Chapter XIII: Cidade Diamantina to Ouro Preto (2)

On the eastern side of the mountain, close to the church, there is a small garden, which seems to have been well attended to in better times. I observed there a few stunted peach and apple trees, a few potatoes, and other European vegetables. The greater part of the garden, as well as the top of the Serra, in front of the church, is overrun with the common strawberry of Europe, and being then in fruit, we each obtained a handful. Several other European plants have become naturalized, such as the chickweed, _Cerastium vulgatum_. The church is kept by a middle-aged Mulatto woman, and a dirty-looking old white man, dressed in the manner of a priest, who calls himself a hermit, resides there also. Except the few vegetables which they cultivate, food comes all from below, and the water they drink is obtained from the numerous _Tillandsias_ which crowd the rocky parts of the Serra, and which in the bases of their leaves, contain a large quantity of water, an ordinary sized plant yielding about a pint.

The Serra is rich in plants interesting to the botanist, but not nearly so much so as the Organ Mountains, in the province of Rio de Janeiro, owing, no doubt, to its great want of moisture. From the upper part, I obtained two fine shrubs belonging to the natural order _Malpighiaceæ_; a fine shrubby _Styrax_; a _Cassia_, about four feet high, which is very common near the middle of the mountain; a red-flowered _Gaylussacia_, and a _Gualtheria_, both abundant near the summit; a shrubby variety of _Drymis Granatensis_, several ferns, and a few mosses and lichens.

Shortly before we began to descend, the atmosphere became so hazy, that we could see only a short distance; this was caused by the custom that prevails at the end of the dry season of burning the campos, as this encourages the more speedy growth of a crop of new grass, after the rains have set in; it is also at this season that the wood is burned on the grounds which have been cleared for cultivation. After a very pleasant day’s excursion, we reached Cuiabá about dusk, and having spent the greater part of the evening with Dr. Morson and his lady, I was occupied till near midnight in preparing the specimens I brought with me from the Serra. On the following day we returned to Morro Velho. The mine of Cuiabá is very similar in its nature to that at Morro Velho, but wrought on a much smaller scale, and the ore moreover is not nearly so rich. During my stay at Morro Velho, I made many little excursions in the neighbourhood, and thus added largely to my collections.

On the morning of the 24th of September, after having taken leave of my kind friends at Morro Velho, we again resumed our journey. There is a direct road from this place to the city of Ouro Preto, the capital of the province of Minas, through which I wished to pass, but part of my luggage having been sent on from Cocaes to a village called San Caetano, situated about three leagues below the city of Marianna, I was obliged to proceed there first. It was my intention to return to Gongo Soco by the way I had come, but the day before we left, information reached Morro Velho, that the wooden bridge over the Rio das Velhas, at Rapoza, had fallen down. We were therefore obliged to return by the way of Sabará, which increased the journey about two leagues. We passed through Sabará without halting, and arrived in the afternoon at the Cuiabá mine, where we spent the night with Mr. Richards, and started again next morning after breakfast, reaching Gongo Soco between five and six o’clock in the afternoon. Almost the whole of the country between the two places, with the exception of the Serra to the N.W. of Gongo, consists of bare grassy hills, a few small woods only existing in the hollows. Being then the end of the dry season, the hills had a very arid and barren look, everything being burned up from the want of rain. The roads were covered with fine yellow dust, the _débris_ of the clay slate of which the hills are formed; and we were nearly the whole way enveloped in a dense cloud of it, rising up from the horses’ feet.

At about half way between the two places, we passed through part of the Villa de Caeté, a miserable looking town of some size, situated in a narrow shallow valley, running in a N.E. direction from the Serra de Piedade, the Villa itself being distant from it about two leagues. This Villa, like many others in the mining districts, has all the appearance of having seen better days, as it contains the ruins of many fine houses, as well as one of the finest churches that exists in the interior, and St. Hilaire doubts even if there is one in Rio de Janeiro that may be compared with it.

On the day we left Gongo Soco, we passed through the Arraial de San João do Morro Grande, and halted for the night at a small hamlet called Barra, about a league to the S.E. of it. The country around, as well as the road we had passed over, was hilly, bare, and arid; a small stream passes through the village, the gravelly banks of which have been completely turned over in search of gold. Next day we made a journey of about two leagues; and about half a league from Barra we passed through the Arraial do Brumado, a long straggling village in a state of great decay. Leaving this place, we continued in an easterly direction till we arrived at the foot of the Serra de Caráça, and winding along the hilly base of its N.E. side, we reached, shortly after mid-day, the Arraial de Catas Altas, which is situated at the foot of the Serra towards its S.E. extremity. It consists principally of one long street, and like Brumado does not seem to be in a very flourishing condition. The hills around the village, and between it and Brumado, are covered with Capim gordura. At a considerable elevation on the Serra itself, there is a hermitage, called Nossa Senhora Mai dos Homens. The building was begun by a Portuguese in 1771, who was still alive, though above a century old, when it was visited by Spix and Martius in 1818; it is now converted into a theological seminary, but is said to contain but few pupils. This Serra was botanically explored by St. Hilaire, as well as by Spix and Martius, and found to be very rich in rare and curious vegetable productions; I wished also to devote a day to ascend it, but the weather was very unfavourable, as it rained heavily, and the upper parts of the mountain were enveloped in clouds.

Leaving Catas Altas, the road takes a southerly direction, along the foot of the Serra de Caráça; and after travelling about two leagues, we passed through the Arraial de Inficionado, another long narrow village, about the same size as Catas Altas, and, like it, in an obvious state of decadence. About a league further on, we arrived at the Arraial de Bento Rodrigues, where we took up our quarters for the night in the public rancho. The road, on this journey, was far from good, being both hilly and stony; I saw but little soil fit for plantations, it being generally of a clayey nature, intermixed with a coarse ferruginous gravel, or the _débris_ of the schistoze rocks of the Serra; and everywhere this soil has been turned up in search of gold, but with the exception of a small mine between Inficionado and Bento Rodrigues, I saw no workings being carried on.

At about a league from Bento Rodrigues, we passed through a small village called Arraial de Camargos, which is situated among some hills on the side of a small river. We were now only three leagues from the place of our destination, San Caetano, which I was anxious to reach without further delay; but the road, which here passes through a bare hilly country, is bad, and the mules being only lately broken into work, we got on but very slowly, from their either lying down or going off the road. On this account it was about five o’clock in the afternoon when we reached the last house on the road to San Caetano, the distance between them being somewhat less than a league. At this house, the tropeiro wished to remain for the night, a proposal I would by no means consent to, especially as it threatened to rain, and the house was so small, and so badly covered, as to afford but very indifferent shelter. He, however, insisted on remaining, and would have done so, had I not threatened him with non-payment, when, very much against his will, he resumed the journey, and about dusk we reached the Arraial de Caetano, where I found all my collections in good condition, in the house of the tropeiro who brought me from Cidade do Serro, and who again agreed to take me to Rio. In passing through a small forest, not far from the Arraial, I collected specimens of three kinds of tree ferns, and added to my collection of _Orchideæ_ a pretty sweet-smelling _Epidendrum_.

The Arraial de San Caetano, which is small, and evidently poor, is situated on the acclivity of a low hill on the north bank of a small stream which empties itself into the Rio Doce. It contains only one church, which if finished on the scale it has been begun, would be a great ornament to the place, standing, as it does, on a height which overlooks the village. Gold washing in the bed of the stream, and along its banks, seems once to have been the chief occupation of its inhabitants, but that source of gain being now exhausted, they have mostly taken to the cultivation of the soil much of which in the neighbourhood is well adapted for the growth of coffee, Indian corn, &c.

The tropeiro not being able to start for some days after my arrival, and making objections to go round by Ouro Preto, which I had a great desire to see, I determined to make a hurried visit to that city alone. I therefore hired a guide, and started on the morning of the 5th of October. A journey of three leagues through a hilly and thinly-wooded country, brought me to the city of Marianna, the situation and appearance of which pleased me very much; it stands on the S.W. side of a broad level valley, on the gentle declivity of a rising ground which skirts the base of the range of the Serra de Itacolumi. It is more compactly built than the towns I have generally seen in Brazil, and as there are several fine and handsome churches, and the houses are mostly large and white-washed, the city has altogether a very noble appearance. In the suburbs, and even in the city itself, many of the houses have gardens attached to them, planted with bananas, oranges, and the round-headed Jaboticabeira, which with their different shades of green, contrast well with the white-washed walls of the houses; in passing through the town, it appeared so quiet, that I could almost have fancied it deserted. In some of the principal streets, I saw a few shopkeepers leaning listlessly over their counters, and on the stairs in front of the prison a few soldiers keeping guard; these and an occasional black urchin squatted at a door, were all that gave an idea of life in the city, which is said to contain about 5,000 inhabitants. It is more a clerical than a commercial city, being the residence of the bishop and the seat of a theological college.

The imperial city of Ouro Preto, formerly Villa Rica, is about two leagues distant from Marianna in a south west direction. The road, which is very good, gradually rises towards Ouro Preto; in many places along the side of it there are planted at irregular distances wild fig trees, natives of the country, which have grown up, and not only give a good shade, but recall to a European the roads of his native country. Near the entrance to the city, where the road has been hollowed out of the solid rock, many galleries are to be seen entering the hills; these are gold workings which have long been abandoned, and some of which are now made use of as pig-styes, by the poor people who live in their vicinity. About half way between the two cities, the road passes through the Arraial de Passagem, a small village, the inhabitants of which formerly subsisted by gold washings, but the mines being now exhausted, they occupy themselves with the cultivation of provisions, for which they find a ready market in Ouro Preto.

During my short stay in the Imperial city, I lived in the house of Senhor José Peixoto de Souza, having carried letters to him from Morro Velho. He is the principal merchant in the province of Minas, and possesses the finest house in the city; the erection of it cost him about £4,000 sterling, a great sum for a house in the interior of Brazil. He is a man of a very kind and obliging disposition, and being agent for all the English mining companies, his house is the place where the officers belonging to them put up at in passing through the city, there being no respectable inn in the whole place; nor is it only Englishmen who make his house a rendezvous, his own countrymen sharing in like manner his hospitality. During the three days I remained there, so many guests arrived and departed, that it had more the appearance of an inn than the dwelling of a private individual. He began life as a simple washer of gold (faiscador), and is now the principal gold merchant in the province.

The country around the city is hilly in the extreme, and the rocks consist of clay-slates, soft micaceous iron schist, commonly called Jacutinga, and that hard iron slate rock, now known by the name of Itacolumite, all disposed in layers that are much inclined; the country round is auriferous, and many workings exist in the neighbourhood. In the narrow valley, on one side of which the city stands, runs a small stream, called the Riberão de Ouro Preto, which takes its rise in the neighbourhood; the bed of this brook consists of a soft kind of gravel, and in it the poorer part of the inhabitants gain a scanty subsistence by washing for gold. The operation is called Mergular, or diving, and the people who work in this manner are called faiscadores; they are generally half-naked, and after raking away the larger stones from the place which they select in the bed of the stream, they fill their flat wooden plate (Bateia) with the fine gravel and sand, which is purified by washing in a peculiar manner, till at last the gold dust remains in the bottom of the vessel, from which it is transferred to a small leathern bag which is suspended from their middle; they are not able to make more than about a shilling a day. The time they prefer is after heavy rains have caused a strong current in the stream.

Although the city of Ouro Preto is much larger than that of Marianna, it has not the same imposing appearance, not for the want of large buildings, but from the irregularity of its site. The greater part of it is built upon the side of the Serra de San Sebastião, which forms the N.W. boundary of a deep narrow valley. It is naturally divided into an upper and lower town, the upper being by far the finer; it contains a number of handsome buildings, such as the palace of the provisional government, which is a large and well-built stone edifice, standing on one side of a square of considerable size, the opposite side of which is formed by the town house and prison, which is also a fine building. A little below these stand the barracks, which are the best I have seen in the interior; the treasury is also a good substantial stone building, but the low situation, and the narrow street in which it is built, do not allow of its being seen to advantage. The city contains six large churches, the finest of which, Nossa Senhora do Carmo, stands in the upper town, not far from the prison house; the city is abundantly supplied with water of an excellent quality, a fountain existing in almost every street.

The population of the city is said to amount to about 8,000 souls; it contains many good shops, but not one devoted to the sale of books. It boasts, however, of two printing offices, and four newspapers, two of which are ministerial, and two belong to the opposition. They are of small folio size, and their contents are almost entirely of a political nature. In the beginning of the year 1840, a college, a preparatory one, was established by a law passed in the provincial assembly, in which Latin, French, English, philosophy, mathematics, and pharmacy, are taught by as many different professors.

About a mile from the city there is a Botanic Garden, which is maintained by government, and principally intended for the propagation of useful exotic plants, to be given gratis to those who may apply for them. I found the plants principally cultivated here to be the Tea plant, Cinnamon, the Jaca, Bread-fruit, Mango, &c. Several acres are devoted to the cultivation of tea, of which a considerable quantity is manufactured yearly, and sold in the city at about the same price as that which is imported from China. The avenue leading to the garden, as well as several others which surround it, are planted with the Brazilian pine (_Araucaria Brasiliana_), which adds greatly to the beauty of the grounds; these trees were about thirty years of age, and bore abundance of their large cones yearly.