At the end of a half hour we came again into the principal avenue, leading from the gate to the base of a steep hill, or rather cliff, overhanging the gardens, from the brow of which the dwelling of Don Juan looks down as upon a map. Detained already, it appeared, from an appointment of business by his attentions to us, he here apologized for the necessity of taking leave, but begged us to continue our walk up the hill, from which we would have a magnificent view; and called a negro lad to guide us. We willingly complied, and advanced by a winding path up the steep. Among the growth not before noticed, we here observed the peach, apple, and pomegranate, interspersed with grove after grove of orange trees, heavily laden with golden fruit. The house is a long, tile-roofed cottage of one story, surrounded by broad piazzas, opening upon flagged terraces. The pointed top of the hill has been cut down to a platform, sufficient only in extent for the area of the dwelling, with a shrubbery and flower garden on one side, and a dovecote and quarters for the house-negroes on the other. The whole is perched upon the angular point of a precipitous promontory overlooking the bay of St. Francis Xavier, from which a heavy surf rolls beneath, breaking, in part, amid a cluster of fantastic and columnar rocks, and in part upon a white sand beach. To reach the best point for a panoramic view at the end of the flower garden, we were conducted through the reception rooms, in the centre of the cottage, furnished with some showy articles of French manufacture—a piano, sofa, vases of painted china. The landscape and water view at every point are superb—especially on the garden front, with the wild surf beneath, and the islet of Boa Viagem for a foreground—its fantastic cliffs of strongly colored earths draped with bright verdure, and crowned by its picturesque little chapel. The varied movements of sail in the lower harbor; the bright gleamings of the city along the shores of Flamengo and Botafogo; with the Sugar-loaf and adjoining hills, and the Gavia and Corcovado in sublime groupings in the distance, formed together a picture of unrivalled beauty. The coloring, and effective shades of a sunset of crimson and gold, exhibited the whole with gorgeous effect; and we stood fascinated by it, till the gathering twilight hastened us to our boat.
Commodore McKeever and Mr. G—— accompanied us in a second visit which we were invited by Don Juan to make, a few evenings afterwards. We were welcomed with the cordiality of old friends, and after a walk through the grounds, were conducted to the house, introduced to Madame M——, and served with coffee, sweetmeats and liqueurs. We soon discovered the mistress of the establishment to be of the order of women, so graphically described by the wise man—“she seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her.” Through the open windows of the verandah, as we entered, we saw her busily engaged, amid a group of female slaves, old and young, in the cutting and fitting of garments which they were sewing; and learned from her husband that her agency, as well as supervision, was thus exercised in the whole economy of the establishment. In dress, she was in the dishabille common among the females, and males too, in this climate, at least till a late hour of the day; a loose wrapper with a colored silk pocket-handkerchief over the head. On the summons of Don Juan, she joined us without apology in regard to her toilette; and after the refreshments were served, while we were enjoying the view at the point of the promontory, gathered and arranged for each of us a choice and beautiful bouquet.
In acknowledgment of the kindness of thus throwing open their grounds and house to us, an invitation was given for a visit to the Congress. This was readily accepted, and they have since passed a morning on board. It was their first visit to a man-of-war, and they professed to take more interest in it, and to feel themselves more highly honored from its bearing the stripes and stars of the United States, than they could under any other flag. We scarcely recognized the Doña at first, under the aspect of a visitor. In place of the Portuguese negligè, in which we were received by her at home, she now appeared in the latest style of Parisian promenade costume: with silks and laces and expensive embroideries, in a correctness of taste and good-keeping, that proved her by no means unaccustomed to the elegancies of the toilette. Don Juan is a man of intelligence and of much practical good sense and observation. Among many things on board, which attracted his attention, aside from the equipment and peculiar character of our ship in military appointment, was a small homœopathic medicine chest in the captain’s cabin. He is a warm advocate of this system, and a practitioner of it in his own family; and he informed us that in forty cases of fever, among his slaves, during the late epidemic, he allowed of no other treatment, and did not lose a single patient, though many negroes around him died of the pestilence under allopathic practice.
CHAPTER XII.
Rio de Janeiro.
November 26th.—The heat of the mornings on shore is becoming so intense as to make walking oppressive. Till the setting in of the sea-breeze about mid-day, the ship is altogether more desirable than any other place accessible to us. Moored in the direct line of the winds from the sea, her decks with awnings spread fore and aft, form a delightful lounging-place; one never without attractions, in the constant movements on the bay, and the varying and beautiful effects produced upon its imagery, by hourly atmospheric changes. This you can readily understand from daily experience at Riverside. Like the verandah there, the poop of the Congress here commands a wide-spread panorama of water, mountain, and valley, ever varying in its aspects of lights and shade, sunshine and clouds, tints and coloring, and tempting one to give too much time to mere admiration of the changing picture.
When the atmosphere is peculiarly brilliant, the mountains stand out with a nearness and strength of light that exposes to clear view the chisellings of their minutest features. With a good glass, every rock and tree, and almost every shrub, of the nearer ranges is then brought, seemingly, within touch; while the sublime chain, forty and fifty miles distant in the north, exhibits, through the same medium, not only the fantastic spikes and fingers from which it derives its name, but the minuter formations of the wooded sides also, furrowed by water-courses, and streaked here and there with the silver line of a cataract in a deep glen. Then again, the whole stand, with undistinguishable features, like massive walls of purple and blue, the upper profile only of their jagged outlines being marked boldly against the sky.
In the morning, the whole bay is smooth and glassy as a lake, one vast mirror, along whose edges are repictured in strong and unbroken reflection, mountain and city, church-tower, fortress, and convent, in minute fidelity, while all the men-of-war, and the little craft floating by with useless sails, lie in duplicate around. The sun glares hotly—not a breath of air is stirring, and every one is oppressed. But watching seaward, the topsails of the inward-bound in the far offing are seen, by and by, to be gently filling with a breeze; presently, ‘cats-paw’ after ‘cats-paw’ comes creeping through the channel and up the bay; till soon, in place of a glaring and oppressive calm, its surface is dancing with ‘white-caps;’ the lateen sail boats, careening to the wind and dashing the spray from their bows, rush past and around us like “playful things of life;” the inward-bound with wide-spread wings come hastening to the anchorage; every one drinks in with delight the welcome draught; and for the rest of the day, new aspects and new life are imparted to every thing and every body. At times, this sea-breeze is supplanted by a half gale from the same direction, causing so much of a swell as to raise breakers between us and the landing, and partially to interrupt communication with the shore. This was the case a day or two since, when the surf rolled along nearly the whole length of the city. The change in the temperature too, is frequently so great as to lead to the substitution of cloth clothing for that of light summer wear, and to the buttoning closely of the coat to avoid a sense of chilliness.
Towards evening the sea-breeze ordinarily dies away; and, by sunset, a glassy surface again reflects the gorgeous coloring which now mantles the mountains, and gilds with brightness the prominent architecture of the city. As the short twilight settles into darkness, regular lines of brilliant lamps gleam for miles along the shores on either side of the bay, and up the ridges and over the tops of the hills in the city; the bright radiance of unnumbered stars falls from above; and the land-breeze, gently fanning down the mountain sides, brings with it the freshness and fragrance of their woods and flowers.