And above all these the mountains rose in the distance, and lower hills more near, between which, long valleys stretched themselves till the eye could follow them no farther; and the foregrounds were filled up with gigantic aloes, streams, and pools, and groups of passing cattle and their picturesquely clad conductors. Near Campo Grande, the scenery is diversified by several little green plains, with only an insulated tree here and there, decorated with air plants in bloom, and scarlet creepers. Beyond this lies one of the most beautiful spots I ever saw, namely, Viaga; where the rocks, trees, plains, and buildings, seem all placed on purpose to be admired. Having loitered a little to admire it, we rode on to the New Freguezia of Sant Antonio, where we stopped at a very neat venda to rest and feed our horses. The church is on a little hill, overlooking a very pretty country and a neat village, but the greater part of the parish is very distant. While the horses were eating their maize, we procured for ourselves some rusk, cheese from the province of Minas exactly like Scotch kebbuck, and port wine from the cask of excellent quality. These provisions are always to be had, with beans, bacon, and dried beef. But the hospitality of a Brazilian inn does not extend to cooking food for travellers, who generally carry the utensils for that purpose with them, and who in some shed attached to the inn cook for themselves, and generally sleep in the same shed. At Sant Antonio there are decent sleeping-rooms provided with benches and mats, to which the guests add what bedding they please; but travellers commonly wrap themselves in their cloaks, and so rest. As soon as our horses were ready, we rode on to Mata Paciencia, the engenho of Dona Mariana, the eldest daughter of the Baroness de Campos, and to whom we had a letter of introduction. Here we met with a most polite reception from a handsome ladylike woman, whom we found attending to her engenho, which is indeed an interesting one. We were received at first by the chaplain, a polite and well-informed person; and with him was the chaplain of Santa Cruz, who having been formerly a professor in the college at Rio, is commonly known by the name of the Padre Mestre.
Dona Mariana led us into the engenho, where we had seats placed near the rollers, which are worked by an eight-horse power steam-engine, one of the first, if not the very first, erected in Brazil. There are here 200 slaves, and as many oxen, in constant employ. The steam-engine, besides the rollers in the sugar-house, moves several saws; so that she has the advantage of having her timber prepared almost without expense. While we were sitting by the machine, Dona Mariana desired the women, who were supplying the canes, to sing, and they began at first with some of their own wild African airs, with words adopted at the moment to suit the occasion. She then told them to sing their hymns to the Virgin; when, regularly in tune and time, and with some sweet voices, the evening and other hymns were sung; and we accompanied Dona Mariana into the house, where we found that while we had been occupied in looking at the machinery, the boilers, and the distillery, dinner had been prepared for us, though it was long after the family hour. On our departure, we were hospitably pressed to return on our way back to Rio, which we, "nothing loath," promised to do.
It was quite dark long before we reached Santa Cruz, and exceedingly cold: when there, we easily found the house of the gentleman to whom we had a letter of introduction, the Capitaŏ de Fragata Joam da Cruz de Reis, who is the superintendant of the palace and estate. The Visconde do Rio Seco had kindly furnished us with this letter, and mentioned that the object of the journey was mere curiosity, so that the Capitaŏ told us that he would next day do all he could to satisfy us. Soon after our arrival, several persons dropped in to converse half an hour; among the rest, a surgeon, who comes from Rio once a year to vaccinate the children born in the twelve-months on the estate. The Padre Mestre and another friar also came in; and I soon found that Santa Cruz has its politics and gossip as well as the city, all the difference being in a little more or less refinement. Nothing can exceed the good-humoured hospitality of our host and hostess, who soon made us feel quite at home; and by the time tea was over, we were quite initiated into all the ways of the house and the village.
Saturday, 23d.—The morning was excessively cold but clear, and the view of the extensive plains of Santa Cruz, with the herds of cattle upon it, most magnificent. The pasture, which extends many leagues on each side of the little hill on which the palace and village are situated, is here and there varied by clumps of natural wood; the horizon extends to the sea in one direction, and every where else the view is bounded by mountains or woody hills. The palace itself occupies the site of the old Jesuits' college. Three sides are modern: the fourth contains the handsome chapel of the very reverend fathers, and a few tolerable apartments. The new part was built for King John VI., but the works were stopped on his departure. The apartments are handsome, and comfortably furnished. In this climate hangings, whether of paper or silk, are liable to speedy decay from damp and insects. The walls are therefore washed with a rich creamy white clay, called Taboa Tinga[120], and cornices and borders painted on them in distemper. Some of these are exceedingly beautiful in design, and generally very well executed, the arabesques of the friezes being composed of the fruits, flowers, birds, and insects of the country. One of the rooms represents a pavilion; and between the open pilasters, the scenery round Santa Cruz is painted, not well indeed, but the room is pleasant and cheerful. The artists employed were chiefly mulattoes and creole negroes.
After breakfast, we rode along the causeway that crosses the plain of Santa Cruz, to the Indian aldea of San Francisco Xavier de Itaguahy, commonly called Taguahy, formed by the Jesuits not very long before their expulsion. The situation of the aldea and church is extremely fine; on the summit of a hill overlooking a rich plain, watered by a navigable river, and surrounded by mountains. We entered several of the huts of the Indians, whom I had understood to be of the Guaranee nation. I enquired of one of the women, in whose hut I sat down, if she knew whence her tribe came: she said no; she had been brought, when a mere child, from a great distance to Taguahy, by the fathers of the company; that her husband had died when she was young; that she and her daughters had always lived there; but her sons and grandsons, after the fathers of the company went, had returned to their fathers, by which she meant that they had resumed their savage life. This is not surprising. The Indians here must work for others, and become servants; a state they hardly distinguish from slavery. Besides, slaves are plentiful; and as the negro is hardier than the Indian, his labour is more profitable; therefore, a willing Indian does not always find a master. The produce of his little garden, or his fishing, is rarely sufficient for his family; and without the protection of the priest, whose chief favour was procuring constant occupation, the half-reclaimed savage droops, and flies again to the liberty of his forest, to his unrestrained hunting and fishing. The Chilian Indians rarely or never return to their forests when their villages are once formed; but that depends on circumstances, which have nothing in common with the state of Brazil. Many of the Indian women have married the creole Portuguese; intermarriages between creole women and Indian men are more rare. The children of such couples are prettier, and appear to me to be more intelligent, than the pure race of either. The Indian huts at Taguahy are very poor; barely sufficient in walls and roof to keep out the weather, and furnished with little besides hammocks and cooking utensils; yet we were every where asked to go in and sit down: all the floors were cleanly swept, and a log of wood or a rude stool was generally to be found for a seat for the stranger, the people themselves squatting on the ground.
At the foot of the hill of Taguahy there is a very fine ingenho, sold by King Joam VI. to one de Barros; the rollers are worked by a horizontal water-wheel about twenty-two feet in diameter, turned by the little stream Taguahy. The quantity of sugar made in a given time is something more than that produced by the steam-engine at Mata Paciencia, the number of slaves employed being the same.
After we had admired the neatness of the engenho and the beauty of the situation sufficiently, we left Taguahy to return to Santa Cruz, and re-crossed the river Guandu, where there is a guard-house by the bridge, where passes from the police are required from ordinary travellers; but as we had a servant from Santa Cruz with us, we were not questioned. The Guandu rises in the mountain of Marapicu, in the barony of Itanhae; and having received the Tingui, it passes to the engenho of Palmares, occupied by the Visconde de Merendal; where there is a wharf where the produce of the neighbouring estates is embarked, and conveyed to Sepetiva, a little port in the bay of Angra dos Reyes, where it is shipped for Rio, the passage thither being generally of twenty-four hours.
In 1810 there was an intention of uniting the Guandu with the Itaipu by a short canal; by which means the produce, not only of this district, but of the Ilha Grande, would have been conveyed directly to Rio, without the risk of the navigation outside of the harbour: I know not why the project was abandoned.
Every time I pass through a grove in Brazil, I see new flowers and plants, and a richness of vegetation that seems inexhaustible. To-day I saw passion-flowers of colours I never observed before; green, pink, scarlet, and blue: wild pine apples, of beautiful crimson and purple: wild tea, even more beautiful than the elegant Chinese shrub: marsh-palms, and innumerable aquatic plants, new to me: and in every little pool, wild-ducks, water-hens, and varieties of storks, were wading about in graceful pride. At every step I am inclined to exclaim with the minstrel—
"Oh nature, how in every charm supreme!
Whose votaries feast on raptures ever new:
Oh, for the voice and fire of seraphim
To paint thy glories with devotion due!"