After dinner I walked about a little in the village of the negroes. There are, I believe, about fifteen hundred on the estate, the greater part of whom belong to the outlying farms or feitorias, of which there are, I believe, three; Bom Jardin, Piperi, and Serra: these yield coffee, feijoă, and maize. The immediate neighbourhood of Santa Cruz is appropriated to the rearing of cattle, of which there are this year about four thousand head; and a good deal of pasture land is annually let. The negroes of Santa Cruz are not fed and clothed by the Emperor, but they have their little portions of land; and they have half of Friday, all Saturday and Sunday, and every holiday, to labour for themselves; so that they at most work for their master four days, in return for their house and land; and some even of the external marks of slavery are removed, as the families feed and clothe themselves without the master's interference. The Emperor has appropriated great part of a very commodious building, erected by his father for the royal stud, to the purpose of an hospital. I visited it, and found a white surgeon and black assistant; decent beds, and well-ventilated apartments: the kitchen was clean, and the broth, which was all I found cooked at the time of night when I was there, good: there were about sixty patients, most of them merely for sores in their feet, some from giggers, others a sort of leprosy from working in damp grounds, and a few with elephantiases; fevers are very rare; pulmonary complaints not uncommon. Several of the inmates of the hospital were there merely from old age; one was insane; and there was a large ward of women, with young children: so that, on the whole, I consider the hospital as affording a proof of the healthiness of the negroes of Santa Cruz.
Sunday, 24th, presented a very respectable congregation on its way to the chapel of Santa Cruz. There were all the officers belonging to the palace, with their wives and families; also the shopkeepers of the village and neighbourhood, besides a good many of the negro people; all of them, I think, better dressed than persons of the same class elsewhere in this part of Brazil.
I walked up to the tea-gardens, which occupy many acres of a rocky hill, such as I suppose may be the favourite habitat of the plant in China. The introduction of the culture of tea into Brazil was a favourite project of the King Joam VI., who brought the plants and cultivators at great expense from China. The tea produced both here and at the botanic gardens is said to be of superior quality; but the quantity is so small, as never yet to have afforded the slightest promise of paying the expense of culture. Yet the plants are so thriving, that I have no doubt they will soon spread of themselves, and probably become as natives. His Majesty built Chinese gates and summer-houses to correspond with the destination of these gardens; and, placed where they are, among the beautiful tea-shrubs, whose dark shining leaves and myrtle-like flowers fit them for a parterre, they have no unpleasing effect. The walks are bordered on either hand with orange trees and roses, and the garden hedge is of a beautiful kind of mimosa; so that the China of Santa Cruz forms really a delightful walk. The Emperor, however, who perceives that it is more advantageous to sell coffee and buy tea, than to grow it at such expense, has discontinued the cultivation.
Our hospitable friends the Capitaŏ and his lady would not allow us to leave them till after dinner, having invited several persons to do honour to us, and to a sumptuous feast they had prepared, where every good thing that can be named was present. However, due honour having been done to the table, we took our leave; and at about four o'clock or a little earlier set off for Mata Paciencia, where we arrived a little before sunset.
On our arrival we went with Dona Mariana and the chaplain into the garden, which unites the flower, kitchen-garden, and orchard in one. Oranges and roses, cabbage and tobacco, melons and leeks, neighboured each other, as if they belonged to the same climate; and all were thriving among numbers of weeds, of which the wholesome calliloo and the splendid balsam attracted my eye most. A side-door in the garden let us into a beautiful field, whither chairs were brought, that we might sit and enjoy the freshness of the evening. Overhanging that field there is a steep hill, on whose side a great deal of wood has been cleared away, and the gardens and coffee plots of the negroes occupy the ground. This day—and blessed be the Sabbath!—is the negroes' own: after morning Mass they are free to do their own will; and then most of them run to the hill to gather their coffee or maize, or prepare the ground for these or other vegetables. They were just beginning to return from the wood, each with his little basket laden with something of his own, something in which the master had no share; and again and again as they passed me, and displayed with glistening eye the little treasure, I blessed the Sabbath, the day of freedom to the slave. Presently the last few stragglers dropped in. The sun by this time was only the tops of the hills. The cattle flocked in from the pasture, and lowed impatiently at the gate of the corral: we opened it, and passed in with them, and crossed the court where the negroes live. All was bustle there: they were bargaining with a huckster, who, knowing the proper hour, had arrived to buy the fresh-picked coffee. Some sold it thus; others chose to keep it and dry it, and then to take the opportunity of one of the lady's messengers to town and send it thither, where it sells at a higher price. I do not know when I have passed so pleasant an evening.
After supper I had a great deal of conversation with Dona Mariana concerning the sugar-work, the cultivation of the cane, and the slaves, confirming what I had learnt at Affonsos. She also tells me, as I had heard before, that the Creole negroes are less docile and less active than the new negroes. I think both facts may be accounted for without having recourse to the influence of climate. The new negro has the education of the slave-ship and the market, the lash being administered to drill him; so that when bought he is docile from fear, active from habit. The creole negro is a spoiled child, till he is strong enough to work; then, without previous habits of industry, he is expected to be industrious, and having eaten, drunk, and run about on terms of familiar equality, he is expected to be obedient; and where no moral feelings have been cultivated, he is expected to show his gratitude for early indulgence by future fidelity. Dona Mariana tells me, that not half the negroes born on her estate live to be ten years old. It would be worth while to enquire into the cause of this evil, and whether it is general.
I conversed also a good while with the chaplain on the general state of the country. He is a native of Pernambuco; of course a staunch independent. * * * It is needless to say that every thing in the manner of living at Mata Paciencia is not only agreeable but elegant. And if the stories of older travellers concerning the country life of the Brazilians be true, the change has been most rapid and complete.
25th August.—- I was very sorry to leave Mata Paciencia this morning when it was time to return; however, the hour came, and we departed for Affonsos.
On the road we stopped to make some sketches, and at Campo Grande to refresh our horses; and were glad ourselves, as the day was pretty cool, to partake of a beef-steak which the good woman of the house cooked according to our directions, the first she had ever seen, regretting all the time that their own dinner was over, and that there was not time to boil or roast for us. But hospitality seems the temper of the country.
On our arrival at Affonsos we were received as old friends, and much pressed to stay a couple of days, in order to make excursions to some picturesque spots in the neighbourhood, which I would fain have done, but my young friend, Mr. Dampier, could not spare the time; so I was obliged to content myself with only hearing of the beauties of the lake of Jacarepagua, and N.S. da Pena, &c.
26th.—We left Affonsos by times this morning, and shortly afterwards met an original-looking group of travellers. First came rather a handsome woman, in a blue joseph and broad black hat, riding astride; then three gentlemen in Indian file, all natural Falstaffs, in enormous straw hats, and mounted on good well-groomed horses; next followed the lady's maid, also astride, with her mistress's portmanteau buckled behind her; and behind her the valet, with three leathern bags hanging to his saddle by long straps, so as to swing as low as the stirrups, and whose size and shape denoted the presence of at least a clean shirt; and, lastly, a bare-headed slave with two mules, one laden with baggage and provisions, and the other as a relay. They all saluted us gravely and courteously as they passed; and I thought I had gotten among some of Gil Blas' travellers in the neighbourhood of Oviedo or Astorga, so completely did they differ from any thing usual with us.
We stopped, of course, at Campinha, to call on our hospitable hostess, Senhora Maria Rosa, and found her at a neighbour's house; whither we followed her, and found her surrounded by four of the prettiest women I have seen in Brazil. From the veranda, where we sat talking with them for some time, we had leisure to admire the country about Campinha, which was totally obscured the first time we passed by rain. It is of the same beautiful character with the rest we have seen, being distinguished by a new mud fort, now building on a little insulated knoll, which commands the road through the hills, and by the plain to the capital. The want of some such point of defence was felt when Du Clerc landed in the bay of Angra dos Reyes, at the beginning of the last century, and marched without stop to the city.
After feeding our horses at the very pretty station of Rio Ferreira, we proceeded homewards; and arrived at Mr. May's in good time to dinner, having had a very pleasant excursion, and, on my part, seeing more of Brazil and Brazilians in these few days, passed entirely out of English reach, than in all the time I had been here before.
On my arrival at home I found news from Lord Cochrane of the 9th July, in latitude 6° S., longitude 32° W.; when half the army, colours, ammunition, and stores of Madeira had fallen into his hands, and he was in pursuit of the rest, intending afterwards to follow the Joaŏ VI. and frigates. Should he be able to separate them, no doubt he will capture them; but alone, under his circumstances, against them, so armed and manned, I fear it will be impossible.—He has already effected more than could have been expected, or perhaps than any commander besides himself could have done. He attributes much to the imprudence, or imbecility of the enemy, whose plan of saving an army he likens to Sterne's marble sheet. However, others are just enough to him, to feel that no faults of the enemy's commander lessen his merit, or obscure the courage necessary to follow up, attack, and take half at least of a fleet of seventy sail,[121] well found and provisioned, and full of veteran troops.
There is a letter from Lord Cochrane to the magistrates of Pernambuco published in the gazette. His Lordship, after mentioning his success, and stating his want of seamen, says, "We must have sailors to end the war. If Your Excellencies will give 24 milrees bounty, as at Rio de Janeiro, drawing on government for the same, you will do a great service to the country. I do not say Portuguese sailors, who are enemies; but sailors of any other nation."
His Lordship mentions farther in his letters to Pernambuco, that his reasons for rather following up the transports at first, instead of the ships of war, which were the objects he had most at heart, were, lest the troops should land, as they had threatened, in some other port of Brazil, and commit new hostilities in the empire. And he concludes with announcing that he sends several flags taken from the enemy.
August 29th.—To-day I received a visit from Dona Maria de Jesus, the young woman who has lately distinguished herself in the war of the Reconcave. Her dress is that of a soldier of one of the Emperor's battalions, with the addition of a tartan kilt, which she told me she had adopted from a picture representing a highlander, as the most feminine military dress. What would the Gordons and MacDonalds say to this? The "garb of old Gaul," chosen as a womanish attire!—Her father is a Portuguese, named Gonsalvez de Almeida, and possesses a farm on the Rio do Pex, in the parish of San José, in the Certaŏ, about forty leagues inland from Cachoeira. Her mother was also a Portuguese; yet the young woman's features, especially her eyes and forehead, have the strongest characteristics of the Indians. Her father has another daughter by the same wife; since whose death he has married again, and the new wife and the young children have made home not very comfortable to Dona Maria de Jesus. The farm of the Rio do Pex is chiefly a cattle farm, but the possessor seldom knows or counts his numbers. Senhor Gonsalvez, besides his cattle, raises some cotton; but as the Certaŏ is sometimes a whole year without rain, the quantity is uncertain. In wet years he may sell 400 arobas, at from four to five milrees; in dry seasons he can scarcely collect above sixty or seventy arobas, which may fetch from six to seven milrees. His farm employs twenty-six slaves.
The women of the interior spin and weave for their household, and they also embroider very beautifully. The young women learn the use of fire-arms, as their brothers do, either to shoot game or defend themselves from the wild Indians.
Dona Maria de Jesus.
Dona Maria de Jesus.
Dona Maria told me several particulars concerning the country, and more concerning her own adventures. It appears, that early in the late war of the Reconcave, emissaries had traversed the country in all directions, to raise patriot recruits; that one of these had arrived at her father's house one day about dinner time; that her father had invited him in, and that after their meal he began to talk on the subject of his visit. He represented the greatness and the riches of Brazil, and the happiness to which it might attain if independent. He set forth the long and oppressive tyranny of Portugal; and the meanness of submitting to be ruled by so poor and degraded a country. He talked long and eloquently of the services Don Pedro had rendered to Brazil; of his virtues, and those of the Empress: so that at the last, said the girl, "I felt my heart burning in my "breast." Her father, however, had none of her enthusiasm of character. He is old, and said he neither could join the army himself, nor had he a son to send thither; and as to giving a slave for the ranks, what interest had a slave to fight for the independence of Brazil? He should wait in patience the result of the war, and be a peaceable subject to the winner. Dona Maria stole from home to the house of her own sister, who was married, and lived at a little distance. She recapitulated the whole of the stranger's discourse, and said she wished she was a man, that she might join the patriots. "Nay," said the sister, "if I had not a husband and children, for one half of what you say I would join the ranks for the Emperor." This was enough. Maria received some clothes belonging to her sister's husband to equip her; and as her father was then about to go to Cachoeira to dispose of some cottons, she resolved to take the opportunity of riding after him, near enough for protection in case of accident on the road, and far enough off to escape detection. At length being in sight of Cachoeira, she stopped; and going off the road, equipped herself in male attire, and entered the town. This was on Friday. By Sunday she had managed matters so well, that she had entered the regiment of artillery, and had mounted guard. She was too slight, however, for that service, and exchanged into the infantry, where she now is. She was sent hither, I believe, with despatches, and to be presented to the Emperor, who has given her an ensign's commission and the order of the cross, the decoration of which he himself fixed on her jacket.
She is illiterate, but clever. Her understanding is quick, and her perceptions keen. I think, with education she might have been a remarkable person. She is not particularly masculine in her appearance, and her manners are gentle and cheerful. She has not contracted any thing coarse or vulgar in her camp life, and I believe that no imputation has ever been substantiated against her modesty. One thing is certain, that her sex never was known until her father applied to her commanding officer to seek her.
There is nothing very peculiar in her manners at table, excepting that she eats farinha with her eggs at breakfast and her fish at dinner, instead of bread, and smokes a segar after each meal; but she is very temperate.
Sept. 8th, 1823.—I went with Mr. Hoste and Mr. Hately, of His Majesty's ship Briton, to Praya Grande, to see a party of Botecudo Indians, who are now there on a visit. As it is desired to civilise these people by every possible means, whenever they manifest a wish to visit the neighbourhood of the city, they are always encouraged and received kindly, fed to their hearts' content, and given clothes, and such trinkets and ornaments as they value. We saw about six men, and ten women, with some young children. The faces are rather square, with very high cheek-bones, and low contracted foreheads. Some of the young women are really pretty, of a light copper-colour, which glows all over when they blush; and two of the young men were decidedly handsome, with very dark eyes, (the usual colour of the eyes is hazel,) and aquiline noses; the rest were so disfigured by the holes cut in their lower lips and their ears to receive their barbarous ornaments, that we could scarcely tell what they were like. I had understood that the privilege of thus beautifying the face was reserved for the men,[122] but the women of this party were equally disfigured. We purchased from one of the men a mouth-piece, measuring an inch and a half in diameter. The ornaments used by these people are pieces of wood perfectly circular, which are inserted into the slit of the lip or ear, like a button, and are extremely frightful, especially when they are eating. It gives the mouth the appearance of an ape's; and the peculiar mumping it occasions is so hideously unnatural, that it gives credit to, if it did not originally suggest, the stories of their cannibalism.[123] The mouth is still more ugly without the lip-piece, the teeth appearing, and saliva running through.
When we entered the room where the savages are lodged, most of them were lying in mats on the floor; some on their faces, and some on their backs. Three of the women were suckling their infants, and these were dressed only in coarse cotton petticoats; the rest of the females had cotton frocks, the men shirts and trousers, given them on their arrival here. As they are usually naked in the woods, their garments seemed to sit uneasily on them: their usual motions seemed slow and lazy; but when roused, there was a springy activity hardly fitting a human being, in all they did. They begged for money; and when we took out a few vintems, the women crowded round me, and pinched me gently to attract my attention. They had learned a few words of Portuguese, which they addressed to us, but discoursed together in their own tongue, which seemed like a series of half-articulate sounds.
They had brought some of their bows and arrows with them of the rudest construction. The bow is of hard wood, with only two notches for the string. The arrows are of cane; some are pointed only with hard wood, others with a flat bit of cane tied with bark to the end of the hard wood: these arrows are five feet long; and I saw one of them penetrate several inches into the trunk of a tree, when shot by an Indian from his bow. I purchased one bow and two arrows. Most of these people had their hair closely clipped, excepting a tuft on the fore part of the head; and the men, who had slit their lips, had also pulled out their beards. The two handsome lads had cut their hair; but they had neither cut their lips nor pulled their beards. I tried to learn if this was a step towards civilisation, or if it was only that they had not reached the age when the ceremony of lip-slitting, &c. is practised, the interpreter attending them not being able to explain any thing but what concerns their commonest wants and actions.
September 9th.—I took two very fine Brazilian boys, who are about to enter the Imperial naval service, to spend the day at the botanical garden, which appears in much better order than when I saw it two years ago. The hedge-rows of the Bencoolen nut (Vernilzia Montana) are prodigiously grown: the Norfolk Island pine has shot up like a young giant, and I was glad to find many of the indigenous trees had been placed here; such as the Andraguoa, the nut of which is the strongest known purge; the Cambucá, whose fruit, as large as a russet apple, has the sub-acid taste of the gooseberry, to which its pulp bears a strong resemblance; the Japatec-caba, whose fruit is scarcely inferior to the damascene; and the Grumachama, whence a liquor, as good as that from cherries, is made: these three last are like laurels, and as beautiful as they are useful. I took my young friends to see the powder-mills, which are not now at work, being under repair; but they learned the manner of making powder, from the first weighing of the ingredients to the filling cartridges: and then we had our table spread in a pleasant part of the garden, under the shade of a jumbu tree, and made the head gardener, a very ingenious Dutchman, partake of our luncheon; which being over, he showed us the cinnamon they have barked here, and the other specimens of spice: the cloves are very fine, and the cinnamon might be so; but the wood they have barked is generally too old, and they have not yet the method of stripping the twigs: this I endeavoured to explain, as I had seen it practised in Ceylon. The camphor tree grows very well here, but I do not know if the gum has ever been collected. The two boys were highly delighted with their jaunt, and I not less so. Poor things! they are entering on a hard service; and God knows whether the two cousins da Costa may not hereafter look back to this day passed with a stranger, as a bright "spot of azure in a stormy sky."
Sept. 13th.—I rode again to the botanic gardens with Mr. Hoste and Mr. Hately. Our chief object this time was the powder-mills. After walking round the garden, we proceeded along the valley of the mills; and so beautiful and sequestered a place, in the bosom of the mountains, was surely never before chosen as a manufactory for so destructive an article: I suppose the great command of water for the machinery is the chief inducement to fix it here. The powder is mixed by pounding, the mortars being of rosewood, and the pestles of the same shod with copper; yet the mortar-hoops are iron, which seems to me to be a strange oversight. I do not understand these things, however; but the machinery interested me: it is extremely simple, and the timber used in the construction very beautiful. The principal mill blew up a few months since, and is now under repair; so that we had an opportunity of seeing the watercourses, dams, wheels, &c., which we could not otherwise have enjoyed. We could not learn the relative strength of the powder. I have heard, however, that it is good. What I have seen is about as fine in grain as what we call priming powder in the navy. While we were walking about we were invited into several houses, by the overseers and other persons employed in the works, and pressed to eat and drink with great hospitality. The greatest liberality to strangers, indeed, exists in all public establishments here. For instance, at the botanic garden there is a constant nursery of the rare and the useful plants, which are given away, on application, to strangers and natives alike; so that not only the gardens of Brazil are stocked with the rarer productions of the East, but they are carried to different countries in Europe, prepared by this cooler climate for their farther transplantation.
14th.—I observed on the beach to-day a line of red sandy-looking matter, extending all along the shore, and tinging the sea for several feet from the edge. At night this red edge became luminous; and I now recollect when on the passage to India in 1809, that on observing a peculiar luminous appearance of the sea, we took up a bucket of water, and on examining it next morning, we observed a similar red grainy substance floating in it. It is the first time I have seen it here, and I cannot find that any body has paid any attention to it. Perhaps it is not worth noticing; but I am so much alone, that I have grown more and more alive to all the appearances of inanimate nature. Besides, I must make much of the country, as in a few days I have to take up my abode in one of the narrow close streets of Rio; and this not from choice. It is the custom here, and a very natural and pleasant one it is, for every family that can, to live in the country all the summer: so that the houses of every kind, in the country, are in great request. The term for which that I live in was hired is expired, and I am therefore obliged to leave it. My going to town, perhaps, might be avoided, but there are some things I shall probably learn more perfectly by living there; and, besides, does not Lord Bacon advise that in order to profit much from travel, one should not only move from city to city, "but change his lodgings from one end and part of the city to another?"
The last fortnight has been extremely foggy, and rather cold; and we have had some fierce thunder-storms, that seem almost to rock the mountains, and threaten to bring them down upon us.
16th.—At length I am fixed in No. 79., Rua dos Pescadores, in the first floor of an excellent house, belonging to my kind friend Dr. Dickson, who himself inhabits a villa out of town; where he has a farm, a garden, a collection of minerals and insects, and all sorts of agreeable and profitable things, which he dispenses to others with the greatest good-nature. I am obliged to Sir Thomas Hardy for a pleasant passage to town from Botafogo, his carriage conveying me, and his boats my goods: so in a few hours I have changed my home, and have probably taken my leave of all English society, every body has such a dread of the heat of the town. However, as I look forward to going to England in a few months, perhaps in a few weeks, the more time I have for Brazil the better. My private affairs have so occupied me that I have scarcely had time to think of the public. Yet in the course of the last week the project of the constitution for Brazil, framed by the committee appointed, was sent from the Assembly to the Emperor; and yesterday the discussion of it, article by article, began in the full assembly.
17th.—One advantage has already arisen from my removal into town. I have received the very first news of the arrival of a ship from Lisbon with commissioners on the part of the King to the Emperor. I find, too, that at Lisbon they can publish false news, as well as in some other countries in Europe. That city had illuminated in consequence of news that Lord Cochrane had been beaten, and the Imperial navy destroyed by the Bahia squadron; and this illumination must have taken place just about the time that Madeira was evacuating the city, and flying before the Imperial Admiral's flag. As to the reception the commissioners are to meet with, it is doubtful. Some days since the brig 3° de Maio arrived here, having on board Luiz Paolino as successor to Madeira; who, finding he could not get into Bahia, came hither, to present, it is said, his commission as governor of Bahia to His Imperial Majesty as Prince Regent; and it is also said that he was the bearer of some letters. But as none of these acknowledged the title, or independence of the empire of Brazil, they were not received; and the vessel has already sailed on her return to Lisbon. It is believed that the same fate will attend the present commissioners, Vieira and his colleague, if indeed the ship should not be condemned as a prize. But hitherto of course nothing is known.
Another vessel also arrived with intelligence of some moment from Buenos Ayres. It appears that the captain of His Majesty's ship Brazen has been at variance with the authorities there concerning the old subject of the right of boarding vessels, the priority of which the Buenos Ayrians claim for their own health-boat. The Commodore means to go thither himself on the business, and I have no doubt all will be well and reasonably settled.
18th.—I went to-day to the public library to ask about some books, and am invited to go and use what I like there: the librarians are all extremely polite, and the library is open to all persons for six hours daily.
I have also walked a great deal about the town, and have again visited the arsenals; in which very great improvements have been made and are making, particularly building sheds for the workmen. After an English arsenal, to be sure, the want of machinery and all the luxuries of labour is conspicuous; but the work is well done, and reminds me of that I used to see under the old Parsee builder in Bombay. They are laying down new ships and repairing old ones. I only wish they could form a nursery for seamen, because Brazil must have ships to guard her coasts. Fisheries off the Abrolhos, and from St. Catherine's, might perhaps do something towards it. From the arsenal I climbed the hill immediately overlooking it, where there is the convent of San Bento; where, it is said, there is a good library, but it is not accessible to women. The situation of the convent is delightful, overlooking both divisions of the harbour and the whole town, and the hills many a mile beyond. I am not sure whether a cloister or a prison, commanding a fine view, be preferable to one without. Whether the gazing on a beautiful scene be in itself a pleasure great enough to alleviate confinement; or whether it does not increase the longing for liberty in a way analogous to that in which a well-remembered air creates a longing, even to death, for the home where that air was first heard;—it seems to me as if, once imprisoned, I would break every association with liberty, and keep my eyes from wandering where my limbs must no longer bear me. However, I do suppose some may be, and some have been, happy in a cloister. I cannot envy them; I would fain not despise them.
September 19th.—Our little English world at Rio is grieving in one common mourning for the death of one of the youngest, and certainly the loveliest, of our countrywomen here. Beautiful and gay, and the lately married and cherished wife of a most worthy man, Mrs. N. died a short time after the birth of her first child. She had appeared to be recovering well; she relapsed and died. It is one of those events that excites sympathy in the hardest, and commiseration in the coldest.
23d.—I have been unwell again—but I find that staying at home does not cure me; so I went both yesterday and to-day to the library, where a pleasant, cool, little cabinet has been assigned to me, where whatever book I ask for is brought to me, and where I have pen, ink, and paper always placed to make notes. This is a kindness and attention to a woman and a stranger that I was hardly prepared for. The library was brought hither from Lisbon in 1810, and placed in its present situation, which was once the hospital belonging to the Carmelites. That hospital was removed to a healthier and more commodious situation, and the rooms, admirably adapted to the purpose, received the books, of which there are between sixty and seventy thousand volumes. The greater number are books of theology and law. There is a great deal of ecclesiastical history, and particularly all the Jesuits' accounts of South America. General and civil history are not wanting; and there are good editions of the classics. There are some fine works on natural history; but, excepting these, nothing modern; scarcely a book having been bought for sixty years. But a noble addition was made to the establishment by the purchase of the Conde de Barca's library; in which there are some valuable modern works, and a very fine collection of topographical prints of all parts of the world.
I have begun to read diligently every scrap of Brazilian history I can find; and I have commenced by a collection of pamphlets, newspapers, some MS. letters and proclamations, from the year 1576 to 1757, bound up together[124]; some of these tracts Mr. Southey mentions, others he probably had not seen, but they contain nothing very material that he has not in his history. This morning's study of Brazilian history in the original language is one great advantage I derive from my removal into town. Besides which, I speak now less English than Portuguese.
24th.—Having now received the portrait which Mr. Erle, an ingenious young English artist, has been painting of the Senhora Alerez Dona Maria de Jesus, I took it to show it to her friend and patron, Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva.
I never spend half an hour any where with more pleasure and profit than with the ex-minister's family. His lady is of Irish parentage, an O'Leary, a most amiable and kind woman, and truly appreciating the worth and talent of her husband; and all the nephews and other relations I meet there appear superior in education and understanding to the generality of persons I see. But it is Jose Bonifacio himself who attracts and interests me most. He is a small man, with a thin lively countenance; and his manner and conversation at once impress the beholder with the idea of that restless activity of mind which
"O'er-informs its tenement of clay,"
and is but too likely to wear out the body that contains it. The first time I saw him in private was after he ceased to be minister, his occupations before that time leaving him little leisure for private society. I was curious to see the retreat of a public man. I found him surrounded by young people and children, some of whom he took on his knee and caressed; and I could easily see that he was very popular among the small people. To me, as a stranger, he was most ceremoniously yet kindly polite, and conversed on all subjects and of all countries. He has visited most of those of Europe.
His library is well stored with books in all languages. The collection on chemistry and on mining is particularly extensive, and rich in Swedish and German authors. These, indeed, are subjects peculiarly interesting to Brazil, and have naturally been of first-rate interest to him. But his delight is classical literature; and he is himself a poet of no mean order. Perhaps my knowledge of Portuguese does not entitle me to judge particularly on the vehicle or language of his poetry; but if lofty thoughts, new and beautiful combinations, keen sensibility, and a love of beauty and of nature, be essential to poetry, the poems he read to me to-day have them all. There is one in particular, on the Creation of Woman, glowing as the sun under which it was written, and as pure as his light. Perhaps it derived some of its merit from his manner of reading it, which, though not what is called fine reading, is full of character and intelligence.
To-day, Jose Bonifacio gave me a translation from Meleager, which seems to me very beautiful. It was written at Lisbon in 1816, and two or three copies printed by one of his friends, and the last of these is now mine.[125]
Let no one say, 'that he is too miserable for any comfort to reach him. I am alone, and a widow, and in a foreign land; my health weak, my nerves irritable, and having neither wealth nor rank; forced to receive obligations painful and discordant with my former habits and prejudices, and often meeting with impertinence from those who take advantage of my solitary situation: but I am nevertheless sure that I have more half-hours, I dare not say hours, of true enjoyment, and fewer days of real misery, than half of those whom the world accounts happy. And I thank God, who gave me the temper to feel grief exquisitely, that he at the same time gave me an equal capacity for joy. And it is a joy to find minds that can understand and communicate with our own; to meet occasionally with persons of similar habits of thinking, and who, when the business of life rests a while, seek recreation in the same pursuits. This delight I do oftener enjoy than I could have hoped, so far from cultivated Europe. One or two of my friends are, indeed, like costly jewels, not to be worn every day; but there are several of sterling metal that even here disarm the ills of this "working-day world" of half their sting.
Sept. 26th, 1823.—A marriage in high life engages many of the talkers of Rio. A fidalgo, an officer distinguished under Beresford, Don Francisco——, whose other name I have forgotten, is fortunate enough to have obtained one of the loveliest grand-daughters of the Baroness de Campos, Maria de Loreto; whose extraordinary likeness to our own Princess Charlotte of Wales is such, that I am sure no English person can have seen her without being struck with it. Here, no unmarried women are allowed to be present at a marriage; but the ceremony is performed in the presence of the nearest relations, being married, on both sides. The mother of the bride sends notice to court, if she be of rank to do so, afterwards to other ladies, according to their degree, of the marriage of her daughter. The bride then goes to court; after which the ladies visit her, and proceed to congratulate the other members of the family. It is said this match is one in which the lawful lord of such things, i.e. Master Cupid, has had more to do than he is usually allowed to have in Brazil, even since it was independent; and truly a handsomer couple will not often be seen. I am glad of it. Surely free choice on such an important subject is as much to be desired as on any other. On this occasion,
as my favourite Cowley says; and I hope we shall have more such free matches in our free Brazil, where, hitherto, the course of true love is apt not to run smooth, that is, if my informants on the subject are in the right. Seriously, perhaps there has not hitherto been refinement enough for the delicate metaphysical love of Europe; which, because it is more rational, more noble, than all others, is less easily turned aside into other channels. Grandison or Clarissa could not have been written here; but I think ere long we may look for the polish and prudent morals of Belinda.
Sept. 29th.—I went to the orphan asylum, which is also the foundling hospital. The orphan boys are apprenticed at a proper age. The girls have a portion of 200 milrees; which, though little, assists in their establishment, and is often eked out from other funds. The house is exceedingly clean, and so are the beds for the foundling children, only three of whom are now in-door nurslings, the rest being placed out in the country. Till lately they have died in a proportion frightful compared with their numbers.[126] Within little more than nine years, 10,000 children have been received: these were placed out at nurse, and many were never accounted for. Not perhaps that they all died, because the temptation of retaining a mulatto child as a slave, would most likely secure care of its life; but the white ones had not even this chance of safety. Besides, the wages paid for the nursing of each was formerly so little, that the poor creatures who received them could hardly have afforded them the means of subsistence. A partial amendment has taken place, and still greater improvements are about to be made. There is a great want of medical treatment. Many of the foundlings are placed in the wheel[127], full of disease, fever, or more often a dreadful species of itch called sarna, and which is often fatal to them. Nay, dead children are also brought, that they may be decently interred.
The English Burial Ground.
The English Burial Ground.
From the asylum, I crossed the street to the great hospital of the Misericordia. It is a fine building, and has plenty of room; but it is not in so good a state as might be wished: there are usually four hundred patients, and the number of deaths very great; but I could not learn the exact proportion. The medical department is in great want of reform. The insane ward interested me most of all: it is on the ground floor, very cold and damp; and most of those placed in it die speedily of consumptive complaints. I found here a contradiction to the vulgar opinion, that hydrophobia is not known in Brazil. A poor negro had been bitten by a mad dog a month ago; he did not seem very ill till yesterday morning, when he was sent here. He was at the grate of his cell as we passed him, in a deplorable state: knowing the gentleman who was with me, he had hoped he would release him from confinement; this of course could not be: he expired a few hours after we saw him. The burial-ground of the Misericordia is so much too small as to be exceedingly disgusting, and, I should imagine, unwholesome for the neighbourhood. I had long wished to do what I have done to-day. I think the more persons that show an interest in such establishments the better: it fixes attention upon them; and that of itself must do good. Yet my courage had hitherto failed, and I owe the excursion of this morning to accident rather than design.
I rode this evening to the protestant burial-ground, at the Praya de Gamboa. I think it one of the loveliest spots I ever beheld, commanding beautiful views every way. It slopes gradually towards the road along the shore: at the highest point there is a pretty building, consisting of three chambers; one serves as a place of meeting or waiting for the clergyman occasionally; one as a repository for the mournful furniture of the grave; and the largest, which is between the other two, is generally occupied by the body of the dead for the few hours, it may be a day and a night, which can in this climate elapse between death and burial: in front of this are the various stones, and urns, and vain memorials we raise to relieve our own sorrow; and between these and the road, some magnificent trees. Three sides of this field are fenced by rock or wood. Even Crabbe's fanciful and delicate Jane might have thought without pain of sleeping here.[128] In my illness I had often felt sorry that I had not seen this ground. I am satisfied now; and if my still lingering weakness should lay me here, the very, very few who may come to see where their friend lies will feel no disgust at the prison-house.
30th.—I called at a very agreeable Brazilian lady's house to-day; and saw, for the first time in my life, a regular Brazilian bas-blue in the person of Dona Maria Clara: she reads a good deal, especially philosophy and politics; she is a tolerable botanist, and draws flowers exceedingly well; besides, she is what I think it is Miss Edgeworth calls "a fetcher and carrier of bays,"—a useful member of society, who, without harming herself or others, circulates the necessary literary news, and would be invaluable where new authors want puffing, and new poems should have the pretty passages pointed out for the advantage of literary misses. Here, alas! such kindly offices are confined to comparing the rival passages in the Correiro and the Sentinella, or advocating the cause of the editor of the Sylpho or the Tamoyo. But, in sober earnest, I was delighted to find such a lady. Without arrogating much more than is due to the sex, it may claim some small influence over the occupations and amusements of home; and the woman who brings books instead of cards or private scandal into the domestic circle, is likely to promote a more general cultivation, and a more refined taste, in the society to which she belongs.
October 1st, 1823.—The court and city are in a state of rejoicing. Lord Cochrane has secured Maranham for the Emperor. Once more I break in on my own rule, and copy part of his letter to me:—
"Maranham, August 12th, 1823.
"My dear Madam,
"You would receive a few lines from me, dated from off Bahia, and also from the latitude of Pernambuco, saying briefly what we were about then. And now I have to add, that we followed the Portuguese squadron to the fifth degree of north latitude, and until only thirteen sail remained together out of seventy of their convoy; and then, judging it better for the interests of His Imperial Majesty, I hauled the wind for Maranham; and I have the pleasure to tell you, that my plan of adding it to the empire has had complete success. I ran in with this ship abreast of their forts; and having sent a notice of blockade, and intimated that the squadron of Bahia and Imperial forces were off the bar, the Portuguese flag was hauled down, and every thing went on without bloodshed, just as you could wish. We have found here a Portuguese brig of war, a schooner, and eight gun-boats; also sixteen merchant vessels, and a good deal of property belonging to Portuguese resident in Lisbon, deposited in the custom-house. The brig of war late the Infante Don Miguel, now the Maranham, is gone down with Grenfell to summon Para, where there is a beautiful newly-launched fifty-gun frigate, which I have no doubt but he has got before now. Thus, my dear Madam, on my return I shall have the pleasure to acquaint His Imperial Majesty, that between the extremities of his empire there exists no enemy either on shore or afloat. This will probably be within the sixth month from our sailing from Rio, and at this moment is actually the case."
Together with this letter, His Lordship has sent me the public papers concerning the taking possession of the place for the Emperor, and the officer who brought the despatches has obligingly favoured me with farther particulars; so that I believe the following to be a correct account, as far as it goes, of the whole.
As soon as it was perceived on board the Pedro Primeiro, by the orders given by Lord Cochrane for the course of the ship, that he had resolved on going to Maranham, the pilots became uneasy on account of the dangerous navigation of the coast, and, as they said, the impossibility of entering the harbour in so large a ship. I have often felt that there was something very captivating in the word impossible. The Admiral, however, had better motives, and had skill and knowledge to support his perseverance; and so on the 26th of July, he entered the bay of San Luis de Maranham, under English colours. Seeing a vessel of war off the place, he sent a boat on board; and though some of the sailors recognised two of the boat's crew, the officer, Mr. Shepherd, performed his part so well, that he obtained all the necessary information; and the Admiral then went in with his ship, and anchored under fort San Francisco. Thence he sent in the following papers to the city.
"Address to the Authorities.