The dreary, uncomfortable feeling left by the city, gives way to most enjoyable impressions so soon as one emerges from the suburbs of Rio, and seeks compensation for the absence of the appliances of European civilization in the eternal grace and majesty of Nature. Walks may be taken in every direction, each opening up a fresh point of view, while, if the visitor take horse or mule, he may in the course of an hour or two transport himself into the very midst of the most extraordinary features of tropical vegetation.
Among the most charming of these is a ride to the rocky peak called Corcovado, 2300 feet high, the road to which runs through magnificent shady forests. On the highest pinnacle of this rocky cone, which rises rather abruptly on the side of the valleys of Clementi and Broca, a parapet has been erected within these few years, so that the traveller can gaze over the delightful panorama below with as much, or even more, comfort and security, than from the Righi or the great Winterberg in the Saxon Switzerland. In the south and south-east rise the two stern-looking mountains, Gavia and Dos Irmaos, both of considerable height, and encircled by the mirror-like lagoon, Rodrigo das Freitas, near which stands out, clothed in the most luxuriant verdure, a part of the botanical garden; thereafter follows the beautiful valley of Clementi and Broca, with the splendid Lunatic Asylum and the fort of Praya Vermelha; beyond which is the smiling cove of Botafogo, and the singular Sugar Loaf, which forms such a characteristic feature of the entrance of Rio harbour; close beside the latter is the fort of San Juan; and lastly, facing the entrance of the bay, that of Santa Cruz, the strongest in the empire. At our feet lay stretched out the city itself, with the beautiful valleys of Larangeiras, Engenho Velho, and Catumbý Grande. On the other side of the bay, just opposite Rio, is Praya Grande, the capital of the province, and in the background the lofty, spectre-like mountain-chain of the Organos—so called from the rocky peaks projecting like so many organ-pipes. What a wondrous prospect! It is scarcely possible to have, from a single point of view, a grander or more varied natural picture. We lingered here more than an hour, and tore ourselves away with reluctance from all those glories which Nature has shed with so profuse a hand over this enchanting landscape.
One of our companions was the veteran Brazilian naturalist, the venerable Dom Antonio Ildefonso Gomez, who passed several years in Europe when a young man, and had, together with Humboldt, once attended the lectures of Cuvier at Paris. M. Auguste de St. Hilaire, during his visit to Rio, spent several months at Dom Ildefonso's hospitable abode. Although now a septuagenarian, the old physician is uncommonly hale in person, full of his pristine enthusiasm, indefatigable in the pursuit of knowledge, and able to pass an entire day on the back of his mule, so that he can ride to the most distant consultations without betraying any symptoms of exhaustion. He had brought with him a number of large oranges, some cheese and bread, and a bottle of excellent port wine, so that there was no want of wherewithal to recruit our strength; and there, on the summit of the Corcovado, our hearts swelling with rapture as the eye ranged over the marvellous landscape that lay unrolled at our feet, we drank to the prosperity of Brazil. Dom Ildefonso, a warm friend to all foreigners, remarked that within forty years Brazil will probably be more German than Brazilian or Portuguese, and expressed a hope it might be so, as only by that means, so far as his observation went, could his beloved native land hope for a prosperous future.
We returned through most charming forest scenery by way of Larangeiras and Andarahý. Throughout the entire distance we rode amidst the most exquisite specimens of tropical vegetation, palms, ebony trees, bignonias, plantains, mangoes, papayas, and bread-fruit trees, mingling with which we could discern the various trees and shrubs of the Northern Hemisphere, and occasionally strange plants from China, Japan, and Australia, which had been planted here by the enterprising hand of foreign settlers.
Not less charming is the excursion to the Falls of the Tejuca, to which a broad road leads through blooming flower-gardens, and past delicious country seats, extending far into the mountains, and surrounded and overshadowed by a wall as it were of verdure, consisting of the flowers of Bignonia bella, intermingling with the shining leaves of the gigantic Bougainvillea. The coral tree (Erythrina coralliflora), the indigenous magnolia, the fan-shaped urania, numerous species of palms, and lofty, carefully-tended screw-pines, plantains with gigantic fruits, bread-fruit trees, eugenias, casuarinas, and melon trees—such are the blooming odoriferous attractions that here adorn garden and field. Ever threading his way among such charming plantations, the traveller finally reaches the path which, hemmed in between two mountain ridges of moderate height, leads direct to the Tejuca mountains, while to the right branch off numerous narrow paths conducting to the various adjoining eminences, from which a view can be obtained of the small cascade. The tropical richness and profusion of vegetation, has here crowded together upon a few square feet of soil hundreds of plants of all kinds. They strike into the soil, or struggle upwards to the light, or give out roots from the stems or branches, and all twine and tangle with each other to such an extent that often in these tufts and thickets one sees the top of a fern, without being able to distinguish any part of its stem, or a passion-flower without any visible stalk or leaves, all suspended in mid-air, like so many elegant festoons.
A short distance from this singular, thoroughly tropical landscape, is the second, known as the Great Cascade, which, however, owes its special attractions rather to the character of the surrounding vegetation than to the volume of water. The trees here grow on a sort of amphitheatre of rocks, all of colossal size, and the most widely different forms, no two of the same species adjoining each other, their stems and branches adorned with the most beautiful parasites and the blood-red leaves of innumerable creepers, which in their lavish luxuriance now stretch like garlands from tree to tree, now hang perpendicularly down from the very highest branch of the tree like a network of green lace, till they sweep along the ground.
The water welling out from the granite rock, rushes into the abyss below after traversing a rocky declivity, somewhat resembling a sloping terrace of about twenty fathoms wide. Its track is indicated by the irregularly-shaped blocks piled upon each other, some of which at a little distance below, their huge wide ridges enclosed by retaining walls, serve as spots in which to dry in the sun the ripe berries of the coffee plant, which in many parts hereabout forms an almost impervious forest.
As we prosecute our wanderings further, we finally emerge upon the green hills of the vicinity, and obtain a charming glimpse of the ocean; we have now arrived in front of the gigantic outline of the Gavia, and directly facing us lies the salt-marsh, known as Tejuca-Lake, in the midst of which rises an island, thickly overgrown with mango-trees, standing on their distorted hundredfold roots; melancholy-looking examples of the inactivity and absence of all attention of the Brazilian authorities, who permit such a hot-bed of poisonous miasma to remain in the immediate vicinity of the city, and leave these plants unchecked to carry on their pestiferous vital processes!
Returning from such a delightful excursion to Rio de Janeiro, the stranger feels doubly uncomfortable and lonely in the dreary and sombre city. The Brazilians are in general neither very social nor hospitable, and only, after many years' acquaintance, is a familiar intercourse formed with strangers.
In this respect they bear a strong resemblance to the Spanish-Americans, whom they also greatly resemble in many of their habits of life. Foreigners settled in Rio spend their evenings generally at their country seats, some distance from the town, so that the occasional visitor is deprived of the social intercourse that might otherwise be so accessible. We met with a most hospitable reception at the houses of the Austrian Minister, Chevalier de Sonnleithner, and our Consul-General, as well as from some German families, and also from the "Germania," a Club founded by twelve Germans as far back as 1821. This Society numbers now about 200 members, and is well supplied with German newspapers and periodicals, besides possessing a well-selected library of several thousand volumes, and a reading-room, with restaurant, smoking, billiard, and dancing-rooms attached. Of the various nationalities represented at Rio, the Germans are the most respected by the Brazilians. They are about 3000 in number, and as the majority are Protestants they have their own church, founded by three Germans in 1827, which now numbers 600 members, and has an annual income of 5000 milreis.[38] The community is under the protection of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Council in Berlin, and accordingly, as often as public worship is joined in, prayers are offered up for the King of Prussia, as head of the church. Despite its existence for more than thirty years, the position occupied by the Evangelical church with reference to the State, has never been accurately defined, so that differences are constantly occurring. In connection with the congregation are a school, and a society for aiding distressed Germans, which numbers 200 associates, and has an annual income of from 6000 to 7000 milreis (£600 to £700). The objects of the association are the advance of money, pensions, payment of passage-money for transport, assistance to unemployed or sick German workmen, education of orphan children, and so forth. The German choral union had given a concert in aid of this humane society, which alone had realized 3100 milreis (above £300)!