It is awful and grand every where: fearful in the plain, sublime among the mountains; but here, on the ocean, with nothing to intercept its bolt, the horrible is superadded, and he must be more or less than man that does not at least take thought during its continuance.
Friday, September 21st. At length we are in sight of the coast of Brazil, which here is low and green, about two degrees to the northward of the point first discovered by Vincente Pinzon, in 1500.[42] The weather is very squally, and there is a heavy swell: we are anchored about eight miles from Olinda, the capital of Pernambuco, in fifteen fathoms water, but though we have fired more than one gun for a pilot, none seems to be coming off.
Pernambuco, September 22. 1821.—At nine o'clock the commodore of this place, whose office is a combination of port-admiral and commissioner, came on board with the harbour-master, and the ship was guided by the latter to the anchorage, which is about three miles from the town, in eight fathoms water. The roadstead is quite open, and we find here a very heavy swell. It is not wonderful that our guns were neither answered nor noticed last night. Mr. Dance, having been sent on shore with official letters to the governor and the acting English consul, found the place in a state of siege, and brought back with him Colonel Patronhe, the governor's aide-de-camp, who gave us the following account of the present state of Pernambuco:
Besides the disposition to revolution, which we were aware had long existed in every part of Brazil, there was, also, a jealousy between the Portuguese and Brazilians, which recent events had increased in no small degree. On the 29th of August, about 600 men of the militia and other native forces had taken possession of the Villa of Goyana, one of the principal places in this captaincy, and had forcibly entered the town-house, where they had declared the government of Luiz do Rego to be at an end. They proceeded to elect a temporary provisional government for Goyana, to act until the capital of the province should be in a condition to establish a constitutional junta; and in order to accelerate that event, they had collected forces of every kind, and among them several companies of the Caçadores who had deserted from Luiz do Rego; with these troops, such as they are, they had marched towards Pernambuco, and last night they had attacked the two main points of Olinda, to the north, in four different places, and Affogados to the south. They were, however, repulsed by the royal troops, under the governor, with the loss of fourteen killed and thirty-five prisoners, while the royalists had two killed, and seven wounded. This morning the alarm of the town's people was increased by finding several armed men concealed in the belfreys of the churches, whither also they had conveyed several stands of arms. Luiz do Rego is a soldier, and attached to the royal cause. He served long with the English army in Portugal and Spain, and, if I mistake not, distinguished himself at the siege of St. Sebastian's. He is rather a severe man, and, especially among the soldiers, more feared than loved.—Great part of the regiment of Caçadores has left him to join the patriots, and formed the most efficient corps in the attack last night. The towns-people have been formed into a militia, tolerably armed and trained. The town is pretty well supplied with mandioc flour, jerked beef, and salt fish; but the besiegers prevent all fresh provisions from coming in. All shops are shut, and all food scarce and dear. Most people who have property of value, in plate or jewels, have packed it up, and lodged it in the houses of the English merchants. Many persons with their wives and families have left their homes in the out-skirts of the town, and have taken refuge with the English. The latter, who, for the most part, sleep, at least, in country houses in the neighbourhood, called sitios, have left them, and remain altogether at their counting-houses in the port: every thing, in short, is alarm and uncertainty.
23d.—The night passed quietly, and so indeed did the day. Many messages have passed between us and the land, but I could not go on shore: we have excellent oranges, and tolerable vegetables from the town, and have been quite enough amused in observing the curious little boats, canoes, catamarans and jangadas, that have been sailing, and paddling, and rowing round the ship. The jangada resembles nothing I have ever seen before; six or eight logs are made fast together by two transverse beams; at one end there is a raised seat, on which a man places himself to steer, for they are furnished with a sort of rudder; sometimes the seat is large enough to admit of two sitters, another bench at the foot of a mast, immense for the size of the raft, holds clothes and provisions, or an upright pole is fixed in one of the logs, to which these things are suspended, and a large triangular sail of cotton cloth completes the jangada, in which the hardy Brazilian sailor ventures to sea, the waves constantly washing over it, and carries cargoes of cotton or other goods, or, in case of necessity, letters and despatches, hundreds of miles in safety.
About three o'clock a large canoe with two patriot officers came along side, to ascertain if we were really English; if we had come, as was reported, to assist the royalists, or if we would assist them: so apt are men, under the influence of strong feeling themselves, to doubt of perfect indifference in others, that I question much whether they believed in the strict neutrality we profess. They left us, however, without betraying any particular anxiety, and made a very circuitous passage home, in order to avoid the Recife cruizer, which was looking out for straggling boats or vessels of any description belonging to the patriots.
Monday the 24th.—Col. Patronhe arrived early this morning, to request that the English packet might put into Lisbon with the Government despatches. We felt glad that the strict rules of service prevented the captain from giving any such order to the master of the packet. It would be at once a breach of that neutrality we profess to observe, and, in my opinion, an aiding of the worst cause. The colonel, adverting to the town being in a state of siege, and the uncertainty of the next attack as to time and place, advised me strongly to stay altogether on board; but I had never seen a town in a state of siege, and therefore resolved to go ashore. Accordingly, Mr. Dance, being the only officer on board who speaks either Portuguese or French, was commissioned to accompany me; and I took two midshipmen, Grey and Langford, also to call on Madame do Rego.
The name of Pernambuco, which is that of the captainship, is now generally applied to the capital, which consists of two parts; 1st, the city of Olinda, which was founded by the Portuguese, under Duarte Coelho Pedreiro, about 1530 or 1540, and, as its name implies, on a beautiful spot, where moderate, but abrupt hills, a fine river, and thick wood, combine to charm the eye; but the approach to it by sea must always have been difficult, if not dangerous: and, 2nd, the town of Recife de Pernambuco, or the Reef of Pernambuco, built by the Dutch, under Maurice of Nassau, and by them called Maurice Town. It is a singular spot, well fitted for trade; it is situated upon several sand banks, divided by salt water creeks and the mouth of two fresh water rivers, connected by three bridges, and divided into as many parts; Recife, properly so called, where are the castles of defence, and the dock-yard, and the traders; Sant Antonio, where are the government house, the two principal churches, one for the white and one for the black population; and Boa Vista, where the richer merchants, or more idle inhabitants, live among their gardens, and where convents, churches, and the bishop's palace, give an air of importance to the very neat town around them.