During the Christmas holidays, and the hottest weather, Poço de Panela, Ponta de Cho, and the neighbouring, and more distant villages of Monteiro (the road to which partly leads by a bridle-way through woods) and of Caxanga, (where there is a spring of chalybeate water, approached also by a bye-way after crossing the river,) are fully occupied by the families of Recife, in their gayest attire and the ladies are frequently seen at the windows or at the doors, the men devoting the days of the holidays to gambling, seated in the verandas, playing at cards or backgammon. At this season the roads are also enlivened with horsemen going their evening rounds to these places of resort. Another very pleasing excursion to Ponta de Cho, Poço de Panela, and Monteiro, is by the river Capibaribe, whose winding banks are bordered with white cottages and houses, some of a very superior appearance, also inhabited during this period, and each having a bathing house rudely enough formed of the branches of the cocoa-nut tree. Innumerable canoes are seen gliding along the river, impelled with more velocity than by the oar or the paddle, by two vara men, who are negroes dressed in white cotton trowsers, exhibiting all the muscular movements of their naked arms and bodies in the exertion of using the vara, which, when well and regularly executed, is rather a graceful labour. A whole family, with furniture, and all the et ceteras, are moved up the river to their summer abode in this manner; and the ladies, in their smart dresses, with French hats and white plumes nodding to the river’s breeze, do not seem to regret that it is but transient liberty they are going to enjoy, and which they indulge in by a more free exhibition of themselves, and also by daily bathing in the river, probably two or three times, remaining in the water an hour or an hour and a half at once. They are said to be more expert divers and swimmers than the men, and it is not rare to see parties of them swimming about with much confidence, their hair being generally neatly dressed and bound up. One evening, on approaching the banks of the river beyond Monteiro, with Mr. Ray, some females were bathing, and amongst them were an old gentleman and his young wife, with whom Mr. R. was acquainted. We took off our hats, and the compliment was very cordially returned by the whole party, by a low dip in the water; on re-passing a considerable time afterwards we observed them still enjoying this refreshing amusement. Previously to my leaving Ponta de Cho, the premier chuvas (first rains) were setting in, and the river already conveyed many canoes with families and their furniture on the return. The heaviest rains begin about March, when this part of the country is partially inundated and forsaken till the dry season recommences. There are various religious festivals during the holidays at different churches, in honour of saints. Those that appeared to attract the most attention were at the church of the Mount at Ollinda, at St. Amaro, and the Poço de Panela; to the latter, the English subscribed a certain sum each. Many people were assembled, and the houses were dedicated to the purposes of gambling. The multitude seemed to loiter about without any object, and there was a deadness and want of spirit and gaiety in their general demeanor. The church was open, which I entered in the midst of the ceremony of christening a child; a large lighted wax candle was as quickly introduced into my hand, and I was thus enlisted into the ranks. A band of music was playing in the gallery, to dissipate the shrill notes of the youngster, who was fingered rather roughly by the padre in the course of various ceremonies he performed, and in which he applied a considerable portion of salt. When the infant, after undergoing the last form of having a silver crown placed upon its head, was returned to its mother, it appeared quite exhausted; and a pretty general round of embracing concluded the ceremony. The master of the festa, and his wife and daughters were there: the females were splendidly dressed, but the absence of the graces prevented these adornments from having their due effect upon the imagination. The fire-works supplied by the subscription, and which concluded this festival, were, I understood, very indifferent.
THE HOUSE OF THE SENHOR D’ENGENHO DE TORRE. NEAR PERNAMBUCO.
The Christmas holidays are deemed by the merchants a great interruption to commerce, as no shipments can be made or business transacted during that period. The English establishments here amount to sixteen, and through their medium this province is supplied with every species of English manufactures. They labour, as has been previously stated, under considerable difficulties, in consequence of the mal-operation of the pauta. The produce shipped from hence, consists principally of cotton and sugar; of the latter, about twenty-five thousand cases annually, nearly one-half to England, and the remainder to Lisbon: the quantity of the former averages about eighty thousand bags, sixty thousand being sent to Great Britain, and the remainder principally to Lisbon. The Pernambuco cotton is the best in the Brazil, arising in part from the rigid inspection which it undergoes. A new inspection house was erected here, upon the beach, called the Forte do Matto, in the year 1815. The cotton is bought by the merchant at a certain price, when it is submitted to inspection and divided into three qualities; for the second quality, which is permitted to pass with the first, the merchant receives an allowance of five hundred reas per arrobe, from the planter; the third quality is totally rejected. The bags are then weighed for the merchant to pay the export duty, and as one bag is only weighed at a time, there has been considerable delay in getting the cotton through the inspection house for shipment. The present governor attended here, and attempted to make arrangements for weighing the cotton quicker, but matters shortly afterwards reverted to their anterior state. Sugar is classed into nine different qualities, and distinguished by the following marks, commencing with the finest and continuing by gradations downwards.
| B F | Branco Fino. |  | Paying a shipping duty of sixty reas per arrobe. |
| R F | Ridondo Fino. | ||
| B R | Branco Ridondo. | ||
| R B | Ridondo Branco. | ||
| B B | Branco Baixo. | ||
| B I | Baixo Inferior. | ||
| MM | Muscovado Macho. | | Ditto of thirty reas per arrobe. |
| MR | Muscovado Retame. | ||
| MB | Muscovado Brame. |
The sugar engenhos are some of them very considerable, and the two accompanying plates are representations of the exterior and interior of the Engenho de Torre not far from the right margin of the Capibaribe. The owner, who has amassed a respectable property, very politely allowed four gentlemen with myself to see this establishment. The juice is extracted by the compressure of the cane between three upright rollers, the centre one moving the other two, and being itself constantly carried round by relays of mares, which have a singular appearance from their ears being closely cropped. The juice flows along a channel to a lower apartment in the building, where it goes through the different processes of boiling, and when completed is much inferior to the West-Indian sugar, and generally in a very dirty state.
The English merchants were desirous of getting a clergyman from England, having been without the performance of divine service for a considerable period; and, besides the want of an opportunity to fulfil one of the most essential and important duties in life, an unfavourable impression could not but operate against them in the minds of the inhabitants, from their having no public observance of religion. The contribution fund, in the hands of the committee, amounts to upwards of five thousand pounds, which those gentlemen have been anxious to apply to the purposes for which it is intended, that of building a church and an hospital, and the payment of a clergyman and a medical man, which latter appointment is filled by Dr. Ramsay, a gentleman of great acquirements in his profession, and deservedly and universally beloved and esteemed.
I accompanied him and some of the merchants, upon one occasion, amongst many others in which they had been endeavouring to obtain suitable buildings for a church, hospital, and residences for the doctor and a clergyman. The building which we saw had been recently erected, was very spacious, surrounded with some grounds, and well adapted for the purpose; the reason it was not rented or purchased arose from the proprietor demanding an exorbitant price.[42]
We, at the same time, paid a visit to Mr. Koster, (a gentleman known to the literary world by the publication of his travels in the northern part of the Brazil,) who had just arrived at Recife from Goyanna, from whence, in consequence of his indifferent state of health, he travelled in a net suspended between two horses, which was rendered, he said, a less disagreeable mode of conveyance, by the ambling pace of the horses. Mr. Koster had removed his residence to Goyanna, in hopes that the climate would be more suitable to his health and constitution; but his very delicate appearance indicated a rapid decline, and I regret to say that he did not long survive.
