This man is not without means, and though he has a family residence in the villa, this unoccupied house has been set apart for our accommodation, that we might not be disturbed by the children, who are represented as dirty little brats.
Tuesday, December 5, 1865.
I had resolved and re-resolved as I turned from side to side upon my hard support for the night, that upon the first indications of light I would assume the erect position, and my companion in affliction, Dr. Shaw, complained aloud most bitterly, insisting that he could not remain in this position until daylight. Our neighbors, Major Meriwether and Mr. Jackson, who bunked together, murmured in like manner audibly of their hard lot. After all of us had risen and dressed, a servant came to inform us that in the first place coffee would be prepared for us, and within two or three hours breakfast might be expected.
Under these circumstances I proposed a visit to the convent which stands out in bold relief upon an elevated hill. As the morning was cloudy our view was circumscribed, but sufficient to show that the plain of low land upon which Conceicão stands extends to a considerable distance, and is limited by the serra on all sides excepting next to the ocean.
The old building gives indications of decay in many parts, while in others repairs are progressing to fit it for the approaching festa on the 8th instant. This festival is superintended by Colonel Albuquerque, of Santos, who has been elected as the Festeiro, and will have to expend over a thousand dollars in the preparations for this huge folly.
We next called upon the Roman Catholic priest of this place, with a letter of introduction from the vicar at Santos. He was found in an uninviting apartment, and received us with that dry courtesy which makes one feel that it is better to go away as soon as civility will permit.
Having disposed of a very substantial breakfast, we waited until 12 o’clock for the tide to assist us in ascending the Rio Conceicão, and set out with Senor Ferreira in a canoe, made after the style of the Mississippi dug-out. With a supply of farina and boiled jerked-beef to meet our wants for subsistence, and some matting to keep us from contact with ground at night, as well as to set upon in the canoe, we were propelled by three able-bodied mulattoes, who used the paddles as if they were trained to this service upon the water.
Upon embarking, we observed that the mouth of the river was very shallow, but we were told by Senor Ferreira that at high tide a small schooner could enter, and that he had a vessel which came in to load and unload. There is a narrow neck of land separating the river from the ocean, through which an artificial channel might be opened without a great deal of labor, giving a much better entrance than across the present rocky bar of the outlet to the sea. Should the resources of the country warrant this proceeding, it looks as if it would be entirely practicable. After passing the bar the river is deep, and well adapted to navigation for eight or ten miles, up to the mouth of the Rio Prata, and thence the last-named is said to be navigable for twelve miles.
The main channel of the Rio Conceicão is not fitted for navigation above the mouth of this river, and but for the increase of water by the recent rains, our canoe could not have ascended more than a few miles beyond this point. Below, however, this river presents a fine body of water, and is for the most part from ten to fifteen feet deep.
After ascending about twelve miles it began to rain, and going some three miles further we stopped for the night at a rude shanty occupied by a woman and five children. One son and one daughter were nearly grown, but the whole presented a scene of slovenliness and abject misery which made us realize that our lot was cast in even a worse place than the night previous. But this time there was no alternative, and we took it in the true spirit of wayfarers and explorers.