A favourite jaunt with the Sunday or holiday crowd—Italians, negroes, Portuguese, Germans, Paulistas, and English—is a run on the car from the Largo do Sé to the gardens and museum at Ypiranga. The journey occupies about half an hour, and the route runs through the Square of 15th September, along the Rua do Gloria, with its small one-story houses, past the abattoir, through boulevards planted on either side with trees, to the suburbs, where building is going on in all directions, the workmen busy at their jobs, although it is Sunday. Outside the town are market gardens and fields with green grass and rich, red soil, firs and pines on all sides, cattle browsing in the meadowland, rose-covered villas and factories springing up amidst the green fields.
Most of the occupants of the cars descend at the gardens of the Ypiranga, in the grounds of which are wide walks, raised terraces, lined with cypress trees, and well laid out beds of flowers and shrubs of all varieties.
The museum is built upon the spot where the independence of Brazil was proclaimed in 1822 by the Prince Dom Pedro, who, on learning of the refusal of the Cortes at Lisbon to listen respectfully to the Brazilian delegates, impetuously gave utterance to the famous cry, “Independence or Death!” and was shortly afterwards proclaimed constitutional Emperor of Brazil.
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM AT YPIRANGA.
The museum, erected as a monument to commemorate this historic event, is a well-designed and imposing building, containing fine staircases and lofty galleries, in one of which is a huge picture illustrating the “Independencia ou Morto” incident.
The galleries are filled with collections of various objects of natural and historical interest such as butterflies and birds, wasps and bees, with their curious nests, old leather-covered furniture, sedan chairs, cupboards, fourposter beds, and chests of the colonial period.
Amongst the many curious and instructive objects gathered together are pottery from all parts of the continent, including Colombian, Peruvian, and Mexican; stuffed fish, weird in shape and marvellous in variety, taken from the rivers; lizards, chameleons, turtles, alligators, and snakes. Here, too, are specimens of the feathers and ornaments worn by the savage Indian tribes of the State of São Paulo, head-dresses of yellow feathers, necklaces of human teeth, collars of green parrot feathers and beetles’ wings, and of beadwork mixed with feathers.
The instruments, warlike and peaceful, of the native tribes are also well represented, such as clubs, bows and arrows, stone hammers, baskets, crudely made straw hats, a curious fire-making appliance consisting of spindle revolving in a disc; native panpipes, calabashes, and mats.
Amongst the stuffed animals are such curiosities or freaks as a calf with only two legs, and another with two heads.