Travels in Brazil

by Henry Koster

From the state of society and government in Brazil, the individual character of the person who holds any office of importance makes a most wonderful difference, and indeed in some districts a man of an active mind with some wealth, but without any appointment, has more weight than a person of a contrary disposition, although the situation of the latter might give him great power, if he thought proper to exert himself.

I passed some portion of each day with the vicar and his party; the conversation never flagged, and I often thought how very superior the persons were with whom I associated, to any that my friends in England could suppose a country residence in Brazil to afford. I was myself agreably surprised at the change which I had made from Jaguaribe.

Among the visitors at the vicarage was Joam Ribeiro Pessoa de Mello Montenegro, professor of drawing to the seminary of Olinda, and the friend and disciple of Dr. Manoel Arruda da Camara. This priest, during his stay at Itamaraca, crossed over to the mainland to say mass at the village of Camboa every Sunday and holiday. I accompanied him on one of these occasions, and we were paddled over in a canoe. We entered the cottage of a man of colour, the chief person of the place; a hammock was hanging in the room, and into this my companion threw himself, and three or four children of the house quickly came to him, one or two of whom he took into the hammock to play with. The females made their appearance to greet him upon his arrival; he was a favourite seemingly with all parties, great and small. Indeed I never met with any one who possessed more pleasing manners. He is generally beloved wherever he is known, but by the lower orders of people more especially, he is quite adored. I was long acquainted with him, both before and after the time of which I speak, and I never heard him make use of a harsh word to any one; his manner and his tones of voice always indicated that goodness in him greatly predominated. A free mulatto man, of the name of Bertolomeu, once said to me in speaking of this priest, “If he sees a child fall, he runs and picks it up and cleans its face, and this he does not do, because any one is in sight to see him act in this manner, but because his heart so inclines him[109].” It is much to be lamented that his exertions have not been directed to obtaining a situation in which his excellent qualities might have a wider field for display; but he is satisfied with what has been given to him.

I was much surprised at the manner in which even the people of colour dress themselves to go to mass in all the villages; if the family is in a respectable way of life, the younger females wear on these occasions gowns of printed cottons, English straw bonnets, stockings also of foreign manufacture, and neat shoes which are made by workmen of the country. The young men appear in nankeen pantaloons, and jackets of printed cottons, shirts of cambric muslin, hats of English make, stockings and shoes. Indeed, of late years, since articles of dress have been cheap, and have come into general use,—since a subject of emulation has arisen, and the means of shewing it has been afforded, every hamlet sends forth its rival belles and beaux.

I was disappointed with a near view of Camboa; but the country behind it is picturesque, being formed of uneven ground, which is for the most part covered with wood; and cottages and mandioc lands are interspersed. The village consists of one street, composed of small dwellings. The inhabitants are mostly related to each other, and the free persons are of mixed blood. The clan is large, but there does not reside here any wealthy white man; they are a quiet, inoffensive people. The old man at whose house we staid whilst the neighbours assembled to hear mass, was respected by all the rest; he had the management of all their weighty concerns, as being the richest person of the place, though even his property was small; and as he was connected in natural or religious relationship with the major part of the inhabitants. When the priest and I went into the house, we found a large party sitting round a table and playing at cards, which these persons continued to do until the church-bell rang, and the priest went out to prepare for saying mass. The majority of the people of all classes, excepting Indians, have a great propensity to gaming.

There lived at this village formerly a poor man who died of consumption, dragging on for some time a miserable existence. The opinion is general in Pernambuco and other parts which I visited, that consumption is contagious; and from this notion, any person so afflicted is immediately separated from the rest of the family. A hovel is erected at a distance from any habitation, and the miserable patient is removed to it, and is shunned by every one, even receiving his food without the bearer approaching the hovel. I can conceive no situation more wretched than this,—to be in a weak and helpless state, and to be forsaken,—to be doomed to solitude, and to have, perhaps for years, no thoughts but those of death; nothing to relieve the mind, and to divert the attention. I know not, however, whether the opinion of contagion respecting this disorder is totally founded on prejudice, or whether there is some truth in it; for I have heard from persons who are not liable to hasty decisions, many stories which seem to indicate that there is some reason for the precautions which are taken. They are, doubtless, carried too far; they are insisted upon to a savage excess, which fails not to bring to the recollection the custom of some tribes of Indians, who forsake their aged, their infirm, and their dying kinsmen.

I frequently visited the plantation of Amparo, which is conducted in the manner which I had attempted at Jaguaribe; but here it was performed with more system. The owner of this place employed constantly great numbers of free workmen, of all casts; but the Indians formed the principal part of them, and as their master, I suppose, finds it impossible to keep them under due controul, (for the wish to do so he must of course have,) the disturbances which are raised upon the estate, and which are entered into at other places by his men are very numerous[110]. But this person would have done much service to the country in general, if he had managed to keep them in due order, for in that case he would have proved the possibility of the introduction of free men as daily labourers, without the opinion of their unruliness being unavoidable, having been adopted by great numbers of the planters. The state of Amparo is often mentioned as an objection to hired labourers, from the want of reflecting that in the instance in question, the evil proceeds not from the plan itself, but from its execution. It is too true that the lower orders of people are unruly, and upon slight provocations, murders have been committed; but does not this proceed from the propensity which the higher ranks shew to protect those who reside upon their lands? Thus they display their influence with men in office, when they plead for the pardon of a criminal, and feel a considerable degree of gratification,—of self-importance in the idea that an individual should have been preserved from punishment by their means, even though he had only been treated according to his deserts if he had not been screened. Where government exists in a state similar to that of Brazil, wealth will meet with few obstacles in the accomplishment of its purposes, whatever these may be.[111]

In the month of January, 1814, the vicar summoned me to accompany him to Pillar, to which I agreed with much pleasure. The master of the grammar school, Ignacio de Almeida Fortuna, who is likewise a priest, was of the party; he is a man of considerable talent and information. His advantages have been very few, for he has resided almost entirely upon this island; and yet his knowledge is far from being limited, and his love of it is unbounded. We crossed the narrow creek which has been already mentioned, and proceeded along a path under the shade of the coco-trees, until we made for the sands. The sea has made great encroachments for about two miles in this part of the island; we passed the mouths of two natural dikes, into which the tide enters with great rapidity, and is discharged again with increased velocity. After a ride of an hour and a quarter, we reached Pillar, which is distant from Conception, two leagues. This village is composed of several irregular streets, formed of small houses of various descriptions; they are constructed of brick, of mud, and of the coco-leaves. It is a place of some trade, and is likewise frequented by the small craft, which sail between Recife and Goiana. The inhabitants support themselves by their fisheries, by the hire of their jangadas and canoes, and lately, by the preparation of the outward husk of the coco-nut[112] for the manufactory of cordage, which has been recently established in the vicinity of Recife. The fishery of Pillar is of considerable importance. The largest portion of the fish which is caught upon this and the adjacent coast, is obtained by means of pens, that are generally constructed near to low water mark. Two spaces of greater or less magnitude are marked off, and stakes are driven into the sand at given distances in quadrangular form; to these stakes are fastened large mats (esteiras) of basket-work made of thick twigs. An aperture, constructed in a similar manner to that of a trap for catching mice, is left in the inclosure farthest from the shore, opening into the second or smaller inclosure, which has likewise an entrance on the land side, from which runs a fence of basket-work to high water mark. Thus the fish that come in contact with this fence naturally continue along it, in expectation of finding an opening by which to escape, until they unintentionally enter the pen. The jangadas also go out to sea, and fish with the hook and line, and many kinds of nets are used. Yet there is at times a great scarcity of fish, which is rendered by the ordinances of the Romish church an absolute necessary of life. I was introduced at Pillar to a Portugueze gentleman of great respectability, from whom I received in the sequel much civility; the vicar also made me acquainted with a gentlemanly Brazilian priest, who was a young and well-educated man. The former of these persons had been the Juiz Ordinario or Mayor of Pillar, in the year 1812. He had seen how dreadfully the want of due attention to the duties of this office had been felt on former years, and now he was determined to act in the manner which his situation required. He said, that in building great cities, the first public edifice which was or ought to be raised, was the prison; and therefore as Pillar was becoming daily of more importance, it was fit that it should have this requisite edifice. He ordered a number of trees to be cut down, and in a few days a roof was built of small but adequate dimensions, and supported by some of of these trees; the remainder of the timber was to form the walls of the building after the manner of a stockade. A rude door was likewise made, and a pair of stocks was put into the place. “Now,” he said, “Pillar will thrive.” He apprehended some unruly fellows with his own hands; he is a large and powerful man, and the requisite though dangerous task of arresting the men who created disturbances was performed by him with apparent unconcern, and as if he was occupied in any common occurrence of his life. Notwithstanding the acknowledged benefit which was produced by the administration of this man, such is the state of government, that interest was made to prevent his re-appointment to the office on the following year; and this influence was successful. He was too upright a man to be liked by those who wished to have upon their estates a number of turbulent dependants.

The inhabitants of the island had entered into a subscription for building a bridge over the creek near to the town; this work was undertaken through the zeal of the priests who resided in Itamaraca, and was about to be executed under the direction of the master of the grammar-school.

I was much surprised in the beginning of the month of February, at the arrival of a mulatto slave, who had absconded in November; he came alone, and without the customary note from some person of my acquaintance, requesting him to be forgiven. He ascended the steps of the place in which I resided, with perfect unconcern, and with his knife in view and a stick in his hand, begged to be pardoned. I desired that some food should be given to him, and he remained in the kitchen during the night. However, I could not help suspecting some evil intentions, for I knew he had been staying upon the estate of a man who bore me no good will. He went off, by my order, in the morning, to assist three free labourers in the work of cutting up some trees that had been felled. I followed him to the ground about ten o’clock, as was my usual custom. I called him to me, under the pretence of wishing to have the curb chain of my bridle loosened; he came, and then I put one hand upon his head, and with the other drew a pistol, at the same time desiring him to throw down his hatchet and his knife, which he did. Then I called to two of the freemen, that they might secure him. The mulatto’s hands were tied behind his back, and I followed him and his conductors to Amparo, from whence I wrote to my new friend at Pillar, forwarding the slave to that village. He was there placed in the stocks, until I could dispose of him, which I immediately entered into measures for effecting. I never saw him again. He was a bad fellow, and had twice attempted the life of the persons under whose orders he was placed. He had run away in November from having drawn his knife, and having threatened to stab the manager with it.