Limoeiro contains about six hundred inhabitants, and is increasing daily. It stands upon the banks of the river Capibaribe, which was at this time quite dry. The distance from Recife is fourteen good leagues. We were entertained by the vicar, who has taken very little pains to have a decent residence, and cannot fail to be somewhat indifferent about his own life, for every step to which we advanced as we ascended to the apartments above, promised to be the last that would hold us. The floors of the rooms into which we were ushered, seemed to be laid out as traps to ensnare those who might not tread cautiously; some of the boards were broken, and large holes remained; others were loose, and it was dangerous to pass over them; and besides the several perils of this mansion, substances which are not pleasant to the nose might unwarily be trampled upon. Never did I see so miserable a dwelling, whose inhabitant might with so much ease have bettered the state in which we found it. However, I ought not to complain, for to counterbalance all this, we had a teapot, sugar basin, and other parts of the equipage of silver.
The Capitam-mor had still several posts to visit, which would delay him for a considerable time; therefore as my friend was anxious to return to Recife, we left our party, with much regret, and were accompanied in the morning by the adjutant, who was about to return home. I had been greatly amused, and wished to have seen the conclusion of the affair. At Limoeiro, several companies were to be reviewed, and from thence the Capitam-mor proceeded to Pao do Alho[77] and Nazareth, or Lagoa d’Anta[78], two large villages of considerable importance. Both of them are within a few leagues of the place from which we separated from our companions. We returned to Santa Cruz, passed through that village, and were entertained at the house of the adjutant. We reached Aguiar in the afternoon, being received at that place by one of the Capitam-mor’s sons, a young man of eighteen years of age; and we also saw the Capitam-mor’s interesting wife, who is likewise his niece; she was about fifteen years of age, he being about forty-six. We slept there, and stopped at Paulistas on the following day at noon, from whence we proceeded to Recife on the evening of the 6th February.
I heard one of the sugar planters bitterly complaining of his poverty, and that his want of hands to work his mill obliged him to give up the cultivation of much of the best land of his estate. Soon after he had uttered these complaints, the conversation turned upon saddle-horses and their trappings; and he then told us that he had lately purchased a new saddle and bridle, which he wished us to see. These new trappings were most superb affairs; the saddle was made of morocco leather and green velvet, and silver headed nails and plates of the same metal were profusely scattered and placed upon all parts of this and of the bridle. He told us that the whole had cost him four hundred mil reis, about 110l. This sum of money would have purchased four slaves. But the matter did not end here, for he opened a drawer in which were strewed several broken silver spoons, spurs, &c. and he said that he was collecting a sufficient quantity of this metal for the purpose of having his groom’s horse ornamented in the same manner as his own.
The free persons of colour who inhabit the track of country through which we passed are more numerous than I had previously imagined. The companies of Ordenanças vary much in strength; some consist of one hundred and fifty men and more, and others of not above fifty. The peasantry of the Mata, that is, of the country which lies between the plentiful well-watered districts of the coast and the Sertoens, have not a general good character. The miserable life which they, oftener than others, are obliged to lead from the want of water and of provisions, seems to have an unfavourable effect upon them; they are represented as being more vindictive and more quarrelsome, and less hospitable than their neighbours. To say that a man is a matuto da mata, a woodman of the wood, is no recommendation to him.
During this journey I heard the following story; and as I was acquainted with the person to whom the circumstances occurred, I can vouch for its veracity. A Brazilian who had been wealthy, but who had, through many imprudencies, and from many deeds which deserve a much severer name, reduced himself to a state of comparative poverty, resided in this part of the country at the time I travelled through it. He was a man of loose morals and savage disposition, but of most pleasant manners. He had in one particular instance, which pre-eminently stamped his character, behaved in a most shameful manner to a lady to whom he professed himself to be attached. He had possessed many slaves; but at the time the following occurrences took place three or four only remained, and of these one alone was in health. Apprehensive of being assassinated by some of the persons whom he had injured and insulted, he usually kept the doors and windows of his residence well secured, excepting one entrance which was likewise closed at dusk. One evening, three men knocked at the door, and asked leave to pass the night in some of the out-houses of the plantation; the owner answered from within, but did not open the door, saying that they might sleep in the mill. About an hour afterwards there was another knock, and a person requested that some fruit might be sold to him. The owner fetched some, and inconsiderately opened the door to give it to the man; but when he looked out, all the three were there, and as he reached the fruit to one of them, a second fired, and the greatest part of the shot entered the abdomen. The known courage of the wounded man made these fellows hesitate in approaching him immediately, by which means he had time to reach his sword, which stood near to where he was, and he was enabled to close and bolt the door. This being done, he reached his bed with great difficulty, expecting that every minute would be his last. The men tried to gain admittance through some of the doors or windows; but not succeeding in this, they rode off. As soon as the slave who was in health heard the report of the gun, and saw his master wounded, he left the house, recollecting (which is somewhat surprising) to lock the door; he made all haste to a neighbouring plantation, distant one league. The owner of the place to which the slave had fled, ordered a hammock to be prepared, and set off with sixteen negroes; he was accompanied by his chaplain, who brought with him a candle, and all the other necessary appendages to the bed-side of a dying Catholic. They arrived, and found the wounded man in a state which led them to suppose that he could not live many hours; but he was confessed, and anointed with the holy oil, and thus prepared for the worst. Then they put him into the hammock, and his neighbour had him conveyed to his residence. The person who related this story to me, did not fail to add, that a lighted candle was carried in a lantern, that the wounded man should not run the risk of dying without having the light in his hand, as is the custom. A surgeon was sent for to Iguaraçu, which is distant several leagues, and he succeeded in extracting almost all the shot. Notwithstanding the delay, and other unfavourable circumstances, I saw this man in good health in 1813. Whilst he still remained in a dangerous state at the house of his friend, a Sertanejo Indian, well armed, passed through the place, and asked one of the negroes if he was still alive. It was generally said that he must remove to some far distant part of the country, otherwise he might daily expect another attack, and particularly as his enemies were Sertanejos. The men who had attempted to murder him were dressed after the manner of these people, and were seen on the following day travelling towards the interior. They mentioned at some of the cottages at which they stopped, that they believed they had prevented one man from eating any more piram, which is equal to an European using in the same manner the word bread. The person whom they had attacked could not be sure of the quarter from whence the blow proceeded; for many were those from which he might have expected it. In Brazil, injured persons or their relatives must either allow their own wrongs and those of their families to go unpunished, or they must themselves undertake the chastisement of him who has committed the crime. The evil proceeds, immediately, from the vastness of the country, and from the want of attention in the government to counteract this disadvantage.
CHAPTER XI.
RESIDENCE AT JAGUARIBE.—JOURNEY TO GOIANA.—ILLNESS.—RETURN TO JAGUARIBE.
AFTER the journey to Bom Jardim, I did not again leave Recife for any length of time, until I entered with a friend into a scheme of farming. It had been greatly my wish to remove from the town into the country, from preference, rather than from any other cause.