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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ON BRAZIL: ITS CLIMATE AND PEOPLE.

BY ROBERT DUNDAS, M.D.,

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

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

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

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

Rio Grande do Sul.—The summer temperature is 87° to 88°; the winter, 40° to 44°.

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

Saint Paul.—Mean temperature, 72°.

Minas Geraes.—Max., 84° summer; min., 54° winter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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