We dined in Brazilian style, upon a table raised about six inches from the ground, around which we sat or rather laid down upon mats; we had no forks, and the knives, of which there were two or three, were intended merely to sever the larger pieces of meat—the fingers were to do the rest. I remained at Papari during one entire day, that my horses might have some respite, that I might purchase another from Senhor Dionisio, and on poor Julio’s account, whose feet had begun to crack from the dryness of the sands.
Distant from Papari, from three to four leagues, is the Indian village of St. Joze, built in the form of a square; this place might contain about two hundred inhabitants, but it had evidently the appearance of falling to decay; the grass in the centre of the square was high, the church neglected, and the whole aspect dull. St. Joze stands upon a dry sandy soil, and the severity of the season might have contributed to its dismal look. This day we experienced the utter impossibility of trusting to the accounts we received of distances, and my guide had no very clever head for recollecting them, although he, like most of these people, possessed a kind of instinct with respect to the paths we were to follow. We were told that Natal was distant from St. Joze three or four leagues, and therefore expected to arrive at that place by dusk, but about five o’clock we entered upon the dismal sand hills, over which lies the road to the city; the whole country is uninhabited, and I may say uninhabitable, between Natal and St. Joze, consequently we had very faint hopes of meeting any one to give us information of the distance; but the guide said he supposed we could not be nearer to it than from two to three leagues, from the recollection he had of these hills, which when once passed over cannot be entirely forgotten. When it was nearly dark, and when our horses were almost giving way, we saw two boys on horseback, coming towards us: we asked them the distance, they answered “two leagues, and all deep sand,” adding, that they belonged to a party, which had come to make farinha, upon a spot of land, half a league distant from where we were, upon which mandioc was cultivated. They said, that to go on to Rio Grande the same night was madness, that they were going a short way to water their horses, and that on their return, they would guide us to their party. I agreed to wait for them. When they arrived, they struck soon from the road, down the side of one of the hills,—it was now dark; we followed, entered some high and thick brushwood, and a considerable way into it, found the persons to whom the boys told us they belonged. The implements for making the farinha were placed under a shed, which was thatched with the leaves of the macaiba, and other palm trees. These persons had fixed upon this spot, as there was a spring of brackish water hard by, which was, however, only to be reached by descending a precipice; the pitcher was fastened to a cord, and drawn up, and the person who descended to fill it, ascended the precipice by means of the brushwood which grows upon the side. I did not much like the party, therefore we took up our lodgings at some little distance from them, and none of us settled regularly for the night. I now much regretted not having a dog with me. Our horses passed a wretched night, feeding upon the leaves of the shrubs around us.
The next morning we continued our journey over the sand hills to Natal, travelling at about two miles within the hour. The distance from Goiana to Natal is fifty-five leagues. The sand hills are perpetually changing their situations and forms; the high winds blow the sand in clouds, which renders it dangerous to travellers; it is white, and very fine, so that our horses sunk up to the knees at every step,—painful to a very great degree, when the sun has had full power upon it. Poor Julio had mounted upon the haunches of one of the loaded horses, and occasioned our travelling still slower. All was desolate and dreary; for the great lightness of the sand almost prevented vegetation, though some of the creeping sea-side plants had succeeded here and there in establishing a footing.
The track of country between Goiana and Espirito Santo, and indeed even to Cunhàû, keeping at no great distance from the coast, is appropriated for the most part to sugar-plantations; but many of the Senhores de Engenho, sugar-planters, also employ part of their time in raising cotton. The general feature is of an uncultivated country, though a great quantity of land is yearly employed. The system of agriculture is so slovenly, or rather, as there is no necessity for husbandry of land, from the immensity of the country, and the smallness of its population, lands are employed one year, and the next the brushwood is allowed to grow up, giving thus to every piece of ground that is not absolutely in use that year, the look of one totally untouched, until a person is acquainted, in some measure, from practice, with the appearance of the several kinds of land. He will then perceive the difference between brushwood that will not grow because the land is of a barren kind, and that which is left to rise, that the land may rest for another crop. From this manner of cultivating their lands, a plantation requires three or four times more ground than would otherwise be necessary. I passed through several deep woods, and ascended some steep hills, but I saw nothing which deserved the name of mountain; I crossed some flat sandy plains, upon which the acaju, mangaba, and several species of palm or cabbage trees grow; these are merely fit to turn cattle upon in winter, and will only be brought into cultivation when lands begin to be scarce in Brazil. Varseas, or low marshy lands, adapted to the sugar cane, I also frequently saw. The cercados, or fenced pieces of ground, attached to each sugar plantation, upon which are fed the cattle kept for the work of it, are the only spots which bear the look of fields; and even in these, the brushwood is not always sufficiently cleared away, unless the proprietor is wealthy and has an abundance of persons upon his estate; otherwise, such is the fertility of the soil, that without great care, the cercado will in time become a wood. There are several hamlets upon the road, consisting of three and four cottages, and these are built of slight timber, and the leaves of the cabbage trees; others have mud walls, and are covered with these leaves; and now and then, a house built of mud, with a tiled roof, is to be seen,—this bespeaks a man above the common run of people. I crossed several rivulets, which were much reduced by the drought; but I did not see any great streams. The Paraiba was dry where I passed it, as also was the river near Mamanguape. A rivulet, that runs into the lake at Papari, was the only stream which appeared still to possess its usual strength. The road from Goiana to Mamanguape is the great Sertam track, and is similar to that between Recife and Goiana, excepting that the plains of the part of the country I had just now traversed, are more extensive, and the roads over these are dangerous, as they are only marked by the short and ill-grown grass being worn away upon the path; but as the cattle extend more upon a plain, and cannot be kept so close, from the greater extent of ground over which they pass, each part receives fewer footsteps, and the grass not unfrequently resists their passing, and vegetation still continues; consequently, in an imperfect light, an experienced guide is necessary, as on these plains no huts are ever to be met with, being, for the most part, destitute of water. These, the Brazilians call taboleiros, distinguishing them by this name, from campinas; upon the latter, the soil is closer, and they afford good grass. Beyond Mamanguape, the road is sometimes a mere path, with breadth sufficient only for two loaded horses to pass, and, in some places, it has not even the necessary width for this purpose. The valley of Papari I have already mentioned, as being much superior to the rest of the country. The trees in Brazil are mostly evergreens, and the drought must be great indeed to make them lose their leaves; but the green of the leaves of a parched plant, though still a green, is very different from the bright joyful colour of one that is in full health. This produced the striking difference between that valley and the burnt lands above it,—besides, the misfortunes of other parts made its good luck more apparent.
I arrived about eleven o’clock in the morning at the city of Natal, situated upon the banks of the Rio Grande, or Potengi. A foreigner, who might chance to land first at this place, on his arrival upon the coast of Brazil, would form a very poor opinion of the state of the population of the country; for, if places like this are called cities, what must the towns and villages be; but such a judgment would not prove correct, for many villages, even of Brazil, surpass this city; the rank must have been given to it, not from what it was or is, but from the expectation of what it might be at some future period. The settlement upon rising ground, rather removed from the river, is properly the city, as the parish church is there; it consists of a square, with houses on each side, having only the ground floor; the churches, of which there are three, the palace, town-hall, and prison. Three streets lead from it, which have also a few houses on each side. No part of the city is paved, although the sand is deep; on this account, indeed, a few of the inhabitants have raised a foot path of bricks before their own houses. The place may contain from six to seven hundred persons.
I rode immediately to the palace, as I had letters of introduction to the governor, from several of his friends at Pernambuco. He received me in the most cordial manner. He asked me for my passport, which I produced; it was scarcely opened, and he immediately returned it, saying, that he only did this, that all necessary form might be complied with. He said, that I should stay with him, and he would provide a house for my people. At one o’clock we dined, and one of his aide-de-camps was with us. In the afternoon, we walked down to the lower town. It is situated upon the banks of the river; the houses stand along the southern bank, and there is only the usual width of a street between them and the river. This place may contain from two to three hundred inhabitants, and here live the men of trade of Rio Grande. The bar of the Potengi is very narrow, but is sufficiently deep to admit vessels of 150 tons. The northern bank projects considerably, and for this reason, it is necessary that a ship should make for it from the southward. The entrance to the reef of rocks, which lies at some distance from the shore, also requires to be known, so that altogether the port is a difficult one. The river is very safe, when once within the bar; the water is deep, and quite still, and two vessels might swing in its breadth; but it soon becomes shallow, and in the course of a few miles is greatly diminished. I should imagine, that six or seven vessels might swing altogether in the harbour. The bars of rivers that are formed, as in this case, of sand, are, however, not to be trusted to, without good pilots, as they soon change their depth, and even their situation. When the tide enters, the northern bank is overflowed about one mile from the mouth of the harbour, and spreads over a considerable extent of ground, which, even during the ebb, is always wet and muddy, but never becomes sufficiently deep to prevent passing. The governor was raising a road over this piece of land, and the work was then nearly half finished. The new road would be about one mile in length. The captaincy of Rio Grande is subject to the governor of Pernambuco, and those of Paraiba and Seara were formerly in the same situation, but have of late years been formed into independent provincial governments.
The governor, Francisco de Paula Cavalcante de Albuquerque, is a native of Pernambuco, and a younger brother of the chief of the Cavalcante branch of the Albuquerques. His father, a Brazilian also, was first an ensign in the Recife regiment of the line; he afterwards established himself upon a sugar-plantation, and made a fortune. The old man died, and left to each of his sons considerable property; two remained upon their estates, and still live upon them; this third son entered the Olinda regiment, and was much beloved by the men. The regiment had then only one company, of which he became the commander, and large sums of money taken from his own purse, were expended by him for their good equipment. He went to Lisbon on some business relating to his company, and whilst he was there a denuncia, a private accusation, was given by some enemy to the family—that the brothers were forming a conspiracy against the government. He was obliged to leave Lisbon, afraid of being put under an arrest, and fled to England, where his reception was such, that he has ever wished for opportunities of shewing kindness to persons of that nation. His brothers suffered much in person and in property, but matters were at last cleared up, as the accusation was proved to be false. Francisco was immediately promoted to a majority, and soon afterwards sent to govern Rio Grande. He is a man of talent, and of proper feelings in regard of his duties,—enthusiastic in wishing to better the condition of the people over whom he was placed. I am grieved to say, that he has been removed to the insignificant government of St. Michael’s, one of the Azores or Western Islands.
When he was appointed to Rio Grande, there was scarcely a well dressed person in it, but he had succeeded in persuading one family to send for English manufactured goods to Recife—when once these were introduced they made their way—one would not be outdone by another, and, in the course of two years, they had become general. We visited the church in the evening—all the ladies were handsomely dressed in silks of various colours, and black veils thrown over the head and face. A twelvemonth previous to this period, these same persons would have gone to church in petticoats of Lisbon printed cottons, and square pieces of thick cloth over their heads, without stockings, and their shoes down at the heels.
The military establishment consists of one hundred and fourteen men—one company—which were in much better order than those of Pernambuco, or Paraiba. The captaincy of Rio Grande enjoyed perfect quietude from robberies through his exertions. The governor promoted the building of a large house, which was going on very fast, and for which he had subscribed largely; the rent of it was to be appropriated to the support of the widows of the soldiers of the captaincy. This work has, I am afraid, been laid aside since his removal. The situation of the prisoners was very miserable; he wished to better it, and requested that the principal persons of the place would take it in turn weekly to carry a bag round to all the inhabitants, that each might give some trifle to assist in their support; for some time this went on well, but after a few weeks it was neglected. He, therefore, took the bag himself, and, accompanied by one of his aides-de-camps, called at every house. He said, that this was the most comfortable week the prisoners had ever passed since their confinement, as more was given by each person than was usual, and the excellent arrangement was again taken up with ardour, by the same persons who had neglected it.
A British vessel was wrecked near Natal, and I have always understood that the proprietors were perfectly satisfied that every exertion possible had been made use of to save the property.