About twenty miles to the westward of Pernambuco, there is a small German Colony called Catucá; it was established about eighteen years before, at a period when a German regiment, which had been in the service of the Brazilian government, was here disbanded, but it is now fast dwindling into decay. The few families residing there gained a livelihood by the manufacture of charcoal, which they carried to town for sale. Being desirous of spending a day or two at this place, I started early one morning in the beginning of November, accompanied by Mr. White, a young gentleman whom I had previously met on the Organ mountains. We were guided by two Germans who were returning from Pernambuco, and their horses carried our luggage. Our route for about two hours was through a flat country, principally planted with mandiocca, although a great part of it was still uncleared, only the large trees having been cut down: a few of those remaining rose high above their fellows of the wood, and agreeably diversified the landscape. After passing through this cultivated country, and ascending a slight eminence, we entered the virgin forest. Previously the road had been of a sandy nature, but now we found it to consist of hard red clay. Many of the trees were very lofty, although they do not commonly attain the stature of those in the Province of Rio, nor have their trunks the same circumference. Among the shrubs that grew below them, I observed a few Melastomaceæ, Myrtaceæ, and Rubiaceæ. Here everything betokened a drier atmosphere, and a more arid soil than at Rio. There were no Ferns, Begonias, Pipers, or Orchidaceous plants. On the stems and branches of the larger trees a few Bromeliaceæ and Aroideæ were alone to be seen. After riding for about an hour through this forest, we reached the cleared valley containing the cottages of the colonists, several of which we passed before reaching the one in which we remained. These cottages are generally of small size, although much superior in cleanliness and neatness of arrangement to those belonging to the same class of Brazilians. At night we slung our hammocks in a small apartment, and enjoyed a sound sleep till morning.
My friend being desirous of having a few days’ shooting in the woods with one of the Germans, I determined to accompany them, in the hope of making some additions to my botanical stores. We set off early, entering the wood about a mile from the cottage. Here, as in similar situations near the town, I observed a great deficiency of herbaceous vegetation, and in a walk of about two hours collected only a few Ferns. In passing through this wood, we saw an enormously large tree, a species of Lecythis; the ground beneath it was covered with its curious pot-like capsules nearly as large as a man’s head, their resemblance to a pot being much increased by the large lid which falls off from the top of each when the seeds within are ripe. Most of those we saw were empty, the nuts having been taken out by the monkeys, who are very fond of them. Leaving this wood, we suddenly came upon another cleared valley, containing the ruins of several cottages; this, we were told, had been the first site of the settlement, but as the colonists were forbidden to cut any more wood in that direction, they moved their quarters to the place before mentioned. Near these dismantled dwellings we found abundance of pine-apples, and refreshed ourselves with some which were ripe, sheltering ourselves from the sun under the shade of an out-house which had formerly served as a place for the preparation of farinha from the Mandiocca root. Near this place I found two beautiful trees, one of them a species of Vochysia, covered with long spikes of bright yellow flowers, and the other the splendid Moronobea coccinea, literally covered with its globular crimson blossoms. In returning I collected specimens of a yellow-flowered Palicourea, called Mata Rato, not, however, the same plant which is known at Rio by the name of Erva do Rato. It proves, notwithstanding, that poisonous qualities are attributed to different plants of the same genus in different parts of the country.
Close to the main land, and about thirty miles north from Pernambuco, there is a small island called Itamaricá, which on account of its fine climate and soil, and the abundance and superiority of the fruit produced there, is designated the garden of Pernambuco. I was desirous of visiting this place before leaving the province, and with this intention I started about the middle of December, and considered myself fortunate in having as a companion Mr. Adamson, a young gentleman who had been some years in the country, and was fond of botanical pursuits. To make the voyage, we had to hire a Jangada, one of the raft boats so common on this part of the coast; it was manned by a crew of three men. To a stranger it appears a very singular kind of craft, and had I not been well assured that, primitive as their construction seems, they are perfectly safe, I should have felt some hesitation in embarking on one of them.
Having got our luggage properly placed on its elevated platform, so as to be out of the reach of the water, which continually washes over these rafts, we commenced our voyage. The wind almost constantly blows at that season from the north-east, and consequently was nearly right against us, rendering it necessary to beat up between the reef and the shore; the intermediate distance varying from a quarter of a mile to two miles, all the way from Recife to the island. By four o’clock in the afternoon, finding that the unfavourable wind prevented our performing more than half the voyage, we determined to land at a small fishing village called Pao Amarello, and there pass the night. It was not without some difficulty that we obtained a shelter wherein we could sling our hammocks; after meeting with several refusals, the owner of a small public-house (Venda) pointed out an empty hut made of cocoa-nut leaves, and permitted us to take possession of it for the night. Hither, therefore, we moved our luggage, and after a supper of stewed fish and farinha, slept soundly till daybreak. After getting up, we took a walk a little way into the country; the soil we found to be sandy, and the herbaceous vegetation completely scorched up by the drought. At this place the reef is about a mile distant from the shore, and is distinctly perceptible along its whole line, both at high and low water, for although the ebb tide leaves the rocks quite bare, the surf marks its position even at the highest flow. The wind having now shifted more to the eastward, we were enabled after breakfast to proceed on our voyage, and as we made much more rapid progress than on the preceding day, we reached the island at noon, and landed on the eastern side of it at Pilar, the principal town.
We carried with us two or three letters of introduction, and the first we delivered obtained us quarters. The name of our host was Alexander Alcantará, the proprietor of a large salt-work, of which there are several on the island. His house, like nearly all the others we saw, was of one story, the walls consisting of a frame-work of wood, the interstices of which were filled up with a kind of clay, and the roof was covered with tiles; there were four good rooms in it, all floored with boards; it was delightfully situated near the sea, and surrounded by cocoa-nut trees. In the afternoon we were taken by our host to see his salt-works, which were established in a valley into which the tide flows at high water. The water from which the salt is made, is kept in large reservoirs, whence it is from time to time made to flow into pits, where it is allowed to evaporate. At this place, which is called Jaguaribe, there are twenty-four distinct manufactories, belonging to as many individuals. The place where the water is evaporated is divided into small compartments, measuring sixteen feet by twelve. In that belonging to Senhor Alcantará, there are one hundred and twenty such compartments; into each of these, two inches of water is allowed to flow from the large reservoir, and in eight days this is completely evaporated. It yields him, altogether, annually, about four hundred alqueires of salt, each alqueire weighing eight arrobas, and each arroba thirty-two pounds. Three qualities are produced, the best being used for domestic purposes, a middle sort for curing fish and an inferior kind used principally to salt hides. On an average it brings about 2s. 6d. an alqueire, so that his whole income from this source is only about 50l. a year. Besides the manufactories at this place, there are others in different parts of the island.
The island, which is separated from the main land by a strait about half a league broad, is nearly three leagues in length, and from one and a half to two in breadth. It contains only two small villages, viz., Itamaricá, situated on a height near the sea, on the south-east side, containing only about twenty houses; and Pilar, the place at which we landed, formed of a few irregular streets, and containing about eighty habitations. The whole number of houses in the island, we were told, amounted to three hundred, and the entire population to about two thousand. Although there are many very comfortable looking dwellings, yet the mass of the houses have a poor appearance, being either formed of wicker-work and mud, or of cocoa-nut leaves. As fishing is the principal occupation of the inhabitants, their houses are generally near the shore. The fish are mostly taken in pens (currals) that are constructed of stakes a little beyond low-water mark. Another source of income to the inhabitants, is the cocoa-nut trees, which form a dense deep belt round the upper part of the island; both the fish and nuts are taken to Pernambuco for sale. In the interior of the island there are three sugar plantations; and several of the more wealthy of the inhabitants cultivate grapes and mangoes to a considerable extent, both of which sell well in Pernambuco, bringing a better price than those cultivated elsewhere in the province. Good grapes I bought at tenpence a pound, but they give the cultivator a great deal of trouble, as the vines are sure to be attacked by a large brown ant, and stripped of their leaves in a single night, unless care be taken to have the lower part of the stem isolated by water. The whole of the province of Pernambuco is much overrun by these insects. During the time of our visit the mangoes were just getting into season, and I found them to be very much superior in flavour to any I had previously tasted; they are much smaller than those cultivated near Pernambuco, and very much resemble peaches in colour.
During the few days we remained on the island we made many excursions through it in all directions; instead of the almost uniformly level character of the country in the vicinity of Pernambuco, here there is a gentle undulation of hill and dale. There is not much large timber, the wooded portions generally consist of small trees and shrubs, which give to many parts of the island an aspect more like that of an English orchard, than an uncultivated equatorial region; some of the views we obtained from the hills, if not grand, were at least pleasing. Though there are both a priest and a lawyer on the island, there is no medical man; and as soon as I was known to be one, my assistance was solicited from all quarters. The first individual I was requested to visit, was a man with a large abscess in the neck, from the suppuration of the right submaxillary gland; he could neither speak nor swallow, and his relatives thought him on the point of death. I opened the abscess, which gave him instant relief, and next day when I called, he was sitting up, and able to overwhelm me with thanks for what he conceived to be a miraculous cure. This case so established my reputation, that I had more medical practice than I desired. Two of my patients were in the last stage of consumption, but by far the greater proportion of the cases resulted from intermittent fever, chiefly arising from derangement of the digestive organs, accompanied with enlargement of the spleen. Consumption is rare in Brazil: during the whole of my travels I did not meet with more than half a dozen cases. As I would receive no fees, many presents of fish, fowls, and fruit were sent me.
I have said that the chief occupation of the inhabitants is fishing, and that the fish are nearly all taken in pens (currals). These enclosures are very common all along the coast of Pernambuco, and of the following shape.
They are made of strong stakes, driven firmly into the ground at the distance of a few feet from each other, the interstices between them being afterwards filled up by small straight rods closely tied together. The straight line of rods is sometimes nearly a quarter of a mile in length, and runs out away from the shore; it answers the purpose of guiding the fish into the enclosures at the farthest end of it.