William Martin Wood

“ No indigenous inhabitants have been seen in the neighbourhood, but there is a scattered population of runaway and banished Chinese convicts. These wretched men are both morally and physically degraded; many of them are deformed, and others disfigured, in consequence of their vices. Yet even in these circumstances, and in this desolate region, they display the industrial and commercial habitudes of their race. They trap the wild animals, and sell the furs to the Russian soldiers, and they also gather and sell quantities of the root gin-seng. ”

“ The mule-train is the only means of communication between the distant provinces of Brazil and the cities or river-ports. The guardian of these caravans, called an arreador, is always a mulatto. His position is one of considerable responsibility: he is the treasurer, captain, and veterinary surgeon all in one, and he has to control his negro assistants as well as the mules. ”

“ Sometimes a little nobler sport presents itself, when they can bring to bay a bear or a tiger. The latter animal we always associate with our ideas of a tropical country, and it appears the tiger found in Mantchouria is of the same species as that which infests the jungles of Bengal. This fact has been verified by the Russian naturalist, Maximovitch, who has explored these regions with considerable industry. ”

“ He is of mulatto race, though his swarthy sunburnt countenance often displays hints of Indian blood, and his tall stature and long flowing hair give an aspect of wildness to his figure. Coming from a distant province at the head of two or three hundred mules, he pastures them on the plantation until they are sold or reared. The planter, having little use for his extensive pastures, expects no return from the muleteer, except occasional assistance in the training of the horses and mules on the farm ”

“ The harbour at Olga Bay is two miles long and one-and-a-half broad; it is sheltered from all winds except the south-west, being defended by many rocky peaks; and the granite island of Brydone, before the entrance, forms some additional protection. The river Gilbert, which flows into the bay at its north-east extremity, has fourteen feet of water on the bar, and is navigable for two leagues. On the banks of this river the Russian post is established, consisting of two officers and forty-five soldiers. ”

“ A territory extending over thirty-six degrees of latitude and thirty-four of longitude—including within its borders some of the finest rivers of the globe,—possessing a soil all but universally fertile, and a climate whose tropical heats are tempered by Atlantic breezes: such a region, of which not one-hundredth part is yet cultivated, presents a splendid field for material progress and future national greatness. ”

“ The land in the immediate neighbourhood of Olga Bay gives evidence of latent fertility, and there are extensive forests, which abound with game. But the station is separated from the Amoor and Siberia by wide tracts of sterile deserts. There can be, neither by land nor sea, any ready means of communication with the commercial world, and labour cannot be obtained. It is said that the Russian Government have intended to plant some colonists at this distant post. ”

“ A glance at the position of these two professional classes will incidentally throw light on the social economics of the Brazilian planter. The priest of to-day believes himself to have fallen on an evil time—that of political independence; and he sighs when he recalls the days of King John VI., for then more masses were required than time sufficed to perform. Now, in order to live, the padre must include many farms in his curacy; and he is often obliged to eke out his stipend by such secular devices as dealing in cattle or mules, or even that of keeping a venda, or store. ”

“ Epidemics frequently rage in the provinces of Brazil, and at those times the planter spares neither trouble nor expense in his efforts to meet the emergency. The hospital staff is then doubled, a caravan of negroes is sent off into the forest to gather medicinal herbs, and frequently the planter sends for a more skilled doctor from Rio or Bahia. Nor are the efforts of the planter confined to his own dependants. The hospital is opened to all in the neighbourhood, bond or free, who happen to be sick ”

“ The mule-dealer, being at little charge for his stock, often amasses a fortune; he then buys a plantation, and often gives to his son a professional education in one of the eastern cities, where men of mulatto race frequently rise to positions of eminence. ”

“ As no treaty with Japan had given any foreigners a right to settle on the island, Admiral Hope thought it his duty to make inquiry, both of the Russians and of the Japanese. The latter were somewhat more dissatisfied with the circumstance than even the Admiral himself, and could offer no explanation ”

“ In some districts they own flocks of sheep; but as the sentimental occupation of a shepherd does not suit their restless temperament, the guardianship of the flock is entirely entrusted to dogs, which they train with remarkable success.
Thus the Brazilians of the interior consist of three original races,—the creole, the negro, and the Indian; and of two hybrid races,—the mulatto and the mameluco, making altogether five distinct reproducing classes. There is also a third hybrid variety, the cabocles. These have arisen from unions between negroes and Indian women ”

“ A few, to whom the governor gives food and shelter as payment for certain services, are regarded by the rest as privileged individuals. All of them would work if employment could be provided; and the Russian governor was of opinion, that if wives could be found, an industrious community might be formed. ”

“ The medical profession has of late years risen considerably in the estimation of the Brazilian planter, and that owing to very practical reasons. Since the stoppage of the foreign slave-trade the price of negroes has reached a ruinous rate, and in proportion the preservation of their strength, and the prolongation of their lives has become to the planter an object of great solicitude. ”

“ That they are quietly on the watch for any opportunity to bear down in that direction, may be readily understood from a little circumstance which happened about two years ago. Our commander, Admiral James Hope, found at the island of Tsou-sima three Russian steamers. This island, it will be noticed, is at the southern extremity of the Sea of Japan, some hundred miles nearer to China than the port of Hakodadi. Besides the steamers in the harbour, the Admiral found a small post of Russians established on the island. ”

“ Only the needful physical wants of the negro are supplied, and in all minor matters of treatment the slave and his family are at the mercy of a brutal overseer.
Nothing has yet been said here of the senhoras of the Brazilian provinces. To leave them without description illustrates their social position. In deference to a sentiment of excessive jealousy, which the senhor inherits from his early Portuguese predecessors, the women of the fazenda are generally kept in something like Eastern seclusion. They necessarily suffer through their continuous exclusion from the proper position of woman ”

“ THE SHEFFIELD RIVER SYSTEM.
None but those who have lived at Sheffield, or in its vicinity, can readily understand the enthusiasm with which the natives of "Hallamshire” so often refer to the scenery of that district. The term “Hallamshire” is one that dates from Saxon times, and the Norman surveyors appear to have included under it the whole of the present manor of Sheffield lying on the right bank of the Don, together with the “chapelry” of Bradfield. ”

“ Poets are not usually considered very trustworthy guides in matters of topography. They often mystify their readers, and mar the accuracy of their descriptions for the sake of adopting an enticing metaphor. ”

“ On every plantation stands an infirmary, with negress nurses and a dispenser of drugs always in readiness. Some of the larger fazendas have a resident doctor, but generally two or three neighbouring planters maintain one conjointly. The proficiency of the surgeons has risen with the increased demand for their services, and new chairs of medicine have been established in the universities of the eastern cities. ”

“ This half-wild but energetic people sprang at first from unions between the native women and the early Portuguese invaders, after the Indian warriors of the coast and on the larger rivers had been exterminated. ”

“ He thinks that the negro having been admitted within the pale of the Church by baptism, his sins may be expiated by his life of hardship and toil, so that for the black, confession and penance are unnecessary. The Brazilian padre is generally married ”