We regret to say that the hotel accommodation of Rio Janeiro is very deficient for the size of the place and the extent of traffic passing through it. The best hotels are those of Pharoux and De l’Europe, in the city, and the Hotel des Etrangers and Johnson’s Hotel, on the road to Botafogo, the latter being peculiarly adapted for English ideas of comfort, and also long known to English travellers passing through, as well as a comfortable home to many residents there. The Hotel des Etrangers is a large, spacious building, now kept by a Frenchman, and is quite a fashionable resort for deputies visiting Rio for the session, as also for foreign diplomatists. The accommodation at Johnson’s Hotel is limited, and quite of a select nature. Comfortable boarding-houses, in our meaning of the term, are very few and far between. The majority of new-comers to, or passers-through, Rio, have private friends, to whose houses they resort during their brief sojourn; but, undoubtedly, there is ample scope for much greater accommodation being afforded to ‘man and beast’ in this large city. The Emperor of Brazil is said to be coming to Europe on a tour of some duration. It is to be hoped that not only will he be accompanied by a large retinue, but that numbers of the affluent inhabitants of this capital will also visit the old world at the same time; for if so, they can carry back with them no experience that may be turned to more desirable account in Rio than that which they will derive from an acquaintance with first class British, French, or German hotels.
After four days’ detention at Rio, coaling, taking in cargo, &c., we left, on the morning of the 20th October, with some eighty passengers on board, for the northern ports of Brazil, Lisbon, and England. Again we encountered the head wind and sea which had so perplexed us previously, between Monte Video and Rio; but arriving, nevertheless, in three and a half days at Bahia, where we spent a miserably wet day coaling. In spite of the weather we got away in the afternoon, under a salute from the forts in honour of the President[122] of Pará, who was a passenger on board. Forty hours took us to Pernambuco Roads, which we left again on Sunday afternoon, the 16th, once more in direct route for home. The Olinda was due at Pernambuco, and strange enough, the next morning we met her as if a line had been drawn for us to do so. Saluting each other with two guns, and a reciprocal round of three hearty cheers, time being too valuable for either to stop to satisfy curiosity, we pursued our respective routes, not a little elated by reciprocal punctuality and success thus far in our mutual maiden voyage. She looked remarkably well, appeared to be steaming fast, and would be in Pernambuco early next day. Our passenger list comprised fifty, of all denominations, English, French, Brazilians, Portuguese, Argentine, &c.; but it is surprising how everything gets into shape and order under such circumstances. We sighted the Island of St. Paul’s, looking like the white sails of a vessel, and on Sunday afternoon, the 22nd of October, came to anchor in Porto Grande, St. Vincent, under seven days from Pernambuco, a distance of 2,000 miles, very good work it must be confessed, though, perhaps, nothing to boast of, considering what we had already achieved. Leaving St. Vincent the same night, we had to steam against the north-east wind and waves for seven consecutive days, with no aid from our canvass. Then we passed Porto Santo, and saw both the Desertas and Madeira at a good distance, basking in fine clear weather. The morning of the 3rd October broke splendidly on the coast of Portugal, Cape Espectrial and the distant hills in sight, the lower land being shrouded in mist; we stood towards Cascaes Bay, got a pilot on board, and once more entered the Tagus, in the short space of fifteen days from Pernambuco, and twenty-one from Rio. We were obliged to bring up at Belem, and undergo quarantine, although we brought clean bills of health, there being no cases of fever reported at any of the Brazilian ports. A certificate from four medical men on board attested this fact; as well as our having no invalids on board of any kind. Between twenty and thirty of our passengers left us here, having to endure the misery of eight days in the Lazaretto—a castellated looking building, situated on the south side of the Tagus—they were all transferred, with their luggage, to a large lighter. A more lovely day could scarcely be conceived than the one when we were at anchor at the quarantine station, coaling; most tantalising to be debarred from availing ourselves of the opportunity to land and have a run over the city, which many of our passengers had seen for the first time. As to preventing an importation of yellow fever by their quarantine regulations, it is a complete farce, as all kind of communication are kept up with the shore; the officers of the ship are allowed to go on shore to the health office, which is right on the main road passing Belem, and the shore is a common thoroughfare; caravans and people bathing where the boats land. It is difficult to conceive on what grounds these absurd regulations are introduced, unless it be to annoy and drive away people wishing to visit the place, and as part and parcel of a system of intolerant restrictions that are enough to paralyse the energies of any country. The inconvenience which such restrictions cause is indescribable, nor can anything justify the infliction in such cases as ours. If at any time there is really sufficient grounds for adopting quarantine regulations, they ought to be delighted to remove them so soon as the grounds were removed. In the present advanced state of civilization, and with the rapid intercourse between nations, quarantine is almost a barbarity, calculated to shut out the country that exercises it from the rest of the world, whilst it is impossible it can be efficacious in the manner it is carried on at Lisbon; besides, the yellow fever has never been known to travel out of the tropics, and surely a voyage of twenty or thirty days across the ocean, without a case on board, is sufficient security, even supposing the fever to exist in the country the vessel comes from. On the other hand, reports of cholera in England cause an enforcement of quarantine outwards, thus putting the crowning piece to this mass of absurdity and annoyance. The subject cannot be alluded to with common patience, especially when it is publicly stated that the medical men who have to determine these sanitary points have a strong pecuniary interest in the lazarettos, and numbers of people prey upon the unfortunate vessel and passengers subjected to these terrible inflictions. Since my return, however, the Lisbon officials seem to have become a little amenable to reason and decency, and their preposterous regulations are in a trifling degree relaxed.
At 10 A.M. on the morning of the 1st November we weighed anchor, and steamed past Belem, towing a pilot in his boat astern. Our late fellow passengers in the Lazaretto were assembled at the top of the building, waving flags and handkerchiefs, to bid us farewell, and one could scarcely help feeling melancholy to see so many worthy people stuck up in a kind of cage, for no earthly object but to gratify a morbid sensibility on points sanitary. The pilot would not come on board, as it would subject him to perform a given number of days’ quarantine afterwards. There was a fresh breeze from the southward, and the rope soon broke, leaving Mr. Pilot to find his way back to Lisbon, and the steamer to find her own way out as best she could. A heavy sea was breaking on the bar, in which the pilot could not possibly have been towed, so we were well rid of him; but it only shows the operation of things under such an iniquitous system, where a man is well paid for doing absolutely worse than nothing—being in the way; for how is it possible for a pilot to direct a vessel when he is towed astern of her, and any directions he might give are impossible to be heard? However, we crossed the bar safely, and soon passed the Rock of Lisbon, after which our fair wind vanished; came strong ahead, with a good deal of sea, against which we steamed until next day 2nd Nov., when it became calm, and the wind gradually veered to south-east. Saw Cape Finisterre, and from thence to St. Agnes Light (Scilly Islands); we were only thirty-five hours in doing 450 miles of distance. From Scilly we posted our way up Channel; went inside the Smalls; passed close to the Island of Grasholm, a very wild spot; missed Bardsey, but saw Holyhead Light; had a tug round the Skerries, blowing hard; at daylight got a pilot on board, and at 11 A.M. entered the Mersey, exactly twenty-six days from Rio Janeiro, including stoppages. My trip of 15,000 miles (including the run up the Parana) occupied me very little over three months, during which time I visited all the important sea ports of Brazil, Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, &c., spending a fortnight in Rio, and about the same time in the La Plata. The ‘Brazileira’s’ entire voyage occupied seventy-three days, including eighteen days’ stoppages, clearly proving that it is only a question of time for these valuable countries to be brought within the scope of a pleasure trip.
The performances of the Brazileira and of her sister ships of our fleet had, on the whole, been highly satisfactory, and promised to realize to the utmost every anticipation that had been entertained at the period of the formation of the company. But, alas, for bright visions! two of the flotilla unexpectedly, I may say unaccountably, are numbered with the departed, and under pretty nearly identical circumstances—both from shaving too close. The Olinda, wrecked hard by Holyhead, but fortunately without sacrifice of life, in one of those terrible storms that swept the British coast the beginning of this year, is a loss to the company as regards her keeping up the main ocean line. The Argentina had, for a time, been a shining light to the numerous passengers between the two great cities on the La Plata, and she is, emphatically, a national loss to them, as well as to the surrounding district, retarding, in fact, the work of civilization and improvement. On a fine, clear, and almost breathless evening, still daylight, she carried her temerity so far as to approach too closely some sunken rocks near the entrance to Monte Video harbour, going twelve miles an hour at the time, and in a moment her career of usefulness was ended! There was almost a general mourning over her, so great a favourite had she become, by the rapid and satisfactory manner in which she illustrated the blessings of steam navigation in a region where, of all others, such agency is most to be desired.[123]
In order to repair as speedily as possible the damages caused by the loss of the Olinda and Argentina, the company have purchased the paddle-wheel steamer Menai, well known for her quick passages between Liverpool, Beaumaris, and Bangor, to replace the Argentina on the station between Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, until such time as a larger and more efficient vessel, now in course of construction, and that will be in every way worthy of the passenger traffic between those two great cities, can be built. They have also sent out the La Plata, a fine new screw, built by Mr. John Laird, originally intended for the London and Oporto trade, and to be called the Bacchante; but now destined to run between Rio Janeiro, Monte Video, and Buenos Ayres, in connection with the ocean steamers, which will not proceed beyond Rio Janeiro. In conjunction with the above-mentioned vessels, the company intend placing on the line the Imperador and Imperatrice, two steamers also in process of construction, same size and power as the Bahiana. Our fleet will thus consist of the Imperador, Imperatrice, and Bahiana, all new ships; the Brazileira and Lusitania, now running; the La Plata, a branch boat; and the two River Plate passenger-boats. I doubt not the public, as well as the respective governments embraced in this line of steam communication, will consider the enterprise as deserving of their especial support.
A page of my allotted space remains to be filled, and I cannot better occupy it than with a brief summary of the news brought to the latest moment before going to press, viz., that by the Mail, which arrived on the 16th of April, with dates from Buenos Ayres, March 4; Monte Video, 6; Rio Janeiro, 17; Bahia, 22; Pernambuco, 25; St. Vincent’s, Cape Verde, April 4; Teneriffe, 8; Madeira, 9; and Lisbon, 12, as quoted in the leading journal of the 17th.
Tranquillity continued undisturbed on the Plate. Business in imported goods and manufactures was dull, owing to the total absence of dealers from the interior. Since the blockade of July last upwards of 2,000 houses had been erected in the city of Buenos Ayres, and buildings were still being raised with the greatest rapidity. Trade was expected to improve. Articles of consumption were very dear. The supplies of produce were very stinted, and at advancing prices. A large portion of the last clip of wool remained on hand. The following extracts from a letter, dated Buenos Ayres, March 4, give the latest particulars of political events:—
‘Here everything goes on quite smoothly: at least, there is nothing within the province to cause any uneasiness. Our attention at present is wholly directed to Monte Video, where the Brazilian policy is being carried out with rapid strides. The only important question for us is how their proceedings may be viewed by General Urquiza, as President of the Confederation, whether he may make friends with us to resist the Imperialists, or join with the Imperialists that he may attack this province? Mr Buchental, a wealthy Brazilian capitalist and speculator, has crossed over to Chili to consult as to the means of forming a railroad from Valparaiso to the Rosario. The latest news from the west coast represents nearly all the Republics to the north in a state of excitement, but we suspect there is a great deal of exaggeration. Mr. Gore, British Minister at Buenos Ayres, has gone up the Parana for the purpose, it is supposed, of exchanging the ratifications of the treaty, and, perhaps, to grace the installation of the Constitutional Presidency, which is to take place about this time, some say on this very day. If Urquiza is wise, he will do the best he can with his own domains, and leave us alone.’
From Rio there is nothing worth noticing, as regards political affairs. A considerable reaction had taken place in the coffee-market, and prices were lower. Supplies regular. From Pernambuco we learn that the South American and General Steam Navigation Company’s steamer Lusitania reached Pernambuco on the 18th ult. Great tightness exists in the money-market—more so than had been experienced for a long period.