BRAZIL.
CHAPTER I.
Voyage from England to Rio de Janeiro.
On the 11th of March, 1819, I took my departure, in the brig Echo, Captain Henderson, from the River Thames, and on the 18th, after contending with adverse winds, arrived in Portland Roads, where we took shelter till the 21st. On our departure from thence we were favoured with a fair wind for only a short period; and on the 24th it opposed us from the westward with such violence, that it rendered our attempts to beat out of the Channel abortive. We were in consequence obliged to submit to the only alternative of running for safety to Falmouth Harbour, and remained there till the 2d of April. Perhaps few situations can be conceived more irksome than this. To a mind made up for departure, every delay is deemed a misfortune in proportion as the object in pursuit is of desirable attainment, and especially in the consideration of its prolonging the time that is to re-unite us to those we love best. A light breeze from the north-east enabled us to clear the Channel on the 3d.
This part of a voyage from England, though trifling in point of distance, is regarded by sailors as pregnant with impending dangers and difficulties, the Channel being so situated that the prevailing westerly winds, at certain seasons of the year, render the egress extremely intricate. The constant anxiety of the captain and crew till we passed the Islands of Scilly, contrasted with the happy security which they then evinced, were proofs of the importance they attached to it. The feelings of Englishmen on quitting the British shores must be various, and, in many instances, exquisitely interesting in pensive reflections. As for myself, the animated attachment for my native land and those so dear to me left behind produced a melancholy, heightened by the surrounding oceanic scene, which, on the other hand, was alleviated not only by a humble reliance upon that Almighty, in whose paternal hands is the greater or less share of happiness of all his creatures, but also by the hope of a successful issue attending the voyage—
“Hope that whispers promised pleasure,
And bids the lovely scenes at distance hail.”
We were favoured with a propitious breeze, which continued steady, at the rate of seven, eight, and nine miles an hour. On the 12th, we passed between the Island of Madeira and the African coast: the vicinity of the former, although we did not see it, was announced by the appearance of sea gulls, the only birds I had hitherto noticed, excepting one swallow and the mother cary’s chicken, not unlike the former at a distance, but rather larger, having white feathers above the tail and under the belly, the rest of a brownish cast. It is said to hatch and carry its young on the water, and is seen, I understand, in every part of the Atlantic as well as the Indian and Pacific Oceans. We met with the swallow in about 40° north latitude and 15° west longitude; it made several attempts to alight upon the vessel, but was prevented by the dog; apparently fatigued, it continued its flight in a northerly direction. This is a phenomenon attending the migration of those birds, favouring the opinion that they visit some southern or tropical climate, during the cold season in England, and is opposed to the hypothesis advanced by some of their immersion in ponds, and by others of their taking refuge in old walls and ruins. That they assume such a state of torpitude as the first would infer is very improbable.
On the morning of the 14th of April, we discovered the high peaks of three of the Canary Islands at a great distance, Grand Canary bearing south-west, and Lanzarote and Fortaventura south-east. The world of waters which had hitherto, from its varied and sometimes terrific agitation, filled the imagination with awe, was now changed into a pacific, but grand expanse, that soothed and absorbed the mind with its tranquil magnificence; and the weather, which had been cold and gloomy, was changed into a balmy mildness and enlivening sunny clearness. Towards the evening, we came close up to the north-west side of Fortaventura, a long island, exhibiting a rugged tumulous combination of peaks and mountains, rising irregularly one over another, of the most barren and cheerless aspect. In vain the sun extended his genial rays over its sterile wastes, where no salutary plant appeared to take root, or the least verdure to quicken. With the assistance of the glass, I could not discover one single hut or human being along the whole face of it. There is a small port on the opposite side, where the produce, as well as that of Lanzarote, is barilla. The wind having changed, a passage could not be accomplished round either end of this island. The signal of “about ship” was given, and we stood for some hours to the northward. Pursuing a southerly course again next day, we came, at noon, close up with land, which, during the morning, a thick haze had obscured. The sun now bursting forth, presented to our view the island of Grand Canary, with its town of Palmas, furnishing a contrast of a very pleasing nature to the island already mentioned. Its romantic and commanding peaks of immense altitude had their tops concealed in clouds, which the lustre of the sun seemed unable to dispel. Its amphitheatre of mountains, adorned with lively patches of green from their very summits, fertilized by increasing cultivation, and in the most luxuriant verdure, down to the verge of the sea, concurred, with the town of Palmas, and a large village extending some distance along the parterre, with detached houses in the same direction of an elegant appearance, to render the scene peculiarly animating and lovely. The town of Palmas, which does not appear large, and the harbour, which is capacious and safe, are commanded by batteries, stationed along a range of mountains to the north of the town. Teneriffe and most of the other islands draw their supplies of corn and cattle from Grand Canary. As we proceeded along its shores, and before the close of the evening, we perceived that its cultivation was not general. The next day, the Peak of Teneriffe was indistinctly seen through the clouds that hung upon the horizon; the height, for which it is so celebrated, is apparently diminished by the elevation of the circumjacent mountains. A north-east trade wind now wafted us forward with considerable rapidity, rendered more agreeable by the delicious weather and salubrious atmosphere diffused around. The familiar and accustomed possession of the prime bounties of nature must be always gratifying to those whose senses and whose imagination are even in tolerable vigour; but to an Englishman, blest with a sound constitution, and over whom the vicissitudes of life had not, as is too often the case, cast a mantle of despondency, to deaden present pleasure and darken future prospects, and who had so recently emerged from a dreary atmosphere, the enjoyment of this, to him, new-born paradisaical climate, resembled more a feeling of sudden and happy enchantment, than an elemental and natural delight, with which Providence had blessed a particular portion of the globe.
On the 22d, we made the Cape de Verd Islands, and took our course betwixt the islands of St. Anthony, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and St. Nicholas, to the westward, Sal and Bonavista being to the eastward of us. The isle of Sal is frequented by the Americans for salt, which is collected upon it.