Chapter IX: Parnaguá to Natividade (2)

We left Duro on the thirteenth of October, and slept at the house of one of the Indians, about two leagues distant from the Aldea: the owner of it, hearing on what day I was to leave, arrived the night before, and begged of me to call at his house, which was but a little way off the road, to see his wife who had been blind for some years, and was then suffering from ophthalmia. I, of course, could not refuse his request, and the poor fellow tried to make us as comfortable as his miserable residence would allow. This place was called Cachoeira, from a small waterfall near it; the high undulating hills which surrounded the valley in which the house stood, gave it a very picturesque appearance. There were two other houses at a short distance from that in which we slept, and although they are surrounded by the finest possible grounds for plantations, the three families have but one small spot planted with mandiocca, which seemed to be the only article they cultivate. Although there were abundant pastures in the neighbourhood, not one of them possessed a single cow, and their excuse for not having one, was the trouble it would give them to make a fence round their plantation; rather than do any manual labour of that kind, they prefer lounging about the house in a state of idleness, or going out in the woods with their gun and axe, in search of game and wild honey. Our farinha being nearly exhausted, I enquired whether any was to be had at this place, but they had none, nor would they have a supply for a month to come, as the mandiocca was not yet ripe; fortunately a young man passed in the evening with a very small quantity which he at first refused to sell, as he was taking it to a neighbour in return for some he had borrowed; he consented, however, to let me have half of it, on condition of receiving dried beef in exchange, which, as we had then plenty, I agreed to.

On the journey from Duro to this place, we traversed a beautiful country of hill and dale, much of it being thinly wooded; some of the more open upland fields, owing to the recent rains, were covered with new grass about a foot high, on which no animals fed, excepting a few wild deer. It is a general custom among the cattle farmers, to burn the pastures at the end of the dry season, in order that the new grass may spring up rapidly on the setting in of the rains; this is also done by the inhabitants of the mission, but with the view to keep their hunting grounds more open, and encourage the visits of deer. It seems probable, that at no very distant period the whole of this district, and much of the country that lies to the east and north-west, will be converted into large cattle farms, as it is well calculated for the rearing of cattle, owing to the mildness of the climate, and the abundance of grass and water which exists here all the year round.

The rain prevented our leaving Cachoeira on the following day till two o’clock in the afternoon, when after a journey of two leagues, we arrived at the house of the Juiz de Paz of Duro; on account of the bad state of the roads it was dusk before we accomplished this distance. The first league and a half of our journey was over a hilly rocky country, when we began to descend the Serra do Duro, and shortly afterwards entered upon a flat rather thickly-wooded tract. It is at the foot of the Serra that the mission of Duro terminates, and about half a mile from it stands the house in which the Juiz de Paz resided; it was exceedingly small, and as the outer room, that generally given to travellers, would not conveniently hold us, he told me we should find much better accommodation at the house of a relation of his, who lived about a gunshot distant, and he kindly accompanied us thither. On reaching it, we found half a dozen Indians, sitting round a fire under a verandah in front of the house, and superintending the cooking of their supper in a large pot. While we were arranging our trunks against the wall, the master of the house begged of us to wait till the men had taken out their beds, when each came and carried his away, which however consisted of nothing more than half a cow’s hide; they sleep here as in the Aldea, stretching the hide in a corner, on which they lie without taking off their clothes; I saw no one make use of a hammock.

A journey of three leagues from the residence of the Juiz de Paz, through a flat thinly-wooded country, almost destitute of herbaceous vegetation, (no rains having as yet fallen in this quarter,) brought us to a fazenda, situated on the banks of the Rio de Manoel Alvez, a large stream which takes its rise in the Serra do Duro, to the north of the Aldea, and falls into the Rio Tocantins. At this fazenda we were informed, that as the river had risen considerably, it would be impossible for our horses to cross with their loads; and the canoe used for ferrying over passengers and luggage, had been carried away by the floods of the previous season, circumstances which rendered it necessary to have everything transported across the river on men’s heads. At the fazenda I engaged a negro and a mulatto, to assist my own men in this operation; the ferry was about a mile further down; here the river is about forty yards broad and the current very strong, in consequence of a rapid which exists a little further below. When the two men, who both were tall and strong, entered with the first loads, it was with difficulty they could keep their feet, as the water, during the greater part of the way, took them up to the shoulders; the recompense they asked, half a dollar each, was, however, very dearly earned, as they had each to cross the river backwards and forwards about twelve times, which occupied more than two hours. Mr. Walker and I attempted to cross a little above the ferry by swimming, but the force of the current swept us both over the rapids; Mr. Walker being carried with great force against some rocks, and it was with no small difficulty, that he reached the opposite side below the rapid in a state of great exhaustion. I was more fortunate, being carried down at a place clear of rocks, where I soon regained the same bank of the river I had just left. I returned to the ferry, where I succeeded in crossing, being assisted by one of the men, for I was too low in stature to be able to bear up against the current alone. After this delay we resumed our journey, with the intention of halting during the night at a fazenda about a league further, but finding we had still ample time, we pushed on to a village called Almas, about two leagues to the westward, which we reached about sunset. The country we passed after crossing the river was nearly flat and thinly wooded, but not so much scorched up as that we traversed in the morning.

The village of Almas is situated in a hollow, and consists of a few irregular streets, the houses of which are low and of mean appearance, being built of large unburned bricks, made of clay mixed with chopped grass and dried in the sun. The number of its inhabitants amounts to about 800, by far the greater part of whom are blacks and mulattos, and intermixtures between these and Indians. The Juiz de Paz was a creole negro, who could neither read nor write; he was the principal shopkeeper in the village, and annually made a journey to Bahia to purchase goods. The village contains a church, which is in about as ruined a condition as that of Duro, and, in like manner, has no resident priest. Although the neighbourhood presents abundance of excellent ground for plantations, not one was here to be seen. Upon our arrival I fully expected to be able to purchase some farinha, but none was to be had; it was indeed only as a great favour that a person who came to consult me professionally, sold me a little rice. Every one was complaining of the scarcity of provisions, and the want of money, but not a word was said about the indolence and idleness, which no doubt was the cause of the famine that now existed among them. In consequence of almost incessant rains, we were obliged to remain in the village four days.

Our first stage from Almas was to a fazenda, called Galheiro Morto, said to be only two leagues farther, but I have no doubt its real distance was nearly four, judging from the time we took to perform the journey. The leagues in this part of the country have never been measured, and as the land was originally bought by the league, it was the interest of the purchaser to take as large a portion as he could obtain; in the province of Piauhy, we found the leagues much longer than those of Ceará but those of Goyaz even exceeded them. This difference is so manifest, that they are designated as the short one (legoa pequena), and the long one (legoa grande); the shorter league I always found to be quite long enough, and whenever the long one was to be travelled over, I usually calculated the time necessary for accomplishing two short ones, and, indeed, I seldom found it required less. We halted at this place till the afternoon, when another journey of three leagues brought us to a little hamlet, consisting of about half a dozen houses, called Morhinos. The owner of the house where we put up for the night, returned from the woods shortly after our arrival, with a considerable quantity of wild honey, some of which he kindly gave us, and we found it to be excellent; it was the product of one of the smaller bees which are so numerous in this part of Brazil. This was the season in which the people go to the woods in search of honey; it is so generally used, that after leaving Duro, a portion was presented to us at almost every house where we stopped. These bees mostly belong to the genus _Melipona_, Illig., and I collected a great many, which with some other zoological specimens were afterwards lost in crossing a river. A list of them with their native names and a few observations may not be uninteresting.

1. _Jatahy._—This is a very minute yellowish-coloured species,
being scarcely two lines long. The honey, which is excellent,
very much resembles that of the common hive-bee of Europe.

2. _Mulher branco._—About the same size as the _Jatahy_, but of
a whitish colour; the honey is likewise good, but a little acid.

3. _Tubí._—A little black bee, smaller than a common house-fly;
the honey is good, but has a peculiar and bitter flavour.

4. _Manoel d’abreu._—About the size of the _Tubí_, but of a
yellowish colour; its honey is good.

5. _Atakira._—Black, and nearly of the same size as the _Tubí_,
the principal distinction between them consisting in the kind
of entrance to their hives; the _Tubí_ makes it of wax, the
_Atakira_ of clay; its honey is very good.

6. _Oarití._—Of a blackish colour, and about the same size as
the _Tubí_; its honey is rather sour, and not good.

7. _Tataíra._—About the size of the _Tubí_, but with a yellow
body, and a black head; its honey is excellent.

8. _Mumbúco._—Black, and larger than the _Tubí_; the honey
after being kept about an hour becomes as sour as lemon juice.

9. _Bejuí._—Very like the _Tubí_, but smaller; its honey is
excellent.

10. _Tiubá._—Of the size of a large house-fly, and of a greyish
black colour; its honey is excellent.

11. _Borá._—About the size of a house-fly, and of a yellowish
colour; its honey is acid.

12. _Urussú._—About the size of a large bumble bee; the head is
black and the body yellowish; it produces good honey.

13. _Urussú preto._—Entirely black, and upwards of one inch in
length; it likewise produces good honey.

14. _Caniára._—Black, and about the same size as the _Urussú
preto_; its honey is too bitter to be eatable; it is said to be
a great thief of the honey of other bees.

15. _Chupê._—About the size of the _Tiubá_, and of a black
colour; it makes its hive of clay on the branches of trees, and
is often of a very large size; its honey is good.

16. _Urapuá._—Very like the _Chupê_, but it always builds its
hive rounder, flatter, and smaller.

17. _Enchí._—This is a kind of wasp, about the size of a
house-fly; its head is black, and the body yellow; it builds
its hive in the branches of trees; this is of a papery tissue,
about three feet in circumference; its honey is good.

18. _Enchú pequeno._—Very similar to the last, but it always
makes a smaller hive; it also produces good honey.

The first eleven of these honey-bees construct their cells in the hollow trunks of trees, and the others, either in similar situations or beneath the ground; it is only the last three kinds that sting, all the others being harmless. The only attempt I ever saw to domesticate any of these bees, was by a Cornish miner, in the Gold District, who cut off those portions of the trunks of the trees which contained the nests, and hung them up under the eaves of his house; they seemed to thrive very well, but whenever the honey was wanted, it was necessary to destroy the bees. Both the Indians and the other inhabitants of the country, are very expert in tracing these insects to the trees in which they hive: they generally mix the honey, which is very fluid, with farinha before they eat it, and of the wax they make a coarse kind of taper about a yard long, which serves in lieu of candles, and which the country people bring to the villages for sale. We found these very convenient, and always carried a sufficient stock with us; not unfrequently we were obliged to manufacture them ourselves, from the wax obtained by my own men; a coarse soft kind of cotton yam for wicks was always to be purchased at the different fazendas and villages through which we passed.

From Morhinos we went on to the fazenda of Nossa Senhora d’Amparo, the distance being about three leagues. It was my intention to proceed two leagues farther, to a fazenda called Santa Cruz, on the banks of the Rio do Peixe, there being a canoe there for crossing it; but having enquired about the state of the river, we were informed that it was then low, and might be forded at a place farther up, without taking off the loads, and, moreover, save a circuit of nearly two leagues. We had yet about a league to go before we reached this ferry, where I found the river much smaller than that of Manoel Alvez, and shallow enough to be passed without difficulty; but, notwithstanding this, one of the loads of dried plants met with a sad misfortune, the horse that bore it slipped, and fell down, just as he was emerging from the bank, when one of the boxes dropped into the river, and before it could be extracted was filled with water; it is only a botanist who can imagine my feelings on this occasion, when I saw upwards of 2,000 specimens, that had cost me so much labour to procure, completely drenched, and apparently ruined for ever. My first care was to unpack them, and put them into dry paper, but so many specimens were laid on every sheet, that this process had but little effect in dissipating the moisture; I contented myself, however, with the hope of being able next day to unpack them, and spread them out in the sun. After the box was dried, and the plants again deposited in it, the package was, for greater security, placed upon a stronger horse; we had not, however, proceeded above half a league, when in crossing a small rivulet, I had again the mortification to see the same box, as well as another that had previously escaped this disaster, both plunged below the water. The unlucky animal that carried them was leading the way, when instead of entering at the right fording-place, he stumbled into a deep hole, with a muddy bottom, and in struggling to extricate himself, flung off both the packages. If I felt much chagrined on the former occasion, it may be imagined what my distress was, when I saw the hard labour of many weeks, the produce of a district hitherto unexplored by any botanist, thus apparently consigned to ruin; all that then could be done, was to drain the water out of the boxes, and resume our journey. It happened most fortunately that towards evening we reached a fazenda, where the principal article manufactured was farinha de mandiocca; and as it rained heavily all the next day, I was glad to obtain permission to make use of two large stoves, on which we dried, sheet by sheet, all the specimens that had been soaked; it was, however, the most fatiguing day’s work I ever encountered, for both Mr. Walker and myself were incessantly occupied over the heated stoves, from six o’clock in the morning till after midnight. In consequence of this prompt attention, the plants did not suffer so much as I anticipated.

We remained two days at this fazenda, called Mato Virgem, having to wait one day longer that I intended, owing to our want of farinha; the day after our arrival they commenced the manufacture of a quantity, which could not be got ready until the evening before we left. The place in which it was prepared, was the apartment where we were allowed to put up, the persons engaged in it being the mistress of the house, who was a young mulatta, and eight slaves, four men and four women; I was astonished to find all of them, except one man and one woman, affected with goître; the swelling on the neck of one of the women was much larger than her head. They assured me it was a very general complaint in this part of the province of Goyaz, particularly in the Villas of Natividade and Arrayas; in the Aldea of Duro, I saw only one woman affected by it, and another in the Arraial of Almas. One of the slaves was an old man upwards of one hundred years of age, and quite blind, but he was, notwithstanding, occupied all day in sifting farinha; his only dress consisted of a small dirty rag rolled round his middle; that of the others was but little better, indeed, in no part of Brazil did I meet with slaves so wretchedly attired as at this place. It was surprising to me that the mistress was not ashamed to see them in such a state; but I have no doubt, the fault was with the owner of the fazenda, who, judging from his appearance, seemed to be an old miser.

When we left Mato Virgem it was our intention to reach a little hamlet, called João Lopez, said to be three long leagues distant. We were told that we should have no difficulty in getting there, as there was a straight road to it; but we had scarcely travelled a league and a half when we came to a place where there were two equally beaten paths, and not knowing which to take, we chose that leading to the right, and continuing onwards all day, through a flat thinly-wooded country, without seeing either man or house, we arrived at a fazenda, a little before sun down, where we were told, what I already suspected, that we had taken the wrong road; but it was of little consequence, as it led also to the Villa de Natividade, the place we finally intended to reach. This fazenda, called Sociedade, belongs to Senhor Manoel José Alves Leite, a young Portuguese, who was then Juiz de Paz of the Arraial da Chapada, a village about a league distant. On our arrival, we were very kindly treated by him; a fowl was immediately killed, and an excellent supper prepared, to which we did ample justice, after our long day’s journey. The Portuguese who settle in the country, are said by the Brazilians to be of a mean and grasping disposition, and deficient in the sentiment of benevolence; this may be the case with many among the great number of the uneducated, who emigrate from Portugal to Brazil, where there is not much inducement to the improvement of their character, but among them there are many young men, who have received some education, and who by their good behaviour, and closer attention to business than the proud and indolent Brazilians, sooner acquire means of independence, which causes them to become the objects both of their envy and dislike. I had little opportunity of associating with the Portuguese on the coast, but in the interior, I have met with many worthy men of that nation, who have shown me the greatest kindness, when this has been refused by a Brazilian. Ever since the independence of Brazil, they have been very greatly persecuted, and whenever any political disturbance takes place, as a necessary consequence, numbers of Portuguese are murdered, and robbed of all they possess: there exists no fellow-feeling between the two nations. As soon as our host became aware of my intention to remain a month or two at Natividade, in order to give rest to my horses, he most kindly urged me to send them to his fazenda, where he would take charge of them till our departure; such, indeed, was the civility we experienced, that I had no reason to regret having taken the wrong road.

Early on the following morning, the 25th of October, we left Sociedade, and after a journey of two long leagues, reached the Villa de Natividade. The country between these two places is flat and thinly-wooded, but on the east side of the road, near the Villa, there is an extensive Serra, about 2,000 feet high, which stretches from north to south. The road passes near the base of this Serra for about half a league, and I was astonished to see the soil, which is of a gravelly nature, dug up into deep trenches, and at intervals the ruins of what appeared once to have been houses. These trenches, I was informed, were old gold workings, which had been abandoned for a long time, on account of the gold being exhausted. The gold-workings seem to have been carried to a considerable extent, for the entire soil, for about half a league in length, and more than a quarter of a mile in breadth, had evidently been completely turned over, to some depth, and the whole appeared to have undergone the process of washing; I afterwards found that most of the country in the vicinity of the Villa had been explored in the same manner. On our arrival, we had no difficulty in finding an empty house for our accommodation, and shortly afterwards; the rains set in very heavily, on which account we were detained here upwards of three months. This, however, I did not regret, after our long journey of considerably more than a thousand miles, reckoned from the time we left Oeiras, from the effects of which the horses had become much exhausted.

I must not omit to mention, that on our journey from Duro to Natividade, we met with great abundance of a delicious wild fruit, a kind of Mangába (_Hancornia pubescens var. Gardneri_, Alph. DC.) different from the one that grows so abundantly in the province of Ceará and Pernambuco; the fruit is nearly twice its size, and even more delicious. We first met with it on the Serra do Duro, where it is called Mangába do morro, but it is also abundant on the Chapadas, on the plain below, and like that of the other species, this is only good to eat when ripe enough to fall from the tree.