The town of the fortress of Searà is built upon heavy sand, in the form of a square, with four streets leading from it, and it has an additional long street on the north side of the square, which runs in a parallel direction, but is unconnected with it. The dwellings have only a ground floor, and the streets are not paved; but some of the houses have foot paths of brick in front. It contains three churches, the governor’s palace, the town-hall and prison, a custom-house, and the treasury. The number of inhabitants I judge to be from one thousand to twelve hundred. The fort, from which the place derives its name, stands upon a sand-hill close to the town, and consists of a sand or earth rampart towards the sea, and of stakes driven into the ground on the land side; it contained four or five pieces of cannon of several sizes, which were pointed various ways; and I observed that the gun of heaviest metal was mounted on the land side. Those which pointed to the sea were not of sufficient calibre to have reached a vessel in the usual anchorage ground. The powder magazine is situated upon another part of the sand-hill, in full view of the harbour. There is not much to invite the preference given to this spot; it has no river, nor any harbour, and the beach is bad to land upon; the breakers are violent, and the recife or reef of rocks affords very little protection to vessels riding at anchor upon the coast. The settlement was formerly situated three leagues to the northward, upon a narrow creek, where there exists now only the remains of an old fort. The beach is steep, which renders the surf dangerous for a boat to pass through in making for the shore. A vessel unloaded during my stay there, and part of her cargo consisted of the flour of the mandioc in small bags; the long boat approached as near to the shore as it could without striking, and the bags were landed on men’s heads; the persons employed to bring them ashore passed through the surf with them; but if they were caught by a wave the flour was wetted and injured, and indeed few reached the shore perfectly dry. The anchorage ground is bad and exposed; the winds are always from the southward and eastward; and if they were very variable a vessel could scarcely ride upon the coast. The reef of rocks forms a complete ridge, at a considerable distance from the shore, and is to be seen at low water. Upon this part of the coast the reef runs lower than towards Pernambuco, which has obliged the people of Searà to take advantage of the rocks being rather higher here, and affording some little protection to ships at anchor. The spot seems to have been preferred owing to this advantage, trifling as it is, though the rocks are much inferior to those which form the bold reef of Pernambuco. The ridge runs parallel with the shore for about one quarter of a mile, with two openings, one above and the other below the town. A small vessel may come to anchor between it and the shore; but a large ship can only bring up either to the northward or to the southward of the town, in one of the openings of the ridge or on the outside of it. The opening to the northward is to be preferred. A vessel coming from the northward should make the point of Mocoripe, which lies one league to the southward of the town, and upon it stands a small fort; this being done, she will then be able to make the anchorage ground. On the appearance of a ship the fort of the town will have a white flag flying upon a high flag-staff. To the northward of the town, between the reef and the shore, there is a rock called Pedra da Velha, or the Old Woman’s Rock, which is to be seen even at high water by the breakers upon it. When a vessel leaves the port she may either pass between this rock and the shore, giving a birth to a shoal about one hundred yards to the northward, or she may run between the rock and the principal ridge or reef.
The public buildings are small and low, but are neat and white-washed, and adapted to the purposes for which they are intended. Notwithstanding the disadvantage to the general appearance, imparted by the wretched soil upon which the town has been erected, I could not avoid thinking that its look was that of a thriving place; but I believe that this can scarcely be said to be the real state of the town. The difficulty of land carriage, particularly in such a country, the want of a good harbour, and the dreadful droughts, prevent any sanguine hope of its rise to opulence. The commerce of Searà is very limited and is not likely to increase; the long credits which it is necessary for the trader to give, preclude the hope of quick returns, to which British merchants are accustomed.
I rode immediately on my arrival to the house of Senhor Marcos Antonio Briçio, the chief of the Treasury and of the Naval department, with several other titles which are not transferrable into our language; to this gentleman I had a letter of introduction from Senhor Barrozo. I found several persons assembled at his house to drink tea and play at cards. Senhor Marcos is an intelligent and well-informed man, who has seen good society in Lisbon, and had held a high situation at Maranham before he was appointed to Searà. I was introduced to Senhor Lourenço, a merchant, who had connections in trade with England; he recognized my name, for he had been acquainted with near relations of mine in Lisbon. I was invited to stay with him and received from him every civility.
The morning after my arrival I visited the governor, Luiz Barba Alardo de Menezes[41], and was received by him with much affability; he said, that he wished he had more opportunities of shewing the regard which he entertained for my countrymen, and that some of them would come and settle in his captaincy. He built, during his administration of the province, the centre of the palace, and employed Indian workmen, paying them half the usual price of labour. He was in the habit of speaking of the property of individuals residing within the province as if it was his own, saying, his ships, his cotton, &c. I happened to be at Searà, on the Queen of Portugal’s birthday; the company of regular troops, consisting of one hundred and fourteen men, was reviewed; they looked respectable, and were in tolerable order. In the chief apartment of the palace stood a full length picture of the Prince Regent of Brazil, which was placed against the wall, and was raised about three feet from the ground. Three or four steps ascended from the floor to the foot of the picture; upon the lowest of these the governor stood in full uniform, and each person passed before him and bowed, that thus the state of the Sovereign Court might be kept up. I dined with the governor this day, at whose table were assembled all the military and civil officers, and two or three merchants; he placed me at his right hand, as a stranger, thus shewing the estimation in which Englishmen are held. About thirty persons were present at the table, of which more than half wore uniforms; indeed the whole display was much more brilliant than I had expected; every thing was good and handsome.
I had opportunities of seeing the Indian villages of Aronxas and Masangana, and there is a third in this neighbourhood, of which I have forgotten the name; each is distant from Searà between two and three leagues, in different directions; they are built in the form of a square, and each contains about three hundred inhabitants. One of my usual companions on these occasions was acquainted with the vicar of Aronxas, and we therefore made him a visit. He resided in a building which had formerly belonged to the Jesuits; it is attached to the church, and has balconies from the principal corridor, which look into it.
The Indians of these villages, and indeed of all those which I passed through, are Christians; though it is said that some few of them follow in secret their own heathenish rites, paying adoration to the maracà, and practising all the customs of their religion, if I may use this word, of which so exact a description is given in Mr. Southey’s History of Brazil. When the Roman Catholic religion does take root in them, it of necessity degenerates into the most abject superstition. An adherence to superstitious rites, whether of Roman Catholic ordination or prescribed by their own undefined faith, appears to be the only part of their character in which they shew any constancy. Each village has its priest, who is oftentimes a vicar, and resident for life upon the spot. A director is also attached to each village, who is supposed to be a white man; he has great power over the persons within his jurisdiction. If a proprietor of land is in want of workmen he applies to the director, who agrees for the price at which the daily labour is to be paid, and he commands one of his chief Indians to take so many men and proceed with them to the estate for which they are hired. The labourers receive the money themselves, and expend it as they please; but the bargains thus made are usually below the regular price of labour. Each village has two Juizes Ordinarios or Mayors, who act for one year. One Juiz is a white man, and the other an Indian; but it may easily be supposed that the former has, in fact, the management. These Juizes have the power of putting suspicious persons into confinement, and of punishing for small crimes; those of more importance wait for the Correiçam, or circuit of the Ouvidor of the captaincy. Each village contains a town-hall and prison. The administration of justice in the Sertam is generally spoken of as most wretchedly bad; every crime obtains impunity by the payment of a sum of money. An innocent person is sometimes punished through the interest of a great man, whom he may have offended, and the murderer escapes who has the good fortune to be under the protection of a powerful patron. This proceeds still more from the feudal state of the country than from the corruption of the magistrates, who might often be inclined to do their duty, and yet be aware that their exertions would be of no avail, and would possibly prove fatal to themselves. The Indians have likewise their Capitaens-mores, and this title is conferred for life; it gives the holder some power over his fellows, but as it is among them, unaccompanied by the possession of property, the Indian Capitaens-mores are much ridiculed by the whites; and indeed the half naked officer with his gold-headed cane is a personage who would excite laughter from the most rigid nerves.
The Indians are in general a quiet and inoffensive people, they have not much fidelity, but although they desert they will not injure those whom they have served. Their lives are certainly not passed in a pleasant manner under the eye of a director, by whom they are imperiously treated, consequently it is not surprising that they should do all in their power to leave their villages and be free from an immediate superior; but even when they have escaped from the irksome dominion of the director they never settle in one place. The Indian scarcely ever plants for himself, or if he does, rarely waits the crop; he sells his maize or mandioc for half its value, before it is fit to be gathered, and removes to some other district. His favourite pursuits are fishing and hunting; a lake or rivulet will alone induce him to be stationary for any length of time. He has a sort of independent feeling, which makes him spurn at any thing like a wish to deprive him of his own free agency; to the director he submits, because it is out of his power to resist. An Indian can never be persuaded to address the master to whom he may have hired himself, by the term of Senhor, though it is made use of by the whites in speaking to each other, and by all other free people in the country; but the negroes also use it in speaking to their masters, therefore the Indian will not; he addresses his temporary master by the term of amo or patram, protector or patron. The reluctance to use the term of Senhor may perhaps have commenced with the immediate descendants of those who were in slavery, and thus the objection may have become traditionary. They may refuse to give by courtesy what was once required from them by law. However, if it began in this manner, it is not now continued for the same reason, as none of those with whom I conversed, and they were very many, appeared to know that their ancestors had been obliged to work as slaves.
The instances of murder committed by Indians are rare. They are pilferers rather than thieves. When they can, they eat immoderately; but if it is necessary they can live upon a very trifling quantity of food, to which their idleness often reduces them. They are much addicted to liquor, and will dance in a ring, singing some of the monotonous ditties of their own language, and drink for nights and days without ceasing. Their dances are not indecent, as those of Africa. The mulattos consider themselves superior to the Indians, and even the Creole blacks look down upon them; “he is as paltry as an Indian[42],” is a common expression among the lower orders in Brazil. They are vilely indifferent regarding the conduct of their wives and daughters; lying and other vices attached to savage life belong to them. Affection seems to have little hold upon them; they appear to be less anxious for the life and welfare of their children than any other cast of men who inhabit that country. The women however do not, among these semi-barbarians, perform the principal drudgery; if the husband is at home he fetches water from the rivulet and fuel from the wood; he builds the hut whilst his wife takes shelter in some neighbour’s shed. But if they travel she has her young children to carry, the pots, the baskets, and the excavated gourds, whilst the husband takes his wallet of goat-skin and his hammock rolled up upon his back, his fishing net and his arms, and walks in the rear. The children are washed on the day of their birth in the nearest brook or pool of water. Both the men and the women are cleanly in many of their habits, and particularly in those relating to their persons; but in some other matters their customs are extremely disgusting; the same knife is used for all purposes, and with little preparatory cleaning is employed in services of descriptions widely opposite. They do not reject any kind of food, and devour it almost without being cooked; rats and other small vermin, snakes and alligators are all accepted.
The instinct, for I know not what else to call it, which the Indians possess above other men, in finding their way across a wood to a certain spot on the opposite side without path or apparent mark, is most surprising; they trace footsteps over the dry leaves which lie scattered under the trees. The letter-carriers, from one province to another, are mostly Indians, for from habit they endure great fatigue, and will walk day after day, with little rest, for months together. I have met them with their wallets made of goat-skin upon their shoulders, walking at a regular pace, which is not altered by rough or smooth. Though a horse may outstrip one of these men for the first few days, still if the journey continues long, the Indian will, in the end, arrive before him. If a criminal has eluded the diligence of the police officers, Indians are sent in pursuit of him, as a last resource. It is well known that they will not take him alive; each man who sees the offender fires, for they do not wish to have any contention. Nor is it possible for the magistrate to fix upon the individual of the party who shot the criminal; for if any of them are asked who killed him, the answer invariably is “os homems,” the men.
It is usually said, that a party of Indians will fight tolerably well; but that two or three will take to their heels at the first alarm. Some of them however are resolute, and sufficiently courageous; but the general character is usually supposed to be cowardly, inconstant, devoid of acute feelings, as forgetful of favours as of injuries, obstinate in trifles, regardless of matters of importance. The character of the negro is more decided; it is worse, but it is also better. From the black race the worst of men may be formed; but they are capable likewise of great and good actions. The Indian seems to be without energy or exertion; devoid of great good or great evil. Much may at the same time be said in their favour; they have been unjustly dealt with, they have been trampled upon, and afterwards treated as children; they have been always subjected to those who consider themselves their superiors, and this desire to govern them has even been carried to the direction of their domestic arrangements. But no,—if they are a race of acute beings, capable of energy, of being deeply interested upon any subject, they would do more than they have done. The priesthood is open to them; but they do not take advantage of it[43]. I never saw an Indian mechanic in any of the towns; there is no instance of a wealthy Indian; rich mulattos and negroes are by no means rare. I have had many dealings with them as guides and carriers, and subsequently as labourers, and have no reason to complain, for I was never injured by any of them; but neither did I receive any particular good service, excepting in the instance of Julio. For guides and carriers they are well adapted, as their usual habits lead them to the rambling life which these employments encourage. As labourers, I found that they had usually a great inclination to over-reach; but their schemes were badly made, and consequently easily discovered. I never could depend upon them for any length of time, and to advance money or cloathing to them is a certain loss. If I had any labour which was to be performed by a given time, the overseer would always reckon upon his mulatto and negro free people; but did not mention in the list of persons who were to work, any of the Indians whom I was then employing; and on my speaking of them, he answered “An Indian is only to be mentioned for the present day[44],” meaning that no reliance is to be placed upon them.