A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

About the year 1630, the French established themselves here, under the same evil star that has influenced all their conquests in the western hemisphere. Shortly afterwards, abandoning their establishments on Terra Firma, they removed to the island of Cayenna, where they remained till the year 1655, without the colony arriving at that flourishing state which was expected. In this year it passed under the dominion of the British government, and was retained by us till the year 1674. The Dutch took possession of it at this time, and kept it for four years.

Various obstacles were opposed to the activity of the colonists (who always lived in hopes of fortune being more propitious) to the period of the revolution, which threw every thing into a worse state; with it disappeared some small towns and Indian aldeias which were on the island and upon the continent, beginning with an Hospicio of Franciscans.

The island of Cayenna, formed by the river of the same name, the Mahory, and a narrow and winding strait by which they communicate, is twenty miles long from north to south, of proportionable width, and irregular form; the land is low, diversified with gentle elevations, and overspread with timber. The soil is sandy, and black at the surface; at the depth of two feet it is red, and is favourable to the growth of coffee, cotton, Indian corn, indigo, mandioca, and the cane. During the rainy season the vegetation is abundant for the sustenance of oxen, horses, goats, sheep, and wild quadrupeds. In the three months of most rigorous drought all these animals suffer from hunger, and many die.

There are numerous small rivers of soft water, which carry various sugar works. The channel which separates it from the continent conducts to the port the productions of that side. Notwithstanding the east wind refreshes the atmosphere every morning, the air is unwholesome, in consequence of the contiguous morasses, which breed an immensity of various species of insects, such as mosquitos, large toads, ants, and many others, that annoy the inhabitants.

CHAP. XXVI.

Conclusive Observations.

The great disparity between the actual condition of the Brazil and that which, from its pure climate, fertile soil, numerous rivers, and immense extent, it is capable of attaining, is the main circumstance that will be suggested to the reader by the perusal of the foregoing pages. The climate is indeed generally so salubrious that diseases are as rare as in any part of the globe, much less as fatal as they are often found to be in similar latitudes. In a region so extensive the climates are necessarily various, but, with the exception of some of the pantanos, or morasses, and stagnant waters remaining after inundations, the country is for the main part exceedingly wholesome; and, as far as my own information and observation has extended, the provinces immediately bordering upon the equator, are equally, if not more healthful than many nearer the tropical line. The soil is so fertile that a much less portion of culture is requisite for its abundant production than is found necessary for most other countries of the world, and is, indeed, to a very large extent, almost spontaneously productive.

The facilities are incalculable which it might supply to commerce, and towards increasing and aggrandizing its people from the multitudinous rivers that pour beauty, comfort, and health, into its extensive tract. The advantages already mentioned, with its diversified aspect, its champaign and its hilly surface, its noble mountains and woods, where sport a great variety of beautiful and useful animals, its groves of numerous kinds of fruit, and of balsamic and spice trees, peopled with birds of luxuriant plumage or of alimentary utility, would, with the addition of that agricultural and commercial improvement of which it is so immensely susceptible, and the introduction of literature, science, and art, and the consequent prevalence of a social, liberal, and hospitable feeling, advance it to a state of beauty, prosperity, and happiness not to be surpassed by any other portions of the globe, and equalled but by few.

It is obvious that at present these numerous provinces, each of which might, when thus improved, constitute a kingdom, are mainly in a primeval state, and hitherto the religious bigotry, the unlettered ignorance, the unsocial manners, the commercial defects, the narrow, civil, and ecclesiastical polity have for centuries checked the natural growth of every thing that adorns and gives power to an empire.

But a nobler view of this fine country is rising before us. The adoption by the Brazilians of the free constitution of government recently determined upon by the mother country, and sanctioned by the beneficent disposition of their monarch, as well as by the highly honourable, judicious, and decided approbation of the Prince Royal, will, it is hoped, rouze the latent energies of this fine country, and produce an immediate advance towards that flourishing and distinguished state we have been contemplating. Indeed it cannot be otherwise if the constitution is adopted with stability and energy; for liberty, civil and religious, is richly productive of every thing that is honourable and beneficial to mankind, and those have been the most truly glorious who have enjoyed it most, giving, as it does to man, when wisely tempered, an open and happy countenance and heart, and a firm and erect attitude, step, and character. Such has been Greece in ancient and such is Britain in modern times.