A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

Two small portions of the cattle of this province are appropriated, one to the consumption of the country, and the other to the slaughter-house of the metropolis; but the far greatest proportion is manufactured into jirked-beef, which is salted without bones, dried in the sun, and exported to the principal ports in the Brazil; but, from the desultory warfare carried on near the river Plate, it has recently become very scarce, and bacalhao, or salt fish, brought by British ships to the ports of Brazil, has become a substitute at many places.

In 1802, there were yet only amongst the subjects of the faithful crown, five hundred and thirty-nine proprietors of land, judicially marked out amongst the breeders of cattle, denominated fazendeiros, or farmers, and lavradores, or husbandmen, which latter breed only what is necessary for their own service and consumption; they possess generally about two square leagues of land: but those of the first order have eight or ten square leagues, and some even more. The greatest proportion of the cattle are breeding cows. In a plain or field of three leagues are usually bred four or five thousand head, and proportionably more or less, according to the quality of the land, or attention of the breeder. The pasturage is not, however, generally good, the soil being, as before mentioned, of a sandy nature.

For the management of a fazenda of five thousand head of cattle, it is said six men are sufficient, with one hundred horses at least; the whole of which pasture together in troops of twenty, with a tamed mare, from which they do not usually stray. From the sandy nature of the soil, as in many other parts of Brazil, particularly at Pernambuco, no expense is incurred by the owners for shoeing them. In each establishment, or tract of land, there is commonly a small hill, or the most elevated land is selected, as plain and even at the summit as possible, which is known by the name of rodeio, (a certain compass of land,) and is capable of receiving the whole flock, when brought together. For this purpose, the shepherds on horseback distribute themselves round about the cattle, and cry out loudly “Rodeio, rodeio, rodeio;” at whose voices the cattle march at full trot towards the rodeio, in files, divided into droves or bands of fifty to one hundred, according to the numbers that pasture together. This mode of forming them early into troops is indispensable, in order to put on the mark of the dono or proprietor upon such as have it not, and with more facility to select those that are upwards of four years old for the market, or for carne-secco, or jirked beef.

If the stock of cattle exceed the number of heads which the fazenda is capable of sustaining, they of course run short of pasturage, and many spread out into more distant plains, and after a time will no longer obey the rodeio, but fly and disorder the rest of the flock.

In a fazenda of three leagues it is computed that one thousand young cattle, male and female, are branded or marked, annually; consequently the number they send off or kill may be estimated in the same ratio.

The farmers also breed a certain number of domestic cattle. He who possesses four thousand cattle, which are denominated bravo, or wild, keeps commonly one hundred milch cows, which, however, pasture in the same fields or plains with the others. When a cow calves, she always selects a situation adapted to the concealment of her young, where it continues in secrecy for the space of eight days. She visits it at different times in the course of the day, in order to give it suck, lying by it at night. It is difficult to find them during this period; but once discovered the calf is immediately conducted to the cattle fold, where it is kept eight or nine months or more, being daily visited by its dam, which is milked the whole of this time, for the purpose of making butter and cheese, leaving to the prisoner only what it can draw from its mother after she has been milked. The familiarity of the young one with the persons upon the fazenda preserves it in a state of tameness. The males, when sufficiently grown, are used in the cart or plough, and the females pasture in the plains till they become mothers, continuing to supply the farmer with an increasing stock.

Although the domesticated cattle are not bred up with such a satiety of provision as the wild ones, which enjoy the whole of the mother’s milk, and pasture the entire day without working, yet they grow as large and become fatter. This is attributed to the fearful nature of the undomesticated kind, who fly from every animal that appears; whilst the tame ones, although they eat less, live in quiet, always retaining the habit of going to the fold, and approaching people without alarm; they are also less time in the fields, consuming less pasturage, and it is estimated that the aliment which four thousand head of wild cattle exhaust is sufficient to sustain eight thousand of the tame. The meat of the latter is esteemed the most savoury.

The same fazendeiros breed also droves of horses and mules. The latter are the most lucrative, a male one being at least double the value of a horse; and in consequence, its species is more numerous, although very few persons breed more than two hundred annually. The she mules of two years old are either sold or separated from the rest, in order to avoid the destruction which they would cause in the species. A she mule seeing the foal of a mare, immediately begins to caress it as her own, and will not allow the mother to approach to give it milk; the result is, that it perishes with hunger.

The breed of sheep would, if attended to, much exceed that of cattle, in consequence of their generally producing two at a birth; they are not however numerous, few farmers possessing one thousand head, and the major part not any. Nothing here appears so easy and cheap as the multiplication of this animal. For the purpose of shepherding a flock of one thousand, two cur dogs are sufficient, bred up in the following mode. As soon as they are whelped, the lambs of a ewe are killed, the puppies are put to her, and she suckles them until she becomes habituated to treat them as her young, when, upon opening their eyes and seeing no other benefactor, they attach themselves to her, and play with the lambs as if they were of the same species. Nothing is ever given them to eat; they are shut in the fold with the sheep, and on obtaining strength and vigour to attend the flock, they are suffered to go at large, when they accompany it to the field. In a little time, and without more instruction, they are so familiarized with the sheep, that they never separate from them. When it happens that a ewe lambs in the field, and the lamb cannot accompany the mother, in consequence of its not yet having sufficient strength to follow her, one of the dogs watches near, and if he finds that the lamb cannot follow the mother to the flock, he carries it in his mouth, without doing it the least harm. No other animal or unknown person can approach the sheep, of which these dogs are the guardians, without the risk of being attacked. The other domestic dogs and the hordes of the chimarroe dogs are the greatest enemies to the flock; against them and the birds of prey, which pick out the eyes of the lambs, the vigilance of the watch dogs is requisite.

Amongst other species of birds are the Macuco partridge, the parrot, caroe, inhuma, sócó, tayugu, jaluerá, heron, jacu, the araponga mutum, tucano, and the quail. In the lakes are large numbers of wild ducks, and large wild geese, some brown, some white, others with black necks, which when stripped of their feathers, are covered with a fine long down, similar to the Armenian fur, and serving for the same uses. The marine geese, which have a bill like a turkey, with smaller wings and without feathers, for the most part go at the bottom of the sea, and are seen occasionally upon this coast, as well as the sea calf. It is said, that here the emu ostrich lays many eggs in one nest, to which they never return after having finished laying; the male then hatches them, after instinctively breaking two, for the collection of a large quantity of flies; thus the young find sustenance till they are able to accompany their protector, when he remains their guide for several days. The people do not generally follow hunting or shooting, so that game is very abundant; neither are they partial to fishing.