The late colonel of the mulatto regiment of Recife, by name Nogueira, went to Lisbon, and returned to Pernambuco with the Order of Christ, which the Queen had conferred upon him[207]. A chief person of one of the provinces is the son of a white man and a woman of colour; he has received an excellent education, is of a generous disposition, and entertains most liberal views upon all subjects. He has been made a colonel, and a degree of nobility has been conferred upon him; likewise the Regent is sponsor to one of his children. Many other instances might be mentioned. Thus has Portugal, of late years from policy, continued that system into which she was led by her peculiar circumstances in former times. Some of the wealthy planters of Pernambuco, and of the rich inhabitants of Recife are men of colour. The major part of the best mechanics are also of mixed blood.
It is said that mulattos make bad masters; and this holds good oftentimes with persons of this description, who have been in a state of slavery, and become possessed of slaves of their own, or are employed as managers upon estates. The change of situation would lead to the same consequences in any race of human beings, and cannot be accounted peculiar to the mixed casts. I have seen mulattos of free birth as kind, as lenient, and as forbearing to their slaves and other dependants as any white man.
Marriages between white men and women of colour are by no means rare, though they are sufficiently so to cause the circumstance to be mentioned when speaking of an individual who has connected himself in this manner; but this is not said with the intent of lowering him in the estimation of others. Indeed the remark is only made if the person is a planter of any importance, and the woman is decidedly of dark colour, for even a considerable tinge will pass for white; if the white man belongs to the lower orders, the woman is not accounted as being unequal to him in rank, unless she is nearly black. The European adventurers often marry in this manner, which generally occurs when the woman has a dower. The rich mulatto families are often glad to dispose of their daughters to these men, although the person who has been fixed upon may be in indifferent circumstances; for the colour of the children of their daughters is bettered, and from the well-known prudence and regularity of this set of men, a large fortune may be hoped for even from very small beginnings. Whilst I was at Jaguaribe, I was in the frequent habit of seeing a handsome young man, who was a native of the island of St. Michael’s. This person happened to be with me on one occasion when the commandant from the Sertam was staying at my house. The commandant asked him if he could read and write, and being answered in the negative, said, “then you will not do,” and turning to me, added, “I have a commission from a friend of mine to take with me back to the Sertam a good-looking young Portugueze of regular habits, who can read and write, for the purpose of marrying him to his daughter.” These kind of commissions (encommendas) are not unusual.
Still the Brazilians of high birth and large property do not like to intermarry with persons whose mixture of blood is very apparent, and hence arise peculiar circumstances. A man of this description becomes attached to a woman of colour, connects himself with her, and takes her to his home, where she is in a short time even visited by married women; she governs his household affairs, acts and considers herself as his wife, and frequently after the birth of several children, when they are neither of them young, he marries her. In connections of this nature, the parties are more truly attached than in marriages between persons who belong to two families of the first rank; for the latter are entered into from convenience rather than from affection; indeed the parties, on some occasions, do not see each other until a few days before the ceremony takes place. It often occurs, that inclination, necessity, or convenience induce or oblige a man to separate from the person with whom he has thus been connected; in this case, he gives her a portion, and she marries a man of her own rank, who regards her rather as a widow than as one whose conduct has been incorrect. Instances of infidelity in these women are rare; they become attached to the men with whom they cohabit, and they direct the affairs of the houses over which they are placed with the same zeal that they would display if they had the right of command over them. It is greatly to the credit of the people of that country that so much fidelity should be shewn on one side, and that this should so frequently as it is, be rewarded by the other party, in the advancement of those who have behaved thus faithfully, to a respectable and acknowledged situation in society. It should be recollected too that the merit of moral feelings must be judged of by the standard of the country, and not by our own institutions. I have only spoken above of what occurs among the planters; for in large towns man is pretty much the same every where.
The Mamalucos are more frequently to be seen in the Sertam than upon the coast. They are handsomer than the mulattos; and the women of this cast particularly surpass in beauty all others of the country; they have the brown tint of mulattos, but their features are less blunt, and their hair is not curled. I do not think that the men can be said to possess more courage than the mulattos; but whether from the knowledge which they have of being of free birth on both sides, or from residing in the interior of the country where government is more loose, they appear to have more independence of character, and to pay less deference to a white man than the mulattos. When women relate any deed of danger that has been surmounted or undertaken, they generally state that the chief actor in it was a large mamaluco, mamalucam; as if they thought this description of men to be superior to all others. Mamalucos may enter into the mulatto regiments, and are pressed into the regiments of the line as being men of colour, without any regard to the sources from which their blood proceeds.
Of the domesticated Indians I have already elsewhere given what accounts I could collect, and what I had opportunities of observing. The wild Indians are now only to be met with at a great distance from the coast of Pernambuco; and although they are very near to Maranham, and are dreaded neighbours, I had no means of seeing any of them.
I now proceed to mention that numerous and valuable race of men, the creole negroes; a tree of African growth, which has thus been transplanted, cultivated, and much improved by its removal to the New World. The Creole negroes stand alone and unconnected with every other race of men, and this circumstance alone would be sufficient, and indeed contributes much to the effect of uniting them to each other. The mulattos, and all other persons of mixed blood wish to lean towards the whites, if they can possibly lay any claim to relationship. Even the mestizo tries to pass for a mulatto, and to persuade himself and others that his veins contain some portion of white blood, although that with which they are filled proceeds from Indian and negro sources. Those only who can have no pretensions to a mixture of blood, call themselves negroes, which renders the individuals who do pass under this denomination, much attached to each other, from the impossibility of being mistaken for members of any other cast. They are of handsome persons, brave and hardy, obedient to the whites, and willing to please; but they are easily affronted, and the least allusion to their colour being made by a person of a lighter tint, enrages them to a great degree; though they will sometimes say, “a negro I am, but always upright”[208]. They are again distinct from their brethren in slavery, owing to their superior situation as free men.
The free creole negroes have their exclusive regiments, as well as the mulattos, of which every officer and soldier must be perfectly black. There are two of these regiments for the province of Pernambuco, which consist of indefinite numbers of men, who are dispersed all over the country. These regiments are distinguished from each other by the names of Old Henriques and New Henriques[209]. The name of Henriques is derived from the famous chieftain, Henrique Diaz, in the time of the Dutch war. I have heard some of the most intelligent of those with whom I have conversed, speak in enthusiastic terms of the aid which he gave to the whites in that struggle. I have seen some portion of one of these regiments, in Recife, accompanying the procession of our Lady of the Rosary, the patroness of negroes. They were dressed in white cloth uniforms turned up with scarlet, and they looked very soldier-like. They were in tolerable discipline, and seemed to wish to go through the duty of the day in the best manner that they were able; they acted with an appearance of zeal and the desire of excelling. Those of which I speak formed a finer body of men than any other soldiers which I had an opportunity of seeing in that country. On gala days the superior black officers in their white uniforms, pay their respects to the governor, exactly in the same manner that the persons of any other cast, holding commissions of equal rank are expected to go through this form. These men receive no pay, so that their neat appearance on such occasions bespeaks a certain degree of wealth among them; neither are the privates nor any other persons belonging to these regiments paid for their services. Some of the whites rather ridicule the black officers, but not in their presence; and the laugh which is raised against them is caused perhaps by a lurking wish to prevent this insulted race from the display of those distinctions which the government has wisely conceded to them, but which hurt the European ideas of superiority. The old regiment of Henriques was, at the time that I resided in Pernambuco, without a colonel, and I heard much discussion on several occasions among the Creole negroes, about the fittest person to be appointed to the vacant situation.[210]
The creole negroes of Recife are, generally speaking, mechanics of all descriptions; but they have not yet reached the higher ranks of life, as gentlemen, as planters, and as merchants. Some of them have accumulated considerable sums of money, and possess many slaves, to whom they teach their own trade, or these slaves are taught other mechanical employments by which they may become useful. They work for their owners, and render to them great profits, for every description of labour is high, and that which requires any degree of skill bears even a higher comparative value than the departments of which a knowledge is more easily attained. The best church and image painter of Pernambuco is a black man, who has good manners, and quite the air of a man of some importance, though he does not by any means assume too much. The negroes are excluded from the priesthood[211]; and from the offices which the mulattos may obtain through their evasion of the law, but which the decided and unequivocal colour of the negro entirely precludes him from aspiring to. In law all persons who are not white, and are born free, class equally; manumitted slaves are placed upon the same footing as persons born free. However, although the few exclusions which exist against the negroes are degrading, still in some instances they are befriended by them. They are unable, owing to their colour, to serve in the regiments of the line, or in any regiments excepting those which are exclusively their own; but by means of this regulation they escape the persecutions under which the other casts suffer during the time of recruiting. The officers and men of the Henrique regiments are so united to each other, that the privates and subalterns are less liable to be oppressed by any white man in office even than the soldiers of the mulatto regiments. Of these latter the officers, having a considerable tinge of white, sometimes lean towards the wishes of the capitam-mor, or some other rich white officer, instead of protecting his soldiers.
The men whose occupation it is to apprehend runaway negroes are, almost without exception, creole blacks; they are called capitaens-do-campo, captains of the field; and are subject to a capitam-mor do campo who resides in Recife, and they receive their commissions either from the governor or from this officer. By these they are authorised to apprehend and take to their owners any slaves who may be found absent from their homes without their master’s consent. Several of these men are to be found in every district, employing themselves in such pursuits as they think fit, when their services are not required in that calling which forms their particular duty. They are men of undaunted courage, and are usually followed by two or three dogs, which are trained to seek out, and if necessary to attack and bring to the ground those persons whose apprehension their masters are desirous of effecting. The men who bear these commissions can oblige any unauthorised person to give up to them an apprehended negro, for the purpose of being by them returned to his owner.