John Mawe

“ Their dwelling scarcely merits the name of a house; it is the most wretched hovel that imagination can describe, consisting of a few apartments built up to each other without regularity; the walls wicker-work, filled up with mud; a hole left for a frame serves as a window, or a miserable door answers that purpose. The cracks in the mud are rarely filled up; and in very few instances only have I seen a house repaired. The floors are of clay, moist in itself, and rendered more disagreeable by the filth of its inhabitants, with whom the pigs not unfrequently dispute the right of possession. ”

“ Far be it from me to countenance any infringement on the laws which have been established for the protection of property, either public or private; to respect the institutions of whatever nation I may live in, I hope I shall always be among the first, and to encourage others to disregard them, the very last; for illicit trade of every description is a deceitful and dangerous pursuit, the sweets of which are ever attended with a counteracting portion of evils. ”

“ Thus it is, that from the indifference of the owners to their own interest, things are suffered to go on in the same routine, being left to the direction of men who shrink from a temporary increase of labor, even when it promises them a lasting advantage. This aversion to improvement I have often observed among the inhabitants of Brazil: when, for instance, I have questioned a brick-maker, a sugar-maker, a soap-boiler, or even a miner, as to his reasons for conducting his concerns in such an imperfect manner, I have been almost invariably referred to a negro for answers to my interrogatories. ”

“ A passion for mining is fatally prevalent among some of the lower orders of the people: by deluding them with prospects of becoming speedily rich, it creates in them a disgust for labor, and entails want and wretchedness upon them. Even among the few families of this district, I observed some examples of its effects; those who devoted themselves wholly to mining were in general badly clothed and worse fed, while those who attended to agriculture alone were well provided with every necessary of life. ”

“ It being Sunday, numbers of people had come from various parts in the neighbourhood to attend divine service, and, after it was over, flocked in crowds to the place where we alighted. It appeared as if the whole population of the village, men, women, and children, were possessed with the same spirit of curiosity, so great was their eagerness to get a sight of us. We dined in a mixed company of ladies and gentlemen, at the house of the worthy vicar, who kept a very hospitable table, and paid us the most flattering attention. ”

“ But indeed as his majesty’s subjects increase and become more enlightened, this severe monopoly will destroy itself and soon begin to give way to a wise and political government, which will prefer a rich and powerful population in the very heart of the colony to a few individuals. How happens it, that diamonds, in the hands of private persons, meet a more ready sale than those of government? ”

“ The best parts of the meat may, indeed, be called tolerable, but they are by no means tender. The pork is not eatable. Such is the profusion of flesh-meat, that the vicinity for two miles round, and even the purlieus of the town itself, present filthy spectacles of bones and raw flesh at every step, which feed immense flocks of sea-gulls, and in summer breed myriads of flies, to the great annoyance of the inhabitants, who are obliged at table to have a servant or two continually employed in fanning the dishes with feathers, to drive away those troublesome intruders. ”

“ When our leisure permitted, we took excursions to view the town and its vicinity, sometimes on horseback and sometimes on foot, generally going and returning in a different direction. It is situated on the side of a large mountain, connected with others forming an immense chain, of which it is one of the highest. Most of the streets range, in steps, as it were, from the base to the summit, and are crossed by others which lead up the acclivity. It is most admirably supplied with water, which is conducted into almost every house in a most convenient and pleasant manner. ”

“ Would it have been possible for Portugal to colonize Brazil if there had been no gold mines to attract adventurers? To deny men the treasures with which nature has enriched the country, is to oppose one great check to its population; for the example of one adventurer becoming rich, is the means of inducing hundreds to follow him. ”

“ A Spaniard in his own country rarely allows even a shadow of justice to a Portuguese; he uses a thousand artifices for procrastinating the decision of a cause at issue between them, till the latter, when his patience is completely exhausted, finds that he is likely to derive nothing from the contest but immense piles of law-papers, frequently written on the most trivial points in litigation, and paid for at an exorbitant price. ”

“ We were not without music to our repast, for the house is built on the edge of a roaring torrent, which, bursting through a ravine, has washed away every thing except some huge masses of rock. A bit of ground, about ten yards square, is all the garden these poor people have, and even this is much neglected, for the guards here are so often changed, that no one thinks of adding to the comforts and conveniences of an abode, which others are to enjoy. ”

“ Glad to get away from this wretched place, we continued our journey through a succession of fine vallies, and arrived about four o’clock at the foot of a tremendous mountain, overhung with clouds. The ascent was so steep that, judging it in vain to attempt to ride, I dismounted; our soldier, who was a lighter man than myself, exchanged mules with me, and up we went in a zig-zag direction for half an hour, when we found ourselves immersed in a thick cloud, which for some time hindered us from seeing our way. ”

“ It has three entrances defended by forts; that to the south is most frequented. The land here is very flat for several miles, and the rivers which intersect it are navigable for canoes as far as the base of the great chain of mountains, where a public road, begun at incredible labor and expense, leads over that almost impassable barrier. This road will soon be a work of national importance to Brazil, as through it the finest district in that country, and indeed one of the finest in the world in point of climate, the rich plain of Coritiva, will be connected with the ocean. ”

“ The spectator who is in the midst of them ever sees before him a distant and extended mount; he advances towards it by a gentle and long declivity, traverses the plain, and advances by an ascent equally gentle until he gains imperceptibly the heights he saw; another eminence then presents itself, and he proceeds with the same recurring circumstances. The soil of these wide plains is sandy, and so light that loaded beasts in passing sink into it so much as to impede their progress. ”

“ Commerce is almost unknown among them, and there is very little specie in circulation. To a stranger, who has mingled in the busy scenes of life, they seem absolutely weary of existence as of a burthen. Blest with a fine climate and a land flowing with milk and honey, they are unable to appreciate and turn to advantage the bounties which divine Providence has lavished upon them; and from these and other causes the population is very scanty compared with the extent of the country. Such is the native land of the Peons of Monte Video and Buenos Ayres. ”

“ With regard to climate, there is no winter or summer. The heat is never excessive, and there [156] is no sensible cold. The whole year appears a continual spring. The uninterrupted verdure, the vivid and varied color of the flowers which cover the highest trees of the forests, and which, appearing to change their form and aspect every month, constantly surround us with a new world, and fill the most insensible minds with astonishment and admiration. ”

“ The country, in its vicinity, is well clothed with large timber, and appears very fruitful, but is thinly peopled by a set of men, whose manners and pursuits denote them to be outcasts from society. In the evening we entered a fine bay, and procured some refreshment at a house on the beach, where we intended to pass the night, but a plan had been laid to rob us, and we were obliged, on discovering it, to re-embark before day-break, much rejoiced at having narrowly escaped the loss of our property and our lives. ”

“ He replied, “you are; and the men whom you have chosen for your guides are to murder you, to seize your money, and to bury you in a ravine about a league distant. The man in whom you have most confided has a knife concealed in his saddle, with which he is to give you the fatal blow.” ”

“ No colonial port in the world is so well situated for general commerce as Rio de Janeiro. It enjoys, beyond any other, an equal convenience of intercourse with Europe, America, Africa, the East Indies, and the South Sea Islands, and seems formed by nature as the grand link to connect the [140] trade of those great portions of the globe. ”

“ The farm-houses are miserable hovels of one story, the floor neither paved nor boarded, and the walls and partitions formed of wicker-work, plastered with mud, and never under-drawn. For an idea of the kitchen, which ought to be the cleanest and most comfortable part of the dwelling, the reader may figure to himself a filthy room, with an uneven muddy floor, interspersed with pools of slop-water, and in different parts fire-places formed by three round stones to hold the earthen pots that are used for boiling meat ”

“ A river of such vast size as the Paraguay, in a temperate and salubrious climate, abounding with fish, bordered by extensive plains and high mountains, intersected by so many rivers, bays, lakes, and forests, must naturally have drawn many of the Indian nations to inhabit its banks: but, immediately after the discovery of the new continent, the incursions of the Paulistas and Spaniards seem to have dispersed and destroyed the numerous tribes: the Jesuits transplanted many thousands to their settlements on the Uruguay and Parana. ”

“ So defective and ill-regulated are the concerns of agriculture in this country, that the proprietor of an estate really worth 20,000 dollars can scarcely subsist upon it.
Under the class of landed proprietors, I may reckon the cultivators, here called quinteros or chacareros, who grow wheat, maize, and other grain. These men are so depressed and impoverished, that, notwithstanding the importance of their calling, and the public usefulness of their labors, they are ranked among the people of least consequence in society. ”

“ Continuing my journey next day, I crossed the ridge of a lofty chain of mountains, abounding with streams, that were much swoln in consequence of the late rains; one of the largest, called Rio dos Peixes, I forded thrice, and entered on a wide champaign country. In many parts I saw large tracts of bare places, where the grit-stone alternated with argillaceous schistus. The next ten miles led through an elevated and fertile plain, intersected with rivulets in every direction, and well calculated for farming, but very thinly inhabited. ”

“ The shops that sold the produce of the country were few in number and very indifferent. There were a great many tailors, shoe-makers, tin-workers, and venders of hardware, some smiths, and no inconsiderable number of saddlers. In a country where every one is a horseman, this trade must, one would imagine, take the lead of most others. The saddles that were shewn me here, were of a much superior make to those which I saw in Rio de Janeiro. ”

“ This is attributable to the want of a proper system of education for youth, to the pernicious example afforded by the vices of the Europeans, and, in a word, to the prevalence of an intolerant system, which, by aiming to make [54] men what they cannot be, causes them to become what they ought not to be. The intolerant rigor exercised by the ministers of worship as well as by the government, for the suppression of immorality, defeats its own end; it is like the unskilful practice of a physician, which, directed solely against the external symptoms, aggravates instead of removing the disease. ”

“ Mild as are the criminal laws of Brazil, the latter part of this sentence is an exception at which human nature shudders. Surely, when a poor wretch, who has been tempted to this offence, has atoned for it by the loss of all he possessed, he has suffered sufficiently without being subjected to the forfeiture of personal liberty, and to all the woes incident to hopeless captivity. ”