A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

Printed by C. Hullmandel.

THE CASA OF A PADRE IN CAMPINHA.

An English agriculturist would regard with astonishment and regret the extensive tracts of land lying waste in the Brazil, and particularly in the vicinity of the capital and principal towns. On accompanying a party with Mr. M’Keand, from whom I experienced much attention, to Campinha, only eighteen miles from Rio, my surprise was more forcibly excited to see that very fine champaign and extensive valley almost in a wild state, and with its primitive and verdant woods. It is a plain, comprising twenty-five or thirty square miles, interspersed with gentle acclivities, and encircled by graceful and softly undulating eminences, presenting a tranquillizing contrast to the more lofty contexture of alpine objects before described. It is a most inviting situation, and its self-producing vegetation reflects shame upon the indolence it has contributed to create. One of the party joined me in a walk through the intervening woods, to a white house, finely situated upon an acclivity at the edge of the valley, and whose proprietor was a farmer of the sugar cane, and manufactured a fair quantity of rum. His son was a padre; and one end of the veranda formed a small chapel, garnished with tinsel trappings. It was Sunday, and the tocsin had already sounded the signal for mass, and was gradually assembling its votaries. Many of the females, as in Scotland, walked without shoes and stockings. A spring amongst some rocks, served as a purifying fountain, from whence they issued in silk stockings and embroidered shoes, ascended the hill into the veranda, sat down on the floor, beat their bosoms, and with other brief ceremonies concluded the devotional exercise. The padre sat down to gamble at cards, and some of the females danced not ungracefully with the castinets.

The waste lands I had seen on this and other excursions were satisfactorily accounted for, by the circumstances arising out of an attempt made by a friend of mine to purchase about twenty acres, situated upon the margin of the bay, four miles by water and eight by land from the city. Its cultivation had extended no further than the employment one solitary slave could give it; a few patches of mandioca were visible, and two rows of fruit trees, from the eminence on which a clay tenement stood, formed a pathway towards the bay. Nine hundred milreas (upwards of two hundred pounds) was the sum demanded for the everlasting possession of it, subject to the payment of a fine of five pounds per annum to a lady, whose assent to the transfer was required, and could be immediately obtained. My friend determined to be the purchaser, and called upon the donna, to ascertain under what circumstances the five pounds were to be paid. She had no objections to his becoming the purchaser; but said, she thought the sum demanded was too much, and that she would send in a person to value the bemfeitoras; that is, what produce might be upon the ground, if the party wished to sell it. He found, therefore, in place of its being a free purchase, this lady had the full controul over the property, in case of the occupier wishing to dispose of it. He would have purchased her five pounds fine; that she would on no account part with, and further stated, that, for every two slaves more that he employed, he must pay five pounds more fine. The present holder was only to work it with two. The object of this would seem to be, that, in the event of its being disposed of, she would not have so many bemfeitoras to take. This gentleman would have expended a considerable sum, and have brought the land into a state of fine cultivation, if he could have retained it in his own possession, and that of his successors in perpetuity; but, if circumstances compelled him to part with it, this donna, by the Brazilian laws, would have had the preference; and two people, appointed for the purpose, would have been sent to value the produce standing upon the ground, without regard to improvement of times, or the amelioration of the soil; and, in consequence of this fine, she would have unfairly regained possession of the property for a mere bagatelle. This being the state of the case, my friend immediately declined any further treaty upon the subject. This donna and two sisters, all spinsters, possess a most extensive range of land, the whole under similar circumstances, and nearly in the same condition that it was left by the Indians. The parties occupying it live upon the produce of fruit sold at market, and a little mandioca. Under the present system of landed tenure, it will remain covered with wild grass till doomsday.

It is a great misfortune to the Brazil, that extensive tracts of land have been granted to donatories, who do not possess the means of cultivating one-hundredth part of it, but hold it on under the expectation that the gradual improvement of the country will render it daily more valuable, and the residence of the court here induces them to adhere more strongly to this impression: if they dispose of any part of it, they generally subject it to a fine, and the consequences attending such a contract will present a decided obstacle to the agricultural improvement of this country, at all proportioned to its extent or superabundant powers. Individuals who would devote their exertions and property to the culture of the soil, where this mode prevails, must be effectually deterred. The province of St. Paulo, which may be estimated to contain one hundred and twenty thousand square miles, has no land devoluto, or ungranted, although one-thirtieth part of it is not in a state of cultivation. Land of course may be bought without a fine, but not generally. I had some conversation with a Portuguese gentleman, whose intention it was to obtain from his Majesty a grant of land to the extent of two or three square leagues, situated upon the northern bank of the river Parahiba; but he could not have placed more than two slaves upon it, and his avowed object was to retain it under the anticipation of futurity producing him an advantage in the sale of it, by portions or otherwise. The King is very liberal in granting land; and would, no doubt, afford encouragement for the agricultural improvement of the country, and even during my short stay at Rio he supplied some individuals with slaves for the purpose of cultivation; but the parsimonious feeling and apathy which prevails will operate against any speedy change or improvement of the system. In the donation of lands, it would be wise to attach a positive obligation to cultivate, or in a certain period either to revert to the crown or be publicly disposed of to those who are competent, and intend to work them; and further, to grant lands only in quantities proportioned to the means the individual receiving them may possess of bringing them into a state of culture; otherwise it would be infinitely better for the lands to remain with the crown, thereby precluding the practice of retailing them out with a fine.

That small quantities of land, when well cultivated, are, from the exuberance of their productions, adequate to the maintenance, and even enrichment of a family, where industry prevails, is amply demonstrated by the shacara of Bella Fonta, consisting only of eight or ten acres, which is planted with African grass, having a thick stem, and a long and broad lancet leaf, affording grass all the year for daily cutting. When the circuit is made, and the point first commenced at reached again, the grass is a second time in readiness, and so on. The amount of this supply affords food for four horses and two bullocks, besides a surplus conveyed to the city by the latter, producing twenty shillings per week. The fruit trees, which beautify the walks that intersect the grounds, together with a vegetable garden, yield beyond what is fully requisite for domestic consumption, upwards of two hundred pounds a year more. It may be said that this situation is near the capital and possesses advantages which land more distant could not; but that observation cannot apply to the uncultivated tracts stretching along both sides of the bay, enjoying even a greater facility of communication by water.

There does not appear to be any great spirit of emigration from other states of Europe to the Brazil, for the purposes of agriculture; the principal hitherto are French, and I conversed with some of that nation recently arrived at Rio, with the view of forming coffee-plantations, but their expectations appeared to be much moderated, from the system they found existing. To go far into the interior, a man must be expected to sacrifice all idea of society, and to reside amongst a class of people who are strangers to the agreeable intercourses of civilized life, to which he may have been accustomed. The French are understood however to assimilate themselves to the habits and usages of the country with more facility than any other European emigrants. The remains of an unfortunate colony of Swiss emigrants arrived at Rio in the month of October, 1819, having sailed from Hamburgh in ships badly provided for their reception; nearly eighty died during the voyage, including their medical attendant. The King, previously to their departure from Europe, had given them promises of land and encouragement; and those who escaped the fever amounting to about two hundred persons of both sexes, were to proceed, soon after I left Rio, to Canto Gallo, a very fine district, where they would receive an ample donation of land to settle upon; and it is possible that, if the good intentions of the King are not frustrated by intrigue, they may form a valuable and flourishing colony. Their known habits of industry and morality would warrant the most favourable expectations from them. The Brazilians were condemning this measure very much, and intimated that the government might find plenty of their own nation to bestow those lands upon; but the wise policy of the King, in manifesting this encouragement towards these worthy Swiss emigrants, will be demonstrated in the example of industry which they will furnish by their own personal exertions for the improvement of their property. The Portuguese do not labour in the field, but every thing is done by slaves; and, if they were capable of investigating the state of their country, the inference would be, that they ought to hail the arrival of any class of individuals who would promote its improvement, rather than feel a mistaken jealousy of them. Surely there is abundant scope for all their exertions in a region containing nearly two millions of square miles, the sixtieth part of which is not in a proper state of cultivation. The mountains would universally produce coffee-trees; a Mr. Mawke and a Mr. Le Sange have planted them with success in the vicinity of the Tejuca, the cascades of which place present one of the most interesting objects near Rio.

I accompanied a party from Bella Fonta to visit them. We passed the Pedra Mountain and proceeded through that part of the valley called Grande et pequena Andrahi; the road was good, adorned with neat white houses, and fences of lime bushes, orange trees, and flowering shrubs. The ascent leading between higher mountains was till lately very difficult of access, and the immense stones which rendered it so are distributed on both sides of the way. From its different winding points we were gratified with varied and pleasing views of the valley, the city, and the bay, the waters of which presented a silvery hue, caused by the rays of the sun just diffused above the horizon; the tout ensemble producing an animated and pictorial effect, in which the Pedra Mountain, resembling a hay-cock, and detached from all others, formed a singular feature. From the summit of the pass we commanded a view of the sea on the opposite side, and had now to descend by a narrow road of the utmost intricacy, covered with large stones, the horses at every step being liable to fall. It was, however, a most romantic and delightful way; and, although it could not boast of any edifice beyond clay huts, it partook of all the grandeur of the mountain scenery before mentioned, with even more of sublimity in the general and more versatile combination and expression of its objects. A continued charm was produced by a succession of waterfalls, forming a murmuring stream below, and hid in the depth of its descending recesses from the eye by embowering trees, which send forth the music of its feathered inhabitants, variegated in rich and beauteous plumage. Towards the bottom of the descent, stones of a prodigious size were dispersed all around, the rivulet had accumulated into a more considerable body of water, and a lake, situated in the plain below, terminating its course, presented a crystal mirror. We alighted at a farm-house, in the veranda of which the neighbouring population were assembled at mass, and proceeded on foot, by a rude pathway, along the skirts of a wood, at the end of which a narrow opening through the rocks astonished us with the view of those truly fine cascades. It was indeed a profound and perfect seclusion, and the whole may be deemed one of the chefs-d’œuvre of nature, its most fanciful and wondrous operations being here conspicuously displayed. The fine platform upon which the opening enters is nearly one hundred and fifty feet square, and forms the centre of two cascades, the waters passing by a perpendicular rugged precipice of one hundred feet in height, and, flowing in a stream across it, descend by another of almost equal altitude. A fugitive bishop and his followers, wandering over these unfrequented mountains, in the year 1711, when the French had taken possession of the city, accidentally discovered this recluse situation, so well adapted for their concealment. They cut out niches in the rocks for the reception of saints, mutilated portions of which still remained. A large stone table and a seat formed of the rock served as conveniences for our repast, rendered doubly grateful by the noble peculiarity of the surrounding objects. We afterwards crossed the stream, and attempted to explore the precipitous ascent of the Gavea,

“Whose hairy sides,

With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,