[51] Whilst making this general observation, only in a spirit and with a desire that the Brazilians may see their true interests, in applying a remedy to these absurdities, and follow out the principles of free-trade in their regulation of commercial matters, I must not omit to acknowledge the exemptions made in favour of the steam company which I represented. In all the ports of the empire we were not only freed from ordinary restrictions and delays that could possibly be dispensed with, but everywhere met with the most kind and cordial reception; indeed, I may say, we were welcomed with open arms.
[52] Since my return these anticipations have been to a considerable extent realized; for previous to the close of the last session the chambers passed a law, conferring power on the imperial government to alter a great variety of duties in the Brazilian tariff, effecting a reduction on the principal articles of import from England of from 25 to 30 per cent. Though the extremely flourishing state of the imperial revenue has admitted of this improvement without any serious sacrifice, even for the moment, it must also be attributed in a great degree to the progress of a knowledge of sound commercial policy, not only among the discerning men to whom the administration is committed, but among the representatives by whose support alone they are able to carry out such judicious views. It will be seen, also, that other portions of the South American continent, both on the West and the East coast, have acted in a like spirit; and now that the vast internal streams are opening to the tide of European commerce and civilization, there begins to loom in the not distant future the certainty of those magnificent conceptions of Mr. Canning being realized, when he spoke of calling into political being these states of the new world to redress the balance of the old.
[53] That the Brazilian capital should be deemed a pleasant place for the residence of many Europeans will be inferred from what Mr. Elwes says of the profusion find varieties of its supplies of food:—
The market of Rio is a fine large building, to the north of the principal square. It is well supplied with fish; but the price is always very high, as the fishermen have a sort of monopoly, and will only bring a certain quantity to market, in order to keep it up. The best fish is the garoupa; immense prawns (camaroes) are very plentiful. Strangers are often told, as a joke, that these are kept in pits, and fed with the dead bodies of slaves thrown in from time to time; and I have known people who would never touch them on that account. Parrots, monkeys, &c., are very common, and a few game birds. Occasionally, large lizards of two or three feet in length are brought to market, and they are said to be excellent eating. Deer are sometimes killed in the woods; but I have never seen them in the market, though there is a small animal, called the paca, to be had, the flesh of which is very good. Fruit is supplied in great abundance. Oranges and bananas are to be had all the year. The oranges were superior to anything I had before tasted, and excel the Maltese. They are said to be better in Bahia, and better still in Pernambuco; so it appears that the hotter the climate, the more suitable it is to this fruit, as the Maltese and the Egyptian are certainly far superior to those of Portugal and Sicily. The banana (Musa paradisaica, called ‘plantano’ by the Spaniards, and ‘plantain’ in the West Indies,) is a most nutritious fruit; but few people like it at first, as the taste is rather sickly and insipid. There are a variety of sorts, which bear fruit of different sizes, but the short thick one is the best. It is very nutritious and productive; and it is said that forty square feet, planted with bananas, will support a man for a year. The plant itself is very handsome, and the great leaves, ten or twelve feet in length, and two in breadth, make a splendid feature in the landscape of the tropics. Each plant bears one bunch of fruit, after which it should be cut down, when suckers spring up in all directions from the root, so that it is a vegetable more suited for idle people than even the potato, as it does not require planting, and the fruit can be eaten without the trouble of cooking it. The fruta do Conde, or chirimoya of the Spaniard, and custard-apple of the West Indies, is delicious, but varies a good deal in quality. The maricuja, Spanish granadilla, the fruit of the passion-flower, is very good. It is about as large as a swan’s egg, with a pulp and seeds like a gooseberry. The alligator or avocada pear, the mammon, papaw, or mammy apple, are common fruits, not so good as those before-named. Pine-apples are common enough, but not very good.
[54] The Brazil government have adopted measures to introduce immigrants to supply the place of slaves, they have established some large colonies from Germany, France, and Portugal, principally by private speculation and by the government; and those colonies of private individuals are the surest guarantee for the abolition of the slave trade, because those parties are now interested by the larger profit they derive from free labour, in keeping this system instead of the other, especially in coffee. They are greatly prized for their steady industry, peaceable disposition, and easy adaptation of themselves to the manners and usages of the people among whom they come to reside. As is the case in Australia, and in most parts of North America, they are very general favourites with the inhabitants of all classes, and, on the whole, are preferred probably to any other Europeans. The number of German immigrants now in Brazil may be considered as amounting to somewhere about 15,000; and to these considerable additions are still being made from the large importations which are now daily taking place from the Old World. They bear coffee labour pretty well, but most of them are employed in the province of Rio Janeiro and Rio Grande; the government is very solicitous to treat them as well as possible, and it has established those colonies in the provinces which are best for it, more like the climate of Europe; the provinces of Rio Grande and St. Catherine are the coldest provinces in the country. They imported, besides those Germans, a great many Portuguese, a different set of people altogether. They are from Madeira, and from all parts of Portugal, and from their islands; they generally arrive in greater numbers than the Germans. Very few Chinese have been tried. The white natives of Brazil do not work much upon the sugar and coffee plantations; they only serve like what we call headmen, superintendents; not in any other way. The Germans are contracted with and brought to Brazil; the Portuguese come on their own account; they do not contract them in Portugal; they come of themselves by hundreds; they generally get employment about the towns, about the gin shops, and gin taverns, and small businesses. For particulars of this kind, see the Report on Slave Trade Treaties. It is calculated that the sugar crop this year, 1854, will be about 30,000 tons less than the last.
[55] Yesterday an experiment was tried with a locomotive steam-engine on the rails of a finished portion of the road from Mauá to the Estrella mountain. Our ‘Weekly Correspondent’ sent us last night the following communication respecting this trip:—Whilst the political world was agitated this morning, and the sword of Damocles, ceasing its oscillations for a moment, fell on the ministry, myself, and some other curiosity seekers, amongst whom were noticed the ministers of England and of Austria, risked ourselves in a trial of the first steam-carriage that travelled over the first railway in Brazil. We crossed the bay in a vessel, also moved by Fulton’s agency, and in two hours (the steamer was of small power) we arrived at Mauá. The first part only of the pier for disembarking being laid, we climbed up by the aid of ropes, and threaded our way amongst a succession of loose and insecure planks to the shore, at the risk of taking a mud-bath. A few paces distant we saw a single, graceful-looking locomotive, with the certificate of the year of its birth and the name of its worthy papa engraved on the central wheels. The letters, in yellow metal, were as follows: ‘Wm. Fairbairn & Son, 1853. Manchester.’ The proper carriage was not yet attached; they substituted for it a rough waggon, used for the conveyance of materials, and without further delay we squatted ourselves at the bottom of this impromptu vehicle. Suddenly a prolonged and roaring shriek, a whistle with the force of 50 sopranos, screamed through the air, deafening the hearers, and causing us to raise our hands to our ears. It was the signal for departure; the warning to those who might be on the line to guard against a mortal blow; an announcement made by a tube attached to the locomotive itself. Swifter than an arrow, than the flight of a swallow, the locomotive threaded the rails, swung about, ran, flew, devoured space, and, passing through fields, barren wastes, and affrighted animals, it stopped at last breathless, at the point where the road does not yet afford a safe passage. The space traversed was a mile and three quarters, and the time occupied in the transit four minutes. It is just that we should here record the names of Messrs. Trever and Bragg; the first, for having had the boldness to undertake the enterprise, the other, for executing, with zeal and skill, the respective works. Mr. Hadfield, who also went on this excursion, appeared greatly delighted. One of his dreams for many years past has been the application of railroads and steam in this empire. Being amongst us as the representative of a company which undertook the line of steamers from Liverpool, towards the establishment of which he greatly contributed, he could see his dreams realized, as our Latin masters would say, terrâ marique. Whether it was George Stephenson or Trevithick, as the English assert, the Brothers Sequin, according to the French, or Oliver Evans, as the Americans pretend,—whoever was the inventor of locomotives, what is certain is, that humanity has taken a gigantic stride since that acquisition. The Peace Congress ought to commemorate in annual session so prodigious an invention, which can, more than half-a-dozen pompous discourses, cement the bonds of union of nations, bring nations together into one family, and develop commerce, that most powerful element of peace and greatness. What a brilliant future for Brazil do we see in the wheels of that locomotive! Happy those amongst us who may have long lives—they will pass by great cities, by great rural establishments, recollecting that on their sites were swamps and forests. Oh! if the existence of man was not so short; if, at least, we could return to this world invisible shadows, wandering in our native country, how small we should find ourselves, comparing our past, that is, our present of to-day, with the progress made by the generation then before us. But human beings are like the workmen who assist each other in raising an edifice: each age deposits its stone towards the completion of the great work. Our first stone has been laid on the plain of Mauá. The edifice is already commenced; let us not be discouraged; and if death should overtake us in the midst of the work, here are our generations to continue it. Peace, in the meantime, and eternal rest to the poor Mauar race. The invisible power has come to replace their services, with the first-fruits and benefits of which a bright morning succeeds to a dark and ugly night. May the material improvements of the country come, and with them peace and industry; and, to commence the sooner the better, let us have the roads of Minas and San Paulo.
[56] Exports of staple productions of Rio Janeiro, the result of slave labour, during 1851: coffee, 2,037,305 bags, value, 4,756,794l.; sugar, 12,832 cases, value, 234,980l.; rosewood, 36,813 planks, value, 82,000l. In addition to these, other articles of produce, such as hides, horns, rice, tobacco, tapioca, rum, &c., were exported, the value of which may be estimated at 264,000l., making the total value of produce shipped in that year 5,337,074l. Exports of the staple productions of Rio Janeiro, the result of slave labour, during 1852: coffee, 1,906,336 bags, value, 4,265,800l.; sugar, 13,960 cases, value, 160,000l.; rosewood, 25,500 planks, value, 55,000l. The value of the other articles cannot be correctly ascertained, but may be estimated at about 290,000l., making the total value of produce exported in that year 4,770,800l. Rio Janeiro, February 24th, 1853. J. J. C. Westwood, Acting Consul.
[57] Steamers running from Brazil to the United States, starting, say, from Rio, touching at Bahia, Pernambuco, Maranham, Pará, and one or more of the most important of the West India Islands, would prove a lucrative undertaking. The importance of this line of steamers to those interested in the trade between the two countries must impress itself upon all who are conversant with the trade carried on; but although a considerable amount of freight may be relied on, the passenger traffic will probably be far more important. Besides the Americans and others interested in this trade, many English and Brazilians intending to travel from South America to Europe, and vice versa, would go viâ the United States, some for business purposes, and many to visit that country. Another very important object would also be attained, viz. the completion of the communication between all the large maritime towns of Brazil and the capital of the Empire, by efficient steam-ships. At present the communication, from Pernambuco to Pará, is carried on by small steamers belonging to a native company, which is subsidised by the government, and the reason given for the continuation of the subsidy was, that, although English steam companies now put some of the northern ports in rapid communication with the capital, those beyond Pernambuco still relied solely on these small steamers. Although the trade between the West Indies and Brazil is unimportant, these countries are at present so thoroughly devoid of means of intercommunication that advantages could not fail to be derived by the establishment of this line. At present, a person wishing to leave a Brazilian port for the West Indies will generally find that he must go viâ England or the United States, and this even from the most northern ports. The importance of such an undertaking to Brazil would be immense, and I have no doubt that the Brazilian government would be fully alive to the advantages they would derive from it, and that they would be ready to grant a liberal amount for mails, &c.—Contributed.
[58] A Monte Videan writer in the City article of the Times on the 17th of last month, has the following remarks, at once explanatory of the condition of the government of the Banda Oriental, and of Brazilian relations to it, and of the feelings prevailing in the Uruguay as to the tendency it is desired that such relationship should assume:—
By a decree of the Provisional Government, Berro, the ex-Minister of Giro, having been detected in fomenting the civil war, has been outlawed. Any person is authorized to kill him. This decree does not meet with the approbation of the people, but in these countries public opinion has little influence with governments. Brazil, it is said, has been offered the protectorate of this republic, and refused it; but she will use force, if necessary, to exact the fulfilment of treaties; and it is generally believed here that the Banda Oriental will soon be occupied by troops from the empire, to restore and maintain order and support any constitutionally established government. This news is as generally agreeable as it is credited. The respectable portion of the Orientals are convinced the country cannot be governed without foreign aid, and the numerous foreigners residing here, of course, rejoice in the prospect of peace and order. The Government has authorized its agent in Paris to contract a loan of 12,000,000 duros, at 70 per cent., interest payable half-yearly at the rate of 6 per cent. on the nominal capital; also to grant a privilege for ten years to a company (with a capital of 3,000,000 duros) of a bank of issue and discount on the principles of the Bank of France; and, lastly, to concede lands to an association which undertakes to despatch several thousands of emigrant agricultural families to this republic. These three projects are connected with each other. If Brazil maintains order in the country for a few years, no doubt the immigration scheme would be as beneficial to the immigrants as to the republic.