Chapter XV: Part 15

This amount, in common with other expenses of travel, was paid by the
agent of the government, Senor G. D. Street, and while noting the want
of generosity on the part of this representative man of Conceicão, I
would not fail to acknowledge our obligations for the bounty of the
Brazilian government in providing for all our wants while exploring
the country.

Footnote 25:

On arrival at this place we found a portion of the men seated upon the
dirt floor of a house playing cards for money, while the more
religiously-inclined population were assembled in the church to pray
for a cessation of the continuous rains which flooded the lands. So go
the different elements of society.

Footnote 26:

As a matter of history, the following paragraph of a correspondent
from this place, of September 18, 1865, to the Diario de São Paulo, is
translated, though I hear of no other instance of the kind in this or
any other part of the province.

Within little more than one month there has occurred in this section
seven assassinations of Christian people, namely: those of Sonsa, his
son and son-in-law, by the Indians of São Domingos, that of Filisbino,
according to report, by his native slave Silverio, on the Rio Novo;
those of Francisco Bernardo, and Leopoldina Cordoso Martines, in the
same region, and that of Salvador José Leite, on the small river Das
Pedras.

Footnote 27:

Major Meriwether writes me as follows:

“BOTOCATU, January 8, 1866.—I was not prepared to see lands so
immensely rich as we see here. We have examined the country ten miles
in one direction, and every foot of it is the very best quality.
Immense bodies of the best land are here.

“January 13, 1866.—We have just returned this day from Lençoes, taking
five days to make the trip there and back, forty or more miles, to
avoid crossing a belt of country fifty miles wide, in which the chills
prevail unusually severe. In going to and returning from Lençoes, not
on the same road both ways, we were never off good land, and the most
of it first quality terra rocha. Corn was certainly the best I ever
saw, and not a plough in all the country. Coffee trees, none of which
are over four years old, loaded down with fruit. Cotton, little
planted, but that little very fine. Grasses in abundance; and stock,
mules, horses, cattle and hogs as fine as any country can grow.

“I have visited the fine stockgrowing portions of Kentucky and
Tennessee, but this beats all ever seen before.

“In addition to growing grain, coffee, sugar and cotton grow as finely
here as in any other part of the province. Farms can be purchased in
this and the adjoining district, with good improvements in the shape
of dwellings, sugar-mills, grist-mills, &c., for $2.50 per acre and
less, that being the highest price asked, and $1.50 per acre being the
usual price asked for lands as good as lands can be.

“The best information as to depth of soil is, that it averages about
thirteen (13) feet deep. From the best information we can get, the
good land extends fifty or sixty miles in length and ten or twelve in
breadth. It is not uncommon to see trees seven (7) feet in diameter
here.

“The people here treat us with great hospitality, and are exceedingly
anxious for our people to come amongst them, offering inducements the
most substantial, provisions, &c. If this country is ever peopled by
an industrious and progressive race it will soon be a paradise on
earth.

“I have thus tried to describe this immensely fertile tract of
country, but the description is poor in comparison to the reality. It
is the most desirable I ever expected even to see.

“I have changed my mind in regard to the expense of settling in this
country. When it was said by Mr. Street that we must not expect to use
ploughs the first few years here, I laughed at him. But he is right.

“A single man can here clear and fence and plant ten acres of land in
two months.

“Five acres will make him at least two hundred and fifty bushels of
corn, the other five will make him as much cotton as he can pick,
without other culture than the hoe. So that not only a support may be
made the first year, but also money may be saved.”

In connection with this communication, it is proper to state that
there are large numbers of uncivilized Indians near that region, and
that “not long since the neighboring district of São João Baptista was
the victim of an outbreak of these savages,” as is stated in the
public prints. Facts are important guides to us.

Footnote 28:

This embrace consists in passing the arms round each other, much in
the same manner that is observed when two boys are about to engage in
wrestling, and is resorted to very generally among Brazilian
gentlemen, to express a particular regard upon meeting or parting with
each other.

Footnote 29:

In addition to the other remarkable things, two very large cobras were
encountered and killed by one of my attendants. This is a most
venomous serpent, and resembles very much the rattle-snake in its
shape and color. These were found close together, and were supposed to
be male and female. Each was lying quietly upon a separate stump of a
large tree, and seemed to bask in the warm sun without any sense of
danger.

“They are so unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me.”

Upon seeing the first this man alighted and cut a stick, walking up
deliberately, so as to strike a deadly blow, without any movement on
the part of the snake.

He had remounted when the other was observed, and the same process was
repeated with it as the first. Both were wide awake, and kept their
sly wicked gaze fixed upon their slayer as he advanced, ready to
destroy him if he had afforded the opportunity.

With the exception of a small specimen, about a foot and a half long,
killed near the Jacaré river, these are the only cobras seen during
the tour, and they are unusually large, being three feet long, with a
thickness such as a rattle-snake of similar length would have. The
bite of one of these serpents, without a prompt remedy on hand, is
considered certainly fatal to man or beast, but fortunately they do
not seem to be numerous in any part visited.

Footnote 30:

The only means of cleaning the cotton used at this place are sundry
little hand-rollers, worked by little darkies, which cannot average
over two pounds each to the day.

The spirit of enterprise is sadly deficient along this river, though
the communication of the steamboat could place any thing at their
doors that might be desired.

Footnote 31:

A considerable lot of cotton gathered from these stalks lies in the
seed at the residence, and does not give evidence of nice handling,
but the fibre is good. Even with the spirit of progress which Senor
Miguel manifests in his appliances generally, the little hand-roller
is his only reliance for picking cotton, and hence this seed cotton
remains on hand.

He has attempted to use an English apparatus with a roughened roller,
but apart from the insufficiency of size it is totally unfitted for
accomplishing any satisfactory results. He is now impressed with the
necessity of supplying himself with a good cotton-gin to meet the
demands of his forthcoming crops here and at Ponto-Grosso.

The want of information as to the conditions for proper culture of
cotton is shown in the planting of sugar-cane among the cotton, and
yet I counted upon a single limb of one branch of a large stalk in
that field twenty-two bolls, the entire stalk having certainly over
two hundred bolls.

Footnote 32:

This troublesome fly is found to a greater or less extent in various
parts of the country, and seems to attack some animals in a herd in
preference to others. There may be something in the particular stock
of cattle rendering them more liable than others, and it seems that
those in the best condition are generally more exempt; but this may be
an effect rather than a cause, as the presence of these festering
points over a large portion of the surface must prevent the animal
from thriving that is so affected.

One of these insects imbedded its germ in two points upon my person,
and I subsequently extracted a rough ugly-looking sort of worm from
one of the places, which was near my shoulder, and consequently under
the clothing. It is a mystery as to how the fly could deposit the germ
through a flannel shirt, which was worn at the time. This result is
liable to occur with children in localities where the fly prevails,
and I have no fancy for living amongst them.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Page Changed from Changed to

112 seja nosso sentor Jesus Christ,” seja nosso senhor Jesus Christ,”
that is said by almost every that is said by almost every

● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. ● Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=.