Pernambuco

“ When you view the port of Pernambuco, full of ships of all nations; when you know that the richest commodities of Europe, Africa and Asia are brought to it; when you see immense quantities of cotton, dye-wood and the choicest fruits pouring into the town, you are apt to wonder at the little attention these people pay to the common comforts which one always expects to find in a large and opulent city. ”

“ The coloured and free population of Pernambuco amounts to about 650,000, and the slave races to about 100,000; of the former, 250,000 inhabit towns, and the remainder follow agricultural pursuits. The slaves are about equally divided between town and country. There is a striking difference between the people inhabiting that part of the province nearest to the sea and those living far in the interior; and not only do the people differ in appearance and manners, but the districts differ totally in character and in climate. ”

“ Crossing a long bridge, they saw magnificent gardens with brilliant flowering plants, and the fine fruit-market where they purchased the luscious Pernambuco abacoxi the finest-flavoured pineapple in the world.
"It is a very fine city," said Affonzo as they returned to the steamer.
"But not as handsome as Para," said Lola. "That's the prettiest city in all Brazil," and her father laughed. ”

“ The large number of ports in Pernambuco gave that province the inestimable advantage of a ready means of export for the produce of the interior. Its richest and most influential inhabitants, whether agricultural or commercial, were those most interested in the preservation of order. They were the great promoters of civilization, exercising a liberal hospitality. The long-continued Dutch war had left the Pernambucans proud memories. ”

“ These are the “catamaran” fishing boats, from the port of Pernambuco. The adventurous boatmen will sometimes venture out a hundred miles to sea in these simple and frail-looking crafts, and they are seldom lost.
Pernambuco, or Recife, is the first port at which the transatlantic steamers stop, and it is either here, or at Bahia, that the American traveller down the east coast first sets his foot on Brazilian soil. It is the second city of importance in northeastern Brazil, and the state of Pernambuco, of which it is the capital, is second in importance only to Bahia. ”

“ The state of Pernambuco is a state about the size of Ohio, and one of the important states in the republic. Its population exceeds the million mark. Because of its large black population, many of whom were formerly slaves, education has not advanced here as much as in a number of the states farther south. Its commerce is considerable, with sugar as the leading item. Cotton is also an important production. At the port one can see cotton coming in on wagons, ox-carts, the backs of mules and even on the black shoulders of the inhabitants. ”

“ The population of the Pernambuco sertāo has always been noted for its turbulent, lawless character, due partly to distance from the coast where the bulk of the population is concentrated, partly to difficult means of communication, and partly to the fact that this remote region has long been the refuge of criminals from the coast towns. ”

“ This morning a Portuguese frigate, the Don Pedro, with troops from Bahia, arrived. The reinforcement of 350 men, partly European, partly Bahian, has put the inhabitants, from the governor downwards, into the highest spirits; so that for once we see Pernambuco active, and cheerful, and alive. Men and women are out in their gayest habits, and the military are running and riding in all directions, not a little pleased to have some to relieve them in their constant watch and ward. ”

“ The city we call Pernambuco claims 200,000 inhabitants, and of these perhaps one in three could pass as white. Even in the huts lining the water or mud labyrinths of the outskirts whites are numerous, though often as trashy as the negroes. ”

“ To the north of Bahia are the capitanias of Pernambuco, Seará, and Maranham, the interior of which is very little known, though some parts of the [402] coast are tolerably populous. Pernambuco, though situated nearly in the latitude of eight degrees, is considered healthy. The town is built on a rising ground, much exposed, and constantly refreshed by the sea-breeze. It has many excellent edifices, and is supposed to contain more opulent merchants, in proportion to population, than any other place in Brazil. It produces vanilla, cocoa, and a considerable quantity of sugar ”

“ Pernambuco (130) , a seaport in N. Brazil, consists of three portions connected by bridges: Recife, on a peninsula, the business quarter; San Antonio, the modern quarter, on an intermediate island; and Bon Vista, on the mainland; manufactures cotton and tobacco, and has shipbuilding yards; the trade chiefly with England, the United States, and France; it is the capital of a province (1,100) of the name, producing sugar and cotton. ”

“ Pernambuco, the principal town of a large and wealthy province of the same name, is a thriving place, sending out valuable cargoes, principally of sugar and cotton. I had loaded costly cargoes here, times gone by. I met my old merchant again this time, but could not carry his goods on the Liberdade. However, fruits from his orchards and a run among the trees refreshed my crew, and prepared them for the coming voyage to Barbadoes, which was made with expedition.
From Pernambuco we experienced a strong current in our favour, with, sometimes, a confused cross sea that washed over us considerably. ”

“ A ship from Marseilles took it, and left seventy men in it as a garrison; but she was captured on her return, and carried into Lisbon, and immediate measures were taken for reoccupying the place. The captaincy of Pernambuco was granted to Don Duarte Coelho Pereira as the reward of his services in India. It extended along the coast from the Rio São Francisco, northward to the Rio de Juraza. Duarte sailed with his wife and children, and many of his kinsmen, to take possession, of his new colony, and landed in the port of Pernambuco. ”

“ Pernambuco, also, has 200,000 inhabitants, large buildings, and as much as eight million dollars have recently been devoted to harbor improvements there.
Outside of these cities there are estates, quite a few of which are worth more than a million dollars; one coffee plantation has five million trees and employs five thousand people. ”

“ As Pernambuco is situated on the most eastern part of the American continent, it is fully exposed to the influence of the trade winds all the year round, and hence enjoys a cool climate; it is considered more healthy than either Rio or Bahia. ”

“ Bahia to Pernambuco—The meeting of the Finance at sea—At Pernambuco—Round Cape St. Roque—A gale—Breakers—The stretch to Barbadoes—Flying-fish alighting on deck—Dismasted—Arrive at Carlysle Bay.
From Bahia to Pernambuco our course lay along that part of the Brazilian coast fanned by constant trade-winds. Nothing unusual occurred to disturb our peace or daily course, and we pressed forward night and day, as was our wont from the first. ”

“ When the Dutch possessed Paraïba, that captaincy contained seven hundred families and twenty engenhos; in the year 1775 its population was estimated at fifty-two thousand—a population which was more than doubled in the course of another quarter of a century.
Pernambuco was, in the early part of this century, one of the most nourishing parts of this great colonial empire; and its chief port, Recife, was only inferior in importance to Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. It contained about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. No other city had derived such benefit from the growth of the cotton trade. ”

“ Settled with good immigrants by Duarte Coelho, who protested successfully against the dumping of convicts upon his capitania and ruled his people like a feudal lord, Pernambuco was the only territory that escaped control by the Captain-General sent out by the Crown in 1549 to try the effect of centralized power upon the languishing capitanias. ”

“ The capital of the state is Recife, commonly known among foreigners as Pernambuco. There are a number of large towns in the state, but the census returns include their populations in those of the municipios (communes) to which they belong. ”

“ In the year 1816, two days before the vernal equinox, I sailed from Liverpool for Pernambuco, in the southern hemisphere, on the coast of Brazil. Arrived there, I embarked on board of a Portuguese brig for Cayenne in Guiana. On the 14th day after leaving Pernambuco, the brig cast anchor off the island of Cayenne. The entrance is beautiful. To windward, not far off, are two bold wooded islands, called Father and Mother; and near them are others, their children, smaller, though beautiful as their parents. ”

“ Pernambuco is Brazil’s greatest sugar-producing state. Thanks to this fact and to an unusually honest government, it enjoys a prosperity second only to that of São Paulo, and possibly of Rio Grande do Sul, in the entire republic. Cotton and mandioca also are important crops, often growing together, and bales of the former lay piled up at many stations. ”

“ After many delays a powerful fleet set sail from Lisbon on May 5 for Pernambuco, consisting of fifteen Spanish and five Portuguese ships and carrying a large military force, partly destined for Bahia, but principally as a reinforcement for Matthias de Albuquerque. The expedition was commanded by Admiral Antonio de Oquendo, and was accompanied by Duarte de Albuquerque, the proprietor of Pernambuco. ”

“ The inhabitants of the province of Pernambuco were on the whole left to defend their own interests, it being hoped that the harassing warfare which they were prosecuting would prove the best means of inducing the Dutch to withdraw from the country. When it appeared, however, that the Low Countries were fitting out a strong fleet to be sent to Pernambuco under the command of Admiral Hadrian Patry, who was to take out with him many Dutch families as settlers, the Fabian policy of the court of Madrid was no longer pursued. ”

“ The town of Pernambuco has few recommendations to those who are not engaged in business. The houses are higher than those at Rio, the streets for the most part still more narrow, and certainly quite as dirty. In nearly all the towns and cities of Brazil, rain is the only scavenger, and by it the streets are kept tolerably clean in such of them as are built on declivities, but this, unfortunately, is not the case with Pernambuco; in the wet season, the streets are full of mud and water, and in the dry, the mud is converted into clouds of dust. ”

“ As a similar instance I may mention the city of Pernambuco, on the eastern coast of Brazil, containing 80,000 inhabitants. It is perfectly level like Greytown, surrounded and intersected with channels of water, above the level of which it only stands a few feet. The crowded parts of the town are noted for their evil smells and filth, but, though entirely without drainage, it is celebrated for its healthiness ”

“ Spray from the breakers on the reef opportunely wetting her sails gave them a flat surface to the wind as we came close haul.
The channel leading up the harbour was not strange to us, so we sailed confidently along the lee of the wonderful wall made by worms, to which alone Pernambuco is indebted for its excellent harbour; which, extending also along a great stretch of the coast, protects Brazil from the encroachment of the sea. ”

“ By the time that our ancestors were beginning to consider establishing a colony in Massachusetts, the Portuguese had already built dozens of sugar factories in this vicinity. Then the Dutch came and conquered, built Pernambuco and, during their twenty-five years on this coast, made it the administrative centre for their colony in northeast Brazil. Their capital, four miles north of the present commercial centre, is now a village of ruined palaces and ancient convents. ”

“ A certain set of men devote themselves to this business; rough riders, we should call them, very rough. Good horses are to be had at extraordinarily low prices. In the back country there are some grand and extensive forests, which produce fine cabinet woods and superior dye woods.
By consulting a map of the western hemisphere, it will be seen that Pernambuco is situated on the great eastern shoulder of South America, where it pushes farthest into the Atlantic Ocean, fifteen hundred miles south of Pará, and about five hundred north of Bahia. ”

“ This fort or garrison at Pernambuco was the scene of one or two raids by both French{254} and English seamen, and which hastened the Portuguese Crown to take serious steps to occupy the new territory in a more imposing manner. In 1531 Martin Affonso, with a fleet and about 300 colonists, landed at Pernambuco, and coasted down in the Bay of Rio, and to the mouth of the bay where Santos now stands. ”

“ In Pernambuco there were two regiments of pure blacks, entitled, respectively, the Old and New Henriques, in honour of Henrique Diaz, whose services will be remembered in the Pernambucan War; there were likewise mulatto regiments. It is remarkable that the gipsies should have found their way into this province, where they preserve themselves intact from other parts of the population. ”

“ The settlement of Pernambuco was not less flourishing; there were fifty sugar-works, the tenths of which were leased for nineteen thousand cruzados, or half that number of ducats. Olinda might contain seven hundred inhabitants, not including those who dwelt in the villas and works in the gardens of its vicinity. Three thousand men could be brought into the field; and it may be noted that as early as 1582 between four and five thousand African slaves were employed in the Captaincy. About five-and-forty ships came annually for sugar and brazil-wood. ”