I walked to-day to the market-place, where there is but little;—beef scarce and dear, no mutton, a little poultry, and a few pigs, disgusting, because they feed in the streets where every thing is thrown, and where they and the dogs are the only scavengers. The blockade is so strict, that even the vegetables from the gentlemen's private gardens, two miles from the out-posts, are detained. No milk is to be had, bread of American flour is at least twice as dear as in England, and the cakes of mandioc baked with cocoa nut juice, too dear for the common people to afford a sufficiency even of them. Fire-wood is extravagantly high, charcoal scarce. The negroes keep the markets: a few on their own account, more on that of their masters. The dress of the free negroes is like that of the creole Portuguese; a linen jacket and trowsers, or on days of ceremony one of cloth, and a straw hat, furnish forth either a black or a white gentleman. The women, in-doors, wear a kind of frock which leaves the bosom much exposed. When they walk out they wear either a cloak or mantle; this cloak is often of the gayest colours; shoes also, which are the mark of freedom, are to be seen of every hue, but black. Gold chains for the neck and arms, and gold ear-rings, with a flower in the hair, complete a Pernambucan woman's dress. The new negroes, men and women, have nothing but a cloth round their loins. When they are bought, it is usual to give the women a shift and petticoat, and the men at least trowsers, but this is very often omitted.
Yesterday the motley head-dresses of the Portuguese inhabitants were seen to great advantage, in a sally through the streets, made by a kind of supplementary militia to enforce the closing of all shop-doors, and the shutting up of all slaves, on an alarm that the enemy was attacking the town to the southward. The officer leading the party was indeed dressed en militaire, with a drawn sword in one hand, and a pistol in the other. Then followed a company that Falstaff would hardly have enlisted, armed in a suitable manner, with such caps and hats as became the variety of trades to which the wearers belonged, the rear being brought up by a most singular figure, with a small drum-shaped black cap on the very top of a stiff pale head, a long oil-skin cloak, and in his left hand a huge Toledo ready drawn, which he carried upright. The militia are better dressed, and are now employed in regular turn of duty with the royal troops, who are going over to the patriots daily.
Calling at the palace this forenoon, we learned that a hundred Indians are expected in the town, by way of assistance to the garrison. They wear their aboriginal dress, and are armed with slings, bows, and arrows. We are told their ideas of government consist in believing that implicit obedience is due both to king and priests. Brandy is the bribe for which they will do any thing; a dram of that liquor and a handful of mandioc flour being all the food they require when they come down to the port.
This evening, as there are no horses to be hired here, we borrowed some from our English and French friends, and rode to Olinda by the long sandy isthmus, which connects it with Recife. This is the isthmus fortified with a palisade, by Sir John Lancaster, during his stay at Recife, which he plundered.[48] The beach is defended by two castles, sufficiently strong when their situation is considered; on one side a furious surf breaking at their base, on the other a deep estuary and flat ground beyond, so that they cannot be commanded. The sand is partially covered by shrubs; one is very splendid with thick leaves and purple bell-shaped flowers; many are like those of the eastern world; many are quite new to me. I was surprised at the extreme beauty of Olinda, or rather of its remains, for it is now in a melancholy state of ruin. All the richer inhabitants have long settled in the lower town. The revenues of the bishopric being now claimed by the crown, and the monasteries suppressed for the most part, even the factitious splendour caused by the ecclesiastical courts and inhabitants is no more. The very college where the youths received some sort of education, however imperfect, is nearly ruined[49], and there is scarcely a house of any size standing.
Olinda is placed on a few small hills, whose sides are in some directions broken down, so as to present the most abrupt and picturesque rock-scenery. These are embosomed in dark woods that seem coeval with the land itself: tufts of slender palms, here and there the broad head of an ancient mango, or the gigantic arms of the wide spreading silk-cotton tree, rise from out the rest in the near ground, and break the line of forest: amidst these, the convents, the cathedral, the bishop's palace, and the churches of noble, though not elegant architecture, are placed in stations which a Claude or a Poussin might have chosen for them; some stand on the steep sides of rocks, some on lawns that slope gently to the sea-shore: their colour is grey or pale yellow, with reddish tiles, except here and there where a dome is adorned with porcelain tiles of white and blue. Just as we reached the highest point of the town, looking across the woody bason round which the hills are grouped, the smoke from one of the out-posts caught our sight. The soldiers were standing or lying around, and their arms piled by them: they were just shadowed by tall trees behind, between whose trunks the scattered rays of the setting sun shed such a partial light as Salvator Rosa himself would not have disdained. These same soldiers, however, circumscribed our ride: we had intended to return by the inland road, but were not allowed to pass into it, as part, at least, lies without the posts, therefore we were obliged to return by the way we came.
At the spot where the present guard is placed, and where indeed a strong guard is peculiarly necessary, the river Bibiriba falls into the æstuary, which was formerly the port of Olinda. A dam is built across with flood-gates which are occasionally opened; and on the dam there is a very pretty open arcade, where the neighbouring inhabitants were accustomed in peaceable times to go in the evening, and eat, drink, and dance. It is from this dam that all the good water used in Recife is daily conveyed in water-canoes, which come under the dam called the Varadouro, and are filled from twenty-three pipes, led so as to fill the canoes at once, without farther trouble. We saw seven-and-twenty of these little boats laden, paddle down the creek with the tide towards the town. A single oar used rather as rudder than paddle guides the tank to the middle of the stream, where it floats to its destination.
The sun was low, long before we reached even the first of the two castles on our way back to the fort. The dogs had already begun their work of abomination. I saw one drag the arm of a negro from beneath the few inches of sand, which his master had caused to be thrown over his remains. It is on this beach that the measure of the insults dealt to the poor negroes is filled. When the negro dies, his fellow-slaves lay him on a plank, carry him to the beach, where beneath high-water mark they hoe a little sand over him; but to the new negro even this mark of humanity is denied. He is tied to a pole, carried out in the evening and dropped upon the beach, where it is just possible the surf may bear him away. These things sent us home sad and spiritless, notwithstanding the agreeable scenes we had been riding among.
29th. The feast of St. Michael's has drawn out the Portuguese gentlewomen, of whom we had not yet seen one walking in the streets. The favourite dress seems to be black, with white shoes and white or coloured ribbons and flowers in the hair, with a mantle of lace or gauze, either black or white. We have seen a few priests too for the first time. I think the edict desiring them to keep within their convent walls, is in consequence of their being among the fomentors of the spirit of independence. The appropriation of so much of the church revenue by the court of Lisbon is of course unpopular among the clergy of the country; and it is not difficult for them to represent, what indeed is truth, to the people, that the drawing of so much treasure from the country to support Lisbon, which can neither govern nor protect them now, is a rational ground of complaint. It is said, that the morals of the clergy here are most depraved. This is probably true. Men cut off by vows like those of the Roman clergy, from the active charities of social life, have only the resources of science and literature against their passions and vices. But here the very names of literature and science are almost unknown. The college and library of Olinda are in decay. There is not one bookseller in Pernambuco, and the population of its different parishes amounts to 70,000 souls! A tolerably well written newspaper, of which I have not been able to procure the first number, was set up in March, under the title of "Aurora Pernambucana," with the following motto from Camoens:
Depois da procellosa tempestade,
Nocturna sombra e sibilante vento,
Tras a manha serena e claridade,
Esperança de porto e salvamiente:
alluding to the arrival of the news of the revolution in Portugal, on the 26th of that month, and the swearing of the governor, magistrates, &c. to adhere to the constitution as established by the Cortes. I am sorry to say that this only paper has been discontinued for the two last months, the editor having, as it seems, become a secretary of government, and having no longer time to superintend the press.[50]