The decay of Ollinda was considered by many of its inhabitants as a punishment for the pride of its rich and leading persons, whose libertinism had arrived at such a pitch, that an orator preaching on a festival day in one of the parish churches, and energetically declaiming against the vices prevailing in the country, some of the principal people commanded him to be silent, and dragged him with violence from the pulpit, without the auxiliary priests being able to prevent the outrage.
The convents, which are handsome and well-built, occupy the finest situations in Ollinda, generally upon the acclivity or summits of the eminences, from whence the views are interesting. Some of these religious establishments have now but few friars, and one of them was occupied by a military detachment. The walls surrounding the grounds of several, I observed, were broken down in many parts, and in a state of dilapidation; and the enclosures, which would have formed fine pleasure grounds, were barren, unplanted, and quite neglected.
A MATUTO RETURNING FROM PERNAMBUCO.
On proceeding from hence by the sand-bank to the Recife, I was suddenly startled at the appearance of a human skull and bones, near a pillar or beacon situated between the two forts. Considerably impressed by so unexpected a sight, and moving slowly forward with such feelings as it was calculated to excite, not having any other idea but that they were the remains of some murdered person, I found myself in the midst of human bones, over-spreading the summit of the sand-bank. I now began to surmise that it was the cemetery of the blacks, which was confirmed on my arrival at the Recife. The dead bodies of the negroes are wrapped up in a piece of coarse cotton cloth, and being thinly covered with sand is the reason of their remains soon becoming thus indecently exposed. I understand that the white people were at one time also interred here. The English have a burying-ground at St. Amaro, not far from Boavista.
The roads branching off from Pernambuco into the interior are very good for a few miles, although sandy, and in some parts deep. They soon begin to contract into narrow bridle-ways, and are the tracks of troops of horses coming from the certams with cotton principally, and some other produce. The horses here are, from the sandy nature of the roads, never shod, and those driven from the interior by the mattutos[41] (inhabitants of the mattos, or woods) are generally very miserable and poor, and seem almost to give way under the burden of two bags of cotton, attached one on each side to a rudely constructed pack-saddle. Cords are commonly used by these persons for stirrups, into which they introduce the great toe. Their dress, consisting of a coarse cotton shirt hanging loosely over drawers, or trowsers, reaching to the calf of the leg, with a large slouching straw or black hat, a gun occasionally borne over one shoulder, and a sword in a wooden sheath, awkwardly suspended from a leathern belt, gives them a singular appearance. Some of these groups are rather of a superior order, being dressed in brown leathern overalls, a jacket, and a low round hat of the same. Parties of men and horses are thus continually arriving at and departing from Pernambuco. The men exhibit a great variety of complexions, and not one is to be seen that can be said to be of pure European descent, all having a mixture of Indian and African physiognomy. They are generally active and well formed. Few are Indians, more are mesticos.
The cotton planters, as well as proprietors of sugar works, visit the emporium of Pernambucan commerce in their gayest vestments, with their horses caparisoned in all the trappings and paraphernalia of Portuguese saddlery. The Brazilians generally, when they go from home, are fond of external show, without regard to much neatness, and upon those occasions they form a striking contrast to their general disgusting appearance in their domestic circles. There the men are usually seen with a dressing gown, or a shirt worn loosely over drawers, without stockings, their breasts exposed, and indulging inert and slovenly propensities. The females, having this example before them, claim some allowance for their loose and slatternly mode of dressing, when at home, and their worse habit of generally expectorating, without regard to person, time, or place. Young females are entitled to much consideration also, on account of the illiberal system pursued in their education and manner of bringing up. They are, it may be said, almost excluded from society; and the suspicious treatment they experience from their parents must tend to extinguish every liberal and moral sentiment; in fact, it cannot be considered that those very parents themselves possess much, or they would not subject them to an ungracious and scrutinizing watch, by generally keeping them shut up, so that they do not enjoy even the necessary exercise for health, to which their Turkish mode of sitting on the ground or upon mats, is not very congenial. If a family walk out, the daughters precede the father and mother, and the negroes, frequently composing the whole household, bring up the rear. Their grand opportunities for displaying their persons are religious holidays and festivals, and the midnight masses at the churches are said to be fully attended by the females.
The lady of General Rego, the governor, who is a very accomplished woman, has endeavoured, very amiably but ineffectually, to introduce a social intercourse amongst the families, and particularly the females, of Pernambuco; and although this lady succeeded in making a commencement, it was afterwards declined by the families themselves, from the ridiculous excuse that it would become expensive to have new dresses for every fresh visit. The general also gave a public ball to the inhabitants, which was followed by one on the part of the English merchants; but it would appear, with the exception of some of the leading persons, that the inhabitants, from their little intercourse with the world, are yet inimical to any refined system of society.
The cotton planters, and senhors d’engenho in the interior, are stated to be liberal and hospitable to strangers; and many of them, who have been recently acquiring considerable property, live in a comparatively comfortable style.
Apathy is a strong characteristic in the lower orders of Brazilians. In my various excursions near Pernambuco, I have seen men, at all hours of the day, stretched out upon tables, upon mats, or in redes, (nets,) slumbering their time away. If this class of people can obtain sufficient to satisfy the wants of the day, their views extend no further, and industry is no where seen amongst them; besides, the agricultural arm is paralysed nearly one-third of the year by holidays and saint days.