Chapter I: Voyage from England to Rio de Janeiro (19)

Serenhen, founded in 1627 with the name of Villa Formoza, situated on an eminence upon the margin and seven miles above the mouth of the river from which it borrows the name, is small, and has a church, dedicated to Our Lady of Conceiçao, two hermitages, and a convent of Franciscans. Its environs are remarkable for fertility, abounding with water and rich plantations of cane.

St. Antonio, so called after the patron of its church, is nine miles north-west of Cape St. Augustin, near the margin of the Parapamba, and has two hermitages, one of St. Braz, the other of Our Lady of Rozario. It was erected into a town in 1812.

St. Antao, situated near the small river Tapacora, and created a town in 1812, has a church dedicated to the same saint, and two chapels of Rozario and Livramento, and a market every week. It produces much cotton.

Amongst other places and considerable parishes in this comarca, is to be remarked the Ipojuca, upon the margin of the river from which it derives its name, two leagues distant from the sea, with a church of St. Miguel, and a convent of Franciscans.

Muribeca, with a church of Nossa Senhora of Rozario, a hermitage of the same name, and another of Livramento, is situated between the Recife and Cape St. Augustin, about three miles from the sea. Sugar is the produce of both these places.

Porto Calvo, a middling town with some commerce, and a church of Our Lady of Aprezentaçao, is situated upon the margin of the river, from which it takes the name, and twenty miles from the sea. Bom Successo was its first name; to its haven formerly smacks arrived with the tide. It is the native place of the mulatto Calabar, who, passing over to the Dutch in 1632, was to them a great acquisition, and to the Pernambucans a great injury; until he was delivered to the latter, as a reward for their services, in order that he might receive the chastisement due to his perfidy. At the taking of this town, a nephew of the Dutch general, Count Nassau lost his life, and the celebrated Preto Henrique Dias part of an arm. The latter afterwards distinguished himself in the battle of the mountains of Gararappes.

Alagoas, so called from having its site upon a southern portion of the lake Manguaba, created with the name of Magdalen, is considerable, head of the comarca of its name, and the ordinary residence of the ouvidor, who is also inspector of the woods of the royal marine. It has a church of Nossa Senhora of Conceiçao, a convent of Franciscans, another of slippered Carmelites, two orders of devout women, three chapels, with the titles of Amparo, Rozario, and Bom Fim, and a royal professorship of Latin. At all times it is well supplied with fish; and abounds in the jaca and orange tree. In the beginning of last century was exported from the district of this town, two thousand five hundred rolls of tobacco, of eight arrobas each, and of such good quality, that it was bought at fifty per cent. dearer than the same article from Bahia. Sugar is at the present day the riches of its inhabitants. A custom-house has been recently established within its jurisdiction, in consequence of the considerable increase in the commerce of this comarca.

Atalaya, six leagues distant from the preceding place, three by water, and the rest by land, is in a fertile and wholesome country, possessing excellent water, and having a church of Nossa Senhora das Brotas. Its neighbourhood abounds with ipecacuanha, and cotton is cultivated with the common provisions of the country. The number of its inhabitants, including those of its district, amount to nearly two thousand; part of them are _Caboclos_,[39] white, and with more regular features than any other known tribe of Indians.

Anadia, a middling sized town, with a church of the Lady of Piety, is fourteen leagues from Alagoas. Its inhabitants are Indians, Europeans, whites of the country, and Mestiços, in number about ten thousand, including those of the district; almost all are cultivators or purchasers of cotton, its principal produce. By the same law, of 15th December, 1815, which gave to the town of Penedo a Juiz de Fora, were created the towns of Maceyo and Porto de Pedras.

Maceyo is a dismemberment of the Alagoas, having a district of more than seven leagues of coast, computing from the river Alagoas to the St. Antonio Grande. In this interval the following rivers run into the sea:--The Doce, which is short, and comes from a small lake; the Paratiji, the St. Antonio Mirim, and the Paripueira, which receives the Cabuçu on the right, near its mouth. Maceyo is becoming a place of some commerce, and will be the emporium of the trade of the comarca of Alagoas. One English establishment already exists here, and shipments are made direct from hence to Great Britain. An European first settling in any of the towns of Brazil, and particularly in places of this class, makes a sacrifice of all the comforts common to well regulated society.

Porto de Pedras is a dismemberment of Porto Calvo; its district embraces nearly nine leagues of coast, occupying the interval from the aforesaid river St. Antonio Grande to the Manguape. The Cumuriji and the Tatuamuhy are the principal rivers that empty themselves upon its shores. The two last towns have each two ordinary judges, and one of orphans; three _veradores_, or species of aldermen, a procurador of the council, a treasurer, two clerks of the market, an alcaide, with a scrivener of his office, two public scriveners, judicial and notarial, the first of which holds that office in the council, also in the customs, and is market clerk; the second also belongs to the office of scrivener of the orphans.

Poxim, a small town upon the margin of the river of the same name, which enters the sea three leagues to the north-east of Cururippe, has a large bridge, and a church dedicated to Our Lady of Madre de Deos. It is two miles from the ocean, is well supplied with fish, and has in its district the new and yet small aldeia of Our Lady of Conceiçao, so called after the patroness of the chapel which ornaments it; and where upon festival days are assembled six hundred families, dispersed around its neighbourhood. It is situated near the river Cururippe, four miles from the sea; and its good port, where at present is only laden some timber and oil of the _mamona_, with the fertility of the interior territory, will contribute to render this a considerable place at some future day. The land in the proximity of the shore is sandy, and well adapted to the cajue-nut tree, which, in a short time grows to a large size, and its fruit would furnish a branch of commerce.

Penedo, a considerable, populous, and commercial town, is situated partly in a plain along the bank of the river St. Francisco, and occasionally suffering by its inundations, and partly upon a height at the extremity of a range, which is the first elevated land met with on the northern margin, on ascending this river. Besides the church dedicated to Nossa Senhora of Rozario, there is a hermitage with the same title; another of the Lady of Corrente; others of St. Gonçalo d’Amarante, St. Gonçalo Garcia, and a convent of Franciscans, whose ill appropriated grounds occupy a situation the best suited for the improvement of the povoaçao. It has a royal Latin master, and a good house for the ouvidor. The houses were, till lately, miserable buildings of wood; there are now many of stone, with two or three stories, having portals of a species of grindstone. The river is here near a mile in width, and the highest tide is three feet. The greatest height of the river, that can be remembered, reached twenty feet. It is about twenty-five miles from hence to the mouth of the river. The confessional roll, which is a tolerably correct one, estimates the population at eleven thousand five hundred and four, including that of the district. By a law of the 15th of December, 1805, a Juiz de Fora was granted to this town.

About twenty-five miles higher up, on the margin of the St. Francisco, in a delightful situation, is the parish of Collegio, whose dwellers only amount to ninety families, and are mostly Indians, of three different nations. The Acconans who lived in the district of Logoa Comprida, a few miles higher up the river: the Carapotos, who inhabited the serra of Cuminaty: and the Cayriris, who dwelt in the vicinity of the serra which takes from them its name. The main part of this colony wander about when not occupied in fishing, according to the custom of their ancestors, through a country six miles along the river, and three broad, which was given to them for the purposes of agriculture. The wives of these lazy poltroons work daily in making earthenware, seated on the ground. They begin to make an earthen vessel by working the clay on a banana leaf, placed upon their knees; afterwards it is put upon a large dish, with pulverized ashes, when it receives the form and last finish. Without any assistance from the men, they procure and work up the clay, proceed to fetch the wood in order to set up large fires every Saturday night for hardening the vessels made during the week. The church was a Jesuitical chapel, which the district already possessed.

In this comarca is the considerable arraial of St. Miguel, upon the margin and seven leagues above the mouth of the river of the same name. It has a church of Nossa Senhora of O, whose parishioners amount to fifteen hundred, the main part dispersed.

The western portion of the province is much more extensive than the preceding, but is very thinly inhabited, being a sterile and parched up country, without other rains than those afforded by thunder showers. In all parts, however, are met with portions of ground more or less fertile, which would produce mandioca, Indian corn, feijao, hortulans, cottons, fruits, and the sugar cane. Cattle are generally bred in this vast district, and game abounds in great variety. It was included in the jurisdiction of the ouvidor of Jacobina until 1810, when it became a comarca, receiving the interior portion of that of Recife. It is at present called the ouvidorship of the certam of Pernambuco, the magistrate not having chosen the town for its head, by which it ought to be designated. Cattle, hides, cotton, salt, and gold, are the articles of its exportation.

RIVERS.--The Rio Grande and the Correntes are the only considerable rivers.

The river St. Francisco, whose description we left off at the confluence of the Carinhenha, only receives from thence to its entrance into the ocean, five streams of any importance, namely, the Rans, the Parimirim, the Verde, on the right, the Correntes, one hundred miles below the first, and the Rio Grande, one hundred and forty lower on the left, continuing from thence northward, with many small windings, being of considerable width, and having many islands and some currents which do not impede navigation. Its margins are flat, and in some parts so low, that at the inundations, they are submerged for more than seven miles. Below the confluence of Rio Grande, its course bends towards the east, and then to the east-south-east, preserving the same width for a long way, to the aldeia of Vargem Redonda, where the navigation terminates from above, and the lateral lands begin to rise. Its channel gradually becomes narrower, and the current is rapidly impelled between blue and black rocks, to the small aldeia of Caninde, (the boundary of the navigation from the ocean,) which is seventy miles below the other. In this interval there are various large falls, of which the most interesting and famous is that of Paulo Affonso. Between these falls canoes navigate during the summer season. Through Caninde it continues to run between stony banks, thinly covered with soil and an impoverished vegetation, being one hundred fathoms in height, the width of the river not exceeding a sling’s throw for the distance of ten miles, to the mouth of the Jacare, where its elevated and rugged banks terminate. Its bed in this part is overspread with cleft reefs, appearing like the relics of a majestic sluice or dock.

Three leagues below is the small island of Ferro, where the margins begin to diminish in elevation, and the river to augment in width, exhibiting crowns of white sand, the resort of the ash-coloured and white heron, and where myriads of black diving birds assemble; forming themselves like a net, they encircle the fish in shoal places, not infested by the dreaded _piranha_ fish. Here the sea-mew, and other aquatic birds, make their nests in small holes, their young being hatched by the heat of the sun.

Six leagues below the island of Ferro, is that of Oiro, also small, high, and rocky, crowned with a hermitage of Nossa Senhora of Prazeres. These are the only islands met with in the space of one hundred miles from Caninde to the town of Penedo, where the small range of hills that borders the left bank of the river terminates. Two miles below Villa Nova, the elevation of the right margin also has its bounds, and the river begins to divide its course, forming a great number of islands, generally low, and abounding with woods, giving them an agreeable aspect. They possess portions of fertile soil, where some rice, maize, mandioca, sugar, and hortulans, are cultivated. Some are sandy, others are composed of grey clay, with a bed of black above, about a foot in depth and above this another, of yellow earth, from three to four spans in thickness. The whole are submerged at the period of the overflowings of this great river. The cassia tree is here numerous, and extremely beautiful while blooming with its rosy flowers. It affords a sort of husky fruit, two spans in length, and of proportionable thickness, and abounds on both margins of the river for about thirty-five miles above the town of Penedo. This river, so deep in the interior of the continent, disembogues by two mouths of very unequal size; the principal one is on the north, being near two miles wide, with so little depth that the smacks can enter it only at high water, and there wait for the full tides to get out. The navigation from the falls, upwards, is performed in barks and _ajojos_, which are two or more canoes moored together with cross pieces of timber above. All produce descending the river below the falls is disembarked at Vargem Redonda, a district of the parish and julgado of Tacaratu, and transmitted on oxen to the port of Caninde, or Piranhas, which is two miles lower down. The navigation from hence to Penedo, is solely by the ajojos, and upwards always with a sail. The wind is favourable from eight o’clock of the day to the following morning’s dawn, but not without variation according to the age of the moon and the state of the weather; always increasing at evening, and frequently becoming quite calm before midnight. These craft descend always with a strong current, whilst there is no wind to produce an agitation of the water. When the breeze is high the current diminishes, and the river rises above a span. Fish is more abundant above the falls, which difference, the oldest men say originated in the extirpating system of fishing with what are called _tapagens_, a mode of enclosing them, and which was unjustly countenanced by the chief magistrates, who drew from this abuse considerable revenues, which disappeared without leaving to the public one signal of its expenditure. The most valuable fish of this river are the _sorubin_, which grows to the size of a man; the _mandin_, four feet in length, and proportionably thick, with large beards; the _pira_, two feet long; and the _piranha_, which is short and thick, with very sharp teeth, and fatal to all living creatures that come within its reach. None of these fish have scales. The _camurin_, with a white stripe on both sides; and the _camurupin_, are both thick and scaly.

The dogs, as if by a natural instinct, do not approach the waters that are muddy, but drink only at those parts where there is a current, from an innate dread of the _piranhas_, which lurk about with destructive intent in the dead waters.

The Correntes, which has a course of about one hundred and forty miles, issues from a lake, and runs first under the name of Formozo, receiving another river of the same name, and afterwards the Eguas, Guara, and Arrojado. It affords navigation for a considerable space, and disembogues into the St. Francisco ten miles below the chapel of Bom Jesus da Lappa. All the branches mentioned issue from the skirts or proximity of the serra of Paranan. Some run through auriferous countries, where mining has originated only a few years, and which has been the occasion of founding in the vicinity of the river Eguas a chapel of Our Lady of Glory, whose parish contained six hundred and eighty-four families, with one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight adults, in the year 1809; many being breeders of cattle, others agriculturists.

The Rio Grande, whose original name is not known, and for which the present one was substituted, in consequence of the ridiculous and prevailing custom in the Brazil of designating many large rivers, of various districts, by the term of Rio Grande, (Large River,) thereby creating a confusion of names, has fifty leagues of course, and originates in the serra of Paranan, near the register of St. Domingos, about five leagues from the source of the Guara, a branch of the Correntes. After flowing a considerable way, the Mosquito joins it, and five leagues lower the Femeas, which rises fifteen miles from Serra Tabatinga; twelve miles further it is entered by the Ondas, which originates eight miles from the preceding, and nearer the Sobrado, an arm of the Tucantines, and runs rapidly through a gold and diamond country. Fifteen miles below, it receives the Branco, navigable to the situation of Tres Barras, so called in consequence of the union with it of the Riachao and the Janeiro, which enter in front of each other; seventy miles lower also on the left, the Preto joins, which is one of its largest tributaries, and rises in the skirts of the Serra Figuras, which is a continuation of that of Mangabeiro, from whence issue the other branches mentioned, excepting the Riachao. Its first name is the river of Doirados, and its current of clear water is rapidly impelled through a winding bed, edged with steep margins. It passes near the village of Formoza, which has a hermitage of Senhor do Bom Fim, and by the parish of St. Ritta, which is forty miles below the other, and the same distance above the mouth of the river. The Rio Grande, which enters the St. Francisco fifty miles below the confluence of the Preto, is navigable to the mouth of the Ondas, and without falls to the Branco, passes the parish of St. Anna de Campo Largo, which is thirty-five miles above the embouchure of the Preto; it is well stored with the _sorubin_, _crumatan_, large _doirados_, the _piranha_, _piau_, _martrinchan_, and other sorts of fish. Its water has a very different colour from the river which receives it, and remains unchanged for a considerable distance after entering the St. Francisco.

The towns of this ouvidoria are,

Barra do Rio Grande
Santa Maria
Flores
Pilao Arcado
Assumpçao
Symbres.

The town of Barra do Rio Grande is at the northern angle of the confluent which affords it the name, is in a state of mediocrity, well supplied with meat and fish, and has some commerce. The church is dedicated to St. Francisco das Chagas; and the number of its inhabitants is included in one thousand and thirty-six families. The passage of the St. Francisco, here a mile wide, is much frequented.

Pilao Arcado, created a town in 1810, is one hundred miles below the preceding, and is well situated near a small hill upon the margin of the St. Francisco, its only resource for water, and whose greatest inundations always visit it with some injury. The church, dedicated to St. Antonio, is new, and solidly built with bricks and lime. The houses are generally earth and wood, and many of them covered with straw. It has three hundred families, which are increasing, and, with those of its vast district, comprise five thousand inhabitants, who cultivate mandioca, maize, vegetables, good melons, and water-melons, upon the margins of the river. The land around it is generally wild and sterile, and alone appropriated to the breeding of cattle, which are subject to the horrible mortality, produced by frequent droughts. There are a great many small lakes, at various distances from the river, all more or less brackish, and upon whose margins the salt, formed by the ardent heat of the sun, appears like hoarfrost. The water of these lakes (and even soft water) filtered through a contiguous earth in wooden vessels, or leather finely perforated, and exposed on boards to the weather, in eight days of heat crystallizes, becoming salt as white as marine salt. Although in lands which have proprietors, they are, like auriferous soils, reputed common to all those who wish to benefit by them, and are a great resource for the poor, almost all the salt here produced is transmitted to the centre of Minas Geraes.

Villa Real de Santa Maria, situated upon an island three miles long, and a great distance below the preceding, has the aspect of an aldeia, with one hundred and sixty families, chiefly Indians, who are hunters, fishermen, and agriculturists, and are exempt from tribute. Their wives spin and weave cotton, and work in the manufactory of earthenware, of which a considerable portion is exported.

The town of N. Senhora d’Assumpçao takes the name from the patroness of its church. The inhabitants, comprising one hundred and fifty-four families, are all Indians; they fish, hunt, and cultivate mandioca, maize, water-melons, hortulans, and cotton. It is at the western extremity of an island eighteen miles long, and the same distance below the preceding town. In front of this island is the middling arraial and julgado of Quebrobo, with a church of Conceiçao, whose parishioners, about eighteen hundred and twenty-seven families of all complexions, are mostly dispersed over its vast district. Cotton and cattle are their productions.

Flores, erected into a town in the year 1810, is yet small and in the vicinity of the river Pajehu. A filial chapel of the parish of Quebrobo serves it for a church. The inhabitants draw their subsistence from the breeding of cattle, and the culture of cotton.

Symbres, formerly Ororoba, is a small town of Chucuru Indians, with some whites and mesticos, cultivators of cotton and the provisions of the country. The wives of the first make earthenware with considerable art, and spin and weave cotton. They utter great lamentations when their husbands do not bring home game from the woods. The church is dedicated to the Lady of the Mountain; and its population consists of four hundred and eighty families.

The considerable arraial, julgado, and parish of St. Antonio, in the district of Garanhuns, bordering upon the preceding, is of this comarca, having been, with the latter one, dismembered from that of the Recife. Its people grow cotton.

In this ouvidorship is also the parish of St. Anna do Sacramento do Angical, dismembered from that of Campo Largo, from which it is distant thirty miles, and ten from the margin of the Rio Grande.

Having concluded the description of the province, we will now proceed to a consideration of its capital, commonly called Pernambuco, (which name is a corruption of Paranabuco, by which the Cahetes designated the port, where at the present day the smallest class of vessels anchor,) and is understood to comprehend two distinct places, the city of Ollinda and the town of Recife, (so called from the reef in front of it,) with an interval of a league, communicating by a narrow sand-bank from north to south, also by an arm of the sea that enters the small river Biberibe, which runs along the said sand-bank from one place to the other, and likewise by a road on the main land, at no great distance from the western margin of the same river.

RECIFE, which is the official designation of the capital, the government documents being so signed, is large, populous, and commercial, with tolerable houses, handsome churches, a convent of priests of the congregation of Oratorio, another of Franciscans, a third of slippered Carmelites, an alms and entertaining house of Terra Santa, another of Italian Barbonios, a recolhimento of women, an episcopal palace, and an hospital of Lazarettos. The Jesuits had a college here, which now constitutes the palace of the governors. This town is divided into three portions, or districts, by the river Capibaribe, namely, Recife, St. Antonio, and Boavista. Each of these forms a separate parish, and they communicate by two bridges; that of Boavista, which is chiefly of wood, and paved, is three hundred and twenty paces long; that of St. Antonio, two hundred and ninety paces across, was in great part of stone, but having given way, the remainder is imperfectly supplied with wood, not admitting of the passage of a carriage, and has been allowed to remain for a considerable time in this condition, so disreputable to the town. At each end it has a stone arch of rather an elegant construction, above which there are small chapels, niches, and saints, where mass is celebrated. In the street, fronting the niches with saints, many of the inhabitants prostrate themselves, at dusk, for some time in a posture of devotion. The bridges are flat and not many feet above the level of the sea.

The first part, or the Recife, occupies a peninsula, and is the emporium of the town’s commerce, the stores of the merchants being situated in it. The tongue of land, or sand-bank before mentioned, which extends itself from Ollinda to the south between the sea and the river Biberibe, terminates here. It is the site of the custom-house, which of itself is an indifferent edifice. The Rua das Cruzes is the best street, and although short is wide and neat; the others are mostly paved, but are narrow and inelegant. Its church, which is handsome, and commonly designated Corpo Santo, has for its nominal patron St. Pedro Gonsalvez.

The second portion of the town, called St. Antonio, occupies another peninsula, which is the northern extremity of the island, formed by two arms of the Capibaribe. It was first planted with cocoa-nut trees by Prince Nassau, the Dutch governor, who erected Fribourg House for his own residence, and founded the town of Mauritius upon it. It has better streets than the Recife, although generally sandy, and not paved, with high footways laid with bricks. Here is a small square, surrounded with neat houses, having only a ground floor, with a piazza to the interior front, and may be denominated a species of bazar, consisting solely of shops, where a variety of articles are sold. The mother church is dedicated to SS. Sacramento. The treasury and the governor’s palace are situated here. The latter is not the residence of the governor, but contains various public offices, and is used for a sort of levee, held upon occasions of the birthday of any of the royal family.

The third part of the town, called Boavista, is the only portion susceptible of any considerable increase, being situated on the continent. It has advanced in magnitude with the others, but is destitute of regularity, which may be attributed to the negligence of the senate in not having marked out the streets in right lines at its commencement. Its church is also dedicated to SS. Sacramento. Here also the Dutch governor built the first house, which he called Boavista, and, being a Portuguese name, the place has retained it. These three portions, running in a line from east to west, form this large and flourishing town, which, besides the governor, has an ouvidor, a port admiral, a Juiz de Fora, each of them having various inspections, and three royal professors of Latin, one of philosophy, and another of eloquence and poetry. The usual junta, or council da fazenda real, to decide upon all matters relative to the province, is composed of the governor, the ouvidor, the Juiz de Fora, the attorney-general, the port admiral, the chief of the treasury, and the judge or comptroller of the custom-house, who hold their sittings at the treasury. The suburbs are an extensive plain, with handsome cocoa-nut tree groves, interspersed with _sitios_, or country-houses. The inhabitants drink the water principally of the Biberibe, collected into a reservoir at Ollinda, formed by a sort of barrier, denominated a _varadoiro_, which impedes the further advance of the tide, and accumulates the fresh water above. This bulwark, which also serves as a bridge or passage over the river to Ollinda, is in part covered by a handsome archway, below which the water passes through circular spouts, and at the other parts by larger and square channels; presenting altogether twenty-four mouths, from whence the water issues in spray, forming many pleasing cascades. From hence it is conveyed in covered canoes for the supply of the Recife. The water of the Capibaribe is also brought in canoes from Monteiro.

The port of Recife, which is not deep enough for vessels of a large class, is amongst the most wonderful works of nature. A recife, or chain of reef, which extends itself from the entrance of Bahia to Cape St. Roque, parallel with and at no great distance from the shore, in no part appears so much like an operation of human art as here. It is prolonged for the space of a league in a direct line with and about two hundred yards from the beach, having the aspect of a large flat wall, being always above the level of the sea, and at low water six feet is discovered. This reef, which is perpendicular on the land side, and gradually declining on the other, here suddenly disappears opposite the most northern part of the Recife, having on its extremity the fort of Picao, and forming a fine harbour, which must have been the sole inducement for the foundation of the capital in this situation. Vessels entering the port navigate as near as possible to the internal side of the reef, where they require much depth till they arrive at the most commodious place of anchorage. The occasionally agitated ocean here finds its bounds, and dashes in tumultuous and angry waves against the reef, the foaming spray not disturbing the smooth water within, but affording a delightfully cooling freshness, as well as an interesting spectacle, to the houses situated upon the beach, and principally occupied in stores by the merchants. Large ships anchor to the north of the fort of Picao, in a bay without shelter, fronting the forts of Brun and Buraco, situated upon the before-mentioned sand-bank. The fort of Brun, which the Dutch commenced on the 25th of June, 1631, and gave it the name of a maternal relative of their General Theodore, had for some time among the Pernambucanans the appellation of Perreril.

This place, while yet of little consequence, was taken by the Dutch in 1630, who retained it for twenty-four years, and did more for it in public works during that time, as was candidly admitted to me by a Portuguese gentleman holding a public situation here, than has ever been done since. Among the monuments which attest the spirit of improvement that marked the Dutch possession of this part of the Brazil, there is (or was a few years ago) a stone of European marble bearing the following inscription:

Op Gebouwt
onder
D’Hooge Regeringe
van
Præsid^t en Raden,
Anno MDCLII.[40]

This stone was seen by several of the English merchants within the last three years at the door of the church of Corpo Santo, among the masonry work destined for the completion of this fine edifice; but it certainly is not introduced into the walls of the building, nor could I discover any trace of it.

The before-mentioned forts, and that of Cinco Pontas, at the southern extremity of St. Antonio, are the principal ones that defend the place; the two first are in good order.

A league to the south of Recife, near the southern arm of the Capibaribe, is the arraial of Affogadas, which is increasing, and is ornamented with three hermitages, of Nossa Senhora of Paz, of Rozario, and of St. Miguel. There is here a wooden bridge communicating with St. Antonio.

The city of Ollinda, which, as has been observed, constitutes a part of Pernambuco, was burnt by the Dutch in 1631, and is beautifully situated upon a cluster of eminences, which are the commencement of a small cordillera, that extends itself towards the interior of the continent. It was in former times rich, flourishing, and powerful, and was erected into an episcopal city in the year 1676, but continued to fall into decay, and is at present poor and thinly inhabited, owing to the vicinity of the town of Recife, which has deprived it of all its commerce. It is, however, a fine retreat for the studious, convalescent, or misanthropical, who seek retirement from the tumult and bustle of the world. It has a house of misericordia, with its hospital, a recolhimento, or Magdalen house, a convent of Franciscans, one of unslippered Carmelites, another of slippered Carmelites, and a fourth of Benedictines; a palace in which the governors in former times were obliged to reside six months in the year; an episcopal palace, finely situated, but much deteriorated, being unoccupied in consequence of the death of the bishop; a seminary in the ex-Jesuitical college, with schools, and professors of Greek, Latin, French, geography, rhetoric, universal history, philosophy, drawing, ecclesiastical history, dogmatical and moral theology, a great number of hermitages, and a garden of trees and exotic plants, chiefly Asiatic, from whence the farmers can transplant them into their own grounds. It has also the bread-fruit tree and Otaheitan cane, and occupies an advantageous situation, but is not kept in good order. This city is divided into two parishes, one of them being of the cathedral, which is a magnificent edifice, with three naves, dedicated to St. Salvador, and contains eight hundred and eighty houses; the other has for parochial the church of St. Pedro Martin, and comprises three hundred and fifteen houses.

The senate is rich; almost all the houses pay to it a _testoon_ (three hundred reas) of tax for each span of front. Almost all have large gardens, but generally of little or no utility. The ground is appropriated to the cultivation of fruitful trees, of which mangoes are the principal.

The last donatory of this province affirmed that Ollinda, when it was burned, had two thousand five hundred houses, which were estimated to contain twenty-five thousand inhabitants.

The decay of Ollinda was considered by many of its inhabitants as a punishment for the pride of its rich and leading persons, whose libertinism had arrived at such a pitch, that an orator preaching on a festival day in one of the parish churches, and energetically declaiming against the vices prevailing in the country, some of the principal people commanded him to be silent, and dragged him with violence from the pulpit, without the auxiliary priests being able to prevent the outrage.

The convents, which are handsome and well-built, occupy the finest situations in Ollinda, generally upon the acclivity or summits of the eminences, from whence the views are interesting. Some of these religious establishments have now but few friars, and one of them was occupied by a military detachment. The walls surrounding the grounds of several, I observed, were broken down in many parts, and in a state of dilapidation; and the enclosures, which would have formed fine pleasure grounds, were barren, unplanted, and quite neglected.

On proceeding from hence by the sand-bank to the Recife, I was suddenly startled at the appearance of a human skull and bones, near a pillar or beacon situated between the two forts. Considerably impressed by so unexpected a sight, and moving slowly forward with such feelings as it was calculated to excite, not having any other idea but that they were the remains of some murdered person, I found myself in the midst of human bones, over-spreading the summit of the sand-bank. I now began to surmise that it was the cemetery of the blacks, which was confirmed on my arrival at the Recife. The dead bodies of the negroes are wrapped up in a piece of coarse cotton cloth, and being thinly covered with sand is the reason of their remains soon becoming thus indecently exposed. I understand that the white people were at one time also interred here. The English have a burying-ground at St. Amaro, not far from Boavista.

The roads branching off from Pernambuco into the interior are very good for a few miles, although sandy, and in some parts deep. They soon begin to contract into narrow bridle-ways, and are the tracks of troops of horses coming from the certams with cotton principally, and some other produce. The horses here are, from the sandy nature of the roads, never shod, and those driven from the interior by the _mattutos_[41] (inhabitants of the mattos, or woods) are generally very miserable and poor, and seem almost to give way under the burden of two bags of cotton, attached one on each side to a rudely constructed pack-saddle. Cords are commonly used by these persons for stirrups, into which they introduce the great toe. Their dress, consisting of a coarse cotton shirt hanging loosely over drawers, or trowsers, reaching to the calf of the leg, with a large slouching straw or black hat, a gun occasionally borne over one shoulder, and a sword in a wooden sheath, awkwardly suspended from a leathern belt, gives them a singular appearance. Some of these groups are rather of a superior order, being dressed in brown leathern overalls, a jacket, and a low round hat of the same. Parties of men and horses are thus continually arriving at and departing from Pernambuco. The men exhibit a great variety of complexions, and not one is to be seen that can be said to be of pure European descent, all having a mixture of Indian and African physiognomy. They are generally active and well formed. Few are Indians, more are mesticos.

The cotton planters, as well as proprietors of sugar works, visit the emporium of Pernambucan commerce in their gayest vestments, with their horses caparisoned in all the trappings and paraphernalia of Portuguese saddlery. The Brazilians generally, when they go from home, are fond of external show, without regard to much neatness, and upon those occasions they form a striking contrast to their general disgusting appearance in their domestic circles. There the men are usually seen with a dressing gown, or a shirt worn loosely over drawers, without stockings, their breasts exposed, and indulging inert and slovenly propensities. The females, having this example before them, claim some allowance for their loose and slatternly mode of dressing, when at home, and their worse habit of generally expectorating, without regard to person, time, or place. Young females are entitled to much consideration also, on account of the illiberal system pursued in their education and manner of bringing up. They are, it may be said, almost excluded from society; and the suspicious treatment they experience from their parents must tend to extinguish every liberal and moral sentiment; in fact, it cannot be considered that those very parents themselves possess much, or they would not subject them to an ungracious and scrutinizing watch, by generally keeping them shut up, so that they do not enjoy even the necessary exercise for health, to which their Turkish mode of sitting on the ground or upon mats, is not very congenial. If a family walk out, the daughters precede the father and mother, and the negroes, frequently composing the whole household, bring up the rear. Their grand opportunities for displaying their persons are religious holidays and festivals, and the midnight masses at the churches are said to be fully attended by the females.

The lady of General Rego, the governor, who is a very accomplished woman, has endeavoured, very amiably but ineffectually, to introduce a social intercourse amongst the families, and particularly the females, of Pernambuco; and although this lady succeeded in making a commencement, it was afterwards declined by the families themselves, from the ridiculous excuse that it would become expensive to have new dresses for every fresh visit. The general also gave a public ball to the inhabitants, which was followed by one on the part of the English merchants; but it would appear, with the exception of some of the leading persons, that the inhabitants, from their little intercourse with the world, are yet inimical to any refined system of society.

The cotton planters, and senhors d’engenho in the interior, are stated to be liberal and hospitable to strangers; and many of them, who have been recently acquiring considerable property, live in a comparatively comfortable style.

Apathy is a strong characteristic in the lower orders of Brazilians. In my various excursions near Pernambuco, I have seen men, at all hours of the day, stretched out upon tables, upon mats, or in redes, (nets,) slumbering their time away. If this class of people can obtain sufficient to satisfy the wants of the day, their views extend no further, and industry is no where seen amongst them; besides, the agricultural arm is paralysed nearly one-third of the year by holidays and saint days.

I was very hospitably entertained during a portion of my stay at Pernambuco by John Lempriere, Esq. the British consul, whose sitio is at the Solidado, a small hamlet, in which is situated a palace, formerly belonging to the bishop. It is a fine edifice, and built with uniformity, but is now rapidly sinking into decay, which will not be less accelerated by the use to which it is at present appropriated--that of a barrack. I brought a letter of introduction to Mr. Cockshott, when we immediately recognised each other as old acquaintances, his family and mine having been upon the most intimate terms of friendship for many years. I experienced great kindness from him, as well as many of the English merchants residing here, and spent a portion of my time at his country sitio, pleasantly situated at Ponta de Cho, upon the margin of the Capibaribe, from whence I was accompanied by Mr. Ray, the American consul, who also has a house here, to visit many of the neighbouring places, and cannot upon this occasion refrain from doing justice to my feelings, in acknowledging his frank and spontaneous attention and liberality.

The rides from Recife to Ponta de Cho, by several roads, are equally delightful, being partly bordered with lime hedges, and fences formed of the cocoa branch, interspersed with verdant foliage, and all the variety of fruit trees peculiar to the clime; groups of the high towering cocoa-nut tree heighten the beauty of the scenery, every where richly wooded.

The roads branching from Boavista, and meeting in one, about half-way to Ponta de Cho, are adorned with some elegant white houses, in a very excellent state of exterior repair, the grounds being enclosed by lofty walls, and many of the front entrances, consisting of a handsome portico, excelling any thing in this style near Rio de Janeiro. Every hundred yards, places of this character are met with to Ponta de Cho, where the river opens out and presents a very pleasing scene, the road running for a short distance along its margin, fronted by the residence of the governor, not very gracefully ornamented with a chapel in the middle of the entrance court. From hence the main road leaves the river, and for about two miles presents many neat houses to the Poco de Panela, some of them being the residences of English merchants.

In this interval the village of Casa Forte is passed, celebrated for having been one of the scenes of contest between the Dutch and Portuguese. The village of Poço de Panela is upon the left bank of the river, and is enlivened with houses of much more taste and neatness than a stranger would expect to see, with the impressions made upon his mind on landing at Recife.

It must be observed, that although the environs of Pernambuco have a fertilized appearance, in consequence of being well wooded, the soil is in a miserable state of cultivation, and not rendered so productive, by two-thirds, as it might be, being very generally uncleared of the brushwood, and a great portion remaining in its primeval condition. Proceeding from Ponta de Cho, by the Cruz das Almas road, which leads to Ollinda, a great proportion of the surrounding country is in a wild state; here and there are seen small patches of mandioca, groves of cocoa-nut, and other fruit trees, but the general aspect demonstrates the want of industry, for it would be expected that every yard of ground so near to a commercial city, with nearly one hundred vessels of different classes usually lying in its port, would be in progress at least of agricultural improvement. It is also remarkable, that between Recife and Ollinda, which latter city was formerly the seat of government and the centre of commerce, there is not a good road the whole way, parts of it for a considerable distance assuming the appearance of a mere track. The present governor has ordered a road to be commenced by a nearer route, and in many places the germ of improvement in this essential point is observable, new roads being partly made and staked out. Intelligence and civilization is only diffused through a country by facility of communication, and to General Rego, the Pernambucanans are indebted for promoting this blessing; the roads in the immediate vicinity of the town have been widened and otherwise improved by his orders; and it is highly to be wished that such a spirit, tending so much to the real benefit of the province, may be encouraged. The revolution here, in 1817, is said to have materially retarded improvement, as that measure was brought about, not from any genuine sentiments of liberty, the four or five persons at the head of it being only desirous of procuring their individual aggrandizement; and it is said that such jealousy at last existed amongst them, that they attended the council secretly armed. They were men of no talent, and the principal actor, Senhor Martyens, was a decayed Portuguese merchant, from London. They, as well as many others, paid the forfeit of their lives for prematurely attempting a change which they did not understand, but which the lapse of a few years has, happily for the advancement of this country, brought about.

The new constitution of Portugal, already adopted at Para and Bahia, was spontaneously acceded to by the governor, the different public officers, and the people, without any effusion of blood, in the month of January, 1821. The imprisonment at Bahia, since 1818, of some of the first men of Pernambuco, arrested on suspicion of being implicated in the revolution, will now no doubt have its termination. That event brought upon Pernambuco a strict military government, and at the corner of every street after dusk, the ear was assailed by the military watch-word; under such a system, the inhabitants could not have been more fortunate than in the selection of General Rego for their governor, whose military experience was acquired with much credit in the Peninsular campaign, and whose gentlemanly and friendly conduct would tend to soften the rigours of a military occupation of the town. To the ready assistance and attention of the governor to all matters in which their interests are concerned, the English merchants bear their united testimony.

During the Christmas holidays, and the hottest weather, Poço de Panela, Ponta de Cho, and the neighbouring, and more distant villages of Monteiro (the road to which partly leads by a bridle-way through woods) and of Caxanga, (where there is a spring of chalybeate water, approached also by a bye-way after crossing the river,) are fully occupied by the families of Recife, in their gayest attire and the ladies are frequently seen at the windows or at the doors, the men devoting the days of the holidays to gambling, seated in the verandas, playing at cards or backgammon. At this season the roads are also enlivened with horsemen going their evening rounds to these places of resort. Another very pleasing excursion to Ponta de Cho, Poço de Panela, and Monteiro, is by the river Capibaribe, whose winding banks are bordered with white cottages and houses, some of a very superior appearance, also inhabited during this period, and each having a bathing house rudely enough formed of the branches of the cocoa-nut tree. Innumerable canoes are seen gliding along the river, impelled with more velocity than by the oar or the paddle, by two vara men, who are negroes dressed in white cotton trowsers, exhibiting all the muscular movements of their naked arms and bodies in the exertion of using the vara, which, when well and regularly executed, is rather a graceful labour. A whole family, with furniture, and all the et ceteras, are moved up the river to their summer abode in this manner; and the ladies, in their smart dresses, with French hats and white plumes nodding to the river’s breeze, do not seem to regret that it is but transient liberty they are going to enjoy, and which they indulge in by a more free exhibition of themselves, and also by daily bathing in the river, probably two or three times, remaining in the water an hour or an hour and a half at once. They are said to be more expert divers and swimmers than the men, and it is not rare to see parties of them swimming about with much confidence, their hair being generally neatly dressed and bound up. One evening, on approaching the banks of the river beyond Monteiro, with Mr. Ray, some females were bathing, and amongst them were an old gentleman and his young wife, with whom Mr. R. was acquainted. We took off our hats, and the compliment was very cordially returned by the whole party, by a low dip in the water; on re-passing a considerable time afterwards we observed them still enjoying this refreshing amusement. Previously to my leaving Ponta de Cho, the _premier chuvas_ (first rains) were setting in, and the river already conveyed many canoes with families and their furniture on the return. The heaviest rains begin about March, when this part of the country is partially inundated and forsaken till the dry season recommences. There are various religious festivals during the holidays at different churches, in honour of saints. Those that appeared to attract the most attention were at the church of the Mount at Ollinda, at St. Amaro, and the Poço de Panela; to the latter, the English subscribed a certain sum each. Many people were assembled, and the houses were dedicated to the purposes of gambling. The multitude seemed to loiter about without any object, and there was a deadness and want of spirit and gaiety in their general demeanor. The church was open, which I entered in the midst of the ceremony of christening a child; a large lighted wax candle was as quickly introduced into my hand, and I was thus enlisted into the ranks. A band of music was playing in the gallery, to dissipate the shrill notes of the youngster, who was fingered rather roughly by the padre in the course of various ceremonies he performed, and in which he applied a considerable portion of salt. When the infant, after undergoing the last form of having a silver crown placed upon its head, was returned to its mother, it appeared quite exhausted; and a pretty general round of embracing concluded the ceremony. The master of the festa, and his wife and daughters were there: the females were splendidly dressed, but the absence of the graces prevented these adornments from having their due effect upon the imagination. The fire-works supplied by the subscription, and which concluded this festival, were, I understood, very indifferent.