[34] This island, situated 300 miles from Pernambuco, which supplies it with provisions, is at present used by the Brazilian Government as a penal settlement. It is extremely beautiful and fertile, but very little cultivated, and admirably suited for a coal depôt, and a place for ships obtaining stores, particularly when epidemics are prevalent in Rio de Janeiro.
On the 23rd July the weather cleared up; we approached the coast and came in sight of Cape St. Augustin, the first land descried since leaving Madeira. On the 1st of August a rock was announced ahead; as nothing of the kind was indicated in the charts, we were curious to know what this could be. A boat was manned, and we were soon made aware, by our olfactory organs, of the real nature of the object, which turned out to be the carcase of a dead whale in a state of putrefaction, over which a number of birds were hovering, whilst a troop of sharks feasted on the putrid mass, boring themselves into the body. This incident shows how many rocks marked in charts as doubtful may owe their origin to similar circumstances; for, had we not been convinced of the real nature of the object, we should have believed this carcase to be a rock, and thus augmented the number of "doubtfuls" and interrogations in the charts of the Atlantic.
On the 3rd August we made Cape Frio, and after a rough and stormy night reached at last, on the morning of the 5th, the numerous small islands situated in front of the harbour of Rio. The Sugar Loaf, that remarkable black basaltic rock at its entrance, stood grandly forth, as we ran in. Unfortunately the gloomy state of the atmosphere prevented the enjoyment of the exquisite beauty of this so often described charming bay.
Here we found an English, a French, and an American frigate, as also a dirty old Brazilian sloop of war. Besides these ships of war, a Spanish frigate and galliot lay in the mercantile dock for repair; they had shortly before their arrival lost their masts in a pampero,[35] which, however, had borne all the characteristic marks of a cyclone.[36] The occurrence of tornadoes in the South Atlantic has been so often and so decidedly denied, that the mariner does not readily believe the violent storms of those latitudes to be hurricanes. This Spanish frigate had accordingly sailed heedlessly into the storm, and, with only such precautions taken as referred to mast and sail, had without further concern proceeded on her course. She thus had got into the very heart of the cyclone, and escaped entire destruction only by a fortunate chance. Now, had her commander considered this storm to have been a real hurricane he would have undoubtedly steered a different course, and probably in that case would have reached the harbour in safety. But the notion of the non-existence of hurricanes in these waters is so pertinaciously maintained that it was no wonder the careful and able Spanish commander had also been misled. Our own opinion is, that any storm in the ocean may assume a revolving motion, and it is therefore highly advisable always to bear in mind the well-founded theory of cyclones, in order to act upon it, as circumstances may require. Were this always done, how many valuable lives and property might be saved from destruction!
[35] A squall of wind of the South American Pampas.
[36] The following succinct statement of the characteristics and general laws of cyclones will be found useful by way of reference:—
1. It has been fully ascertained that in both hemispheres the air in the cyclone rotates in a direction contrary to that of the sun. Thus, in the N. hemisphere, the course of the sun being from E. to S., W., and N., the course of the hurricane is from N. by W., S., and E.; and in the S. hemisphere, the sun's course being from E. by N., W., and S., the hurricane runs from N. by E., S., and W.
2. They originate in the space between the equator and the tropics, near the equatorial limit of the trade winds.
3. There is no instance on record of a hurricane having been encountered on the equator, nor of any one having crossed the Line, although two have been known to be raging at the same time in the same meridian, but on opposite sides of the equator, and only 10° to 12° apart!
4. Their movement, which is always oblique from the equator to the poles, is usually from E. to W. at first, and towards the end W. to E., which is but a development of the gyratory motion that forms their most essential characteristic.