Brazil and La Plata: The personal record of a cruise

by C. S. Stewart

It had rained heavily in showers during the night, and the weather was still drizzling and unsettled. Still we felt disposed before returning, to push our observations a little further in the interior. To this Adams offered no objection, and we again mounted. Shortly after leaving the hamlet westward, we came to a very steep and long hill—quite a mountain. The soil is an adhesive oily clay, and the ascent was difficult and amusing. It was almost impossible for our animals to obtain a sure foothold; and they constantly slipped and floundered, and slid backwards in a manner that at first was startling. The view from the top, of the little valley and hamlet, the stream meandering through it, and of the rude chapel and its surmounting cross, was picturesque and quite Alpine.

The descent on the opposite side was as steep, and more hazardous than the ascent had been: our beasts, with their fore-legs stiffly outstretched, often made involuntary slides of eight, ten, and fifteen feet, till “brought up all standing,” as the phrase is, by a cross gully or a large stone. As the whole ride was but the constant ascent and descent of a succession of spurs of hills, running down into the little valley through which the mountain stream flowed, it proved a regular morning’s sport of “coursing down hill” after a new fashion. At first it was a little startling; for when the slide began, whether backwards, in a precipitous ascent, or headforemost down a breakneck descent, there was no calculating where one would fetch up; a little experience, however, begot such confidence in the self-management of the animals—especially the mules, to one of which I still adhered—that I soon began to enjoy it, and rather to look out for and encourage a good long slide upon the well-braced limbs of my beast. This was particularly the case on our return, in the descent of the long hill immediately overhanging San Pedro. This is quite precipitous, and for nearly half a mile we slipped, slipped, and slipped, one after another, first in one direction in the road, and then in another, zigzagging here and zigzagging there, but bringing up at every successive point safely, till we were constrained to laugh outright, as we looked from one animal and his rider to another, and felt that each of us presented the same comical figure.

The general features of the scenery were much the same as those passed over the preceding evening. Steep hills, well-wooded, rose abruptly on either side from the little valley. In this lay rich bottomlands, some in long peninsulas, and others in horse-shoe form, according to the varied windings of the stream flowing through them. Many beautiful pictures, some of nature in her wildness, and others with intermingled cultivation and improvement met the eye, with evidences in the dwellings and farms of the settlers of increasing comfort and progressive civilization. At the end of three miles, our guide proposed that instead of following the public mule-track further, we should turn aside by a gateway upon the more level valley. This we did, and soon entered upon a section more like farming-land at home than any thing before met. After passing two or three comfortable-looking dwellings, we came in view of an extensive plantation of comparatively level and well improved ground, with a cluster of buildings a half mile in the distance, superior to any we had yet seen. It proved to be the residence of a cousin of our guide, at which he wished to give us an introduction. Widespread, meadow-like fields lay before us, and on one side upon an open lawn stood a neatly-finished little ‘chapelet,’ if I may coin a word. This looked pretty in the landscape, from its whiteness in contrast with the green of an encircling hedge. It was not more than twelve feet square, open in front, and probably intended to be scarcely more than a canopy over a shrine of the Virgin or some favorite saint.

From the time of entering the German colony the day previous, salutations of good will and pleasure were addressed to our guide from the habitations we passed far and near—often at distances as great as the voice could well carry them; now, as soon as he was recognized among the party approaching, the demonstration was most cordial and prolonged; while before we would alight, father, mother, daughters, and sons gathered around the cavalcade with the most cheerful welcome. Every thing indicated that we had arrived at the mansion of a magnate in the colony, if it were not that of the lord of the manor himself. It must not be inferred from this, however, that we met any very impressive display of aristocratic life, either in costume, manners, or dwelling. The proprietor was unshaven and unshorn. His dress, though clean, was very thoroughly patched, and included neither coat, stockings, hat, nor cravat. The costume of the lady consisted principally of a single essential garment, made and arranged so inartistically as to give to her figure very much the outline of a bean-pole. The forms of two strapping daughters of sixteen and eighteen were much more after the German model; but their toilette was little more elaborate than that of the mother, and the skirt of the single robe worn by them, scarcely the length of that of a Bloomer without the pantalets. The sinew and muscle thus displayed in bare arms and bare ankles and feet, would have justified the belief that they had spent their lives in tree-chopping or log-rolling, and led one of our party in his astonishment to exclaim, with the favorite expletive of ‘by George,’ “either of them would thrash any one of us in a minute!”

It was beginning to rain quite smartly as we dismounted, and whilst the sons took charge of our horses, we were hastily ushered into a good-sized room, which, though exhibiting a combination of hall and parlor, bedroom and kitchen, took us quite by surprise in its style and finish. It presented a neatly panelled wainscot, of the handsome cedar of the country, extending from the floor to the cornice; the ceiling also being panelled with the same material. A long table and benches beside it, a sofa of mahogany with cane seat, and half a dozen chairs to match, an old eight-day clock in a straight black case, and a high dresser with drawers of the same color and material—both manifestly brought from the ‘faderland’—constituted, with the accustomed display of delf and china, the principal furniture of the room.

In the early morning, at San Pedro, the first indoor object that arrested my attention, was the thickset and burly figure of our guide, beside the counter of the little grog-shop and grocery, stirring with a spoon the contents of a shallow earthen pan, on the surface of which played the blue flames of burning spirits. The interest with which he watched the operation was not limited, it was very evident, to the beauty of the flashing and leaping flame, as he stirred and stirred the liquid. Half suspicious of the reply that would be given, I asked him, “what he was making?” And received for answer, with a smack of his lips, “Oh, something very good for the stomach in these damp mornings in the mountains—very necessary against the fogs! it is cachasa,”—the common rum of the country—“and sugar,” of which, at the end of fifteen minutes’ preparation, he would fain have persuaded us to partake, with the assurance “that all the bad of it was burned up.” And now, at the farm-house, we had scarcely become seated, before our host made his appearance with a tumbler of the same, with a regret that he could not in its place offer us wine. On declining this, bowls of milk were presented. And such milk! The like of it I have not seen since leaving the banks of the Hudson. An excellent loaf of bread, a mixture of wheat and Indian meal, was added, with the sweetest of butter and equally good cheese. A plate of the farina of mandioca being also placed upon the table, I made my lunch chiefly on a bowl of milk thickened with it; and found the diet a capital substitute for the hasty pudding of New England and the Dutch suppawn of the Middle States.

In the mean time, a feat of agility performed by the younger of the two daughters mentioned, came near proving too much for the gravity of some of our number. She had not entered the room when we did, having received an order at the time, of some kind, from her mother. This obeyed, she was unwilling, probably, to lose the interest of so unusual a visit; and perceiving at the door that but one seat in the room was vacant—the farther end of the sofa, ten or twelve feet off—and suspicious of the undue exposure before strangers of her nether limbs, in a deliberate movement over the intervening space, she measured well the distance, and with a gathered momentum, by a single lofty hop, skip, and jump, came down à la Turque upon it, with feet and ankles entirely concealed beneath her scanty skirt, but with a snapping of the bamboo that threatened to be fatal to the bottom of the sofa.

After luncheon, we sallied forth for the inspection of a mandioca and a sugar mill in an adjoining building, and a view of the piggery and gardens—the entire household forming our suite. We had already discovered the wife to be very decidedly the head of the family. Her will and word, doubtless, were law in the domain, outdoors as well as within. The husband seemed a meek, good-natured but inefficient person, while his better half was full of energy and enterprise; and, probably, besides the exercise of better judgment, had accomplished more hard work, in the field as well as in the kitchen, than any other person on the place. She at once took the lead in showing off the premises, and in giving all the information desired in regard to them. Her husband and herself were so poor at the time of their immigration, twenty-four years ago, as to be necessarily indebted to their cousin, Adams, for their passage-money. Their plantation was a gratuity from the government, as an encouragement to colonists. It is a mile in length, by half a mile in width, and was then in a state of nature, and of little value. It is now reclaimed and well cultivated; and could not be purchased, as we were informed, for less than ten thousand milreis or five thousand dollars. In addition to this fine property and comfortable home, with good buildings and a stock of all necessary animals, Mr. S—— the proprietor, is a capitalist, and has money at interest. Mrs. S—— has been handsome, and still has a finely chiselled face and good expression. The daughters, too, are pretty: at least they appeared so to us. It is so long since we have seen the fair skin and the fair complexion of the Northern woman, or met the energy, activity, and elastic movement of the fair Yankee, that we are scarcely competent to the exercise of unprejudiced judgment in the case.

At the end of an hour we took our leave, pleased with the visit, which evidently had also been a pleasure to our hosts. The wetness of the morning had increased, and before we had accomplished a mile on our return, the rain began to pour in torrents. We sought the shelter of an orange-grove till the shower should pass; but finding it inadequate to the emergency, Adams, exclaiming, “This will not do!” pushed ahead a short distance, and dashed, all mounted, into a mandioca mill at one end of a dwelling near by. We of course followed, and found ourselves with our beasts snug and dry in the kitchen as well as mill of the proprietor. Here, during the delay of half an hour, we had an opportunity of witnessing again the whole process of converting the root of the mandioca into farina; while Adams, having, through an open door, spied the family of the house at their noonday meal, alighted, and notwithstanding his previous hearty luncheon an hour before, of bread, butter, cheese and milk, sat down and made a full dinner: and this, only as was afterwards proved, by way of stimulating his appetite for the repast we had ordered to be in readiness on our return, at San Pedro, and to which he did as ample justice as if he had not broken his fast before for a day.

While waiting for this meal to be served, a very pretty and modest-looking German girl of fifteen rode up to the door of the little inn. She wore a neatly fitting dress of pink calico, a pocket-handkerchief tied under the chin as a covering for the head, and French gaiter boots, and sat her horse à la caballero. She was on her way to San José under the escort of a friend, without whose protection, the Germans told us, she could not possibly make the trip with safety, such was the villainy and licentiousness of the Brazilians of the country. In the state in which the roads are, her attitude as a rider was unquestionably the most secure.