The day after my arrival at my new home, I rode to Recife, and had on the following day an attack of ague. I had exposed myself lately too much to the sun, and had been several times wet through. The disorder left me in a fortnight; my horses were sent for,—they came, and I set off for Jaguaribe; but in mid-way, I was drenched with rain, and reaching that place much tired, went to sleep unintentionally in my hammock, without changing my cloaths. In the morning I felt that the ague was returning, and therefore ordered my horse and rode out to try to shake off the attack, which the peasants say it is possible to do. However, whilst I was talking with a neighbour, on horseback at his door, the ague came on, and I was unable to return to my own dwelling.
The next day the Indians from Alhandra arrived; they had imbibed strange notions of the riches of an Englishman; and their captain told me, that they knew I was very rich, and could afford to give higher wages than any one else. I tried to undeceive them in this respect, but all to no purpose. I offered the usual rate of labour in the country; but their characteristic obstinacy had entered into them, and they preferred returning as they came to any abatement of their first demand; although this was 25 per cent. higher than any person had ever been known to give for daily labour. They dined, placed their wallets upon their shoulders, and went their way. One of my people said, as they disappeared, ascending the hill, beyond the field, “They had rather work for any one else for half the money, than lower in their demands to you.”
I was removed from this neighbour’s house, after a few days, in a hammock; but finding that the disorder increased, I sent for the manager, an old man of colour, whose wife attended upon me. By my desire, he collected a sufficient number of bearers, as it was my wish to be carried to Recife. About five o’clock in the afternoon we set off; there were sixteen men to bear the hammock by turns, and the manager was likewise in company; of these persons only two were slaves. After we had passed the wood and had arrived upon a good road, the bearers proceeded at a long walk approaching to a run. Their wild chorus, which they sung as they went along,—their mischief in throwing stones at the dogs by the road side, and in abuse, half joking, half wishing for an opportunity of quarrelling, confident in their numbers, and that as they were in the service of a white man he would bring them out of any scrape;—was very strange, and had I been less unwell, this journey would have much amused me. As we passed through Olinda, a woman asked my men if they carried a dead body (for it is in this manner that they are brought from a distance for interment). One of the bearers answered, “No, it is the devil[82]:” and then turning to me, said, “Is it not so, my master[83]?” I said, “Yes,” and the good woman walked away, saying, “Ave-Maria, the Lord forbid[84].” The wind was high and some rain fell, as we crossed the Olinda sands; we arrived at Recife between nine and ten o’clock. The bearers stopped before we approached the gate way at the entrance of the town, that each man might, in some way or other, conceal his long, unlawful knife; without one of these weapons no peasant or great man leaves his home, notwithstanding the prohibition.
I became gradually worse, until my recovery was not expected; but the kind, attentive hand of another Englishman here again was stretched forth. My former friend had left the country, but another supplied his place, and from him I received every brotherly kindness. I cannot forbear mentioning the following circumstances relating to my illness. I went on board an English merchant ship, some weeks after my recovery, and on passing a cask which was lying upon the deck, I struck it intentionally, but without any particular object. The master, who was an old gentleman with whom I had come from England, and who had been long acquainted with me, said, “Yes, you would not have it.” I asked him what he meant, to which he replied, “It was for you, but you gave us the slip this time.” I did not yet understand him, so he then continued, “Why, do you think I would have let you remain among these fellows here, who would not have given you christian burial? I intended to have taken you home in that puncheon of rum.” I was told by one of my medical attendants when I was recovering, that some old maiden ladies, who lived near to where I resided, had frequently pressed him, whilst I was in a dangerous state, to have the Sacrament brought to me, for they were much grieved that I should die without any chance of salvation. An English merchant of Recife asked my particular friend when the funeral was to take place; and one of the medical men wrote a note to the same person late one night, enquiring whether his attendance on the following morning had been rendered unnecessary.
As soon as I was well enough to remove, I took a small cottage at the village of Monteiro, that I might have the advantage of better air than that of Recife, and yet not be too far distant from medical advice. Here I passed my time very pleasantly in daily intercourse with a most worthy Irish family, of whom I shall always preserve recollections of gratitude for the kindness which I received at that time and on other occasions. On the night of my arrival at Monteiro, one of my pack-horses was stolen, but the animal was recognised some weeks afterwards by a boy who was in my service; the man into whose hands he had fallen happened to pass through the village, and thus I recovered the horse. It is astonishing to what a great extent horse-stealing has been carried, in a country which abounds so much with these animals. It is almost the only species of robbery, for the practising of which regular gangs of men have been discovered to have been formed; but these fellows will sometimes also chance to lay hold of a stray ox or cow.[85]
I was most anxious to return to Jaguaribe, and about the middle of October was making preparations for the purpose; when the manager arrived from the plantation, with the intelligence that one of his assistants had been attacked two nights before, and nearly killed, by some persons who had been commissioned to perform this deed in revenge of some real or imagined injury which the man had committed. This determined my proceedings; the following morning I set off with the manager and a servant, to see the wounded man. I found him at his father’s house, in most woeful plight; his face was dreadfully lacerated, and his body much bruised; the work had been done by bludgeons, and evidently in fear, else the task would have been performed less clumsily and more effectually. I never could discover by whom the murder was intended, nor the persons who attempted it; they were dressed in leather, like unto Sertanejos; but the sufferer imagined that this costume was made use of as a disguise. Two men sprang out upon him, in a narrow lane which had high banks on each side; he defended himself for some time with his sword, but they overpowered him at last, and his weapon was the only part of his property which they carried off. I removed altogether from Monteiro in a few days; my presence had long been necessary at Jaguaribe, for the mill was at work, and as frequently happens in every country, some of the persons who were employed had not remained empty handed.
The poor fellow who had been way-laid, soon returned to the plantation; he told me that every night large stones were thrown violently against his door, between the hours of one and four in the morning. I called the manager the following evening, and both of us being armed, we took our station near to the gate which leads into the field, one being on each side, behind the high bank. We could hear the footsteps of any person long before he could approach us, as the splashing in the rivulet which runs beyond the gate, would give us timely notice. The musquitos gave us much employment; however we remained at our post until half an hour before day break, without seeing any thing; but the practice was discontinued. Two men had arrived early in the night to offer themselves as labourers; they were awake when we returned, had made a good fire upon the ground in the mill (a spacious roof supported upon brick pillars) and were sitting round it upon their heels; we joined them, and here I heard their stories of their own prowess, of charms, and miracles, and other conversation of the same nature, each of them telling something strange which he had seen or heard.[86]
Much time had been lost, and the cane ought to have been planted for the crop of the following year; the negroes in my possession could not perform what ought to be done in proper time, and therefore I collected free labourers for the purpose; and in a short period between thirty and forty men, some of whom brought their families, removed on to the lands of the plantation; and most of them erected hovels of palm-leaves, in which they dwelt; but a few of them were accommodated with huts of mud. There were Indians, mulattos, free negroes, and slaves working together; a motley crew.