I had in my journey from Goiana to Searà seen Pernambuco, and the adjoining provinces to the northward, in almost their worst state—that of one whole season without rain; but extreme wretchedness is produced by two successive years of drought; in such a case, on the second year, the peasants die by the road side; entire families are swept away, entire districts are depopulated. The country was in this dreadful state in 1791, 2, 3, for these three years passed without any considerable fall of rain. In 1810, food was still to be purchased, though at exorbitant prices, and in the following year the rains came down in abundance, and removed the dread of famine. I had, I say, seen the provinces through which I passed upon the brink of extreme want, owing to the failure of the rains; I had myself experienced inconvenience from this cause, and in one instance considerable distress from it; now in returning, the whole country was changed, the rains had commenced, and I was made to feel that great discomfort is caused by each extreme; but the sensations which the apprehension of a want of water produces are much more painful than the disagreeable effects of an immoderate quantity of it—heavy rains and flooded lands.
I was obliged to stay at Searà longer than I had at first intended, owing to an accident which I met with in bathing; this confined me to my bed for some days. As soon as I was allowed to move I made preparations for my return; I purchased four horses, one to carry my trunk and a small barrel of biscuit, a second for farinha, a third for maize, and the fourth for myself. Senhor Lourenço sent for three trusty Indians from one of the villages for the purpose of accompanying me, and on the 8th January, 1811, I commenced my return to Pernambuco.
CHAPTER VIII.
RETURN.—FROM SEARA TO NATAL.—SERTANEJOS.—CATTLE.—VEGETABLE WAX.—FROM NATAL TO RECIFE.
I LEFT Searà at day-break with three Indians, and three loaded horses, and one of the young men with whom I had formed an acquaintance accompanied me to a short distance from the town. I deviated on my return to Aracati, in some measure, from the road by which I had travelled to Searà. The first day passed without any circumstance worthy of being mentioned, and I was chiefly occupied in finding out what sort of beings my Indians were, for I had had very little conversation with them before we set off. In the afternoon of the second day, having asked one of the Indians if the road was intricate to our next resting-place, and being answered, that there was no turning by which I could lose the right path, I left the loaded horses and rode on, being tired of following them at a foot’s pace;—this I had often done on other occasions. About five o’clock I put up at a cottage in which were two boys, whose appearance was very wretched, but they seemed glad to say that they would let me have a night’s lodging. On enquiry, they told me that their parents were gone to some distance to make paste from the stem of the Carnàûba, for that their usual food, the flour of the mandioc, was no longer to be had at any price in that neighbourhood. I was shown some of this paste, which was of a dark brown colour[46], and of the consistence of dough that has not been sufficiently kneaded; it was bitter and nauseous to the taste. On this substance these miserable people were under the necessity of subsisting, adding to it occasionally dried fish or meat. My party arrived about an hour after me, and late in the evening, the younger boy began to beg; inconsiderately I gave him money, but shortly he returned, saying his elder brother desired him to tell me, that it would be of no use to them, as nothing could be purchased with it. Then I understood their meaning in begging at this moment,—my men were going to supper,—the children were of course desired to sit down with them. Here Feliciano, one of the Indians, sewed two hides loosely round the two bags of farinha, saying, that if we proceeded without disguising what they contained, we should at some hamlet upon the road be obliged to satisfy the people, who would probably beg part of it from us. He had not known, before he enquired from these children, that this part of the country was in such a dreadful state of want. The inhabitants had eaten up their own scanty crop, and some of them had even been tempted by the exorbitant price, to carry their stock to Searà for sale. They had not heard of the supply which had arrived at that place from the southward. We reached Aracati on the fifth day.
I remained two days at Aracati, that the horses might be brought from the island upon which they had been put out to grass. I experienced fully now what the guide had before told me respecting the horses. They had all lost flesh, and were apparently less fit for work than when I first arrived at Aracati, though doubtless the relief from daily work for so long a period must have rendered them better able to renew it again now. The Spanish discoverers in South America, who understood the business into which they had entered, strongly inculcated to their people the necessity of the steady and regular continuance of their journies, unless a pause could have been made for some length of time[47]. I bought a large dog at Aracati, which had been trained to keep watch over the baggage of travellers.
A man presented himself here, requesting to be allowed to go with me to Pernambuco. He described himself as a Portugueze sailor, a European by birth, and as having belonged to the Portugueze sloop of war, called the Andorinha, which was wrecked upon the coast between Parà and Maranham. He had travelled from the spot at which he had landed to this place without any assistance from government. No provision had been made by any of the men in power for the subsistence of the persons who escaped. I consented to his joining me; he behaved well, and I never afterwards had any cause to doubt the truth of his story.
I had now a great increase in my number of men and horses, but was advised to take the men all forwards with me, as the rains might commence and the rivers fill, in which case the more people I had to assist in crossing them, with less danger would it be accomplished. The additional number of horses enabled me to divide the weight into smaller loads, and to have two or three beasts unencumbered, for the purpose of relieving the others if necessary. The party now consisted of nine persons and eleven horses.