On the morning of the 3rd of August we left Canavieira, and, after a ride of about three leagues, crossed the Rio Gurgea, and entered the district of Urusuhy. The river here was about the breadth of the Clyde at Glasgow, but so shallow, that it did not reach much above the horse’s middle. After riding another league, we arrived at a house belonging to a vaqueiro, where we halted to take breakfast, and to remain during the heat of the day. The house was situated in a hollow, and being shut out from the breeze, the heat was quite intolerable. The thermometer in the shade rose to 98°, and I suffered dreadfully from headache. We did not leave this place till four o’clock in the afternoon, and having still four leagues to travel, we reached the Fazenda dos Prazeres a little after sunset. With the exception of the banks of the river, the whole country through which we passed, was very much dried up for want of rain.
Our party was rather a large one. Besides ourselves, there were the captain, his son and lady, and a mulatto girl carrying their child, which they were taking to get baptized, three of the captain’s nephews, and a black schoolmaster, all from top to toe in leather dresses; and, besides the blacks on foot who were bringing on the loaded horses, there were three on horseback acting as attendants. The lady and her girl were both mounted on men’s saddles, according to the common custom of the country in the interior. The black schoolmaster was decidedly far superior to any of his race that I ever met with. He was a Creole, with a fine expansion of forehead, and had received a good education; he was a freeman, and his colour did not prevent him from mixing in the best society in the part of the country to which he belonged; indeed, the Brazilians are perhaps more free from those prejudices than any other nation. He was possessed of an immense fund of wit and humour, the continual flow of which kept the whole party in good spirits during the journey, notwithstanding the great heat of the day.
The Fazenda dos Prazeres stands on a rather elevated knoll in a large valley, which, at its upper extremity, is marshy and full of Buriti palms. On the dry sides of the low hills which surround the valley, there are large forests of that palm called Palmeira, already spoken of as being common about Crato; and in the Catinga forest, which we rode through, one or two smaller kinds of palm were common. One of these had its stem forked at the summit, being the only instance of the kind I ever met with; the central bud had been destroyed by some means, and two more arms generated in its stead. The house is large, well constructed, and by far the best we had seen since leaving Oeiras. The owner of it, who died suddenly about a year before, seems to have been not only more industrious, but a person of much greater taste than the generality of the Piauhy fazendeiros. Around the house, and also to a considerable distance from it, there were many fine orange trees loaded with fruit, which being very rare in this province, were highly prized by us. There were also near the house large plantations of plantains and bananas, as also several fine cocoa-nut trees, which were beginning to bear fruit. These trees were the most distant from the coast I had met with in the country; and indeed it is but very seldom they are seen in cultivation inland, the tree being essentially of a sea-side growth. The estate is principally a cattle farm, but in the valley below the house there was a large patch of cane growing, from which they manufacture rapadura; and the soil being favourable for the cultivation of mandiocca, a good deal of it is also grown. The widow, who with her sons now manages the farm, is both active and intelligent, and very hospitable. We remained here two days, during which time many people arrived from various quarters in the neighbourhood, to avail themselves of the services of the Visitador. Before we left, our provision boxes were well filled; and a large supply of oranges which we took with us, lasted for many days, and formed a grateful refreshment on our journey.
Recrossing the Rio Gurgea at a place called Flores, about sixteen leagues above the fazenda Dos Prazeres, and travelling for ten days in a southerly direction, more or less parallel with that river, we arrived at a small hamlet called Rapoza. The country we found to be very level, and generally of an arid nature, particularly when we were obliged to travel at some distance from the river, for its banks are for the most part well wooded, the trees consisting of the Jatobá Piki, several species of Laurus, large Bignonias, which at this season were covered with their bright yellow blossoms. Among these grew many climbing shrubs, such as Bauhinias, Combretums, Bignonias, Malpighias, &c., whose branches, covered with their many-coloured flowers, gaily adorned the wide-spreading tops of the trees. Numerous large wild fig-trees also grow along the side of the stream, which often afforded us shelter both by day and by night. It was quite refreshing to travel under this shade, and we found it the more so, as the country around produced only a few leafless trees, and the soil, which was of a brick-red colour, had its herbaceous vegetation quite destroyed. During this season, the cattle frequent the margins of the river, both on account of the water, and the grass and other herbage which grow there; but this year, the latter had been nearly destroyed by the great rise of the waters during the previous rains, which were said to have been heavier than any that had occurred since the year 1820. We could see by the marks on the stems of the trees, left by the muddy water, that it had risen ten feet above the level of the road.
At Rapoza I met with Major José Martins de Sousa, to whom I carried letters from his uncle the Barão de Parnahiba. His house was about thirty leagues distant, but having been ordered to raise troops to send to the city, he had made this place the general rendezvous. About four years before this period, he bought a tract of ground, in the district of Parnaguá, amounting to about ninety-six square leagues, for five contos de reis, which he divided into six cattle farms, all of which were now in a flourishing condition. He told me that in the district, of which he was Prefect, there were 1,700 men capable of bearing arms, but all he had been able to raise in the course of a week, were twenty-two. The whole population, he added, were worse than savages, and that no eloquence could prevail on them to rise in defence of their country. He was even afraid that disorders, similar to those which were disturbing the province of Maranham, would not be long ere they reached this district; and he said it was his intention as soon as possible, to take his wife and children down to the city. This, I believe, he shortly afterwards did, and it was well for them that he had this foresight, as about a month after I met him, the district of Parnaguá rose to join the rebels, and the major, who remained behind, had a very narrow escape from falling a victim to the fury of the inhabitants, and the cattle on his estates were nearly all destroyed. During his journey to the city, all his recruits deserted, with the exception of two or three.
A journey of fourteen leagues brought us to the Villa de Parnaguá, the most southern town in the province, the country still continuing flat, and very similar to that through which we had already passed. The whole journey from Oeiras, presented little that was interesting in a geological point of view, the only rocks which occurred being of the same character as those existing in the vicinity of the city itself. The peculiar construction of the houses on the road, so very different from those met with in any other part of Brazil, or even in Piauhy itself, attracted my attention: they are built for the most part with one of their ends to the road, and in this end there is a large apartment with a table and a form, evidently intended for the accommodation of travellers, as it has no direct communication with the rest of the house. The door of the part inhabited by the family, is in the other end, and on this account it is very seldom that any of the females of the family are seen, they being kept strictly secluded. Should the house stand parallel to the road, then the door to the travellers’ apartment opens in front, while the door and windows of the other apartments are all in the back part. A stranger may thus live at one of these houses for many days, without the slightest knowledge of what is going on within. The ladies are not, however, destitute of curiosity, as I have frequently detected a pair of black eyes peering through some slit in the fragile partitions to get a peep at the strangers. Yet, as a professional man, it was seldom I was not admitted, being called in to prescribe for some one or other of the females of the family; the sedentary life which they lead rendering them very subject to dyspeptic and such like complaints. Ague is also very common indeed, and nearly all the inhabitants suffer from the effects of it. Mr. Darwin, in his Journal, mentions that there are few houses in Chili where a traveller will not be received for the night, but a trifle is expected to be given in the morning, and that even a rich man will accept two or three shillings. In Brazil this is very different; on the road from Rio de Janeiro to the Mining Districts, which is now very much frequented, there are always houses to be found which serve as apologies for inns, and in which the traveller is expected to pay; but should he put up at any of the large fazendas he is allowed to sit free at the table, paying only for such provender as his animals may require. In the more distant parts of the country, I always met with the most unbounded hospitality, even from the poorer classes, and often the only recompense which these poor beings would accept was a little gunpowder or salt, articles which very often are not to be procured at any price.
When I left Rapoza, Major Martins gave me a letter to the Juiz de Paz of Parnaguá, and a note to receive the keys of an empty house in which he puts up when he visits the Villa. On our arrival, I found that the Juiz had gone to visit his fazenda, at a distance of six or seven leagues. The vicar and the other padre of the place were also absent, visiting their district. An old lawyer, the schoolmaster, and a shopkeeper were the only persons of consequence we found in the place. The Villa, which is situated on the east side of a large lake, contains in all about a hundred houses, but not more than one half of them are inhabited, as many belong to fazendeiros who only occupy them during the festival times. Owing to the recruiting which was then going on throughout the province, the greater part of the male population had left the Villa and gone to distant places, few being inclined to join the army; women and children only were to be seen, with the exception of a few slaves. The houses are generally built of a coarse wicker-work, and plastered, both inside and out, with a red-coloured clay, which, not being white-washed, gives the town a very strange appearance. The best days of the place seem to have gone by, as many of the houses are falling into ruins; and the church, which stands in a large square and has once been a neat building, is also going to decay, one half of the roof has fallen in, and it seemed to have been in that state for some years. There is not a single regular shopkeeper in the place, the only one that we found there, had arrived some time before from Bahia, and proposed to return as soon as he had sold his goods. Having no competitor, he took advantage of this, and was selling everything at a very exorbitant price. The people, both in the Villa and in the neighbouring fazendas, complained that the revolution in Maranham had prevented the merchants, who yearly visit them, from coming to Parnaguá. These were in the habit of bringing up European goods, salt, gunpowder, &c., which they generally exchanged for horses, cattle, and hides.
Salt is an article for which there is a great demand, and the people in the Villa have found out a substitute for that which comes from the coast. Along the banks of the lake, the soil in many places is highly impregnated with saline matter, which, although mixed with saltpetre, is yet very acceptable where no other can be procured; during our visit many people from distant parts were occupied in collecting this salt. The manner in which they obtain it is as follows; the soil is cleaned of grass and other herbaceous vegetation, and on being moistened with water, the part richest in salt soon shows itself by the appearance of small crystals. This earth is then scraped up with the scapular bone of an ox, and put into a trough made of a cow-hide, supported upon four short posts fixed in the ground. Water is then poured on the earth, which, during the space of a day, is allowed to filter slowly through small holes in the bottom of the trough, when it is received into a large basin placed below it: the process is continued till the salt is all extracted. The water thus extracted is either put into smaller hide-troughs and evaporated in the sun, or boiled down in an iron pot, but as these are rather scarce articles in Parnaguá, few only can have recourse to this mode. The salt is not very clean, but a quantity which I bought was found to preserve meat very well.
The lake, near which the village is situated, is about two leagues long, and one broad, but it is said not to be deep; it is always of a red colour, caused no doubt by the soil of the surrounding country, which is everywhere of a deep red-coloured clay. It is said to abound in fish, but during our stay I could not obtain any. Great numbers of large alligators exist in it, as also boa constrictors, capivaras, and tapirs; I saw, besides, some large otters, but could not come within shot of them. After we arrived I went to bathe in the lake, and swam out a long way, but did not do so again, on being told that several accidents had taken place, not only from the attacks of alligators, but also from piranias.