhabitants what o’clock it is, and that all is well. Like the fakirs in the streets during the day, they have a most melancholy tone in their voices, and to the stranger their announcements sound like the cry of a lost soul--“Sereno-o-o-o-o-o; Sereno-o-o-o-o-o; Las diez y media y Sereno-o-o-o-o-o!”

The text-books on oratory that were used in old times gave the statement that Demosthenes could make an audience weep or laugh at will by simply uttering “Mesopotamia,” but he could not have put more pathos, more lingering agony, than the tropical policemen in these simple words--“All’s serene; all’s serene! It is a day and a half-midnight, and all’s serene!”

The stranger never fails to hear these announcements, for two very good reasons; first, because his bed is as hard as the racks upon which the Roman tyrants used to torture early Christians; and, second, it is always occupied by a colony of the most vigorous pests that ever drank human blood. At the hotels all the servants are men. They do the work of chamber-maids, cooks, porters, and dining-room waiters, wash the dishes, and everything but washing and ironing.

The Brazilian rises early in the morning, to do the greater part of his work in the cool of the day. He drinks a cup of strong coffee, eats a roll, and perhaps an egg, and then goes to his store or office, from which he returns at twelve to his breakfast--the most elaborate meal of the day. It begins with soup and ends with cheese, dulces, and coffee, like the dinner of the temperate zone. He has a fish, a chop or steak, an omelette, and a salad, but no vegetables. Then he lies down for a nap, after which, about four o’clock, he returns to business, and remains often as late as eight or nine o’clock. His dinner is a repetition of his breakfast, except that he has vegetables and a roast or fowl. He takes a walk in the plaza with his family after dinner and retires early, if he does not go to the club or gaming-table. The people are inveterate gamblers. There is no more disgrace attached to attendance upon the faro-table or the roulette-board than attends stock gambling in New York. He calls upon the Holy Mother when he tosses his chips upon the cards, and says an “Ave Maria” when he wins a stake. At every religious festival the cathedrals and churches are surrounded by gambling-booths, and the priests always go to the cock-fights after high mass on Sunday. Some of them breed game chickens, and carry them to the pit under their priestly robes.

The great problem for Brazil to solve in the future is that of labor. With the gradual emancipation of the slave the labor system of the country is becoming disorganized and demoralized. It has been demonstrated beyond a doubt, even in the minds of the most radical abolitionists, that the emancipated negroes are neither disposed nor competent to take care of themselves. They are different in this respect from the freedmen of the United States because their ignorance is much greater. Their dependence is much more absolute, and they never received the kind treatment and instruction that was enjoyed by so many of the slaves in the United States. From one end of Brazil to the other there is scarcely a negro slave, or one who has ever been enslaved, that can read and write. Their ignorance is so dense that they scarcely know anything of the work outside of the cabin in which they live; and the policy of the slave-holders, aided by the priests, has been to keep them in this condition as far as possible. As long as they have attended mass, and said so many prayers a day, the priests have been satisfied with their condition, and their owners and masters have never thought of anything but to get as much work out of them as was consistent with their strength.

The political issue in Brazil to-day, as has been the case for many years, is the abolition of slavery. Ten years ago the two political parties were as wide apart on this question as the Abolitionists and Democrats were in the United States in 1860; but the emancipation policy has been rapidly growing in favor, the necessity and justness of the movement have become almost universally recognized, and the two political parties differ only upon the measures by which the result shall be accomplished. There are very few people in Brazil to-day who, when asked the direct question, will advocate the perpetuation of human slavery; but those who have property in slaves naturally resist any movement that will deprive them of its value without some compensation.

A law was passed in 1881 which declared free all negroes and their children who should be imported into the empire after that date; but it was never executed, and in spite of it the slave-trade increased, reaching prior to 1851 enormous proportions. Fifty thousand negro slaves were imported in a single year when the trade was at its height. The effective intervention of the British Government in 1851 broke up the foreign trade, and from that time the friends of the slave in Brazil were able to make some headway against their opponents.

The first legislation enforced towards the abolition of slavery was enacted in 1871, in what was known as the “Free Birth Law,” which was framed by the Emperor himself, and adopted by Congress largely through his own personal efforts. This laid the axe at the root of the tree, and provided that human bondage in Brazil should end with the present generation. Every child born since the passage of the act is free, but the owner of its mother is required to educate and support it until twenty-one years old, being entitled to the results of its labor during the same time. The law also provided that slaves should be credited with their labor, and all service performed over and above a given maximum should be considered as a surplus and credited against the value of the slave, in order that those who had energy and ambition might in this manner earn or purchase their own freedom; and by a further provision all slaves reaching the age of sixty-five were free, but could look to their old masters for support in case they were in a condition of disability.

This law, however well intended, proved impracticable, and could not be generally enforced. Forgeries were committed upon the records of birth, both by the slaves and their masters. The latter refused, or fixed so high a valuation that very few were able to earn their freedom; they neglected to educate the children as required by law, so that even if a young man gained his freedom he was not fitted to enjoy it or exercise the right of citizenship. The old men and women were turned off the plantations to beg or find refuge in the public almshouses; and the planters, feeling no longer any interest in the health and welfare of their slaves, neglected their sanitary condition and ill-treated them. The result of the law was to demoralize the laboring element. It proved a disaster to the slaves as well as to their masters, and disturbed the political condition of the country.

There is no slave-market in Rio Janeiro, nor has there been one for several years, all the transactions in human flesh being conducted privately; but there are agents who buy and sell on commission, like the real estate or cattle dealers of the United States.

There is a small number of negroes in Brazil from Minas, a territory on the west coast of Africa, who differ from all other blacks. They are of immense frame, capable of great endurance, display a remarkable degree of intelligence, are very clannish, speaking a language among themselves unintelligible to others, and practising religious rites similar to those of Mohammedanism, from which they have never been allured by the tempting ceremonies of the Catholic Church.

As slaves the Minas natives are valued at more than double the price of ordinary negroes, and as freedmen they are useful, industrious, and excellent citizens, and will work of their own accord. No other blacks exercise the regular Yankee thrift in saving their earnings and in economizing their resources. They are ingenious as well as intelligent, and make first-class mechanics as well as laborers. These Minas have frequently purchased their freedom and returned to Africa, but those that go invariably come back to Brazil. Several instances are reported in which they have chartered vessels for this purpose, and have even brought over friends and kinsmen of their own across the Atlantic to settle in Brazil. The wisest thinkers of the country advocate the organization of immigration companies for the purpose of bringing cargoes of these people from Africa, not as slaves, but as freemen, to supply the demand for labor in the country. They are much preferable to the Chinese or the coolies as laborers, and are particularly adapted to the Brazilian climate.

There are a great many Germans going into the country, forming colonies in the interior, opening up sugar plantations, planting coffee, gathering rubber, and engaging in all sorts of agricultural employment; but the climate is so enervating that after an experience of two years the German colonist will be found by his Portuguese predecessor sitting in the shade of the fig-tree and hiring a negro to do his work. Everywhere in hot climates the people become enervated, and Brazil will scarcely form an exception to other countries in the same latitude. In the more southern provinces and on the higher levels white colonists may succeed if there is nothing but climatic differences to oppose them. There has been a small number of immigrants from the United States to the southern provinces of Brazil; and after the war a great many Confederates flooded in there for the purpose of establishing plantations and raising sugar and coffee, but their success has not been great. Most of the colonies have broken up, and the members have been scattered over different parts of the country. Some engage in one undertaking, some in another, but many have succumbed to the influences of the climate and died of fever.

INDEX.

A.

Aconcagua Mountain, Chili, 509.

Agua Volcano, Guatemala, 67.

Alpaca, the, 427.

Alvarado, Conqueror of Guatemala, 64.

Alvarado, George, founder of the city of San Salvador, 179.

Andes, bridges in the, 441; explorations in the, 438; over the, 506, 510, 513; scenery in the, 409.

Antigua, 63, 72.

Arequipa, 420.

Argentine Republic, agricultural area of, 584; Americans in, 562; beef exports of, 586, 587; Catholic Church in, 558, 568; cattle in, 579, 582; cattle ranges in, 534; commerce of, 552, 583, 586; decay of Romanism in, 558; discovery of, 543; educational system of, 557; England’s trade with, 553; foreigners in, 581; France’s trade with, 552; geographies incorrect concerning, 551; growth of, 550; horsemen of, 556, 570, 574; horses in, 589; immigration to, 581; Italian population of, 582; land leasing in, 534; libel laws of, 555; map of, 580; pamperos in, 544, 548; peculiar customs of, 544, 547, 548, 555, 556, 559, 560, 565, 569-571, 576, 578, 590; Protestant work in, 558, 568; railroad system of, 581, 582; ranches in, 579, 582, 588; resources of, 553, 579, 583; Roca, President of, 568, 569; Rosas, the tyrant, President of, 549, 572; Sarmiento, ex-President of, 557; social conditions in, 565; steamers to Paraguay from, 566; steamship facilities of, 551, 566; suffrage in, 581; United States’ trade with, 553; universities of, 556; wheat product of, 554, 583; women physicians of, 561; wool product of the, 585; Yankee school-teachers in, 557.

Arica, battle of, 353.

Aristocracy, Mexican, 3, 5, 17, 32.

Army, Costa Rican, 206.

Asuncion, architecture in, 640; market-place of, 642; palace of Lopez in, 638; ruins in, 637.

Aztecs, religion of, 32.

B.

Bahia Blanca, 547.

Balmaceda, President of Chili, 495.

Bananas, shipment of from Costa Rica, 198.

Banda Occidental, 592; Oriental, _ibid._

Banner, Pizarro’s, 276.

Barillas, President of Guatemala, 113.

Barranquilla, port of, 231.

Barrios, appeals for approval to foreign nations, 107; becomes President of Guatemala, 81; _coup-d’état_ of, 103; death and will, his, 112; personal character of, 100; progressive policy of, 82; Protestant work in Guatemala, his, 86; tragedy at theatre through banner bearing name of, 111; visits the United States, 107.

Barrios, Mrs., residence in New York, 87.

Blanco, Guzman, 269, 286, 291; statues of, 258, 272, 287.

Bogota, altitude of, 244; journalism in, 249; journey to, 238; merchants of, 250; miraculous image of, 254; policemen in, 247; population of, 245; society in, 248.

Bogran, President of Honduras, 117.

Bolivar, Simon, Venezuela, 266.

Bolivia, mineral wealth of, 445; railroad to, 419, 438.

Boulevard, Mexican, 39.

Boulton, Bliss & Dallett, steamers of to Venezuela, 257.

Brazil, commerce of, 675; customs peculiar to, 664, 668, 670, 672, 674, 676, 692, 696, 701; discovery of, 687; emancipation in, 704; Empress of, 684; ex-Confederates in, 706; fight against the Catholic Church in, 690; German immigration to, 706; habits of the people of, 701; history of, 687; holidays in, 692; hotels of, 673; humming-birds of, 668; imperial family of, 689; intemperance in, 666; Isabella, Princess of, 689; natives of Minas in, 705; negroes in, _ibid._; nobility of, 676; policemen of, 698; politics in, 688, 703; railroad system of, 680; school system of, 678; slavery problem in, 702; sunrise in, 698; sunset in, _ibid._

Buenos Ayres, American dentists in, 560; banks of, 554; cathedral of, 566; commercial disadvantages of, 549; enterprise in, 549, 559; Hale, Samuel B., merchant of, 562; Halsey, Thomas Lloyd, introducer of sheep and cattle into, 563; harbor of, 548; hotels of, 566; landing at, 548; municipal statistics of, 559; newspapers of, 555; origin of, 543; photographers in, 560; post-office of, 559; theatres of, 555; tomb of Saint-Martin in, 566; voyage to, 543; Wheelwright, Wm., builder of first railroad in, 562; Winslow, the forger, in, 562.

C.

Caceres, General, 392, 395.

Callao, city of, 417; painter, the, 416; port of, 353.

Camino Real (Royal Highway), Colombia, 240.

Caracas, Americans in, 282; earthquakes in, 265; railroad to, 261; situation of, 265.

Carera, Dictator of Guatemala, 80.

Carriages, Mexican, 39.

Cartago, Costa Rica, destruction of, 200.

Carthagena, city of, 226; cathedral of, 228; fortifications of, 231; Inquisition in, 227; Kingsley’s (Charles) description of, 226; miraculous pulpit of, 228; preserved saint of, 229.

Carts, peculiar, Nicaragua, 142.

Castro, Don Jesus Maria, 222.

Central America, cable telegraph in, 107.

Cerro del Pasco, mines of, 404.

Chamber of Deputies, Mexican, 21.

Chapultepec, castle of, 5, 43.

Charity, Mexican, 56.

Chasquis, vocation of, 440.

Chili, army of Peru in, 392; Balmaceda, President of, 495; character of the people of, 458, 472, 475, 480; coal-mines in, 488; commerce of, 455, 457; climate of, 464; coca-chewing in, 479; customs peculiar to, 458, 461-464, 469, 472, 475, 480, 483, 484, 498; earthquakes in, 483, 499; English colony, an, 542; farming in, 489, 502; female street-car conductors of, 458, 461; horseback-riding in, 503; hotels of, 472; intemperance in, 458; Irish characteristics of the people of, 474; journey from, to Argentine Republic, 506, 510; Liberal party in, 493; marriage in, 494; Meiggs, Henry, in, 463, 467; nomenclature peculiar to, 483; penitentas of, 462; peonage in, 489, 502; plunder from Peru in, 471; political struggle in, 493; Presidential election in, 495; Protestantism in, 496; railway facilities of, 464, 480; Romanism in, 493; rotos of, 479; saddle of, 504; scenery in, 509; “Señor May” in, 499; shoes of natives of, 484; shops of, 465; soldiers of, 352, 479; Stars and Stripes in, 454; steamship communication with, 456, 480, 488; superstition in, 499; vanity of people of, 476; women of, 458, 461, 472, 484, 487, 498.

Chimborazo, Mount, Ecuador, 309, 320.

Coca-leaves, use of among rabonas of Peru, 349.

Colombia, aborigines of, 244; Congress of, 255; government of, 248; mines of, 230; Nuñez, President of, 256; orchids in, 252; peculiar customs of, 243, 245, 247, 252; Romish superstitions in, 228, 254; steamship line to, 225; transportation in, 246.

Comayagua, city of, Honduras, 115, 119.

Congress, Mexican, 21.

“Cordillera,” steamship, wreck of, 524.

Corinto, port of, 138.

Cortez, descendants of, 6.

“Costa del Balsimo,” forest of, 192.

Costa Rica, archbishop expelled from, 219; banana-trade of, 198; Congress of, 221; cruising along, 196; death processions in, 220; educational system of, 218; ex-Confederates in, 200; Fernandez, President of, 221; flowers peculiar to, 198; funeral customs in, 220; Government of, 221; Guardia, President of, 205; intelligence of the people of, 218; morals of the people of, 220; national musical instruments of, 214; ox-carts in, 212; peculiar customs of, 198, 200, 207, 212-214, 216, 220; politeness of the people of, 218; Protestant work in, 219; railroads in, 199, 208; railroad building in, 205; religious condition of, 219; resources of, 223; revolution in, 207; Soto, De, Don Bernardo, President of, 222; transportation facilities in, 212; women of, 214.

Cotopaxi Volcano, Ecuador, 320.

Cousino, Donna Isadora, Crœsus of Chili, 487.

Crosses by the way-side, Nicaragua, 141.

Cuaca dance, the, 469.

Curaçoa, Island of, 295.

D.

Dahlgren, Mrs., anecdote of, 372.

“Deck trading” in Peru, 347.

Delgrado, General, leader of revolution in Honduras, 120.

Dentists, American, in Buenos Ayres, 560.

Deputies, Chamber of, Mexican, 21.

Desert of Peru, 417.

Destruction of Cartago, Costa Rica, 200.

Devastation of Lima, 365, 391.

Diaz, career of, 30; inauguration of as President of Mexico, 21; religious tolerance in Mexico, his, 59.

Diplomatic complication in Guatemala, 103.

Discovery of Argentine Republic, 543; of Brazil, 687.

Dom Pedro II., love of the people for, 682.

Drake, Sir Francis, sacks Caracas, Venezuela, 262.

E.

Earthquakes in Chili, 483, 499; in Ecuador, 324; in Guatemala, 73; in Nicaragua, 164; in San Salvador, 187, 192.

Easter Sunday in Mexico, 50.

Ecuador, army of, 319; Caamaño, President of, 309, 341; chandny (wind) in, 309; earthquakes in, 324; peculiarities of people of, 301, 305, 313, 317, 319, 326, 328, 330, 334, 336, 346, 350; peddlers in, 317; postal facilities in, 316; railroads in, 307; revolutions in, 341; Romish Church in, 306, 313, 319, 332, 334, 348; social condition of, 377; telegraph in, 308; transportation in, 315.

Educational system of Costa Rica, 218.

El Gran Chaco, description of, 657.

Emancipation in Brazil, 704.

Empress of Brazil, charity of, 684.

Enterprise in Buenos Ayres, 549, 559.

Evans, W. D., Montevideo, story of, 605.

Exposition buildings in Santiago, 470.

Eyes of Inca mummies, 415.

F.

Falkland Islands, chief use of land in the, 522.

Farming in Chili, 489, 502.

Fenton, Doctor, in Patagonia, 537.

Fernandez, President of Costa Rica, 221.

Filth of Rio de Janeiro, 662.

First capital of Guatemala, 64.

Fleas in the tropics, 260.

Flowers, peculiar, in Costa Rica, 198.

Foreigners in Argentine Republic, 581.

Fortifications of Carthagena, Colombia, condition of, 231.

Founding of Guayaquil, 304.

France, her trade with Argentine Republic, 552.

Francia, “Perpetual President” of Paraguay, 623.

Fuego Volcano, Guatemala, 71.

Funeral customs in Costa Rica, 220; in Mexico, 34.

Fur-bearing animals in Patagonia, 539.

G.

Gaucho, the, 570, 574.

Gonzalez, Gil, Conqueror of Nicaragua, 154.

Gonzalez, President of Mexico, 22, 26.

Good Friday, celebration of in Mexico, 49.

Government of Nicaragua, 169.

Grace, M. P., his Peruvian contracts, 401, 403.

Grau, Admiral, in Peru, 437.

Grenada, city of, 165.

Guadalupe, cathedral of, 18; legend of, _ibid._; treaty at, 21.

Guanaco, the, 427, 540.