In the beginning of April, 1812, we rented the sugar-plantation of Jaguaribe, distant from Recife four leagues, in a northward direction, and about one league from the coast; it had upon it several slaves, oxen, machinery, and implements, which enabled the new tenant to enter it immediately. A few days after these matters were arranged, I accompanied the owner to the plantation for the purpose of meeting the person who was about to leave it, being the second visit which I had made to my intended place of residence. Having agreed with this man, the owner and myself returned to sleep at the dwelling of one of his brothers, which was situated about a mile and a half from the coast; this person had purchased some lands, which he was now clearing, and upon which he was erecting several buildings. He and his family inhabited a barn, and we were to sleep in his new house, of which the roof and the wood-work of the walls were alone erected. The rainy season had commenced, and this unfinished dwelling was almost surrounded by pools of stagnant water, inhabited by enormous toads, whose loud and hoarse croaking continued during the whole of the night, without intermission. The trunks of the trees which had been cut down a short time before, were lying as they had fallen in all directions. In the morning I set off alone, on my return to Recife; I made for the sea-shore, and soon reached the river Doce, a narrow stream, which after a course of four or five leagues here discharges its waters into the sea. The tide enters it, and again recedes with considerable rapidity; at such times it is not fordable, but at the ebb the remaining waters are very trifling, and some parts of the channel are left quite dry. It is necessary to pass quickly over, as the sand of which its bed is composed is very fine, and although not altogether what is called quicksand, still to delay in one spot is not quite safe. When the tide is out the water of the river is quite sweet, which has obtained for it the name of Doce.
It was upon the borders of this river that the Portugueze and the Dutch were first opposed to each other in that part of Brazil[79]; here commenced that memorable struggle upon which the Pernambucans, with so much reason, pride themselves. The beginning was not propitious, and did not augur well of the result, but time proved the people to be worthy of the beautiful country which they inhabit. The river Tapado, upon the banks of which the Portugueze commander afterwards attempted to rally his men[80], lies between the Doce and Olinda. It is a rivulet or dyke (for it resembles more the latter than the former) without any outlet to the sea, but it is only separated from it by the sands, which are here about twenty yards across. When the rains have been violent the additional waters of the Tapado are discharged over the sands, and sometimes at spring tides, when the wind blows fresh, a few waves will reach over them and fall into the dyke; this being the only manner in which they can communicate with each other. At the Doce likewise landed Pedro Jaques de Magalhaens, the general, and Brito Freire (now known as an historian), the admiral of the fleet which assisted the patriots of Pernambuco in the completion of their long-desired and hardly-earned object,—the re-conquest of Recife and consequent expulsion of the Dutch.[81]
But to return,—I arrived upon the banks of the Doce, and asked at a cottage, which was not far distant, if the river was fordable, and being answered in the affirmative, I rode up to its banks and attempted to make my horse enter it, which he refused to do. I made a second and a third trial, when he plunged in swimming; it was with much difficulty that he gained the outermost point of the sand-bank on the opposite side. He had passed a bad night and was not in a proper state to perform this task, nor should I have attempted it if I had known the depth, but I imagined that the tide had sufficiently retreated. My clothes were dry before I arrived at home, but I long felt the consequences of crossing the Doce.
About the middle of May I removed to Jaguaribe. The road to it is through the plantation of Paulistas, from whence, after crossing the Paratibi, a narrow path leads to the left through a deep wood for nearly one league. A steep hill is to be surmounted, and its corresponding declivity carefully descended. The wood continues to a break in the hill, on the side nearest to Jaguaribe. On reaching this spot there was a view before me, which would in most situations be accounted very beautiful, but in this delightful country so many fine prospects are continually presenting themselves, that I opened upon this with few feelings of pleasure at the sight. I cannot avoid owning that the advantages of the place as a plantation occupied my mind more deeply than its beauties. Immediately before me was a cottage and a row of negro huts, surrounded by banana-trees, standing upon a shelf of the hill. Beyond these to the left was the narrow, but far-extending valley, upon whose nearest border were situated the buildings of Jaguaribe upon an open field, with the hills behind, and in front was the rivulet. To the right was a deep dell, with an expanse of country not thickly covered with wood; and rather in advance, but also to the right, were numerous deep-coloured mangroves, which pointed out that a stream of considerable size ran down among them. On the other side of the nearest of these mangroves, and yet not very far, was the high peak of St. Bento, with the mandioc, and maize lands, and wood upon its side, and the path winding up through them, which is at times concealed, and at times in view;—but the buildings are not to be seen, though the tolling of the chapel-bell may be often heard, from the spot upon which I was standing.
I was under the necessity of taking up my abode in the vestry of the chapel, as the Great House was still occupied. The negroes were already at work for us, and under the direction of a proper feitor or manager. The whole neighbourhood was astonished at the place I had determined to inhabit, until some other dwelling presented itself. I was certainly not comfortably situated, for the vestry consisted of only one apartment, with a door-way to the field and another into the church, the latter being without a door; the church was unfinished, and was the resort of bats and owls; however it was principally my unconcern respecting ghosts which my neighbours were surprised at. A negro boy and myself remained at night to encounter these, if any should appear, and to receive our constant visitors the bats. My companion rolled himself up upon the ground in a piece of baize and a mat, and thus cased, was quite safe. I slept in a hammock, and oftentimes these unwelcome guests alighted upon it, as if they had come for the chance of a toe or a finger making its appearance, upon which they might fix. This way of living did not last long, nor did I wish that it should.
The house of which I have spoken as being situated upon a shelf of the hill, and as looking down upon the valley, was soon without an inhabitant, and therefore to this I removed. It was large, but the floors of the rooms were without bricks, and the interior walls had not been white-washed for ages, and some of them had never undergone the operation. I received visits and presents, as is customary, from my immediate neighbours,—the white persons and those of colour who aspire to gentility; and indeed many individuals of the lower class did not neglect to come and offer their services to the new-comer, whose character and disposition towards them, they judged that it was necessary to become acquainted with. In many instances, the wives of the latter description of visitors came also and brought sweetmeats, fruit, or flowers. I received them all, sitting in my hammock; the men sat round on chairs, but the women generally squatted down upon the floor, though it was formed of earth. I talked to them of my intentions, and of my wish to conciliate, and I heard much of bickerings and squabbles among those of their own rank, and of feuds between their superiors, the same stories being related to me in many different ways. They were much surprised that I should wear so much cloaths, saying, that I ought to do as they did and be unencumbered; and their advice I soon followed. I was much amused, and for some days these visits took up the largest portion of my time.
The lands around me to the North, belonged to the Benedictine friars; and to the East to an old lady; those of the latter were much neglected, but those which were possessed by the former were in high order. To the South, beyond the wood through which I passed in coming to Jaguaribe, are the lands of Paulistas; and to the West and North West are some excellent cane lands, belonging to a religious lay brotherhood of free negroes of Olinda, which were tenanted by and subdivided among a great number of persons of low rank, whites, mulattos, and blacks.
The work went on regularly, and I had soon very little in which to employ my time, excepting in those things by which I might think proper to amuse myself.
In the beginning of June, it was necessary that I should visit Goiana; however I took a circuitous route for the purpose of seeing something new. I was accompanied by an old free man of colour and by Manoel, a faithful African. We slept the first night at Aguiar, the estate of the capitam-mor with whom I had travelled to Bom Jardim; and on the following morning proceeded through several sugar plantations. We rested at mid-day at Purgatorio, a small cotton and mandioc plantation, but we could not purchase any thing of which to make a dinner, and therefore, as was usual on such occasions, we smoked in place of eating. When the sun had declined a little we again set forth. A few of the sugar plantations through which we passed in the afternoon were in a decayed state. We stopped at a cottage, and begged the owner to sell us a fowl but she refused;—we had not eaten any thing this day. I was loath so to do, but I could not avoid saying that she must sell one, that I did not mind the price, but that hunger would not allow me to let her do as she pleased in this case. She fixed upon one, and made me pay exorbitantly for it. We parted in the end very good friends; she offered me some herbs with which to cook the bird, and after this reconciliation we again advanced. By going to Purgatorio we had left the usual direct road—cross roads even in England are not good, so what must they be in Brazil? In one part we were obliged to lean down upon our horses’ necks, and to proceed in this manner for some distance, with the branches of the trees completely closed above. The plantation of Mundo Novo, or the new world, which we reached late in the afternoon, was in ruins; trees grew in the chapel, and the brushwood in front of the dwelling-house rose higher than its roof. I slept at a cottage hard by, which was inhabited by an elderly man and a number of children, large and small. The ill-fated fowl, and another which we had also obtained by the way, were dressed by the daughters of our host. Soon the cooking was effected, and I commenced operations, literally with tooth and nail, upon one of the birds, for there were no knives, forks, or spoons to be had; however I did receive some assistance from my own faca de ponta, a pointed knife or dirk, which, though prohibited by law, is worn by all ranks of persons. At night, my hammock was slung under the pent-house; at a late hour a shower of rain came on; our host had a vast herd of goats; these crowded in from the rain, and soon I was obliged, in self-defence, to rise, as I discovered that they had very little respect for me;—my head and some of their’s having come in contact, made me look out for better quarters; and these I found upon a high table, where I remained until the visitors again ventured forth. We proceeded on the morrow, and reached Goiana by the low marshy lands of Catû. The river was scarcely fordable; but we crossed, and on the opposite side the loose mud in the road reached above the horses’ knees and continued along it for more than one hundred yards; we entered it, and the horses gently waded through; but mine unfortunately felt that his tail was not quite easy in the mud, and therefore began to move it to and fro on either side; and as it was long, (much too long on this occasion) it struck me at every jerk. My dress was a light-coloured nankeen jacket and trowsers, and I came forth, without exaggeration, one cake of mud from head to foot.
I rode to the residence of a person with whom I had been long acquainted; he had taken up his quarters at a new mandioc plantation which had been lately established in the outskirts of Goiana; my friend had removed to this place to superintend some of the workmen. I stayed only two days at Goiana, for I soon accomplished the object of my journey, which was to obtain twenty Indian labourers from Alhandra. My return to Jaguaribe was by the usual road.