Owing to the extreme heat of the climate, the encumbered state of the streets, and a due regard to the Portuguese custom which forbids their walking abroad during the day, the ladies of the city take the evening for visiting. In beauty, elegance and accomplishments, they sink in the comparison with their neighbours of Buenos Ayres and Montevideo.
The houses, excepting those occupied by the richer classes, are dark, narrow, and filthy; and if this Augean stable be not cleansed from the accumulated filth of ages, ere the cholera shall visit it, thousands will be swept away.
A stranger is surprised, in passing through the streets, at the immense number of shops which occupy the ground floor of nearly every house in the city; yet there are said to be but few failures among their occupants. The extravagant price charged for every article, retail, may perhaps account for this fact.
One of the most celebrated objects of curiosity in Rio is the celebrated aqueduct, which is seen winding its way from the Corcovado along the base of many hills, intersecting the streets with its double arches, and passing over the roofs of houses to the various fountains, which are constantly thronged with negroes, carrying jars of water to the dwellings of their masters for culinary purposes—the kitchen being, in many cases, in the upper story, while the ground-floor is occupied for magazines or stables. At some of the fountains are stone troughs, for the use of the negro washer-women, which are constantly thronged with them, making most vociferous cries: a greater confusion of tongues could not have been heard at the dispersion of the builders at Babel; for there is a mixture of all the languages of Africa, from Senegal to Angola, and from Da Lagoa Bay to Zanzibar—with Portuguese, Spanish, French and English, and various Indian languages: making, in the sum total, an olla not to be surpassed by the Lingua Franca of the Mediterranean, or the bazars of British India.
RIO—SLAVERY—POPULATION.
Every kind of labour is here done by slaves; the heaviest burdens are dragged by them on ill-constructed drays over a rough pavement: some of them (principally criminals or runagates) are seen chained in various ways, and bending under the weight of packages too heavy for their strength.
Slavery appears here in all its worst features and most disgusting deformities. Notwithstanding blacks may be seen at the altars, administering the rites of religion,—as commanders of companies or regiments, or as custom-house officers—yet poor friendless creatures (white and black) are seen at every step, nearly naked, covered with loathsome diseases, badly fed, having only the steps of some church-door or the pavement for their bed, or lying exposed to the intense heat of a tropical sun.
I visited many of the churches, but found them sadly shorn of their former splendour, having in them only a few aged priests, and, excepting on particular days, a very limited number of devotees: the passers-by rarely lift their hats and make the sign of the cross, as they were wont to do, when passing the sacred doors; the same neglect is apparent when the vesper-bell strikes a few slow and solemn sounds at the decline of day. Formerly, when its tones were heard, every kind of labour and amusement were instantly suspended, every head was uncovered, a silent thanksgiving offered to the Giver of all good for mercies received during the day, and His divine aid and protection were implored for the ensuing night. Now, almost every species of religious observance has departed, in the overthrow of a notoriously debauched and overgrown priesthood.
The population of Rio is estimated from one hundred and twenty to two hundred thousand, of which a very large proportion are blacks. No correct census has yet been taken, owing to the jealousy of the people, who suppose that the object of government is to impose, in such an estimate, a capitation tax. There is a great admixture of blood among them, from the jet black African with his curly wool, to the pure white with flaxen locks.
The French residents are numerous, if a traveller may judge from the names on the signs, and the endless Parisian nothings exposed for sale in the Rua d’Ovidor and the Rua d’Quitanda. Here and there are interspersed English, German, or Italian names. Since the abdication of the late emperor in favour of his little son Don Pedro the second, and the breaking up of his splendid court, numerous carriages have disappeared, and only a few humble volantes or cabriolets are seen drawn by two mules, or perhaps by a horse and a mule.