z,

lOZLf.
 TRAVELS
IN

BRAZIL.
VOL. I.
 Lqkdon:
Printed by A. & R, Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.
 TRAVELS
IN

BRAZIL, IN THE YEARS

1817— 18m
UNDERTAKEN BY COMMAND OF

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF BA VARIA.

BY

Dr. JOH. BAPT. VON SPIX,

AND Dr. C. F. PHIL. VON MARTIUS,
KNIGHTS OF THE KOYAL BAVARIAN ORDER OF CIVIL JMERIT,
AND MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES AT MUNICH, &C. &C.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

LONDON;
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,
PATERNOSTJBR-ROW.
 TO

HIS MAJESTY

MAXIMILIAN JOSEPH THE FIRST,

KING OF BAVARIA.

Sire,

When Your Majesty had decided on send-

ing a literary expedition to Brazil, you
were pleased to confide to us the execution
of this royal resolution.

Attachment to Your Majesty and to the

sciences was the guardian Genius that guided

us amidst the dangers and fatigues of so

extensive a journey, through a part of the
world so imperfectly known, and brought
A 3
VI DEDICATION.

US back in safety, from that remote hemi-

sphere, to our native land.

This undertaking, therefore, which is, per-

haps, not without importance in the history

of the Bavarian nation, owes its origin and

its success to Your Majesty ; and whatever

advantages the sciences may derive from it,

must be solely ascribed to the magnanimity

and favour of a monarch, who, considering
science as the highest ornament of humanity,

founds upon it, by means of the wisest

institutions, the happiness of his people.

Penetrated with feelings of the most pro-

found gratitude, we, therefore, venture to
approach Your Majesty's throne, and most
respectfully to offer to the best of kings the

first fruits of our mission.

,j-^^ij^ ;,:iij

Encouraged by Your Majesty's most gra-

cious assurance, that, in the performance
of our undertaking, we have fulfilled Your
 DEDICATION. VII

Majesty's intentions, we are now animated

by the wish that the literary description of
its results may likewise be found worthy of
the approbation of our beloved Sovereign.

With the most profound respect we are^

Sire,

Your Majesty's

Most devoted and

Most faithful subjects,

DR. J. B. VON SPIX.

DR. C. F. P. VON MARTIUS,

A 4
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

At a period when the peculiar situation of the

immense countries America, fbrmeriy belonging
in
to the crowns of Spain and Portugal, so powerfully
claims the attention of the politician, the statesman,
and the merchant, no more can be required to
recommend a work like that here offered to the
public, than the assurance that it is not a mere
compilation, got upmeet the exigencies of the
to
moment, but a real and authentic narrative, of a
journey through a great extent of a most interest-
ing country, hitherto but imperfectly, or not at
all and performed by persons every
explored,
way qualified to gather ample materials for
both instruction and entertainment. That such
a feeling is very general may be inferred from the
numerous works that have been published of late
years relating to different parts of South America.
In exploring this vast continent, peculiar merit
belongs to the Germans, to whom the illustrious
name of Von Humboldt alone, secures, without
dispute, the palm of superiority. The removal of
the Court of Portugal from Lisbon to Rio de
 PREFACE.

Janeiro,opened an extensive field of research,

of which the Germans amply availed themselves.
Many men, well-versed in different branches of
science, especially mineralogy, entered into the
service of theCourt of Rio de Janeiro, and
very interesting communications, sent by them,
have been published in the German literary jour-
nals, though it is to be regretted that few of them

have become known in this country. The mar-

riage of an Austrian Princess with the Crown
Prince of Brazil, gave, however, the most powerful
stimulus to the German literati, and the fairest op-

portunity for visiting Brazil with all the advantages

that the protection of the government could afford.

Accordingly the Emperor of Austria sent several

learned men, well skilled in the various depart-
ments of natural history and natural philosophy,
in the suite of the Archduchess his daughter, and
His Majesty the King of Bavaria embraced this
favourable opportunity to send two members of the
Academy of Sciences at Munich, who would thus
be under the protection of the Austrian embassy,
and enjoy the best recommendation to the Court of
Rio de Janeiro. The particulars being detailed in
the first chapter of this work, it is unnecessary to
dwell on them here j but it may be observed that this
is the first accour^t yet published by any of the Ger-
man literati who went to Brazil with the Austrian
legation, excepting some essays on subjects of natu-
ral history, as well by the authors of this work, as by
 PREFACE. XI

some of" the Austrian naturalists which have ap-

peared in different German journals. Professor
Natterer, one of the most distinguished of the latter,
has not yet returned to Europe, but may be expected
in the course of this year. With regard to Messrs.
Spix and Martius, they have adopted, in a great
measure, the plan of Baron Von Humboldt, having
published, besides this personal narrative, three or
four separate works, each exclusively dedicated to
some one branch of natural history.
As the volumes now offered to the public con-
tain only the first half of the personal narrative,
(the remaining part being in the press) it may not
be irrelevant to acquaint the reader, that notwith-
standing the interest which it is hoped will be
excited by these volumes, it may be justly expected
that the remaining part will be found to possess
still greater novelty, and to afford more ample
information, and more striking incidents. In con-
firmation of this assurance, I add the following out-
line of the latter part of their travels in Brazil.
The fatigues that they had
endure in the
to
sequel of their expedition having brought on se-
vere illness, they rested for a time in the capitania
of Maranham, whence, as soon as they were suf-
ficiently recovered, they proceeded to the island of
St. Louis, and afiter a six days' voyage by sea,
from that place, lauded at Para. Having at length
reached the banks of the majestic and immense
river of the Amazons, bounded by a lofty and
itU PREFACE.

evergreen they had attained the chief ob-

forest,

ject of their wishes and setting out on the 21st of

;

August, 1819, proceeded along the bank of the

stream (amidst a chaos of floating islands, falling
masses of the banks, immense trunks of trees
carried down by the current, the cries and screams
of countless multitudes of monkeys and birds, shoals
of turtles, crocodiles, and fish, gloomy forests full

of parasite plants and palms, with tribes of wan-

dering Indians on the banks, marked and dis-

figured in various manners, according to their

fancies,) till they reached the settlement of Panxis,
where, at the distance of 500 miles up the country,
the tide of the sea is still visible, and the river,

confined to the breadth of a quarter of a league, of

unfathomable depth. They then journeyed to the
mouth of the Rio Negro. From this place every
thing becomes more wild, and the river of the
Amazons resumes its ancient name of Solimoes,
which had from a nation
it now extinct. The
travellers had chosen the most favourable season of
the year, when the numerous sandy islands, which
are at other times covered, rising above the now
low water, invited the inhabitants of the surround-
ing tracts, who piled up in heaps the new-laid turtles'
eggs, out of which, by the aid of water and rum, they
prepared the finest oil.

At the town of Ega on the Rio Teffe the two

travellers separated. Dr. Martius proceeded up
the collateral stream, the Japura, overcame, by
 PREFACE. XUl

the most painful exertions, tlie cataracts and the

rocks on the river, and at length arrived at the
foot of the mountain Arascoara, in the middle of
the southern continent, separated from Quito only
by the Cordilleras. Dr. Spix proceeded up the
main stream, crossed the broad rivers Jurua and
Jurahy, and the Spanish river 19a, and penetrated
at length, through clouds of poisoned arrows dis-
charged by the Indians, and of venomous insects,
through contagious diseases, and threatening moun-
tain torrents, to the mouth of the river Jupary,
at the last Portuguese settlement of Tabatiaga, on
the frontiers of Peru, where he heard the language
of the Incas. Had the two travellers prosecuted
their enterprise, a few weeks longer, they would
have reached the opposite shores of the South
American continent. But to effect this they
needed the permission of the viceroy of Peru, and
the time allowed them for their journey, would not
permit them to extend it further. They again
turned to the east, and the stream carried them
down so rapidly that they arrived in five days at
the place, from which had cost a full month's
it

exertion to work their way up the river. After

several lateral excursions, which amply repaid their
labour, they again reached Para on the l6th of
April 1820. The object of their mission was com-
pleted : the continent had been traversed from 24.*

south latitude to the Equator, and under the line,

from Para to the eastern frontier of Peru ; an in-
 XIV PREFACE.

credible store of natural treasures, and of curious

information had been acquired. It is a most gratify-

ing circumstance that all their collections, without a

single exception, have arrived safe, and in perfect
preservation at Munich, where His Majesty the King
of Bavaria has had them all scientifically arranged,
according to the several divisions of the animal,
vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, in a noble build-
ing fitted up expressly for their reception, under
the appropriate name of the Brazihan Museum, of
which the indefatigable travellers, to whom it owes
its existence, are most deservedly appointed con-

servators.
With respect to the translation, I do not feel it

necessary to say more, than that it has been exe-

cuted with all the care that I could bestow upon
it, and that whole of the mineralogical part,
in the

especially the notes, I have had the assistance of

one of the ablest mineralogists in the kingdom, to
whom, though I do not feel myself authorised to
mention his name in this place, I cannot refrain
from returning my acknowledgments for the ad-
ditional value which the work has derived from his
liberal assistance.

H. E. LLOYD.
London, March 1824.
 CONTENTS
OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

Preparation for the Expedition. — Joui-ney from

Municli, by way of Vienna, to Tjiest.
Page 1—18

Occasion and object of the journey. — Preparations for

it. — Stay at — Meeting with the Austrian
Vienna. natural-
istsbelonging the expedition
to — Journey by
to Brazil.
way of Laibach and Idria — Excursion
to Triest. to
Venice. — Return over land — Marine produc-
to Triest.
tions of country. — Arrival of the Imperial Austrian
this

embassy. Notes.
XVI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II.

Departure from Triest. — Voyage through the

Adriatic and the Mediterranean to Gibraltar.
Page 19—52.

Storm — Stay Pola. — Voyage the

in the Adriatic. at in

Adriatic, along the Dalmatian and — Stay

Italian coasts.

at Malta. — —
Lavalletta. Vecchia. — Voyage
Citta the in

Mediterranean. — Phosphorescence of the water of that

sea.— Arrival — Notes: — The
at Gibraltar. of Pola plants

and the —
vicinity.The Fauna and Flora of the of island

Malta,

CHAPTER III.

Stay at Gibraltar, and in the vicinity. Page 53 — 80.

The town and its — Mount Calpe. —

inhabitants.

Osseous breccia. — Roque. —

St. — —
Algesiras. Tarifa.
Observations relative toNatural History. — The of Strait

Gibraltar, and the currents Notes: —

in it. of animals List
and plants found about Gibraltar and Algesiras.

CHAPTER IV.

Voyage from Gibraltar to Madeira, and thence

across the Atlantic Ocean, to Rio de Janeiro.
Page 81—130.
 CONTENTS. XVI

Passage through the Straits of Gibraltar. — The Atlantic

Ocean. — Sea-sickness. — Arrival Madeira, and stay inat
that — A description of the island with respect
island. to
Natm-al History. — Voyage past the Canary Islands. —
Observations on Natural Philosophy and Natural Plistory,
relative to the winds, the temperature of the air, of the
water at and below the surface, to the barometer, the
areometer, the hygrometer, the electrometer, the variation
of the needle, the currents, the lightnings, &c. — The
Atlantic Ocean to the Tropic of Cancer, from that to the
Equator, and thence to Rio de Janeiro. — Phosphorescence.
— Flying tunnyfish, fish, sharks, mollusca,
sea-fowl,
&c. — Natural and Mathematical Equator. — Fear of
— Feelings on passing the Equator. — A day be-
pirates.

tween the — Communication with a

tropics. — The vessel.

coast of — The
Brazil. Abrolhos. — Rocks and
llhas
shoals.— Trinidad. — Perilous of the crew of a
situation

French — vessel. — The harbour of Rio de

Arrival. Janeiro.
Notes — The: — The
dyer's lichen. vegetation of the
islands of Canaria and Madeira. — Animals near the
equator. — Equatorial limits of the north-east and south-
east trade winds.

VOL. I. a
XVIU CONTENTS.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

Stay in Rio de Janeiro. - - Page 131 9,05.

Description of the — Population. — Influence of

city.

the residence of the — Library. — The

court. press.

Schools. — Foundation of a chirurgical — Great school.

want of a — Academy of — The

university. arts. climate.

— The mode of of the people. — Character of

living

diseases.— Hospitals. — The public promenade. — Slave

trade.— Commerce. — Imports and exports of the capital,

and the — The bank. — Money. — View of the

interior.

duties of customs and of the exportation from Rio

in Brazil,

de — Notes: — A royal passport. —

Janeiro. of cus- ^^Duties

toms, &c.

CHAPTER II.

Excursions in the environs of Rio de Janeiro.

Page 206—268.
Natural history of the environs. — The aqueduct of
Caryoca. — Noble prospect from Mount Corcovado. —
Tijuca. — Lake Camoi'im. — The plantation of Dr.
coffee
Lesesne. — Lagoa de Rodrigo — Botanic garden.
Freitas.
— Tea — Gunpowder manufactory. — Islands
plantation.
in the Bay of Rio de — Porto de
Janeiro. on the Estrella,
high road Minas Geraes. — Stay
to Mandiocca, the at
country-seat of Mr. Von Langsdorf. — the Serra Visit to
 CONTENTS. XIX

dos Orgaos. — Description of the forest, of the plants, and

animals. — Rocks, their formation. — Way over the Serra
to Corrego Seco, and as far as the passage of the river
Paraiba. — Agriculture, and the obstacles to it. — Con-
siderations and counsels for European settlers — The
weather at Rio. — Preparations for the journey into the
interior. — The arrival of Her Imperial Highness the
Princess Royal of Brazil.

CHAPTER III.

Journey from Rio de Janeiro, to the city of S.

Paulo Page 269 S'27. —
Departure to Campinho, and S. Cruz, the estate of
the Prince Regent. — Chinese — Taguahy. —
settlers.

Last view of the from the Serra do Mar. —

sea-coast
Retiro. — Fazenda dos Negros. — Bananal. — Anna S,
das Areas, and the Indians — Tacasava. — Lorena.
there.
— The Serra de Mantequeira. — Beginning of the grassy
Campos. — Rio Paraiba. — Guarantingueta. — Pendam-
onhangaba. — The forms of
different — Tau-
vegetation.
bate, and its inhabitants,
the discoverers of the gold
first

mines. — Frequency of the women. —

goitres, especially in
Causes and cure of them. — Jacarehy. — Aldea da Escada.
— Indians — Description of the Cafusos descend-
there.
ants of Indians and Negroes, with natural perukes a foot
high. — Mogy das Cruces.
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES
IN

THE FIRST VOLUME.

VILLA VELHA Frontispiece.

A village consisting of scattered houses, a league to the

south-west of the Villa do Rio de Contas in the interior of
the capitania of Bahia. The grotesque mica-slate moun-
tain, Serra do Rio de Contas, or de Brumado, forms the
back-ground of this luxuriant landscape. In the fore-
ground are palms, calabash and gum anime trees (Carica,
Papaja, and Hymenea Courbaril); and negro Haves are
employed in gathering cotton.

A BOTOCUDO and A COROADO ...... To face page 143.

We are obliged to His Serene Highness Prince Maximilian

of Neuwied for this portrait of a Botocudo.
The Coroado is the portrait of our attendant, Custodio, who
accompanied us on a great part of our journey through
the interior. See Vol. II. page 264.

MANDIOCCA To face page 2SS.

The farm of M. Von LangsdorfF at the foot of the Serra de

Estrella, the continuation of the Serra dos Orgaos ; on the

north side of the bay of Rio de Janeiro, and on the road
to Villa Rica, the capital of the capitania of Minas
Geraes.
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

A MAMELUCA and A CAFUSA To face page ?>ie.

The Mameluca is a woman of the lowest class in the pro-

vince of S. Paulo, descended from a father of the Euro-
pean, and a mother of the American race. The goitre is

frequent in many parts of this province, and is almost con^

sidered as an ornament.
The Cafusa is likewise a female of the lower class in the pro-
vince of S. Paulo. The Cafusos are a middle race, between
the American and the Negro. The smooth hair of the
former and the wool of the latter are modified in their
mixed descendants into a high curly kind of peruke. The
custom of smoking is general in this province, especially
among the lower classes. See page 324.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE. DEPARTURE

FROM MUNICH J
JOURNEY BY WAY OF VIENNA
TO TRIEST.

America, which was unknown to us till within

a few centuries, has, from the time of its discovery,
been the object of the admiration and the regard
of Europe. The advantages of its situation, the
fertility and diversified riches of its soil, held out
equal attractions to the European colonist and
merchant, and to the scientific inquirer. This new
country was rapidly peopled, and unfolded to our
view, by the active intercourse with the mother
country, and by the exertions of the learned men,
who, animated by a laudable emulation, endea-
VOL. I. B
2 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

voured to make themselves acquainted with it by

extensive journeys into the interior. In this re-

"spect we are infinitely indebted to many enter-

prising travellers of former times, but more par-
ticularly to those of the last half century, through
whose immortal labours America has been more
successfully explored than any of the continents of
the Old World, Europe alone excepted. Notwith-
standing, however, the great advances we have
made in our acquaintance with this part of the
world, it still wide a field for research and
offers so

discovery as would greatly extend the sphere of

human knowledge. This observation is peculiarly
applicable to Brazil, the heart of this new conti-
nent ; and which, although it is the most beautiful,
and most endowed portion, has been hither-
richly
to but thinly peopled and imperfectly known.
His Majesty the King of Bavaria, the generous
patron of the sciences, sensible of the advantages
which would accrue to them, and to the interests
of mankind in general, from a more accurate know-
ledge of America, directed the Academy of Sciences
at Munich, about the end of the year 1815, to
di'aw up, and lay before him, a plan for a literary
tour into the interior of South America. Among
others selected for this expedition, were the two
academicians, authors of the present narrative, Dc
Spix for zoology, and Dr. Martins for botany. The
original plan was, to proceed from Buenos Ayres,
by land, to Chili ; thence to travel northwards to
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 3

Quito ; and to return by way of Carraccas or

Mexico to Europe.
Some difficulties, however, presented tfiemselves,
which obliged His Majesty's government to defer the
execution of this project. But His Majesty's wish
for the fitting out of this expedition being again re-
vived, the marriage of Her Imperial Highness
Caroline Josepha Leopoldina, Archduchess of Aus-
tria, with His Royal Highness Don Pedro D'Al-
cantara. Crown Prince of Portugal, Algarve, and
Brazil, presented the most favourable opportunity
for gratifying it. At the time of the conclusion of
this alliance, which was Europe more
to unite
closely with the New World, His Majesty the King
of Bavaria was at Vienna in person ; and the Im-
perial Court having i-esohed to send some scientific
men to Brazil, in the suite of the august bride, the
king made arrangements for some members of his
academy accompany the Austrian expedition,
to
with the same views towards the advancement of
knowledge. The flattering choice fell upon us ;

and we accordingly received on the 28th of Janu-

ary, I8I7, directions to repair, without loss of time,
to Vienna, and thence to Triest there to embark
;

on board the frigates, which were already equipped

for their voyage, to Rio de Janeiro. The Royal
Academy of Sciences, at the same time, received
orders to furnish us with instructions, not only re-
specting the principal departments with which we
were specially charged, but also, generally, relative

B 2

//
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

to all that might fall within the sphere of our ob-

servations and researches,and to provide us with
those instruments, the judicious employment of
which, during the course of the expedition, might
be productive of results particularly interesting to

science.
In consequence of these commands, the travellers
were recommended to direct their chief attention
towards enriching the two departments of zoology
and botany, and at the same time to keep in view
the other branches of science, as far as time and
circumstances should allow. Dr. Spix, as zoologist,
engaged to make the whole animal kingdom the
object of his observations and labours. With this
view he had to observe the inhabitants, whether
aborigines or colonists; to remark the different

effects of climate upon them ; their physical and

intellectual powers, &c. : the external and internal
conformation of all the indigenous animals ; their

habits and and the geographical limits in

instincts,

which they are found their migrations ;and, :

lastly, to investigate the fossil remains of animals,

those most authentic records of the past, and most
convincing proofs of the gradual development of
the creation. Dr. Martins, as botanist, undertook
to explore, in its whole extent, the vegetable king-
dom of the tropics. Besides the study of the
botanical families peculiar to the country, he was
particularly to examine those forms which, by their
affinity or identity with those of other countries,
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 5

lead to conclusions respecting their original coun-

try, and their gradual diffusion over the surface of
the globe. He proposed connecting these re-

searches with climatic and geognostic observations ;

and to this end to extend them to the most insig-

nificant members of the vegetable kingdom, such
as mosses, lichens, and fungi. He was likewise to
observe the changes which both the native and
exotic plants undergo, when exposed to certain ex-
ternal influences ; and to investigate the history of
the soil, and the method of cultivation there in use.
An examination of the internal structure, and of
the development of tropical plants, promised in-
teresting solutions of the laws o^ vegetable life in
general, as the observation of any traces that should
be discovered of an earlier vegetation, now extinct,
might afford materials for the foundation of a
geognostic theory. Lastly, he conceived he should
promote the object of the mission by an accurate
investigation of the Brazilian materia medica,
drawn from the vegetable kingdom, as well as of
all other vegetable substances, the use of which
might be interesting to arts and manufactures, and
by carefully indicating the manner in which they
are employed in their native country. But besides
the observations and researches in the departments
peculiar to each professor, in which reciprocal
assistance and support were presupposed, they
were particularly enjoined to complete, as far as

possible, the collections of the academy, by send-

B 3
6 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

ing specimens of all Ihe natural productions of the

several kingdoms, as the best certificate of the ob-
servations made.
In addition to these instructions, each particular
branch of study at the university had its peculiar
claims upon the industry and observation of the
travellers. With respect to mineralogy, they were
instructed accurately to observe the geognostic rela-
tions in which the different formations of the moun-
tain masses in general stand to each other ; their

succession, magnitude, thickness, and particularly

their dip ; and, farther, to examine the hitherto
problematical production of gold, of diamonds,
and other precious stones, as well as of all the
more important fossils. In physics, they were
to observe the declination and inclination of the
magnetic needle ; its daily variation ; the pheno-
mena of electricity, according to the several de-
grees of latitude and longitude ; the transparency
and colour, the phosphorescence, temperature, and
• saltness of the sea in different regions, and at various
depths ; the temperature of the atmosphere ; the
phenomenon of the Fata Morgana ; the mean
temperature and the differences of climate in vari-
ous parts of the continent ; the periodical oscillation
of the barometer ; the different elevations of the
ground \ the traces of the gradual receding or
advancing of the sea, on the coasts ; the currents,
the local anomalies in the tides ; the electricity of
the fish, &c. The historical and philosophic-philo-
logical classes of the universitv recommended
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 7

attention to the different languages, national

peculiarities, religious and historical traditions,

ancient and modern monuments; such as writings,

coins, idols, and, in general, whatever might throw
light on the state of society, and the history both
of the aboriginal and other inhabitants of Brazil,
or which concerned the topography and geography
of that hitherto so imperfectly known country. In
order to satisfy, to the utmost of their power, these
duties and wishes, the two travellers exerted them-
selves to provide every requisite for so great an
enterprise, and to make, without loss of time,
the necessary preparations. After every thing
possible was got ready, and the books, instruments,
medicine chest, and other travelling equipage, sent
off direct to Triest, they set out from Munich on
the 6th of February, 181?, for Vienna.
In where they arrived on
this imperial capital,

the 10th of February, they were favoured with

the most active and generous support, by His
Highness Prince Metternich, and by His Ex-
cellency Baron Von Stainlein, the Bavarian am-
bassador, in the further preparations, and in

collecting what was necessary to accomplish the

scientific objects proposed by the enlightened
sovereigns. M. Von Schreibers, director of the

Imperial Museum
of Natural History, —
as honour-

ably distinguished in the learned world by his

writings, as amiable in private life, to whom the
organization of the Austrian scientific expedition
B 4
8 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

to Brazil was confided, —

had the goodness immedi-
ately to introduce them to the learned gentlemen
selected by the Austrian government, who were to
be their fellow travellers. Professor Mikan, from
Prague, was appointed for the departments of
botany and entomology ; Mr. Pohl, M. D., for
mineralogy and botany ; Mr. Natterer, assistant in
the Imperial Museum of Natural History, for zoo-
logy ; Mr. Th. Ender, to be landscape painter ; Mr.
Buchberger, botanical painter ; and M. H. Schott,
son of the worthy superintendent of the University
Garden, to be gardener ; the two last were assigned
as assistants to professor Mikan : there were be-
sides with the company a huntsman and a working
miner.
Rejoiced at the acquaintance with our future
companions, we longed for orders to set out to-
gether for Triest. But as several circumstances
left it doubtful when the two Austrian frigates

would sail, we employed the time that we had re-

maining, partly in further preparations for the
voyage, especially in procuring maps and other
things which could not be purchased in the New
World, or only at a very great expence, and partly
in visiting the learned men residing in the capital.
Among these were the venerable Baron Von
Jacquin, the Nestor of German botanists (since
unfortunately dead), who had himself passed many
years in the West India islands, and on the Terra
Firma, with such gieat advantage to science, and
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 9

whose counsels were extremely welcome to us his ;

worthy son; Messrs. Prohaska, Trattinik, Host, Por-

tenschlag, Bredemeyer, Prechtl, Meissner, &c. all ;

of whom testified great interest in our enterprise.

But what particularly animated our courage and en-
thusiasm was the personal acquaintance of M. Fer-
dinand Bauer, the painter, who had accompanied
Captain Flinders on his voyage in the South Sea
and to New Holland, and was then actually en-
gaged in pourtraying the strange forms of plants
and animals of those remote regions.
We left Vienna on the 4th of March to repair
to Triest. At Gratz we Johanneum,
visited the
founded by His Imperial Highness the Archduke
John of Austria. This excellent institution is
chiefly designed for the propagation of practical
knowledge in the departments of natural history
and the arts, and is a noble monument of the
esteem of its princely founder for the sciences.
On this occasion we became acquainted with the
professors Chrys. V. Vest and M. Fr. Mohs,
and if our time had permitted, would willingly
have explored the beautiful environs of the capital
of Styria, in company with those able enquirers
but circumstances were imperious, and we
hastened away to visit the quicksilver mines of
Idria. We would be very interesting
thought it

to obtain by personal inspection, a knowledge of

those mines, the produce of wliich must prove of
incalculable benefit to Brazil, rich as it is in gold,
10 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

when the importance of amalgamation shall be

understood there as well as it is in Peru and
Mexico.
From Laibach, the residence of the aged and
venerable Baron Von Zoys, who is still ardent in
the study of natural history, and in possession of
an admirable collection of the minerals of the
country, we proceeded to Idria, which lies two
posts to the side of the high road. The way,
after many windings, leads into an extremely deep
valley, in which the little town is situated. We
passed some days there, in examining the curious
formation of the slate clay, which forms an ex-
tensive bed in compact limestone, of the rich
hepatic mercurial ores, especially the coral ore,
which represents concentric lamellar, roundish con-

cretions, resembling petrified bivalves, and, lastly, of

the extensive sraelting-houses, which for many
years have furnished annually three thousand
quintals of quicksilver. Returning to the high
road, we visited, near Adelsberg, the caves in

what is called the cavern limestone, in which

are found not only loose skulls and other human
bones, together with rosaries, but also remains of
animals resembling the tapir, imbedded in the
limestone. We were very desirous of visiting the
neighbouring lake of Zircknitz, famous for its

rising and falling; but the object of our journey

required haste, and we set out immediately, after
having by a fortunate chance obtained eighteen
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 11

living specimens of the Pr^oteus angidnus which is

found liere. As it is not yet fully decided whether

this animal, which between lizards
in its structure is

and fishes, is only a larva or a perfectly developed

animal, we took half of those we had procured
to the torrid zone alive, in order, if possible, to
promote their metamorphosis by the greater heat
the other half we sent to the Royal Academy at
Munich, that they might be duly examined. Our
road led us over the declivity of the Julian lime-
stone alps, many masses of rock con-
on which
taining petrified shells lie scattered about, down to
the fine seaport of Triest, where we arrived on
the 10th of March. From the heights at Obczina,
we had a noble view of the Adriatic Gulf, ex-
tending between the Italian and Istrian coasts j and
saw the two Austrian frigates, whose masts rose
above all the rest, lying at anchor, ready to sail.

The situation of Triest, the capital of Illyria,

on the Adriatic, renders it one of the most im-

portant seaports of Italy for the Levant trade.
The old town is built along the declivity of a
mountain, on which the castle stands ; the new
town on the sea shore the latter consists of some
;

handsome streets with large houses, on a canal, by

means of which the merchants' goods are con-
veniently brought from the sea to the interior of
the town. The inhabitants are partly of Greek,
Illyrian, and Italian, but principally of German
origin. The market, amply furnished with the
finest southern fruits, as well as the rarest produc-
12 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

by the union of the pro-

tions of the sea, proves,
duce of the north and of the south, the happy
situation of the city. Though a high mountain
rises near it, and that on the north side, the har-

bour is not sufficiently protected against winds, and

the cold is sometimes severe. The warm sirocco,

which often blows over from Africa, is very re-

laxing, and frequently brings on diseases. At the
time of our arrival the vegetable world was almost
dead, and excepting Helleborus hyemalis. Crocus
reticulatus, and Primula acaulis, we found on the

bare ground scarcely a sign of the approaching

spring. The sea, however, afforded a more ample
supply of animals and marine plants j which, with
the collections made on our way hither, and the
insects which we obtained from naturalists here,

were sent to the cabinet of natural history at

Munich.* A painful sensation was excited in

us by the information which we received, some

days after our arrival, that the room which we oc-
cupied in the hotel where we put up, was that in
which Winkelmann met his death from the hand
of an assassin. We were here neighbours to the
commander of the two frigates, Signor Nicola de
Pasqualigo, a noble of Venice ; a seaman, as much
by general information and nautical
distinguished
knowledge, as by his courage and resolution, of
which he gave proofs in the last war. He im-
mediately took us to our future quarters on board

See Note, page 17-

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 13

the Austria frigate, which, as well as the Augusta,

was built and equipped in the arsenal of Venice,
and were destined by the Austrian government to
receive on board the greater part of the extraor-
dinary embassy, and of the legation to the court
of Brazil, the members of the scientific expedition,
and some agents for the commercial intercourse to
be opened with Brazil, as well as the Austrian
mercantile articles intended for that purpose. Some
of the officers and crew were Germans, but the
greater part Venetians.
Every thing was ready for sailing, and we too
had completed all our preparations, when news
was received that it would be above a week before
the embassy would arrive. We resolved, there-
fore, before we quitted our native land, to view the
treasures of art at Venice. A favourable oppor-
tunity for this plan was offered
by the "return of
an imperial brig to Venice, which had brought
from the arsenal some stores necessary to com-
plete the equipment of our two frigates. We
sailed in the night of the 25th of March, and in
the morning were already at the entrance of the
harbour of Venice. The and the
sea ran high,
motion of the vessel did not fail to produce in us
the usual symptoms of sickness we were there-
;

fore doubly rejoiced when we had passed the dan-

gerous entrance, and felt ourselves upon terra
firma in the square of St. Mark. In order to
make ourselves acquainted with the city, we rowed
in one of the black gondolas in use here, through
14 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the labyrinth of canals, to those noble buildhigs

which remain as monuments of the time when
Venice, in possession of the sovereignty of the
Mediterranean, brought to the markets of Europe
all the treasures of the East. Its present state
bears testimony to the instability of all human
splendour. But every thing great and glorious that
the commerce of the world could produce, is pre-
served in the architectural monuments in the square
of St. Mark ; which the art of Tintoret, Paul
Veronese, and Titian, by their warm and vivid
colouring, adorned, in the decline of the republic,
like the partingbeams of the setting sun.
From the top of St. Mark's we enjoyed the de-
lightful prospect of the plain of Lombardy,
stretched out between the Alps and the Appen-
nines, and so richly adorned with cities and
universities. A view of this country involuntarily
calls to mind trie immortal poets and artists whom
its romantic natural beauties have inspired, and
fills the soul of the observer with the most pleas-
ing and sublime sensations. In us it excited a wish,
to see at least the neighbouring city of Padua, and
its once celebrated university. Half a day's jour-
ney brought us to that antique place, where we had
the pleasure of becoming acquainted with pro-
and Bonato. In the botanic
fessors Brera, Caldani,

garden, which formerly, under Guilandinus, so

greatly contributed to the reputation of the univer-
sity, we were struck with some trees, originally
brought from the East, and which have now grown
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 15

to a large size ; Laurus Borbonia, L. Benzoin,

viz.

X. Sassafras, Liquidambar Styraciflua, imberbe,Pmus

Cedrus, Acacia Julibt^issm, which continue to flourish,
in undiminished verdure, monuments of the former
glory of Venice. But beyond the limits of this
garden, the country, at this season, was still dry
and bare ; only a few liliaceous plants, such as
Hyacinthus racemosus, Erythronium, Dens Cams,
Scilla bifolia. Crocus reticidatus, adorning the naked
limestone hills. With this excursion the time of
absence allowed us expired, and it was necessary
to think of returning to Triest. The wind, since
our arrival at Venice, had blown so steadily from
the north, that, to ensure our not being too late,

we resolved, instead of going by sea, to proceed

by land, by way of Treviso, to Triest, which we
reached safe after an agreeable journey of two
days.
Some members of the legation and some of the
naturalists had arrived meantime at Triest, and
the remainder came the following day so that ;

our births on board the frigates were assigned us,

the baggage embarked, and the whole company
took up their quarters on board, on the 7th of
April. Baron Von Neveu, counsellor of legation,
who was afterwards to be charge d'affaires at the
court of Brazil, had the sole direction of the ex-
pedition; because the ambassador, Count Von Eltz,
was toembark afterwards, with the august bride,
at Leghorn. He had with him Count Von Schon-
feld, and Count Von Palffy, as gentlemen of the
 16 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

embassy. All three were on board the Austria,

as well as the commander of the two frigates.

Quarters were assigned on board the same vessel,

to professor Mikan and his lady; the two Bavarian
naturalists, Spix and Martius ; the Austrian land-
scape painter Th. Ender ; M. Weber, merchant
of Triest ; and to M. Nerini, Austrian consul-
general at Cadiz, who took the opportunity of this
conveyance to Gibraltar. The Augusta frigate
took on board the Austrian naturalist, Natterer
the gardener, Schott ; the botanical painter, Buch-
berger, with some assistants ; a mercantile commis-
sioner, and his secretary. The command of this

vessel was given to lieutenant-colonel Agurti.

The Austrian mineralogist Pohl, and the animal
painter Frick, were to make the voyage on board
a Portuguese vessel. Count Von Wrbna was to
proceed from London to Brazil, to bring thither
the news of the celebration of the marriage
first

by proxy. The two frigates were ordered to sail

in company to Gibraltar, there to wait for the
Archduchess ; who, with her retinue and the em-
bassy, was to embark on board a Portuguese
squadron ordered to Leghorn. As soon as all

the travellers were on board, and the preparations

entirely completed, the governor of Triest visited
the two frigates, each of which had forty-four guns,
and crew of 260 men, inspected the crews and
a
the cargoes, and then, with the most ardent wishes
for a happy voyage, and amidst the thunder of
artillery, took his leave.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 17

NOTE TO CHAPTER I.

AvES Larus cyanorhynchus, minutus ; Anas fuligula,

:

acuta, fusca, Tadorna Hcematopus ostralegus Totanus ; ;

ferrugineus Nm)ie?ims phaeopus, arcuatus Ardea minuta.

; ;

Pisces Squalus Zygaena, Acanthias, Catulus, centrinus,

:

glaucus, Squadna ; Raja Torpedo, R. torp. nigromaculata,

Rubus, clavata, spec, nova, trunco suhtriangulari, mutico^
supra cinerasceiite, subtus albo, cauda tenia, longissinia,
inermi, pinna unica supra ad radicem caudce ; Accipenser
Hippocampus; Lophius
Sturio, ruthenus; S_i/tig?mf/ms Acus,
piscatorius ; Murcena Anguilla Uranoscopus scaber ;

Blennius viviparus ; Cottiis Scorpius ; Scmpana horrida ;

Zeus Faber; Pleuronectes hippoglossus, maximus, Solen,

Flesus ; Sparus Sargus, auratus ; Scarus et Labriis, div.
spec. LutianusUmYii', Tn^fc Cuculus, Hirundo; Scomber
Thynnus, trachurus ; Mugil, n. sp. Mollusca : Loligo
octopus ; Aplysia depilans, fusca ; Ascidia mentula, con-
chylega, n. sp. vesiculosa, appendicibus numerosis ; Thetis
Conchyl. Patella sanguinea Fissurella graeca
coriacea. ;

Murex Haustellum, Brandaris Turbo rugosus Strombus ; ;

Pes pelican! ; Turritella Terebra ; Pliolas costata ; Car-

dium rusticum ; Pecten jacobaeum ; Pectunculus pilosus ;

Tellina Remies ; Area Nose ; Soleii Vagina ; Atiomia Cepa

Pinna nobilis, pectinata. Crustacea : Astacus marinus,
norwegicus ; Mantis Squilla ; Maja Squinado ; Cancer
Moenas, spinifrons; Th-omia Rumphii; Portunus Depui'ator;
0/«'5«« Armadillo, Asellus; Scorpio itvAicns. Insect. Eleu-
THERATA : Scarabceus stercorarius, sylvaticus, autumnalis
Sisyphus SchaefFeri ; Copris lunaris, emarginata ; Oniticellus
flavipes ; Onthophagus Taurus, austriacus, nuchicornis,
Xiphias ; Aphodius fimetarius, Fossor, Scrutator, foetens
Hister 4-maculatus, politus ; Necrophorus Vespillo, mor-
tuorum ; Cetonia florentina, marmorata, obscura, hirta,

VOL. I. C
18 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

aurata; Trichius hemipterus; Carabus catenatus ; Chlce-

nius festivus ; Staphylinus hirtus, olens, erythropterus
Buprestis laeta ; Cantharis fusca, melanura, nigricans
Malachius seneus, bipunctatus; i?/aps obtusa, spinimana;
Tenehrio obscura; Rhingites populi; Curculio cribrosus,
sulcirostris ; Pachygaster goerzensis, gemmatus ; Ceramhyx
moschatus ; Lamia funesta, tristis ; Callidium luridum
Dorcadion pedestre, rufipes Donacia semicuprea ; Galle- ;

ruca rustica Chrysomela aenea, Adonides, populi, coriaria

;

Clythra longimana; Panagcnts Crux major; Cryptoce-

phalus auritus. Rhyngota : Ligaeus equestris, apterus;
Coreus marginatus; Cydnus violaceus; Cimex brassicae ;

Cercopis fasciata, sanguinolenta Parnops, carnea. Verm. ;

ANNUL.: Jphrodite aculeata; Holothuria pendactes, elegans.

Asteroid,: Asterias aurantiaca, membranacea, rubra;
Ophiurus ciliatus, Caput Medusae; Echinus edulis.
ZooPHYTA Medusa,
: Actinia, div. sp. Alcyon exos, Ficus, ;

pulmonarius ; Spo?igia cannabina. Plants Marinje :

Fucus vesiculosus, L. et var. spiralis, L., obtusus, Turn,

mucronatus, T., ovalis,T.,ericoides, T.; SpkcerococaisTeedn[;
Chondrus crispus, laceratus Zonaria Pavonia Ulva pur- ; ;

purea; Lactiica Linza; Q/stos^/ra (Halidrys Lyngb.) sili-

quosa, Ag., Hoppii, Ag., ericoides, Ag. ; Sporochnus rhizodes,

Ag. ; Plocamium coccineum ; Gelidium pinnatifidium, gigar-
tinum ; Gigartina plicata, purpurascens ; Scytosiphoit

fistulosus, compressus ; CladostepJms hirsutus, verticillatus

Sphacelaria aciculata, scoparia; Hutchinsia violacea, stricta;
Ceramium elongatum, rubrum, diaphanum, ciliatum Calli- ;

thamnion coccineum, fruticulosum, corymbosum; Ectocarpus

siliquosus Conferva fructa, (The greater part determined
;

after Lyngbye ; a few after Agardh.)

 J 9

CHAPTER II.

DEPARTURE FROM TRIEST. VOYAGE IN THE

ADRIATIC AND THE MEDITERRANEAN TO GI-
BRALTAR.

On the 10th of April, two o'clock

at in the
morning, our vessels weighed anchor, and in the
silent darkness of the night quitted the harbour.
The sea was calm and the wind blowing moderately
;

from the north, we made four or five Italian

marine miles in an hour. When the company met
on deck at sun-rise, themountains of Friaul were
already visible in the hazy distance. The greater
part of our company, who had never been at sea
before, remained on deck the whole day, and in
the mingled feeling of regret and pleasure, which
the departure from home excites, fixed their eyes
on their native land, as seemed gradually to.
it

recede from their view, till the increasing motion

of the ship, and the raw cold wind that swept to-
wards evening over the darkening surface of the
sea, compelled the greater number to retire to the
cabin. The night passed over quietly but in the ;

morning we were all awakened from our sleep by

an uncommonly violent motion of the ship. Those
whom sea-sickness had not rendered insensible,
c 2
20 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

readily perceived, from the tossing, cracking, and

rolling of the ship, which struggled with the foam-
ing sea, — from the creaking of the masts, the
roaring of the wind, the cries of the sailors running
backwards and forwards, and the whistling of the
boatswain's pipes, that we were in a great storm.

The Bora, a cold, very violent north-east wind,

which, especially in spring, frequently blows from
the Istrian mountains, and prevails in the northern
part of the Adriatic sea, had suddenly assailed the
two ships. A
black cloud, hanging very low, was
the only indication that the officer on duty had of
the approach of the gale ; so that there was scarcely
time to take in the sails. In a few minutes we
lost sight of the Augusta, which hitherto had kept

at a small distance from us. A thick fog enveloped

our ship ; a cold rain, mixed with hailstones,

which the storm furiously drove before it, covered

the deck with pieces of ice of considerable size,
and almost froze the crew. The ship was tossed
violently the yards and tackle were torn and
;

broken ; the waves rushed through the window

into the forecastle, partly filled the hold with
water ; and at last, when the storm was at its

height, the bowsprit broke short off. The hurri-

cane raged with the utmost fury till noon, when

the sea grew calmer, and the bleak Bora being suc-
ceeded by a mild east wind, we cast anchor in the
middle of the sea, about three miles to the west of
Rovigno. In this situation we awaited the break
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 21

of day, all hands being meantime busily employed

in repairing the damage that had been done, espe-
cially among the cordage, which had suffered by
the breaking of the bowsprit. The fine library of
Baron Von Neveu was overflowed by the waves,
which had beat in the windows of the great cabin,
and almost all the travellers had sustained some
damage by this furious storm ;
now in
yet, being
safety, we were less concerned about our own mis-
fortunes than about the fate of our consort. The
passengers, to whom had been very
this first trial

severe, gradually assembled on the deck, where the

view of the great damage so suddenly occasioned,
and of the exhausted crew, who were benumbed
with cold, completed the impression of the extent
of the danger from which we had so providentially
escaped.
The gloomy sky having cleared up a little, the
ship began to proceed slowly towards the south-
east. At noon we descried the arid coasts of Istria,
on which the sun, just then breaking from the
clouds, threw a light strongly contrasted with the
darkness of the other parts of the scene. At this

moment no sight could be more welcome to us,

than that of what might be called a part of our
own country. We sailed past the little islands co-

vered with the olive and phillyrea, which lie at the

entrance of the harbour of Pola, and anchored
near the town. The passengers went on shore the
same evening to enjoy the sight of the fine Roman
c 3
22 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

antiquitieswhich render this country so interesting.

The greatest ornament of this poor little town,
which contains scarcely a thousand inhabitants,
(though in the time of the Romans it ranked next to
^Egidanow, Capo d'Istria, the most important place
in Istria,) is the circus. It has three stories, each
of seventy-two arches, and is one of the best pre-
served monuments of this kind, which is principally
owing to the material of which it is built ; a solid,
fine-grained limestone. The temple, which the
city of Pola dedicated to Rome, under Caesar
Augustus, in a chaste and noble style, with a pro-
pylaeum of the Corinthian order, is not so well pre-
served. The porta aurea, a triumphal arch, with
columns of the Corinthian order, now serves as a

gate to the town, * The Venetians, after they

had separated Pola, and many other seaport towns
of Istria and Dalmatia, from the dominions of the
kings of Hungary, erected a fort here, with four
bastions, which, however, is now in ruins. From
it there is a fine view of the harbour with its

verdant islands, of the town and the colossal am-

phitheatre, which rises above pleasant groves of
olives and laurels.
While our frigate was under repair, we had lei-

sure to make several excursions in the environs of

* Voyage pittoresque et historique de I'lstrie et Dalmatie,

rddig^ d'aprfes I'itin^raire de L; F. Cassas, par Joseph Lavallee,
Paris, 1802, fol.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 23

Pola, which made us better acquainted with the

interesting peninsula of Istria. The mountains,
which run from north to south, consist, like the

other parts of the country, of floetz lime-stone,

and are of the same formation as the Karst, that
desolate ridge of mountains, remarkable for its

rugged clefts, which runs, several leagues in

breadth, from the district of Gorz, in the direction
from W. N. W. to E. S. E., to the shores of the
gulf of Fiume, and thence southwards to Croatia.
Large and small caverns and vesicular cavities,
holes, and ravines, which frequently give the
mountain the appearance of having been washed
by the rains ;
petrifications, such as AjnmoniteSf
Gryphites, Terebratulites, which, however, are not
so common in the Istrian peninsula as on the con-
and
tinent, in the islands of the Golfo di Quarnero,
a compact fine grain, large conchoidal fracture
fragments, indeterminately angular and sharp-edged,
absence of metal, and a whitish-yellow or reddish-
grey colour, characterise this lime-stone, which
constitutes the chief formation, not only of the
peninsula, but of all the islands in the gulf of
Quarnero, and of the mountain chain in the north
of Croatia. It is said that there are in the penin-
sula, especially in the northern part, several large
caverns which have never been explored, an accu-
rate investigation of which might afford interesting
results respecting the fossile remains of animals
found in the islands of Osero and Cherso, and still

4
24 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

more abundantly in Croatia. About Pola itself the

limestone is without those fossile bones, indeed
almost without petrifications and towards the sea,
;

where it is inhabited and perforated by innumerable

mytili, frequently shews almost horizontal strata
from two to three feet thick. In general, only a
little mould lies over it. In former times, the
great stone quarries of Pola and Pirano furnished
materials for building the proud palaces of Venice.
The vegetation of this dry and rocky soil is by
no means luxuriant. The charms of the south
European Flora, to which that of Istria belongs,
do not consist in those thick and lofty forests, those
verdant pastures and rich meadows, that distinguish
the north. On the contrary, we are surprised at
the nakedness of the and of the plains, desti-
hills,

tute of trees, with hardly any thing growing on

them but juiceless shrubs and, lastly, by the want
;

of general cultivation. The Philli/rea latifoUa, Erica

arborea, Buxus sempervirejis, Cistus LedoUy C. sal'
fifoUus, jimiperus Od^j/cedrus, Pistacia lentiscus,
Smilax and Arbutus TJnedo, form low, shadowless,
dry clumps, which cannot bear a comparison even
with our dry pine forests ; but the many plantations
of olives and laurels have an appearance of softness
and lustre, which corresponds with the mildness
and transparency of a southern climate. This
great transparency, and the beautiful azure of the
sky, were observed by us with pleasure in some
sun-shiny days during our stay, as infallible indi-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 25

cations ofmore favourable weather, and of the

approach of spring some of the harbingers of
;

which, belonging to the vegetable kingdom, were

already in full bloom ; such as Anemo7ie Jiortensis,

Parietaria judaica, Vlantago subulata and Coron-

opus, Ornithogalum umbellatiim, Muscari comosum
and racemosum, Ixici Bulbocodium, Ranunculus
muricatus and parviflorus, and some others. The
season being still so cold, hardly any animals were
to be found except a Testacella Europd'ci, the
Scorpio Italicus, and the more common marine
animals, such as Apli/sia depilans, Holothuria
elegans, some fish and medusae.
The meteorological phenomena here were not
very different from those observed at Triest. The
barometer was at 27° 11' : Reaumur's thermometer
in the air was, in the morning, never above 8° ; at
noon, 10" —11°; in the evening, 6° 7°: in the —
water, in the morning, 8° — 9°; at noon, 9" —10°;
in the evening, 8° to 8° 5'. The specific gravity of
the sea water was 1.0372. The whalebone hy-
grometer stood between 39° and 48°.
The naval officer, who had been sent from Pola
to Venice, to bring a new bowsprit from the arsenal,

and make inquiry respecting the fate of our con-

sort, the frigate Augusta, of which we could obtain

no information on the solitary coast of Istria, re-

turned in a few days, with the bowsprit, and the
news that the Augusta, after losing all her masts,
sails, and boats, had sought shelter in the island of
26 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

Chioggia, and would in all probability be obliged

to go from that place to Venice, in order to repair
in the arsenal of that city the great damage she
had sustained, which was estimated at twenty thou-
sand francs. The bowsprit was soon put up, and
on the seventh day the Austria was again ready to
sail. The embassy, therefore, resolved to proceed
to Gibraltar alone, and there to wait both the
Augusta frigate and the royal Portuguese squadron,
as well as further instructions from the imperial
court of Vienna.
On the 21st of April, at six o'clock in the
morning, we weighed anchor, and left the harbour
of Pola with a faint east-north-east wind. By the
time itwas broad daylight we were in the open
sea. The hoi'izon was covered with thin white
clouds, but the sky in the zenith was of the purest
azure, and we indulged most pleasing hopes
in the
as a faint but favourable wind conveyed us to the
entrance of the Golfo di Quarnero. About ten
o'clock in the morning we had the south east point
of Istria before us, about ten leagues distant.
We took a last look of the Monte Maggiore, the
highest mountain in the peninsula, the summit of
which had been covered with snow on the day of
the storm, and was not yet free from it. When we
had doubled this southermost promontory, the high
mountains behind Fiume rose in the distant back
ground to the north, and before us II Monte
d'Osero, a steep barren limestone chain, which
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 27

runs lengthwise through the greater part of the

island of the same name, and is a great advantage
to navigation, as a mark in these seas, where there
are so many rocks and shoals. In the afternoon
we passed the island of Sansego. The wind now
increased, so that during the whole night we never
sailed less than five leagues in an hour by the
Illyrian islands of Grossa and Coronata and the ;

following morning we were in the latitude of

Ortona.
At sunrise we saw the island of St. Andrea j

at noon, Brasso ; and soon after, the Pomo, an

insulated rock in the form of a sugar-loaf, with a
beethng point on the north side which was an ;

agreeable sign to us of the rapid progress of our

voyage. In the afternoon it was N. N. E. of us ;

and the larger island of Lissa, which concealed

Lessina from us, appeared afterward, in the mist,
to the north-east. All these islands still belong to
the limestone formation of the Golfo di Quarnero.
On the Italian coast we perceived the most south-
ern promontory of the Garganus Mons, the Monte
St.Angelo, which was covered with snow very low
down, an appearance which agreed with the cold
observed by us (the thermometer had never risen
above 8° Reaumur). Manfredonia, the saline
coasts of Salapia, and the mouths of the renowned
Aufidus, in the neighbourhood of which Hannibal
humbled the Roman pride, gradually vanished
while Cuzzola, Cazziol, Agosta, and then in the
28 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

back ground Meleda, came in sight, as also the

two rocks, Pelagosa, which stand in the middle of
the sea, and are inhabited by innumerable flocks
of gulls. We left the latter to the windward, and
sailed between them and the Italian continent.
The appearance of the sky had changed several
times, and we had some showers the wind, how-
;

ever, remained constant. Monopoli, and the long

edge of the coast of Apulia, came in sight on the
morning of the following day and towards eleven
;

o'clock we were in the vicinity of the ancient

Brundusium. We clearly distinguished the sea-
shore, which is covered with pines, the broad
crowns of which are visible at a great distance.
Two small forts seemed to us to lie to the north,
and a third to the south of the town, which stands
rather more in the back ground. Several watch-
towers, built to observe the Barbary pirates, stand
along the coast memorials of a different age
;

from that when Brundusium, the eastern station of

the Roman maritime power, sent formidable fleets
to sea^ and kept Greece subject to Italy. Cicero's
complaints, when, avoiding Rome, he came here to
pass over to the Peloponnesus, and Csesar's vast
effortswhen besieging his rivalPompey, rise
before the mind of the traveller, on seeing this

ancient maritime town. St. Cataldo and the moun-

tains of Lezze became visible before we doubled

Capo della St. Maria, the extreme point of Apulia,
where, on the steep naked coast which stretched
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 29

before us to the north-west, we coiild discover

nothing but one solitary church. In this latitude,
where we saw the islands of Merlera and Corfu to
the south-east, in a grey mist, and nearer to us the
mountain ridge of the island of Fano and the Mon-
tague di Cimara, on the coast of Albania, which
joins the higher chain of Pegola, the temperature
remained higher the whole day than we had hi-

therto observed it. The thermometer stood in the

morning, in the air, at 9° 50', R. ; in the water, 10°
at noon, in the air, 11° 75'; in the evening, in the
air, 10°; in the water, 11° 75'. But the night
during which we were in the gulf of Tarento, was
again, however, remarkably cold. The horizon
was enveloped in dark clouds ; and we had fre-
quent lightnings, succeeded by long-continued
peals of thunder. The sea in the gulf of Tarento
is often stormy and very dangerous, particularly
for small coasting vessels. In the night of the 25th
we doubled Capo Spartivento, the most southerly
promontory of Italy, and with a fresh breeze from
E. S. E. directed our course towards Malta. Thus
our voyage through the Adriatic sea was happily
completed ; and we left behind us those countries
in which, above all others, ancient and modern
history are blended together.
The awfully majestic Etna soon came in sight
itssnow-crowned summits were veiled in a thick
fog. Soon after we beheld, on the Sicilian coast,
about ten miles to the north of us, the renowned
30 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

Syracuse, the birthplace of Theocritus and Archi-

medes. With the assistance of our telescopes, we
distinguished the walls and towers on the east side
of the and the roofs of several of the principal
city,

buildings, which, indeed, seem to retain but little

of the splendour of the opulent Syracuse, which
Cicero describes as one of the most beautiful cities
of antiquity. Recollections of the noble-minded
Timoleon, — of the tyrant Dionysius, — of the
grandeur and magnificence which Syracuse attained
after the conquest of its rival Agrigentum, strike
upon the mind of the observer.
The sea in this latitude, as well as in the gulf
of Tarento, is of a light-green colour, which is

principally owing to its inferior depth. As this

colour changes according as the rays of the sun
fall, it is hardly ppssible accurately to determine
the various degrees of the blue, green, and grey
colour ; for the sea apppears in the same place of
a much when it is strongly illuminated
brighter hue
by the sun, than when the horizon is overspread
with dark clouds. It is in this place also that we

first discovered the phosphorescence of the sea. It

was, however, much fainter and more dispersed
than we afterwards noticed it on the coasts of Spain,
at Gibraltar, and in the ocean, and seemed to arise
minute mollusca.
chiefly from
The stormy weather had driven birds of various
kinds from the Sicilian coast, which came and
rested upon the frigate. We caught several turtle-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 31

doves, a small sparrow-hawk, a goat-sucker, sea-

swallows, and fly-catchers ; all birds which belong
European continent, and partly com-
to the south
mence from hence their annual migrations over
the sea. It is, perhaps, from this circumstance,
that the neighbouring promontory of Sicily derives
its name of Capo Passaro. The superstition of the
Venetian sailors looked upon the doves as a token
of a happy voyage : the goat-sucker, on the con-
trary, was pursued by them as a bird of ill omen,
and it found no secure asylum on the rigging.
On we were already forty-
the following morning
two leagues to the west of Malta, when the wind
suddenly settled in the N. N. W. It soon in-

creased, and the waves ran so high, that it was im-

possible to keep the course to the south-west.
The frigate rolled so violently, that in a short time
the tackling was materially damaged ; every thing
movable was thrown backwards and forwards
and it seemed dangerous longer to expose the ship
to the fury of the waves. As the wind besides
threatened to continue, and the captain, taught
by former experience in these seas, foresaw that
perseverance would only cause delay, he resolved
to put back to Malta, there to wait for a more
favourable wind. After having been buffetted for
some hours by the storm, we accordingly changed
our course, and the wind being now in the right
quarter, we speedily arrived off Malta, and sailed
round the little and great Gozzo, and at two o'clock
32 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

in the afternoon cast anchor in the fine harbour of

Lavaletta. Scarcely had the frigate announced its

arrivalby the customary salute, when the lofty

walls of the city were crowded with spectators
but this sight did not surprise us so much as that
of a number of naked men, who were drying their
clothes in the hollows of the limestone rocks next
the beach. They were the crew of a vessel which
had suffered shipwreck the preceding day in this
harbour. We considered ourselves doubly fortu-
nate in having escaped the danger which threat-
ened us at the entrance into the harbour, and in
being able to view this island, whose situation
between Africa and Europe renders it so remark-
able.
Lavalettaone of the most glorious monuments
is

of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, founded

during the crusades, the grand masters of which
from the time of Charles V. to the latest period,
were established here, after having been driven
from Palestine farther and farther to the west.
This celebrated order was the fairest fruit of the
ancient spirit of chivalry, and its members united
by the Christian faith and heroic deeds for the
security of Europe against the infidels, have
founded in it a monument of general European
civilization. The entrance into the harbour of
Lavaletta excites admiration and surprise. At the
sides of the narrow entrance, steep bastions and
forts rise above the lofty limestone rocks, which
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 33

present formidable rows of batteries towards the

sea. Behind them a broad road leads up the rock
to the city, the houses of which, with flat roofs, are
built on terraces one above the other. The palace
of the governor-general, in the highest part of the
city, enjoys a fine prospect over the sea. It still

contains many memorials of the order : among

others, the portraits of the grand masters ; the
library of the order, which is said to be rich in
ancient works in theology, antiquities, and juris-
prudence and the arsenal, in which there are many
;

trophies taken from the infidels also the small ;

but very heavy armour of the noble grand master,

Lavalette. The church of St. John, built on a
small eminence in the city, in bad taste, and over-
loaded with ornaments, is particularly remarkable
for its riches in and Oriental
Italian, Greek,
marble, as also in Egyptian porphyry and serpen-
tine. The paintings, among which those of Mat-
thew Preti, surnamed II Calabrese, are the best,
are chiefly by Neapolitan masters. The separate
tongues of the order have their own chapels in the
church, which, as well as the vault, contains many
fine monuments.
From Lavaletta the way leads to Citta Vecchia,
over naked fields, between innumerable little

country-houses. The first thing shown to stran-

gers here, in the old town, is the church of Saint
Paul the Apostle, who, according to the Acts of
the Apostles, suflfered shipwreck in a place where
VOL. I. D
S4f TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

two currents met, according to the tradition of the

people, close to the island. Hence all the environs
are looked upon by the inhabitants with religious
respect. They likewise attribute to the circum-
stance which occurred upon the apostle's landing,
the supposed absence of serpents in the island
contrary to which opinion, we must, however, con-
fess that we saw a snake in the fields. The church
of St. Paul is built in the modern style, but over-
loaded with all imaginable ornaments, — gilding
lapis lazuli, and marble. Not far from the church
is the grotto of St. Paul, where there is an image
of the apostle as large as life. The stone, of which
the cavern consists, supposed by the inhabitants to
possess the miraculous power of curing all kinds of
fevers, is a marl-like, light, white, brittle lime-

stone, of recent formation, in which there are traces

of petrifications of marine shells, still found in the
adjacent seas, such as the Mytilus esculentus, and
several species of Cardium. Though thousands of
chisels have been at work upon this wonder-working
rock, the pious credulity of the people cannot ob-
serve any diminution of it. We were not per-
mitted to leave the old town without seeing the
celebrated catacombs. The entrance to them is in
a garden, very near the church of St. Paul. They
are extensive intricate passages, hewn in the soft
rock, sometimes only a few feet broad, and the
height of a man, and sometimes widened into large
vaults. Popular tradition ascribes them to the
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 35

first Maltese Christians, who, to escape perse-

cution, built a subterraneous town ; and the inha-
bitants therefore fancy that they can distinguish
the church, with the altar and the font, the dwell-
ings of the families, with the kitchens, cradles, and
tables, hewn in the rock. Others suppose them to
have been the repositories of the wounded Christians
brought hither during the crusades, or the burying-
places of those who died in that period. They
place their origin in an earlier age ; and consider
them to have been made partly to procure stones for
building, and partly in conformity with the custom
derived from the mother country, Carthage, and still
practised in the time of the Romans, to dig such
extensive receptacles for the dead. Those who
hold this opinion consider the remains of bones
sometimes found here to belong to that period.
Some traces still seem to remain in the features
of the Maltese, of the affinity of Malta with old
Carthage ; or with the Moors, who possessed the
island till they were expelled by the Normans.
The yellow-brown complexion, — the lank black
slovenly hair, and black beard, — the black oblong
eyes, — high bushy eyebrows, which give them a ma-
— sharp, but not disproportionately high
licious look,
cheek-bones, — the high, but blunt nose, — thick
lips,— the slender, and rather hairy body,
lean,
seem to indicate partly an oriental origin, and
partly an affinity with the Neapolitans and Sicilians.
This oriental origin is remarkably confirmed by the
D 2
36 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

peculiarity of the Maltese language, which essen-

tially differing from the European, renders it diffi-

cult for the stranger to understand the Italian

dialect of the common people, and according to the
researches of modern philologists, seems evidently
to resemble in its elements (both the words and the
grammatical forms) the ancient Phoenician, and
still more the Arabian.* The inhabitants seem
also to resemble in activity and industry that
ancient commercial people. The common people
are employed in fishery, including the coral fishery,
and also in navigation or in agriculture. The
whole island is most carefully cultivated and the ;

grounds round the city, as well as round the nu-

merous villages, bear the appearance of laborious
industry. On every side you see fields surrounded
with heaps of stones three feet high, on which the
American cactus grows abundantly, and between
them numerous stone country houses, not distin-
guished either for their size or architecture. In
the spring the eye dwells with pleasure on the
fresh generally diffused verdure ; but in the height

of summer, when only the moist valleys remain

green, the island is said to have a desolate appear-
ance. The ground does not rise into mountains,
nor can woods grow in the thin coat of mould upon

* Bellermann, Phoenicise linguae, vestigiorura in Melitensi

Specim. I. Berol. 1809. Gesenius, Essay on the Maltese
Language. Leipaig, 1810.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 37

the rocks, which is often prepared, or fetched from

a distance, with great labour.
The most agreeable part of the island is the
Boschetto, a small valley, cooled by the sea breeze,
and watered by a stream, with an orange grove,
which flourishes in all the luxuriance of southern
vegetation. The adjoining country house, built in
a chaste style, and belonging to the king, affords a
delightful prospect of the sea and the environs.
On our return from Citta Vecchia, we visited the
country seat of Sir Thomas Maitland, near St.

Antonio. We here saw a very fine African ostrich

and a which are more common
lioness, curiosities

here, because the Maltese, as is well known, carry

on a trade in live animals. His excellency's gar-
den, which is laid out in the French style, extends
on one side to the and is adorned with many
sea,

fine plants from the Levant and from the Cape,

which thrive as in their native soil. Perhaps no

part of Europe, even the most southern provinces
of Spain and Portugal not excepted, affords a more
favourable climate than Malta, for the establishment
of a botanic garden, where all the productions of
the vegetable kingdom might be successfully culti-
vated. For this reason the public garden of the
city, which existed when the island was in posses-

sion of the order, is especially protected by the

present government. It is under the direction of
Fra Carlo Giacinto, a very obliging Carmelite, who
communicated to us much interesting information.
D 3
38 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

He has paid much attention to the cultivation of

fine kinds of fruit, and has published a book on the
agriculture of Malta.* The superiority of the
Maltese oranges is well known, and they are with
justice esteemed the finest in Europe. We tasted
some of these fruits in the garden of Sir Thomas
Maitland, which might with propriety be called
apples of the Hesperides. Citrons in the greatest
variety, and the shaddock (^Citrus decumana), are as
common in the gardens as the carob tree {Ceratonia
Siliqua) and fine stone fruit, which, though originally
;

brought from the Caucasus and Pontus, yet attain

the highest perfection under this almost African
sky. This island produces a little wine, but far from
sufficient for its own consumption ; but they have
fine Salernian, and the strong wine of the neigh-
bouring island of Sicily. Besides the vegetables
common in the north, the love-apple (Solanum
Lycopersicum) is likewise cultivated. The Indian
torch-thistle (Cactus Ficus Indica) and C. Opuntia
are common in the gardens, and on the dry walls,

and together with the aloe, impart to the landscape

somewhat of a foreign appearance. The common
people eat the fruit of the cactus, and the leaves
are sometimes cut to pieces and given to the cattle.
These leaves, which contain a great quantity of
carbonic acid, are used at Zante, as an ex-
cellent remedy for the stone, and the fleet of

* Saggio di Agricoltui-a per le Isole di Malta e Gozo.

Messina, 1811, small 4to.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 39

Admiral Collingwood took a stock of them salted

among their provisions. In the sequel of this nar-
rative, we shall have occasion, to speak of the im-
portance of these fleshy plants (which derive
almost their whole nourishment from the air) to
the inhabitants of some of the arid districts of
Brazil, and show how necessity and experience
direct the most remote nations, to make the same use
of the productions of nature. Here, as in Calabria,
a very durable and silky thread is made of the
fibres of the American aloe. Instead of hay they
use theSula (Hedj/sarumcoronarium), which is sown
in fields, and is generally brought to market fresh,
in bundles, for sale. This fodder would be pre-
ferable to our sain-fbin, but seems not able to bear
the German winter. A remarkable production of
Malta is the Fungus melitensis *, a leafless fleshy
plant, which grows parasitically at the roots of the
trees on the sea-shore, and was formerly celebrated
as a favourite remedy for the phthisis. The peo-
ple regard the peculiar form of this plant as an
evidence of its wonderful virtues, which, however,
are not confirmed. Nay, the government itself

formerly set a high value on this singular plant,

and had it cultivated at Casal Bingli, not far from
Boschetto, by two persons, each of whom received
an annual salary of fifty scudi. We
saw in the
fields maize, oats, barley, buck wheat, and beans.
The wheat is said to produce, in the worst soil,

• See Note 2. page 50.

D 4
40 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

sixteen fold, and in the best sixty-four fold, a fer-

tility which exceeds that of Sicily. Cotton too,
which when spun is mostly exported to Spain, the
carraway seed (Cuminum Cyminum, L.), and the
aniseed (Pimpinella Anisum, L. Sison Anisum,
Spreng.), all brought hither fi'om the East, during
the crusades, are much cultivated in Malta and the
neighbouring Gozzos ; one of which, the Lampas
of the ancients, even bears" the name of Comino
from carraway (Cumi7mm'). *
In general the observer is every where struck
with the proofs of the extraordinary care with
which the industrious inhabitants take advantage
of every spot, however small, that can be obtained
from the rocky soil, which is almost entirely desti-
tute of mould. Indeed, were it otherwise, this
little spot, which does not much exceed six square
miles in extent, would not be able to maintain a
population of above seventy thousand souls. It is

said, however, that the population has decreased

since the island has been under the dominion of
the English, especially of late years, both by the
stagnation of commerce and by diseases. The
situation of the island is indeed, on the whole,
healthy; but the S.E. sirocco, which blows fre-

quently during the summer and autumn, and in the

short passage over the sea from the coast of Africa
hither, cannot lose the malignant vapours with

• See Note 3. page 51.

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 41

which it is impregnated, not only causes in most

of the inhabitants an unpleasant sensation and
great lassitude, but sometimes, when it is of long
continuance, has still more pernicious effects on
the body, producing great relaxation of the nerves,
corruption of the juices, dysentery, putrid fevers,
&c. The plague, which was brought in 1813 from
Alexandria to Malta, and continued to rage nearly
a whole year, carried off a great number of the in-
habitants, especially of the lower class ; and this

distemper was found to be no less fatal here than

in the Levant. Of the last hundred who were
attacked, only four survived.* During our stay
the thermometer was at 26° 00' of Reaumur, whicli
with a N.N.W. wind, we did not find oppressive
when walking out ; but if it had been accompanied
by the would perhaps have obliged us to
sirocco it

return to the city. Dolomieut observes very justly,

that the nature of the wind produces a great differ-
ence in the external warmth and that which is felt
at Malta. In the harbour the thermometer was,
at eight o'clock in the morning, in the air 13" of
Reaumur, in water from the surface of the sea
12° 5', and from a depth of twenty-four fathoms
12° ; in the evening at eight o'clock, in the air

11° 74'; at three in the morning in the air 8° 4',

and in the water 12". The specific gravity of the

"*
History of the Plague, as it lately appeared in the islands
of Malta, Gozzo, Corfu, &c. by Tully. London, 1821.
f Voyage aux iles de Lipari. Paris, 1783.
42 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

sea water was rather less here than in the Adriatic

sea.

The formation of the whole island, as far as we

examined it, has no trace of lava, and consists of a
recent marl or tufa like limestone of late origin
in some parts very soft, in others firm, and the frac-

ture showing a fine grain, of a whitish or yellowish

colour, and mixed both with numerous particles of
mica, and with small, nay, microscopical shells,
(now and then a few some lines in length,) or
with sharks' teeth. The shells are chiefly of the
species of Mytilus and Cardium, and seem, if we
may be allowed to judge from the examination of
a few specimens, to be of kinds that are still to be
found alive. Beside these petrifications, which are
very common in the grotto of St. Paul for instance,
the island is abound in Terebratulites, Be-
said to
lemnites, &c. The same stone furnishes the ad-
mirable materials for building used in the island.
The limestone rock is covered either with loose
stones, and dust, here and there converted
sand,
by manure into garden ground, or by a good rich
red clay, and lastly, in part by mould imported
from Sicily.

The contrary wind which had hitherto detained

us at Malta, changed, in the night of the 30th, to
a faint S.E., and the frigate lost no time in leaving
the harbour. On the 1st of May, at five in the

morning, we had the Capo di S. Dimitro to the

W.N.W., Lavaletta distant ten leagues j at seven
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 43

o'clock the Capo was S. W. by W. ; the wind con-

tinued to increase during the day, so that at half
past seven in the morning we already had the
middle point of Capo Maritimo, the most southerly
point of Sicily, E. by S., about six leagues distant.

Here the ship was again visited by many birds,

sparrowhawJis, swallows, turtle doves, gold thrushes

and motacillae. It seems as if these animals, im-
pelled by instinct to emigrate, resort to points of
land where two countries approach the most
nearly to each other, and take advantage of ships
that sail by, as resting places in their long journey.
On the 3d of May we came in sight of the Toro,

. not far from the Sardinian coast, a bare rock rising

from the sea, and soon afterwards of S. Pietro,

the most westerly point of that island. Many

dolphins sported round our vessel, and, according
to the observations of the crew, announced that
the wind would abate, as in fact it did soon after-
wards.
Several phenomena indicated thatwe were
drawing nearer to the great ocean, among which
we may particularly mention the greater phospho-
rescence of the sea. On the voyage from Triest,
we had hitherto seen only detached luminous
points in the sea, but now the ship seemed in the
night-time to swim in liquid fire, and as it glided
along and beat against the waves, the deck was
illumined by a bright light. The sight of this
grand and magic nocturnal phenomenon excites the
admiration of every beholder, especially if it is
 44 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the first time he had the opportunity of traversing

the Hquid element in such splendour. The sea
was covered with luminous balls, as large as a hazel-
nut,and with every wave that dashed against the
ship in its course, it seemed to throw out sparks
like hot iron, when
hammered, or like a Cathe-
it is

rine wheel, and lighted up all the surrounding ob-

jects. Besides these innumerable balls of fire,

there were other larger insulated luminous bladders,

most frequently near the ship, but likewise at a
distance from it, in places where the waves broke
in foam. The darker the night grew, the more
beautiful did the phenomenon appear; and on
moonhght nights it was less visible, and only on

the side where the shadow of the vessel fell. This

splendid sight has been an object of investigation
in the accounts of numerous voyagers. Forster
explains it partly as a consequence of the electri-
city excited by the violent friction of the ship, and
partly as phosphorescence from putrefied animal
substances or luminous insects. Adanson and the
later naturalists, as Von Humboldt and Peron,
ascribe this phenomenon entirely to mollusca,
zoophytes and other marine animals. We likewise
did not neglect carefully to investigate this impor-
tant subject. We
had several vessels filled during
the night with the luminous sea water. The hand,
or whatever was wetted with this water, shone, and
the vessels, when shaken, were full of luminous
particles. The water, when examined the following
day, by means of an admirable microscope, made
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 45

by Utzschneider and Fraimhofer, showed a number

of little bodies, sometimes roundish, sometimes
oblong, of" the size of a poppy seed. Each of
them had at one end, or on the top of the head, a
small navel-like opening, having from six to nine
fine filaments round it, which float within the
bladder, and with which the little animal seems
to attach itself to other bodies, and to take its

nourishment. In the inside of these bladders we

sometimes saw many other small darker points
crowded together on one side, or here and there
some larger ones, which might be either remains of
smaller animals which they had swallowed, or the
spawn. These globular animalculee, which are
entirely of the nature of medusae, and are mentioned
by Peron and Lechenault, under the name of
Arethusa pelagica, and by Savigny under that of
Noctiluca miliaris, swim in greater or less numbers
in the sea water taken up at night, and appear to
the naked eye, in the sunshine, like little drops of
grease. If the water is not changed, or the ex-
amination continues too long, they do not remain
in the middle of the glass, but fall dead to the
bottom. It remarkable that these globular animal-
is

culge, when they come near together, involuntarily

and form whole groups, an effect
attract each other,
resembling the magnetic phenomena of inanimate
substances. We observed a similar phenomenon on
a large scale, in the daytime, here as weU as on
the ocean. Whole masses of these animals swam on
4)6 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the surface of the water in long yellowish brown

stripes, and looked like a stream covered with saw-

dust. This, however, is never seen except when

the sky is covered with thick clouds, which darken
the sea. These marine infusoria appear to avoid
the light of the sun, and to sink in the daytime to
the bottom, to return to the surface as soon as
darkness sets in ; at least they were not to be found
in the water which was taken up in the daytime,
but only in that which we took up at night. The
mode of life and the social instinct which the above-
mentioned little arethusas have in common with
the other zoophytes, salpae, &c. may perhaps be
the cause that they are met with very frequently in
some and in others very rarely, or
parts of the sea,
not at all. In the bay of Gibraltar they were so
abundant, that if we only dipped a hand in the water,
a furrow of light was immediately seen, and the hand
when taken out shone in innumerable points.
All these facts seem therefore to prove that the
phosphorescence of the sea is principally to be
attributed to animals. The large fiery balls, often
a foot in diameter, which rise singly above the
water, or swim about in it, are probably larger
mollusca or medusae, or perhaps bladders in the
water, illumined by the phosphoric light of these
animals. But, besides this insulated or sparkling
phosphorescence, there is another, the natural
characteristics of which seem not to have been yet
sufficiently distinguished. At some distance from the
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 47

ship, wherever two waves strike together or dash over

each other, a shallow bluish streak of light, like the
reflection of the lightning on the water, is seen. This
light differs from that of the globular animalculae
in not consisting of single sparks or dazzling masses
of light, of a bright yellow colour, but being rather
equally diffused, and resembling the faint light that
proceeds from burning spirits of wine. We do not
pretend at present to decide on the nature of this

faint light. It might be considered either as the com-

bined reflection of the sparks of light produced by
the animalculae, or as the process of restoring the
balance of electricity between the single waves,
or the sea and the atmosphere, as it appears
only on the surface of the clashing and breaking
waves. We are almost inclined to adopt the latter
opinion, especially when we consider the saltness
of the sea water, which increases its electricity,

and the corrupt substances in it, by which it is, as

it were, rendered more organic and animalised.

In all kinds of phosphorescence, oxydation and

disoxydation probably act an essential part.
Should we be obliged to assume a process of pu-
trefaction in the sea, this is also an organic act, in

which the putrefying substance, in the same man-

ner as what is organic, comes into a relation with
the atmosphere. But even putting all foreign
substances out of the question, the sea has always
a similar relation to the atmosphere, as its water,
and the salt dissolved in it, become more oxydated
48 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

by its motion. Whether this phenomenon therefore

be explained as chemical, physical, or organical,
this kind of shining appears as an effect of elec-
tricity, and of the process of oxydation in the sea,

an effect which is increased and rendered visible

by the peculiar beating of the waves. We leave
it to other travellers more accurately to investigate

and to correct the phenomena which we have

stated, of the various kinds of phosphorescence and
their causes.
The fresh breeze had carried our ship rapidly
past the dangerous Gulf of Lyons, so that on the
4th of May we were off the island of Minorca
on the following day we passed Majorca and Ivica,
and on the 6th at noon were off Cape Palos,
which was eight leagues distant W. by N. The
air was misty and did not permit us to have a

distinct view of the land. Many large turtles

swam past us, sleeping on the surface, as also
several of the abovementioned large masses of
zoophytes, which formed yellowish stripes on the
sea. On the following day the island of Alboran
appeared to the S.E. It is a sterile inhospitable
limestone rock, inhabited only by sea birds, and
with no other vegetation than the dyers' Uchen
(Rocella tmcioyia, Ach.). It is said that the Moors
sometimes land on it to dry fish, or to gather that
valuable plant for dying. The mountains of
Barbary were but seldom visible, but on the other
hand we had almost always the picturesque chain
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 49

of Granada in which presented a grand

sight,

spectacle when illuminated in the evening by the

lightning. The wind had abated, and we could
enjoy for some days the sight of the lovely green
valleys, adorned with numerous villages and ham-
lets, extending from the sea towards the mountains.
We were particularly delighted with the view of
Velez Malaga, in the vicinity of which we could
distinguish an aqueduct, and the road of Gibraltar
winding through the mountains and pleasant gar-
dens, in which the vine that produces the sweet
and strong wine is planted near the olive. Variable
faint winds brought us gradually forward, till on
the 11th of May we descried the long-extended
chain of Morabella, and at length were carried by
a rather brisker wind, on the 12th of May at noon,

into the bay of Gibraltar, where, amidst the thun-

der of the cannon, we happily cast anchor in
safety.

NOTES TO CHAPTER II.

Note 1.

The which we observed about Pola, besides

plants
those ah-eady specified, are —
Poa annua, trivialis; Bro-
mus tectorum, sterilis Hordeum murinum Carex exteyisa.^
; ;

capillaris ; Scirpus romarius ; Ophrys fuciflora. Arachnites ;

Asparagus aadifolius ; Smilax aspera ; Ruscus Hypophyl-

VOL. I. E
.50 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

lum ; Ornithogalum umbellatum ; Carpinus orientalis

Orobanche major Antiri-hinum Cymbalaria
; Acanthus ;

mollis ; Ajuga Chamsepitys, genevensis Glechoma he- ;

deracea Lamium purpureum

; Salvia Verbenaca ; Ar-
;

temisia Absinthium Santolina rosmarinifolia

; Leontodon ,•

taraxacoides Hoppe, Taraxacum Bellis perennis Vinca ; ;

major ; Plantago subulata, Coronopus ; Globularia vul-

garis ; Brassica Erucastrum ; Crambe maritima ; Sisym-
brium asperum, monense ; Thlaspi prsecox ; Arabis verna ,•

Erodiuni maritimum ; Geranium rotundifolium ; Corydalis

capnoides ; Paliurus australis ; Lathyrus sativus, Nissolia ,•

Hippocrepis comosa ; Spartium junce^im ; Trifolium incar-

natum, scabrum, caespitosum, uniflorum; CoronillaEmerus;

Potentilla subacaulis, verna, Prunus Mahaleb. opaca ;

—
The great number of species printed in Italics, which do
not belong to the Gei-man flora, in a strict sense, but to
that of the shores of the Mediterranean, may prove how
much the vegetation, even of Pola, differs from ours. The
species of the lowest classes are more similar to the vege-
tation of our German limestone tracts. Thus we observe
of the — Scolopendrium officinarum, Adiantum
fern species,
Capillus Veneris, Asplenium Pteris aquilina of viride, ;

mosses and — Hypnum compressum, splendens,

lichens,
tamariscinum, abietinum, cupressiforme, rugulosum, Dicra-
num purpui'eum, Barbula tortuosa, Tortula apiculata,
Lecidea athroocarpa, rupestris, Parmelia murorum, phy-
sodes, glauca.

Note 2.

Cynomorium coccineum is said to be also found in several

places on the coasts of Spain and Morocco, and resembles
in its form the tropical parasites Aphyteia Hj'dpora, —
Cynomoriimi cayennense Balanophora, and the Langsdo>ffia
hypogcjea, which we discovered at Rio de Janeiro, of which

we shall speak in the sequel.

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 51

Note 3.

We have not yet any Fauna or Flora of the island of

Malta. As a contribution towards it, we will enumerate
the following animals and plants, which came under our
observation : — Amphibia : Testudo Mydas ; Coluber, in-
determ. Pisces : Raja clavata ; Sqiialus Canicula ; Uran-
oscopus scaber ; Scomber Pelamys ; Trigla Cuculus ; Esox
Sphyraena ; Murceiia Helena. Mollusca : Sepia Loligo,
octopus ; Anomia Cepa.Insecta Ateiichus sacer ; Pi- :

melia bipunctata ; Acheta umbraculata Meloe laevigata. ; —

Forskol, in his Flora ^gyptiaco-ai'abica, p. xii. mentions
eighty-seven Maltese plants, almost all of which we like-
wise found. For the convenience of the reader, the German
species are printed in Roman letters, the south European in

Italic, and the African in Italic small capitals. Festuca

pinnata, distachyos, pratensis Bromus madritensis, rubens ; ,-

Poa annua, rigida Rottboellia incwvata, Lagurus ovatus

;

Hordeum murinum JEgilops ovata Avena fatua Crypsis

;
,-
;

scJicenoides ; Arum italicum Juncus bufonius Ixia Bidbo- ,-

;

codiiim ; Muscari comosum, racemosum ; Scilla ^naritima ;

AspJiodeliis ramosus; Allium ciliatwn, Cyr. — Ruppia mari-

tima ; Zannichellia palustris. — Rumex Bucephalophorus,
acutus ; Monch. Salsola frutescens ; Cheno-
t^ibo spinosa, —
podium Bonus Henricus, album Beta vulgaris Salicornia ; ;

— Plantago Coronopus, subulata,

Ji'uticosa. lanceolata. Psyl-
lium. — Anagallis arvensis Bartschia
MoTielli, ; versicolor ,-

Rhinanthus Crista — Euphrasia Galli. officinalis Ros-

marinus ojjicinalis ; Ajuga pyramidalis Lamium pur- ;

pureum, amplexicaule Stachys liirla ; Sideritis montana

; ,•

Prasium majus ; Glechoma hederacea Thymus Serpyllum, ;

^ygis ; Salvia Verbenaca, verticillata ; Marrubium liispani-

cum; Clinopodium vulgare; Origanum vulgare. — Scrophu-
laria nodosa ; Antirrhinum Cymbalaria, Orontium siculum,
majus. — Hyoscyamus niger, aureus, albus ; Solanum minia-

tum, Bernh. nigrum. Dulcamara ; Datura stramonium

E 2
52 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

Cynoglossuni pictum ; Echium creticum ; Anchusa italica ;

Lycopsisarvensis. — Hyoserisradiata; Hypochoeris minima;

Seriola cethnensis ; Apargia tuberosa ,• SONCHUS TENER-
BIMUS ; Picridium vulgare ,- Cichor-ium spinosum ; AntJiemis
maritima ,- Buphthalmum viaritimum, spinosum. — Bellis

annua ,- Chrysanthemum coronariuvi ; ,- Cineraria maritima

Gnaphalium luteo-album Evax jygmcea ; Artemisia Ab- ;

sinthium Cnicus syriacus : pycnocephalus, lanceolatus

;

Carduus marianus ; Galactites tomentosa ; Centawea meli-

tensis, Calcitrapa, solstitialis. Valeriana Calcitrapa Fedia — ,-

Cornucopice; Scabiosa stellata. — Sherardia arvensis ; Valantia .

Aparine. — Hedera Helix; ToRDYLlUM HUMILE ; Daucus

Carota ; Crithmum maritimum Cicuta ; virosa ; Lagcecia
cuminoides. — Adonis autumnalis; Hanunculus viuricatus. —
Papaver Rhoeas Glancium luteum j Fiimaria capreolata,
;

officinalis. Alyssum maritimum; Raphanus Raphanistrum

Thlaspi Bursa pastoris ; Brassica campestris ; Biscutella
didyma. — Capparis spinosa; Reseda alba. — Malva nicceensis,

Stelligera, nov. spec, catde prostrato stellato-piloso scabrido^

Jbliis molliter pubescentibus suboj-bicidaribus obsolete quinque

usque septemlobis dent at is, Jloribus duobus vel tribus axillar-
ibus, pedunculis quam folia brevioribus, calycibus pubescenti-
bus, escterioris foliolis lato-ovatis ; M. sylvestris ; Alcea
rosea.— Polycarpon tetraphyllum Fiankenia SiLENE ; Icevis ;

Atocion. — Sediim arenarium, Brot. Lotus Tetragonolobus,

peregrinus, corniculatus ; Lathyrus angtdatus ; Oxytropis
montana ; Ononis villosa ; Trifolium patens, stellatum,
scabrum, tomento'sum ; Scorpiurus vermiculata, sulcata ,- Me-
dicago mollissima, grceca, tribidoides, apiculata ; Melilotus
coeruleus, messanensis ; Hedysarum coronarium ; Anthyllis
Vulneraria, with red blossom.' Urtica pilulifera ; Eu-
phorbia Esula, helioscopia, nicceensis, villosa. Of the hun-
dred and fifty species of the Maltese flora here enumerated,
fifty-six belong to Germany, ninety to the southern part of
Europe, and four to the north coast of Africa.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 53

CHAPTER III.

GIBRALTAR AND ITS ENVIRONS.

1. HE first part of our voyage was thus concluded,

and we had reached the Pillars of Hercules, which
have been usually considered as the limit of the
boldest enterprises of the ancients. Many of the
passengers went on shore the same day, desirous of
viewing a country possessing so many claims to
our attention. The rock of Gibraltar, Mons Calpe,
forms the nucleus of a small tongue of land, which
extends into the sea from north to south, and is

connected with the continent only by a low sandy

slip. On the southern point, called Europa Point,
and upon the west side, it rises in the form of a
terrace, but towards the north and east its steep
walls make it absolutely inaccessible. Its highest
point, the Sugar Loaf, is 1439 English feet above
the level of the sea, the Rock Battery 1350, the
Signal House I276, Windmill-hill 330, and the
lowest spot, Europa Point, 105 feet. The town
lies upon the western part, which is the most
habitable and level. It is protected by the sea-
batteries,and the formidable rows of cannon pro-
jecting from tlie casemates hewn in the upper part
E 3
9% TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

of the rock. Besides these, batteries occupy the

whole circle of the rock, and are discontinued only
where the sides are so steep that every attack of an
enemy is impossible. The works, which are equally
excellent in every point, secure to the place the
reputation of being invincible, which it acquired
since General Elliot's heroic defence against the
combined fleets of France and Spain, in the years
1779 to 1782. The operations of centuries have
given its present strength to the northern pillar of
Hercules.
The town itself, the greater part of which has
been rebuilt since the last three years' siege, con-
sists of low houses, crowded together in one prin-
cipal street, and several smaller ones running
parallel to it, from which the old wall of the
Moorish castle, built in 725, extends towards the
summit of the mountain. To the south of the
town in Red Sands, handsome gardens intended for
public promenades have lately been made. Under
the sultry sun of this country the children of the
Flora of the Fortunate Islands, the North coast of
Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, and of the East
and West Indies, thrive with extraordinary luxu-
riance. The favourite flowers of the Spaniards
from those countries. Jasmin Yerba doncella,
real,

Arbol del ciclo, Sauzgatillo chino, Pimienta, Arbol

del coral, Don Drigo de noche *, rival the beau-

* jastninum grandiflorum, Vinca rosea, Ailanthus glandu-

losa, Vitex Negundo, Capsicum fructicoBum, Erythrina Coral-
lodendron, Mirabilis Jalappa.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 53

tiful flowers of the South of Europe. Here and

there large stems of the Tuna * grow against the
garden-wal], as if to give a foretaste of their native
western chme. The avenues along the sea-bat-
teries enliven the scene on this side of the moun-
tain, the upper rocky part of which is invested
with a scanty verdure, by some shrubs, and the
dwarf palm, t On the summit of the mountain
lives an African species of ape (Simia Bums, L.),

which several of our party thought they had seen.

It was probably brought here by the Moors. Pro-
ceeding farther up the mountain you reach a steep
eminence, from which there is a surprisingly beau-
tiful view of the sea, Mount Atlas in the S.W., and

the mountains of Granada in the N.E.

The sight of two quarters of the globe, and the
ocean which separates them, affords to the traveller
ample matter for Along the north-
reflection.

east side there is a narrow path by the sea-shore,

by which, however, you cannot go quite round the
rock, because the most frightful cliffs soon rise per-

pendicularly from the sea to such a dizzy height

that any path is impracticable. In the most remote
accessible part on this side, stands a retired and
small country house of the governor's, which is

peculiarly inviting by the delightfiil boundless pros-

pect over the Mediterranean, and by its seclusion

* Cactus Tuna, Ficus indica, Opuntia.

\ Genista linifolia, Spartium junceum, Teucrium valentinum,

Phlomis fructicosa, Chamserops humilis.
E •i
56 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

and silence. We were here shown, with patriotic

pride, the furniture which General Elliot caused
to be made out of the fragments of the floating
batteries of the besiegers, which were destroyed by
his red-hot balls. From this point to the northern
end of the rock, towards the neutral ground, which
separates Gibraltar from the Spanish line, there
isno means of going round the rock but by sea.
The bold gigantic form of the naked rock warms
the fancy of the painter with scenery peculiar
in its kind. The sea breaks with a violent surf
against the steep shores, which are here and there
hollowed ojit into deep caverns, which serve as a
retreat for wild pigeons. Thousands of little sea-

crabs, sea-stars, sea-hedgehogs, sea-nettles, and

edible muscle, animate these barren cliffs, which
afford asylum to no other living creature. The
only place where a landing is practicable, and which
is frequently visited by the inhabitants of Gibraltar

for their recreation, is occupied by a village of

fishermen, called La Galetta. A narrow path leads
from thence round the other part of the rock to
the northern gate of the town. The wanderer
going along this path is almost terrified by the
nearly perpendicular ascent of the rock just at the
place where it is the highest. From this dangerous
path on the precipice, you come at length, by a
paved artificial causeway over an arm of the sea^ to

the town gate.

General Donn, the governor, gave us leave to
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 57

visit every part of the rock, even the fortifications,

and endeavoured besides to procure the embassy
all the amusements which the insulated sea-port

could afford. At a ball we saw the light fandango

and bolero of the Andalusians, alternate with the
dances of the north and in the brilliantly illumi-
;

nated avenues round the palace, were heard some-

times the tender strains of Spanish madrigals,
sometimes the plaintive song of a northern bard.
This contrast between the south and north, here
strikes the traveller at every step. In the mixture
of Spanish and English inhabitants, there are many
Genoese and Calabrese, who, most part,
for the

follow the occupation of fishermen and mariners.

The number of Jews, most of whom speak Spanish,
is considerable. The possession of this place by
the English has not yet been able to banish the
Spanish manners and language ; but the abode of
numerous strangers, and the great trade, give a ^

general and comprehensive character to this staple

place for the commerce of the Mediterranean. But
what completes the diversified picture which tlie
inhabitants of Gibraltar present, is the presence of
Asiatics and North Africans. Of the latter, there
are many Moors, particularly from Morocco, who
sell fruit and fine leather manufactures in the streets.

The North European, and the tawny native

fair

of the south, are distinguished by striking differ-

ences in the features of the face, and in their
whole figure, from these strangers of oriental
 5S TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

origin. The physiognomy of the Moors, and other

Africans who are met with here, is expressive of
firmness and prudence, yet without that look of
cunning of which the people of the Semitic race
are accused, but rather united with an agreeable
frankness, content, and tranquillity of mind. A
lofty forehead, oval countenance, large, expressive
black eyes, shaded by arched, bushy eyebrows, a
well-formed, long, but not too pointed nose, rather
broad lips meeting in an acute angle, thick, smooth
black hair on the head and beard, brownish yellow
complexions, muscular neck, firmly knit, and ro-
bust make, with a stature above the middle size,
characterise the inhabitants of North Africa as
they are frequently seen in the streets of Gibraltar.
Among the most dangerous diseases that occur in
this bay of the Mediterranean, which, from its
situation, is very hot, and especially exposed to

, the south wind, is the yellow fever. Only a short

time previously to our many persons fell a
arrival,

sacrifice to this disorder. As in Cuba in the Gulf

of Mexico, this destructive disease appears here
also, in Cadiz, Barcelona, and other maritime
towns which do not enjoy a free circulation of air,
where it is still more favoured by the heat and the
corrupt and enervating exhalations of the salt

water.
The rock of Gibraltar consists of compact lime-
stone, generally of a light yellow, ash grey, and
smoke colour, and is often traversed with veins of
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 59

calcareous spar of a greyish white or yellowish

brown colour. In single drused cavities, the spar
is remarkably foliated, and sometimes crystallised

in pretty large tables. This limestone rock is, es-

pecially towards the N. W.

more stratified
side,

on the surface than deeper down, and contains

several smaller and larger caves, so that there can
be no donbt that the prevailing formation belongs
to that of the Jura, or cavern limestone. In the
mass of the limestone itself we discovered no shells,
except a single species of sea-snail resembling the
Buccinum undatum. The largest of the caves,
Gruta de S. Miguel of the Spaniards, or Saint
George's cavern of the English, situated almost in
the middle of the rock, and 1100 feet above the
level of the sea, contains a beautiful grotto, sixty
feet high, and two hundred deep, adorned with
various sparry petrifications, and supported by co-
lossal stalactical pillars. The limestone in this
cavern is traversed by vast fragments of a very
fine brown stalactite, of which there are large
mantlepieces in the house of the governor. The
Pocoroca is a similar cavern, but not so deep.
The tendency to the stalactic formation appears,
however, not only in the vast pillars of the caverns,
but also in the outside covering of many pieces
of rock exposed to the air, which have a coat
of yellow striped stalactite. On the south side

of the town we observed, in the red clay of a

ditch, several considerable pieces of a smoky grey

60 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

hornstone, such as frequently occurs also in the

Jura limestone.
At Europa Point, and on the east side of the
rock between the extreme fortifications of Cave
Guard, and the fishing bay of La Galetta, there lies

over this cavern limestone, the well known and

remarkable osseous breccia (a limestone breccia),
which, towards the sea, forms a mantle-shaped
cavern, and seems here to dip in an angle of about
30°. In some places, it fills up the rents, clefts,

and corroded hollows in the limestone rock itself.

The general cement of this breccia, which is chiefly
composed of fragments of the same limestone, is a
stalactic mass of considerable hardness, a reddish

brown colour, and full of vesicular cavities, which

occur, without order, from the size of a poppy
seed to an extent of several lines. Sometimes it is
itself consolidated into reniform pieces of nearly
concentric structure : mixed up with it are pieces,
partly rounded, and partly angular, of a smoky
grey, and of a light grey limestone, of which the
greater part of theM. Calpe consists, and it contains
kidneys or nodules of a soft very ferruginous, yel-
lowish brown, fine-grained calcareous marl, and
rounded grains of quartz of the size of a millet
seed. Here and there, are wavy stripes and
streaks of calcareous spar, and in the vesicular
cavities, druses of a white stalactic limestone. The
mixture is very hard, and the ingredients, which
have often a thicker stalactic crust close to them.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 6l

are thereby cemented in the strongest manner,

and very difficult to break asunder. Petrified
bones are very seldom found in this stony mass,

but they are so much the more frequent in the

more recent bed of the conglomerate, or breccia,
immediately over it, which contains the same
rounded little grains of quartz, and the other in-
gredients, though of smaller grain, that is, the
rolled pieces, from the size of a hen's egg to that
of a bean, as well as a considerable quantity of the
light grey limestone, and shows more frequent ve-
sicular cavities. Besides the fossil bones, we found
chiefly shells of recent land-snails. They are of
the size of half a line to half an inch, partly whole,
partly broken. We observed most frequently and
clearly the Helix algira; several small white frag-
ments seem, however, to belong to other kinds,
perhaps even to sea-shells. The bones and teeth
of the various animals themselves, lie pretty much
calcined in the breccia, mingled together, not
lying in regular strata, without any trace of having
been rolled in the water, vqxj seldom entire, more
often sharp-splintery, without any connection or
orderly disposition of the parts, which naturally
belong together. Cuvier *, to whom we are in-
debted for a very accurate examination of these
petrifactions, has declared these bones to be those
of ruminating animals and gUres, and, as he con-

* Rapport sur les Breches Osseuses, Annales du Mus. d'Hist.

Nat. torn. 13. 1809.
62 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

jectures, antelopes or stags, Siberian hares and rats.

According to some imperfectly authenticated ac-

counts *, human skeleton are said to

parts of a
have been found among the remains of those ani-
mals we were not so fortunate as to see such
:

bones anywhere in Gibraltar, or to find them in

the stone itself William and John Hunter cor-
rected the earlier statements of others, according
to specimens sent to themselves, and declared the
supposed human bones to belong to ruminating
animals.
Over the stalactic stratum which we have de-
scribed, there is a more recent limestone breccia,
which lies on the surface of the ground, here and
there rent into separate blocks of rock. It consists

of a greyish white, or grey limestone, the detritus

of calcined shells, very few fragments of bones, and
a rather reddish, grainy, mortar-like cement ; the
pieces of limestone are here smaller, from half a
and instead of the
line to six lines in diameter,
abovementioned grains of quartz, which are en-
tirely wanting, there are whitish, pearl-like globules
of stalactic limestone, resembling the Carlsbad pea-
stones. The calcined shells are far more numerous
here, and form in a manner, thin strata in the stone;
no entire shells indeed are to be found among
them they seem, however, from their thickness
;

* Drinkwater's History of the Siege of Gibraltar, London,

1786. Imrie, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh, vol. iv. 1798.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 63

and breadth, to belong to the common oyster ;

others, from their ribbed edge and convexity, per-

haps, to a cockle {Cardium), that is to say, to
marine conchylia. The water and air exercise great
influence on this soft, and probably still forming
mass, as deep cavities are found in it near the sea.
The whole of this breccia formation may rise, per-
haps, only a few hundred feet next the limestone
mountain, and measure in its greatest thickness
about fifty fathoms. The appearance of the pe-
trified bones in it is very limited, as far as the
country is at present known. They are foimd
chiefly in the rock near Rosia Bay, and southward
of the governor's country-house, on the sea-shore
where the waves break violently against the cliffs,
which in this place are from 30 to 40 feet high.
We have judged it proper to be more circum-
stantial in our description of the osseous breccia of
Gibraltar, because the similar formation in many
countries on the Adriatic and the Mediterranean,
gives it very great interest in a geognostical view.
For besides Gibraltar, some parts of Corsica, Cette,
Antibes, Nice* in the south of France, Fustapi-
dama in Corfu, Nona near Zara, and Ragosnitza
in Dalmatia, the islands in the Golfb di Quarnero,
Osero, Cherso, Sansego, &c., offer a perfectly simi-
lar breccia,which was formed from the fragments
of the limestone mountains which run in a chain
along the coasts of the Mediterranean. The late

* Faujas de St. Fond. Annal, du Mus. torn 10.

64 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

origin of this formation will, perhaps, be more

certainly shown, if by continued accurate investi-

gation it shall be proved to contain hiunan bones,

as many persons have supposed*, which is not im-
possible, since the existence of objects of art, such,
for instance, as Germar mentions f, has been cer-

tified. But the larger masses of osseous breccia,

which Spallanzanit describes as heaped up in the
isle of Cerigo, so as to form a considerable moun-

tain, and the fossils of Vicentin, Verona, and of

Concud in Arragon, which are, perhaps, not dis-

similar, merit, on that account, to be more accu-
rately investigated by naturalists. It is particu-
larly important in this extensive maritime formation
that those remains of bones belong to species of
animals of the herbivorous kind, which are still

extant, for the most part domesticated, or at least

frequently used ; whereas the cavern limestone in

the interior of the European continent contains only
those of bears and carnivorous animals enclosed in
a similar manner.
The peculiarity of the mountain of Gibraltar

* James's History of the Herculean Strait. London. 1773.

Donati, StoriadelMar Adriatico. Forlis,Saggio d'osservazioni
sopra le Isole di Cherso ed Osero. Venez. 1771. iv. p. 99.
-J-
Dalmatia and Ragusa. Lips. 1817. Where he
Journey to
represents the whole formation of this osseous breccia under
the name of an alluvial mountain. Among the substances
found in the mass he mentions a piece of glass iron nails ;

have also been found in it.

:j:
Observations on the isle of Cerigo.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 65

appears in a still more when we

striking manner,
consider the country immediately adjacent. About
half a mile * to the north-west of it, rises another
mountain called by the English, " The Queen of
Spain's Chair," which extends for many leagues
almost directly from north to south. On both its
sides, which are very gently sloped, it has in some

places verdant pastures, in others, a scanty vege-

tation of heaths and
and on the ridge
cistus roses,
chiefly bare blocks of rock. This mountain con-
sists of a coarse-grained, red, and yellowish red

sandstone. In general it seems not to be regularly

stratified ; the rare strata run from north-east to
south-west, and incline in many different angles to
the south-east. Towards the sea, the mountain
gradually sinks to the sandy tract on the sea-
flat

shore. Most of the mountains which run west-

ward of the Queen's Chair appear to have the
same direction. Behind the latter mountain, a
hilly country extends, which is adorned with all

the charms of luxuriant vegetation and industrious

cultivation. The httle town of St. Roque, stands
on an eminence opposite the western foot of the
mountain j avenues of noble American aloes, and
flowering bushes of oleander ornament this plea-
sant hill, the summits of which are crowned by the
fortifications of the place, which were once consi-
derable. A low sandy beach not only occupies

* It is not stated whether we are to understand a German

mile, which is about four and half English miles. Trans.
• VOL. I. F
66 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the ground between the fortress and the

neutral
Spanish lines, which are protected by the two forts
of St. Barbara and St. Philip, but extends all round
the bay to the Spanish town of Algesiras, situated
on the west side of it. The quicksand consists of
rolled pieces of quartz, flinty slate, a yellowish
jasper-like stone, and limestone.*
We crossed this sandy desert in going from
little

Gibraltar to visit the Spanish lines and Algeshas.

At the frontier posts were a few Spanish troops of the
line garrisoned in small houses ; and, being unprotect-
ed from the beams of the sun, have a very disagree-
able abode during the summer months we obtain- :

ed permission to visit the Spanish territory in our

scientific excursion. Besides a few small gardens
round the dwellings, we saw nothing on this strand
except some single strand plants, which but sparingly
cover the poverty of this tract, which the wind has
raised into sandhills. Lizards, several species of
Pimelia, Copris, and Scarites, are the chief inhabit-
ants (of the animal kingdom) of this sandy soil.

Proceeding this way along the coast we passed two

inconsiderable streams. Nearer to Algesiras we
entered a little grove of pines. The town itself, a
well-built pleasant place, enjoys a delightful situa-
tion. To the west of it, are gently rising hills,

adorned with lovely verdure, scattered pines and

cork trees; and from their summits a charming

* Germar mentions, after Chrysogono, in particular, the

existence of horns.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 6?

prospect opens into the valley. A lofty aqueduct

brings water from the mountains, across the plains,
to the town. The bay of Gibraltar, covered with
innumerable vessels, extends here before the eye of
the traveller, and the lofty Calpe, with its steep
cliffs, bounds the prospect in the horizon. The
hills round Algesiras are composed of the same red
sandstone as that of which the Queen's Chair con-
sists. They are sparingly shaded by the Spanish
oak and the cork tree (Quercus esculus and suber),
and diversified by the finest flowering shrubs,
among which Rhododendron poniicunif
is the
probably a remnant of Moorish horticulture but ;

they are inhabited by the European scorpion and

the American scolopendra.*
Near Algesiras, between the town and the
Cabrita to the south of it, some antiquarians fix the
place where Karteia, afterwards called Heraclea
by the Romans, stood, a flourishing trading colony
of the Phoenicians. Carter t says that he saw the.
ruins of this city on the banks of the little river
Guadaranque.
Southwest of Algesiras lies most
Tarifa, the
southerly point of Andalusia, and of the whole
European continent. The way to it, through
meadows and over scantily wooded sandstone hills,
is very diversified. This little town is, for the most
part, of ancient construction, and still possesses for-
tifications erected in the times of the Moors, which,

*See Note, page 77-

f Journey from Gibraltar to Malaga.
F 2
68 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

however, are of far less importance at present than

when the Saracens made this place the chief
medium of their intercourse with Africa. This
connection of Tarifa with the Moors, seems to have
left some traces even in the physiognomy of the
inhabitants. Their complexion and features are
said to resemble the Arabian more than those of
the other inhabitants of Andalusia. The beauty
of the women of Tarifa is particularly celebrated,
the charms of which they contrive to heighten, by
improving their form with the black silk garment, and
increasing the lustre of their ardent eyes by letting
one of them peep through the veil which envelops
their face. The Romans were already acquainted
with the importance of this place, and peopled the
town, which they called Julia Joza or Traducta,
with colonists of Punic origin from Tingis (Tangier).
At present the place being tliinly peopled and
without trade, has no general interest, except from
its situation on the strait, from which it lies about
a quarter of a league distant, with sandhills and
sandbanks intervening.
From the towers of the town may be seen the
opposite coast of Africa. Alcazar el Ceguer, a
seaport of some importance under the Moors, but
now deserted, is only three miles distant from
Tarifa ; to the east and west the strait becomes
broader. The southern pillar of Hercules, Mons
Abyla (Kynegetica, in some passages of the an-
cients), or the Mountain of Monkeys, at the foot
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 69

of which Ceuta is situated, rises nearly opposite to

Gibraltar ; towards the west appears th^ chain of
mountains which extends behind Tangier, and ter-

minates in Cape Espartel. The current may be

easily perceived in the strait, which constantly
brings water from the ocean into the Mediterranean,
and gave rise to Halley's well-known theory, of
the more rapid evaporation of the water in that sea.
This current runs about four or five leagues in
the hour, and is so strong, that even large ships
cannot sail from the strait to the west without a
good east wind, for which reason they are frequently
obliged to remain a long time in the harbour of
Gibraltar, whereas vessels from the Atlantic can
enter, even with a contrary wind. In the Medi-
terranean, the current is perceptible as far as the
coast of Malaga, twenty leagues, or according
to others, Cabo de Gata, seventy leagues from
Gibraltar. Rennel's observation * i^, that the whole
surface of the ocean, from the 45th to the 30th
degree of latitude, to the distance of a hundred and
thirty miles westward of the shores of Europe and
Africa, is in motion towards the Pillars of Hercules,
and runs between Cape St. Vincent and Cape
Cantin, as it were into a funnel, of which the strait
of Gibraltar is the mouth. This current is con-
nected with that which goes southward along the
western coast of Spain and Portugal, is felt beyond
Madeira, and causes vessels, bound to Madeira or
* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 18^1, vol.iv. p. 241.

F 3
70 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the Canary Islands, to deviate from their course,

to the south-east. Besides the current in the
strait, from the ocean towards the east, a contrary
motion of the Mediterranean from east to west, is

observable below the surface. The existence of

this lower current is further strengthened by the
well known reappearance of a ship, sunk in the
strait, to the west of it, * The greater specific
gravity of the sea water in the Mediterranean, may
be perhaps looked upon as the chief cause of this

countercurrent. The accounts of travellers agree

in this difference in the specific gravity, and our
Own observations confirm it, as we found that of
the Mediterranean to be 1.03384, and that of the
Atlantic ocean, near the strait, 1.02944. f The
* Drinkwater's History of the late Siege of Gibraltar
Waiz, in Schwed. Abhandl. 1757 ; Marcet, in Phil. Trans. 1819 ;

Patton, in Edinb. Phil. Journ, 1821, vol. iv. p. 243. It is also

confirmed by two opposite currents in other straits, as in

the Dardanelles, in the Sound, &c. Mr. Von HofF (History of
the natural Changes of the Surface of the Earth, Gotha, 1822.8.)
has very lately suggested doubts, not indeed of the existence of a
sub-marine countercurrent, but of water being conveyed by it
from the Mediterranean to the ocean, for he supposes that the
motion towards the west, begins in the middle of the strait
and therefore proceeds only from the lower parts of the
itself,

water of the ocean, which are hindered, by a supposed dam at

the bottom of the strait, from entering the more shallow Medi-
terranean, so that they strike against it, and must return to the

west.
-f-
The observation made by Lalande (Voyage en Italic) that

the water on the coast of France lighter than that in the

is

middle of the sea, as it contains only -.l to ^l, and not -^ to

.jij, of its weight of salt, does not contradict our supposition,
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 71

experiments of Marcet*, it is true, do not show the

specific gravity of the sea water, in the strait, taken
fi-om a considerable depth, to be greater than that
of the surface. With respect to this difference, we
too are unable to state anything positive, on ac-
count of the quickness of our passage, and for
want of a convenient opportunity of procuring
water from a sufficient depth the certainty, how-
;

ever, of the greater specific gravity in the Mediter-

ranean, may serve as an explanation, whereas, the
accuracy of the result of Marcet's experiments
may be doubted, on account of the difliculty of
obtaining sea water, from a requisite depth. But
if there is a difference in the specific gravity of the
water of both seas, the countercurrent must really
take place as supposed, because in the collision of
two fluids of different gravity, the heavier naturally
flows under the lighter. Besides the most import-
ant cause of the current in the strait, which we
have stated, others may contribute. Thus the re-
volution of our planet round which com-
its axis,

municates to the sea that general motion from east

to west, probably exercises its influence below
the surface of the sea. Another cause of the lower
current towards the west, may be looked for in the
pressure of the many streams, some of them very

because the water, which flows out at Gibraltar, can only come
from a considerable depth, and consequently from the middle
of the sea.
* Phil. Trans, in the place above quoted.

F 4
72 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

considerable, falling into the Mediterranean, and

that of the Black Sea, entering it from the east
this pressure can become sensible only at the
single, proportionably narrow, issue of the Mediter-
ranean, where overcomes the counter-
it easily

pressure of the ocean, the force of which is broken

by the coast of the two continents, by which it is
bounded. Lastly, in considering the causes of this
motion of the waters, we must bear in mind the
possibihty of a dam, which when the two seas
formerly broke through the isthmus which se-
parated them, still remained, and even now causes
certain directions in the course of the water. The
inconsiderable lateral currents, on the surface of
the strait, towards the west, which Tofino, and
others before him, have remarked, are perhaps to
be considered as secondary effects of the main cur-
rent, such as are observed on the banks of large
rivers, and as they are chiefly observed at new and
full moon, partly as caused by that planet.
It is a general opinion of the Spanish fishermen,
that the strait grows gradually wider, and this per-

fectly coincides with the historical accounts of the

breadth of the strait.* This enlargement of the

* Th6 earliest statement of Skylax-of Caryanda makes the

breadth of the strait equal to that of the Thracian Bosphorus,
that is only a quarter of a geographical mile. The accounts of
the breadth make it greater as they approach nearer to oui*

times. Thus, later than the time of Skylax, it is stated at three-

fifths of a geographical mile; still later, at one geographical
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 7^

channel, may, perhaps, be connected with the subsid-

ing of the surface of the Mediterranean in general,
a phenomenon, for which more historical and phy-
sical testimony may be found, than for the contrary
one, of its by encroaching on the land in
increase,
some places, which probably may depend upon
local circumstances. The filling up several har-
bours with sand, the alluvion of considerable tracts
upon the and the union of islands and
coasts,
rocks, with the continent, which were formerly sur-
rounded by the sea, even where there are no rivers
like the Nile to produce this effect, occur on many

parts of the coast.* The Black Sea and the Caspian

offer a phenomenon perfectly similar, very large
tracts having gradually become uncovered on their
coasts ; it is therefore probable that these formerly
great inland seas, began to decrease in depth when
they became connected with the ocean. But the
hypothesis, that the great basin which was once
formed by the Euxine and the Sea of A soph, and
perhaps also by the Caspian, after bursting its dam
in the Bosphorus, flowed westwards into the Medi-
terranean, but receded on the east, from the
declivities of the Steppe of Caucasus into the pre-

mile by Strabo, one geographical mile and a half; by Plinyj

;

almost one geographical mile and two-fifths. At present the

narrowest part is almost two geographical miles. (See Von
HofF's abovementioned work, p. 150.)
* The facts are collected with great diligence in Mr; Voii
HofF's abovementioned work.
74 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

sent level of the Caspian sea, should be combined,

we think, with the opening of the strait of Gib-
raltar ; at least, there are not so many physical rea-
sons for believing that the strait was formed by the
ocean breaking through. must be left to future
It
investigation, to determine whether a conformation
like that in the Mediterranean is found in other
great gulfs, for instance, that of Mexico, which it

in so many respects resembles.

The formation of the mountains in the vicinity of
the town of Tarifa, agrees with that about Gibraltar ;

the limestone, however, is in thin strata, and the

slabs are therefore used for domestic purposes. On
the limestone lies a slaty bluish sandstone, of a finer
grain than that of St. Roque. On the most south-
ern point of the continent, which runs out from
the harbour, towards a small rocky island, on which
a tower is built, we observe a massy conglomerate
of rolled fragments of limestone, and remains of
still existing sea animals, such as cardium, myti-
lus, and the large flat edible Ostrea jacohcea (the
Mediterranean scallop), which are sometimes heap-
ed together in thick layers, united only by a little

stalactic limestone. There are also petrified alcy-

onia, corallines, sponges, madrepores, &c. in this
alluvial land,which has evident traces of a very
recent origin it appears to be constantiy on the
;

increase, as the sea daily brings a sufficient quantity

of marine animals, and calcareous cement.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 7^

After we had viewed the environs of Tarifa, the

company, inckiding Baron Von Neveu, resolved to
return, in a small fishing boat, to Algesiras. We
all felt ourselves in an agreeable frame of mind, at
the view of this southern country, and delighted
with the peculiar romantic spirit of the Spanish
people, which more freely manifested here, as it
is

generally is in the warmer countries, and our long-

ing after the tropical regions was increased. The
evening was delightfiil, the night clear and serene,
and the constellations of the northern hemisphere,
reflected in the gently agitated waves of the strait,
appeared to us here at the mouth of the ocean, to
beam upon us with their friendly rays, as if to bid

us a last farewell. Wehad scarcely arrived at

Algesiras, when the ambassador received orders from
the Court of Vienna, for the Austria to proceed
alone to Rio de Janeiro, without waiting for the
rest of the convoy. As the news of the troubles of
Pernambuco had just then been received at Gib-
raltar, we congratulated ourselves on thus escaping

a further loss of time, which might be caused by

the continued delay of the Portuguese squadron.
We had been only one day in Algesiras, when the
east wind suddenly set in, and we were summoned
on board by a gun fired from the Austria, and the
hoisting of the signal flag. Towards noon a boat
appeared, with the news that the frigate would sail
in an hour, and immediately conveyed us on board.
76 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

All was ready for sailing; only our colleague,

Professor Mikan, who had gone too far from
Algesiras, on a botanical excursion, had not yet
returned ; we therefore began to be uneasy on his
account, when just as the anchor was weighed, and
the sails spread, he fortunately came on boai'd.

I
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 77

NOTE TO CHAPTER III.

The animals collected at Gibraltar and Algesiras are

— Amphibia: Testudo Mydas; Lacerta lepida, viridis,

ocellata, bosciana, maculata; Schieus algii-a; Gecko fasci-

cularis ; Seps tridactylus. Pisces : Murcena Anguilla, He-

lena; Esox Sphyraena, Belone; Pleuronectes Solea; La~
hus microlepidotus, maculatus, carneus ; Epinephelus
ruber ; Trigla pini ; Raja Torpedo ; Syngnathus Typhle
Blennius viviparus, Pholis; Trichiurus ensiformis. In-
SECTA : Scarabceus stercorarius, vernalis ; Geotrupes punc-
tatus ; Copris hispana, Paniscus ; Onites Bison, Sphinx
Oniticellus flavipes ; Onthopliagns Taurus, medius, Schreberi
Hister aequalis, bipustulatus, unicolor ; Ateuchus sacer,
semipunctatus, variolosus, flagellatus ; Trox granulatus
Cetonia Morio, stictica, hirta ; Omaloplia terricola, ruri-
cola, brunnea ; Anisoplia fruticola, horticola ; Hoplia
argentea ; Silpha rugosa, lunata ; Scarites Gigas, subterra-
neus, levigatus ; Proscns cephalotes ; Staphylinus olens
Ziiphium olens ; Apti7ius Ballista ? Buprestris villosa ; Akis
acuminata; Tentyria orbiculata; Erodius gibbus ; Scaurus
striatus, punctatus ; Pimelia muricata, bipunctata ; Helops
caraboides ; Ditomus sphaerocephalus ; Cistela ruficollis ;

Lagria hirta, laeta ; Lixus ferrugatus, angustatus ; Pacliy^

gaster goerzensis ; Chrysomela eumolpa ; Colaspis areata
Clythra longimana, humeralis; Cossyphus Hoffinanseggii
Coccinella mutabilis ; Forjicula auricularia, Panorpa hal-

terata ; Xylocopa violacea ; Andrena plumipes Scolia flavi- ;

frons ; Bombus terrestris ; Sphex spirifex Scorpio australis, ;

europaeus; Scolopendra morsitans ; Jw/ws Indus, terrestris;

 7.8 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

Cymothon physodes, linearis; Oniscus pustulatus, Asellus,

Armadillo, sylvestris ; Aranea picea; LigcBus equestris, Ta-
banus bovinus ; -Bomij/Zms melanocephalus, fuscus ; Truxalis
hungaricus ; Papilio D. Hyali
N. Megaera; Sat. Pasi- ;

phae, Janira, Rumina; R. Phlaius. Vermes: Si-

Pleb.
punailus nudus; Noctiluca miliaris Veretillum cynomorium; ;

Actinia, div. sp.

The plants belonging to the Downs of Gibraltar are —
Scirpus Holoschcemis ; Cyperus fascicvljris ; Bromus
riibens; Festuca alopecuros, Calycina, Digitaria, Dac-
tylon; Jimcus maritinius Polygonum maritimum; RuMEX
;

THYRSOIDEUS ; Plantago Lofflingii, Lagopus; Salicornia

fructicosa ; Convolvulus Soldanella ,-
Scj-ophularia frutescenSi
Crucianellamaritima ; Cakile maritima; Cheiranthus trilobus
Cachrijs Libanotis; Caucalis maritima ; Daucus MURI-
CATVS ; Oenanthe pimpinelloides ; Eryngium ilici-
FOLIUM ; Frankenia Icevis Anagallis coerulea, Monelli ;
,-

Limim maritimum ; Drosophyllmn Lusitanicum, Lk.; Corri-

giola littoralis ; Medicago marina Ononis RAMOSISSIMA, ,-

viscosa, variegata, PICTA, HISPIDA ; Euphorbia Paralius.

— The vegetation of the mostly dry hills about Algesiras
agrees with that of the Queen's Chair; we found on both —
Daphne Gnidium, villosa ; Passerina canescens ; Oka
europcea; Ligustrum officinale ; 77/j/wm5 vulgaris, Zygis, pa-
tavinus; Eriostemian Lusitanicum, Lk.; Sideritis romana,
subspinosa ; Prasium majus ; LAVANDULA MULTIFIDA ;
Phlomis purpurea ,• Teucrium valentinum ; Rosmarinus offi-
cinalis-, Hedera Helix; Erica umbellata, scoparia, australis;
Cistus populifolius, formosus Helianthemum halimifolium,
;

glutirwsum, serratum, guttatum ; Tuberaria ; Delphinium pe-

regrinum, pentagynum ; Rubus fruticosus ; Po/j/gaZa »zo«5-
peliensis; Sedum arenarium, Brot.; Ulex europseus ; Genista
candicans, tridetitata ; Trifolium angustifolium ; Spartium
spinosuHi; PistaciaLentiscus. — In the meadows and pastures
there were Cyperus longus; Scirpus acicularis ; Schcenus
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 79

tmicronatus,mgricans', Panicum verticillatum ; Cynodon Dac-

tyl on ; Agrostis miliacea ; Phalaris arundinacea; Festuca
uniglumis, ciliata, divaricata Brachypodium distachijum ; Poa
,•

annua, trivialis ; Briza maxima^ minima ; Phleimi pratense

Alopecurus pratensis ; ^gilops ovata Chrysurus cyno&uroides ,-

Cenchrus echinatus; Lolium arvense Elynius enropaeus ;

Andropogon Grylhis ; Aru?ido Doiiax ; Dactylis hispanica^

glomerata Trisetum paniceiim
; Danthonia decumbens ,-
;

Piptathenim {Milium) comosuvi Anthoxanthum odoratum, ,-

|3. minus; Stipa tortilis ; Gladiolus communis Alisma ra- ;

nunculoides; Valeriana Calcitrapa, Fedia^ Cornucopia,

Pkmtago, Psyllium, Bellardi, lanceolata; Chenopodium
album; Illecehrum Paronychia, echinatum Prunella inter- ,-

media ; Betonica stricta Salvia bi COLOR; Orontium

;

sicidum, calycinum, Asarina, OrobancJie minor ; Batschia

viscosa, versicolor ; Pitiguicida Itisitanica ,- Veronica arvensis,
hederaefolia ; Echium violaceujn, creticum ; Cerinthe aspera
Lithospermumfruticosum ; Symphytum tuberosum Myosotis ;

scorpioides, arvensis Anchusa italica ; Cynoglossum pictum ;

;

Hyoscyamus albus ; Solanum nigrum, miniatum-. Convolvulus

althceoides, sepium arvensis, tricolor ; Anagallis Monelli,
COLLINA, latifolia ; Samolus Valerandi Hottonia palus- ;

tris; Campanula Erinus ; Lobelia urens ; Galium hirsutum

'i^e&siovalifolium, Schott.); Rubia lucida, tinctorum; Valantia
cruciata Sherardia arvensis
;
Dipsacus sylvestris Scabiosa
; ;

Grammuntia, grandijlora, Columbaria Anthemis arvensis ; ;

Scolymus hispanicus : Centrospermum chrysanthemum Spreng.

Cynara pygmcea ; Chichobium divabicatvm ; Sison
Anisumj Oenanthe pimpinelloides, prolifera, apiifolia
Viola canina; Lythrum Hyssopifolia ; Lychnis lata; Li-
num usitatissimum, Strictum ; Silene gallica, hellidifolia

Cerastium dioicum; 'E.Yythvseaconferta, grandiflora, maritima;

Statice ALLIACEA ; Chlora perfoliata; Hypericum per-
foratum, ciliatum ; Papaver Rhoeas ; Euphorbia segetalis,

retusa, Esula; Lotus edulis, intermedins, Lois ; Medicago

80. TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

Teiebellum uncinata, orhiculata-, Scorpiurus vermiculata .•

Vicia hirta, sulcata, atropurpurea. — Lastly, the plants which

we have noticed as most characteristic on the rock of Gib-
raltar are — Daphne Gnidium ; Anarrhinum tenellum,; Pra-
siummajus; Nepeta RETICULATA ; Phlomis purpurea, Teu-
crium valentinum ; Lavandula multifida ; Thymus patavinus .-

Side7'itis suhspinosa ,• Statice cordata, sinuata ; Verbascum

sinuatum ; Vinca major ,- Cotyledon Umbilicus ; Fumaria
capriolata Genista candicans
,- and lastly, Chamcerops hu-
,•

milis, the European Dwarf Palm, the fruit of which is a

favourite food of the monkeys. —
The species whose names
are printed in Roman characters belong to the temperate
part of Europe, those in Italics to the south of Europe, and
those in Italic small capitals to the latter, and par-
ticularly to the north of Africa.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 81

CHAPTER IV.

VOYAGE FROM GIBRALTAR TO MADEIRA, AND

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN TO RIO DE
JANEIRO.

On the 3d of June, at noon, we left the bay of

Gibraltar, accompanied by above fifty vessels of
various sizes, which, like ourselves, had waited for
a favourable wind to proceed from the strait

into the ocean. There was a fresh east wind, and

our vessel, which was a remarkably quick sailer,
soon got the start of all the other ships. In an
hour we had already doubled the most easterly
point of Cabo Carnero, and were in the middle of
the where the two continents are only a few
strait

miles from each other. The current from the

west is here very remarkable, and every experi-
enced eye readily perceives its effects on ships
coming from the ocean. According to the gene-
ral opinion, it runs from four to five leagues in
an hour, which are therefore deducted from the
ship's reckoning in sailing out. While we pro-
ceeded over the dark green waters of the strait,

the Spanish coast appeared in a blue mist; we

could clearly distinguish two chains of mountains
running from the E. N. E. to W. S. W. The most
VOL. I. G
82 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

distant rises considerably above the nearer verdant

hills, which gently ascending, rest on the steeper
and more naked ridges of the others, and inter-
sected by many little valleys, extend without any
abrupt declivities towards the sea. On two of
the extreme points of this cape there are still

standing some Moorish watch-towers, and further

to the west, we saw the sandy cape of Trafalgar,
celebrated for the victory of Nelson. A blue
streak higher towards the N. W. which terminates
in the narrow Cabo de S. Sebastian, was the last
point of the European continent which we were
able to see. The mountains on the African side
of the strait were, for the most part, enveloped in
mist ; they, however, appeared to us in their gene-
ral outline to resemble those of the Spanish coast.
At four o'clock we passed Tangiers at a distance
of three or four leagues ; we could clearly dis-
tinguish tlie town with its small, flat-roofed houses,
surrounded with and low square towers,
walls,
behind which are steep limestone hills, and here
and there detached masses of rock. At five
o'clock, Cabo Spartel lay about six leagues distant
in E.S.E. ; the thought of leaving two quarters of
the world to proceed to a third, affected us all.

The vicinity of ancient Africa, which has remained

the same for centuries, without improvement, the
recollections of the boundaries which antiquity
believed were set by these straits to its enterprises

the tradition of the happy Atlantis, which we

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 83

hoped to find again in the luxuriant America, so

rich in the wonders of nature ; the idea of bidding
farewell to Europe, the seat of civilisation and
intellectual superiority -, every thing combined to
make the passage between the Pillars of Hercules
into the ocean, a moment in our lives never to be
forgotten.
At six o'clock in the evening the last points of the
European and African coasts vanished from our eyes,
and we were in the midst of the ocean the waves ;

rose majestically over each other, and seemed to swal-

low up the vessels as they glided down into their
deep hollows ; the ocean itself, like the serene firma-
ment above it, showed as it were, in its deep blue,
an image of its unfathomable depth. Each of the
ships that had sailed with us, henceforth guided
by the compass, pursued upon the ocean which
divides and unites all the continents, the way to
its own destination our frigate, which was a-head
;

of all the rest, advanced with incredible rapidity to-

wards the west. The wind still continued to blow
briskly from the east, and the sailsand deck were
covered with dew ; we sailed upon an average
nine miles an hour. Though the first sight of the
boundless element, of the rising and setting sun,
of the moon and the starry heavens, transported
the imagination of the beholder, the mode of life

on board offered but little variety and amusement.

The phosphorescence was very inconsiderable in
this latitude, and, proceeding from only a few
G ^
84 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

single animals, did not present the splendid sight

which had gratified us in the Mediterranean. The
greater was our pleasure that the stronger and
more favourable the wind became, and the more
rapidly the ship sailed, the sea- sickness, from
which so many of us had suffered during our pas-
sage through the Mediterranean, gradually dis-
appeared, and we were all able to remain upon
deck without any inconvenience.
The sea-sickness is extremely troublesome to
people at sea. All are not attacked in the same
degree ; in general, persons of strong constitution,
and dwelling on the sea- coast, appear to suffer less

from it than such as are weakly, and inhabitants

of inland or mountainous countries. Instances of
the contrary are, however, to be met with nay, ;

even sailors inured by many voyages, are attacked

by it during violent storms. It is certain that the
cause of this disorder is not so much the sight of
the boundless ocean, the fear of danger excited by
it, and the disagreeable smell proceeding fi'om the
water in the hold, which immediately corrupts,
longing for home, &c. but principally, if not entire-
ly, the unsteady motion of the ship. The sens-
ation which the voyager experiences from the
heaving of the immense fluid element, is exactly
similar to that which many persons feel from the
motion of a carriage by land, and many continue
to feel it even after they have been several hours
on shore. This sickness generally commences with
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 8^

an oppression and pain in the head, and proceeds

through a series of the most disagreeable sensations
tomore or less pauiful contractions in the stomach,
which terminate in continued and violent vomit-
ings, which sometimes even cause the bursting of
a blood-vessel ; or it happens that the patients^
from the disgust excited by the smell or sight of
food, fall into consumption for want of proper nou-
rishment, and in long voyages are often in danger
of their lives. He who has experienced the tor-
ments of this disorder, knows that a person at-
tacked by it would willingly exchange all earthly
happiness, for a single hoiu' on shore, and will
therefore consider it as no unimportant object in
in the journal of a voyage. Several remedies have
been proposed to remove or to alleviate this dis-
agreeable sickness. Seafaring people especially
recommend oranges, and the rust of the anchor.
The most approved means against this evil are
dietetical,and require above all things to remain
as much as possible upon deck in the open air, and
near the main mast, where the rocking of the ves-
sel is least felt ; not to look at the surface of the
sea at all, or not steadfastly; to accustom yourself^
instead of fluid, and especially warm nutriment, to
solid, cold, particularly acid food, and such as re-
quires good digestion ; for instance, salt fish, ham,
&c., but principally to overcome the first attacks
of the sickness, and even the disposition to vomit,
by immediately taking heavy food, however re-

G 3
86 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

luctantly, and by pleasing amusement. Above all

things, you must be careful not to leave the deck,
or at the first attack of head-ach, to go down into
the confined air of the cabin. But ifj notwith-
standing, the disease becomes so severe that you
become quite despondent, and hardly able to move,
no reUef is to be expected but from an entirely
horizontal position, and from the sleep which then
ensues. In this position it is advisable, after some
repose, to take some porter, solid cold food, such
as ham, and then return into the air. Resolution
and amusement can do much, whereas meditation
and mental exertion, particularly in weak persons,
may excite or prolong the disease. The less peo-
ple reflect, and themore they divert themselves
by various employments, by walking about on
deck, nay, even by fencing, and sailors' work, the
more easily do they become accustomed to the
motion, particularly on a long voyage. In this
manner we too were gradually more rarely visited
by this disagreeable disorder, and favoured by fine
weather, were able to spend the whole day upon
deck. Only when the sea is very high, and the
motion of the ship very violent, the first sensations

return, though only for a time ; but the more

uniform the wind and the movement of the ship
were, the more easily did we accustom ourselves
to it, and the more agreeable did a seafaring life

appear to us.

The wind continuing to be favourable, we soon

reached Madeira. On the 5th of June, in the
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 87

evening, when thin clouds began to overspread the

horizon, we saw several birds, among others the
Procellariapelagica, swimming on the surface, which
were all indications of the vicinity of land. We
therefore shortened sail during the night. At
six o'clock the following morning we descried,
about six miles south of us, the three desert islands,
Ilhas Desertas, belonging to the group of Madeira,
rising like ruined portals or immense arches, out of
the boundless ocean. The most northern of these

three bare rocks, which has scarcely any inhabit-

ants but a few sea-gulls, nor any other vegetation
than the dyers' lichen *, is the lowest ; the mid-
dle one, the largest in circumference, and the most
southerly one (Bogia), on the other hand, are
steeper, and may both be seen at a distance of
eight or nine miles. The channels between these
rocks, and between them and Madeira, are safe,

in very few places less than sixty fathoms deep,

and here and there from two to five hundred. In
the summer months, during which the N.E. wind
regularly prevails, a south-western current of the
waters is perceived in them. The fog, which
had hitherto concealed Madeira, which bore S.W.,
dispersed as the sun rose higher, and about nine
o'clock we clearly distinguished the eastern promon-
tory, Cabo de S. Louren90 ; the multiform reddish
cliffs rising steeply above each other, extend far
into the sea. Leaving it to the north of us, we
* See Note 1. page 125.
G 4
88 ^ TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

were delighted with the prospect of the luxu-

riant valley of Porto Novo ; its verdant slopes
risinff out of the sea, are adorned with scat-

tered habitations of a dazzling white. The brown

or red walls, and steep sides of the rugged moun-
tain that traverses the island, form a pleasing
contrast with the rich green of the flowery val-
leys. Nothing can be more enchanting than the
prospect of this island, which seems to float like a
pleasant garden on the bosom of the ocean. We
soon descried the town of Funchal to the N.W.
and the steep Pico da Cruz rising behind it. In
the evening, when the frigate was not far from the
shore, the colours were hoisted, and a Portuguese
boat immediately came from the town to make the
usual enquiries. A stronger wind arising, which
made the anchorage on the very steep rocky bot-
tom still more unsafe and dangerous, the captain
thought proper to continue under sail ; a boat was
therefore put out to land the embassy, and the
naturalists, while the frigate remained in the roads
during the night. The exposed situation of this
harbour, where the ships, during high Vv'inds,

particularly from the S.E. and S.W., may easily

run against the cliffs of the coast, made this pre-

caution necessary. was not till the following
It

day at noon, when we had already ascended the

mountainous part of the island, and were enjoying
the fine prospect of the ocean, that the salute of
the frigate announced that she had come to an
anchor.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 89

Great preparations had been made for the recep-

tion of the arch-duchess in this beautiful island,
which was the first of the Portuguese possessions
which Her Imperial Highness was to visit, and the
embassy received repeated invitations to spend a
few days here. It had, however, been determined
to remain here no longer than was necessary to
take in a stock of the excellent wine of the island,
and as this was done on the day of our arrival, the
naturalists had only one day to visit the immediate
vicinity of Funchal. We visited the town the
same evening. The principal street runs near the
sea coast, the smaller side streets, consisting for
the most part of old ruinous houses, extend up the
sides of the mountain. An open square, in tlie

middle of the town, opposite the church, is planted

with rows of exotic trees, with Draccena draco,
Jasminum azoricum, and Datura arbor ea, the last
of which was just then covered with its beautiful
large blossoms. The governor of the island, who
has also under him the neighbouring Porto Santo,
resides in a very spacious and handsome fort, close

to the harbour. This fort, as well as the immediate

vicinity of the principal church, was splendidly
illuminated during the night, when the governor
gave a magnificent and entertainment in honour
ball

of the embassy. The ladies were carried to the

palace in palanquins, richly gilded, and in fine
veiled nets, fastened to poles ; the bearers were
negroes, the great number of whom surprised us
90 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the more, as we even saw some ecclesiastics of this

colour. With respect to the general physiognomi-

cal character of the common people of Madeira,
they are lean, muscular, of brown complexion,
black disordered hair, bushy eyebrows, and dark
eyes. In their coarse sailor's dress, with a pointed
red cap, they excite more fear than confidence.
The complexion, which very frequently has a tinge
of dark brown, calls to mind the formerly more
frequent mixture of whites and negroes, who were
imported here in great numbers from Guinea. As
in the countries of southern Europe, the ass is the
principal domestic animal on which burdens are
transported from one place to another ; waggons,
made in the shape of sledges, and drawn by many
oxen, are very rarely seen in this mountainous
country, and a chaise still more so.

The naturalists preferred an acquaintance with

the interior of the island to the pleasures of the en-
tainment. By daybreak we were already on our
way eminence which rises amphitheatrically
to the
from the harbour, and is intersected by several val-
leys, into which streams of the purest water descend.
Numerous small country houses lie scattered be-
tween gardens and vineyards, and the wanderer
meets a pleasing picture of the persevering industry
of the inhabitants, who have cultivated even steep
hills, planted them with vines, and watered them
by extensive canals. Walking by the side of such
an aqueduct, which was built with bricks, and di-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 91

vided into many branches, which conveys several

springs from the upper part of the island, we
arrived at a hill in the shape of a dome, opposite
the north-eastern part of the town, from which there
is a delightful prospect over the deep valleys, the

town with its verdant environs, the harbour, and

the ocean. At the foot of the mountain, planted
singly about the country houses, are the waving
date palm, the broad-leafed pisang, the juicy sugar-
cane, the edible yams *, maize, and melons ; higher
up the mountain are vines trained upon lattices, and
fenced with aloes and cactus, which spread as it
were a green carpet over this beautiful island ; still
fartherup the mountain is a shady wood of sweet
chesnuts and laurel trees ; lastly, the highest points
are covered with heath, broom, ferns, and grasses.
If we take a comprehensive view of the whole, we
fancy that we have, in these deep mountainous
defiles,adorned with the juicy verdure of the vine,
these steep ascending pastures, which lean on lofty
basalt walls, these beautiful shady woods, diversi-
fiedby hmpid streams rushing over the rocks, the
picture of an European alpine country, which has
been enriched with all the additional charms of a
southern clime. The black basalt walls, however,
impart an of melancholy to the landscape which,
air

at least during the time of our visit, was rendered

more striking by the remarkably small number of
* Phoenix dactylifera, Musa sapientum and paradisiaca,
Saccharum officinarum, Caladium esculentuiu.
y'2 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

animals, for we scarcely saw any except a few

European singing birds, waterwagtails, some but-
terflies, and a few other insects {Brachycerm bar-*

barus, Asida coriacea nobis) which inhabit the bar-

ren rock. The birds, probably, fly backwards and
forwards between the islands and the European
and African continents. On the naked shores of
the island, which are even without sand, there are
no muscles or sea-stars, and in the adjacent seas
but few fish, for which reason the dried fish of
North America meet with a ready sale. This
scarcity of animals in the island is common to many
volcanic countries.
The principal chain of this island extends in
the direction of W. by N. by S. Its ex-
to E.

treme points are Cabo de Pargo, and Cabo de S.

Louren90. The highest ridge, which rises in the
Pico Ruivo to the height of 5250 feet, runs nearly
through the centre of the island, many branches
diverging from it in several directions towards the
sea, forming valleys of different depths. The
mountains are every where found to consist of a
greyish black basalt, either compact or with
vesicular cavities, the external characters of which
entirely correspond with the appearance of other
basalt mountains, but it does not show those co-
lumnal forms which are so often seen in basalt.

Towards the summit we thought we distinguished

a kind of steps, in more or less massy divisions,
and also more frequent vesicular cavities in it.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 9^

The latter are irregularly scattered, some of them

very small, others several lines long and broad, or
sometimes run together into irregular hollows.
Near them the colour of the basalt is either quite
the same, or declines into a yellowish brown, which
is probably caused by a decomposition, partly of
the iron, and partly of the olivin ; the latter is

in great quantities, and of different dimensions, im-

bedded in the mass of the basalt when fresh ;

broken it is shining, and of a light olive green.

In a weak state of oxydation its imperfectly
foliated fracture separates, and such pieces are
iridescent ; it shows then principally a dark yel-
low or brown colour, in which the lustre and
transparency are lost. The phenomenon of the
attractionand repulsion of the magnetic needle
is very evident in the basalt of Madeira it ;

often approaches the wacke its vesicular ca- ;

vities are then larger, often above an inch in

length, and sometimes filled with a bluish earth,,
but generally lined with a pulverulent coating. la
this softer imbedded grains of olivin,.
stone are
often of a yellowish brown colour. At a con-
siderable elevation, particularly on the surface of
the ground, the rock consists entirely of wacke.
It is of an ash and bluish grey colour, mingled
with small, scaly, black points. The stratification

is very apparent in it; the layers are generally

horizontal, and and weight is less.
their hardness
The phenomenon of polarity was more obvious in
94 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

this wacke than in the basalt which lay lower,

which coincides with the observation made by
Giesecke, according to which the basalt at ele-
vated points more magnetic than that in lower si-
is

tuations.* That the basalt sooner acquires polarity

in elevated places, that is, where it is more insu-
lated from the soil, is to be ascribed to the same
cause; in consequence of which every stone sus-
ceptible of magnetism, even the magnetic iron-
stone itself, does not become magnetic till it is

brought up into the air and light ; the iron

weathercock till it is placed on the steeple, and
every rod in general, till it is set upright. In
elevated places exposed to the sun, and where the
basalt covered with the mould, ferruginous clay
is

is found in brownish red masses, with granular

fracture, sometimes hard, sometimes half hard.
Friable brown points, probably of clay iron-stone,
and delicate sparkles of pinchbeck brown mica,
are scattered in it. The olivin is decomposed
into a yellowish brown mass, in which, however,
the cleavage is still to be recognised. These
red spots of ferruginous clay are distinguish-
able from the sea, and heighten the variety
and vivacity of the picture presented by the
lovely mountain island. For the rest, the consi-
derable decomposition of the basalt, which is ob-
servable here also, is only apparently in contra-

Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1821, p. 221.

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 95

diction with the hardness of the stone. The rela-

lation of its density, together with the natron it

contains, is the most important cause of the great

affinity with the water of the atmosphere. It is

known that no kind of rock attracts the latter so

strongly and so continually as the basalt, which is

so remarkably compact ; for this reason we so

often see its summits veiled in thick clouds, and
marshes in its vicinity. The basalt, too, in conse-
quence of its disposition to assume columnar flat,

and spherical forms, is more exposed than any other

rock, on a thousand points, to the influence of the
atmosphere. Hence, and still more by its remark-
able composition of silex, clay, lime, talc, natron,
oxyd of iron, nay, even muriatic acid, the basalt,
more than any other kind of rock, appears like a
great voltaic column. This comparison seems
more just, if we consider the composition of the
single strata of the flotztrap mountain ;
yet it is

still worthy of remark, that the massy undetached

basalt related to the amygdaloid, or the wacke,
decomposes more readily than that which is se-
parated into pillars, and which is more crystalline.
From one of the highest points of the island,
which is covered with the Pinus canariensis of
Smith, and with ferns, we descended in the evening
through several deep ravines, and a thick grove of
beautiful laurels and chesnuts, to the solitary

* Kennedy in Gilbert's Annals, vii. p. 426,

96 TRAVELS m BRAZIL.

church of Nossa Senhora cle Monte. A broad flight

of steps leads to the building, which stands upon a
projection of the rock between spreading chesnut
trees. The setting sun gilded the sea, and illumi-

nated the more remote parts of the island with a

magic light, while the sound of the church bell
summoned the wanderer to the shrine. The ground
round it is by the pious care of the faithful,
planted,
with flowering groups of jessamine and honey-
suckle. Fuchsia coccinea, Buddleja globosa, and Vinca
major. Those foreign shrubs have here found a new
country, which they adorn, almost without inter-

ruption, with their beautiful flowers. The climate

of this happy island equally favours the productions
of every zone ; only the European misses his oaks,
firs, and willows; but, on the other hand,
birches,
he beholds with astonishment the yam, Inhame^
(Caladium esculentum,) the egg-plant (Solanum me-
iongena), the cactus, aloe, and the potatoe of Ame-
rica, flourish near the corn and fruits from Caucasus;
the fig-tree, the sugar-cane, and the pisang of the
east ; the date-palm, the tomato (Solanum lycoper^
sicum), and the cultivated cane (Arundo donax') of
Africa. It is well known that the sugar-cane was
introduced here from Sicily, by the Infant Don
Henrique Navegador. If we may depend upion
ancient accounts, the refining of sugar was carried
on here with great success at a very early period,
and at the end of the fifteenth century the greater
part of the sugar used in Europe came perhaps from
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. ^
Madeira.* According to the historian Lemos Faria
e Castro, one hundred and fifty sugar-houses (en-
genhos) furnislied annually sixty thousand arrobas
of sugar as the royal fifth (quinto).'f But when the
far greater fertility of the Portuguese colonies in
America was known, the cultivation of the sugar-
cane in Madeira gradually ceased. The yam (in-
kama} was brought hither soon after the dicovery
of the New World, and is now one the most com-
mon articles of food, which is more planted than
the potatoe, in sloping grounds, which may easily
be watered. When the island was given up to the
family of the Da Camaras, as donataries, they began
to favour especially the growth of the vine, which
was likewise first introduced here from the Grecian
archipelago, by Prince Henry. The culture of the
vine increased so rapidly, that a hundred and fifty
years ago, it was the most important occupation of
the inhabitants of the colony. Most of the grapes
are white, of a longish shape; and the most esteemed
is that called Verdelho.t The management of the

vines is so far different from that in Portugal that

they are planted on stony ground, exposed to the
sun, and trained over wooden lattices, several feet

high; they form an agreeable arcade, under which

* Hartmann Schedel liber Chronicarum. edit. Anton Ko-

burger, 1493, p. 390.
f Historia geral de Portugal. Lisb. 8vo. torn. vi. p. 184.

X John Williams, in Transact, of the London Horticultural

Society, vol. ii. p. 106.

H
98 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

you may often walk from one vintner's cottage to

another. In the warm cUmate of the island, the
bare black basaltic soil of which imbibes much
warmth, and reflects it upon the vines, this mode
of cultivation seems to be particularly suitable
whereas it is less successful in colder countries.
-Thus, for instance, in some parts of Italy, the vine-
arbours {pergole) do not bear so well as those
plants that are wreathed round poles. The vine
is cultivated from the sea-coast up to two-fifths of
the elevation of the island. The annual produce
is estimated at from twenty-five to thirty thousand
pipes. The best wine is called malmsey, and is

made from a vine v/hich came from Greece.

If our visit to the island had not been limited to
a single day, we might, perhaps, have been able to
add several interesting particulars respecting its

original vegetation, to the excellent observations

which Von Buch* has published on the Flora of
the Canary Islands, and which might serve as a
model for all future investigations into the vegeta-
tion of islands in general. The present state of
Madeira does not allow us to form perfectly accu-
rate ideas respecting its original vegetation. When
Zarco, the discoverer, first viewed the island from
Porto Santo, was covered, from the sea-shore to
it

the top of the highest summits, with almost impene-

trable forests, which were not destroyed till after

* In the Essays of the Berlin Academy, 1816 and 1817,

p. 337.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 99

a conflagration which lasted seven years.* Many of

the birds peculiar to the island were perhaps de-
stroyed on this occasion. Dragon trees {JDracoena
draco) of the same kind as the ancient tree at
Orotava, in Teneriffe, are seldom seen here, and
only singly in the gardens. Cultivation has since
contributed to banish the native species, and to
introduce foreign However, the greatest
ones.
affinity with the plants of the Canary Islands is still

evident; and the several zones of vegetation may

be properly characterised, in the same manner as
Von Buch has done for those islands. We do not,
however, distinguish live different zones, above one
another, but only four, the two lowest of which
are determined by the peculiarity of the cultivation,
and the two higher by the natural state of the ve-
getation, t
. Loaded with the treasures of all kinds which we
had collected, but exhausted by our great exertions,
we returned to the town late in the evening, by a
road made between the vineyards. Though the
heat, increased by the black basalt rock, had been
very oppressive during this excursion, the thermo-

* Lemos Fariae Castro Historia, vol. vi. p. 183. The ancient

historians all agree that the first donataries, descendants of
Zarco, took the name of Camaras, from a cave in which he had
found many sea-wolves [lobos marinhos), and which he there-
fore called Camara dos lobos. If they were really sea-lions
which then frequented the coast of Madeira, it is remarkable
that no traces of this animal are now to be found there.

f See Note 2. page 126.

H 2
100 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

meter, at ten o'clock at night, was only 15.5* R. in

the air, and 16.0° in the water j the hygrometer was
42°, and the araeometer, within the harbour, 2.75°,
and afterwards, in the open sea, 3°. The frigate
having taken on board a considerable supply of the
fine wine of the island, and being quite ready to sail,

we were obliged immediately to return on board.

The 8th of June, in the morning, we weighed
anchor, and put out to sea. We were more for-

tunate on this occasion than the vessel which after-

wards conveyed Her Imperial Highness the Crown
Princess hither, and which, being driven too near
the coast by a sudden squall of wind from the
south, was obliged to cut both cables, in order to
get out to sea. The depth round the island is so
great, that it is only quite close to the shore, in 35
or 50 fathoms water, that a bottom can be found
for the anchors, which easily take hold in the basalt

rock : hence vessels are frequently obliged to go

to sea with the loss of their anchors, particularly
from the month of November to February, when
storms from the S.W. or S. E. threaten to dash
them against the coast. We left the road of Fun-
chal with a faint N. wind, but which soon veered
to E. and N.E., and remained favourable all the day.
At noon, the centre of the island bore N.E. by N. j

onr longitude was, according to the calculation of

the officers, 19° 27' W. of Paris, our latitude 31°
47' The wind increasing during the night, we
17''''

were already off the Canary Islands. The next morn-

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. Wl
ingPalma appeared, covered with heavy clouds; it is

almost always seen enveloped in mists, which is a

consequence of the westerly winds that prevail
here, and the rains brought by them, which are said
to hemore frequent here than in any of the other
Canary Islands. At noon we saw the south point
to the S.E. by E., but thick fogs and a passing
shower of rain soon concealed it from oar view.
An English brig, which had colonists for New Hol-
land on board, passed close by us in this latitude.
There was a great number of women among them,
who, though banished from their native country,
appeared to go with good courage to their new
destination. On the evening of the same day we
descried the Island of Ferro, but, as usual, enveloped
in fog. Wehad now passed the Hmit of ancient
navigation, from which the enterprising spu'it of
Bartholomew Diaz, Columbus, Magalhaens, for*
merly steered to seek a new world and, confiding
;

in human art and science, we proceeded across th^

boundless expanse of the ocean to the destination

of our voyage. If the sojourner in the small and
frail vessel feels himself seized with shuddering, at
the view of the immense agitated element, yet
when he contemplates the skilfully constructed

edifice, triumphing over the airand water, steadily-

pursuing its course, he is lost in wonder at the

and the power of human invention. The

greatness
improvement of navigation and ship-building in our
times, inspires the voyager with a sense ^f com*
H 3
102 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

fort and and banishes every idea of

security,
danger. In this manner we, too, on board an
admirably well-built vessel, guided with prudence
and science, surrounded by a company well calcu-
lated for mutual pleasure and instruction, became
acquainted with most agreeable part of a
the
seafaring life. In the alternate occupations of
cards, music, and literary employments, the hours
passed as rapidly as our swift-sailing vessel glided
over the waves.
The thunderstorms and gusts of wind,
trifling

quickly rising and passing away, which, from this

time now and then occurred, appeared merely to
diversify the uniformity of our mode of life, since,

at once sublime, and threatening danger, they ex-

cited various emotions. Exactly in the latitude of
Ferro, a sudden squall broke and threw down
several yards, by which some sailors were hurt, but
no other unpleasant consequence ensued. In the
vicinity of those beautiful islands, which even the
ancients distinguished by the name of the Fortunate,
the naturalists, in particular, felt a secret wish that
some favourable opportunity would occur to land
upon one of them. We should have been very
happy to have had a nearer view of the Peak and ;

should have felt great interest in examining, among

other curiosities, the remains of the Guanches, who,
according to our later observations, agree with the
negroes in their slender forms, thick lips, and
broad flat noses j but, by their sharp projecting
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 103

cheek-bones, and long smooth hair, have more re-

semblance to the ancient Egyptians. The wind,
however, drove us with increased rapidity past this
delightfid group of islands. In a few days we were
in the latitude of Cape Verd. On the evening of
the 14th of June, we descried the Island of Boa
Vista, which appeared hke a long and rather low
land the most southern point of the island bore
;

N. by W. twelve miles distant. None of the other

islands were visible, the sky being covered the
whole day with grey clouds. In the channel, be-
tween the Cape Verd Islands and the continent of
Africa, a thick white fog* prevails for the greater
part of the year, particularly near the coast, and
probably arises from the combination of the exha-
lations from the sea, with the impalpable dust brought

by the N.E. wind from the neighbouring sandy

desert; besides this, the islands themselves, that lie
scattered about in this quarter, may, perhaps, con-
and condense the vapours rising
tribute to collect
from the ocean. Navigators, therefore, seldom
have a pure sky for their observations in this chan-
nel J and they now prefer, on the voyage to the
Cape, New Holland, India, and America, to steer
to the west, in sight of the islands ; whereas, earlier
voyagers kept close to the continent. Those ships
which go through the channel keep in longitude

* Horsburgh's India Directory, London, 1817, ^to. vol. i.

second edit. p. 11.

H 4
104 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

19* and ^0° W. of Greenwich ; and, during the

months in which the sun is in the south, find it

advantageous to hold near the continent, where

northerly winds usually blow. By this means they
avoid the shoal called Banco de Porgas, the ex-
istence of which, however, has lately been called in
question ; as also, the dangerous reef (query, of co-
ral?) Boneta, which is said to lie two miles E. by
N. of the most northern point of Boa Vista.
The nearer we approached the Cape Verd
Islands, the more different did the character of
the elements become. Even in the latitude of the
Canaries, we experienced rapid changes in the
temperature of the and those sudden distinct
air,

gusts and whirlwinds which are here frequently ob-

served. It was not tQl about the 11th or 12th of

June, in the longitude of 21° 51' W. of Paris,

when we beyond
crossed the tropic of Cancer,
those islands, that the N. and E. wind which had
hitherto alternated, united in a N.E., and after-
wards in a N.N.E. wind, which blew day and
night with equal strength towards the equator
with this steady N. E. wind we made a hundred
and fifty miles in four and twenty hours. We
perceived a similar change in the temperature of
the air and water, as in the saltness of the sea, and
otiier natural phenomena.North of the tropic
the temperature of the air changed day and
night, always differing at least one degree from
that of the water ; but now there was a smaller
 TRAVELS IN BKAZIL. 105

difference, and alternately an almost equal de-

crease and increase ; in the same manner the in-

strument always indicated a constant decrease in

the saltness of the sea, but so, that here too, the
water taken from some depth was more salt than
that at the surface. The moisture of the air, on
the other hand, had greatly increased ; and ex-
cepting the hot and dry noon, the hygrometer,
especially in the morning and evening, indicated
the greatest relaxation, which was sensibly felt in
frequent clammy dews. Here, in the torrid
zone, the sea of an indigo blue colour, rolled in
uniform waves, and began to shine generally, and
with great splendour, during the night, a pheno-
menon which we had hitherto seldom observed.
This magnificent appearance, the frequent light-

nings, and innumerable falling stars, together with

the greater sultriness of the air, seemed to indicate

a higher degree of electricity in the element,
though the electrometer, in the prevailing moisture

of the showed rather less electricity than be-

air,

fore. A striking change gradually took place

about ourselves, which affected our own persons, as
well as the surrounding objects ; our satellite, the
shadow, at noon grew less and less, and withdrew
between the feet, as if in this part of the creation
everything became more independent. This is

the latitude in which the flying-fish {Exoccetus

volitans) appear in shoals on the surface of the

sea, and present an entertaining sight to the soli-
tary ohgervjer. To swixi tlje vasggl ujjd^r sail, and
106 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the fish of prey, they rise sometimes singly, some-

times in shoals, several feet above the surface of the
water, into which they fall again after a flight of
forty or fifty paces, in a direction contrary to the
wind ; sometimes they are cast by the wind upon
the quarter-deck, where they are taken by tlit;

sailors. Their enemies, the tunny fish (^Scomber

Thynnus) and bonitoes (^Sc. Pelamis), rival in ve-
locity the ship in full sail. They show incredible
strength in swimming, for they are able in the
midst of their most rapid course, to leap perpen-
and plunge again head
dicularly above the surface,
foremost into the waves. They were here so nu-
merous, that the crew were able to procure a con-
stant supply for our tableby harpooning them, or
taking them with strong hooks, to which a bunch
of feathers, in imitation of a flying-fish, was tied.

The largest of these fish which we took on board,

weighed seventy pounds.
After we had entered this region of peace and
tranquillity, between the tropics, the cushions,
which were before placed round the tables, to
prevent the glasses, bottles, and plates from falling
down, were taken away, and the seamen looked
forward to a smooth and safe passage. Our
ship, carriedon by the regular wind, sailed day
and night with equal rapidity, and the sailors found
on this passage, which resembled a party of pleasure,
leisure enough games and amusements. They
for
conceived an idea of making a theatre of puppets ;
and the wanton Policinello, the pedantic Doctor,
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 107

and the lively Colombine appeared, ridiculously-

enough put together. This agreeable mode of

life suffered only one interruption ; this was in lati-
tude 8* 12' N., when we descried at a distance a
whose movements appeared suspicious.
large ship,
These seas are so much infested by privateers
from Buenos Ayres and North America, that Por-
tuguese and Spanish ships in particular must be
upon their guard these pirates, however, do not
:

even spare English ships ; which was experienced

by Count V. Wrbna among others, who, returning
as express from Rio de Janeiro, in an English
packet-boat, was attacked and plundered, and even
in danger of his life. On the sight of that ship,
the necessary preparations for defence were made ;

but we soon found, from the course which it

steered towards the coast of Africa, that it had no

hostile intention. It was probably a Portuguese
slave ship, bound for Guinea.
While the co-operation of the elements became
more and more harmonious, the starry firmament
began also to appear more and more in equilibrium
to the inmates of the little vessel. On the 15th
of June, in latitude 14° 6' 45", we beheld, for the
first time, that glorious constellation of the southern
heavens, the cross, which is to navigators a token
of peace, and according to its position, indicates
the hours of the night. Wehad long wished for
this constellation, as a guide to the other hemi-
sphere J
we therefore felt inexpressible pleasure.
108 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

when we perceived it in the resplendent firmament.

We all contemplated it with feelings of profound

devotion, as a type of salvation ; but the mind was
especially elevated at the sight of by the re-- it,

flection that even into this region, which this beau-

tiful constellation illumines, under the significant

name of the cross, the European has carried the

noblest attributes of humanity, science and Chris-
tianity, and uTipelled by the most exalted feelings,

endeavours to spread them more and more exten-

sively in the remotest regions.
In proportion as the southern firmament rose
above our horizon, that of the northern hemi-
sphere sunk below it. Those who considered
Europe exclusively as their country, looked with
painful sensations on the polar star, as it sunk lower
and l6wer, till it at length vanished in the thick
mist of the horizon. The further we advanced to
the south, the N.E. wind gradually abated, and
alternated with fainter winds from the N. or E.
In 10° 30' N. latitude, and longitude 23° 15' W. of
Paris, the wind and a majestic
entirely ceased,
repose reigned in the air and water. While we
remained in this region of calms, the thermometer
was on an average at half-past six in the morning,
in the shade 21.50° R., in the water 22.00°; at
half-past seven, in tlie shade and in tlie water
22.00' ; at noon, in the sun 24.75° ; in the shade and
in the water 22.50" ; in the evening at half-past
eight, in the air and water 22.50® ; at nine o'clock.
 TRAVELS IN BftAZIL, 109

in the air 22.00°, in the water 22.50°, in water

taken from the depth of 200 fathoms 21.50° ; the
araeometer in water taken from the surface 2.75°,
and later 2.50° to 2.25°; from the depth of 200
fathoms 2.50° j the hygrometer stood between
54° and 64° ; the barometer at 28° the variation ;

of the magnetic needle between 13° 4>8', and

12° 48' W.
In these seas the sun rises from the ocean with
great splendour, and gilds the clouds accumulated
in the horizon, which in grand and various groups
seem to present to the eye of the spectator, conti-
nents with high mountains and valleys, with vol-
canoes and seas, mythological and other strange
creations of fancy. The lamp of day gradually
rises in the transparent blue sky ; the damp grey
fogs subside ; the sea is calm or gently rises and
falls, with a surface smooth as a mirror, in a regular
motion. At noon a pale, faintly shining cloud rises,

the herald of a sudden tempest, which at once dis-

turbs the tranquillity of the sea. Thunder and
lightning seem as if they would split our planet j

but a heavy rain of a salt taste, pouring down in the

midst of roaring whirlwinds, puts an end to the
raging of the elements, and several semicircular
rainbows, extended over the ocean like gay trium-
phal arches, and multiplied on the wrinkled surface
of the water, announce the peaceful termination of
the great natural phenomenon. As soon as the
air and sea have recovered their repose and equi-
librium, the sky again shows its transparent azure
110 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

swarms of fl}dng-fish rise sporting over the surface

of the water, and the many-coloured natives of the
ocean, among which is the shark, with his two
inseparable companions (Gasterosteus Diictor and
Echeneis Remora), come up from the bottom of the
element, which is transparent to the depth of a
hundred fathoms. formed Medusae,
Singularly
the bladder-shaped Fhysalis with its blue pungent
filaments, serpent-like streaks of Salpae joined
together, float carelessly along ; and many other
little marine animals, of the most various kinds,
pass slowly, the sport of the waves, by the motion-
less vessel.* As the sun gradually sinks in the
clouded horizon, the sea and sky assume anew di'ess,
which is beyond description sublime and magni-
ficent. The most brilliant red, yellow, violet, in
infinite shades and contrast, are poured out in
profusion over the azure of the firmament, and are
reflected, in still gayer variety, from the surface of
the water. The day departs amidst continued light-
ning in the dusky horizon, while the moon, in
silent majesty rises from the unbounded ocean into
the cloudless upper regions. Variable winds cool
the atmosphere ; numerous coming
falling stars,

particularly from the south, shed a magic light

the dark blue firmament, reflected with the con-
stellationson the untroubled bosom of the water,
represents the image of the whole starry hemi-
sphere J and the ocean, agitated even by the faintest

* See Note 3. page 129.

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. Ill

breeze of the night, is changed into a sea of waving

fire.

Great and glorious are the impressions which

the stranger here receives of the power and peace
of the elements ; but unused to the torrid zone,
he feels a disagreeable sensation from the moisture
and coolness of the morning and evening, and the
oppressive heat of the noon. The whole crew,
therefore, began to complain, in this latitude, of head-
ach and cholic; and only artificial means, such as
tartarand rhubarb, could prevent disease, in a cli-
mate where the rays of the sun fall perpendicular.
At length we came, though slowly, out of this re-
gion of sultry and wearisome calm, because the
wind which blew after the thunderstorms at noon,
always carried the ship a little forward; by degrees,
too, a faint south wind arose, varying from S.E. to
S.W., and diminished the temperature, in the
morning, at 7 o'clock, in the air, to 20.75° R., in
the water to 22° ; at noon, in the air, to 21.50°, in
the water to 22° ; in the evening, at half-past seven,

in the air, to 21.25°. When we had reached lon-

gitude 21° 21' west of Paris, and 5° 28' N. latitude,
the wind began to blow more -steadily from the S.,
and and S.S.E., formed the constant
fixing in S.E.
wind, which blowing regularly, accompanied us
through these latitudes. We still saw for a mo-
ment the polar star, a few degrees above the
horizon, which is here generally clouded on the ;

other hand the cross, and the other constellations

112 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

of the southern hemisphere, were hkewise low.

From this, as well as from the nautical observ-
ations, we knew that the some
equator was still

degrees to the south of us ; but the uniformity and

harmony in the phenomena of nature, which we
had observed between the 10th and 5th parallels
of latitude, seemed again to decrease, and thus to
prove that the line of culmination of those pheno-
mena is not in the equator, but several degrees to
the north of it. We must leave it to the natural
philosopher and the astronomer to decide whether
this, perhaps, may arise partly from the heavier mass
of continents, from the nutation, or from the re-
volution of the earth round the sun, &c. It is re-
markable in this respect, that the N.E. and S.E.
trade winds do not cease at an equal distance from
the equator. The trade winds, which are supposed
to arise from the rotation of the earth round its

axis, and from the current of colder air to-

wards the warmer region between the tropics,
regularly vary in their extent, according to the po-
sition of the sun. When it is in the southern torrid
zone, the N.E. wind always blows towards the
equator ; when it is in the northern torrid zone,
the S.E. wind blows nearer to, nay, even beyond
it. Between the two trade winds, there are some-
times faint winds, especially from S. and S. S. W.
which are more limited by the first, sometimes
on the north and sometimes on the south. The
boundary of the N, E. trade winds in the Atlantic
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 113

ocean towards the equator, was stated by John

Seller* so long ago as the year IGJS ; they cease,
he says, in January, February, and March in 4",
in April in 5°, in May in 6% inJune in 8°, in July
in 9', in August in 11°, in September in 10°, in
October in 8°, in November in 6°, in December in
5° north latitude, and these statements are con-
firmed by modern observations
Carried forward by the S. E. wind almost as
rapidly as we had been before by the N. E., we
sailed towards the equator. On
the 28th of June,
being in 2° 19' 29" north latitude, and 24° 21' west
longitude of Paris, we saw several tropical birds
{Phaeton cethereus) and pelicans {Pelecanus aquila)
hovering at a great height over the frigate. These
birds can indeed repose upon the waves ; but it is

not usual for them, especially the last, to show

themselves, except when the land is not too far
distant. As we were in the middle of the ocean,
we naturally concluded that there must be some
rocks in the neighbourhood : in fact we found such
rocks marked on some of our charts, in the longi-
tude in which we were to cross the equator. In the
evening the captain thought we had already passed
this danger, when about nine o'clock the man at the
mast head suddenly cried, " Breakers a-head !'*
At
this cry, allrushed in despair upon deck, and ran
confusedly together ; some called " J'ire V and oth^S,

* J. Horsburgh's India Directory, p. 26.

I
114 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

" Shipwreck !" The captain, however, did not lose

his coohiessand presence of mind, but immediately

ordered the sails to be struck. The vicinity of
the supposed danger gave wings to the sailors, and
the ship was speedily turned aside from the rocks.
Thus we had indeed happily escaped the danger,
and every one breathed more freely after a moment
which had so powerfully affected us all by the
image of impending destruction however, to sail
;

with greater security during the night, it was

thought necessary to put out a small boat to ex-
amine the supposed rock. The question now was,
whether any of the officers would expose himself
in so small a bark to the immense agitated ocean.
Lieutenant Logodetti, obeying the summons of the
captain, came forward and accompanied by some
;

sailors, provided with a compass, a hghted lantern,

and some provisions, went on board the boat to

proceed towards the supposed breakers. While
this was passing, the moon broke forth from the
clouds and shed its light on the by the
sea, ruffled

S.E. wind. The whole crew of the ship, which

with only a few sails set, had till now sailed on
another tack, looked with anxious expectation at
the boat, whose course was indicated by its lantern.

We were uneasy about the fate of our compa-

all

nions who were exposed in a small open boat to

the ocean, perhaps to a near rock ; sometimes we
saw the distant light vanish, then its re-appearance

filled us with joy, but at length we lost sight of it

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 115

all at once, and it seemed to have disappeared en-

tirely. While we were indulging in the most vari-
ous conjectures, the boat rowed happily through
the night, constantly attentive to the supposed dan-
ger, and returned safe the next morning to the
frigate, with intelligence that the fancied break-
ers, arose merely from the agitation and the re-
flection of a violent current.
Such currents, setting to the west, which probably
depend on the revolution of the earth round its
axis, as well as on the constant east winds, prevail
from 27° west longitude of Greenwich almost
the whole year through, from the equator to the
fourth and fifth degree of northern latitude, and
also, though less constantly, in the lowest southern
latitudes. Ships bound to the south which cross
the equator too far to the west, are carried by
them towards Cabo de S. Roque in Brazil, and
suffer a considerable loss of time, because it is very
difficult to pass round that cape to the south,
against the current setting to the north. Besides
this current about the Cabo de S. Roque, a pretty
regular one has been observed along the eastern
coast of Brazil, which depends on the direction of
the wind. In September, and the following
months till March, winds from the N. by E. to N.E.
by E. prevail; and in the months from March to
September, on the other hand, those from the E.
by N. to E. S. E. and in conformity with this
;

change of the winds, a current runs to the north

I 2
116 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

fr€>m March to September, and to the south from

September to March. * On account of these cur-
rents, many bound to the southern parts of
vessels
Brazil, or to Buenos Ayres, visit the stations of
Pernambuco and Bahia in the winter months on
the passage out, and in the summer months on the
voyage home. As the land wind generally blows
strong, and to a considerable distance from the
coasts of Brazil, it essentially favours vessels steer-
ing southwards, and they may reckon upon a
speedy voyage along the coast, if they have not too
nearly approached the land in the latitude of 6°
or 7°« The longitude at which the equator is

crossed on these voyages, is different ; it is not ad-

visable to keep too near the African coast on ac-
count of the currents and the calms prevailing there.
In the English navy, the longitudes between 18°
and 23° west of Greenwich are considered the best
for crossing the equator, and it is also thought
best to steer more to the east, when the sun is in
the north, and more to the west when it is in the
south.
It was on Sunday, the 29th of June, that accord-
ing to our ship's reckoning we were to cross the
equator. As the sea was pretty calm, mass was
celebrated on this day. The solitude of the place,
the silence and grandeur of the element to which

* Sailing directions for the eastern coasts of Brazil, by John

Purdy. London, 1818. 8vo. p. 2.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 117

the little vessel was confided, between the two hemi-

spheres and in the middle of the vast ocean, could
not fail in the moment when the transubstantiation
was announced by the sound of the drum, pro-
foundly to affect every mind, but particularly those
who then reflected on the power of Providence in na-
ture, and on the mysterious metamorphosis of all
things. The day passed over quietly with a con-
stant S.E. wind even Neptune and his strange
;

retinue were not allowed to excite a disturbance

on board the ship, by the usual ceremony of bap-
tising those who crossed the line for the first time.
The night was bright and clear ; the poles of the
heavens were already resting on the horizon, and
the full moon hung above our heads in glorious
majesty; Vega, Arcturus, Spica, Scorpio, in which
Jupiter just then shone, and the feet of the Centaur,
were bright in the firmament j the southern Cross
had attained a perpendicular position indicating the
hour of midnight, when, according to calculation
we were at the where heaven and earth
place
were in equilibrium, and crossing the equator
steered into the southern hemisphere. With what
ardent hopes, with what inexpressible feelings did
we enter this other half of the world, which was to
present us with an abundance of new scenes and
discoveries Yes, this moment was the most
]

solemn and sacred in our lives. In it we saw the

longings of earlier years accomplished, and, with
pure joy and enthusiastic foreboding, indulged in
I 3
118 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the foretaste of a new world so rich in the wonders

of nature.
It was not till we had passed the equator, that
the constant S. E. wind began to equal in strength

the N.E. wind of the northern hemisphere. Vio-

lent rains were less frequent, but in their stead
insulated groups of clouds of various forms were
piled up in the blue ether. The nights, on the
other hand, were more serene, and the southern
constellations, new to us pilgrims from the north,
though far inferior in number and splendour to

those of the north, shone brightly in the azure fir-

mament. Falling stars illumined the night more

frequently than in the northern zone, and generally
towards midnight in the south, and towards
fell

morning in the north-east. The temperature of

the water, still more that of the air, appeared to be-
come considerably lower than same northern
in the

latitude, but the moisture of the air, and the phos-

phorescence and gravity of the sea-water began to
increase. Our frigate rapidly cut the deep blue
waves of the southern ocean, which, as they dashed
against the stern, fell, on cloudy days, in numerous
rainbows, or in the night, filled with countless
luminous animals (Noctiluca oceanica nob.), shone
like sparkling fire. Here, too, as in the northern
torrid zone, swarms of flying-fish flew around, and
the swift tunny-fish kept pace with our vessel.
The sun appearing glow of red behind thick
in a

mists, or the pale moon, afforded us a majestic

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 119

prospect when they rose or sunk into the ocean.

But the farther we advanced to the south, the
more perceptible was the difference of the ele-

ments. In 13° 29' south latitude, and 31° 37' west

longitude of Paris, the thermometer, at half-past
seven in the morning, was in the air at 19-50° R.,
in the water 20* ; at noon, in the air and water
20° ; in the evening at half-past seven, in the air

19.25°, in the water 19-75° ; the hygrometer 6l°

to 70° ; the araeometer 2.87° to 3° ; the barome-
ter 28° or 27.7° to 27.9°.
In latitude 18" 4', and longitude 35° 20', the
warmth of the atmosphere decreased nearly one
degree, and the thermometer varied between 17°
and 18*. We were now in the latitude of the
Abrolhos, and the appearance of several sea-fowls
(the Phaeton cethereus and the Procellaria capensis)
indicated the vicinity of those dangerous rocks
which lie along the coast of Brazil between the
16th and 19th degrees of south latitude. The cap-
tain ordered soundings to be more frequently
taken and though no bottom was found at a less
;

depth than seven hundred feet, he judged it pru-

dent to keep farther off the coast during the night.
The small coasting vessels which sail backwards
and forwards during the whole year between
Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, do not always keep to
the east of that dangerous chain of shallows and
cliffs, but, when the wind is not favourable to carry

them out to sea, often remain very near the coast

I 4
120 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

where they can which is

safely pass the channel,
twelve miles broad, between the four small rocky
islands Ilhas Abrolhos. This very frequent navi-
gation has caused the Portuguese coasters to
examine a series of shallows from nineteen to fifty

fathoms, which, beginning to the south of Bahia de

todos OS Santos, extend along the coast of the
Comarca dos Ilheos from the Baixos de S. Antonio
to the mouth of the Rio Grande, in the direction
of S.S.E., are connected with the Abrolhos, pro-
perly so called, and stretch from their most east-
erly end in 18° 38' to 40° south latitude, and 36"
west longitude of Greenwich, towards the S.E.
to the rocky islands of Trinidad and Martin Vas.
One of the sea-faring people with whom we became
acquainted at compared the formation
Bahia,
of the rocks of Trinidad to those of Madeira and
the Canaries. He was full of the impressions
which had been left upon his mind by the grandeur
and boldness of the masses of rock there, which,
destitute of vegetation, except at the foot, rise
perpendicularly out of the ocean, but above all

an immense rocky arch under which the sea

breaks with great fiiry. It is, however, very sel-

dom that Portuguese vessels go from the Brazihan

coast as far as this longitude, and anchor near
these inhospitable cliffs to take in water, or to
catch turtle which are said to be very numerous
there. A French ship which left Europe almost
at the same time as ourselves, having bficome
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 121

leaky by some negligence in stowing its cargo of

oil of vitriol, took refuge on Trinidad. The crew
sent the long boat to ask assistance at Rio de
Janeiro, but before it arrived they were delivered
from this fearfulby a North American
solitude
who took them on board and landed them on the
Cape of Good Hope. A disagreeable though by
no means alarming circumstance occurred to us
here ; a servant on board carelessly emptied into
the sea the vessel in which several specimens of
the Proteus anguinus, which we had brought from
the lake of Ziriknitz, had hitherto remained alive
and unchanged, and we were thus deprived of the
result of the whole observation of the continued
influence of the tropical climate on the develop-
ment of these enigmatical animals.
On the 10th of July, when in 20° 49' south lati-
tude, and 39° 24<' west longitude of Greenwich,
we quitted the region of the western variation of the
magnetic needle, which had regularly decreased
since our departure from Europe, and entered that
of the eastern. The thermometer now began to
fall gradually from 18°, 1?°, to 16°. On the fol-

lowing day we met a small vessel, the first which

had come so near us in the ocean that we could
hail her. On our firing a gun and hoisting our
colours, it hastened up and gave us the agreeable
information that the insurrection at Pernambuco,
of which we had heard at Gibraltar, had been im-
mediately quelled, and that political tranquillity and
122 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

order had not been at all disturbed in the rest of

the kingdom. It stated its distance from the con-
tinent, to be two days sail from Cabo Frio, and steer-

ing rather more westward towards the coast, soon

vanished out of our sight. The astronomical cal-
culations, which differed only about twenty miles
from the result given by the log, made us, in agree-

ment with the statement of this vessel, on the 12th

of July at noon, in 21° 44' south latitude, and in
40° 45' west longitude of Paris. On the even-
ing of the 13th of July, the captain announced that
we should see Cabo Frio the following morning.
How ardently did we moment when,
long for the
after a voyage of two and forty days, we should
again come in sight of a continent. The assertion
of the captain proved correct ; and on the 14th, in
the morning, a long-extended chain of moun-
tains, floating as it were in mist, appeared in the

west. The deceiving clouds were gradually dis-

pelled,* and we perceived more clearly in the re-

mote distance, the woody chain of Cabo Frio, which
was joyfully hailed, first by the man at the mast
head, and then by all on board.
The day was delightfully serene and bright,
and a favourable wind carried us past the lofly
cape, and soon after the noble entrance of the
bay of Rio de Janeiro, though still at a distance,
opened to our view. Steep rocks, like portals to
the harbour, washed by the waves of the sea, rise on
the right and left ; the southern, Pao d'a9ucar of
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 123

the form of a sugar-loaf, is the well-known guide

for ships at a distance. Towards noon, approach-
ing nearer and nearer to the enchanting prospect,
we came up to those colossal rocky portals, and at

length passed between them into a great amphi-

theatre, inwhich the mirror of the water appeared
like a tranquil inland lake, and scattered flowery
islands, bounded in the back ground by a woody
chain of mountauis, rose like a paradise full of
luxuriance and magnificence. Some naval officers
from the fort of Santa Cruz, by which our arrival
had been announced to the city, brought us per-
mission to sail farther in. While this business was
transacting, the eyes of all feasted on a country,
which, for beauty, variety, and splendour, far ex-
ceeded all-the natural beauties which we had ever
beheld. The banks in bright sunshine rose out of

the dark blue sea; and nimierous white houses,

and forts, contrasted with their
chapels, churches,
rich verdure. Rocks of grand forms rise boldly
behind them, the declivities of which are clothed
in all the luxuriant diversity of a tropical forest.
An ambrosial perfume is diffused from these noble

forests, and the foreign navigator sails delighted

past the many islands covered with beautiful groves

of palms. Thus new, pleasing, and sublime scenes,
alternately passed before our astonished eyes, till at

length the capital of the infant kingdom, illumined

by the evening sun, lay extended before us ; and
we, having sailed past the little island das Cobras,
124 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

cast anchor close to the city at five o'clock in the

evening. A sensation, not to be described, over-
came us all at the moment when the anchor struck
the ground of another continent and the thunder
;

of the cannon, accompanied with military music

hailed the desired goal of the happily accomplished
voyage.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 125

NOTES TO CHAPTER IV.

Note 1.

The Dyer's Lichen was exported from the islands of

first

the Archipelago to Venice, Genoa, France, and England,

for the use of the dyers. Towards the commencement of
the l^st century it was discovered in the Canary Islands,
and was soon placed among the regalia of the Spanish
crown. This excited the attention of the Portuguese, who
collected it without restriction in the Cape de Verd Islands,
Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Azores. In the year 1 730,
the Jesuits asked of King John V. the privilege of collect-
ing the Herviiiha secea but the crown took the advantage
,-

into its own hands, and farmed the right of collecting it.

At a later period the Lichen was ceded to the mercantile

company of Gram Para and Mar-anhdo ; and, lastly, in

the year 1790, the government again took this branch of

commerce under its own care, because it had declined
considerably under the bad management of the company.
At present the exportation is small but more considerable,
;

however, from the Cape de Verd Isles. (See I. Da Silva

Feijo, in the Memorias econoviicas da Acad, de Lisboa^
vol. v. 1815, p. 143.)
126 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

Note 2.
'

Mr. Von Humboldt (Travels, vol. i.) was the first who
distinguished in the vegetation of TenerifFe five zones, one
above the other : the first, that of the vine, extends from
the sea-shore to the elevation of from two to three hundred
toises ; the second, that of the laurel, reaches fi'om this to
the height of nine hundred toises ; then comes that of the
pines, four hundred toises in breadth ; the fourth, of the
broom [Spartmm nubigenum) and lastly, that of the
;

gi-asses. Von Buch (on the Flora of the Canary Islands,

in the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy, 1816, 1817,) in
like manner distinguishes five regions of vegetation in the
islands of TenerifFe, Canaria, Palma, Gomera, and Ferro j
the great elevation of which above the sea implies various
zones of climate. We endeavour to point out the same
divisions or zones in Madeira in which we assume, for the
;

middle temperatures, with the exception of those well known

in the lowest zone, the results of Howard's calculation,
according to which the temperature decreases 1.2 cent,
for every 106 toises as you recede from the surface of the
earth. The four forms of vegetation to be observed in
Madeira, correspond with those in the Canaries, but are
of inferior breadth.

FIRST REGION. '

The Canaries : African Zone of the Cactus and Eu-

phorbia, one thousand two hundred feet above the
surface of the sea; mean temperature 21.25*> to 21.'
50» cent.
Madeira : Zone of the Tropical Plants, seven hundred
feet above the surface of the sea ; mean temperature
20. 40'^ cent.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 127

The chief character is now determined by plants im-

ported from hot climates, and cultivated, such as, Musa
Paradisiaca, Musa sapientum, Caladium esculentum. Cac-
tus Tuna, Opuntia, Convolvulus Batatas, Agave Ameri-
cana, from America. —
Physalis Peruviana, Sida carpinifolia,
Abutilon, Melochia pyramidata have likewise been intro-
duced here from the American continent. Arundo Donax —
(perhaps native?), Phcenix dactylifera, Olea Europaea, Ce-
ratonia Siliqua, Punica Granatum, Ficus Carica, brought
from North Africa, or Southern Europe.

SECOND REGION. '

:>

The Canaries European cultivation, from one thou-

:

sand two hundred to two thousand five hundred feet

mean temperature 17.50*' cent.
Madeira Zone of the Vine,
: and Corn, from seven
Fruit,
hundred to two thousand three hundred feet; mean
temperature 17.02^ cent.
The greater pai't of the plants living here, as well as the
vine and corn, seem to have been brought from Asia and
the South of Europe. (Those species belonging to the
North of Europe are printed in small Roman characters ;

those of the South of Europe and North Africa, in Italics ,•

and those peculiar to the Canaries and Madeira, in italic

SMALL CAPILALS.)
Carix muricata; Scirpus setaceusPoa pratensis; Briza ;

media, maxima; Phalaris CANARIENSIS ; Glyceria flui-

tans Andropogon hirtum ; Brachypodium pinnatum, dis-
;

/ac%z<»2; Agropyrum repens; Hordeum murinum Triodia ;

decumbens Achyranthes nivea Chenopodium am-

;
-,

BROSIOIDES ; Urtica urens Plantago major; Echium vul-

;

gare; Solanum ngrum, Pseudocapsicum ; Sherardia

arvensis Sonchus oleraceus Cripis tectorum, Coronopi-
; ;

FOLIA ; Scolymus maculatus ; Calendula arvensis ; dehoritim

1^8 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

divaricatum ; Centaurea Calcitrapa ; Convolvulus arvensis,

althoeoides ; Mentha Pulegium, rotundifolia ; Stachys cir-
cinata ; Prunella vulgaris ; Onga?ium glandulosum ; Ama-
ranthus Blitum ; Dianthus prolifer Arenaria verna Cu-
; ;

cubalus Behen ; Alsine media ; Oxalis ccrrniculata ; Portu-

laca oleracea ; Geum urbanum ; Rubus fruticosus ; Ra-
nunculus repens ; Agrimonia Eupitorium ; Valeriana Phu ;
Anethum Fceniadum; Raphanus sativus; Brassica orientalis
Turritis hirsuta Geranium robartianum Lotus cornicu-
; ;

latus, microcarpus ; Trifolium agrarium Sedum dasyphyllum ; ;

SiDA CANARIENSIS ; IjOnicera Periclymenum ; BuDDLEJA

GLOBOSA; Philadelphus caronarius. From America: Fuch- —
sia coccinea.

THIRD REGION.

Canaria: Zone of the Woods, from two thousand five

hundred to four thousand and eighty feet; mean
temperature 13.70° cent.
Madeira : Zone of the Woods, from two thousand
three hundred to three thousand feet (sometimes very
rocky); mean temperature 15.06° cent.
Most of the plants peculiar to Madeira are in this zone.
Laurus fcetens, indica ; Disandra
Castanea vesca :
PROSTRATA; RUSCUS ANDROGYNUS PhILLIS NoBLA ; ;

Sempervivumarboreum,canariense, villosum; Glo-

bular!a LONGIFOLIA ; CLETHRA ARBOREA ; MyRICA
Faya Hypericum floribundum, Androscemum, humi-
;

fusum; JasMINUM ODORATISSIMUM SCROPHULARIA ;

BETONICMFOLIA, GLABRA TA ; DrACOCEPHAL UM CANARI-

ENSE; Messerschmidtia fruticosa ; Teucrium CA-
NARIENSE ; LAVANDULA FINNATA; CHEIRANTHVS
MUTABILIS; CeTERACH CANARIENSE ; WOODWARDIA
CANARIENSIS; Davallia CANARIENSIS; Blechnum bo-
reale; Carex divulsa Chrysanthemum PiNNATiFiBUM
;
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 129

Mentha sylvestris ; Geranium rotundi folium ; Melissa Ca-

lamintlia.

FOURTH REGION,

Canaria : Zone of the Canary Pine, from four thou-

sand and eighty, to five thousand nine hundred feet,
mean temperature 10° cent.
Madeira: Zone of Bi'oom and Heath, from three
thousand, to five thousand two Rundred and fifty feet,
mean temperature 10.76° cent.
Cytisus divaricatus Spartium scoparium Erica scoparia
,-
;

(which extends to the highest rocks) Pteris aquilina; Aira ;

caryophyllacea Piptatherum paradoxum ; EcHlUM CANDI-

;

CJNS; SEMPERVIVUM riLLOSUM ; AlZOON CANARIENSE,

which, as well as the Cotyledon Umbilicus, may be seen
everywhere on the rocks from the second region upwards.

Note 3..

We observed the following animals in the vicinity of the

equator. Aves : Phaeton ^thereus ; Pelicanus Aquilus.
Pisces : Squalus Carcharias Ductor ; Eclieneis
; Gasterosteus
Remora ; Exoccetus volitans Scomber Thynnus, Pelamis.
;

Insecta : Hydrometra marina nob. Mollusca Salpa :

connata nob., cristata, cylindrica, dipterygia nob.; Physalis

pelagica ; Glauciis octopterygius, ventricosus, Draco nob.
Porpita nuda ? Botelliis pellucidus nob. ; Medusce sp. div. ;

Noctiluca oceanica nob.

The new Hydromatra, and the new genera and specieig
of Mollusca, vdll appear in a separate treatise,

VOL. I.
130 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

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 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

BOOK 11.

CHAPTER I.

STAY IN RIO DE JANEIRO.

On the morning of the following day, the i5th

of July, we went on shore, rowing through the busy
crowd of European vessels, and little boats manned
with negroes and mulattoes. Ascending the slope
of a very fine molo (quay),- of hewn granite, we
were at once in the principal square of the city,
which is formed by the royal palace and several con-
siderable private buildings. It was with great diffi-
culty that we made our way through the noisy crowd
of black, brown, half-naked men, who, with the
importunity which is peculiar to them, offered their
services. Passing through several straight streets,

crossing each other at right angles, we at length

reached the Italian inn, at that time the only one
in the capital of Brazil, where we found accom-
K 2 •
132 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

modation for the present. Some days afterwards,

we hired a small house in the suburb of St. Anna,
which we preferred on account of its elevated situa-
tion, on the declivity of some hills, and the prospect

which it afforded over Cape Corcovado. Our

books, instruments, and other effects, were convey-
ed to our new abode on the shoulders of negroes.
The officers at the custom-house made no difficulties,
and gave us no trouble, when they found that we had
come in the Austria frigate, and under the protec-
tion of his majesty the Emperor of Austria. In
general, many cu-cumstances appeared to combine
to aid us novices in our first domestic arrangements
on American ground. To our great satisfaction
we soon met with the very obliging M. Von Langs-
dorff, the Prussian consul-general, who is well
known in the literary world by his account of the
voyage round the world, in which he accompanied
Commodore Krusenstern. He welcomed us with
the greatest cordiality j and several of our German
fellow-countrymen, who had Rio de Ja-
settled at
neiro with mercantile views, endeavoured to serve
us to the utmost of their power. Besides our com-
mon country, we were united with them by the
interest which they felt in the ample treasures of
nature with which they were so imperfectly ac-
quainted. In justice to our own feelings we must
gratefully mention the names of our worthy coun-
trymen, Messrs. Scheiner, Hindriks, Schimmel-
busch, Deusson, Frohlich, and Diirming. We
also received most friendly counsel in the regulation
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 133

of our affairs from Messrs. Von Eschwege and Feld-

ner, lieutenant-colonels of engineers in the service
of the King of Portugal. A residence of several
years in Brazil had made them both very well ac-
quainted with the interior of the country, and
the former happened to be just then at Rio de Ja-
neiro, whither he had come on a visit from his
garrison at Villa Rica. By the intervention of
the Austrian minister, Baron Von Neveu, who in-

terested himself in the success of our undertaking

with the warmest zeal, and in a truly literary
spirit, we soon received a royal safe conduct {jporta-
ria), which allowed us to travel through, and to exa-
mine at our pleasure the province of Rio de Janeiro,
and most strongly recommended us to the assistance
of the authorities, in every case where we should
stand in need of it.*

If any person, considering that this is a new con-

tinent, discovered only three centuries ago, should
fancy that Nature is here still entirely rude, mighty,
and unconquered, he would believe, at least here in
the capital of Brazil, that he was in some other part
of the globe ; so much has the influence of the
civilisation of ancient and enlightened Europe ef-

faced the character of an American wilderness in this

point of the colony, and given it the stamp of higher
cultivation. The language,, manners, architecture,
and the influx of the productions of the industry

* See Note 1. page 199.

K S
134 '
TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

of all parts of the globe, give a European exterior

toRio de Janeiro. But the traveller is soon remind-
ed that he is in a strange quarter of the world, by
the varied crowd of negroes and mulattoes, who, as
the labouring class, everywhere meet him, when he
sets his foot on shore. To us this sight was less
agreeable than it was striking. The degraded, bru-
tish nature of these half-naked, unfortunate men,
offends the feelings of the European, who has but
just quitted the seat of polite manners. and agree-
able forms.
Rio de Janeiro, or properly St. Sebastiano, com-
monly called only Rio, lies on the shore of the
great bay, which extends from the city northwards
into the continent three times as far as the dis-
tance to the anchorage. It occupies the north-
east part of a tongue of land, of an irregularly
quadrangular shape, situated on the west bank,
which stretches towards the north, and towards the
south is connected with the continent. The most
easterly point of this tongue of land is the Pimta
do CalaboufO; the most northerly, opposite to
which is the little Ilha das Cobras, that of the Ar-
mazem do Sal. The oldest and most important
part of the city is built between these two points,
along the shore, in the direction of north-west to
south-east, and in the form of an oblong quadran-
gle ; the ground is, in general, level, only at the
most northerly end are five hills, rather long, and so
near to the sea as to leave room for only one street
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 135

by the sea-side; towards the south and south-east

the city iscommanded by several hills, the promon-
tories of the Corcovado, a woody mountain. The
more ancient, north-east part of the city is traversed
by eight straight^ pretty narrow, and parallel streets,
and divided into squares by many others crossing
them at right angles. The Campo de S. Anna, a
large square, to the west of the old city, separates
it from the new town. The latter, which has, for

the most part, arisen since the arrival of the coiu't,

is connected by the bridge of S. Diogo over the

arm of the sea called Sacco d'Alferes, with the
south-western quarter, or Bairro de Mato-porcos,
arid, by the extensive suburb of Catumbi, with the
royal palace of S. Cristovao, situated to the north-
west. Mato-porcos lies immediately against the
lower eminences of the Corcovado, which rise south-
west of the city, where this row of hills terminates
at the sea. The church of Nossa Senhora da Glo-
ria forms a distinguished object on its summit,
commanding the southern part of the city. From
this place, farther towards the south, detached rows

of houses occupy the two semicircular bays of Ca-

tete, and Bota Togo, and single houses lie scattered

in the picturesque side -valleys, which branch out

from the Corcovado, and among which the Val-
ley of Laranjeiras is the most pleasant. The city,
in its greatest extent, already measures above half
a mile. The houses, which are low and narrow in
proportion to their depth, are for the most built of
K 4
136 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

blocks of granite, or in the upper story, of wood,

and covered with tiles. Instead of the old latticed
doors and windows, we already see everywhere
complete doors, and glass windows. The gloomy
projecting cabinets before the windows, closed, ac-
cording to oriental custom, have made way by
the king's command, for open balconies. The
streets are, for the most
paved with granite,
part,
and provided with raised pavement for the foot-
passengers ; but they are very sparingly lighted,
and hardly more than a few hours in the night, by
the lamps placed before the images of the Virgin
Mary. From the regularity of the streets it is
agreeable to the eye to meet with several open
squares, such as those before the royal palace, be-
fore the theatre, the public promenade (jpasseio
publico), or the Campo de S. Anna.
The hills along the north-eastern bank are
partly covered with large buildings ; the former
college of the Jesuits, the convent of the Bene-
dictines,on the most north-easterly hill, then the
episcopal palace, and the Forte da Concei9ao, have
a grand appearance, especially when seen from the
sea. The residence formerly occupied by the
viceroys, which, after the arrival of the court
from Lisbon, was enlarged by the addition of the
Carmelite convent, and fitted up for the royal
family, stands in the plain, opposite to the above-
mentioned molo. This building is by no means
in the grand style of European palaces, and its ex-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 137

terior seems unworthy of the monarch of so pro-

mising and rising a kingdom. In general, the
style of architectm'e in Rio is mean, and resem-
bling that of the old part of Lisbon ;
yet it seems
that architecture, the works of which so immedi-
ately relieve one of the greatest wants of human
life, will improve more rapidly than the other arts.

The presence of the court already begins to have

a favourable effect on the style of building, as is

proved among other edifices,by the new Mint, and

several private houses in Catete and Mato-porcos j
they continue also to blow up rocks of granite
with gunpowder, partly to make the city more
level and connected, and partly to adorn it with
new buildings. Among the churches, which alto-
gether have neither fine paintings, nor works of
sculpture, but only rich gilding, those da.Cande-
laria, de S. Francisco, de Paula, are distinguished
by their good style of architecture, and that of
Nossa Senhora da Gloria, by its elevated station ;
but the finest and most beautiful monument of
architecture of which Rio can at present boast, is
the Aqueduct, which was completed in 1740 ; it
is an imitation of the noble work of the same kind

erected by John V. at Lisbon, by the lofty arches

of which, spring water is brought from the Corco-
vado to the fountains in the city. The largest of
these fountains, in the square in front of the
palace, and close to the harbour, supplies the
ships, and is constantly surrounded by crowds of
138 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

sailors of all nations. Captain Cook was mistaken

when he expressed doubts of" the goodness of this
water for long voyages ; for Portuguese captains
have, by way of making the experiment, taken
this water to India, and brought it back to Rio de

Janeiro, when it was found to be still uncorrupted.

New fountains continue to be erected in the city,
and during our stay, measures were taken to pro-
vide the great square of S. Anna with a foun-
tain, and to lead a new aqueduct to the south-west
part of the city. In, such a hot and populous city
the attention of the government is justly directed
to the obtaining of an ample supply of cool water
fit for drinking, but the distribution of it by un-
cleanly negroes, who offer it for sale in open ves-
sels or in skins (boracMos), which are often ex-
posed for hours together to the heat of the sun,
by the Board of Health in-
requires to be altered ;

deed the government would do a great servdce to

tbe inhabitants by causing the water to be con-
veyed into many private houses.
The bay of Rio de and
Janeiro, one of the finest
most spacious harbours in the world, and the key
to the southern part of Brazil, has been long since
carefully fortified by the Portuguese. The sudden
capture of the city by the French, under Duguay
Trouin (17 10), who imposed on it a contribution of
246,500,464 rees, perhaps first made them sensible
of the necessity of defensive works. The entrance
is protected principally by the fort of Santa Cruz,
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 139

which ison the Pico, a steep mountain on a

built
tongue of land on the east side, and by the bat-
teries of S. Joao, and S. Theodosio, lying opposite
to it, to the north of the Sugar-loaf. The
strait formed by the two points, which is only
five thousand feet broad, is also commanded by the
guns of a fort on the low rocky island Ilha da
Lagem, situated almost in the middle of the en-
trance. In the interior of the bay the most im-
portant works are the fort de Villegagnon, and
that of Ilha das Cobras, both on small islands not
far from the city. State criminals are confined in
the latter island ; in the city itself are the Forte
da Concei^ao in the north-west part of it, and the
batteries of Monte, in the south-east ; they are
not, however, in the best condition. The inlet of
Bota-Fogo is covered by the lines of Praya-ver-
melha.*

* Here was that Martin Alfonso de Souza, in his voyage

it

of discovery, performed by the command of King John III.,

landed in January 1531, and gave the bay the name it now
bears. The Praya-vermelha was formerly called for this rea-
son, Porto de Martin Affbnso. It is uncertain who it was that

first visited this part of the coast of Brazil, but it appears that
Joao de Solis was the first who put in here in 1515. When
Fernando de Magalhaens, with his fellow-countryman Ruy
Falleiro, sailed along the whole east coast of South America,
he anchored here in December 1519, and gave to the bay the
name of Bahia de St. Lucia. Martin Alfonso soon left the
place again, probably from fear of the numerous and warlike
natives, the Tamoyos. The Portuguese were first made sen-
sible of the importance of this place, when it was taken pos-
140 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

The internal basin of Rio de Janeiro has its

tides as well as the ocean at new and full moon,
;

hiffh water, which rises fourteen or fifteen feet,

sets in at thirty minutes past four ; the ebb some-
times continues a whole day without intermission,
at which time the current is the strongest on the
west side of the bay on the other hand, when
:

the flood begins, a whirling current is remarked on

the east side. The flood continues a shorter time
than the ebb, and usually runs at the rate of tlu'ee

or four sea miles in an hour ; this strong flood has

more than once led the captains of ships into error,
and caused them to cast anchor too close to the
shore, so that when the ebb set in they suffered
shipwreck, there not being a sufficient depth of
water for the vessels. An English ship which ar-
rived from Liverpool after a remarkably favorable
passage during our stay, and had cast anchor quite
close to the Ilha das Cobras, was wrecked in this

manner in the harbour, and the greatest exertions

session of by Nicholas Durant de Villegagnon, who was sent

hither by Admiral Coligny, and erected a fort. Mem de Sa,
the governor-general of Brazil, having on the 15th of March,
1560, taken and destroyed the works erected by the French,
the bay came into the hands of the Portuguese, who immedi-
ately began to build the town on its present site. The abori-
gines are said to have called the bay on account of its narrow
entrance, Nelhero-Hy, or Nithero-Hy, that is, hidden water.
(Patriota, for May 1813, p. 63. Corografia Brasilica, ii. p. 1.)
;

Lery calls it Ganabara.

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 141

of the crew of our frigate, the Austria, who were

called in to assist, could save only part of the
goods, because the vessel was dashed to pieces on
the rocks in a few hours. The sea, when it is

high, particularly at the equinoxes, fills up the

sandy hollows and lagoons, in several places round
the city, which are planted with rhizophora, cono-
carpas, and avicennia trees ; thus the sandy plain
between tlie Anna, where we lived,
suburb of S.

the bay of Sacco d' Alferes, and the principal street

towards S. Christopher, was sometimes changed
into a lake, and limited our excursions through the
valley. The saltness of this sea-water is rather less

than that of the ocean on the outer coasts, and for

this reason,and also because too many heterogeneous
impurities are mixed with it, no salt is prepared in
the vicinity of Rio the greater part of that con-
;

sumed here is imported from the rich salt lagoons

of Setuval. It is preferable in this hot climate to
the Spanish and Sardinian, because it has less ten-
dency to deliquescence comes to the
; a small part
capital from the neighbourhood of Cabo Frio.
It will be readily imagined that with the exten-
sive trade carried on here, the traveller every where
meets the bustle of active industry. The harbour,
the exchange, the market-places, and the streets
nearest the sea, where the principal magazines of
European merchandise are situated, are constantly
filled with a throng of merchants, sailors, and
negroes.
-^iwv.o. The
J. liv. yciiiwi^c languages
various iti.Xj^uM-jjV of the mina-led
142 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

crowd, of all colours and costumes, crossing each

other in every direction, among whom the negroes
carry their burden on poles ; the creaking of a clumsy
two-wheeled cart, drawn by oxen, in which goods
are conveyed through the city ; the frequent salutes
of the guns of the forts, and of vessels arriving
from all parts of the world ; lastly, the crackling of
the rockets, with which the inhabitants celebrate re-
ligious festivals, almost daily, from an early hour in

the morning, all combine to compose a confused

unheard-of discord, which is perfectly stunning to
the stranger.
By far the greater part of the population of Rio
de Janeiro, consists of Portuguese and their de-
scendants, both whites and people of colour.
American aboriginal inhabitants are scarcely ever
seen here. They avoid the city as much as pos-

sible, and appear but very and by chance,

rarely,

like birds of passage, in the bustle which is so

contrary to their habits. The nearest are said to
belong to the mission of S. Louren90, on the bay
of Rio de Janeiro, from which place they bring
potters' ware for sale ; others sometimes come from
a greater distance, from the district of Campos, in
the country of the Goytacazes, or from Areas, a
little villa, on the road to S. Paulo, or from Minas
Geraes, in company with the caravans of mules,
which maintain a constant communication between
these places and the capital. The brown water-
men, in the harbour, whom many travellers have
!=:'

fe'
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 14o

taken for Indians, are niulattoes of various tints.

The first American that we saw was a boy of

native
the cannibal race of the Botocudos, in Minas Geraes
he was in the house of our friepd, M. Von Langs-
dorff! The Conde da Barca, formerly minister of
state, had, it seems, appHed to the district com-

mander of the Indians, in Minas Geraes, for an

Indian scull, for our celebrated countryman, Pro-
fessor Blumenbach ; but the commandant not
having an opportunity to obtain such a dead spe-
cimen, sent the count two living Botocudos, who
had been taken in a sudden attack by his soldiers.
M. Von LangsdorfF obtained one of them, to
whom he soon became much attached, and who
served him not only as a living cabinet piece, but
as a collector of objects of natural history.
Before the arrival of the king, the whole popula-
tion of Rio consisted of fifty thousand souls, and
the number of the blacks, and people of colour,
considerably exceeded that of the white inhabitants.
In the year I8I7, on the other hand, the city and
its dependencies contained above a hundred and

ten thousand inhabitants. It may be considered

as certain, that since the year 1808, four and
twenty thousand Portuguese have gradually ar-
rived here from Europe. This great afflux of
Portuguese, to which must be added a considerable
number of English, French, Dutch, Germans, and
Italians, who, after the opening of the port,
settled here, some as merchants, others as me-
chanics, could not fail, setting aside every other
144 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

consideration, to effect a change in the character of

the inliabitants, by wholly reversing the existing
proportion of the white inhabitants to the blacks
and people of colour. But it is particularly ob-
servable in the class of rich merchants in the capital,
and even in the interior of the neighbouring pro-
vinces of Minas Geraes, and S. Paulo, what rapid
strides civilisation and luxury, and consequently
activity and industry, have made, in consequence of
the vast accession of new inhabitants from Europe.
Brazil has, properly speaking, no nobility ; the
clergy, the people in office, and the rich families in

the interior, that is, land-owners and miners, pos-

sessed in a certain degree, before the arrival of the
king, all the distinctions and privileges of nobility.
The conferring of titles and offices by the king,
drew a part of them to the capital, whence, having
become acquainted with the European luxuries
and mode of living, they began to exercise on the
other classes of the people, an influence very differ-

ent from that which they formerly had possessed.

Even the more remote provinces of tlie infant king-
dom, whose inhabitants, led by curiosity, interest,
or private business, visited Rio de Janeiro, soon
accustomed themselves to recognise that city as the
capital, and to adopt the manners and modes of

thinking, which, after the arrival of the court,

struck them as European.
In general the influence of the court at Rio,
upon Brazil, is in every respect incalculable. The
presence of the supreme head of the state naturally
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 1.45

inspired all the Brazilians, with a patriotic feeling

which they had never before experienced, while in
the situation of a colony they were governed by
delegates, in the king's name. Brazil acquired in
the eyes of every body, a new dignity : as it pos-
sessed the king, and carried on diolomatic neffo-
tiations on the other side of the ocean, it became,
in a manner, included in the circle of the European
powers. The king himself was made better ac-
quainted with the advantages of the country, and
the defects of the government.' He profited by the
former, and thereby secured the stability of all

civil relations, and of property. Private credit in-

creased J
what was uncertain, partial, and depend-
ent in the administration, made room for an inde-
pendent order of things j and life and energy were
infused into all public business. By this, and above
all, by the opening of the port to the mercantile
nations of all parts of the world, the cultivation of
the soil, the welfare, the riches, the civilisation of
the country, rapidly improved, together with the
intercourse and increasing commerce with foreign
countries. Yet it appears that, in general, the
change from a dependent colony to an independent
kingdom, was by no means considered, in Brazil
itself, as a blessing, so much as the reaction of this

event was felt as a misfortune by Portugal. Now,

when experience has extended their views, and
when the energies of this continent, called forth
by political changes, more rapidly develop them-
VOL. I. L
146 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

selves, the Brazilians will be sensible how quickly

they have been led through various degrees of im-
provement, during the twelve years, in which Kmg
John VI. has resided in this kingdom.
- The king soon marked his presence in the new
kingdom, by the erection of the same superior tri-
bunals and authorities, as exist in Portugal. In the
year 1808, he organised the Dezembargo do Po^o
(Ministerial Council of the interior and Council
of State), Conselho da Justiga (Ministerial Council
of Justice), Conselho da Fazenda (Ministerial Coun-
cil of the Finances), Junta do Commercio (Supreme
Tribunal of Commerce), Meza da Consciencia
(Ministerial Council of Religious Worship), the
Relagdo (Court of Appeal) of Rio de Janeiro was
raised to the rank of Supplicagdo (Supreme Court
of Appeal), a general intendancy of the police
for the whole kingdom was established, and also
an independent police for the capital, a royal
treasury, a mint, and a record office. In the year
1805, the bishopric founded in I676 was endowed
anew, and provided with a numerous chapter
lastly, in the year 1810, a Royal Military Academy

was founded. The boundaries of the captanias

were more accurately determined, and the neces-
sary tribunals erected. The organisation of these
several departments, as well as a more precise re-
gulation of the sphere of action of the Governors
General of the Provinces, the regulation of the
jurisdictions, and the more equal collection of the
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 147

and other imposts, have been great steps in the

litlies

improvement of the new kingdom ; and history will

recognise in the reign of John VI., a happy continu-
ation of the beneficent influence of John III., that
judicious and energetic monarch, from whose hands
the colony first received form and life. The presence
of the sovereign and of all the principal authorities
of the state was essentially aided in its effects, on
the establishment of a regular system in the new
country by tlie great number of foreigners who,
sooner or later, followed the court to Rio de
Janeiro, English mechanics and ship-builders,
Swedish ironworkers, German engineers, French
artists, and manufacturers, were invited by the
government, to animate the national industry, and
diifuse useful knowledge. These efforts of the go-
vernment, already, to transplant European activity
and arts into the virgin soil, are the more worthy
of respect, in proportion to the greatness of the
difficulties which opposed them at the setting out.
An important commencement towards the encou-
ragement of industry was made with the arsenal
for which a plan, on a small scale, was indeed
already prepared before the arrival of the king, but
was not formally organised and put into execution
till 1811. In the long row of houses on the har-
bour, which are used for the manufacture of articles
of the marine, we now see cables made of Russian
hemp, utensils forged out of Swedish iron, and sails
cut out of northern cloth. The most important arti-
L S
148 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

cles which Brazil itself furnishes, are the excellent

timber, tow, and pitch. This arsenal is, however,
comparatively, more employed in working u\)
foreign materials than the other arsenals of the
country, and supplies them, while they on the
other hand build many vessels. It is true that for

the present, manufactured here cost the

things
government more than if they were procured by
commerce, immediately from Europe ; skilful work-
men, who are for the most part Europeans, are
retained only by high pay, and the blacks and
mulattoes, who are yet but novices, are with diffi-

culty accustomed to the active industry and per-

severance of their masters ; but these sacrifices of
the government make it necessary to establish
nurseries for these important professions. Thus
this institution, like many others, serves as a proof
of the prudent paternal care, which does not merely
consider the present moment, but has in view the
happiness of future generations. In this world
which lies still rude and undeveloped before the
regulating mind of the sovereign, the latter feels
himself elevated above petty, interested opposition,
and called by exalted duties to the creation of a
better system for posterity.
On a more intijnate acquaintance with the spirit

of the Brazilian people, and with that of the society

of Rio de Janeiro, the traveller, indeed, finds that
these intentions of the government are, in general,
not duly appreciated, and that the character of the
Brazilian has been too powerfully influenced by
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 1 If)

a colonial administration of two hundred years'

standing, for him already to apply with the same
energy that distinguishes the European, to the se-
rious occupations of industry, arts,and science,
which consolidate the happiness, and the internal
strength of a kingdom. Hitherto it is a taste for
convenience, luxury, and the external charms of
social life, which rapidly spreads here, rather than
that for arts and sciences, in the proper sense of
the term. While the progress of the latter has, in
northern countries, been followed by the refinement
of the enjoyments of life, the south, on the contra-
ry, proceeds fi*om the development of the pleasures
of sense, and of external life, to the improvement of
arts and science. Let us, therefore, not yet expect
in the young capital those great influential establish-
ments for the education and instruction of the peo-
ple, which we are accustomed to see in Europe.
The library, said to contain seventy thousand
volumes, which the king brought from Portugal,
for the capital of Brazil, is arranged in the edifice
belonging to the Ter9eiros da Ordem do Carmo.
The branches of history and jurisprudence are said
to be the richest. We
were particularly interested
by a manuscript of a Flora Fluminensis, that is, of
the Rio de Janeiro, which contains descriptions and
beautiful drawings of many rare or unknown plants
growing in the vicinity, and written by one Velloso,
The public have free admission during the greater
part of the day ; but the want of literary occupation;.
L 3
150 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

is SO little felt here, that the library is not mncli

frequented. To the same cause, and to the little in-

clination hitherto felt here to advance with the spirit

of the sciences, it may be attributed that the only
literary journal. The Patriot, which was published
after the arrival of the court in Brazil, continued
only a few years, though, by the variety of its con-
tents it was calculated for extensive circulation.
But a literary publication which deserves honoura-
able mention is Father CasaPs Corografia Brasilica,
printed at Rio, in two volumes ; a work which, it is

true, has many imperfections with respect to order

precision, and correctness, especially in treating of
subjects of natural history, but, as the first compen-
dium of a general geography of Brazil, is of great
use, and has been almost literally translated into
English.* At present only two newspapers are
published in the whole kingdom in the capital, :

the Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro and, in Bahia, a ;

paper under the title of Idade de Ouro do Brazil.

But even these few journals are not read with ge-
neral interest.t The inhabitant of the interior, in
particular, enjoying the lavish bounties of nature,

* Corografia Brasilica ou reIa9ao historico geografica do

Reino do Brazil composta por luim Presbitero secular do Gram
Priorado do Crato. Rio de Janeiro, 1817. 4to. Vol. 1, 2. A
history of the Brazils ; comprising its geography, commerce,
colonisation, aboriginal inhabitants, &c. by J. Henderson.
London, 1821. 4<to.

\ The number of journals has been much increased since

Brazil declared itself independent. Trans.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 1.51

confined to tlie intercourse with a few distant

neighbours, concerns himself very httle with the
events of the political world, and is satisfied with
hearing the principal circumstances once a year,
from the conductors of the caravans who return
from the coast. In general, in the interior as well
as in the sea-port towns, it is rather commercial
relations than any regard to the interests of the
world in general, that determine their participation
in great political events. There is, however, no
want of quick and accurate intelligence from Eu-
rope ; the Lisbon newspapers being circulated by
the Portuguese emigrants, and the London journals
by the English.
The education of youth is provided for, in the

capital,by many licensed academies. Persons of

fortune have their children prepared by private
tutors, to visit the university of Coimbra ; which,
from the scarcity of good teachers, is very expen-
sive. In the Seminario de S. Joaquim, the elements

of latin and church-singing (canto chdo) are taught:

but the best academy is the Lyceum, or Seminario
de where, besides Latin, Greek, French,
S. Joze,
and English, rhetoric, geography, and mathema-
tics, likewise philosophy and divinity are taught.
Most of the teachers are ecclesiastics, who have,
however, now much less influence on the education
of the people than formerly ; particularly during the
times of the Jesuits. A very useful establishment
of later years is the School of Surgery (Aula de Ci-
L 4
152 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

rurgid), which was founded in tlie former college

of the Jesuits, on the same principles as the country
surgical schools in the kingdom of Bavaria, to form
practical surgeons, who are not to be found in the
interior. After studying five years the young man
may here be made master in surgery. The course
of study is strictly prescribed*, and care is taken for
the acquisition of positive knowledge, by attendance
on the neighbouring military hospital. Most of
the teachers in this establishment are, at the same
time, practical physicians in the city, some of whom
follow in their lectures the French elementary
books, and some those of Cullen. Natural liistory,

particularly botany, is taught the pupils by Fra

Leandro do Sacramento, a learned Carmelite, from
Pernambuco, and a disciple of the venerable Brote-
ro. In his lectures he makes use of a small nursery
of remarkable plants in the public promenade,
because the botanic garden is too far from the city.
The mineralogical cabinet, which is under the
care of our countryman, Lieutenant-Colonel Von
Eschwege, is not in a good condition, because he
is generally absent from Rio de Janeiro. It con-
sists of Baron Chain's collection, described by
Werner t, to which no very great additions have

* According to the plan laid down, they study in the

firstyear Anatomy, Chemistry, Pharmacy in the second, ;

the same branches, with the addition of Physiology in the ;

third, iEtiology, Pathology, Therapeutics ; in the fourth, Sur-

gery, Midwifery ; in the fifth they attend the Hospitals.
fW erner's description of a collection of Minerals &c.
Luneberg, 1719. 8vo.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 153

been made, except a beautiful suite of diamonds

sent by Da Camara*, and some other mineralogical
curiosities of Brazil. In the building which con-
tains this collection, there is a most insignificant
beginning of a zoological cabinet, consisting of a
few stuffed and some cases with handsome
birds,
butterflies. The Military Academy (Academia
Militar Real), founded in 1810, is intended for the
scientific education of those who desire to dedicate
themselves from their youth to the military pro-
fession; but though provided with good masters,
and especially favoured by the king, its sphere of
action is very limited, for it has hardly any scho-
lars ; but in the newly established Aula do Com-
mercio, the lectures on commerce, and also those
on chemistry, are numerously attended.
Immediately after the arrival of the king, it was
intended to give a university to the new mo-
narchy. It was, however, yet undecided whether
the seat of it should be at Rio de Janeiro, or at
S. Paulo, which is situated in a more temperate
climate. Mr. J. Garcia Stockier, son of a German
consul of the Hanse Towns at Lisbon, a man of
and a worthy
considerable literary acquirements,
member of the Lisbon academy, proposed a plan,
conceived partly in the spirit of the German high
schools, which, indeed, was much approved by the

* Mr. Von Eschwege has described these diamonds in the

second part of his Journal of BraziJ, p. 49.
 151- TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

ministry, but at the same time met with so much

opposition from those who wished Brazil to con-
tinue dependent on Portugal, as a colony, that the
whole plan was given up j and yet nothing but the
establishment of a university can rouse the slum-
bering energies of the country, and thus Brazil,
in laudable emulation with the mother country, be
one day elevated to the rank of a great kingdom.
Till this shall be done, the Brazilians will be com-
pelled, however expensive and troublesome it may
be to them, to complete their education beyond
the ocean, at the Portuguese university of
Coimbra. This necessity, however, was attended
with various advantages to the young students
especially by giving them an opportunity of making
themselves acquainted with the great institutions
in Europe, to bring back to their own country the
knowledge to be obtained in them, and in general
to acquire the universality of European education.
If, however, at some future time, a university
should be founded in Brazil, it would be necessary
in the present state of literature, to have the first

professors from Europe.

Another new institution, the Academy of Arts,
is chiefly indebted for its existence to the late
minister Araujo, Conde da Baj^a, who received
almost the whole of his education in foreign coun-
tries. While Europe saw in the foundation of such
an institution an apparently irrefragable proof of
the rapid progress of the* new state, it is evident
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 155

upon closer examination, that it is at present by no

means adapted to the wants of the people, and
therefore cannot yet exert any extensive influ-
ence. Several French artists, historical and land-
scape painters, sculptors, engravers, and architects,
and at their head Lebreton, formerly secretary to
the Academy of Arts at Paris, (who however died,
at his country-house, nearRio de Janeiro, soon after
our arrival,) were invited from France in order
by their instructions and works to awaken and to
animate the disposition of the Brazilians for the
arts,upon which Araujo had confidently calculated
but it could not fail soon to become evident that the
fine arts cannot take root here, till the mechanical
arts, which satisfy the first wants, have prepared a
way for their reception ; and that it is not till com-
merce, the activity of which is directed to external
objects is finally established, that endeavours after
the enjoyments and refinements of the arts, can
arise in a nation. It is besides a necessary conse-
quence of the present state of Brazil, that the inha-
bitant of this tropical clime everywhere surrounded
by the poetical and picturesque natural beauties of
his country, feels himself more disposed to the vo-
luntarily offered enjoyments of so happy a climate,
than those of art, which cannot be obtained without
exertion. This circumstance points out the course
which endeavours to introduce the arts and sciences
into America in general take, and may serve as a
hint to the sovereign, that tlie decoration of the
150 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

political edifice by art, must be preceded by the

consolidation of its foundations.
There is scarcely any taste here for painting and
sculpture, and hence we see even in the churches,
instead of real works of art, only ornaments over-
loaded with gold. Music, on the contrary, is cul-
tivated with more partiality by the Brazilians, and
particularly in Rio de Janeiro ; and in this art

they may perhaps the soonest attain a certain de-

gree of perfection. The Brazilian, like the Por-
tuguese, has a refined ear for agreeable modulation
and regular melody, and is confirmed in it by the
simple accompaniment of the voice with the
guitar. The guitar (viola), here, as in the south
of Europe, is the favourite instrument ; a piano-
forte, on the contrary, is a very rare article of fur-
niture, met with only in the richest houses. The
national songs, which are sung with the accom-
paniment of the guitar, are partly of Portuguese
origin, and partly written in the country. By
singing, and the sound of the instrument, the
Brazilian is easily excited to dancing, and expresses
his cheerfulness in polished society, by graceful
cotillons, and in inferior company by expressive
pantomimic motions, and attitudes like those of
the negroes. The Italian opera is hitherto very
imperfect, both as regards the singers and the
orchestra. A band of vocal and instru-
private
mental music, which the crown prince has formed
for himself, of native mulattoes and negroes, speaks
16
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 167

much ill favour of the musical talent of the Brazi-

lians. Don Pedro, who seems to have inherited
from his ancestor Don John IV. a distinguished
talent for music, sometimes leads this band himself,
which, being thus encouraged, executes the pieces
laid before it Haydn's favourite
with great zeal.
pupil, the Chevalier Neukomm was at that time
composer to the royal chapel at Rio. The musical
knowledge of the inhabitants was not yet ripe for
his masses, which were written entirely in the style

of the most celebrated German composers. Tlie

impulse which the genius of David Perez gave to
the Portuguese church music (1752 — 1779) is past;
and at present the first thing required of a mass is

that it shall proceed in cheerful melodies, and that

a long and pompous Gloria shall be succeeded by
a short Credo. This is the style of Marcus Por-
tugal, now the favourite composer among the
Portuguese. The degree of perfection which
music has attained among the higher classes at
Rio, and the other sea-port towns of Brazil, entirely
corresponds with the spirit in which poetry and the
belles lettres are cultivated ; for, in these, it is the
French literature that is preferred by the superior
classes in this country. The diffusion of the
French language, and the importation of innu-
merable French books, are the more surprising, as
there are only two indifferent booksellers' shops at
Rio de Janeiro. Besides the publications of the
day, with which the French Magasins des Modes
1.58 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

supply Brazil, the works of Voltaire and Rousseau,

in particular, are read with so much avidity, that
several patriotic writers * have found reason to de-
claim against the Gallomania. This circumstance ^

is the more remarkable, because political and mer-

cantile interest unite the Portuguese with the

English, and we might therefore naturally expect

a greater inclination to the literature of England, t

Even translations from the English into the Portu-
guese are by no means so numerous as those from
the French. The language and poetry of the
Germans unknown to the Brazilians
are entirely
sometimes, but very rarely, we meet with an ad-
mirer of the muse ofGessner or Klopstock, with

* Thus, for example, the energetic and learned Joz^ Agos-

tinho Macedo, author of the epic poem O Oriente, in his
Journal Enciclopedico, one of the best periodical publications
at Lisbon.

f was from a conviction of the superiority of Enghsh lite-

It

rature, that a learned Portuguese nobleman, the Viscount de

St. Louren^o, undertook, a few years ago, to translate into
Portuguese Pope's Essay on Man, to which he has annexed a
vast mass of notes, selected from English, French, German,
Portuguese, Spanish, and other writers on the same or similar
subjects. The extent of these notes may be judged of when
we say that the work makes three quarto volumes. This must
naturally render it less useful by limiting the number of the
readers, on account of the expence, for besides its bulk, it is
one of the most splendid specimens of typography of which the
English press can boast, and adorned with fine plates, the first
of which is an exquisite whole length portrait of Pope, from
an original painting by his friend Jervas, in the possession of
G.Watson Taylor, Esq. It was published in London in 1819.
Trans.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL, ' 1.59

which he has been made acquainted only by French

translations. This general knowledge of the
French has not, however, banished the mother
tongue in the higher classes of society ; except the
court, and those immediately belonging to it, the
English and French languages are confined to the
men, and are therefore seldom used in company.
The fair sex, though they participate in the change
which the removal of the court hither has occasioned,
and are now more frequently seen in the theatre,
and in the open air, have, however, on the whole,
retained the same disposition which Barrow repre-
sents in his apologetic description in 1792.
The hospitable residence of Mr. Von Langsdorff"
was a very agreeable place of resort in the evening
lor many Europeans residing at Rio de Janeiro.
A spirit of cheerful and animated conversation
prevailed, which was enhanced by the musical
talents of the lady of the house, and the co-oper-
ation of Neukomm. So great a number of natural-
ists, or friends of natural history, had never yet

been assembled here, as just at the time of our

stay. The mutual communication of the observ-
ations and feelings which the luxuriance and the
peculiarity of the vegetation inspired, became
doubly attractive, through the charms of the envi-
rons. Mr. Von Langsdorff inhabited a small
country-house, on the declivity of the chain of
hills which stretches from the city towards the

south-west, and enjoyed from hence, amidst the

 H)0 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

fragrant shrubs of Brazil, an enchanting prospect

over the city and part of the bay. Nothing can be
compared to the beauty of this retreat, when the
most sultry hours of the day are past, and gentle
breezes, impregnated with balsamic perfumes from
the neighbouring wooded mountains, cool the air.

This enjoyment continues to increase as the night

spreads over the land and the sea, which shines at
a distance, and the city, where the noise of busi-
ness has subsided, is gradually lighted. He who
has not personally experienced the enchantment of
tranquil moonlight nights in thesehappy latitudes,
can never be inspired, even by the most faithful
description, with those feelings which scenes of
such wondrous beauty excite in the mind of the
beholder. A delicate transparent mist hangs over
the country, the moon shines brightly amidst heavy
and singularly grouped clouds, the outlines of the
objects which are illuminated by it are clear and
well defined, while a magic twilight seems to re-
move from the eye those which are in shade.
Scarce a breath of and the neigh-
air is stirring,

bouring mimosas, that have folded up their leaves

to sleep, stand motionless beside the dark crowns
of the manga, the jaca, and the etherial jambos * ;
or sometimes a sudden wind arises, and the juice-
less leaves of the acaju t rustle, the richly flowered

* Mangifera indica, Artocarpus integrifolia, and Eugenia

lanibos, L.

f Anacardium occidentale, L.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. l61

grumijama and pitanga * let drop a fragrant

shower of snow-white blossoms the crowns of the ;

majestic palms wave slowly over the silent roof

which they overshade, like a symbol of peace and
tranquillity. Shrill cries of the cicada, the grass-
hopper, and tree frog, make an incessant hum, and
produce, by their monotony, a pleasing melancholy.
A stream gently murmuring descends from the
mountains, and the macuct, with its almost human
voice, seems to call for help from a distance.
Every quarter of an hour different balsamic odours
fill the air, and other flowers alternately unfold
their leaves to the night, and almost overpower
the senses with their perfume now it is the bowers
;

of paullinias, or the neighbouring orange grove,

then the thick tufts of the eupatoria, or the bunches
of the flowers of the palms t suddenly bursting,
which disclose and thus maintain
their blossoms,
a constant succession of fragrance. While the si-
lent vegetable world, illuminated by swarms of fire-
flies (^Elater phosphoreus noctilucus\ as by a thou-
sand moving stars, charms the night by its deli-
cious effluvia, brilliant lightnings play incessantly
in the horizon, and elevate the mind in joyful ad-

* Two pretty kinds of myrtle, Myrtus Brasiliensis, Lam. and

M. pedunculata, L.
f Tinamus noctivagus, Perdix guyanensis.
X We noticed in several palms, that the bunch of flowers,
when arrived at perfection, suddenly bursts its covering, and
fills the surrounding air with perfume. This is most frequently
observed in the Macaraiba palm [Acrocomia sclerocarpa, nob.).

VOL. I. M
162 TRAVELS m BRAZIL.

miration to the stars, which, glowing in solemn

silence in the firmament above the continent and
ocean, fill the soul with a presentiment of still sub-

limer wonders. In the enjoyment of the peaceful

and magic influence of such nights, the newly ar-
rived European remembers with tender longings
his native home, till the luxuriant scenery of the
tropics has become to him a second country.
These fine nights may be enjoyed at Rio de
Janeiro without any fear of those disorders, which,
in many tropical countries, for instance, in Guinea,
are almost inevitable consequences of the effects of
the evening dew, or of the land breeze that then
sets in ;
yet even here it is advisable not to pass

in the open air those moments when, after sunset,

the atmosphere suddenly cooled, and the first

is

dew falls. In general, the earlier hours of the

morning seem to be less injurious to the healtli
than the evening, because with the return of the
sun, the suppressed perspiration is Rio
restored.

de Janeiro, it is true, has the reputation, though it

should seem without reason, of being one of the
more unhealthy cities of Brazil. The climate is
hot and moist, which chiefly depends on the situa-
tion, as high and thickly wooded mountains, the

narrow entrance of the bay, and the numerous

islands, impede the free passage of the winds but :

there are none of those very rapid changes of tem-

perature which are so injurious to the health.

Moist cold winds, which produce slight rheuma-

14
 TRAVELS TN BRAZIL. 163

tisms are, however, not uncommon. Though the

marshy on the sea-side diffuse, during the time
flats

of the ebb, an intolerable stench, fortunately for

the inhabitants of the vicinity, they do not remain
uncovered by the water long enough to produce
endemic fevers by their putrid exhalations. The
food of the lower classes is not of a nature to en-
gender diseases. Mandiocca and maize flour, and.
black beans, which are usually boiled with bacon
and salt beef dried in the sun, are the chief ar-
ticles of their diet which, though coarse, and not
;

easy of digestion, is however wholesome, when

combined with exercise and the drinking of Por-
tuguese wine, and brandy distilled from the sugar-
cane. Fish is not so much eaten as on the north-
ern coasts. In hot countries, where provisions are
liable to spoil more rapidly, the use offish as food
seems always to increase or decrease in the same
proportion as the indolence, the poverty, and the
sickly constitution of the people; thus we at least
always found, during the whole of our travels, the
greatest misery where the inhabitants were confined
to fish for their food. The middle classes of the
citizens of Rio, who have not entirely adopted the
manners of Portugal, take, in proportion, little

animal food, contenting themselves with the ad-

mirable and the cheese imported from Mi-
firuits,

nas, which, with banians, is met with on every

table. The Brazilian eats even wheateu bread but
sparingly, preferring his farinha to it. The flour
M 2
lt)4 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL*

imported from North America, or from Europe,

will keep five or six months. Even the numerous
and dehcate vegetables of Europe, all which might
easily be raised here, constitute no important part
(rf the food of the people. On the other hand,
they are very fond of oranges, water-melons, and
Spanish potatoes. Besides the simplicity of the
Brazilian cookery, the health of the inhabitants of
so hot a country is especially promoted by their

praiseworthy temperance at their meals. The Bra-

ziUan eats but moderately of his few dishes, drinks
chiefly water, and takes everything with the
greatest regularity, following that strict order
which is observable in all the phenomena of nature
between the tropics. In the evening, he very
prudently takes scarcely anything, at the most he
drinks a cup of tea, or if he has not that, coffee,

and avoids, especially at night, eating cool fruits.

Only such a regimen, and conforming with the
nature of the climate, preserves him from many
diseases to which the stranger exposes himself^
through inattention or ignorance. Above all things,
therefore, the stranger should be advised to observe
the same regimen as the Brazilians ; neither to ex-
pose himself to the fatal effects of the sun's rays,
by walking in the open air during the hottest parts
of the day, when all the streets are deserted, nor
to the dangerous consequences of taking cold in
the night dgws, and above all, not to indulge in
sexual pleasures. Precaution is necessary also in
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. l65

drinking water to appease the almost insatiable

thirst : we were advised to drink the water mixed
with wine or brandy, but though we used this be-
verage with advantage, when we took little exer-
cise, and kept in the shade, yet the violent tend-
ency of the blood towards the head, during the
journey, when we were very much exposed to the
sun, particularly in the first year, soon obliged us
to renounce all spirituous liquors ; we therefore
refreshed ourselves with the cool water of the
stream without any addition, from which we never
experienced any disagreeable effects, if we imme-
diately again exposed ourselves to the heat. These
remarks on regimen we cannot sufficiently recom^
mend to the attention of travellers.
The diseases most frequent here, are chronical
diarrhoeas, dropsy, intermitting fevers, syphilis,

and hydrocele of all these, perhaps only the last

;

can be considered as endemic and peculiar to the

city. The physicians ascribe this disorder chiefly
to the drinking of the water ; but this, which is a
fine spring water, rendered, it is true, warm and
less agreeable by passing through so long a chan-
nel, or by the effect of the sun's heat while it is

exposed to sale, can with the less reason be con-

sidered as the cause, as among the higher classes,
where the disease is the most frequent, it is almost
always improved by the addition of spirits. It
rather should seem that imprudent and too thin
clothing, getting violently over-heated and then
M 3
.60 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

:aking cold, and excessive indulgence in carnal

pleasures, tend not only to relax the muscles, an
effect which the heat of the climate produces,
independently of other causes, but likewise bring-
on a weakness of the nerves, and in consequence
of that, the hydrocele. It is therefore chiefly
remarked in the whites, the newly arrived Euro-
peans and North Americans, in whom the above-
mentioned unfavourable influences produce, if not
a total debility, yet a false direction of the action
of the lymphatic system, and a weakness of the
sexual organs. The physicians of this country
prescribe as preservatives and remedies, local

washings with rum and cold water, and the use of

the truss. A disease which is very common in

hot climates, called the Sartia, very frequently

occurs here also. This malady consists in an
inflammation of the glands, which ends in suppu-
ration, with a local swelling resembling St. An-
thony's fire ; its symptoms are chiefly heat, tension,
and intolerable itching. In persons of an irritable
temperament, it not unfrequently produces sym-
pathetic swellings of the inguinal and other glands.
The cliief causes are not, as is often erroneously
supposed, uncleanliness and woollen clothing, but
overheating, checking of the perspiration, irregu-
larity in the gastric system, and obstruction of the
secretory vessels, which are acted upon by the
influence of the climate. The sting of myriads of
tormenting mosquitoes, which is still more intoler-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. l67

able in gloomy damp days after great heat, con-

tributes also to thedevelopment or increase of" this
disease. The cases are more rare in Rio de Ja-
neiro, where the Sarna, after having long existed in
a chronical state, changes to a generally diffused
eruption, resembling the first stages of the leprosy,
in which cases it is generally combined with
syphilitic dyscrasy. The remedies employed
against it are, lemonade and slight
internally,
doses of calomel, and externally, washing with
very weak warm rum and water, bathing, and
purgations. Chronical diarrhoeas, passing into
colliquation, and lientery, and also
dysentery
dropsy, are common at Rio de Janeiro. The
diarrhoeas, which are generally caused by taking
cold, are often cured in the first stage by drinking
warm vinegar lemonade. Diabetes is likewise

observed here, but not so frequently as in cold

countries; it is said to have been remarked that
the negroes are far less subject to this disease than
the whites and mulattoes, but the negroes suffer
much more from the elephantiasis.
Rio de Janeiro has no endemic intermitting
fevers but the diseases readily assume a certain
;

periodical character, or fever soon follows on the

least disorder, inconsequence of the activity of all
the organic functions, and is rapidly succeeded by
an entire dissolution of the juices. How much
the augmentation of all external stimulants, par-
ticularly warjnth and light, contributes in this

M 4-
108 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

climate to the acceleration of the animal functions,

and to consequent exhaustion, we clearly found
by our own experience, especially at the beginning
of our residence, when the body was not yet
weakened by fatigue and sickness. Even when in
a state of the greatest repose, and without the in-
fluence of other stimulants, our pulse was quicker
than in Europe unfortunately this effect was
:

changed into the opposite, when we began to grow

sickly from the fatigues of our journey. This
greater activity of the functions is manifested in
by the quicker ap-
health, as well as in sickness,
pearance of the symptoms and the more rapid
progress of the disorder. It is nothing uncommon
here, in Rio de Janeiro, and in the tropical coun-
tries in general, to see an individual who but a few
days before was in full health, after suffering a
short time from diarrhoea, cholic, fever, &c., at the
point of death, and in the last stage of a putrid
fever. Nothing but the speedy application of the
most certain and powerful remedies can then save
him and in this respect, it may be said that the
;

physicians here, more than in colder climates, must

be not only ministri but magistri ndturcp.
The croup manifests itself in this country with
the same violence in its progress as in Europe. It
has been particularly observed in white children.
If it be true that this disease is of modern origin,
and concurs to characterise the peculiar periods of
the development of the human race, it is doubly
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 169

remarkable that it is only a few years ago that it

was first known, or at least first distinguished from

other similar disorders in this new world, which is

now frequented by many whites. Instances are

mentioned which a cure has been effected by
in
a prompt application of dulcified mercury. Re-
peated experience in our own persons has con-
vinced us, how suitable this medicine is to the
climate of the tropics in general, and we therefore
advise the traveller to make use of it on all oc-
casions, where it is desired to produce a specific
effect on the lymphatic system, the action of which
is here checked by so many injurious influences ;

nay, on many occasions it serves as a very welcome

prophylactic, as it checks slight disposition to
disease. An excellent succedaneum for it, espe-
cially in diseases of the liver so frequent here, is

sea-bathing,which acts equally on the nervous,

muscular, and lymphatic systems. Rheumatism
and catarrh are likewise of frequent occurrence
here, where the changes of the temperature are
greater than in the more northern provinces of
Brazil.
The syphilis, which is so prevalent throughout
the torrid zone, is not unusual at Rio de Janeiro.
The ravages of this disease, which, as we afterwards
convinced ourselves, is foreign to the original in-
habitants of America, are not so dreadful and
extensive here as they have been in colder climates,
for instance, in the islands in the South Sea, but the
170 TRAVELS^IN BRAZIL.

disorder much more generally diffused among the

is

whole population. The climate, the temperament

of the colonists, and above all, the introduction of
the negro race as slaves, have co-operated, in a
frightfiil manner, to make the disorder general, not
only on the coast, but in the remotest parts of the
interior provinces of the continent. If the intensity
of the venom has been lessened by being trans-
ferred to a hotter climate, the facility with which
it is communicated seems to have greatly increased
on the other hand, the susceptibility is here much
greater than in colder countries, partly on account
of the more rapid action of the system, and partly
of the debility produced by excesses, and increased
by the body's being frequently overheated. The
small-pox, too, which for these ten years past has
appeared hardly otherwise than sporadically, does
not very injuriously affect the constitutions of the
inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, because the hot
climate and the relaxation of the frame favour the
development of the disease. It cannot however be
overlooked, that people of the Caucasian race go
through this disease much more easily than the

negroes, and still more than the Americans. It

almost seems as if the poison of the small-pox,
during the long course of its ravages, had become
more assimilated to the constitution of the Euro-
peans, than to that of the other races of mankind,
whose organism is not yet equally accustomed to
this far-spreading and powerful contagion. The
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 171

Indians, who are very susceptible of imbibing the

poison, bring the disease to maturity with the
greatest difficulty, and frequently fall victims to it

which is attributed to the thickness and hardness

of their skin. The physician, who compares many
diseases in Brazil, such as the small-pox, syphilis,
&c. with tliose in other parts of the world, is led
hereby to remark, that as each individual is sub-
ject, at every stage of life, to particular climacteri-
cal diseases, so whole nations, and ages, more easily
receive and develop certain diseases, according to
the respective state of education and civilisation.
From this account it may be inferred, that at
Rio de Janeiro there are indeed dangerous diseases,
but none that can be properly called endemic.
Perhaps even the hydrocele is only conditionally to
be considered as such. It may be easily supposed
that where so many strangers, from many different
climates resort, the mortality must be greater in
the city than in the country ; but this is not a proof
of any malignant character of disease. We endea-
voured, but without success, to procure lists of the
deaths and burials, which would have given us
some information respecting the degree of mortality
usual there. In general, much remains to be
effected by the future efforts of the government,
for the improvement of public regulations, and
laws on this subject as well as for the cleaning of
;

the streets, which at present is left to the care of

the carrion vultures, which are protected on that
l?^ TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

account; and for the superintendence of the poHce

over the sale of medicines, the practice of physic,
&c.; all of which will require the serious attention of
superior authority. The two chief measures which
have hitherto been adopted for the preservation
of the public health, are the rigorous examination
of the certificates of health of ships arriving from
foreign countries, and the introduction of vaccin-
ation under the direction of a physician. With
respect to the latter point, children and adults are
vaccinated on certain days in the year, in a public
building ; but the due examination of the state
of the patient as suited to the operation, and of the
progress and consequences of the disorder, in the pa-
tient, is hitherto very imperfect, or wholly wanting.
For all such matters, it is much more necessary in
an infant, thinly peopled state, to employ the in-
fluence of the clergy, than it is in Europe until
;

vaccination therefore is strictly enforced by mea-

sures of police, in the same manner as baptism is

by the authority of the church, the country will

remain exposed to the sudden and almost resistless
ravages of the small-pox, and consequent depopu-
lation.

Rio de Janeiro possesses at present, now that the

hospital dos Lazaros has been removed to a neigh-
bouring island, two large establishments for the
sick, the Hospital of Mercy (Hospital da Miseri-
cordia) and the Royal Military Hospital ; both situ-
ated in the old city, and not far from the sea. The
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 173

firstwas founded by the charitable subscriptions of

the citizens, and is under the direction of a council
of administration chosen from their body. This
building, consisting of two stories, receives, in four
principal wards, about two hundred patients, but is
capable of accommodating a greater number. The
patients are separated into classes, according to
their several diseases,and the women are all together
in one large ward, to which strangers have no ac-
cess. Among the patients are a few lunatics
but their number is extremely small in this coun-
try, where the cultivation of the intellectual facul-
ties has not yet made any considerable progress.
An establishment for poor children is also united
with this hospital.

The Royal Military Hospital occupies the build-

ings of the ancient Jesuits' college, situated on an
eminence. It is calculated for the reception of
some hundred male patients, and is conducted with
more order, and more attention to cleanliness, than
the city hospital. The roofing of the building, with
light shingles, is peculiarly adapted to so hot a
climate, a free draught of air being promoted by
this arrangement, as much as by the use of ven-
tilators. In both these hospitals, the greater part

of the medicines are made up according to certain

customary recipes expressly introduced for them.
Besides these recipes, use is also made of the
Pharmacopoeia of Lisbon, and partly also of those
174 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

of London and Edinburgli. The custom of noting

the commencement and the course of the disease,
the diagnosis, the medicines administered, and the
diet, on the table before each bed, is not very
strictly observed. Each of these establishments
has its own chapel and laboratory. The English
have also erected a marine liospital for their sea-
men, on a tongue of land on the east side of the
bay opposite the city, where they have the maga-
zines for their naval stores. This hospital is at-

tended by an English physician, under the au-

thority of the British consulate, and German sailors
are likewise admitted into it.

Near the promenade it is a

sea lies the public ;

small garden surrounded with walls, and protected

against the sea by a perpendicular quay of hewn
stone. Its shady avenOes of mango, jaca, or the

East India bread-fruit tree, the yto, and the rose

apple tree *, between which the beautiful bushes
of the poinciana t are planted, are unquestionably
very inviting in the evening, when tlie heat is al-

layed by the sea-breezes. Formerly, there was in

this ffarden a breed of cochineal insects on Indian
fig-trees, which were planted for that purpose along
the sea-shore ; but at present, the cultivation of
this article, which might be brought to be a very

* Mangifera indica, Artocarpus integrifolia, Guarea trichili-

and Eugenia Jambos, L.

oides,

f Caesalpina pulcherrima, L.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 175

valuable branch of commerce, is entirely neglected

throughout Brazil. *
In the vicinity of this promenade, the provision-
markets afford an interesting sight to the newly
arrived Enropean. The new fish-market, situated
close to the sea-side, is particularly abundant in all

kinds offish, crabs, and sea tortoises of the most

singular forms. On the opposite side of this mar-
ket, his attention is attracted by the screams of the
parrots exposed for sale, the cries of other animals
peculiar to the country, and of birds brought from
other parts of the world, adorned with the gayest
plumage. In the green-market, besides the kinds
of cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce, leeks, and onions
common in Europe, there are also vegetables of
Indian and African origin. For the pigeon peat,
and several kinds of water-melons, the ginger root,
&c., Brazil is indebted to the intercourse of the
Portuguese with the East Indies, as well as for the
excellent fruits of the jaca, the mango, and the
jambos. The various kinds of red, black, and
speckled beans t, on the contrary, and the almond-

• See on this subject, Memoria sobre a Cochenilla do Bra-

sil, por J. de Amorim Castro, in Memorias Economicas da R.

Academia da Lisboa, vol. ii. p. 135.

f Cytisus Cajan, L. or Cajanus flavus, Dec. called in Brazil
Andu.
X Phaseolus derasus (Schrank Hort. Mon. t. 89.), and Do-
lichos Sinensis (Curtis's Botanical Magazine, t.2232.), which
plant, with small red round beans, is cultivated also by the
Caffres and Hottentots, are the two commonest species.
176 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

like mundubi bean (Arachis ht/pogcea), seem to

have been chiefly imported from the African co-

lonies. * Divers kinds of Spanish potatoes, and
yam t, the mandiocca and Aypim roots t, a mild
and not poisonous variety of the first, and lastly,
maize, maize flour, and mandiocca flour, as being
the principal articles of food from the vegetable
kingdom, are always to be found here in very large
quantities. Fresh grass (caapim), which is grown
in gardens in the neighbourhood, is brought to
market as fodder for the cattle, especially for

horses and mules. The Guinea grass is considered

as the best for fodder many quite different species
;

however are known by this name in the several

provinces of Brazil. §
Afew days after our arrival, we were invited

by one of our countrymen to attend a religious

festival which is celebrated by the negroes in ho-

nour of their patroness Nossa Senhora do Rosario.

A chapel on a slip of land running into the bay,
not far from the royal country-seat of S. Cristovao,
to which we repaired, was filled towards the even-
ing with a countless multitude of brown and black
people, and the band of negroes from S. Cris-
tovao struck up a lively and almost merry strain,
which was succeeded by a very pathetic sermon.
* See page 200;
Note 2.

f Convolvulus Batatas, Dioscorea alata, L.

:jlJatropha Manihot et var. L.
§ Panicum jumentorum, Pers. Paspalum stoloniferum, con-
jugatum, decumbens, virgatum, &c.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 177

Sky-rockets, crackers, serpents, and the like, were

let off in front of the church, and near the calm
surface of the sea, to add to the splendour of the
solemnity.
Twovery different feelings are excited in the
observer when he beholds the children of Africa
placed amidst the more exalted relations of Euro-
pean civilisation ; on the one hand he remarks
with joy the traces of humanity which gradually
develop in the negro by his intercourse with the
whites, while on the other hand he cannot but grieve
that means so cruel, so contrary to the rights of
mankind as the slave trade, were required to afford
to that unhappy race, degraded even in their own
native country, the first school of moral education.
These feelings affected us still more deeply when
we were obliged to go to the slave-market to look
for, and purchase, a young negro for ourselves.

The greater part of the negro slaves who are now

brought to Rio de Janeiro, come from Cabinda
and Benguela. They are made prisoners in their
own country by command of their and bar-
chiefs,
tered by them in exchange for European goods.
Before they are delivered to the slave-merchant,
the chief has them branded with a certain mark
in the back or on the forehead. With no other
covering than a piece of woollen stuff about the
hips, they are then packed into ships, often in far
too great numbers for the size of the vessel, and
carried to their new destination. As soon as such
VOL. I. N
178 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

slaves arrive at Rio de Janeiro, they are quartered

in houses hired for the purpose in Vallongo- street,
near the There may be seen children from
sea.

six years of age upwards, and adults of both sexes,

of all ages. about halflnaked, exposed to
They lie

the sun in the court-yard, or out of the houses ; or

are distributed in several rooms, the two sexes
being kept separate. A mulatto or old negro who
has acquired experience in long service, has the
superintendence of the food and other necessaries
for the new comers. The chief article of subsist-
ence is mandiocca, or maize flour (Fuba), boiled
in water (rntngau) ; and, more rarely, salt meat from
Rio Grande do Sul. The preparation of this sim-
ple food, which they eat out of hollow gourds, or
dishes made of the calabash (Crescentia Cyjete, L.),
is left, as much as possible to themselves. Negroes
and negresses who conduct themselves well, are
rewarded with snuif or tobacco. They pass the
night on straw mats with blankets to cover them.
A great number of these slaves belong to the
sovereign, and are brought as tribute from the
African colonies. Whoever wants to buy slaves
repairs to the Vallongo to make his choice, where
every inspector draws up the slaves quite naked,
for his examination. The purchaser endeavours
to convince himself of the bodily strength and
health of the negroes, partly by feeling their bodies,
and partly by causing them to execute rapid mo-
tions, particularly striking out the arm with the
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL, 179

fist doubled. What

most apprehended in these
is

purchases, are hidden corporal defects, and especial-

ly the very frequent disposition to blindness. When
the choice made, the purchase money is fixed,
is

which for a healthy male negro is here from

350 to 500 florins : the seller generally making
himself answerable for any corporal defects that
may be discovered within a fortnight. The pur-
chaser then takes away his slave, whom he destines
according as he wants him, to be a mechanic, a
mule-driver, or a servant. The new proprietor is

now absolute master of the labour of his slave and

the produce of it. But if he is guilty of inhuman
treatment of him, he is liable, as for other civil
offences, to be punished by the police or the tri-

bunals. The latter take care, by means expressly

adopted for the purpose, to restore runaway slaves
to their right owners, and punish the fugitives if
they renew the attempt, by putting an iron ring
round their necks. If the master will not punish
his slaves himself^ it is done after payment of a
certain sum, by the police in the Calabon90. Here
however, as well as in Brazil in general, the negroes
easily become habituated to the country. This is

a consequence of their careless tempers, as well as

of the similarity of the climate to that of their na-
tive country, and the mildness with which they are
treated in Brazil.
Before the removal of the court from Lisbon to
Rio de Janeiro, the trade of this and all the other
N 2
180 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

cities of Brazil was strictly confined to Portugal.

The daily increasing production of valuable colo-
and the diligent working of the gold-
nial articles,
mines in the interior of the country, had greatly
augmented, during the last hundred years, the
riches and consequently the wants of the Brazilians;
the trade of Lisbon and Oporto therefore indem-
nified the mother country for the loss of the East
Indies, from which it derived the first sources of
its power and greatness. The intimate political
and mercantile union of those two cities with the
colony, was extremely favourable to the former,
and the more so, because its happy situation near

to the Mediterranean and the coasts of the ocean,

on the route of universal commerce between Europe
and the East and West Indies, made it more easy
to dispose of colonial produce. The Portuguese
merchants at that time, not only fixed at pleasure
the prices of all the productions of Brazil, which
was obliged to sell exclusively to them, but could
likewise make their payments in European mer-
chandise, and upon conditions prescribed by them-
selves. Thus Lisbon, at the close of the last cen-

tury,had attained a degree of activity and wealth,

which made it next to London, the first commercial
city in the world. But after a royal decree* had
founded the independence of the Brazilian com-

* The Carta Regia, by which free trade in the Brazilian

ports was laid open to foreigners, is of the 18th of February,
1808.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 181

merce, this state of things very speedily changed.

The freedom of the Brazihan commerce, which
the monopoly and jealousy of the mother country
had hitherto checked, and the opening of the
ports to all nations is the commencement of a
new era in the history of Brazil. It may be
asserted, that of all the measures which the go-
vernment has adopted since its removal to the
colony, none has occasioned such a remarkable
impulse and so great a change as this. But it
has undoubtedly been more advantageous to
Brazil than to Portugal. The latter, after the
dissolution of the intimate union between it and
itsformer colony, will never regain its preceding
commercial splendour.
This emancipation gave occasion to manifold
improvements in Brazil ; the competition of the
other commercial nations with the Portuguese, led
to new relations. The freedom of trade gave an
impulse to industry, and the produce of the coun-
try, being in demand from various quarters, grew

more valuable.This again increased the want of

labourers, the influx of strangers, and the import-
ation of the negroes necessary for the cultivation
of the land. Tempted by the views of an advan-
tageous commerce, colonists from other countries
arrived, and contributed to the instruction of the
inhabitants, to a more accurate knowledge of the
country, and to the increase of its riches. A very
great alteration was hereby effected in the public
^
N 3
182 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

revenue, especially since many duties of forty-eight

per cent, have been reduced to twenty-four, and
fifteen. The mercantile system- previously sub-
sisting between Portugal and Brazil, was particu-
larly shaken by the treaty concluded with England*,
which gave to the English flag equal, nay even
greater privileges in the ports of Portugal and its

possessions, than the Portuguese. An additional

convention extended the freedom of the British
commerce, t English merchants obtained in the
Juiz Conservador a distinct tribunal for their com-
mercial connections with the Portuguese subjects.
It was likewise intended, on occasion of the mar-
riage of Her Imperial Highness the Archduchess
Leopoldina, to establish a commercial intercourse
with Austria, in which the two states were reci-
procally to favour each other ; this plan was, how-
ever, never brought to maturity. Perhaps too, it
might be difficult for the Austrian articles, some
few excepted, to equal in cheapness the English,
with which they would have to contend, and the
more so as all articles, except the Portuguese and
English, pay a duty of twenty-five per cent.
The importation of European productions and
manufactm-es into Rio de Janeiro, extends to all
imaginable human wants. Portugal and the islands
send wine, oil, flour, biscuit, salt, butter, vinegar,
stockfish, hams, sausages, olives, and preserved or

* In February 1810, at Rio de Janeiro, by Lord Strangford,

on the part of England,
f See Note 3. page 200.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 183

dried fruits, distilled liquors, leather, medicines,

coarse calicoes, hats, coarse woollens, iron ware,
Bohemian glass wares, German and Dutch linens,
paper (chiefly Itahan), Portuguese books, musical
instruments, gunpowder, pottery from Oporto, am-
munition, cordage, canvass, sail-cloth, tar, pitch
and other articles for the marine, steel, shoes, cop-
per wares, &c., &c., &c. In former times. East
India goods were brought here in large quantities
from Lisbon, but at present they are imported
direct from India. England (particularly London
and Liverpool) and its colonies supply Rio de
Janeiro with all articles of English manufacture,
especially cotton goods of all kinds, fine cloths,
porcelain and earthenware, iron, lead, copper, tin,

raw and wrought, anchors, cables, gunpowder,

porter, cheese, salt butter, distilled liquors, &c.
From Gibraltar they receive many East India
goods, and, in Portuguese ships, also Spanish wines.
France imports, particidarly from Havre de Grace
and Brest, in these latter times, articles of luxury,
trinkets, furniture, wax candle, drugs, liqueurs,
pictures and French books, silks, looking-
prints,

glasses, hats, fine glass goods and china, dried

fruits, oil, and butter. Holland sends to Rio de
Janeiro beer, glass goods, linen, Geneva, which is
very much used in all the tropical countries on
account of its diuretic qualities, paper, &c. Austria
has sent many things to Rio de Janeiro on specu-
lation, namely, watches, pianofortes, muskets, li-

N 4
184 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

nen, silk and half silk stuffs, velveteen, flannel,

mortars, iron hoops, fishing hooks, penknives, cur-
rycombs, quicksilver, sublimate, cinnabar, vitriol,

sal ammoniac, brass, lead, copper, tin, antimony,

iron wire, arsenic, white and yellow wax, minium,
nails, isinglass, orpiment. The other parts of
Germany, which formerly carried on a very exten-
sive trade in Bohemian glass and linen, with Spain
and Portugal, have now tried the experiment of
sending consignments of these goods direct to
Brazil, but have especially carried on a very good
trade in Nuremberg toys, and in iron and brass
utensils, which are made in the shapes usual in
that country. Russia and Sweden import iron,
steel, copper utensils, sail-cloth, cords, ropes, and
tar. North America sends to Rio de Janeiro chiefly
corn, soap, spermaceti candles, biscuit, train oil,

tar, leather, boards, pitch, potashes, and rude fur-

niture. The trade with the coast of Africa fur-
nishes but few articles, which are all but secondary
to the slave trade. The number of slaves is very
considerable ; in the year I8I7, 20,075 negroes are
said to have been imported into Rio under the
Portuguese flag, from the ports of Guinea and
Mozambique. The articles imported from Mo-
zambique, besides slaves, are gold dust, ivory,
pepper, Colombo root, ebony, coculus indicus,
sometimes also East India goods. From Angola
and Benguela, they receive wax, palm oil extracted
from the fruit of the Dente palm (Elms guineen-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. •
185

sis, L.), Mundubi oil from the seeds of" the Arachis
hi/pogcea, L., ivory, sulphur,and some gum Arabic.
These two latter articles, and salt, are the chief
imports from the Cape de Verd Isles. The imme-
diate trade of Rio with the East Indies, has become
considerable since the arrival of the king, as several
of the first mercantile houses at Lisbon settled
here, and endeavoured to give more activity to
their intercourse with India and China, to which
they were so much nearer, which, on the other
hand, caused a great deduction from the trade of
Lisbon. These ships commonly touch at several
English ports in India, and also at Macao, and
perform their voyage in eight, ten or twelve months.
Goa, and the other Portuguese possessions in the

East, the importance of which has been greatly di-

minished by the influence of their powerful neigh-
bours, are seldom visited on these occasions. The
chief imports from those possessions are many kinds
of cotton goods, which are re-exported to Portugal,
and to different ports of South America. The
imports from Macao are fine muslins and printed
cottons, silk stuffs, porcelain, tea, Indian ink, cin-
namon, pepper, and some camphor. Rio is the
general staple for all the numerous small ports on
the Brazilian coast, northwards to Bahia, and
southwards to Monte Video, which send thither
their produce for exportation to Europe, or home
consumption. The quantity of provisions in par-
ticular, annually imported from all these places
186 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

is considerable; they consist of farinha, beans,

bacon, and dried or salt meat. The produce of
their cattle, such as hides, ox horns, horn tips,

dried and salt meat, tallow, and bacon, and rice

and wheat come by sea chiefly from the
flour,

provinces of Rio Grande do Sul *, and S. Paulo.

The latter furnishes also cheese, tanners' bark of
the mangrove tree, some gum, cotton, sugar, and
rum. The capitania of S. Catherine sends sole-
leather, onions and garlic which thrive there ad-
mirably, dried fish, and pottery. The small har-
bours to the north of Rio, such as S. Joao do
Parahyba, S. Salvador, Macahe, Porto Seguro,
Caravellas, Victoria, &c., supply the market of
Rio with a considerable quantity of vegetables, for
the table, fish, and the productions of their fine
forests, such as beams, planks, pipe-staves, hoops,
charcoal, fuel, Brazil wood, tanners' bark, cocoa-

* The total exportation of wheat from Rio Grande de San

Pedro amounted, in the year 1816, to 279,621 alqueires (70lb,);
in the year 1817, to 133,359 in 1818, to 76,395. The ex-
;

portation of hides from the same place was, in the year 1816,
368,909; in 1817, 238,979 in 1818, 290,950. For these, and
;

other statements,we are indebted to the kindness of our friend,

Mr. F. Schimmelbusch of Solingen, who, during many years'
residence in Brazil, has acquired very extensive knowledge of
its commercial relations. From Chili, which, according to
Bland, exports much none has yet come to Rio de Ja-
corn,
neiro. In fact, the intercourse between these two places is
still very inconsiderable. During the time of our stay, a Swiss
made the first speculation, by a consignment composed chiefly
of German manufactures, to Valparaiso.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 187

nuts, also tobacco, sugar, rum, and rice. Cabo

Frio sends tubs and casks made of the trunks of
large fig-trees {gamelleiras), and, as well as the
neighbouring island Ilha Grande, also lime of cal-
cined shells or rocks. Ilha Grande, having excel-
lent materials, furnishes extremely good pottery.
The trade with Pernambuco and Bahia is not
inconsiderable. From Bahia, Rio receives tobacco,
slaves, millstones,tucum (thread made of the fibres
of the palm), cocoa-nuts, articles from Guinea and
Europe from Pernambuco, salt, saltpetre, and also
;

European articles. Buenos Ayres and Monte

Video supply the market of Rio de Janeiro with
hides, leather, ox horns, tallow, dried salt meat,
and wheat flour. This coasting trade is principally

carried on in small one or two masted ships, and

keeps up a constant intercourse between the whole
Brazilian coast and the capital. From the mouth
of the La Plata to Rio, the voyage is generally
completed in twenty-two to thirty days, from
S. Catherine and Rio Grande do Sul in fifteen to
six and twenty days, from Porto Seguro in eight
to fifteen, from Bahia in twelve to twenty, accord-
ing as the wind blows along the coast from south
or north, which depends on the position of the sun.
Maranhao and Para export their productions direct
without farther intercourse with Rio de Janeiro.
The trade by land, too, is very extensive between
Rio and the neighbouring provinces, especially
with S. Paulo and Minas, to which there are toler-
188 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

able roads. From Rio Grande do Sul and S. Paulo

many thousand oxen, horses, and mules are annually
driven hither, and many of them are forwarded to
the neighbouring capitanias. Minas sends its
cotton, coffee, and tobacco chiefly to Rio de
Janeiro; the road to which, though from some parts
further than to Bahia, is more pleasant and less
difficult. In the year 1820, the importation of
these articles was — cotton 70,407 arrobas, coffee
20,000, andtobacco 54,281 arrobas. Besides these
raw productions, and precious stones, Minas exports
cheese, marmalade, brown sugar-loaves (rapadura),
an enormous quantity of very coarse cottons which
are used for clothing the slaves and poor shepherds
in the southern provinces. The inhabitants of the
remoter provinces of Goyaz and Matogrosso, who
come to the capital to provide themselves with
European manufactures, and convey them home
by the roads through Villa Rica and Caetete, bring
hardly any thing but gold in bars or dust, precious
stones, and among them even diamonds, which are
contraband. It is nothing uncommon to see in-
habitants of the deserts (Sertoes) of Cujaba and Ma-
togrosso, who have made a journey of three hun-
dred miles or more by land, to lead back caravans
of mules laden with articles for the consumption
of the interior. The Brazilian is not to be deterred
by the dangers and fatigues of a journey which often
separates him eight or ten months from his family,
from undertaking from time to time the manage-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 189

ment of his commercial affairs in person for the ;

more retired his native place is, the earlier he has

accustomed himself to disregard long journeys from
it. A man who undertakes almost weekly a journey
of five or six miles* on horseback to attend mass at
church, or to visit his neighbours, does not fear to
travel several hundred miles, if it is necessary, to
exchange the harvest of one or several years for the
valuable productions of foreign countries.
The exportation of the articles of commerce, pro-
duced in the country itself, to the ports of Europe,
was the first foundation of the prosperity of Rio de
Janeiro. The forwarding of goods imported fi'om
Europe, to the smaller ports, and into the interior,
is indeed likewise a fertile source from which the"
capital annually derives large sums ; but it bears
no proportion to the mass of colonial produce which
Rio sends beyond sea. The three most important
articles of agriculture are sugar, coffee, and cotton.
The first is particularly cultivated in those districts
of the capitania, which and east of
lie to the south
the mountain chain (Serra do Mar), and nearer to
the sea (Beiramar), that is, in the districts of Ilha
Grande, Cabo Frio and Goytacazes. The two
districts of Paraiba-Nova, and Canta-Gallo, lying

beyond the mountain chain, are not so favourable

to the cultivation of this article, which marks, as it

* It is stated in a subsequent note, that Portuguese or Bra-

zilian miles, 18 to a degree, are meant one of these may there-
:

fore be taken as equal to four English miles. Trans.

lyU TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

were, thelimits of the warmest and moistest parts of

the country, where it grows luxuriantly. Most of
the sugar plantations and manufactories {engenhos')
are situated in the vicinity of the capital itself, and
about Cabo Frio. It is well known that the cultiva-
tion of the sugar-cane was introduced into Rio de
Janeiro, by the governor Mem de Sa, immediately
after the expulsion of the French, in the year 1568,
The sugar exported from the harbour of Rio de
Janeiro, in 1817, amounted to 17,000 chests, or
about 680,000 arrobas. It is only within these few
years that coffee has been extensively cultivated in
the capitania of Rio, and it has been observed that
it will be equal in quality to that of Martinique and
Saint Domingo, as soon as the necessary care is

taken^ in gathering it. The coffee of Rio was

formerly not liked in Europe, as they generally
plucked the unripe berries, and in order to separate

the seed from the external husk, they were suffered

which injured the taste, and gave the
to corrupt,
berry a white colour and unsound appearance.
Within these few years the cultivation of the coffee
tree,and the gathering of the crop have been im-
proved; particularly since Dr. Lesesne, an ex-
perienced planter from Saint Domingo, who was
driven from that country during tha troubles,
formed a great plantation in the neighbourhood of
Rio, and instructed the cultivators in the most ad-
vantageous manner of treating that plant. This
example, and the increased demand, have caused
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 191

the cultivation to be considerably extended ; and at

present Rio de Janeiro furnishes, among all the
ports of Brazil, the greatest quantity of coffee, and
that which is most in request. During the last
years the exportation amounted, in the year 181
to 9,567,960 pounds, in 1818 to 11,140,350, in
1819 to 8,087,320 pounds (on ax^count of the
drought), in 18-20 to 14,733,540 pounds. The cotton
exported from this place to Europe, particularly to
London and Liverpool, is not merely the produc-
tion of the neighbourhood; a very large part of it
"

is brought to Rio on mules from Minas, chiefly from

Minas Novas. From six to eight arrobas, put into
two sacks made of raw hides, are the usual burthen
of each mule. The cotton tree cultivated at Rio
(Gossypium barbadense^ L. sometimes, but more
rarely the G. herbaceiim, L.) thrives very well, but
is said not to furnish such durable materials as that
in the higher and drier district of Minas Novas.
Tobacco is principally grown in the islands in the
Bay of Rio, in that of Angra dos Reys, and on the
lowest coast land (Beiramar), for instance in the
vicinity of Paraty ; it is also brought here from the
capitania of Espirito Santo. The dried and salted
hides which Rio de Janeiro sends principally to
England and France, are mostly brought from Rio
Grande do Sul, S. Paul and Minas. A view of
these most important articles of exportation during
the year I8I7 is subjoined.*

* See Note 4. page 205.

192 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

Besides these staple articles, Rio de Janeiro ex-

ports to Europe, tallow, otters' skins, but in very
small quantities, horse hair and hides, ox horns,
horn tips, and plates, rum, treacle, whale oil,

whalebone, ipecacuanha, rice, some cocoa and

indigo, the demand which has continued to de-
for
cline, fustic-wood of a very good quality, and log-
wood. Pernambuco wood grows indeed in the
forests of the province, but the government to which
it belongs, has not had any felled for many years,
and there are now no magazines of it in the place.
It may be assumed that the total value of these
articles amounts yearly to 1,600,000 milrees or

2,000,000 piasters, and pays to the treasury 446,400

milrees, or 558,000 piasters export duty. The
rule according to which the productions of the
country generally pay duty, is at the rate of two
per cent, on the market price, besides some charges
in the same proportion as we mention below on
coffee, sugar. &c. To the smaller ports of Brazil,
Rio exports all kinds of European goods j to Per-
nambuco and Ceara, sometimes considerable quanti-
ties of vegetables, when a drought causes them to
fail there. Of late years slaves have been exported
from Rio to the northern provinces in great
numbers. The west and east coast of Africa re-
ceive English and Portuguese goods from this place.
Lastly, gold bars and Spanish dollars must also be
considered as an export article from Rio de Janeiro?
Both Portuguese and North American Indiamen
often take from here, instead of goods, large sums
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 193

in silver, which they carry to India. It is affirmed*

that in some years the value of the silver exported

in this manner has amounted to 500,000/. nay even
800,000/. sterling.
The great difference in the value of the imports
and exports in favour of Rio de Janeiro, which
from the excess of the latter draws large sums in
ready money from Europe, indicates at once the
nature of the commercial relations between Europe
and this rich though infant state. The precious
metals which the rapacious eagerness of preceding
centuries has snatched from the bosom of America,
are now gradually returning to their native country,
and either remain there or find their way to India.
The admirable situation of the secure and spacious
harbour, on the shores of an ocean where naviga-
tion is in general safe and practicable at all seasons,
almost, as it were, at the entrance of the principal
route of universal commerce ; the short time in
which voyages may be performed from here to
Europe, the west coast of Africa, the Cape, Mozam-
bique, India, and New Holland ; the abundance of
inland produce and of precious metals ; and the
great impulse which the presence of the court gives
to the country, have already so much extended the
connections of this place, that it must become at
no very distant period one of the richest ports in
the world. The activity of trade in the capital of
Brazil, proves that the variety of productions must

* John Luccock's Notes on Rio de Janeiro, Lond. 1820,

4to. p. 595.

VOL. I. O
194 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

at present be greater than it could be, if those

accounts were true which represent Brazil as a
country yet wholly uncultivated, without any traces
of the beneficial influence of European industry. It
is true, the colonial produce exported from the

port of Rio de Janeiro is indeed not entirely

grown in the province, but is partly brought from
the remote districts of the interior. But a com-
parison of the exportation of some articles from this
port, with the same from England, gives us a very
favourable idea of the productiveness of this coun-
try. England is said to have shipped in the year
1817, 401,700 cwt. coffee, and used about 600,000
cwt. for home consumption. If the latter account be
correct, Rio de Janeiro alone would have exported
nearly double the quantity of coffee consumed in
England.
Even before the arrival of the king it had be-
come necessary to establish a bank, on account of
the great capital in circulation, to represent which
the gold and silver coin was not half sufficient, even
if all the rich men of the province had contributed
all their ready money. Several of the first mer-
chants and capitalists had united, who contributed
a fund in proportion to the notes issued by them
under their joint guarantee. Under the manage-
ment of a committee, chosen by the founders, the
establishment, which was only a private undertak-
ing, prospered, and extended among the mercantile
public in general the credit which it at first only
enjoyed among its authors. It is probable that the
 TKAVELS IN BRAZIL. 195

amount of the bank-notes was increased, without

any addition to the fund. In the sequel, when the
institution continued to thrive, they united with the
bank an insurance company, farming of the regalia
of the crown, &c. and it enjoyed in uninterrupted
;

activity, without foreign interference, such great

confidence, that many public officers placed a part
of their salary in the bank, and rich land-owners
in the interior of the country sent their capitals to
Rio, to deposit them in the bank for their children,
as the safest part of their property. When the
king came to Brazil, the change of the political
relations led to a new epoch for the bank. On
the 12th of October, 1808, were sanc-
its statutes
tioned by the king, and the institution, under the
title of Bank of Brazil, extended the sphere of its

activity. The bank provided for the frequent and

considerable wants both of the court and the state,
sometimes on the security of valuable effects de-
posited in it, and sometimes on that of mortgages
of the future revenue. It is reported that several
foreign merchants endeavoured about this time to
shake the solidity of the bank, by suddenly present-
ing bank-notes to a large amount ; however, pay-
ment being immediately made, to which the intimate
union between the royal mint and the bank, might
perhaps contribute, it still maintained itself in very
good credit, particularly in the mother country
though without any known solid guarantee,
itself,

and without any close connection with any similar

establishinei^jts. The late events in the year 1821,
o 9i
196 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

when the king, before his departure, took consider-

able sums out of the bank, for which he deposited
a part of the crown diamonds, which in the sequel
were taken back to Europe, and, as it is affirmed,
extensive embezzlements, appear greatly to have
shaken the foundations of the establishment.
The amount of the current coin at Rio cannot
be precisely determined ; the less so, because im-
mense sums are sometimes exported, the withdraw-
ing of which from circulation, is often long and
generally felt. The ships bound to India and
China, as we have already observed, take, for the
most part, ready money, either Spanish piasters, or

Portuguese gold, which suddenly causes so great

a scarcity of money, that not only the value of
gold rises extremely in exchange, but the interest
on bills runs up to twenty or twenty-two per cent.
In such conjunctures, several months frequently
pass before the want of currency ceases to be felt.

The operations of the mint too, which purchases

Spanish dollars, and recoining them as pieces of
three pataccas, issues them again l60 rees higher,
appears sometimes to produce a temporary scarcity
in Rio. The rate of interest usual among the
merchants for open accounts, but not for bill trans-
actions, is twelve per cent. This is in proportion
to the price of daily labour, which for a hired
negro 160 to 240 rees, and for a European la-
is

bourer from one to two Spanish dollars.

Neither the state of trade as we have described
it, nor the custom-house duties, are disadvantage-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 197

ous to industry in though a great

Brazil ; for
quantity of merchandise and manufactures is im-
ported which might be produced in the country
itself, it is want of artisans and mechanics,
rather the
than the competition of foreign commerce, that
causes articles made in the country to be so dear.
As the population increases, the activity of the
interior provinces will be animated, and conse-
quently the balance of exportation and importation
will become still more favourable to Brazil. Many
mechanics, chiefly French, are at present settled at
Rio, who have been encouraged by the govern-
ment. Among the natives the mulattoes are those
who show the most ingenuity and perseverance in
the mechanical arts, and they are even said to mani-
fest great taste for painting. The free negroes, of
whom there is number in the city, do not
a great
prove such useful members of society as in the
country, where they not unfrequently become able
and wealthy farmers. The artisans, on the other
hand, partly work with their own black slaves,
who, under the strict discipline of their masters,
learn, together with ability and aptness for business,
also the virtue of social order. Trades and profes-
sions in general are not subject to the strict super-
intendence of the magistrate that is exercised in
Europe. Many trades are carried on without
being incorporated into guilds, and are exercised
without restraint by any person who is so disposed,
and yet the prices of all manufactured articles are
very high. The liberty enjoyed by the owner of a
o 5
198 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

slave to employ him in any mechanical profession

that he thinks proper, is opposed to the constraint
of European corporations. However, all trades
which have any influence on the public health and
welfare, are placed under the superintendence of
the police. Bread and meat are sold by a legal
assize, but the difference in the stock and the

supply causes a great diversity in the prices. The

European stranger is astonished at the number of
gold and silver smiths and jewellers, who, like the
other tradesmen, live together in one street, which
calls to mind the magnificent Ruas de Ouro and de

Prata of Lisbon. The workmanship of these arti-

sans is indeed inferior to the European, but is not
destitute of taste and solidity. Many trades, which
are very necessary in Europe, are at present almost
superfluous in the interior of this country, on ac-
count of the circumscribed wants of the inhabitants.
In the capital, however, and the other towns on the
coast, joiners, white-smiths, and other artisans, are
numerous ; but tanners, soap-boilers, and workers
in steel, are scarce. There is a great demand for
mechanics, to build sugar and other mills, to con-
struct machines for working the gold mines, &c.,
and very high wages are given them. Hitherto no
glass, china, cloth, or hat manufactories have been

established in the capital and the erection of them

;

would hardly be advisable, in a country which can

obtain the productions of European industry on
such low terms, in exchange for the produce of its
rich soil.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 199

NOTES TO CHAPTER I.

Note 1.

The Portaria, which was extended in the sequel to the

othei" capitanias, through which we travelled, was con-
ceived in the following terms : Manda El Rey Nosso Sen-
hor a todas as Authoridades Militares ou Civis a quern esta
for apresentada, e o seu conhecimento pertencer, que se nao
ponha embara^o algum a livre Jornada de Mrs. Spix e Mar-
tius, Membros d'Academia Real das Sciencias de Munich,

aos quaes Sua Magestade tern concedido a permissao ne-

cessaria para viajar e demorar-se o tempo que Ihes for
conveniente em qualquer parte dentro dos limites desta
Capitania do Rio de Janeiro ; E determina sua Magestade,
que se Ihes preste nesta sua degre^ao toda a assistencia e
auxilio de que precizar, logo que o pedir. Palacio do Rio
de Janeiro em 12 Septembro de 1817.

(L. S.) JoAo Paulo Bezerra,

The king our sovereign commands aU military and civil

authorities,to whom these presents may be shown, oy tQ

whose knowledge they shall come, that they shall not place
any obstacle in the way of Messrs. Spix and Martius,
members of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Munich,
to whom His Majesty has granted the necessary license to
travel within the boundaries of the province of Rip de
Janeiro, and to reside wherever and as long as tb«y thiafe
fit ; His Majesty further commands, that all suppgopt an4
assistance of which they may be in need be afforded them,
o 4
200 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

as soon as they require it. Given at the palace the 1 2th

of September 1817.
(L. S.) John Paul Bezerra.

Note 2.

Arachis Jii/pogcea, L. Besides the importance of this

plant to the cultivator in hot countries on account of its

oily seeds, it is particularly interesting to the naturalist,

because it hides its flowers in the earth as soon as they run
to seed. There are several other instances in the family of
legununous plants of similar appearances, by which the
seed is in a manner changed into a bulb ; for example, in
the Vicia ampJiicarpus, Lathyrus ampliicdrpus, Trifolium
suhterraneum, Glycine subterranea, monoica, and hetorocarpa,
Hegetsweiler (Diss. Tab. 1812.), In the two last species,

the size and structure of the seeds above and under ground
are very different. Something similar is observed also in
the Milium amphicarpum, Pursh.

Note 3.

Portuguese and English Commissioners, who met at

London on the 18th of December 1812, regulated many
other points which were not defined with sufficient accuracy
in the first act. English manufactures pay 15 per cent.
ad valorem on their importation into the Portuguese custom-
houses. However, in many articles, the Portuguese offi-
cers are to take, not the current value, but the price fixed
in the tariff (Pauta), as the standard for determining the
duty so that in consequence of the decline in the prices in
;

proportion to the increased supply, the import duty on

isome articles amounts to 25 per cent, of the value. The
Portuguese themselves paid, before the Royal decree of
the 2d of May 1818, at the rate of 16 per cent. The
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 201

British trade derives peculiar advantages from the stipula-

tion then made, and which subsists in the same manner
between England and Naples, that English goods, the
value of which, as stated by the importer, appears to be
too small, cannot be taken by the Portuguese custom-
houses, unless they return the duty which has been paid,
and give the owner the stated value of his goods with an
addition of 10 per cent.
In oi'der to give our readers a more accurate knowledge
of the principles followed by the Portuguese government
in the late regulation of the customs, we will briefly state
the chief points of the last decree on the subject, issued on
the 2d of May 1818, which was carried into execution
during our stay. In the custom-houses of the United
Kingdom of Portugal, Bi'azil, and Algarve, and in all the
other Portuguese possessions, the existing import and ex-
, port duties shall be paid upon all articles without excep-
tion, even if they belong to the royal family, and all

exemptions and privileges of the kind are declared to

be suspended for twenty years. Foreign wines may be
imported, but they pay three times as much duty as the
Portuguese foi-eign brandy pays twice and a half as much.
:

Every new negro {negro novo) above three years of age,

who is imported into the harbours of Brazil from Africa,
pays, besides the already existing duty, amounting to
near 6000 rees, an additional 9600 rees, half of which
is to be deposited in the bank of Rio de Janeiro, to form

shares, which are intended for the foundation of colonies

of white settlers. Every arroba of dried salt meat ex-
ported from the harbours of Brazil in foreign ships, is to
pay 600 rees, if in Portuguese, 200 rees. Gold and silver
trinkets, polished diamonds, and other precious stones, pay
an export duty of 2 per cent.
All Brazilian articles of commerce, which hitherto paid
no fixed duty, pay henceforward an export duty of 2 per
cent., as an equivalent for what were called the consulate
202 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

duties, which, before the trade was free, they had to pay
in the custom-houses of Portugal ; but may then be re-

exported from Portugal duty free. Brazilian articles of

commerce which already pay fixed duties, are hereafter to
pay them without the consulate duties. (These fixed duties
are differently regulated, according to the tariffs of the
several ports.) Portuguese manufactures, which enjoy no
particular exemptions as national manufactures, are entitled,
on importation into Brazil, to a deduction of 5 per cent,
by way of bounty. Asiatic productions, which hitherto
paid 8 per cent, on exportation from Portugal, pay hence-
forth only 3 per cent. The duty on all Portuguese goods
is reduced from 16 to 15 per cent. Foreign goods in
Portuguese vessels receive a deduction of 5 per cent, from
the duty which is generally 24 per cent. Salt, whether

imported by Portuguese or foreigners, pays 800 rees per

moio (20 Brazilian alqueires). Foreign vessels pay in
all the custom-houses of the united kingdoms, the same

tonnage, anchorage, and light-house duties, which Portu-

guese ships pay in the harbours of the respective nations.
(In Rio the anchorage duty is one piaster per day.) Slaves
and goods of every kind imported into Brazil must, if they
are to be re-exported to foreign countries, first pay the
duty on consumption.
The same royal decree (alvard) commands the erection
of light-houses, and the formation of what are called ca-
patacias, in the sea-ports. The latter consist of societies
of porters, mostly free negroes and mulattoes, who are di-
vided into companies, under the direction and authority of
the custom-house officers, convey the goods to and from the
magazines, and are responsible for them as long as they
remain in their hands. In the larger commercial towns of
on same footing as at
the
1
Brazil these corporations are
Lisbon, where they are very numerous, and carry burthens
instead .of mules. Their organisation resembles that of the
Hamburgh porters called Litzelbriider.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 203

To the produce of the custom-houses in Brazil, which

constitute an important part of the revenue, must be added
the duties upon goods which are exported from one pro-
vince to another. These
da entrada are very con-
direitos
imposed upon all goods without
siderable, because they are
exception, according to the weight, on lead, iron, and
other metals, as well as on the hghtest stuffs, silk goods,
&c. On entering the province of Minas Geraes, the arroba
pays 720 rees salt is the only exception, the duty being
;

but 450 rees upon the arroba.* For every negro slave
imported into Minas, 7800 rees are paid at the frontier
custom-house {registo); on the river Paraibuna, for each
head of horned mule, or horse, 2 pataccas (640
cattle,
rees); for every person 1 patacca; for the cotintersigning
of the passport 2 pataccas. Similar duties are paid at
every frontier custom-house of a capitania.
But the wants of the state are farther provided for by
imposts and taxes which are collected either immediately
by the government, or by farmers {contractadores). These
taxes are partly different in the several provinces, each of
which has its own financial administration ; in general,
however, with some local modifications, the following are
levied Dizimo; a tenth of all the produce of agriculture,
:

fisheries, and cattle. Subsidio real or nacional ; duties on

fresh on raw and tanned hides, on sugar-cane
meat,
brandy, and coarse woollens, which are manufactured in

* Till within these few years, the importation of salt from Portugal
and its colonies into Brazil, was let out to a farmer-general for the sum
of 48,000 milrees per annum ; the inhabitants of the coasts of Per-
nambuco, Cabo Frio, and Rio Grande were, however, allowed to make
salt in their pits for their own consumption, but not to export it.

(S. Ensaioeconomico sobre o commercio de Portugal por D. I. L da

Cunha de Azeredo Coutinho edic. seg. Lisb. 1816, p. 20.) The
monopolies and inland duties are said to have been abolished by the
Crown Prince Don Pedro, since the departure of the king from the
Brazils.
204 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the country. — Subsidio litet^ario (duty for paying the sa-

laries of schoolmasters) ; on every ox that is slaughtered,
on sugar-cane brandy, in some provinces, as in Maranhao,
.also on the sale of salt meat from the interior (there it is
320 rees on six arrobas). —
Imposto paro o Banco do Brazil,
(tax for the bank); an impost of 2,800 rees on every mer-
]

chant, bookseller, and apothecary, every magazine of gold,

silver, tin, pewter, and copper articles, tobacco, &c. only ;

the stalls of the barbers and shoemakers, whose trades are

in some respects considered as the meanest, are exempted
from it. A sumptuary tax on every four or two wheeled
cai-riage (in Maranhao it is 12,000 and 10,000 rees) is also
destined for the bank. Another tax is levied on sugar-
mills and distilleries it varies in the different provinces.
;

(In Maranhao they pay 3200 rees for every sugar-mill

[engenJio de moer canna), in Bahia 4000 rees for every
alembic.) Decima ; 10 per cent, on the annual revenue of
houses and other real property in the cities. This tax is,
however, paid only on the coast and in the more populous
places of the interior the inhabitants of the Sertao do not
;

pay it. —Siza a tax of 1 per cent on the sale of houses

,-

and other real property in the city. —

Meia siza ; a tax of
5 per cent, on the. sale of a slave who has already learnt
his business {negi-o ladijio). —
Novos Dlreitos are a tax of
10 per cent, which persons holding places in the depart-
ments of the finance and justice pay out of their annual
salary. —The Sellos (stamp duties), the foros (fees for pa-
tents), and \he Rendimentos da C/iancellar'ia (chancery fees),

and the revenue of the Correio (the post-office), are not

inconsiderable. Besides these imposts, others are levied
by the magistrates in particular places, which go to the local
treasury ; for instance, a duty of 320 rees for each head of
cattlewhich is exported out of the comarca of Paracatu,
and another in the Villa Caytete of 80 rees for every cargo
of cotton which is exported.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 205

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206 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

CHAPTER 11.

EXCURSIONS IN THE ENVIRONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO.-

We withstood the temptations of the beautiful na-

tural scenery, which displayed itself before our
windows, in all the splendour of the south, only till

we had provided most urgent wants of our

for the
domestic arrangements. It was particularly the
neighbouring mountains, clothed with thick ver-
dure, that attracted us, and thither we accordingly
undertook our first excursion. The way led still

within the suburbs over that marshy level, which

at new and full moon is covered by the high tide
of the bay, and receives, besides the mud fi'om the
sea, all the filth of the city, such as dead animals,
&c., and is by thousands of
therefore frequented
the carrion vulture, or urubus (^Fultur Aura, L,.).
However disagreeable the look, and however un-
wholesome the exhalations from this plain may be,
which, instead of high dykes and sluices, is pro-
vided only with shallow ditches to drain it, yet we
stopped some time in it, our attention being en-
gaged by many interesting objects. Wherever the
sea-water had covered the ground, we found it
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 207

pierced with innumerable holes, which serve as a

retreat to the edible land-crab (Cancer Uca, L.).
On the sandy bank we observed, not only several
strand plants common to the tropical countries of
both continents, such as Avicennia tomentosa and
Rhizophora mangle, L., but also two others, natives
of higher latitudes, namely, Portulaca pilosa, which
is found on the coasts of Asia Minor, and Pharna-

ceum Cerviafia, which found on the Baltic. We

is

traversed the principal street which leads through

the quarter of Mato-porcos to the royal resi-
dences, S. Cristovao and Santa Cruz ; and pass-
ing a handsome country-seat, belonging to the
bishop, we ascended the first hills of the Corcova-
do. Scarcely were we beyond the streets and the
noise of.the town, when we stopped, as if enchanted,
in the midst of a strange and luxuriant vegetation.
Our eyes were attracted, sometimes by gaily
coloured birds or splendid butterflies, sometimes
by the singular forms of the insects and the nests
of wasps and termites hanging from the trees,
sometimes by the beautiful plants scattered in the
narrow valley, and on the gently sloping hills.
Surrounded by lofty airy cassias, broad-leaved,
white-stemmed cecropias, thick-crowned myrtles,
large-flowered bignonias, climbing tufts of the
mellifluous pauUinias, far-spreading tendrils of the
passion-flower, and of the richly flowering hatched
coronilla, above which rise the waving summits of
Macaubu palms, we fancied ourselves transported
208 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

into the gardens of the Hesperides. Passing over

several streams which were turned to good account,
and. hills covered with young coppice wood, we at

length reached the terrace of the eminence along

which the spring water for the city is conducted.
A delightful prospect over the bay, the verdant
islands floating in it, the harbour with its crowd of
masts and various flags, and the city stretched out

at the foot of the most pleasant hills, the houses

and steeples dazzling in the sun, was spread before
our eyes. We dwelt long on the magical view of
a great European city, rising here amidst the pro-
fusion of tropical vegetation. We then pursued
the road along the windings the aqueduct. The
channel is chiefly built of blocks of gi-anite, but
the vaulted covering, within wJiich the naturalist
finds many of the most singular phalangia, is of
brick. Between the woody hills there are diver-
sified romantic prospects into the valleys below.
Sometimes you traverse open spots where a stronger
light is reflected from the flowery ground, or from
the shining leaves of the neighbouring high trees,
sometimes you enter a cool shady bower. Here a
thick wreath of paulliniae, securidacae, mikanias,
passion-flowers, adorned with an incredible num-
ber of flowers, climb through the crowns of the
celtis, the flowery rhexias and melastomas, bauhi-

nias, delicate mimosas, shining myrtles ; there,

bushy nightshades, sebastanias, eupatorias, crotons,

segiphilas, and innumerable other plants, form an
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 209

impenetrable thicket, amidst which grow immense

stems of the silk cotton tree (bombax), of silver-
leaved cecropia, thorny Brazil wood tree, of the
lecythis, with its singular fruit resembling a pitcher,
slender stems of the cabbage-palm, and many other,
in part unnamed, sovereigns of the woods.
still

The majestic sight, the repose and silence of these

woods, interrupted only by the buzz of the gay
humming-birds fluttering from flower to flower,
and by the singular notes of unknown birds and
insects, peculiarly affect the mind of the man of
sensibility, who feels himself as it were regenerated
in the prospect of the glorious country.
The stream, which the aqueduct conveys to the
city, falls in one place in beautiful cascades over the
granite rocks. Oblique-leaved begonias, slender
costus, and heliconias, the red flower-stems of
which shine with peculiar splendour, contrasted
with the gloom of the forest, arborescent ferns
and grasses, hanging bushes of vernonias, myrtles,
and melastomas, bending under a load of blossoms,
adorn the cool spots that surround them. Large
and small winged butterflies play with the rippling
water and birds of the gayest plumage contend,
;

morning and evening, to overcome the noise of the

brook by their diverse notes. This fountain is

called Caryoca *, and the natives of the province

* Caryoca, properly Caryb-oca, signifies, in the language of

House of the Whites, House of Stone
the native Brazilians,
and was probably the name given by the Indians to the dwell-
VOL. L P
210 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

have from it the name of Caryocas, which they

give themselves with pride, but with which the in-
habitants of the other provinces combine a satirical
accessory meaning. Ingenious poets of Rio de
Janeiro, inspired by the beauties that surround
this spring, have exerted themselves to celebrate
by their songs the naiad who brings so beneficial a
present to their native city. When exhausted by
exertion and fatigue we often refreshed ourselves
here with the cool water, and, over-shadowed by the
trees swarming with life, in sight of the distant sea,
examined our ample booty in birds, insects, and
plants. We can never forget the feelings which
were excited in us here ; and only the man of a
tranquil mind, who feels himself happy in the en-
joyment of the beauties of nature, can appreciate
the extent of the bliss, which we pilgrims from the
north experienced amidst such magnificent profu-
sion. Not far from the source, the valley declines
from Laranjeiras towards the suburb of Catete.
The wanderer charmed by the gay variety in
is

which gardens, new plantations, ancient forests,

and scattered country-houses alternately engage
the eye. In the middle of the slope and near the
road we remarked a solitary hut among the bushes.

ings of stone which the Portuguese built, as a protection against

(Ensaio economico sobre o
the fiery arrows of the natives.
commercio de Portugal, por Azeredo Coutinho, edit. 2. Lisb.
1815, p. 6.)
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 211

It belongs toCount Hogendorp, who, having been

much affected by the political changes in the state
of Europe, passes his days here, far from the world
and from politics, in intercourse with nature, and
thinks it not below his dignity to provide for his
subsistence by preparing charcoal from the trees on
his estate. We had been previously introduced to
him, and admired the firmness and strength of
mind of a man, who, retired from the ever-changing
tumult of worldly affairs, felt himself happy in a
confined habitation, and in view of the ocean roll-

ing from the shores of St. Helena.

At the cascade of Caryoca the road turns aside
from the aqueduct, and leads over a dry eminence
covered with low trees and shrubs, to the forest
which clothes the ridge of the Corcovado. The
narrow steep path passes over several streams. The
vegetation is uncommonly strong and luxuriant;
but the higher we ascend, the large trees gradually
become more rare, and the bamboos and ferns more
numerous, among which is a beautifiil arborescent
fern fifteen feet in height.* When you have made
your way through the last thicket you reach the
green summit of tlie mountain, where single shrubs,
among which is a magnificent arborescent vel-
losiat, offer to the eye a vegetation resembling
that of the higher campos of Minas. From this

* Polypodium Corcovadense. (Raddi Synopsis silic. Bras. Bo-

non. 1819. 4to. p. 10. No. 76.)

f Vellosia Candida Mik. (Delect, flor. et faun. Bras. t. 7.)

P 2
2J2 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

spot there is a beautiful view extending over the

woods, hills, and the city, to the sea, the
valleys,

broad surface of which is lost in the distant hori-

zon. Towards the south the mountain is broken,
and the prospect loses itself in a steep declivity
bounded by the blue bay of Bota-Fogo and still ;

farther, the bold masses of the Sugar-loaf Mountain

close the horizon. At this elevation, of about two

thousand feet, the difference in the temperature is

already so sensible, that you fancy yourself trans-

ported to a colder zone. Several streams flowing
from the ridge of the mountain are always some
degrees colder than the water in the aqueduct, and
at the approach of sunset the summit of the moun-
tain is enveloped in clouds which gradually sink
into the valley.
We ascended the top of this high mountain only
once J
but, on the other hand, were the more fre-

quent in our visits to the aqueduct, the vicinity of

which affords the richest collection of plants and
animals. We were particularly desirous of follow-
ing farther the stream of Caryoca, as in the torrid
zone all animals prefer the vicinity of the springs.
On one of these excursions we came to a solitary
coffee plantation, which, as we afterwards learnt,

belonged to the English consul, Mr. Chamberlain,

who also amuses himself with entomology, and
has a rich collection of the insects of the neigh-
bourhood. Just as we arrived there, a beautiful
crimson snake (Colub. ve7iustissimus, Neuw.) with
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. ^13

black and small white transverse bands, which is

erroneously supposed to be venomous, had been
dug up in the fields. In this moist tract we also
found a seps (Cari/ocanus, nob.) ; the insects Q/c/irM5
Arnica, nob. ; Prionus Jiieroglyphicus, nob. ; Biglo-
bulus rugosus, nob.; Buprestis quatuornotata, nob.;
Imatidiumcornutum, nob. ; and several singular slugs.
From this rural retreat, which lies close on the
declivity of the mountain, we had another magni-
ficent prospect of the bay and of its beautiful ver-
dant islands. Thewere planted on the
coffee trees
sides of the hills bounding a narrow valley, the
summits of which were crowned by the Brazilian
pine {^Araucaria imhricata), with its dark grotesque
branches extended like candelabras. In the sur-
rounding forests, and, as we were assured, even in
the neighbourhood of the plantation, there grows a
kind of bark, which, since several years, has been
exported under the name of Quina, do Rio (Coutarea
speciosa, A. ?), the efficacy of which in intermitting
fevers has been proved by experiments made by
physicians in Portugal. * It is true, that many,
especially quotidian fevers, pertinaciously resist the
effects of this bark, which has much fewer anti-
febrile qualities than the Peruvian ; it is, however,
preferable to many other sorts which come to Spain
fi-om Peru mixed with the better kind. Perhaps

* Journal de Coimbra, No. 35. part i. p. 235, and No. 38^

part i. p. 92.
214i TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

this medicine would be more powerful if the bark

of young trees were taken in preference, which

has hitherto not been the case ; the ignorant peo-
ple employed to gather it having selected very
thick and woody pieces, which can be pulled off
without any trouble, to the finer bark of the young
trees and branches. Another plant, containing a

great quantity of bitter, is the Carqueja (Baccharis

Lam.), which does not, indeed, grow
genestelloides,
here, but on the high mountains of Serra de Es-
trella. It is very often used by the Brazilians

against intermitting fevers,and seems much to

resemble, in its component parts, the Eupatorium
perfoliatum* which is frequent in North America.
,

It, however, differs from the pure bitters by the

considerable admixture of resinous and aromatic

parts.
Another equally interesting excursion that we
used to make was to Tijuca, a place about a mile
from the city, which was formerly much frequented
by the inhabitants. The way is on the high road,
past the royal country-seat of S. Cristovao, which
was built after his majesty's arrival, and by im-
provements in the grounds has been made a very
agreeable retreat. The road lies between luxuriant
hedges of cactus, lantana, bougainvillia, cordia,
tournefortia and mimosa lebbek, above which

* Bigelow, American Medical Botany, Boston, 1818, vol. i.

p. 33.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 215

the aloes shoot up their lofty flowering stems. Tlie

country is level up to the foot of the mountain
only an insulated verdant conical rock in the vici-
nity of the royal seat is a picturesque object rising
above the variegated gardens and plantations. To
the west of the road, a new aqueduct conveys the
water, of a stream from the mountains into the
city. Citizens and peasants, on foot
and on horse-
back, and frequently two persons mounted on one
beast, give great animation to the road, on which
the carriages of the rich people can only go as far
as S. Cristovao. It is pleasing to see in this para-

dise the traces of European industry, diligently cul-

vated land, and beautiful country-houses. As-
cending the verdant slope of the mountain, and
between numerous country-seats, along a moun-
tain stream which turned several mills, we at last
reached the summit, where the fatigue of the jour-
ney was rewarded with a view towards the-
fine

suburb of S. Cristovao. The day was drawing to

a close when we arrived, and, tired with our walk,
we wished to find a lodging for the night. There
was indeed a venda on the road, but it afforded
only tobacco, rum, biscuit, and Minas cheese, and
no accommodation ; we were therefore obliged to
seek refuge at the seat of a Frenchman of our ac-
quaintance, which lay to the side of the road. The
narrow path first conducted us upwards near a
deep valley, and at last to the house in the middle
of the wood, where we were obliged to content
p 4
216 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

ourselves with some roasted potatoes and a wooden

bench as a bed. The stars shone with uncommon
radiance ; a pale light lay over the gloomy forest
the silence of this retreat was interrupted only by
the murmuring of distant streams ; and lost in the

contemplation of this attractive scene, we cheer-

fully resigned ourselves to the refreshment of sleep.

Towards daybreak we proceeded towards the

quarter from which we heard the sounds of the
water, and just as the sun was rising, were at the
dechvity of a high rock, from which a crystal
brook, partly dissolved into mist, fell from a height
of nearly a hundred feet into the valley. The view
of this sublime scene reminded us of the cascades
of Naples and Tivoli, the ornaments of a similar,
but far and magnificent landscape. At the
less rich

bottom of the valley and near the cascade stands a

simple pleasant cottage, where we were welcomed
by Mr. Tonay, an estimable French painter who
resides with his family in this secluded spot. We
parted with reluctance from this lovely place, and
continued our journey south-south-west, towards
the opposite declivity of the mountain. Passing
over thickly wooded hills, we came to a deep valley,
and at length to the foot of the Gavia, a pictur-
esque granite rock, which rises close to the eastern

banks of Lake Camorim, and by its sombre crags

and woods hanging over the smooth mirror of the
water, reminded us of the lonely lakes of Switzer-
land, and the principality of Saltzburg. The
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. ^17

Camorim, called also Jacarepagua, a brackish mere,

is connected to the south with the sea, into which it

brings the tribute of many mountain streams, and

by which it is swelled in high tides. In the low
grounds near the lake, where the thickets of man-
groves* do not entirely stifle all other vegetation,
grow the most beautiful marsh plants, and large
bushes of ferns. Among others, we found, on the
cool soil of picturesque rocks, the beautiful blue
flowers of the Gloxinia speciosa, which have been
brought from this Europe by English
place to
gardeners. Only a few wretched huts belonging
to fishermen, who are all of a mixed race, lie
scattered in this solitude, from which the European
art of horticulture could produce a creation, infi-
nitely rich in variety and novelty of form. This
lake produces such abundance of fish, that the in-
habitants of this district do not even think of ob-
taining the necessary subsistence by cidtivating the
fertile forests that surroimd them : they scarcely
plant sufficient maize, but a considerable quantity

* The mangle or mangrove tree [Rhixophora Maiigle, L.),

which forms what are called manguesaes, is a low tree which
grows on almost all the coasts of the ocean, particularly in
America between the tropics, and is remarkable for the pecu-
liarity that the seeds begin to shoot before they are detached
from the and the roots descend till they strike into the
tree,
ground, and thus form a thick forest from one tree. On its
stem, and under the roots is found the crab Cancer Uca, L. which
is considered dangerous to eat, because it feeds on poisonous
herbs.
218 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

of Spanish potatoes, water-melons, and sugar-cane,

the last of which they do not press, but merely suck
out the juice. Considering this poor way of living,
in a moist country where the air is not purified by
a frequent change of wind, but is loaded with
noxious exhalations, it is not surprising that the
inhabitants are pale, weak and sickly.

As we endeavoured, on our return from this re-

markable valley, to reach the plain of S. Cristovao,
we came to the other side of the mountain, to the
coffee plantation of Dr. Lesesne, who has hired a
large extent of land, and planted it with sixty
thousand trees. According to the direction of this
experienced planter, the fresh berries are planted,
in preference, in the shade of other coffee trees, and
the plants are taken up with the mould round them,
as soon as they have attained the height of ten or
twelve inches. It is said to have been observed that
detaching the mould from the tender roots, checks
the growth for a whole year ; for trees treated in

this manner, do not produce any fruit for the first

thirty-two months, whereas others bear fruit in

twenty months. The young trees are planted in
the form of a quincunx. Many planters place the
trees six feet distant from each other, but others
only four, alleging as a reason that some of the
trees in the ranks always die. The most luxuriant
shoots in the middle of the trees are pruned away,
and they are not suffered to grow more than twelve
feet high, that the fruit may be more within reach,
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 219

and the branches rather spread hi breadth. When

the trees are four or five years old, the produce is

sufficiently considerable, and one negro is then

appointed to take care of every thousand trees.
While the trees are young and bear little or nothing,
one negro is sufficient to keep two thousand trees
in order, and to pull up the weeds. There are three
gatherings, which occupy almost the whole year j
at Rio de Janeiro, the first begins in the month of
April. Only the entirely ripe red berries are taken,
which easily part from the and the seeds are
stalk,
separated without difficulty from the shell. These
berries are not thrown upon a heap and left to cor-
rupt, as used generally to be done, but the whole
fruit, when it is intended to proceed with particular
care, is dried with the outside coat, and, besides, a
kind of oil-mill is employed to take off the coat,
and the naked seeds are exposed to the sun a whole
month, that they may become For
perfectly dry.
this purpose they make floors, fi-om about five and

twenty to thirty feet square of bricks or of stamped

clay, which are made convex for the rain to run off;
the berries being protected against sudden showers,
by portable straw roofs : about thirty arrobas may
be spread on each floor. The number of negroes,
each of whom can daily gather one arroba, de-
termines therefore the number of floors required.
The coffee when quite dry
kept in baskets, in a dry
is

place, and exposed to the wind. The Brazilian

planters, especially those at Rio, have the advan-
tage over those in the Antilles, that the greater part
 220 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

of the berries become ripe in the dry season, which

is the most favourable for gathering them.
We went by the road from the Bay
several times
of Bota-Fogo to the Lagoa de Roderigo Freitas,
about a league distant, on which are the royal pow-
der manufactory, and a nursery for foreign plants,
called the Botanical Garden. This road, which runs
sometimes on the slope of the granite mountain,
between beautiful flowering bushes of myrtles,
tournefortias, coronillas, and paullinias, on the
branches of which, we for the first time saw the
diamond beetle • alive, sometimes on the banks of
the sea, covered with lofty ferns t, tropical grasses,
and orchidese, affords the most agreeable variety,
and is much frequented, because many inhabitants
of the city have country-houses in that neighbour-
hood. The sea-coast, it is true, furnished us with
some addition to our collection of sea stars, sea
hedgehogs, shells, insects, and marine plants t ; but
even here we were struck with the observation,
which was everywhere confirmed in the sequel of
the journey, that these species of animals and plants,
so common on the coasts of the northern seas, are
less numerous in the torrid zone, and are more rare
in Brazil, than even in the East Indies. It almost

* Curculio imperialis.
-j-Acrostichum aureum, abounds here.
Ophiurus Scutella sexforis Lam., quinqueforis Lam.
:J:
;

Echinus esculentus; Cicendela maritima nob.; Fucus Maximi-

liani Schrad., Opuntia L.> Seaforthi Turn., sedoides Br.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 221

seems, as ifsuch obscure and imperfectly organised

animals are assigned rather to the colder climates,
and superior forms in greater numbers to the
warmer. Perhaps too, the depth of the ocean on
the coast of Brazil, which is much more consider-
able than in the Indian seas, may be a reason that
the marine animals appear more rarely.
The powder manufactory, and the dwelling-
house of Senhor Joao Gomez Abreu, colonel of the
engineers, an amiable and well-informed Brazilian,
from Minas-Geraes, who has the superintendence
of this manufactory, and of the botanical garden,
lie in a tranquil and retired spot, surrounded on the

one side by wooded granite hills, and on the other

by the Lake of Roderigo Freitas, which is about
half a league in diameter. The abovementioned
botanic garden lies behind the houses. Several
fine avenues of bread-fruit trees, from the South
Sea (Artocarpus incisd), the shadowy yto (Guarea
trichilioides), and mango trees, lead through the

plantation, divided into regular squares, in which

the most important object of cultivation is the
Chinese tea plant. At present there are about six
thousand trees planted in rows, about three feet
distant from each other. The climate appears
favourable to their growth they bloom in the
;

months of July to September, and their seed be-

comes perfectly ripe. This circumstance, with the
similar attempts to cultivate other Asiatic plants,
in America, is another proof that the prosperity of
222 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

plants principally depends on the similarity of the

latitude. The tea is planted, plucked, and dried
precisely in the same manner as in China itself.

The Portuguese government has directed its parti-

cular attention to the cultivation of this plant, the

produce of which, to the value of twenty millions
of dollars, is annually imported from China to
England. The late minister, Conde de Linhares,
hundred Chinese colonists, in order
invited several
by their means to make the proper manner of
growing and preparing tea better known. These
Chinese were said not to have been any of the in-
habitants of the coast, who leave their country
from poverty, and go to Java and the neighbour-
ing islands there to look for work, like the Gali-
cians in Spain and Portugal, but people from the
interior had been chosen, who were perfectly ac-
quainted with the management of the tea plant.
Most of these Chinese, however, do not now live

about the botanic garden, but in the vicinity of the

royal residence of Santa Cruz, except a few who
areemployed here under the direction of Colonel
Abreu, to tend the tea plants, and gather and pre-
pare the leaves. The leaves are plucked three
times a year, and laid on gently heated kilns of
clay, on which they are dried and crisped. The
director of the establishment gave us samples of
the different kinds, which here also are chiefly dis-
tinguished according to the season of gathering.
The taste was strong, yet by no means so delicately
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 223

aromatic as the best kinds of Chinese tea, but

rather earthy and rough. This disagreeable pro-
perty must, however, be no discouragement in any
new branch of cultivation, for it is a natural con-
sequence of the plants not being perfectly accus-
tomed to the climate. Besides the tea shrub, we
were shown several other plants of India, such as
the cinnamon tree (^Laurus cinnamomum'), the
clove tree (Caryophyllus aromaticus), the pepper
plant {Fiper nigrum), the G72emon gneton, the
the nutmeg tree {Myristica moschata), the Averrhoa
carambola, the sour fruit of which has a very plea-
sant taste in soup, &c. Though some of them
were but a few years old, yet most of these trees
had already borne fruits All these plants will
become naturalised here when they have been cul-
tivated some years longer, for the new continent
appears calculated by nature to receive the pro-
ductions of all climates, and to bring them to the
same perfection as their own country.
The powder manufactory near the botanical
garden is the only one in Brazil, except a little

private estabhshment in Minas, which has hkewise

obtained a royal license. The produce of these
manufactories cannot, however, boast of being so
well compounded as the gunpowder imported from
Europe, which is nearly prohibited here. This is

in all probability occasioned partly by something

not suiting the climate in the saltpetre, which is

brought to Rio from the Portuguese colonies in

224 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the East Indies, and from the saltpetre caverns on

the Rio de Francisco, and partly by the nature of
the charcoal which is here employed in the com-
position of the gunpowder. We are not certain
what charcoal they use here, but during our jour-
ney into the interior, where the obtaining of
powder from the coasts is very difficult, and on
account of the heavy duty on foreign powder, very
expensive, several of the inhabitants assured us
that they made for their own use very good powder,
by the wellknown mixture with the charcoal of
several kinds of corindiuva (Celtis). The inhabit-

ants, however, are prohibited from manufacturing

this powder, which is far inferior in strength to
the English. The country about the lake of Ro-
derigo Freitas, like the neighbouring suburbs of
Bota-'Fogo and Catete, is considered to be re-

markably healthy ; and many of the rich inhabitants

of Rio possess country-houses (chacras) on this
side, in which they pass the fine season of the
year. The road is therefore much frequented by
passengers on horseback and in carriages. This
part, where the inlets of the sea are less deep and
more exposed to the wind, is freer from the tor-
ment of the musquittoes than the opposite side of
the town for instance, the quarter of S. Anna.
;

Those troublesome and ravenous insects prefer the

thick bushes of the mangrove, and the morasses
which surround it, and are particularly annoying
before sunrise and sunset.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 225

Our Mr. Von Langs-

friend, the consul-general,
dorff, had purchased a large estate on the road
from the north side of the bay Minas Geraes,to
a short time before we arrived at Rio de Janeiro,
and just had commenced to plant mandiocca and
to build country-house for himself with the
a
necessary appendages. We readily accepted his
invitation to view, in his company, this new crea-
tion, of the riches of which m natural curiosities,

he drew a delightful picture. On account of the

great traffic between the capital and the harbour
of Porto de Estrella, which is visited by all tra-
vellers going to Minas, boats set out daily between
11 and 12 o'clock, as soon as the sea-breeze springs
up, and arrive at Porto de Estrella in the even-
ing ;on the other hand, boats regularly depart
from the latter place after sunset, sail through the
night, and reach the city by daybreak. We em-
barked one afternoon on board one of these broad-
built boats, which are furnished with only one sail.
The wind was faint, and impelled us slowly by the
bare rocks, called the Enchados, which rise out of
the sea not far from the coast, and are frequented
by a number of sea-eagles and sea-gulls, {Pelicanus
aquilus, Cormoramis graculus, Procellaria brasili'
ensts,) and then by several islands covered with

thick wood, which lie scattered in the bay. On

the largest of these islands, Ilha do Governador,
situated almost in the middle of the bay, and ex-
tending two miles from E. to W., the king has
VOL. I. Q
226 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

reserved to himself the right of the chace ; it is

said to be inhabited by deer and wild boars, but

he has never yet paid it a visit. In countries
where the hunter is exposed not only to the attacks
of the beasts of prey, but also to poisonous ser-
pents and insects, and where the thickness of the
forest seldom allows him to remain on horseback,
to escape by means the venomous animals
that
whom it is not easy to see, the chase has but few
attractions. A bear which the king received as a
present from Russia, is shown here as a curiosity.
It was upon an island exactly resembling these,
but which lies before the mouth of the bay, and is
called Ilha raza, that Sir Joseph Banks, when he
touched at Rio de Janeiro in the company of Cap-
tain Cook, discovered the beautiful Morcea North-
iana, which has since then become the ornament
of European gardens. The indefatigable Com-
merson, too, when Bougainville put into the har-
bour of Rio, botanised on these islands and the
adjacent continent ; we therefore here trod upon
a spot which had been rendered in a manner clas-
sical by the researches of those naturalists. The
traveller loves to connect his own pleasures with
those of his predecessors we were accordingly
;

very agreeably surprised when we found on those

islands among the bushes, the morasa and in the ;

hedges out of the town the beautiful shrub Bou-

gainvilUa brasiliensis, with its dazzling red flowers,
by which Commerson immortalised the name of
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 227

his noble commander. Nature always maintains

her creations unimpaired by the influence of time,
and they survive monuments of human
all the
greatness. It was, therefore, a very happy idea in
botany to perpetuate the names and merits of dis-
tinguished enquirers, by impressing them on flowers,
whose races never become extinct.
When we landed on those low islands in the Bay
of Rio de Janeiro, we were astonished at the vigour
and luxuriance of their vegetation, which is occa-
sioned by their low damp and the great
situation,
heat. The woods, in which there are, for the most
part, the same species of trees as on the continent,
but among them a proportionably far greater num-
ber of palms, much-esteemed cab-
especially the
bage-palm *, are rendered almost impenetrable by
thick underwood, The rapidity with which the
vegetable world here passes through its various
stages, till it at length decays and rots away, is as
great as the impulse by which new creations con-
tinually arise on the remains of those that have
fallen to decay. Upon and near the largest trunks,
which, stretched out like enormous skeletons, sud-
denly return to the state of vegetable earth, we saw
a multitude of many-coloured fungi t spring up, an

* Euterpe edulis, nob. The young leaves (palmito) are fre-

quently brought from these islands and the woods of the con-
tinent to the city markets. >

-j- Boletus sanguineus, Sw.; Trichia expansa, nob.; Stemo-

nitis fasciculata ; Sphaeria deusta, serpens, Pers., &c.

Q 2
!^i2J^ TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

innumerable quantity of seeds shoot at the same

tipe, and unfold themselves with incredible ra-
pidity. The images of death and of the most
vigorous life pass here in rapid succession before
the eye pf the wanderer. -The few uncultivated
spots qf th^se fertile islands, which are clear of
forests, marsh lands or savannahs. The
are real
gl^ass grows extremely thick, and attains a surpris-

ing height and juiciness. Yet the inhabitants of

this and the two larger islands, Ilha grande and
IS/Iaramhaya, which lie in the Angra dos Reys, and
appear to be of the same nature, have hitherto paid
b(Ut little attention to the breeding of cattle
and ;

h?ive employed themselves in cultivating

rather
maize, indigo, sugar, and tobacco. On the shore
where the sea has here and there bared the granite
rocks of their covering of good mould, these islands
frequently produce thick groups of aloe and of
prickly cactus, the stiff leafless stems of which make
£^ singular contrast with the varied forms of the
forest. The huts of the country people are, for
the most part, situated along the coast, and sur-
rounded with plantations of Spanish potatoes and
water-melons, and with acaju, guava, pisang,
oranges, jessamines, and roses.
When we left Rio de Janeiro in, the afternoon,
we hoped that we should be able to reach the
opposite coast of the bay, though at a late hour, in
the evening; but when we were nearly in the
middle of the bay the wind suddenly subsided, and
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 229

aeprived us of the hope of passing the night on

shore. We therefore adopted the advice of our
friendly and cheerful host, to accommodate our-
selves as comfortably as we could oil the hard
benches in the cabin. He, jokingly, wished us
success in the result of a fatiguing campaign, which
we were now going to undertake in the new couni-

try : the uninterrupted good humour of this expe-^

rienced traveller afforded us, however, a favourable

opportunity of learning what was the best antidote
against the disagreeable adventures which we might
still encounter. The night rapidly passed away irt

laying plans for our operations, during our intend-f

ed stay Mandiocca, and in the rapturous praised
at

in which our friend broke out, when he spoke of

the peaceful retirement of liis country-seat, and ai
the luxuriance and beauty of the surrounding
scenery. To the great sorrow of the lazy negroes>
We remained awake the whole night, and encou*
raged them to row, was the only means by
as this

which we could make any progress, and even their

but slowly. The night was damp and gloomy p
we were several times incommoded by numerouis
swarms of small musquittoes, which, however, sooft
successively passed over. The morning began t&
dawn, and we at length drew near to a very low
swampy tract of land, covered with mangle, avi-
and other small strand trees,
cennia, conocarpus,
between which the Inhumerim, an inconsiderable
river, flows into the sea. We now left the bay,
Q 3
230 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

and the canoe was lifted up by the negroes by

means of long poles. We were everywhere sur-
rounded with thick bushes, and delighted with the
wondrous diversity of the most beautiful groups
in the hedges by the water-side, entwined with
flowering gardenia, bignonia, seriania, and echites.
A great part of the shores of the bay are covered
with similar amphibious plants, which extend into
the country only in those places where the land
scarcely rises above the level of the sea. In the
same manner as the limit, from which the vegeta-
tion assumes the forest or the alpine character, has
its particular representatives in the kingdom of
Flora, so also is the point where the meaner plants
of the sea-shore cease, and give way to the nobler
species, marked by its peculiar forms. It is remark-
able that the plants which grow on all the shores
of the new and old world, between the tropics, {Rhi-
zophora, Bruguiera, Conocarpus, Avicetinia,) with
seeds shooting while attached to the parent plant,
and branches striking into the earth, seem, by their
roots above and below, at once to represent in their
class also the image of that rich and generous ve-
getation which we admire in these latitudes. In
like manner as all these plants belong to the sea-
coast, so every principal river, the source of which
determines more or less a peculiar vegetation, has
a Flora of its own along its whole course, which
forms one of the most important features in the
physiognomy of the country through which it flows.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 531

Thus we found on the shores of those immense

rivers, the Rio de S. Francisco, the Tocantin, the
Parnaiba, the Amazons and its collateral streams,

certain species which mark the particular charac-

ter of their vegetable forms, and are extremely in-

teresting to the enquirer into the geographical rela-

tions of the vegetable kingdom, because they in-

dicate, in a certain degree, the basis of the forms

of each individual Flora. Those shrubs and trees
which send out roots from their branches require
to come into contact with the sea, in order to at-
tain their perfect growth, and with their far-spread-

ing and very superficial roots appear especially to

affect the swampy soil of its shores. Though their

wood is very solid, and not untrequently thick,

they grow with extraordinary rapidity. The Rhi-

zophora mangle {mangue vermelho) is distinguished
by forming a very thick bark in a proportionably
short time. In those places where the scarcity of
wood does not make it necessary entirely to cut
down the mangle trees, as, for instance, in Maran-
hao, it is usual, particularly at the commencement
of the rainy season, when the sap begins to flow
between the wood and the bark, to tear off the lat-
ter, and use it for tanning. Wherever these trees

and shrubs grow, the whole neighbourhood is con-

verted into marshes and swamps, and serves only
as an abode for the abovementioned species of crab.
On the summits of these forests, growing on the
shore, we saw, as we sailed along, the most beautiful
0, 4
 232 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

white herons * gay-coloured halcyons watch-

sitting,

ing for fish t, and within the thicket divers water-

fowl t running about or swimming. Unluckily it is

impossible to catch any of these animals as soon as

they retire far into the thickets, because it would be
vain to attempt to penetrate through the closebushes,
orwhen the ebb leaves the ground visible, to venture
upon it, on account of the depth of the swamp.
We followed the Inhumerim about a mile up the
country, till we reached the village Porto de Es-
trella, the low ill-built houses, or rather huts, of
which form an irregular street at the confluence of
the small Saracuiiina with the Inhumerim.
Porto de Estrella is the common harbour be-
tween Rio de Janeiro, and the province of Minas
©eraes. Long trains of mules laden with chests
and packages arrive here from the interior, or
return to it. The European, accustomed to the
conveyance of considerable burdens in waggons, is

astonished at the sight of so many cargoes divided

into small parcels, which are abandoned to the dis-
cretion of the beasts, or of an unskilful driver,
daily loaded and unloaded several times, either in
the open air, or in exposed sheds, scarcely protected
against the rain and the weather, and often carried
in this manner several hundred miles. When we

* Ardea alba, candidissima, egretta.

-} Alcedo torquata, bicolor, Amazona.
J Parajacana; Gallinula martinicensis Scolopax paludosa
;

Gallini\la affinis, nob.; Tringa Cinclus; Vanellus cayennensisi

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. ^83

beheld the confusion of the caravans, loading and

unloading, we could not think without regret of
the future fate of our instruments, books, and col-
lections, whicli would be given up to blind chance,
instead of being under our own care. The cara-
vans (tropas), however, particularly on the better
road from Saint Paul and Minas to the capital, are
so well organised, that comparatively very little

risk is to be apprehended. Each caravan, which

may consist of twenty to fifty mules, is conducted
by an Arieiro, on horseback ; he gives the neces-
sary orders for the caravan to set out, to halt, or
to encamp for the night ; takes care that the bur-
dens are well balanced, and the pack-saddles {can-
galhas) in good condition ; repairs them when
they gall, cures the sick beasts, and attends to the
shoes. Under him are the drivers {toccadores)^
each of whom generally has to manage a division
Qote) of seven mules. They go on foot, put the
burdens off and on, feed and water the animals,
drive them to the pasture, and cook the provisions.
The Arieiro, generally a free mulatto, frequently
attends to the sale and purchase of goods in the city,
and acts as commissioner for the proprietor of the
caravan. The drivers are for the most part
negroes, who soon become accustomed to the em-
ployment, and prefer this wandering life to the

p labour of gold-washing, and working in the plant-

ations. The most important article of trade
brought hither by the inhabitants of Minas Geraes,
234 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

called Mineiros, is raw cotton ; but besides that, a

considerable quantity of coarse cotton stuffs, for

clothing for the negroes, and for exportation

to Rio Grande do Sul and Buenos-Ayres, is
brought hither, chiefly from the district of Sahara
and S.Joao d'El Rey; also cheese, bacon, and
cakes of marmalade of quinces many precious :

stones likewise come hither from the interior, and

we were assured that a great contraband trade is

carried on in gold dust and diamonds, though nu-

merous police officers exercise great vigilance to
prevent it.

As all the goods which are sent from Rio to

Minas, Goyaz, and Mato G rosso, likewise have
to go by Porto de Estrella, there is always a
great deal of business going on here, and it is

therefore very strange that there is not a single

good dwellinghouse, or even any secure magazine
for the goods. Every body must submit to take
shelter in a wretched scarcely covered shed, where
goods are likewise deposited. If the traveller does
not carry his provisions with him, as is the usual
custom, he must provide himself with what he
wants from the vendas, of which there are some
here, and must get his provisions dressed himself.
The meal generally consists of beans, boiled with
bacon, or of dried beef broiled for dessert we have
;

banians and cheese. The traveller sleeps upon an

ox hide, or on a frame of laths fixed in the earth,
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 9,65

and covered with a straw mat, or on his hammock,

and no covering but his own clothing.
After our kind conductor had procured the
necessary mules and horses for our journey, we
left the busy village, and took the road which leads

northwards from this place to Minas.

were We
soon in an entirely new scene we rode through a
;

low country, in a broad but unpaved road, between

hedges of the most various kinds of shrubs in full

blossom ; on the left hand we had a range of

mountains, covered with thick forests, and before
us one connected with it, but higher ; the bold
projecting masses of rock, wooded only on the
sides, give the landscape a character peculiarly
grand. On this road, too, as formerly in the neigh-

bourhood of the city, we met with no great plant-

ations, which lie in the forests at a great distance
from the road but some scattered houses with
;

gardens proved to us, that the fertility of this beau-

tiful spot was duly appreciated. The broad valley,
gently declining towards the sea, is protected from
the cold winds, which come from the higher country
on the river Paraiba, by the chain of the Organ
Mountains {Serra dosOrgdos'), and it likewise enjoys
the advantage of being doubly warmed by the re-
flection of the rays of the sun from the mountain.
In the lower grounds, the sugar-cane thrives with
incredible luxuriance and we saw a particular
;

proof of the strength of the soil, in some stems

almost a foot thick, which having been deprived of
236 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the branches and roots, divided into several pieces,

and fixed ground to form a fence, had im-
in the
mediately taken root, and shot out new branches.
They were stems of the pindaiba (^Xylopia frutes'
cens), and several crotons this plienomenon is
;

the more remarkable, because the pieces which

were set in upside down grew as fast as the rest.
While the experiments of the botanical physiologer
in our ungenial climates afford him, only under
hard conditions, an insight into the concealed pro-
cesses of vegetation ; Nature in these countries vo-
luntarily solves those problems, and thus allows
him to look into her mysteiies. In this point of
view, would certainly be a very important under-
it

taking, to repeat here, upon a more extensive scale,

the experiments of Hales, Duhamel, Grew, and
Knight, in order to deduce from them general
laws of the growth of plants.
At Piedade, a village consisting of several scat-
tered houses and a chapel, scarcely a mile from
Porto de Estrella, we issued from between the
thick hedges along the road, into a verdant plain
bounded by gardens, plantations, and meadows,
which were just then illumined by the brilHant rays'
of the morning sun while in the back ground, the
;

massy summits of the Organ Mountains, were

veiled in the gloom of a forest, which was still in
shade. A solemn soothing repose was diffused
over this delightful spot, which seems to have been
created for the enjoyment of retired and cheerful
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL, 237

contemplation of nature. The variety of the light

and of the foliage of the trees, which is seen on
the forests, on the slopes of the mountain, the
blending of the most diverse colours, and the dark
azure and transparency of the sky, impart to the
landscapes of tlie a charm to
tropical countries
which even the pencil of a Salvator Rosa and a.
Claude cannot do justice. The road gradually
rises, and when, after passing over low woody
hills, we arrived, towards evening,
at the foot of the
mountain, our hospitable friend bid us welcome on
his own domain. Mr. Von I.angsdorfF had but
just begun to cultivate this fazenda, which is of
the great extent of more than a square mile, but
had been entirely neglected. A spacious shed
(rancho) for the reception of the numerous cara-
vans from Minas, a venda, where brandy is sold,
a mill for grinding maize, and a small dwelling-
house for the proprietor, in the usual style of the
country, were erected on the road-side. These
small country-houses contain some plain rooms
with latticed windows, or shutters ; the roof gene-
rally projects on one side, some feet beyond the
wall, and resting on some pillars, and a low wall,
forms the veranda. Such buildings are commonly
of lath connected together by tough creeping
plants (sipo), covered with clay, and white- washed.
The clayey soil may almost everywhere be made
into good bricks, or, if they are considered too
S38 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

expensive, the broad leaves of several palms * make

a light but tolerably secure roof. The bounty of
nature supplies all the necessary materials in abun-
dance, and only the lime is brought from Cabo
Frio.
The estate of Mandiocca, of which we' have
given a drawing, is so called on account of the
excellence of the mandiocca roots which are cul-
tivated there. bounded on the north-west by
It is
a chain of mountains, traversed by several narrow
dells, and covered with woods, which extend from

the valley to the lofty summits of the Organ Moun-

tain. In the midst of these great forests are the
tracts (rossados') which, after burning the felled
trees, are plantedby the land-owners with man-
diocca, maize, beans, coffee, &c. These planta-
tions (rossas') are generally abandoned after a few
harvests, and in some years are covered again with
a thick brushwood (capoeiry which is particularly
distinguished by the absence of large kinds of trees
of a slower growth. The primeval forests, which
stand as testimonies of the creative energy of the
new continent, in all their original wildness, and
still unprofaned by human hands, are called, in
Brazil, virgin forests (mato virgem). In them,
European coolness refreshes the wanderer, and at
the same time the image of the most luxuriant
profusion the never-ceasing power of vegetation
:

* Particularly in the southern districts the species Geonoma.

i
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 239

makes the trees shoot up and

to a majestic height ;

not contented with these gigantic primeval monu-

ments, nature calls forth upon every stem a new
creation of numerous verdant flowering parasite
plants. Instead of the uniform poverty of species
in the forests of Europe, especially in the north,
there is here an infinite diversity in the forms of
stems, leaves, and blossoms-
Almost every one
of these sovereigns of the forest, which here stand
near to each other, is distinguished in the total
effect of the picture from its neighbour. While
the silk-cotton tree *, partly armed with strong
thorns, begins at a considerable height fi-om the
ground to spread out its thick arms, and its digit-

ated leaves are grouped in light and airy masses, the

luxuriant lecythis and the Brazilian andaf shoot
out at a less height many branches profusely cover-
ed with leaves, which unite to form a verdant arcade.
The jacaranda attracts the eye by the lightness of
of its double-feathered leaves ; the large gold-
coloured flowers of this tree and the ipet dazzle
by their splendour, contrasted with the dark green
of the foliage. The
spondias § arches its pennated
leaves into light oblong forms. very peculiar A
and most striking effect in the picture is that pro-

* Bombax pentandrum, Ceiba, L.

-f-
Lecythis Ollaria, parviflora, L. ; Idatimon, Aubl. ; Anda
brasiliensis, Raddi.
ij: Jacaranda brasiliensis, Juss.; Bignonia chrjsantha, Jacq.
§ Spondias Myrobalanus, L.
240 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

duced by the trumpet tree * among the other lofty

forms of the forest. The smooth ash-grey stems
rise, shghtly bending, to a considerable height,
and spread out at the top into verticillate branches
standing at right angles, which have at the extre-
mities large tufts of deeply lobated white leaves.
The contour of the tree appears to indicate at
once hardness and pliability, stiffness and elasticity,

and affords the painter a subject equally interest-

ing and difficult for the exercise of his pencil.

The flowering caesalpinia t, the airy laurel, the

lofty geoffroea t, the soap trees with their shining

leaves, the slenderBarbadoes cedar, the ormosia §
with its pennated leaves ; the tapia or garlic pear
tree, so called from the strong smell of its bark

the maina and a thousand not yet described trees

||,

are mingled confusedly together, forming groups,

agreeably contrasted by the diversity of their
forms and tints. Here and there the dark crown
of a Chilian fir % among the lighter green appears
like a stranger amidst the natives of the tropics,
while the towering stems of the palms, with their
waving crowns, are an incomparable ornament of

* Cecropia peltata, L. palmata, W.

Caesalpinia brasiliensis, chinata, L.
f
t Geoffroea inermis, Sw., racemosa, Poir. violacea, P.
§ Sapindus Saponaria, L.;
Cedrela odorata, L.; Ormosia dasy-
carpa, coccinea, Jacks.
II
Cratseva Tapia, L., called by the Portuguese Pao d'alha .

Maina brasiliensis, Raddi.

51 Araucaria
imbricata, Pav.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 241

the forests, the beauty and majesty of which no

language can describe. If the eye turns fi-om the
proud forms of those ancient denizens of the forest
to the more humble and lower which clothe the
ground with a rich verdure, it is delighted with
the splendour and gay variety of the flowers. The
purple blossoms of the rhexia, profuse clusters of
the melastoma, myrtles and eugenia* ; the deli-
cate foliage of many rubiaceae and ardisiaef with
their pretty flowers blended with the singularly
formed leaves of the theophrasta ; the conchocar-
pus the reed-like dwarf palms t
; the brilliant ;

spadix of the costus 5 the ragged hedges of the

maranta §, from which a squamous fern rises
magnificent stiftia ; thorny solana; large flowering
gardenias and coutarea 1| entwined with garlands
of mikania and bignonia ; the far-spreading shoots

* Rhexia princeps, grandiflora, holosericea Humb. Mela- ;

stoma tomentosa, lutescens, mucronata Humlb. Myrtus splen- ;

dens, disticha, lineata Sw. Eugenia Mini, gujanensis, Cumete

;

Aubl.
f Tetraraerium occidentale G. Nonatelia paniculata, Paga- ;

mea gujanensis; CofFea paniculata Aubl.; Duhamelia patens L.,

chrysantha Sw. Ardisia tinifolia, parasitica Sw.
;

X Theophrasta longifolia Jacq. Conchocarpus raacrophyllus ;

Mik. Geonoma simplicifrons, pinnatifrons W., pauciflora nob.

;

§ Costus laevis R. P., spiralis Rose. ; Maranta gracilis, obli-

qua Rudge, arundinacea L.
II
Stiftia chrysantha Mik. Solanum violaceum, micranthum
;

Lara., violaceum Jacq. paniculatum L., Balbisii Dun., chloran-

thum Spr. ; Gardenia arraata Sw. ; Solena gracilis Rudge ; Cou-
tarea speciosa Aubl.
VOL. I. R
2^2 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

of the mellifluous paullinias, of the burniug dale-

cbampias and the bauhinia with its strangely lo-
bated leaves* ; bindweed
strings of the leafless milky

(Lianes), which descend from the highest summits

of the trees, or closely twine round the strongest
trunks and gradually kill them lastly, those para- :

sitical plants, by which old trees are invested wdth

the garment of youth the grotesque species of

;

the potbos and arum, the superb flowers of the

orchideaet, the bromelias which catch the rain-
water, the tillandsia t hanging down like Lichen
pulmonarius, and a multiplicity of strangely formed
ferns § : all these admirable productions of so
young a soil,combine to form a scene which alter-
nately fills the European naturalist with delight
and astonishment.
When we here attempt to sketch a picture of
the inteiior of a tropical forest, we must not forget

* Mikania stipulacea Vhl., viscosa Spr., opifera nob. (Eupa-

tor crenatum Gom) Bignonia venusta Ker.
; Paullinia pinnata, ;

Cururu L., meliaefolia, thalictrifolia Juss. ; Dalechampia brasili-

ensis, ficifolia, pentaphylla, triphylla, convolvuloides Lam.

Bauhinia gujanensis Lam., aculeata L.
f Pothos crassinervia, digitata Jacq., macrophylla Sw., pal-
mata L. Caladium lacerum, pinnatifidum, grandifolium Jacq.
;

Oncidium barbatura, pictum Humb.; lonopsis pulchella Hunib.

Neottia speciosa Sw.
Bromelia Pinguin, Karatas, Acanga, iridifolia Nees et
:|: M.
Tillandsia usneoides L.
§ Acrostiehum calomelanos ; Polypodium percussum Cav.,
submarginale, yaceinifolium Fisch. ; Aspidium exaltatum Sw.
Pteris pedata L.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 243

to point the attention of the reader to the relative

situation of each individual plant, with regard to
the tendency to self-preservation. With such a
fulness of and such a vigorous striving
life, at de-
velopment, even so rich and fertile a soil as this
is not capable of furnishing the necessary nourish-
ment in sufficient abundance ; hence those gigantic
trees are in a constant struggle for their own pre-
servation, and impede each other's growth still

more than the trees in our forests. Even the

stems which are grown to a considerable height,
and require a large supply of nutriment, feel the
influence of their more powerful neighbours, are
suddenly arrested in their growth by being de-
prived of the requisite juices, and thus become in
a short time subject to the general powers of
nature which lead them to a rapid dissolution.
We thus see the noblest trees, after suffering an
atrophy of some months' duration, eaten away by
ants and other insects, seized with decay from the
root to the summit, till, to the terror of the solitary
inhabitants of the forest, they fall down with a
tremendous crash. In general, it is remarked by
the farmers, that stems which stand singly, among
several others of a different kind, are more easily
kept down by the latter. When at some future
period a regular system of forest cultivation, which
indeed has not yet been thought of in these thinly

peopled woods, shall be introduced, it will be

found necessary not so much to promote the
2
244 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL,

growth of the trees close together, as to take care

that they stand at a sufficient distance fi:om each

other.
But the animal kingdom, which peoples those
ancient forests, is no less distinguished than the
vegetable world. The naturalist, who is here for
the first time, does not know whether he shall most
admire the forms, hues, or voices of the animals.
Except at noon, when all living creatures in the
torrid zone seek shade and repose, and when a
solemn silence is diffiised over the scene, illumined
by the dazzling beams of the sun, every hour of
the day calls into action another race of animals.
The morning is ushered in by the howling of the
monkeys* the high and deep notes of the tree
frogs and toads t, the monotonous chirp of the
grasshoppers and locusts, t When the rising sun
has dispelled the mists which preceded it, all crea-
tures rejoice in the return of day. The wasps
leave their long nests which hang down from the
branches ; the ants § issue from their dwellings,
curiously built of clay with which they cover the
trees,and commence their journey on the paths
they have made for themselves, as is done also by

• Mycetus fuscus nob.

+ Hyla boans, aurantiaca D., Faber Neuw., aspera nob.

Rana cornuta, labyrinthica nob. Bufo agua, margaritaceus
;

D., scaber, leucostictus, dorsalis, ornatus nob.

J Tettigonia Locusta, Gryllus.

j Formica leucosoma nob., grossa, megacephala.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 245

the termites* which cast up the earth high and

far around. The gayest butterflies, rivalling in
splendour tlie colours of the rainbow^, especially-
numerous Hesperiaet, flutter from flower to flower,
or seek their food on the roads t, or collected in
separate companies on the sunny sandbanks of the
cool streams. § The blue shining Menelaus, Nestor,
Adonis, Laertes, the bluish white Idea, and the large
Eurylochus with its ocellated wings, hover like
birds between the green bushes in the moist val-
leys. The Feronia, with rustling wings, flies ra-
pidly from tree to tree, while the owl ||, the largest
of the moth kind, sits immovably on the trunk
with outspread wings awaiting the approach of
evening. Myriads of the most brilliant beetles
buzz in the air, and sparkle like jewels on the fresh
green of the leaves, or on the odorous flowers. ^
Meantime agile lizards, remarkable for their form,
size, and brilliant colours**, dark-coloured poison-
ous 4., or harmless serpents, which exceed in splen-

* Termes fatale L-

f Hesperia Aparte, Idas, Proteus, Bixae.

f Hesperia Fabius, Alcyonia, Numata P. Orythia, Doris,
Flora, Lsena, Psidii, Piera.
§ A. Protesilaus, Ajax, Policaon, Thoas.
II
Noctua Strix.
51 Entymus imperialis ; Buprestis equestris, gigantea ; Eu-
molpus nitidus ; Clamys chrystallista nob. &c
* * Ameiva lateristriga Cuv. Tupinambis Monitor Anolis
; ;

violaceus nob.; Polychrus marmoratus Mer. Seps fragilig; ,

Ophisaurus striatus nob.

4. Bothrops Neuwiedii, leucurus nob.
R 8
246 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

dour the enamel of the flowers*, ghde out of the

leaves, the hollows of the trees, and holes m the
ground, and, creeping up the stems,, bask in the
sun, and lie in wait for insects or birds. From this

moment all is life and activity. Squirrels, troops

of gregarious monkeys t issue inquisitively from
the interior of the woods to the plantations, and
leap, whistling and chattering, from tree to tree.
Gallinaceous jacus, hoccos, and pigeonst, leave
the branches and wander about on the moist
ground in the woods. Other birds of the most
singular forms, and of the most superb plumage §,
flutter singly, or in companies, through the fra-

grant bushes. The green, blue, or red parrots i|,

assembled on the tops of the trees, or flying

towards the plantations and islands, fill the air
with their screams. The toucan |, sitting on the

* Natrix Ahcetulla, cyanea, bicarinata nob., lacertina nob.,

plumbea Neuw., caninana; Elaps venustissimus, formosus Neuw.,
lemniscatus; Leposternon microcephalus nob.; Amphisbcena
fuliginosa, alba, oxyura, vermicularis nob. ; Ccecilia annulata
nob.
f Midas Rosalia Lin. ;Cebus xanthocephalus nob. Brachy- ;

teles macrotarsus nob. Sciurus aestuans.

;

J Penelope Marail, cristata Crax Alector variet. Co-

;

lumba frontalis.

§ Falco brasiliensis, Sparveri ; Strix flammea, Huhula V.

Vultur Aura ; Crotophaga Ani ; Tanagra auricapilla Neuw.,
brasilia, Jacapa, Mississipensis ; Euphone tricolor, violacea
Emberiza brasiliensis ; Fringilla flaveola ; Loxia grossa ; Lanius
undulatus, lineatus, naevius, atricapillus, Nycthemerus nob.
II
Psittacus brasiliensis, menstruus, viridissimus nob., cru-
entatus Neuw., auricapillus, severus, militaris.
4- Rhamphastos Tucanus, dicolorus ; Pteroglossus Aracari,
Bailloni V.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 247

extreme branches, rattles with his large hollow

bill, and in loud plaintive notes calls for rain. The
busy orioles* creep out of their long, pendent,
bag-shaped nests, to visit the orange trees, and
their announce with a loud screaming
sentinels,
cry, the approach of man. The flycatchers t sit-
ting aloof, watching for insects, dart from the trees
and shrubs, and^with rapid flight catch the hovering
Menelaus or the shining flies as they buzz by.
Meantime, the amorous thrush t, concealed in the
thicket, pours forth her joy in a strain of beautiful
melody; the chattering manakins §, calling from
the close bushes, sometimes here, sometimes there,
in the full tones of the nightingale, amuse them-
selves in misleading the hunters ; and the wood-
pecker || makes the distant forests resound while
he picks the bark from the trees. Above all these
strange voices, the metallic tones of the uraponga^
sound from the tops of the highest trees, resembling
the strokes of the hammer on the anvil, which

* Oriolus minor, niger> hoemorrhous, albirostris Az.

f Cuculus cayennensis Galbula viridis
; Trogon Curucui, ;

viridis Bucco cayennensis, leucops, tenebrosus lllig. Capito

; r

melanotis T. Muscicapa sulpburata, cayennensis, audax, vir-

;

gata ; Pitangua.
:j: Turdus Orpheus, brasiliensis.

§ Pipra leucocilla, erythrocephala, strigilata Neuw., Manacus,

pareola.

II
Picus flavicans, lineatus, robustus, Langsdorffi oob. ; Yunx
minutissima ; Dendrocolaptes scandens, Picu«, turdinua,
guttatus.
]. Procnias ventralis et nudicollis lllig.

R 4
248 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

appearing nearer or more remote according to the

position of the songster, fill the wanderer with
astonishment. While thus every living creature
by its actions and voice greets the splendour of the
day, the delicate humming-birds*, rivalling, in
beauty andlustre, diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires,
hover round the brightest flowers. When the sun
goes down most of the animals retire to rest
only the slender deer, the shy pecari, the timid
agouti, and the tapir t still graze around ; the nasua
and the opossum, the cunning animals of the
feline racet,through the obscurity of the
steal

wood watching for prey, till at last the howling

monkeys, the sloth with a cry as of one in dis-
tress, the croaking frogs, and the chirping grass-
hoppers with their monotonous note, conclude
the day ; the cries of the macuc, the capueira,
the goat-sucker §, and the bass tones of the bull-
frog announce the approach of night. Myriads
of luminous beetles now begin to fly about like

• Trochilus ornatus, Mango, Maugaeus, leucogaster, viri-

dissimus, mellisugus, amethystinus, hirundinaceus nob., crispus,

pygmaeus, brevicauda, albo-gularis, leucopygius, Helios, Mystax
nob. ; Grypus ruficollis nob.
f Cervus mexicanus Ccelogenys Paca Dasyprocta Agouty,
; ;

Acuschy ; Cavia aperea Lepus brasiliensis Tapirus ameri-

; ;

canus, var. rufa.

X Nasua Quasie, rufa ; Didelphis cayopoUin ; Felis onca,
discolor.

§ Bradypus tridactylus Tinamus noctivagus Neuw.

; ; Per-
dix guyaaensis Caprimulgus albicollis.
;
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 249

ignes fatui, and the blood-sucking bats * hover

like phantoms in the profound darkness of the
night.
Inanimate nature too presents a beautiful and
sublime picture in its long-extending mountain
ridges, thickly wooded to the summits. The Serra
dos Orgaos, and all the parts of the same range,
which, branching out in different directions, runs
along the sea-coast northwards through the district
of Canta-Gallo to Porto-Seguro and Bahia, and
southwards to Santos, &c., consists of granite. In
the forest of Mandiocca, towards the mountain,
there are uncommonly large blocks of this kind of
rock, which have rolled down from the summits
of the mountains their clefts afford shelter to
;

numbers of coatis and black weasels t and a great ;

variety of begonia, heliconia, and drostenia grow

under their shady projections. At the first sight
we fancied both here and in the neighbourhood of
Rio that we saw the granite, which in our own
country forms the mountain chain from Passau
along the frontiers of Bohemia, so extraordinary is
the resemblance between that in the new world
and that in the old. Among the few varieties

which we had occasion to observe, one consists of

much reddish or light smoke-coloured felspar, a

little smoky quartz, and pretty much black small

* Vespertilio brasiliensis Geof. ; Glossophaga amplexicauda

Geof.
f Muetela barbara.
250 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

foliated mica. The second is a coarse-grained

granite, with predominant and reddish
greyish
white felspar, greyish white, and smoky quartz,
and a small portion of pinchbeck-brown and black
mica. It approximates the more nearly to the
many places, has
graphic granite, as the felspar, in
the lustre of mother of pearl. The most beau-
tiful variety is a granite with much light reddish

grey felspar, small-grained smoky quartz, and im-

bedded in it single equi-angular six-sided prisms of
pinchbeck-brown mica of a middling size. The
granite about Rio de Janeiro, as is always the case
in similar mountains, often consists of earthy fel-
spar of a greyish colour, sometimes spotted of a
brownish yellow by oxyd of iron, smoky quartz,

and but a little black mica, and at the slightest

touch crumbling to pieces. The structure of the
granite gradually becomes slaty, because the smoky
quartz and the black small foliated mica (not so
much the smoky felspar) combine, and the rock
passes into gneiss. In this granite-gneiss pretty
large noble garnets are generally found imbedded,
and give it a beautiful appearance. It is chiefly
found near the city, for instance about the Sacco
d' Alferes ; but, according to the observation of our
friend and countryman, Mr. Von Eschwege, ap-
pears in many places along the sea-coast, and seems,
for example, in Ilha Grande, to alternate with the
granular granite. The latter is often cut into
square stones in Rio de Janeiro, particularly in
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 251

Catete and Bota-Fogo, where large blocks lie ex-

posed. The negroes, who perform this work, pro-
ceed with a degree of slowness intolerable to a
European, making the holes for boring with long
iron rods, which they always let fall on the same
spot. With respect to the formation of the moun-
tains in these parts, the land rises along the coast
either gradually, and the granite in the whole
chain forms only gently rising rounded hills of
unequal elevation, or immense conical mountains
here and there rise immediately from the sea to a
considerable height, which, however, appears never
to exceed four thousand feet. They are almost
everywhere covered by a pretty thick stratum of
a red ferruginous clay which however we do not
;

venture to determine more precisely, and which, if

we may believe the assurance of many of the inha-
bitants, contains gold. As royal ordinances pj-ohi-
bit washing for gold within twenty miles of the sea-
coast,no certain information can be obtained re-
specting the quantity of gold that might be found
in this tract. *

* It may be proper to state that we have had no opportunity

of observing the numerous substances which (according to the
" Nachrichten von den K. K. Osterr, Naturforschern en Bra-
silien," Briinn, 1820, p. 165.) occur in the granite of Rio, in

addition to its usual component parts, either admixed or im*

bedded in and on the rifts of this rock. But though no rose-
quartz, shorl, beryl, asparagus-stone, AndaJusite, dichroite,
brown and yellow iron-stone, pyrites,
titanium, sparry iron-stone,
or molybdena have been noticed by us, we yet are warranted
252 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

From Mandiocca, the road for the caravans to

Minas Geraes passes between grotesque stems of
the aloe (Fourcrocea gig ant ea, Vent.) and hedges
in full blossom, through the forest, by the edge of
steep precipices, and gloomy clefts thickly grown
with wood to the top of the mountain, to which
there is an expensive paved road, at present the
only one of the kind in Brazil, nearly a mile in
length. But at the end of this road there is no
longer any possibility of using carriages, which
could not be employed without danger on the
rugged roads. In Brazd they think as little of
facilitating the intercourse by means of good roads
and carriages, as we do in Germany of laying down
iron rail-ways ; the conveyance of goods upon mules
being sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants.
From the summit of the mountain called Serra de
Estrella, 3376 Paris feet above the level of the sea,

there is a prospect of the bay with its verdant

islands and the city in the back-ground. On the
opposite side there more limited view of a hilly,
is a
very uneven, thickly wooded tract, which extends
from this place along the coast to the Rio Paraiba.
The mountain road on the north side first leads to

to infer the presence erf, at least, the greater part of the above
minerals in the Brazilian granite, from its resemblance to that
of the N.E. frontiers of Bavaria, in which we find imbedded
dichroite and turmaline, veins of rose or milk quartz, and mica-
slate, accompanied by Andalusite.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 253

Corrego Seco, a poor village 2260 Paris feet above

the surface of the sea. We once passed the night
here in the miserable pubhc house, which gave us,
in every respect, a foretaste of the difficulties of a
journey into the interior. A
meal consisting of
the dried flour of the mandiocca root and tough
beef dried in the sun, a hard bench without pillow
or covering for a bed, put our patience, and ability
to endure the fatigues of the expedition, to the
proof. In Germany this would have been one of
the finest summer thermometer was
nights, as the
not below 14° of Reaumur, and yet we found it
almost impossible to sleep for the cold. It is a fact,
as remarkable as it is generally observed, that a few
months' residence in a warm climate are sufficient
to give the frame an extraordinary sensibility to
the gradations of warmth. It probably proceeds
from the increased action of the nervous system,
which is a natural consequence of the great stimu-
his of the light and heat. This intensity of irri-

and the vivacity of all the organic functions

tation,
during the day is followed, when night sets in, by
a considerable relaxation of the organic powers,
so that only the coolness can brace the limbs anew.
As the sun in these latitudes exercises its influence
with more energy than in our country, and all na-
ture therefore during the day is, if we may so ex-
press ourselves, more awake ; so, on the other hand,
as soon as it sinks below the horizon, more pro-
found repose and deeper sleep succeed. The ani-
5.54< TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

mal kingdom, too, more soundly and

sleep here
longer than in more northern latitudes and even ;

the plants, by closing and drooping their flowers

and leaves, announce, more than among us, a sus-
pension of the animation awakened by the sun.
From Corrego Seco we followed the road through
a high broken country, partly bounded by massy
granite mountains, passed Belmonte, and at last
reached the country-seat of Padre Correa, with
whom we had become acquainted when he passed
through Mandiocca. This worthy ecclesiastic, a
native of Brazil, is a model for his neighbours, by
his activity as a farmer. He has proved by plant-
ing extensive nurseries, that the colder climate of
these more elevated districts is favourable to the
culture of European fruits. In his plantations,
figs, peaches and grapes in particular, ripen to

perfection, and in such abundance, that he supplies

the market at Rio, and annually gains large sums
by the sale. This enterprising man has established
another profitable branch of industry by the skill

of his slaves, whom he treats with very great hu-

manity, and who manufacture large quantities of
Swedish iron into horse-shoes, and other articles

for sale. We here met for the second time with

the mountain rivulet of Piabanha, which, though
pretty considerable, is not navigable, on account of
its rocky bed, to its junction with the Rio Paraiba,
which has its source far off in the province of S.
Paulo. Passing over hills of gneiss and granite.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. Q55

which are covered with a layer of red clay, we ar-

rived in the evening at Soumidoiiro, a small village
with a few houses, situated in the middle of the
wood, at the source of a mountain stream. We
were hospitably received, and informed that we
had still half a day's journey from this place to
the militajy post (destacamento) of Paraiba where ;

all caravans coming from Minas Geraes, and the

passports of all travelling strangers who are going
into the interior of that gold most
district, are
strictly examined on account of the smuggling
trade carried on in gold dust. To avoid this search,
we advanced into the forests, which are here so
unfrequented and gloomy, no farther than to a so-
litary fazenda, which lies at a small distance from
the river Paraiba. After we had partaken of some
refreshment, and obtained all the information that
was both from the host, and from some
desirable,
of the mulattoes belonging to the customhouse on
the Paraiba, who were patrolling in the neighbour-
hood, armed with swords and muskets, we pre-
pared to return by the way of Soumidouro, to the
country-house of Mr. Von LangsdoriF.
During our stay at Mandiocca, our kind host
was visited by his neighbours, who regarded with
surprise, and not without jealousy, the rapid pro-
gress of his establishment. As the first attempt to
turn up, with a European plough, the spots which
had been cleared by burning the wood, had failed,
through the awkwardness of the negroes and for
256 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

want of oxen trained to the work, this gave them

sufficient ground to prove the unfitness of Euro-
pean agriculture on the BraziUan soil. Many had
not yet seen a plough some would not allow the
;

justice of the observation, that the soil gained in

fertility by being loosened, and by the chemical
influence of the atmosphere, because the virgin
forests, the surface of which had been the same
for thousands of years, afforded the most fertile
land ; others doubted whether the oxen, which
Mn VonLangsdorff had procured from Minas,
possessed strength to bear, even for a few days,
the hard labour of ploughing; some again lamented
the loss of time of the negroes that must be em-
ployed. In truth, the use of the plough in these
and the more northern districts which cultivate no
corn, and have not yet lost their original fertility,
appears less to be recommended than in the capi-
tanias of S. Paulo, and Rio Grande do Sul. As
the productions of the earth chiefly cultivated here
are notsown but planted, and on that account do
not require the surface of the ground to be so
uniformly prepared, the negro works with the hoe
much more effectually and easily than it would be
possible for him
do with the plough, the use of
to
which is besides rendered more difficult by the
many roots, and the unburnt trunks remaining in
the plantations. Though our friend had at present
only about twenty negroes, he had not only se-

cured the subsistence of his family by the cultiva-

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 257

tion of maize and mandiocca, but was even able

to send part of his produce to the city for sale.
His greatest hope, however, was founded on the
coffee plantation which he had just made. As a
proof of the general fertility of his estate, he se-
veral tim^s treated us with potatoes, which were of
excellent quality. In fact, the farmer in these
districts has no reason to complain of want of fer-
tility and productiveness in the soil, if he only
takes care to choose for the plantations, those spots
which can be properly watered, and is sufficiently
acquainted with the nature of the soil adapted to
each branch of agriculture, as well as the proper
seasons. The mandiocca root thrives very well in
the whole province, except in low wet grounds,
and does not require much care in the cultivation.
The cuts (manibas) should be put into the ground
when the weather is temperate, neither too cold
nor too hot, and generally begin to shoot in four-
teen days ; in eighteen or twenty- two months, dur-
ing which time the farmer endeavours above all

things to check their growth upwards, by breaking

out the buds, the roots have attained their full

size. Each plantation usually yields three crops

at the most, and is then abandoned. The maize,
which generally produces two hundred fold, is

planted at the commencement of the rainy season,

and gathered at the end of four or five months ;

many kinds of beans come to maturity with still

greater rapidity. Garden herbs, Spanish potatoes,
VOL. I. s
'258 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

and melons, produce through the whole year, but

most abundantly, however, during the wet season.
The pisang, guava, oranges, &c., blossom in the
rainy season from October to March, and prodnce
fruit in the dry season.
In this climate, as in all others, unfavourable
influences are not wanting which are hiu'tful to the
plants. The finest orange groves frequently fall

a prey to the brown ants which gnaw off the bark,

or to the mole- crickets which devour the roots.

The young mandiocca and sugar plantations are

often invaded, stripped of their leaves, and laid
waste, by similar enemies in incredible numbers,
or deprived of their roots by the wasps wliich live
under groimd. But even when the crop has hap-
pily reached maturity, the owner must share it
with many foreign guests. Swarms of monkeys,
flocks of parrots and other birds, attack the plant-

ations ; the paca, agouti, and other kinds of wild

swine, eat up the leaves, stalks, and fruits, and
myriads of tenthredoes injure the crop. The
planter himselfj particularly if he has just arrived
from Europe, and unaccustomed to this climate,
is

has many hard trials to imdergo from tormenting

animals. If he does not keep his dwelling closed,
particularly in the morning, evening, and night,
there are swarms of large and small musquittoes
which torment him with their stings, even through
the thickest clothes, and only gauze or silk, can
secure him against these enemies. The earth-flies
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 259

{Fulex 'penetrans), which are concealed in numbers

in the sand, penetrate under the nails of the hands
and feet, and, by producing a blister filled with
little eggs, cause the most painful sensations, which,
if the sympathetic swelling of the inguinal glands
is neglected, are often followed by mortification.
The blister, as soon as must be care-
it gives pain,
fully removed, and snufF rubbed into the wound.
Besides these, the inhabitant often has other
enemies in his house ; the white-bellied ant {Cupim,
Termes fatale), a great number of blattae {Blatta
orientalis), and other vermin, continually oblige him,

by their destructive fury, to make new arrange-

ments. The first cause the most terrible devast-
ation wherever they pass in their course ; for,
metals excepted, they gnaw through everything,
and in a few days the beams of tlie house are
rotten, the linen, books, and all the household
furniture, are destroyed. The blatta commits
great destruction among the vegetables in par-
ticular, and in the night,even attacks the tips of
the fingers. The injury which these animals cause
to the naturalist is extremely distressing; he fre-
quently finds his collections, which he thought quite
secure, by being carefully shut up and hung against
the wall, destroyed in a single night. Taught by
repeated experience, we found the only safe means
to be the application of Bufibn's arsenic salve,
wrapping the parcels in linens dipped in oil of tur-
pentine, and depositing them in tin cases, which
s 2
S60 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

were soldered before they were sent away. With-

out are numberless enemies, not to mention the
savage ounce, the poisonous serpents, lizards, scor-
pions, centipes, and spiders, which are fortunately
not frequently met with, and only wound a person
when provoked : the mite (acarus), called caroba-
tos, is one of the most formidable plagues. These
little animals, from the size of a poppy-seed to that
of a linseed, live in and crowded by hun-
societies,

dreds in the grass and on dry leaves. As soon as

the traveller touches such a plant, they very quick-
ly penetrate through his clothes to the skin, where
they eat in, more tender parts,
particularly in the
and cause an intolerable itching, which is incj'eased
by the inevitable rubbing, and in the end produces
an inflamed blister. The securest remedy imme-
diately to get rid of these teasing enemies is to
pick them off from the skin, or if they have not
already eaten too far in, to kill them by rubbing
with brandy, or with tobacco infused in water, or
by fumigating with tobacco over the fire. Only
those who have themselves experienced this evil, so
common in the torrid zone, can form an idea of
the sufferings to which the naturalist, who is con-
stantly in the open air, is exposed. Happily all

these inconveniences are of such a nature that they

may be greatly diminished, if not wholly removed,
by a knowledge of the country, and the application
of approved remedies. With the increasing popu-
lation and cultivation of the country they will gra-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 26l

dually diminish. When the inhabitants have cut

down the woods, drained marshes, made roads,
everywhere founded villages and towns, and thus
by degrees triumphed over the rank vegetation and
the noxious animals, all the elements will willingly
second, and amply recompense the activity of man.
But before Brazil shall have attained this period of
civilisation, the uncultivated land may yet prove
a grave to thousands of adventurers. Attracted
by the constant beauty of the climate, the richness
and the fertility of the soil, many leave their native
land, to seek another home in a foreign hemisphere,
and in a quite different climate. However true
the suppositions are on which they found the ex-
pectations of a happy result of their enthusiastic
enterprise, from realising the hopes of the
it is far
emigrants, especially those from the north of
Europe and how shall the inhabitant of the tem-
;

perate zone, suddenly removed as a cultivator of

the Rio de Janeiro, or perhaps even to the
soil to

shores of the Amazons, to a foreign climate, a

foreign soil, a new mode of life and subsistence,
surrounded by Portuguese, whose language he nei-
ther understands, nor easily learns, how shall he be
happy and maintain himself in this country? And
what in particular must people of the lower classes
feel, without general education and aptitude for a

new language, mode of life, and climate, when even

strangers of superior condition, provided with every
means of guarding against inconvenience, alarmed
s 3
26^ TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

at the disagreeable circumstances attending the

climate, complain of the few resources, the poverty
and the plagues of the country, of which we have
latterly heard so much ? If the poor colonist who
has come from a northern climate does not meet
with a fellow-countryman as his guide, who, ac-
quainted with the mode of and the cultivation
life

of the soil, kindly assists him in word and deed for

the first few years, he is exposed to perish of hun-
ger, even in this rich country, and from the feelings
of repentance and longing after home which ensue,
becomes a victim to his experiment. He, however,
who has happily passed over the first trials, who
has secured a settlement in the beautiful country
of Brazil, and accustomed himself to the tropical
climate, will most willingly acknowledge it for his

second home j nay, if he has again visited Europe,

he will, with increased attachment, wish himself
back again ; and, notwithstanding the doubts gene-
rally entertained of the habitableness of the torrid
zone, will celebrate Brazil as the fairest and most
glorious country on the surface of the globe.
After several days' stay at Mandiocca, we re-

turned by the same road to the where we

city,

found ourselves deceived in the hope of meeting

with the Portuguese squadron, which was to bring
over her imperial highness the
. Princess Royal.
This delay had considerable influence on the plan
of our journey. had probably been taken for
It

granted at Vienna, that the whole company of

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 263

naturalists would commence their expedition into

the interior together ; but as hitherto only professor
Mikau and Mr. Ender were present, and resolved
to wait lor the remaining naturalists, no arrange-
ment could yet be made for a joint expedition.
We, on the other hand, had received by Count
Von Wrbna, who, in the second month after our
arrival, had brought the news that the marriage of
the Princess Royal with his royal higimess the
crown-prince, Don Pedro, had been celebrated by
proxy, orders not to prolong our journey beyond the
term of two years. Penetrated by the wish to
extend our travels through so unknown yet remark-
able a country, as far as it should be possible in
this space of time, we took the resolution to com-
mence our journey into the interior this year, and
thought that the delay in the arrival of the other
naturalists should not induce us to spend our
valuable time in the capital, the environs of which
have been so frequently explored. Professor Mi-
kan, on the other hand, resolved to travel round
the Bay of Ilio, in its whole extent, and to turn
towards the plains about Cabo Frio, and in the
district of Goytacazes.
Ever since our arrival in this country we had
enjoyed the finest weather. But the rainy season
seemed gradually approaching; the temperature
became variable fogs, thick groups of clouds, and
;

sudden gusts of wind were more frequent and on ;

the '3d of October tlie rain fell in torrents, and con-

s 4
^64 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

tinued without intermission for three days. From

this time it rained more or less every night or
afternoon, and, lastly, in November the wet season
regularly set in. In this part of South America it

is generally calculated to last from October to

March ; and the earlier or later commencement
of it in the several places partly depends upon their
latitude,and their natural position, whether nearer
to or more remote from the coast, more or less
elevated above the sea. At Rio itself in 22° 54' 10" j

south latitude, 45° 5' west longitude of Paris (eastern

variation 4° 55'\ it rains the most in February.
During our stay the changes in the atmosphere
were not inconsiderable in the months of Sep-
;

tember, October, and November, the barometer,

when at the highest, was 28.2, 28.30, and 28.20
at the lowest 27.76, 27.85, 27.77 *
mean height
27.995, 28.031, and 28.034: the thermometer
in the two first months was at its highest points
22°, in the third 23.49° R. ; at its lowest 15.49°,
16", 18° ; its mean height was 19.198°, 18.394°,
and 20.49° : the hygrometer gradually rose from
49° to 76° and 85°, as the rainy season advanced.
We did not think it advisable, considering the
shortness of the time allowed us for our travels, to
wait at Rio was past j and though a
till this season

journey during the wet months must be doubly

fatiguing, we however determined to set out for
the interior as soon as possible, as we considered
that it was preciselv with the commencement of
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 265

the rainy season, that the animal and vegetable

kingdom revive, and appear in their greatest per-
fection. In such an expedition to the interior, we
had been preceded of late years by several travel-
lers. Mawe, who came from Buenos Ayres to
Rio de Janeiro, by way of S. Paulo, had continued
from hence his journey to Tejuco, in the Diamond
district ; Von Eschwege, setting out from his resi-
dence, Villa Rica, had penetrated westward from the
Rio de San Francisco to Rio Abaite, where he
worked a lead mine his serene highness the
;

Prince of Neuwied was at that time travelling along

the sea-coast from Rio to Bahia, with Messrs. Frey-
reissand Sellow; Auguste de Saint Hilaire who had
travelled a year before with Mr. LangsdorfF to Villa
Rica, after the latter had been obliged to return on
account of business, and visited several other parts
of the province of Minas, the Indian settlements of
Passainha, Tejuco, and the Rio de S. Francisco, at
Salgado, was just then on his return to the capital.
Considering these men as our predecessors, and
on a review of all written and verbal information,
it appeared to us the most advisable first to un-

dertake a journey to the southern capitania of S.

Paulo, by which we chiefly designed by degrees to
accustom ourselves to the climate of hot countries,
and to make ourselves at the same time acquainted
with the southern temperate zone. From the pro-
vince of S. Paulo we intended to travel through the
interior of Minas Geraes as far as to the river San
'266 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

Francisco and to Goyaz ; lastly, either to proceed

from hence by the river Tocantin to Para, or to
return from the interior to Bahia and the coast,
there to embark our collections for Europe, and
then to penetrate again into the interior of the pro-
vinces of Piauhy and Maranliao, and thus at length
to reach Para, the object of our wishes. On this .

journey, through a part of the temperate and the

whole of the south torrid zone, we hoped that we
should be able to take a comprehensive view of the
latter, and its manifold productions, and to make
interesting comparisons between the several king-
doms of nature, in different latitudes. This plan
was determined upon with courage and expedition.
Our friends who were acquainted with the country
doubted our success in an undertaking which they
likened to the flight of Icarus ; but they could not
lessen our own confidence, guided by which we
indulged in the pleasing hope of a happy termin-
ation of our labours.
Our stay at Mandiocca, and our excursions in
the environs, liad made us acquainted with most of
the requisites for such a journey by land. Our first
care, therefore, was to procure a troop of mules,
and tlie most necessary provisions and utensils
which every traveller in this country mustabso-
lutely have with him, in which we profited by the
advice of several Mineiros who had just come to
Rio with their caravans. The first requisite, as we
were told, was an Arieiro, to whom we should con-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 267

fide the care of the mules and the baggage. But

we soon discovered tliat itwas difficult to find a
serviceable man of this kind, and still more difficult
to attach him to our interest. After several fruit-

less attempts to procure a well-qualified person we

were compelled, as the time fixed for our departure
was near at hand, to confide the troop to a mulatto,
who, though without sufficient guarantee, declared
himself acquainted with the employment, and we
gave him our negro slave and another, a free negro, as
assistants. How much this involuntary arrangement

would impede our journey in a strange country, and

frequently place us in the most disagreeable situations,
we could not at that time indeed foresee, otherwise
we should wilhngly have purchased, with some weeks'
delay, the possession of an able and well-disposed
guide. This want of a confidential trustworthy
guide, well acquainted with the road, was more
sensibly felt by us, when our German servant, on
the evening previous to our departure, declared
that he would not upon any terms accompany us
on such a long and dangerous expedition to the
savages, but would rather remain behind among
Christians.
During the preparations for our departure, Her
Imperial Highness happily arrived at Rio de
Janeiro on the 5th of November. What joyful

feelings animated us when we saw the august

princess make her glorious entry into the capital of

the infant kingdom, and were witnesses of the

268 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

transports of joy with which a happy people

welcomed the first German princess to a throne of
the new continent. Our long-expected colleagues,
too, the Austrian naturalists, were now likewise
arrived,and we hoped that we should commence
our journey in their company. This wish, however,
was not accomplished, because the Austrian em-
bassy declared that our learned countrymen should
remain a longer time in the province of Rio de
Janeiro. We were therefore compelled to prose-
cute our plan of travelling into the provinces of
S. Paulo, Minas Geraes, Goyaz, and Bahia alone,
and on the application of tlie Austrian embassy,
soon received from the Brazilian government the
necessary passports and letters of recommendation.
All the preparations for our enterprise were com-
pleted in the beginning of December, and the
moment to leave the capital was now arrived.
With great emotion we took leave of friends and
countrymen, to whom we
were united by sincere
attachment and similarity of pursuits, and set out
upon our journey into the interior of the country,
and first to the province of S. Paulo.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 269

CHAPTER III.

JOURNEY FROM RIO DE JANEIRO TO THE CITY OF

S. PAULO.

We left Rio de Janeiro on the 8th of December,

I8I7. Several of our countrymen and friends
*
accompanicvd us to the distance of half a mile
from the city. The commencement of this expe-
dition was not calculated to inspire us with sanguine
hopes. we turned into the broad
Scarcely had
high road of Santa Cruz, when some of our mules
lay down, some dispersed among the houses and
gardens, and others threw off their loads, and en-
deavoured to run away. The confusion increased
when Mr. Diirming, the Prussian consul at
Antwerp, wlio had arrived at Rio de Janeiro, and
who then formed one of our party, was thrown
from his mule, which took fright. Mr. Diirming's
arm was so seriously hurt, that he was obliged to
be taken back to the city. The animals always
run wild in this manner at the commencement of a

* Here, and in the course of the narrative, Portuguese or

Brazilian miles are always meant, eighteen of which make a
degree.
270 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

journey, till they have become used to their bur-

dens, and to proceed in a regular train. Our
countryman, Mr. Von Eschwege, who had already
made many excursions in this country, was the only
one who did not regard it ; but we, being novices,
were filled with uneasiness and alarm. The latter

increased when we perceived that one of the mules,

whose load was also very valuable, did not make
its appearance. It had run back into the city, with

its cargo, where it would probably have soon found

another master, if the Arieiro had not been so for-
tunate as to discover it at last in the harbour, al-

ready in the hands of strangers, and to bring it back

to us. Fatigued by the troublesome' search, and
riding backwards and forwards, we were obliged,
though scarcely a league from the city, to halt near
the royal country-seat of S. Cristovao, in order to
collect the scattered mules and drivers. After we
had passed the greatest part of the day here in

anxious expectation, we at length set out again

with our caravan in good order, crossed the side
roads leading to Canta-Gallo and Mhias, and at sun-
set, reached Campinho, a fazenda, with a venda
attached to it, situated about three leagues from
Rio, where the necessary provisions for the passing
caravans are sold. Such shops are met with on
the greater part of the road from Rio de Janeiro to
S. Paulo, and to the principal places in Minas
Geraes, and as the plantations lie in the moist
tracts, or in the forests far from the road, these are
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. Q~/l

very often the only places which put a traveller in

mind of Europe, and of European accommodations.
The road rims in a direction of S.S.W. through low
land, into which the sea, at high water, penetrates
pretty far in some places. By the side of the road
stood several low palms, in full bloom, and filled

the air with a smell like spermaceti.* We lay down

to rest for the night on ox hides, which during the
day were spread over the cargoes of the mules, but
were now laid on the ground in the entry, which
was sparingly liglited by a lamp. The mules hav-
ing been fed with maize, in bags hung to their
heads, and led to drink in the next pool, were sent
to pasture. For this purpose, both here and on the
whole road to S. Paulo, they use either free open
spots, or places that are fenced in. In order that
the animals may not run away, and be immediately
found the next day, travellers generally prefer
putting them into enclosures, which are let on
very reasonable terms. When the meadow is not
fenced in, it is usual to secure the beasts, by tying
ropes to their fore Meantime, our people
feet.

collected wood and water, and prepared the frugal

meal, consisting of dried beans, and dry bacon,
beef. The night was starry, but the firmament was
darker than in our European zone. The thermo-

* In the East Indies the pollen of the cacao palm is used as

an aphrodisiacum. The component parts which Fourcroy found
in the date palm, (Annales du Mus. i. p. 4I7-) certainly indi-
cate the animal nature of this substance.
 272 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

meter stood at 14.60° Reaumur, during the greatest

part of the night ; a temperature which, together
with the hard bed on the cold stone floor, was
enough to put us in mind of Spanish inns. At
daybreak we continued our journey over low land,
but did not reach the royal country-seat of Santa
Cruz, which is five leagues and a half from
Campinho, because our Arieiro insisted on making
the first day's journey short, in order to accustom
the animals by degrees, and without injury, to travel-
ling. We therefore passed the night in the Venda O
Santissimo, where the old proprietor, an Italian by
birth, related to us how he had come to Rio, on board
a French ship, which had been sent on a voyage of
discovery into the South Sea, from which he had
deserted and afterwards settled in the country.
Thus we unexpectedly met with one of the com-
panions of Bougainville, who after this long se-
paration from Europe, had not only forgotten
the language of his country, but even European
manners.
On our way hither we remarked a tract of
ground, consisting of dry granite sand. The low,
but very pleasant wood * which covers it, resembles,
by its bright green foliage, our laurel groves, but is

* Schinus Aroeira, terebinthifolia Raddi ; Pohlana (Langs-

dorffia Leandr.) instrumentaria nob .
; Spixia heteranthera Leandr.;
Byrsonimanitidissima Humb.; Sapium ilicifolium W.; Alsodea
Physiphora nob. Petrea racemosa Nees. Solena grandiflora ;
; ;

Serianae, Paulliniae sp. &c.

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 273

characterised on the other hand, as a production of

the tropical chmates, by the variety of the forms
of its far-spreading garlands of flowers. We saw
in the ravines some boulders, and rolled pieces of
greenstone, which lie scattered oh the granite
ground. On the morning of the 10th of December,
having traversed only well- watered meadows, we
arrived at Santa Cruz, and were received in the
most friendly manner, by our countryman, Lieu-
tenant-colonel Feldner, who happened to be then
on the spot. This little place with a population of
a few hundred inhabitants, and which only a short
time before had received from the king the title
and privilege of a town, is situated on a flat sandy
eminence, entirely surrounded by a marshy plain,
and consists, with the exception of the royal palace,
of nothing but wretched clay huts. The principal
building, formerly the property of the Jesuits*
college at Rio de Janeiro, and at present belonging
to the crown-prince, Don Pedro d' Alcantara, to
whom was given by his father, contains the ne-
it

cessary accommodation for the royal family and is

surrounded by some dependent buildings. Not-
withstanding very extensive pasture grounds, an
extraordinary stock of cattle consisting of several
thousand head, a number of nearly a thousand
negro slaves, who are designed for this estate, and
notwithstanding the predilection of the court for this
seat, this rich domain is still in the same neglected
state in which Mawe found and described it several
VOL, I. . T
£74 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

years ago. They have not yet succeeded to make

a dairy in the European manner, and the king, who

possesses in his very neighbourhood one of the

finest herds of cows, must content himself
with

Irish salt butter, which has performed a voyage of

several months. The advantages which such an
establishment would produce for the cultivation for
the whole province, if it were arranged so as to

serve as a model, are beyond calculation. The

greatest part of the cattle bred here, are derived
from such as were imported long ago from Portu-
gal, but no care has been taken to improve them,

by bringing others from Rio Grande do Sul, where,

in a state of perfect freedom, they attain an extra-
ordinary size and strength. These cattle, therefore,

are in general smaller and worse-looking than those

which we see grazing, half-wild, in the pastures of

S. Paulo, or driven in great herds from Rio Grande

to the north. They are for the most part of a dark
brown colour, the horns but slightly bent and not
large. It is certain that the cows, in hot climates, give
less milk than in ours, and it is therefore entirely
left to the calves, who suck for a long time. Even
European cows here gradually lose their milk; a fact

which is probably to be explained only by the pre-

dominant action of the cutaneous system and in-
creased perspiration.
In order to improve the estate of Santa Cruz,
the late minister, Conde de Linhares, assigned
dwellings to a part of the Chinese colonists, who
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 275

had been brought to this country. Only a few of

them were now there, most of them having gone
into the city, to carry about for sale, little articles
of Chinese manufacture, particularly cotton and
fire-works ; sickness and regret for their native
country had carried off many of them, and dislike
to their situation induced others to disperse.
Those who still live here, have made round their
low huts, which are kept very neat inside, little
plantations, which they adorn with coffee and their
favourite flower, the jessamine. It is well known,
that the Chinese in their own country, follow agri-
culture with great skill and care, and are even
well acquainted with the art of horticulture. We
were, therefore, surprised at this place,
where a
considerable number of Chinese had been settled
for the purposes of agriculture, to find so few
traces of their labours. The botanic garden or
nursery, on the dechvity of a hill, almost resembles
a desolate wilderness and the kitchen garden near
;

the palace, being situated in a lower and moister

spot, is indeed more thriving but not better at-
tended to. They showed us a branch of grumi-
jama {Myrtus brasiliensis), which, after it had
had been taken in
attained a considerable height,
the Chinese manner, as a layer from the parent
stock. The Chinese employ a very ingenious
method for this purpose, which is particularly
adapted to hot countries, where the vegetation is
stronger than among us. The method is this the ;

T 2
276 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

branch intended for a layer, which is generally

several inches thick, is wrapt in a straw band, in

which horse dung is laid, and which is five or six

times as thick as the branch. A circtdar incision,

down to the wood, is made below the band, and

water is made to fall upon it, from a considerable
height, through a vessel with very small holes,
generally a cocoa-nut shell. The branch soon puts
forth filaments, and in a short time has such a
strong bunch of roots, that in about two months,
the wood may be sawed through, and the young
tree planted in the ground, when it immediately
begins to blossom, and bears, as a separate indi-
vidual, the fruits which it promised as a branch.
The Chinese show knowledge which corre-
also

sponds with our notions of the growth of trees in

this particular, that in order to procure plants that
will sooner come to maturity, they prefer the upper
and thinner branches, but to have better and
more productive layers, they choose the stronger
branches, nearer to the ground.
The physiognomy of the Chinese colonists was
particularly interesting to us, and was in the sequel

stillmore so, because we thought we could per-

ceive in them the fundamental lines, which are re-
marked in the Indians. The figure of the Chinese

is, indeed, rather more slender, the forehead broader,

the lips thinner and more alike, and the features in
general more delicate and mild than those of the
American who lives in woods ;
yet the small, not
oblong, but roundish, angular, rather pointed head,
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 277

the broad crown, the prominent sinus frontales, the

low forehead, the pointed and projecting cheek-
bones, the obhque position of the small narrow
eyes, the blunt, proportionably small, broad, flat

nose, the thinness of" the hair on the chin and the
other parts of the body, the long smooth black hair
of the head, the yellowish or bright reddish tint of
the skin, are all characteristics common to the
physiognomy of both races. The mistrustful, cun-
ning, and, as it is said, often thievish character,
and the expression of a mean way of thinking, and
mechanical disposition, appear, in both, in the same
manner. In comparing the Mongol physiognomy
with the American, the observer has opportunity
enough to find traces of the series of develop-
ments through which the Eastern Asiatic had to
pass, under the influence of the climate, in order,

at length, to be transformed into an American.

In these anthropological investigations, we arrive at
the remarkable result, that certain characteristics,
which constitute the principal difference of the
races, do not easily pass into others, whereas those
which depend only upon more or less, gradually
vanish or degenerate, through a series of different
gradations. In this respect the difference of the
negroes is peculiarly striking, who, in various par-
ticulars, especially the complexion, the hair, the
conformation of the skull, the proportions of the
countenance, and of the whole body, differ more
from all other races than from each other. The
T 3
278 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

negro races of the South Sea, and the Indian

Archipelago, who, for the most part, are derived
from a mixture of various races, who, at so great
a distance from their native country, must expe-
rience considerable modification of the Ethiopic
character, yet still indicate, in every respect,
their African descent, rather than a nearer af-

finity with the other races. On the other hand,

the physiognomical characteristics of the Mon-
gol, Caucasian, Malay, and American races, blend
with each other through so many shades, that
we are involuntarily led to presume a common
fundamental type for all these, in opposition to the

Ethiopic, which perhaps is most strikingly marked

in the Mongol, and to which the abovementioned
various conformations must perhaps be referred as
so many forms of development occasioned by cli-
mate, as has been already asserted by a very dis-
tinguished writer on Universal History. Whether
such a change, proceeding from the aboriginal in-
habitants of Upper Asia, has really produced the
actually existing four chief varieties of the Mongol
as the oldest, then the American, the Malay, and
Caucasian, would be one of the most important
and interesting investigations for the study of an-

thropology, as well as the history of the revolutions

of the earth in general.
Lieutenant-colonel Feldner had been already
severalmonths at Santa Cruz, to direct the manufac-
tory of charcoal, which had been established there
for his majesty's account, and particularly for the
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. ^79

use of the court at Rio de Janeiro. Though he

was on a royal estate, and employed in his majesty's
service, he was obliged to content himself with a
miserable clay hut, and with scanty fare. We
willingly shared both with our worthy friend our ;

conversation about our native country, and many

agreeable recollections, made us forget every priv-
ation. We roamed, in company, about the
his

environs of Santa Cruz, consisting chiefly of marshy

pasture land, interrupted by single low spots of
wood, where we saw, for the first time, the long-
legged stork {Jahuru) stalking about in great num-
bers. The lapwing ( Vanellus cayennensis) hovered
over our heads with uniform note, and spur- winged
water-hens {Parra Jacana) ran about in flocks.
We were not permitted to go in chase of them, as
this is prohibited within a league from Santa Cruz.
On another opportunity, we extended our excur-
sion to Sabati,where we found an ophisaurus al-
most a foot and a half long, on the sandy downs,
and between the hairy mimosa bushes. There are
in this neighbourhood many soap trees {Sajpindus
Saponarid), the fruit of which is brought to the
city in large quantities. The poorer class use
them instead of soap the finer, which is mostly
;

imported from North America, is one of the ex-

pensive articles of housekeeping. In many years,

one of these trees, which are generally about the

size of our nut trees, produces several bushels of
this fruit, which contains a great quantity of sa-

T 4
280 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

ponaceous matter. There are here many species

of still higher trees, which are used, for burning into
charcoal. These manufactories are managed in
exactly the same manner as in Europe, principally
in the driest months from July to September, and
are very profitable on account of the scarcity of
firewood for the use of the city. They now begin
to be carried on with activity, Mr. Feldner
since
has proved, by examining the coal mines near
Bahia, that very httle is to be expected from them.
From our want of experience in the mode of
travelHng in this country, we had taken with us
from Rio much superfluous baggage, and now
found it necessary to lighten the burden of our
mules. Having accordingly selected whatever could
be dispensed with, and left behind, we »et out
from Santa Cruz on the 11th of December, and
were accompanied part of the way by our friend.
A very good road leads S.W., almost in a straight
line, to a bridge, where a barrier was erected to
examine travellers in the interior of the provinces
of Rio and S. Paulo, but particularly to prevent a
contraband trade with gold dust, from the interior
to the coast. The country is an open level, wa-
tered by numerous pools and streams, and is
bounded to the south and west by the Serra do
Mar, which runs along the sea-coast at different
distances, and here sends out a branch nearly in a
direction from west to east, which, under the name
of Serra da Ilha Grande, extends to the bay of
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. f^81

Angra dos Reys, and the prolongation of which

forms the nucleus of Ilha Grande.
We passed the night of the 12th of December
at Taguahv *, a large sugar manufactory, the en-
virons of which are adorned with an incredible
variety of vegetation. A upon the
small church
eminence, commands the valley. Not far from it
there is a large lake, which is frequented by water-
fowl of manifold species. We here observed, for
the first time, woodpecker {Picus gar-
a kind of
ridus, nob.), which is found only in districts, re-
sembling the campos, and precedes the traveller
with a loud screaming cry. On the following
morning, when we had our mules loaded, we had
another unhappy proof of the difficulty of convey-
ance in this country. A mule which had to carry
the tin cylinder, containing the barometer tubes,
suddenly became shy, run into the neighbouring
wood, and could not be retaken till it had thrown
off its load and broken all the instruments. This
loss was the more distressing to us, as it could not
be repaired during the whole journey till we reached
S. Paulo, whither we had luckily sent some baro-

meter tubes by water. The natural sciences have

* Taguahy derives its name from the Brazilian words Tnuci,

yellow, and Hy, water. In the southern provinces,
it is ob-

servable among the many modifications of the Lingua geral,

that the numerous vowels are divided by the insertions of
consonants between them. Thus Tagua is made out of Taua
Jaguarete out of Jauarete, the ounce, &c.
^8^ TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

hitherto met with Httle encouragement, even in

the principal cities of Brazil, the barometers and
other instruments which are here and there met
with are, accordingly, considered as invaluable by
the few persons who amuse themselves with mete-
orological obsei'vations.
At the foot of the mountain which we had now
to ascend, was the house of a Dutch planter.
While a person went into the wood to look for
him, and our caravan went forward, we had an
opportunity of collecting an abundance of plants,
and of the most beautiful insects, particularly the
cetonia. This planter, whose name was Duties,
cultivates the sugar-cane and coffee with great
success, in which he is much favoured by the
moisture of the valley, and the sunny situation of
the mountain. Fortunately, we did not stay here
very long, and soon overtook our mules, which we
found in great confusion on the clayey which
soil,

was full of deep holes. Most of them had thrown

off their burdens, or stuck fast in the pits. We
were therefore obliged to make fascines, to fill up
the holes, and to give the animals a firm footing.
After excessive exertions, we at length reached
the summit of the mountain, where a fine view over
the plains of Santa Cruz made us forget our la-

bours. With various feelings, we here took our

last farewell of the sea-coast, and bent our way
into the interior. The mountain consists of
granite of a pretty fine grain, and reddish co-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. '283

lour,which sometimes passes into gneiss, and is

covered with a thick forest. The steep road turns
in the mountains from south to west, and leads
through several agreeably watered valleys, but
lonesome and gloomy fi"om want of cultivation, to
a miserable village in the midst of the mountains,
which might aflEbrd a very attractive residence for
a naturalist, because its environs have an endless
variety of beautiful vegetation, and interesting ani-
mals. Myrtles, rubiaceas, scitamineas, and orchi-
dese, constitute the principal feature in the phy-
siognomy of these woods, which, like those of the

Serra de Estrella, are at an elevation of 2500, to

3000 above the level of the sea. Before we
feet
reached the Fazenda S. Rosa, where we intended
to rest for the night, we passed a royal farm, which
is a dependency of that at Santa Cruz, and is chiefly
employed for the purposes of felling fine wood
{Madeiras reads or de ley), which work is per-
formed by the king's slaves. The progress of the
journey became more and more inconvenient and
dangerous, on account of the steepness of the moun-
tain, the frequent hills and clay pits, which obliged

us to make a considerable circuit. The narrow

valleys, covered with thick forests, contract on all

sides, and a cool and clear brook sometimes flows

through them. Profound solitude reigned here,
and, with the exception of a few wretched clay
huts, or spots lately cleared of the wood, the tra-
veller meets with nothing; which reminds him of the
^84 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

influence of man on these majestic scenes of savage

|iature. As we descended from the steep emi-
'nence, and issued from the dark gloom of the
forest, we perceived the httle hamlet, Villa de S.
Joao Marcos, and afterwards a solitary but hand-
some fazenda in the valley. The newly cleared
grounds are soon covered, especially on eminences
exposed to the sun, with an incredibly thick ves-
ture of a kind of brake (Pteris caudata), which,by
spreading its tough roots in the ground, becomes a
very troublesome weed, and very diflicult to be
extirpated. The inclination of this plant always
to grow upon land that has just been made fit for
tillage, is worthy of attention in the history of the

diffusion of plants. In the latitude through which

we now travelled, we observed several other plants
grow immediately after the clearing away of the
wood among these were Phytolacca decandra and
:

icosandra, Sco^aria dulcis, Solanum decurrens, and

some species of the same genus, Gro7iovia scandens,
Phlomis officinalis, nob., and several kinds of hyptis.
In North America, the thick plantations of ferns
are used to make potashes, because they contain
much alkali but, in Brazil, no attempt has yet
so ;

been made to employ, for this purpose, the ferns,

and those immense quantities of wood yearly felled;
because they consider the ashes left after burning
the wood, as necessary to manure the soil.

At Retiro, a miserable fazenda, lying sideways

from S. Marcos, in a narrow swampy valley, sur-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 285

rounded by woody mountains, we passed the first

night in the open air. The uraponga had ceased
his strangely sounding notes, the swarms of grass-
hoppers commenced, as night set in, their mono-
tonous chirp, at intervals interrupted by the notes
of a large frog, resembling a drum, the lament of
the capueira, and the dull cry of the goat-sucker.
Affected by the constantly returning impressions,
we felt ourselves in a strange and solemn mood in
the lonely wilderness, which was farther increased
when the firmament, with all the splendour of the
southern constellations, beamed on the dark forest,
and millions of shining beetles fluttered in lumin-
ous circles through the hedges, till at length a
heavy rain veiled all in darkness. The woody
ridge of mountains through which we had hitherto
travelled is the highest part of that branch of the
Serra do Mar, which, in general about three
thousand feet high, runs towards the sea-coast
from the principal chain, which runs to the north.
The next mountains over which we passed are
lower, and rise at longer intervals. The road is

sometimes cut very deep in the soil, which consists

of red clay, is very narrow, and when two troops
of mules meet, as it often happens, dangerous.
This kind of road is, however, welcome in luxuri-
ant forests, because the confining all travellers to
one narrow path, prevents it from being quickly
overgrown, as would otherwise happen. Paved
roads and bridges are, of course, to be found no-
286 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

where in these solitudes, though the ground in the

neighbourhood of the numerous streams, is quite
swampy, especially in the rainy season. We first

observed in these woods the notes of a greyish

brown bird, probably a thrush, which frequents the
bushes and ground in damp low woods, and sings
with numerous repetitions through the musical
scale, from H^o A" (of the German scale), so regu-
larly, that not a single note is wanting. Itcom-
monly sings each note four or five times over, and
then proceeds imperceptibly to the following
quarter tone. It is usual to deny to the songsters
of the American forests all melody and expression,
and to allow them no pre-eminence but splen-
dour of plumage. But if in general the pretty
natives of the torrid zone are more distinguished by
the beauty a£ their colours, than by fulness and
power of note, and seem inferior to our nightingale
in clearness and melodiousness of tone, yet this
little bird, among others, is a proof that they are
at least not destitute of the principles of melody.
How far the musical improvement of man has
already had an influence on the notes of birds,
remains ^n interesting subject for physiological
investigation. It is at least conceivable that when
the almost inarticulate tones of a degenerate race
of men, no longer resounds in the woods of Brazil,
many of the feathered songsters will also produce
more refined melodies. Besides the birds of the
forest, the attention of the zoologist is claimed by
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL, 287

the serpents, particularly the beautifully coloured

ahaetulla, which is seen darting across the road, or
killed by the passing caravan. A lichen *, which
by its splendid rose-colour is a real ornament to
the stems, grows here on trees, especially in moist
places. The beauty and the peculiar brilliancy

of this plant, have induced Mr. Tonay to use it for

dying ; and Vauquelin t, who examined it by the

name of cochenille vegetale, observes that the red
colour contained in it, has much resemblance with
the orseille {dyers' lichen), is less lively and brilliant,

and in smaller quantity, but may be advantageous-

ly employed in dying silk and wool, but not so well
for cotton. In the main valley, between the
ranges of mountains we had already passed, and the
following, flows the Pirahy (Fish River), the water
of which is pretty clear, though its bed is sandy
and marshy. As there is neither a bridge nor ferry,
the mules had to be unloaded, and swim through,
and the luggage carried over on the shoulders of
our people. In the deepest place, a narrow plank
{pinguela) had formerly been laid for foot passen-
gers ; had been unfortunately carried away
but it

by the water, so that Mr. Ender, crossing over on

horseback, got entangled, to our terror, in a deep
hole, from which he did not extricate himself with-
out great danger.

* Spiloraa roseum, Raddi. (Mem. di Fis, Soc. Ital. vol. xviii.

p. 349. t.2.)
t M^moires du Museum, Ann^e 3me, p. 145.
288 travi:ls in buazil.

At the Fazenda dos Negros, four leagues from

Retiro, we met with an unpleasant accident, one
of our people being bitten by a bird-spider. Though
these animals are universally proscribed a:s poison-
ous, yet the wound, after having been burnt over hot
coals,was not attended with serious consequences.
The numerous slaves of the fazenda were cele-
brating a festival, which continued from sunset till
late in the night, with dancing, singing, and noisy
music. The din of their atabaque, a kind of drum,
and the canza, a thick tube with iron bars across,
on which they produce a jarring sound, by passing
over it backwards and forwards with a stick, dis-
turbed us as much as the torrents of rain, which,
driven by the high wind from all quarters under
our shed, frequently obliged us suddenly to lie

down in another place. With this night we began

to experience the inconveniences of a journey dur-
ing the season of the rains, which henceforward
continued uninterruptedly not only in the night,
but even in the afternoon. Surrounded by wooded
mountains, which were covered every morning low
down with thick fog, we soon perceived a consi-
derable increase in the moisture of the atmosphere.
The whalebone hygrometer, which in the pre-
ceding months had been more elastic, was now
very often 60° and 65°, and in the evening and
morning more than 70°. The wet season that now
set in appeared to be welcome to the inhabitants
themselves j for the places where the woods had
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. _ 289

been burnt during the late dry months, were now

used for the new plantations. We, on the con-
trary, were of course greatly incommoded by the
rain, which came down all night in streams, or in
fine mist, and by the cold which accompanied it.

Our baggage suffered considerably by the sudden

increase of damp, and among our collections, the
insects and plants in particular, were covered with
a yellowish mould *, the formation of which no
care can prevent. We hoped, indeed, that after
crossing second chain of mountains which
the
stretches from N.W. to S.E. towards the sea, we
should find a more favourable climate ; but in this
we were deceived, we had continued rainy
for
weather for several weeks. The roads, which are
mostly heavy clayey soil, became nearly impassable,
and the swelling of the rapid torrents, through
which the drivers had often to carry the baggage
on their backs, greatly delayed our progress.
This second chain of mountains, from the most
northern valleys of which two of the chief sources
of the Paraiba, namely, the Paratininga and the
smaller Rio Turbo, flow, consists, like the first,
entirely of granite, which, here and there adopting
a scaly structure, passes into gneiss.
In several places of the Freguezia of Bananal,
which leans on a hill, the mountain masses showed

* It was the same Eurotium herbariorum Link, which, among

us also, makes its appearance in our herbals in damp weather.

VOL. I. U
290 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

a direction in hours 3 and 4 of the miner's com-

pass, and an inclination of about 30°. The gra-
nite consists here of much grey and silvery mica,
white quartz, and white or reddish felspar. These
parts, though only thinly peopled, seem to be more
diligently cultivated than all those through which
we had hitherto travelled. We saw here and there
very extensive plantations of maize, the most im-
portant production in these mountains, which here
yields from fifty to sixty fold. Several European
colonistshave attempted, in the colder regions of
these mountains, to grow flax, which has been
attended with great success ; but it is not pro-
bable that this plant will be very extensively cul-
tivated, considering the abundance of cotton, and
the demand for linens, which at present are
little

not much used bv the Brazilians. On a consi-

derable eminence behind Bananal we observed an
evident transition of the gneiss into mica slate,

which has its direction in hour 3. We found on

the road casual fragme]its of a compact brown
iron-stone, which passes into drused hematite. To
the south of Bananal, several other chains of moun-
tains, which are almost parallel to each other, and
all thickly wooded, run from the west towards the
ocean. We two days' journey, the first
passed, in
of these, the outlines of which are more rounded,
and of more agreeable form, having between them
some light valleys, with pools and rich meadows.
We everywhere observed the same species of rock,
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 291

namely, a pretty coarse-grained granite, with much

grey and silvery mica. Several colonists have
by the side of small streams,
settled in the valleys
and their extensive plantations of Turkish wheat
give the first appearance of culture to those lonely
tracts. The third mountain Morro For-
ridge,
moza, resembles by its bolder forms, larger and
irregular masses, the mountains round about Rio,
and constitutes the frontier of the provinces of Rio
and S. Paulo. Along the road, which runs south-
westward through the mountains with many wind-
ings, there is exposed in many places granite, with
large foliated very ferruginous mica, and in it

small veins of disintegrated red iron-stone, the di-

rection of which is in hour 2 of the miner's com-
pass, in very considerable angles of inclination
likewise very large pieces of compact brown
iron ore, and large masses of hard white quartz
occur here and there. From the Morro Formoza,
which forms the limit of the territory, and divides
the rivers in this eastern branch of the Serra do
Mar, the road gradually declines through low
mountains, which are more open and agreeable,
and where population and culture increase. The
richness of the scenery indemnified us for the
fatigues which the bad roads and the frequent
showers of rain occasioned ; in particular, these
parts seemed to be the resort of the most beautiful
butterflies, which, with their gay shining wings,

u 2
292 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

sported by thousands about the mouhtain streams

illumined by the sun,
On the third day, after we had left Bananal,
and passed the river, and the little place Barreiro,
we reached S. Anna das Areas, a pretty consider-
able town, which had lately been raised by the king-
to the rank of a villa. The government endeavours,
in general, to favour the union of several colonists
by conferring such titles and the privileges con-
nected with them ; in which it is actuated by the
double principle, that by living closer together the
colonists gain in civilisation, and regard for their
duties as citizens ; and the state, by the increased
facility in the administration, the collection of the
taxes, and the regulation of the militia. In every
country which, with a great extent, possesses but a
small population, it more to the in-
is certainly
terest of the government to improve some parts by
augmenting the population, and encouraging in-
dustry, and raising them to the necessary degree
of social and civil relations, than to suffer the mass
of inhabitants to scatter themselves over the whole
face of the country, and allow each individual to
lead a life, which, being remote from all protection
and all observance of the laws, without the bene-
ficent influence of society, cannot promote mo-
rality, the social virtues, nor cultivation. The
tendency of the measures of the Portuguese go-
vernment has, in this respect, a resemblance to the
system of military colonisation in Russia, though
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 293

the latter, as a warlike establishment, has an en-

tirely different object. The Villa das Areas, which
has arisen within these five and thirty years in this
thickly wooded mountain, out of the settlement of
a few poor colonists, cannot, of course, yet present
a picture of high prosperity. The low houses,
built of slight laths, simply interwoven with twigs,
and plastered with clay, and the little church
which is constructed in the same manner, seem
very ephemeral ; so that these dwellings appear to
be erected merely as temporary places of refuge
for wanderers. We entirely miss the appearance
of comfort and of solidity, calculated for long dura-
tion, which distinguishes European dwellings, though
it must be owned that this is not entirely unsuitable
to a climate, inwhich the inhabitants, whose set-
tlement is so unfixed, are so little in need of a
durable abode. We found by far the greater part
of all the towns in the interior of Brazil like this
place, and the rarity of a well-built and comfort-
able house frequently excited regret for the con-
veniences and cleanliness of our native land. In
the neighbourhood of Areas, there is still a con-
siderable village of Indians, who are the remains of
the numerous tribes which, previously to the occupa-
tion of the Serra do Mar by the Paulistas, inhabited
the whole of the extensive forests of this chain, and
are now either extinct, or mixed with negroes and
mulattoes, live in a state of half civilisation among
the colonists. They are still distinguished by the
u 3
294 TKAVELS IN BRAZIL.

indolence, and the almost untaraeable obstinacy of

their forefathers,and have but little intercourse
with the colonists, whose plantations and cattle
frequently suffer from the predatory attacks of
these troublesome neighbours. The inhabitants call
these Indians by the name of Capoculos, thereby
distinguishing them from those who are wholly
savage and uncivilised (Gentios, Bugres, Indios
bravosy It is probable that these remaining In-
dians, who dwell along the coast, belong to several
tribes whose names are partly lost, because the
Portuguese did not distinguish them from each
other, but bestowed on them the common name of
Coroados or Shorn, because they used to cut off
the hair from the middle of the crown, and wore
only a circle of hair round the forehead.* The
chief abode of the Coroados, is at present on the
banks of the Rio da Poniba, a side branch of the
Paraiba ; and as the Indians generally make their

* Historians mention in the neighbourhood of Rio de

Janeiro, and along the coasts of that place, southward to S.
Paulo, the Tamoyos, a very warlike nation, allied with the
French under Villegagnon against the Portuguese also the ;

Carijos or Guaras, in the forests of the whole Serra do Mar,

also extended very far to the south. On the north coast of
the Bay of Rio, and in the plains of Cabo Frio, dwelt the Goy-
tacazes ; of the latter, the Corografia Brasilica (II. p. 45.)
mentions three hordes, namely, the Goytaca-Guassu, Goytaca-
Moppis, and the Goytaca-Jacoreto. Westward of these,
and to the south, behind Serra do Mar, nearly as far as to
S. Paulo, was the abode of the Goyanazes, who bore an affinity
to the Goytacazes.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 295

migrations along the rivers, it seems that they

originally spread from the interior to the sea.
Those who live together in the Aldea de Valen9a,
not far from the road of Rio to Villa Rica, between
the rivers Paraiba and Rio Preto, are remains of
the same nation. This place was but a few years
ago, tiie only one in the province of Rio de
Janeiro, in which a considerable number, both of
converted and unconverted Indians resided. The
situation of the establishment, favoured the inclin-
ation of these children of nature, to return from
time to time to the great primeval forests on the
Paraiba, and farther northward, towards Minas
Geraes, whence they, however, always returned to
the ecclesiastics of the mission. The introduction
of a Swiss colony into Rio de Janeiro, which took
place soon after we left that city, and the com-
mand of the government that those Indians
should clear the forests for the new comers, is

stated to be the cause that a great part of them

have lately for ever abandoned the village.

The capitao mor in Areas, delighted at the ap-

pearance of several strangers of the nation of his

crown-princess, and from such a remote country, of-
fered us, in a very friendly manner, when we passed
through, his services in forwarding our effects ;

because his experienced eye soon discovered the

bad condition of our mules, which, by the neglect
of our unskilful Arieiro, had become almost unser-
viceable i but as the latter assured us that we did not
u 4
5^96 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

want the assistance of strangers and that the mules,

;

though a httle galled by the saddles, were in per-

fectly good condition, we continued our journey.
The road leads constantly southward, through se-
veral narrow valleys, thickly covered with wood,
which are intersected by some rivulets, flowing
southward to the Paraiba. The mountain consists
of a gneiss, in part much decomposed, upon which
there are beds of slaty clay iron-stone, which is

in strata, and the direction of which is in hours

3 and 4 of the miner's compass. From the
highest point of the mountain, we saw behind us
three parallel chains, piled up in immense steps,
but before us only the lower Serra do Paraiba
At sunset we had descended from the high moun-
tain, and reached some poor huts in the deep

bottom of the valley of Tacasava, near a rapid

stream, which runs into the Paraiba. Several
caravans had already encamped here, who were
conveying fowls to Rio for sale. The dispro-
portion of the wants of a great city, and the
scanty produce of the environs, which are for the
most part still uncultivated, makes it necessary to
bring supplies from very remote districts. The
industrious Paulistas, therefore, carry their live
stock from a distance of about a hundred leagues,
to the market at Rio, where they dispose of them
to great advantage. The neighbourhood of these
feathered travellers, caused us this time a sleep-
less night. We observed, on this occasion, that the
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. ^97

note of these fowls, which are of European origin,

is a simple, harsh, or shrill tone, which gradually
becomes weaker and lower, is rougher and more
disagreeable than ours. These fowls are confined
in large baskets, made of the pliant stalks and
shoots of several kinds of paullinia, and the
troughs for them are made of thick stems {Ta-
guara) of arborescent grasses {Bamhusa).
On when we were going
the following morning,
from Tacasava, we found that the capitao mor of
Areas had but too justly appreciated the bad condi-
tion of our mules. The animals had been so much
galled by the saddles, which our unskilful Arieiro did
not know how to fit on them, that they were now inca-
pable of any other service, and compelled us to halt.

The swelling which the animals get from the rough-

ness of the saddle, or the unequal balance of the
burden, is often so malignant that it mortifies and
occasions death ; the greatest care was therefore
necessary not to run the risk of losing the whole
troop. The leader, it is true, laid the whole blame
on the thick fogs during the night, the heavy
morning dew, and, above all, on the light of the
moon, which made the animals' wounds worse for ;

these are the principal elements in the theory of

diseases of the common people : but we would not
leave the cure, as he proposed, to the beams of the
sun, and so the day was spent in the disagreeable
veterinary occupation of burning, scarifying, wash-
ing the wounds with a decoction of tobacco, and
^(^8 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

bleeding which the Arieiros of the other troops

; in

that were halting at the same place goodnaturedly

afforded their advice and assistance. In the morn-
ing the thermometer stood at 15° in the shade ; at
noon at 28°, and in the neighbouring river at 20° R.
In the evening we saw a magnificent convoy pass
by. It was a caravan of the bishop of New Cor-
dova, who, being driven from his residence by the
political revolutions in the Spanish colonies, was
travelling with a Portuguese escort from Monte-
Video to Rio de Janeiro, where he intended to
embark on his return to Europe. He had been
already four months upon the road to traverse 11°
of latitude. By sea he might have returned to
Europe in less time. It was not till the evening of
the following day that we received fresh mules,
which the obliging capitao mor of Areas sent after
us. We now resolved, in order to redeem the time
we had lost, immediately to continue our journey
by moonlight, wiiich, however, we soon had reason
to repent. We were still in the village when one
of the new animals threw off his load in the middle
of a stream and ran off, which occasioned another
and still more disagreeable delay. With much dif-

ficulty we gathered the scattered parts of the

botanical collections. At last we recovered every
thing but a bottle of flowers preserved in spirits of
wine but even this was afterwards found by the
;

owner of the venda, delivered to our friend Mr.

Ender, on his return from S. Paulo to Rio, and
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. §99

through him arrived safe at Munich. We mention

this Httle circumstance with pleasure, as a proof of
that good fortune which attended all our collections
of natural history, which, though exposed to innu-
merable hazards and dangers, have all, without ex-
ception, reached their final destination ; a success
which few travellers can boast. Travelling by
night in the tropical countries is extremely agree-
able, especially from the coolness which refreshes
the traveller after the parching heat of the day.
The landscape, too, appears in new and often strik-
ing forms, which excite in a peculiar manner the
fancy of the European, by the uncertainty of their
outlines. Only, travelling by night is not good for
the animals, because they prefer resting from mid-
night till During the last few days
the morning.
we had descended lower and lower out of the nar-
row valleys of the mountains, and now sometimes
saw in the moonlight, to the right, before, and on
the side of us, the summits of a part of the Serra
Mantiqueira, which runs from Minas southward,
behind tlie Serra do Mar. Their bluish outlines
formed a magic back-ground to the landscape, in
which wood and open spots alternated. The lofty
trees of the forests through which we passed were
veiled in black shadow, and many strange and
never before heard nightly voices resounded ; all

united to excite in us sensations equally singular

and uncommon. The conduct of the troop by
night requires double attention in tlie driver, that
 300 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

none of the animals may conceal itself in the

bushes and remain behind. Our attendants, lively
Paulistas, did not fail to encourage each other by
callingand singing they joked on the possibility
;

of some venomous serpent lying in the road, till

the oldest of them, with an air of importance,
assured them that this was impossible ; because he
kept all dangerous vermin by a dailyat a distance

prayer to St. Thomas. The chance of meeting

with poisonous serpents, which come out to look
for prey during the night, and prefer the lighter
road to the bushes, is certainly no inconsiderable
danger for those who travel during the night, more
especially where the little schiraraca {Bothrops
leucurus, nob.) is very common. A few days
before, while resting on a hollow tree, during the
noonday heat, we had lain upon one of these
venomous serpents fortunately it was caught in
;

time, and put into spirits of wine. At Malada,

consisting of a few poor huts, we asked in vain for
a night's lodging, for the common people in Brazil
do not sit up late at night, except on occasion of
their festivals {^fungoes). At Silveira, two leagues
from Tacasava, a similar halting-place for caravans,

we met with a fenced-in feeding place {pasto

at last

feixado) for the cattle, and a roomy rancho, in

which we hung up our hammocks.
We were, it is true, still among the mountains,
but the rounder summits are more detached and ;

as, instead of the gloomy forest, they are covered

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 301

with cheerful plantations of maize, mandiocca, and

sugar-cane in more extensive spots, make an agree-
able impression on the traveller, who involuntarily
feels himself constrained and oppressed by the
silent uniformity of the woods. We accordingly
breathed more freely when, on the following day,
still proceeding in the direction to south-west, we
at length reached the summit of
last this chain,
which belongs to the Serra do Mar, and a deep and
pleasant valley extended before us. This valley is

bounded to the west, at the distance of about two

miles, by a part of the Serra do Mantiqueira, the
general direction of which, at this point, is from
S.W. to N.E. From thence it appears like a long
uninterrupted ridge, without steep declivities and
ravines, but marked by agreeably picturesque out-
lines, with many gently rising eminences, some of
which are covered with thick wood, and others with
green pastures. The valley itself which we at j

length entered, after having passed the huts of

Pajol and the river Iripariba, which falls into the
Paraiba, extends between the last extremities of
the Serra do Mar and those of the Mantiqueira
above mentioned, to the south ; the Paraiba, after
issuing from the narrow valleys of the first chain of
mountains, flows in it towards the north, and takes
at Jacarehy a direction quite contrary to that which
ithad before its banks are partly covered with
;

low wood and partly with rich pastures.

About noon we passed a place where a side road
302 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

branches out, which leads to Minas, and is hence

called Mineiro, and reached, at last, Lorena, other-
wise called Guaypacare, a village consisting of
about forty houses, and of no importance, notwith-
standing its fertile environs, and the great inter-

course between the provinces of S. Paulo and

Minas Geraes. The road from S. Paulo to Minas
passes here in two points, called Porto da Caxoeira
and Porto do Meyra, across the Paraiba, which
flows half a quarter of a league from the villa.
The chief articles of trade from S. Paulo to Minas
are mules, horses, salt, dry meat, iron goods, and
all other manufactures which go from the coast
to the interior. At present, however, Minas is

almost entirely supplied by Rio and Bahia, and

the importation from Santos is inconsiderable
and of still less importance is that from Angra dos
Reyes and Parati, in the province of Rio de
Janeiro, which are the nearest to the entrance of
Minas. Minas sends principally coarse cotton
goods to S. Paulo. As we proceeded farther into
the fertile valley, to the south of Lorena, which was
magically illumined by the setting sun, we observed
remarkable changes in the vegetation. The savage
character of the forests disappeared, and the open,
unconfined, mild nature of the plains (campos)
was gradually more apparent the farther we ad-
vanced. Instead of the thick and high mountain
woods, we Iiad now before us plains and gently
rising hills, which are covered with scattered
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 303

bushes and extensive tracts of verdure. The sin-

gularly formed brown flowers of the Jarinha (Aris-
tolochia ringens) and a white Ipomoea {Ipomcea
Krusensternii, Ledeb.), two gigantic flowers, chmb
over the hedges, which consist of several splendid
specimens of the family of melastroma, myrtles,
and euphorbia. The Ambrosia artemisitefolia, a
strand plant of Virginia and Carolina, is found in
several thick bushes on the shores of the Paraiba.
The plain, though partly very swampy, is one of
the most fruitful districts of S. Paulo. Tobacco
thrives particularly well, and the cultivation of it

is the chief occupation of the inhabitants of Lorena

and of the village of Guaratingueta, two leagues
distant, where we passed the night. As the mois-
ture and warmth are favourable to the separation
of each specific substance on the leaves of the
tobacco, on which their goodness chiefly depends,
the tobacco cultivated along the sea-coast, and in
the warmer valley of the Paraiba, known by the
name of tobacco da marinha, is preferred to the
more indifferent sorts of the mountain tobacco,
which is called tobacco da serra acima. But the
tobacco of the island of Saint Sesbastiao is prefer-
red in the country to all others, and is likewise ex-
ported from the province as snuff. The mode of
treating the leaves, which are gathered several
times in the year, is very simple. After they have
been dried in the air they are laid together in
bundles, or twisted in large rolls, which are one of
304 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the most important articles of bajter employed by

the Guinea ships in the slave-trade.
Guaratingueta is situated in an extensive savan-
nah near the river Paraiba, opposite some projec-

tions of the Serra do Mantiqueira, on a pleasant

hill, surrounded with banana and orange trees.
The Indian name of the village gives a favourable
specimen of the talent for observation possessed by
the aboriginal inhabitants for this long word sig-
;

nifies the place where the sun turns back. In fact,

the tropic of Capricorn is scarcely a degree south

of the which pleases by its simple and cheer-
villa,

ful appearance and some traces of a superior mode

of life. Since our departure from Rio this was the

first place where we saw any glass windows, which

in Brazil, always indicate prosperity, and, in the

interior, even luxury. On the other hand, the tra-
veller is surprised at the want of all regularity and
order in the exercise of trades. Here, as almost
everywhere in the interior except the more popu-
lous places, very few trades are exercised by guilds
and corporations. On the other hand, it cannot
be said that the trades are free, for the trades them-
selves are for the most part wanting. Only the
rich land-holders are able to givedue employment
to mechanics, and the poor man supplies all wants
of this kind by his own ability. The former gene-
rally among
have, their own slaves, all those
mechanics who are necessary for domestic pur-
poses. An obvious consequence of this is that
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 305

the public superintendence over trades by the

poKce is rendered more difficult. We, therefore,
could not be surprised, that in a place containing
some thousand inhabitants we were obliged to be
content with a frugal meal on an armadillo * which
we had shot by the way. The flesh of this animal
has, indeed, an agreeable taste, resembling fowl,
but is very fat.

The road goes from the villa, always south-west,

through the valley of the Paraiba. To the left of
us lay a pleasant well-cultivated chain of hills
planted with beans, maize, mandiocca roots, and
tobacco. On the right, the broad valley extends
to the chain of Serra do Mantiqueira, and bearing
scarcely any traces of culture, is covered with
thick low bushes of myrtles, cujawas, &c. a dreary
and desolate prospect. Only the hope that thou-
sands of happy people will one day inhabit this
highly gifted country can cheer the mind of the
traveller. After proceeding a mile we reached the
shrine of Nossa Senhora Apparecida, a chapel
situated on an eminence, with a few houses about
it. We had brought letters from Rio for the
capitao mor of Guarantingueta, who resides here.
He received us with visible pleasure, and treated us
with everything that his house afforded. The
cordial reception offered to a stranger, the busy
haste with which all the inmates of the house are

* Tatu, Dasypus septemcinctus.

VOL. I. X
306 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

eager to wait upon him, excite an agreeable

sensation in the mind of the European traveller.
Accustomed, in foreign countries, to purchase
everything which is not offered gratis, he fancies
himself transported to the patriarchal customs of
oriental antiquity, when the name of a guest gave,
as were, a legal claim to such a kind welcome,
it

and was more than an apology for the disturbance

which it caused in the family. The first thing
shown us here was the chapel. It was erected about
seventy years ago, a long period in this country ;
it is partly built of stone, and adorned with gild-

ing,bad paintings in fresco, and some in oil. The

wonder-working image of the Virgin attracts many
pilgrims from the whole province, and from Minas.
We met many of when we proceed-
these pilgrims
ed on our journey on Christmas-eve. Every body
here, women as well as men, travels on mules or on
horseback ; frequently the man takes the woman
behind him on the same saddle. The dress of
these planters is quite adapted to their local situ-
ation brown beaver hat with a very broad brim,
: a
which serves, at the same time, as a protection
against the sun and the rain a long very wide
;

blue frock (po7icho), with a hole at the top for the

head jacket and trow^sers, of dark calico ; high
;

unblacked boots, fastened below the knee with a

leathern strap and buckle a long knife with a
;

silver handle, which serves as a defence, and sticks

either in the boot at the knee, or in the girdle, and

 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 307

is used at meals as well as on other occasions, are

the chief characteristics of a travelling Paulista.
The women wear long wide and
surtouts of cloth,
round hats. All those that passed us upon mules
showed themselves to be admirable riders, especi-
ally in the speed withwhich they endeavoured to
avoid the thunder-storms which threatened them
on all sides. Our slowly moving train, on the con-
trary, was obliged to suffer three heavy showers to
pass over it, and came, just as it was getting dark,
to a wretched shed with a venda, called As Taibas,
where we could scarcely find room for our baffffae-e.
which was soaked through. It rained impetuously
the whole night and the frogs of the neighbouring
;

marshes, being quite in their element, croaked in

tiresome unison. Though the place was anything
but agreeable, yet, as it secured us from the fury of
the elements, we soon became cheerful and in good
spirits. Recalling pleasing recollections, we com-
pared the sufferings of this Christmas-eve in Brazil,
with the pleasures with which it is usually accom-
panied in civilised Europe, and even contrived
to see them in an agreeable light.
Between Nossa Senhora Apparecida and As
Taibas large blocks of a pretty fine-grained red
granite, resembling that on Serra do Mar, stand
out. They are considerably rounded off by at-
and put us in mind of the masses of rock
trition,

which are found here and there in the north of

Germany, in the valley of the Po in Italy, between
X Q
308 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

the principal chain of the Alps and Mount Jura

in Switzerland, &c. It is probable that a great
part of the valley, through which the Paraiba now
flows, was connected with the sea, and that these
rocks derived tlieir present form and situation from
violent overflowings and currents of that element.
There are, besides, many traces in the valley of
the Paraiba that it has often changed its bed.
On we continued our journey in
Christmas-day
the direction fi-pm S. S. W. to Pendamhongaba,
five leagues from Guarantingueta. The three
streams of Parapitinga, Agoa Preta, and Ribeirao
da Villa, were so much swelled, that our collections
ran great risk in the passage over them. T-iie

rain continued without ceasing to pour down in

torrents ; and the whole valley was almost always

enveloped in thick fog. We had, therefore, neither
inclination nor opportunity accurately to examine
this woody and well- watered district. Travelling
in tropical countries during the rainy season, besides
many other inconveniences and dangers, has the
•
double vexation, that the traveller -finds great diffi-

culty in observing the environs ; and his books,

instruments, and collections, can hardly be pre-

served fi-om spoiling, by the greatest care and at-

tention. Pendamhongaba some rows

consists of
of low huts lying scattered upon a hill, and does
not appear to be in a thriving condition. The
capitao mor of the place received with great
politeness his guests, who were wet through, and
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 309

afterwards invited us to view the church, which is

only half finished, and loaded with tasteless wooden

ornaments. was handsomely lighted up, and
It
adorned with a manger, in which the infant Christ
lay. There was something affecting in this em-
blematical custom in this place, because we dwelt
with pleasure on the idea that the doctrine of
salvation had found its way into these lonely,
beautifully wild tracts. Since we had descended
from the mountains into the valley, the physiognomy
of the landscape had changed more and more,
and the difference in its character became more
independent and unmixed, the farther we removed
from the dark primeval forests of the Serra do Mar.
From this place the road lay in the broad valley of
the Paraiba, over low hills, which, in the begiimihg,
we found covered with all kinds of dwarf bushes
and single trees ; but farther on it became opener,
and clothed with grasses and herbs, or with long
rows of ananas. Herds of mules and horned cattle
were grazing in these pleasant tracts. The Bra-
zilian distinguishes the two principal forms in the
physiognomy of the vegetable world, wood and
plain, by the names of Matto and Campo but ;

they have many other names for the numerous

varieties of the latter, which determine, more or
less, the local character of the landscape. The
greater part of the valley of the Paraiba is covered
with pastures (campos), which descend from the
eminences, and are but seldom broken by low
SIO TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

woods. Though these meadows do not charm the

eye with the fresh and pleasing verdure of our
northern pastures, they astonish the observer by
the gay variety and novelty of their vegetable
forms. On the hard soil, generally a stiff red clay,
mixed with fragments of quartz, there are detached
rank bushes of greyish green hairy grasses, at
greater or less intervals from each other between :

them grow an infinitude of the prettiest herbaceous

rubiaceae, malpighia, and compositee,
apocyneae,
of the greatest variety of colour, and flowers of
elegant forms.* In places where among these
humble children of Flora a more luxuriant vege-
tation appears, there are single thick-barked trees t,
which seldom rise above fifteen or twenty feet in

* Declieuxia satureoides, spergulaefolia, myricoides, cenan-

thoides, cordigera, mollis nob. ; Hamelia, Rhexiae et Melastomae
herbaceae et Banisteria sp. plur. Gaudichaudia tuberosa,
;

triphylla, marginata ; Croton fulvum, antisiphiliticum nob.;

Wedelia longifolia, sessilifolia, cordifolia ; Lippia bracteosa ;

Calystegia campestris ; Bignonia micrantha ; Cnemidostachys

myrtilloides, herbacea (Tragia corniculata Vahl.) ; Echites
campestris, velutina ; Oxypetalum flavum, erectum ; Bailleria

graveolens Vernonia grandiflora, rosmarinifolia nob. Kleinia

;' ;

Porophyllum W. Molina sessiliflora Vahl. Bidens asperula ;

; ;

Eryngium Lingua Tucani ; Hedera ter-

Celastrus cymosus ;

nata Hydrophylax valerianoides

;
Sauvagesia ovata Clitoria
; ;

angustifolia ;Mimosa hirsutissima Sweetia nitida nob. ;

\ The most important trees of these campos are Laplacea —

parviflora nob. (Pao de S. Joze). Gomphia, Malpighia, Spixia
(Leandri), Ternstrcemia, Marcgrafia, Rapanea,Vochisia, Qualea,
Salventia, Solanum, Byrsonima dasyantha, mycrophylla H.,
Erythroxylon havanense Jacq., Clethra tinifolia Sw., species of
Clusia, Havettia, Panax, Melastoma, Rhexia, Myrtus, Psidium,
Schinus, Annona, &c.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 311.

lieight, have far-spreading crooked branches, dry

pale-green leaves, and form a low, light grove, in
which the form of each individual is easily distin-
guished. This latter kind of wood is called in
Brazil, Tabuleiro, and when the trees grow so
close together that their branches touch, Tabuleiro
coperto. Besides the single trees, rich-flowering
myrtles, creeping banisteria, bushy erythroxylon,
several kinds of the well -tasted guava (Psidhwi),
grow here and there in thick groves (Carrasco,
Feixado), from among which a grotesque cactus
now and then rises. This latter form, which is so
peculiarly characteristic of America, is here less
frequent than in the sultry deserts of Pernambuco,
Ceara, and Caracas. Almost all the productions
of the vegetable kingdom which we saw here were
new to us and our attention was constantly ex-
;

cited by these elegant forms of the campos, which

strongly contrast with the massy and juicy natives of
the forest, and rather resemble the delicate plants
of the northern Alpine meadows.
Taubate, which we reached late in the evening,
is situated on a flat hill, three miles to the S. E.
of Pendamhongaba. The eminence commands a
view of a great part of the plain, through which little
groves and bushes are scattered. The Franciscan
convent, on the left of the road, surrounded by
some rows of majestic palms, makes a favourable
impression, and excites in the traveller the hope of
finding a considerable place. In fact, Taubate,
X 4
312 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

which consists of one long principal street, with huts

built closely together on each side, and some by-
streets, is one of the most important towns in the

whole province. In age it rivals the capital. At the

time when the thirst of gold incited a number of
Paulistas to undertake dangerous and adventurous
excursions through Minas and Goyaz, the inhabit-
ants of Taubate distinguished themselves.* On
this account a government establishment for re-

fining gold was founded here. The inhabitants of

Taubate {Taubatenos), however, were thereby
engaged in violent competition and implacable feud
with the neighbouring Paulistas (Firathiinganos),
so that whenever the two parties met in their ex-
cursions sanguinary contests always ensued. This
enmity is said still to continue in silence, though
the inhabitants of Taubate have now entirely re-
nounced the occupation of gold-washing in other
provinces, and follow agriculture and breeding of
cattle in their own country, which is quite destitute
of that precious metal. The women manufacture
mats out of a large aristida and other species of
grass growing in the neighbourhood, which are
sent to Rio for sale.
We halted one day at Taubate, in order to dry
our effects, which were quite soaked through. The
house, which an inhabitant of the village shared
with us, was but ill calculated to afford us comfort-

* Antonio Rodriguez, one of the first discoverers of the

gold mines at Minas (1693) was a native of Taubate.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 313

able shelter. The houses in general are seldom

above one story high ; the walls are almost in all

cases of thin rafters or laths, interwoven with twigs,

plastered with loam, and covered with a white
clay (tabatinga), which is found here and there
on the banks of the rivers ; the roof is carelessly
covered with pantiles or shingles, rarely with maize
straw, and the wall has in it one or two wooden
latticed windows. The interior corresponds with
the light construction and scanty materials. The
entrance, which is generally half or entirely closed
by a latticed door, leads directly into the largest
room in the house, which being without boards,
and often with unwhitewashed walls, resembles a
barn. This division serves for the habitation of
the family. Store-rooms, and in some cases a side-
room occupy the remainder of the front
for guests,
of the building. The back part contains the
apartments for the wife and the rest of the family,
who, according to the Portuguese fashion, must
immediately withdraw on the entrance of strangers.
From this we enter the veranda, which generally
runs along the whole length of the building, and
opens into the court-yard. A similar veranda is

sometimes annexed to the front of the house. The

kitchen and servants' apartments, generally miser-
able sheds, lie opposite the house, at the further
end of the court. The furniture of these houses
is confined to the most necessary articles ; often
they have no more than a few wooden benches and
314 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

chairs, a table, a large chest, a bed, consisting of a

straw mat, or an ox hide on boards, supported by
four pegs (^girdoy Instead of beds, the Brazilians
almost always make use of the woven or braided
hammocks {piarqueiras), the best and most durable
of which are manufactured, in the provinces of S.

Paulo and Minas, of white or coloured cotton

threads. The traveller nowhere meets with any
wells, and must therefore be satisfied with rain,
spring, or river water, for every purpose. The in-

habitants of Taubate have the appearance of more

prosperity and refinement than those of the other
small places through which we had before travelled ;

which is perhaps owing to their more lively inter-

course with Rio de Janeiro and S. Paulo. A few
vines also are cultivated here, the fruit of which
was just ripe, and of an agreeable flavour.
Southwards of Taubate the road extends through
the valley of the Paraiba, over several woody and
moist which are covered with beautiful ferns,
hills,

melastomas, and aroideae, which thrive in wet

situations. The low plain is likewise rich in the
finest plants and insects : among others, we found
here the Ceramhyx longimanus ; of birds, a new
long-tailed brown Tyranims, and the Cuculus
Guira. After two days' journey through verdant
plains alternating with low woods, which we
in
passed the vendas of Campo grande, Sahida do
Campo, Paranangaba, and the small village of
S. Joze, we came to the villa of Jacarehy (which
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 315

means, Lingua Geral, Crocodile river), where

in the
we allowed ourselves some refreshment. We here
fell in again with the Paraiba, which makes a great

bend, and, instead of proceeding further to the

south, in its original direction, turns to the north.
All the individuals of the party were carried over
in a boat, but the mules were obliged to swim.
In order to show them the direction they ought to
take, one of them was led by a rope from the boat,
and the otheis encouraged to follow by a constant
noise and cry fi-om the accompanying boats.
The Paraiba was at this time swelled by the fre-
quent rains to the breadth of a hundred and seventy
feet, and was very rapid. The navigation on this
river is still very unimportant, probably because it

has many considerable cataracts, chiefly in its lower

part, or because the trade in its neighbourhood is

still and the inhabitants, from want of

trifling,

bridges, cannot easily convey their produce. The

part of it between Aldea da Escada and Pendam-
hongaba is that upon which there is the greatest
traffic.

Among the inhabitants of this place we observed

an endemic swelling of the glands of the neck in
such a high degree as is perhaps nowhere to be
found in Europe. Frequently the whole neck is

covered with the great swelling, which gives a

horrid appearance to these people, who are for the

most part mulattoes, and have, independent of this,

no very agreeable features. But in this country
3i6 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

they seem to regard this swelKng rather as a parti-

cular beauty than as a deformity ; for we often
saw the women adorn this enormous goitre with
gold or silver ornaments, and, as it were, displaying
it, while they sat before their house doors with a
tobacco-pipe in the hand, or a reel to wind cotton.
We have annexed a drawing of one of these women
in her national costume. Negroes, mulattoes, de-
scendants of whites and Indians (mamelucos),
which form the greater part of its population, are
peculiarly subject to this among
disorder; the
whites the women have it more commonly than the
men. The causes of this deformity seem to be
quite the same here as in other countries. For
it does not occur in the high, colder, and airy
mountainous districts, but in the low valley of the
Paraiba, which is often covered with thick fogs.
The reason of this is, that the direction of the two
chains of mountains from S. to N. does not allow^a
and vapours the same
free issue to the exhalations :

mists which during the day rise from the river and
the neighbouring marshes, which are partly covered
with thick woods, fall again into the valley at
night ; the warmth same time consider-
is at the
able and the water of the river, which is often
;

very muddy, impure, and lukewarm, must supply

the place of spring water.Their habitations, too,
are uncleanly, damp, and windy. The raw flour
of maize, which is here more frequently used than
that of mandiocca, and is, though more nourishing,
%

4 .

O
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 317

more difficult of digestion, and eating much pork,

may likewise contribute to the development of
this disease : perhaps excess in sexual enjoy-
ments may be considered as one cause of the
goitre, as it is at Rio of the sarcocele and hydro-
cele. It is true, we do not here se^ the melancholy

appearances of idiocy which are so frequently com-

bined in Europe endemically with the goitre ;
yet
the look of the persons who have the disorder in a
high degree is not merely drowsiness and want of
energy, but even stupidity, in the strict sense of
the expression. It is customary to apply, at the

commencement of the disease, poultices of warm

gourds, the patient at the same time drinking water
which has stood upon the pounded
for several days
mass of large ant-hills. The component parts of
the ant-hills, which are from five to six feet high,
in the construction of which the insect makes use
of a peculiar animal slime as a cement, certainly
seem capable of counteracting the causes, which
produce the goitre. Perhaps, too, the acid of ants
may have a beneficial influence on the relaxed
nerves of. the patient, as well as on the debility of
the lymphatic system. The negroes here, as in
Africa, make much use of mucilaginous substances:
they use, for instance. Gum Arabic against the
goitre with good success ; a mode of treatment
which seems to point at the origin of this disease
as proceeding from the diet.

In the course of our journey from Jacarehy,

 318 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

we met many Spanish fugitives belonging to the

suite of the These victims of
Bishop of Cordova.
the poHtical parties in Buenos Ayres, were re-
ceived by the Pauhstas witli the most sincere com-
miseration, and humanely provided for during
their long journey. The sending of troops from
S. Paulo, to the Island of Saint Catharine, and
from thence to Monte Video, had attracted the at-

tention of the Paulistas to the political events in

the south, and they thought by a hospitable recep-
tion of those fugitives, to establish the claims of
their countrymen, now in that quarter, to equally
good treatment. The Portuguese expedition to
Monte Video had fallen heavily on the Paulistas,
for not only troops of the line were sent upon it,

but even a regiment of the militia, which occa-

sioned a sensible chasm in the labouring class, and
was attended with very lamentable consequences
to many families.* As a great part of the militia
perished in S. Catharina, and still more on the
continent in the garrison of Monte Video, partly
in battle, partly from longing for home, dysentery
and other diseases the consequence of unusual
hardship, a general discontent at this military

* We were informed that on the whole twelve thousand

men, of whom four thousand were Paulistas, carried on the
war in Monte Video. This war, the necessity of which was
affirmed by the minister Da Barca, but denied by many has,
however, proved in latter times advantageous to Brazil, by
giving it a natural boundary in the river La Plata.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 319

expedition was excited in the whole province. The

Paulista, it is true, is distinguished above most of the
inhabitants of Brazil for obedience to the govern-
ment ; but the greatest dissatisfaction could not fail
to be produced by a war, which in the eyes of the
multitude was not carried on for urgent reasons, but
rather in compliance with the opinions of a few, and
to which the farmer, who till then had never been
used to war, remained wholly indifferent, till he was
roused on finding that it required the sacrifice of
the lives and domestic happiness of many of his fel-

low-countrymen. Accordingly a great part of the

militia deserted before they marched away, and
fled sometimes with their whole families, either

into the remote wildernesses of the capitania of

S. Paulo, or to Minas Geraes, where they settled,
and from which province, though demanded back,
they were not given up, according to the privileges
enjoyed by each capitania.
In Aldea da Escada, a small village, three miles

to the south of Jacarehy, which lies near a formerly

numerous, but now abandoned, convent of Car-
melites, at the foot of a gneiss mountain, and close
to the Paraiba, we had the pleasure of meeting
with a very sensible country priest, who was at the
head of a mission for the Indians jesiding in that
vicinity. He observed to us, that the sphere of

his activitywas daily lessened, in consequence of

the royal mandate which has abolished the restraint
of the missions over the Indians, and given them a
320 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

perfect equality of rights with the other free na-.

tives. This ordinance has so far an unfavourable
effect in all places where there are Indians under
the superintendence or tutelage of Portuguese,
because the former now withdraw more and more
into the solitary forests. The mission had at pre-
sent only sixty Indians under it, the rest had al-

ready dispersed throughout the province. They

are not the remains of a single nation, but a
mixture of several which possessed this country
before it was occupied by the Portuguese. Their
physiognomy was not very agreeable. The general
characteristics of the race, gloomy stupidity, and
reserve, which is especially indicated in the un-
steady dark look, and the shy behaviour of the
American, is increased on the first step towards
by the constraint of civilisation to which
reflection,

he is wholly unused, and the intercourse with

negroes, mestizoes, and Portuguese, to the most
melancholy image of internal discontent and abasC'
ment. The manner in which they are treated
by many of the present landholders contributes,
indeed, to this moral and physical degeneracy.
Neither national features, nor voluntary bodily
mutilations, nor peculiar manners and customs
.of these poor remains of the ancient inhabitants,
enable us to infer to what race they originally
belonged. The language, too, of the Indians
of this mission seems not be simple, but com-
posed of several dialects, and to have adopted
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 321

many words in particular from the Guaranis. It

seems probable, from the accounts of historians.*
that, the tribe of the Goyanazes lived here, a,

well as in the plain of Piratininga, or S. Paulos

These latter are said to have been distinguished
irom their neighbours, the Tamoyos, and Carlos,
by their custom of living in caves under ground,
and not slaughtering the enemies whom they took
prisoners, but treating- them as slaves ; and like the
tribe of Goytacazes, who lived farther to the north,
to have been a handsome, robust, warlike, and
docile race. If the Indians now living at Aldea
do Escada, in the neighbouring forests of the
Mantiqueira, and Serra do Mar, were remains of
those Goytacazes, this gradual degenei'acy of the
form and physiognomy of the aboriginal inha^
bitants, to tlie degree of deformity and ugliness
forwhich they are now remarkable, as a conse-
quence of an intercourse for a few centuries with
white men, is phenomenon. It is
a very singular
difficult to imagine, that that warlike and enter-

prising nation should have been reduced, in this

short period, to so small a number of individuals,

and and insignificance,

to such a state of degeneracy
as to be rather an object of pity, than of historical
interest. On the contrary, it is more probable
that these Indians are remains of the less numerous
and weaker nation of the Carios and Guarus, who

* Southey's History of Brazil, vol. i. p. 34.

VOL. I. Y
S22 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

were enemies to the Goyanazes j other remnants

of whom are said still to dwell under the name of

the Sacurus, in the Serra dos Orgaos.* Perhaps the

Carios have been mixed with some descendants of
the Tamoyos, those savage and warlike cannibals,
of whom the Portuguese, who first settled in the
neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, drew the darkest
picture, and against whom Don Antonio Salema, in
the year 1572, undertook the last war of exter-
mination.t
The people of the American continent have
to show, in their earlier history, migrations similar
to those by which the inhabitants of the high
regions of middle Asia came to Europe. The re-
searches of a celebrated traveller, seem to have
placed it beyond all doubt, that the direction of
these migrations on the whole was from north to
south. We, too, shall have occasion, in the course
of this narrative, to mention several facts which
confirm this supposition. But, besides the great
and general migrations, there have been several
partial ones in different directions, and the arrival
of the Europeans on the coast of Brazil, probably
caused several of the more powerful tribes to
retire from the coast, farther into the interior, so

* Father Casal (Corograf. Bras. ii. p. 46.) states, that the

name Guarti, or Guarulho, is used collectively by several
nations. But his accounts, as far as regards the Indian tribeis,
are very little to be depended upon.
f Southey's History of Brazil, vol. i. p. 312.
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 323

that only the weaker hordes, wlio thought they

should be more secure by joining with the Por-
tuguese and settling among them, remained in
their ancient abodes. The Tupinambazes, the
most important of all the nations which the Euro-
peans found upon the coast, confirm this view by
their extensive migration, and their gradual falling
back from the coasts of Bahia and Pernambuco,
to Maranhao, Para, and along the river Amazons,
upwards as far as the mouth of the Madeira, where
we saw the last remnant that the continued wars
have left, in the village of Tupinambarana (now
Villa Nova).
We passed the night in Taruma, a solitary
rancho in a plain bounded by forests, because we
were too late to reach the village of Mogy das
Cruces. In this partwe met with several families
of the people called Cafusos, who are a mixture of
blacks and Indians. Their external appearance is

one of the strangest that a European can meet

with. They are slender and muscular, in particu-
lar the muscles of the breast and arms are very
strong ; the feet, on the contrary, in proportion,
weaker. Their colour is a dark copper, or coffee
brown. Their features, on the whole, have more
of the Ethiopic than of the American race. The
countenance is oval, the cheek-bones high, but not
so broad as in the Indians ; the nose broad and
flattened, but neither turned up nor much bent
the mouth broad, with thick but equal lips, which,
y 2
324 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

as well as the lower jaw, project but little ; the

black eyes have a more open and freer look than in
the Indians, yet are still a little oblique, if not stand-
ing so much inward as in them, on the other hand,
not turned outwards as in the Ethiopians. But
what gives these mestizoes a peculiarly striking ap-
pearance is the excessively long hair of the head,
which, especially at the end, is half curled and
rises almost perpendicularly from the forehead to
the height of a foot, or a foot and a half, thus
forming a prodigious and very ugly kind of peruke.
This strange head of hair, which, at first sight,

seems more artificial than natural, and almost puts

one in mind of the plica polonica, is not a disease,
but merely a consequence of their mixed descent
and the mean between the wool of the negro and
the long stiff hair of the American. This natural
peruke is often so high that the wearers must stoop
low to go in and out of the usual doors of their
huts ; the thick hair is, besides, so entangled that
all idea of combing it is out of the question. This
conformation of the hair gives the Cafusos a re-
semblance with the Papuas in New Guinea ; and
we, therefore, thought it interesting to give the re-
presentation of a woman of that race in her pecu-
liar costume.
The low
mountains" at Aldea da Escada are the
last branches of the Serra do Mar. small insig- A
nificant row of hillocks here unites the promontory
of this chain witli that of the Mantiqueira. The ve-
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 3^5

getation is and luxuriant, and

ex'ceedingly ricli

combines the forms of the mountain forests with

the more deKcate ones of the campos and the
swamps. Large plumerias, echites, and other full-
flowered apocyneae, splendid hamelias, and high
rhexias, covered with magnificent purple flowers,
give to this district, in some parts, the appearance
of a fairy land. At the time we passed through
them, however, these plains seemed to be poor in
animals, particularly insects. The mountain con-
sists of gneiss, sometimes with much black shorl.
Before we reached Mogy das Cruces, a small village
abouttwo miles from Taruma, we saw, in many places,
a reddish sandstone, which alternates with layers of
clay. We gradually descended considerably, and at
the bottom came to the river Tiete, the dark brown
water of wliich flows here much more slowly than
farther to the north-west, where it has many falls,
till its junction with the Rio Parana. At Mogy
we were received with much cordiality and kind-
ness by the capitao. These good people enter-
tained ideas of the Germans similar to those that
the Greeks formerly had of the Hyperboreans.
They were therefore interested, not only by the
distance of our northern country, but by our ex-
ternal appearance. The female part of the family
examined our dress with the simplicity and grace
peculiar to the Paulistas, praising the fairness of
our complexions, which is much admired here. A
workman belonging to this family had been bitten a
326 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

few days before by a venomous serpent (schirnracd)

and died of the wound. A vial of eau de hice,
which we left in this hospitable house as a remedy
against similar accidents, obtained us blessings from
the whole family. The country about Mogy is

already pretty well cultivated ; but the want of

labourers,which has been partly caused by the
march of the militia to the south, seems to be at
present very sensibly felt.

On the last day of the year, after we had passed

a wood, and a desolate tract of meadow ground
which was most part swampy, and a pretty
for the
country-house, called Caza Pintada, three leagues
and a half from the capital, we beheld before us,
from the eminence of Nossa Senhora da Penha,
the city of S. Paulo, standing upon a hill in a
plain, which is partly covered with bushes or
groves. Several large buildings give it,on this
side, a very grand appearance ; the most remark-
able are — the residence of the governor, formerly
the Jesuits* college j the Carmelite convent ; and
the episcopal palace. When we arrived in the city,
we found, by the kind attention of one of our
countrymen, a house ready for our reception, and
fitted up Mr.
as well as circumstances permitted.
Daniel Peter Miiller, Lieut.-colonel in the Royal
Portuguese Engineers, whose father was at first
clergyman of the Protestant German congregation,
and afterwards secretary to the Society of Sciences
at Lisbon, has retained, though brought up in Por-
17
 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 3^7

tiigal from most affectionate

his earliest youth, the

regard for his original countrymen, and received us

with a German cordiality and friendship which
could not fail immediately to inspire us with the
sincerest esteem and gratitude, —sentiments which
we feel peculiar pleasure in being able thus pub-
licly to acknowledge.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

^ (W-

LoNDOK
rrinted by A. & 11. Spottiswoode,
Ncw-StrecV-Sciuare.