George Gardner

Departure from Rio de Janeiro—Arrival at Bahia—Description of this City—Voyage to Pernambuco—Jangadas—Description of the City and Environs of Pernambuco—The Jesuits—The Peasantry—Town of Olinda—Its Colleges and Botanic Garden—Visit to the Village of Monteiro—The German Colony of CatucÁ—The Island of ItamaricÁ—Pilar—Salt-works of Jaguaripe—Prevalent Diseases in the Island—Its Fisheries—Peculiar Mode of Capture.

On the tenth of June, 1837, I arrived in Rio from the Organ Mountains, and during the remainder of that month, July, August, and the early part of September, occupied myself in arranging and packing the collections brought down with me, and in making a few excursions in the neighbourhood. Having at length despatched everything for England, I took a passage for Pernambuco in H.M. Packet Opossum, being now desirous to explore the northern provinces. We sailed from Rio on the fifteenth of September and after a passage of thirteen days, during which we had much bad weather and contrary winds, reached Bahia. At three o’clock P.M., on the twenty-eighth, we came to an anchor in the bay opposite the city, and about a mile distant from it. As the land along this part of the coast rises only a few hundred feet above the level of the sea, it is not seen at so great a distance as the high lands are at Rio. In sailing up the bay, we kept pretty close to the shore, and I could not help remarking the great luxuriance of the vegetation. Cocoa-nut trees and other large palms are very abundant, and the mango trees are both larger and more numerous than those about Rio. The city of Bahia, when first seen, has a very imposing appearance, the greater part of it being built on the face of a hill, which rises about 500 feet above the sea, and the houses, most of which are of several stories, are all white-washed externally. The effect is much heightened by the great number of banana, orange, and cocoa-nut trees which are intermingled with the houses, the dark green leaves contrasting well with the white, and affording a pleasant relief to the eye. The Packet being allowed to remain here forty-eight hours, for the preparation of the mails for Pernambuco and England, I went on shore shortly after our arrival, with some of the other passengers.

The city of Bahia, sometimes called San Salvador, is situated in the bay which is known by the name of “Todos os Santos.” It is divided into an upper and a lower town; the lower is built on the narrow slip of land that lies between the sea and the rising ground on which the upper town stands. It consists chiefly of one long street, which is both narrow, badly paved, and dirty. The houses are mostly high, and those adjoining the shore project considerably into the sea. After viewing this commercial portion of the city, we proceeded to the upper town. As the streets which form the communication between them are too perpendicular to allow the use of carriages, those who do not choose to walk are carried in a kind of covered chair slung on a pole, which is borne on the shoulders of two negroes. These “Cadeiras” are commonly used both by ladies and gentlemen, and can always be hired in the streets. We, however, preferred walking, and after passing through some of the principal streets, and visiting the inside of one of the large churches we strayed out a little way into the country, delighted with the rich and pleasing aspect which it afforded. In the evening we visited the reading room of the Literary Society, where we found a few of the newspapers, and many of the literary and scientific journals of France, England, and the United States. After a short stay, we went to a large hotel opposite the theatre, where we took up our quarters for the night; but, what with the uncomfortable beds, the rattling of dice, and the still louder clink of dollars, in an apartment immediately below us, which continued till nearly four o’clock in the morning, our night’s rest was not of the most refreshing nature.

On the forenoon of the following day, we visited a convent towards the west end of the city, where the nuns make artificial flowers for sale, from the feathers of birds. We were shown into a small room, separated from the body of the building by a thick wall, through which the traffic takes place by means of a large grated window. We were soon surrounded by wreaths of all kinds and colours suited for head dresses, either sent round to us in baskets, or pushed, one by one, through the grating on a stick. It is the duty of each nun in her turn to officiate as sales-woman, whenever purchasers visit the convent, the flowers being brought to her by the servants of the establishment, who are either black or brown girls; the one upon whom this duty fell at the period of our visit was neither young nor beautiful, and destroyed all my romantic notions regarding nuns and nunneries. Several purchases were made by my companions with a view of taking them as presents to England.

After leaving the convent, I hired a boat in order to proceed a few miles further up the bay, and landed on a peninsula called Bomfim, across which I walked, accompanied by one of the two blacks belonging to the boat, the distance being rather less than two miles. After leaving the shore, on which grew Sophora tomentosa and Eugenia Michelii, two shrubs common all along the coast of Brazil, I passed through a marsh containing several species of plants that were new to me. Beyond this, the road passed through a dry sandy hollow, in which not a breath of air was to be felt, and the rays of the mid-day sun, reflected from the white sand, had so heated the atmosphere, that I was almost suffocated before I could reach a little eminence at the other end of it. Here, also, I enriched my collections, and still further on I found the thistle-like Ampherephis aristata growing commonly by the road-sides; and some large pools in a marsh, under the shade of a thicket of giant palms, were quite covered over with Pistia stratiotes, a plant nearly related to the Duck-weeds of England, but of a much larger size; other pools were gay with the yellow flowers of Limnanthemum Humboldtianum. After reaching the shore I walked along it a little way, and then returned to the boat by a different route. In passing through a swampy place at the foot of a hill, on which a large church stands, I found a few specimens of the beautiful Angelonia hirsuta, with its long spikes of large blue flowers. I afterwards met with several new species of this fine genus, some of which, raised from seeds sent home by me, are now common in hot-houses.

During this walk I observed some very large mango trees, many of them twice the size of those growing about Rio. These trees have a handsome appearance when seen at a distance, surrounding the numerous white-washed country houses; the trunk, which is often of great thickness, seldom rises above eight or ten feet above the ground, when it branches into many widely-spreading ramifications, which rise to a great height, and are so densely covered with leaves as to be impenetrable to the burning rays of the sun, thus forming a most agreeable and luxuriant shade. At three o’clock we returned to the boat, well loaded with my day’s spoil. In the evening I dined with a gentleman to whom I brought letters from Rio, and there met a young Scotchman, who invited me to sleep at his house. Next morning he accompanied me a short way into the country; we started a little before six o’clock, walked to the distance of about six miles, and reached the city again by a different route before ten. The country inland, so far as I could observe, forms a sort of elevated table-land of a gently undulating nature, and the appearance of the vegetation bespeaks great richness of soil. Besides great plenty of large mango trees, I observed many jacks (Artocarpus integrifolius) of almost equal size, the trunks and large branches of which were loaded with their large yellow-coloured fruit. This tree is very much cultivated in this part of Brazil, and, I was told, that a few years before my visit, during a scarcity of provisions in the province, its fruit, which is yielded in the greatest abundance, was the means of preventing a famine among the black population. On our return to the city, we passed a small village close by the sea, the inhabitants of which, principally blacks, are mostly occupied in whale fishing, the sperm whale being rather plentiful on this part of the coast. On entering the bay, we observed a number of whale boats going out, manned by negroes. On visiting Bahia, one circumstance which forcibly strikes the attention of a stranger, even coming from the other provinces of Brazil, is the appearance of the blacks met with in the streets; they are the finest to be seen in the country, both men and women being tall and well-formed, and generally intelligent, some of them even, as I have elsewhere observed, being tolerable Arabic scholars. They have nearly all been imported from the Gold Coast, and, not only from their greater physical strength and intelligence, but from being united among themselves, they are more inclined to insurrectionary movements than the mixed races in the other provinces. Only a fortnight after I left Bahia a serious insurrection took place, headed, indeed, by white Brazilians, but supported by most of the black population; they kept possession of the city for many months, nor were they fully dispossessed of it till after the destruction of much life and property.

On the 31st, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, we set sail for Pernambuco. On the second night after we left, while I was walking the quarter-deck with the captain, the watch forward reported a sail close on the weather-bow; the crew were immediately piped to quarters, and in less than five minutes were all on deck ready for action. Shortly afterwards we saw the vessel pass us at some distance and disappear. As these packets generally carry home a large amount of specie to England, it was not without reason that the captain prepared himself for what might happen, especially on a coast where suspicious craft are not unfrequently hovering about. There was something exciting in this little incident, and it afforded matter for conversation on the following day.

After a passage of nine days, land was descried early in the morning from the mast-head, and in the course of a few hours we could see it from the deck, rising above the horizon like a long black cloud. On nearing the coast, it presented a very flat and barren-like aspect, forming a great and unpromising contrast to the magnificent entry to the bay of Rio de Janeiro. The town being built nearly on a level with the sea, we could only obtain a view of that portion of it which immediately skirts the shore, the houses and the cocoa-nut trees appearing above the horizon. No part of the coast within many leagues of Pernambuco rises to any height, except that whereon the old town, called Olinda, stands, and which is situated about three miles north of Recife, the name of the seaport. While standing in for the harbour, we passed a number of fishing-boats, of a very peculiar construction; they are called Jangadas, and formed of four, or more, logs of wood lashed together, having a mast and a very large sail, a fixed stool-like seat, but no bulwarks, so that the waves constantly break over them; they sail with remarkable speed, and often venture to a great distance from land. A few of the same craft may be seen at Bahia, but none at Rio. The light wood of which they are formed is obtained from a species of Apeiba, a genus allied to our own Linden-tree. We anchored in the outer roads about 12 o’clock, and after the lapse of an hour and a half, a pilot came on board, and conducted us into the harbour, which is quite a natural one, being formed by a reef that runs along the coast, at a little distance from the shore; the entrance is through a breach, upon the south side of which is a light-house and a small fort. A very heavy swell runs outside the reef and breaks over it, but there is always calm water within; and at full tide it is sufficiently deep to float the largest merchant vessels that visit the port.

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. It has always appeared extraordinary to me that epidemic diseases do not prevail to a much greater extent than they do under such circumstances. The town consists of three great divisions: that in which the principal trade is carried on, is situated on a narrow neck of land, which runs down between the sea and a river from Olinda, and is called Recife; another principally occupied with shops, and containing the palace of the President, is built on an island, and is known by the name of St. Antonio; the third, called Boa Vista, consisting principally of one long street, is constructed on the mainland, and is by far the finest part of the whole. These are all connected by means of two wooden bridges.

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. Except two or three churches it contains but few public buildings, and, at the period of my visit, it had not a single hotel of any description. The Palace in which the affairs of the provincial government are now carried on, was in former times the Jesuits’ College, and stands on the banks of the river; it is a large building of gloomy appearance, with walls of enormous thickness. When it was erected by these enterprising and charitable men, they little dreamed that their career was to terminate at so early a period as it did. It is handed down from father to son, particularly among the middle and lower classes of Brazil, that the destruction of Jesuitical power was a severe loss to the well-being of the country. There are of course but few alive now who formed the Company of Jesus, but the memory of them will long remain; I have always heard them spoken of with respect and with regret. What different men they must have been from the degraded race who now undertake the spiritual welfare of this nation! It is a hard thing to say, but I do it not without well considering the nature of the assertion, that the present clergy of Brazil are more debased and immoral than any other class of men. However much the Jesuits were slandered and persecuted from the jealousy of those who envied the respect in which they were held by their flocks, and the confidence which they reposed in them, enough of the good still remains to shame those who have succeeded them. More than one nation of Indians in Brazil, which, in the time of the Jesuits, had renounced their savage life and become Christians, have, since their suppression, returned to the condition from which, at so much risk and with so much labour, they had been redeemed. Whatever were the motives of the Jesuits, they are judged of in Brazil, not by them, but by their good works.

The inhabitants of the town of Pernambuco resemble very much those of Rio, but there is a great difference in the appearance of the country people, which here, as elsewhere, are easily distinguished from the citizens. Those seen in the streets of Rio de Janeiro are a tall handsome race of men, mostly from the mining districts, or the more southerly province of San Paulo; their dress consists of a linen jacket and trowsers, generally of a blue colour, brown leather boots, which are firmly tied round the leg a little above the knee, and a very high crowned broad-brimmed white straw hat. Those, on the contrary, who frequent the city of Pernambuco, are a more swarthy and more diminutive race, but still far superior in appearance to the puny citizens. There are two classes of them, the MatÚto and the Sertanejo: the MatÚtos inhabit the low flat country, which extends from the coast up to the high land of the interior, called the SertÃo, or desert, which gives name to, and is inhabited by, the Sertanejos. The dress of both for the most part, but of the latter in particular, consists of a low round-crowned broad-brimmed hat, jacket, and trowsers, made of a yellowish brown-coloured leather, that manufactured from the skin of the different kinds of deer being preferred; in place of a waistcoat they very frequently wear a triangular piece of the same kind of leather, fastened round the neck and middle by cords of the same material. The boots in use in the province of Rio are unknown here, and either shoes or slippers, also of brown leather, are worn instead. The MatÚto generally dispenses with the leather trowsers and shoes, using in place of them a pair of wide cotton drawers, which reach only a little below the knee, the legs remaining bare. Cotton and hides are the principal articles brought from the interior, and horses are the only beasts of burden, mules being as rarely used for that purpose here, as horses are in the southern provinces. Each horse carries two large bales of cotton as well as the driver, who places himself between them, stretching his legs forward on a level with his seat.

Upon landing in Pernambuco, I found Dr. Loudon, a Scotch physician resident in that city, awaiting my arrival, who kindly invited me to remain with him during my stay; and as he had then been sixteen years in the place, and was acquainted with most of the influential people, both foreign and Brazilian, I derived much advantage from his friendship, more particularly so, as he was very partial to the pursuit of natural history. Shortly after my arrival I delivered the letters of recommendation given me by Mr. Hamilton, the British Minister at the court of Rio, to Mr. Watts, the Consul, who obligingly offered to introduce me to the President of the province, Senhor Vicente Thomaz Pires de Figueredo Comargo. The permission to wait upon his Excellency having been given a few days afterwards, I accompanied Mr. Watts to the palace, together with Dr. Loudon, who was a personal friend of the President. He received me with great kindness, and when the object of my visit to the country was explained to him, he promised to afford all the assistance in his power, and, in the meantime, gave me a letter to Dr. Serpa, the Professor of Botany and Curator of the Botanic Garden at Olinda.

I was accompanied in my visit to Olinda by Mr. Nash, a young Englishman, to whom I was indebted for many acts of kindness during my visit at Pernambuco. There are three routes to Olinda from Recife; one along the shore, which is seldom taken on account of the loose sandy nature of the soil, and the complete exposure of the traveller to the sun. Another is by canoes, up the stream before mentioned by which the surplus water from a large lake behind Olinda is discharged into the sea; this stream runs parallel with the shore, from which it is separated by a high sand-bank, and is fringed on each side by a strip of mangroves, the mud in which they grow emitting at low tide a very disagreeable effluvium, and abounding in crabs of various sizes and colours, while clouds of mosquitos always hover around and harbour among the branches. The third route, which we pursued, runs parallel with the river, at a considerable distance inland. This road is quite level, and at both ends are seen several fine country houses, though much of it passes through uncultivated, and often marshy land. Occasionally it is enclosed by Mimosa hedges, in which is seen a slender kind of Jasmine (Jasminum Bahiense, DC.), whose white flowers at the early hour we passed were perfuming the air with their delightful fragrance. The road-side was gay with the large pale yellow flowers of Turnera trioniflora, and the delicate pink heads of a sensitive plant. Several different kinds of this latter plant grow very abundantly all over the northern parts of Brazil. Shelley has truly said, that

yet there are few in the whole range of the vegetable kingdom, which are so much an object of curiosity to all observers, or of so much interest to the physiologist. On approaching Olinda, I was delighted to find the surface of the lake—which abounds in alligators—covered with thousands of the splendid large white blossoms and broad floating leaves of a water-lily (NymphÆa ampla, DC.), and intermingled with them, the yellow flowers of Limnocharis Commersonii, and a large Utricularia.

The Botanic Garden is situated in a hollow, behind the town of Olinda, and, though of considerable size, has only a portion of it under cultivation; the residence of the Professor stands nearly in the centre. We found Dr. Serpa in his study, a rather large apartment, which he uses also as a lecture-room; he appeared to be about sixty years of age, and we were impressed with his agreeable manners and intelligence. Besides his other duties, he had the principal medical practice in Olinda. A few French works on Botany, Natural History, Agriculture, and Medicine, composed the chief part of his limited library. It was here that I first saw the ‘Flora Fluminensis,’ a work published at the expense of the Brazilian government. The drawings from which the plates were executed, were prepared at Rio de Janeiro about the end of the last century, under the direction of a Jesuit of the name of Vellozo. It cost £70,000, and, to use the words of Dr. Von Martius, is “a strange publication, which may be held up as an example of an ill-advised literary undertaking, and on so great a scale that it ought never to have been commenced. Eleven huge volumes, with about fifteen hundred plates, constitute this bulky work, whose usefulness is, alas! not in proportion to the expense it occasioned.”[4] The Doctor accompanied us in a walk round the Garden, which I found to contain little worthy of notice; a few European medicinal plants, struggling for existence, and some large Indian trees, being its principal productions; among the latter, however, were fine specimens of the Mango, Tamarind, Cinnamon, and the Date-Palm. He had lately received from the interior, plants of a species of Ipecacuanha, the roots of which form an article of export from Pernambuco, and the living specimens which I obtained from him are now growing freely in the stoves of the Glasgow Botanic Garden. They appear different from the one figured and described by St. Hilaire, from the south of Brazil, and will, I suspect, prove to be a distinct, though nearly related species. Leaving the garden, we walked a little way into the country, where I hoped to meet with something more interesting; and in this expectation I was not disappointed, as many new plants were added to my collections. On the dry bushy hills in this neighbourhood a wild fruit-tree grows very plentifully; it is the MangÁba of the Brazilians, and the Hancornia speciosa of botanists; it is a small tree belonging to the Natural Order ApocyneÆ, the small leaves and drooping branches of which give it somewhat the resemblance of the weeping birch. The fruit is about the size of a large plum, of a yellow colour, but streaked a little with red on one side, and the flavour is most delicious.

In the afternoon we returned to Olinda, to dine with another gentleman to whom I also carried letters, Senhor da Cunha. He had been educated in England, and was an intelligent man. After dinner we walked out to see the town, which is very pleasantly situated on an eminence not far from the sea. It is a place of considerable size, and in the olden time must have been a stirring one, particularly as regards the clergy, judging from the number of churches, convents, monasteries, &c. It has now, however, a deserted and desolate appearance, many fine houses being untenanted and falling to decay, and the streets are grown over with grass and weeds. On the outskirts of the seaward side of the town, there are the ruins of a large monastery, which we went to see on account of a hermit who had lived there upwards of seventeen years. We found it to be a very large building, consisting of a church in the centre, still in use, and two wings, containing the apartments formerly inhabited by the friars, which are fast running into decay, particularly those in the south wing. The north wing is in much better repair, having a few good rooms, which are inhabited by some of the students attending a theological and medical school, established in Olinda. Along the corridors, and in some of the larger rooms, are still a few paintings, but in a state of much decay. While surveying this great fabric, we could not help thinking of the contrast it now offers to the times, not long gone by, when its walls re-echoed to the footsteps and prayers of the devotees of a religion, which was then in a much more flourishing state than it now is, over nearly the whole of the empire of Brazil.

It was among the ruins of the south wing that the hermit lived. We visited the room in which he was said to be generally found, but he was not there. We then passed through a small court nearly choked with rubbish, and entered a large dark room, partly filled with old bricks and lime. Upon the floor of this wretched apartment we found him lying, presenting a most miserable appearance. His only covering consisted of a piece of thin black cloth wrapped round his body, his head, arms, legs, and feet being bare. He appeared to be about sixty years of age, but his long grey hair and beard made him look older, perhaps, than he really was. He was moaning and otherwise seemed to be in great agony, and it was with some difficulty he told us that two days before, while walking across the floor of the room above, it gave way, and he was precipitated to the place where we found him extended, and from which he was unable to move. We tried to raise him, but the slightest movement gave him excruciating pain. As some of his bones seemed to be broken, a young man who had accompanied us, went off immediately to procure assistance, and have him taken to the hospital. All the information I could obtain relating to this unfortunate being, was that at one time, he had been an officer in the army, and was now doing penance for a murder he had committed in his youth. We also visited a convent, the nuns belonging to which prepare preserved fruits for sale. Unlike the one I visited at Bahia, we could only speak to, not see, those who were within. The fruit was put upon a shelf of a revolving kind of cupboard, and in this manner sent out to us; the money and empty plates were returned in the same way. Like all the preserves I have met with in the country, those we had here were spoiled with too much sugar.

For the first few days, my walks did not extend much beyond the suburbs of the town. The country being quite flat, the soil sandy, and the dry season having commenced, the herbaceous vegetation in the more exposed situations was beginning to suffer for want of rain. For many miles round the town, the Cocoa-nut and other large Palms grow in the greatest profusion, mixed with fine trees of the Cashew-nut, then loaded with their curious and refreshing fruit of a yellow or reddish colour, and the Jack, the Bread-fruit, and the Orange. Much attention, I observed, is paid to the gardens attached to the houses near the town, many of them being tastefully laid out, and adorned with beautiful shrubs, partly Brazilian and partly of Indian origin. The Mimosa and other hedges, as about Rio, are festooned with climbers, among which the Cow-itch plant (Stizolobium urens) is the most abundant. There is also in many places a large species of Dodder (Cuscuta), which climbs over the hedges with its long yellow cord-like branches, and gives them a most singular appearance. The sea-coast yielded me many curious plants, particularly one part of it about eight miles to the southward of the town, where the soil for some distance inland is very sandy and covered with shrubs. There I found in great plenty a new kind of those curious mossy Cacti (Melocactus depressus, Hook.); it was but a small one, being only about four inches high, and eighteen in circumference.

About a fortnight after my arrival at Pernambuco, Dr. Loudon removed to his country house, situated on the banks of the Rio Capibaribe, about four miles west from Recife; and, as the country round it was chiefly uncultivated, this afforded more ample scope for my researches. The Rio Capibaribe, which empties itself into the harbour at the Recife, is of small size, and is navigable only for canoes to a distance of about ten miles from the town. The navigation for six miles, as far as Monteiro, is very pleasant, and the scenery is rendered more agreeable by the number of villas, surrounded by gardens, which are scattered along its banks. Many of these houses are inhabited during the fine or dry season only, when most of the wealthy citizens resort to them for the benefit of bathing in the river; for, in hot climates, fresh water is preferred, as bathing in salt water generally produces great irritation on the surface of the body, from the salt crystallizing there, unless washed off with fresh water. For the purpose of bathing, each house has a large shed projecting into the river, the tops and sides of which are covered with cocoa-nut leaves. They are mostly rebuilt every year, as they are generally carried away by the floods in the rainy season.

About twenty miles to the westward of Pernambuco, there is a small German Colony called CatucÁ; it was established about eighteen years before, at a period when a German regiment, which had been in the service of the Brazilian government, was here disbanded, but it is now fast dwindling into decay. The few families residing there gained a livelihood by the manufacture of charcoal, which they carried to town for sale. Being desirous of spending a day or two at this place, I started early one morning in the beginning of November, accompanied by Mr. White, a young gentleman whom I had previously met on the Organ mountains. We were guided by two Germans who were returning from Pernambuco, and their horses carried our luggage. Our route for about two hours was through a flat country, principally planted with mandiocca, although a great part of it was still uncleared, only the large trees having been cut down: a few of those remaining rose high above their fellows of the wood, and agreeably diversified the landscape. After passing through this cultivated country, and ascending a slight eminence, we entered the virgin forest. Previously the road had been of a sandy nature, but now we found it to consist of hard red clay. Many of the trees were very lofty, although they do not commonly attain the stature of those in the Province of Rio, nor have their trunks the same circumference. Among the shrubs that grew below them, I observed a few MelastomaceÆ, MyrtaceÆ, and RubiaceÆ. Here everything betokened a drier atmosphere, and a more arid soil than at Rio. There were no Ferns, Begonias, Pipers, or Orchidaceous plants. On the stems and branches of the larger trees a few BromeliaceÆ and AroideÆ were alone to be seen. After riding for about an hour through this forest, we reached the cleared valley containing the cottages of the colonists, several of which we passed before reaching the one in which we remained. These cottages are generally of small size, although much superior in cleanliness and neatness of arrangement to those belonging to the same class of Brazilians. At night we slung our hammocks in a small apartment, and enjoyed a sound sleep till morning.

My friend being desirous of having a few days’ shooting in the woods with one of the Germans, I determined to accompany them, in the hope of making some additions to my botanical stores. We set off early, entering the wood about a mile from the cottage. Here, as in similar situations near the town, I observed a great deficiency of herbaceous vegetation, and in a walk of about two hours collected only a few Ferns. In passing through this wood, we saw an enormously large tree, a species of Lecythis; the ground beneath it was covered with its curious pot-like capsules nearly as large as a man’s head, their resemblance to a pot being much increased by the large lid which falls off from the top of each when the seeds within are ripe. Most of those we saw were empty, the nuts having been taken out by the monkeys, who are very fond of them. Leaving this wood, we suddenly came upon another cleared valley, containing the ruins of several cottages; this, we were told, had been the first site of the settlement, but as the colonists were forbidden to cut any more wood in that direction, they moved their quarters to the place before mentioned. Near these dismantled dwellings we found abundance of pine-apples, and refreshed ourselves with some which were ripe, sheltering ourselves from the sun under the shade of an out-house which had formerly served as a place for the preparation of farinha from the Mandiocca root. Near this place I found two beautiful trees, one of them a species of Vochysia, covered with long spikes of bright yellow flowers, and the other the splendid Moronobea coccinea, literally covered with its globular crimson blossoms. In returning I collected specimens of a yellow-flowered Palicourea, called Mata Rato, not, however, the same plant which is known at Rio by the name of Erva do Rato. It proves, notwithstanding, that poisonous qualities are attributed to different plants of the same genus in different parts of the country.

Close to the main land, and about thirty miles north from Pernambuco, there is a small island called ItamaricÁ, which on account of its fine climate and soil, and the abundance and superiority of the fruit produced there, is designated the garden of Pernambuco. I was desirous of visiting this place before leaving the province, and with this intention I started about the middle of December, and considered myself fortunate in having as a companion Mr. Adamson, a young gentleman who had been some years in the country, and was fond of botanical pursuits. To make the voyage, we had to hire a Jangada, one of the raft boats so common on this part of the coast; it was manned by a crew of three men. To a stranger it appears a very singular kind of craft, and had I not been well assured that, primitive as their construction seems, they are perfectly safe, I should have felt some hesitation in embarking on one of them.

Having got our luggage properly placed on its elevated platform, so as to be out of the reach of the water, which continually washes over these rafts, we commenced our voyage. The wind almost constantly blows at that season from the north-east, and consequently was nearly right against us, rendering it necessary to beat up between the reef and the shore; the intermediate distance varying from a quarter of a mile to two miles, all the way from Recife to the island. By four o’clock in the afternoon, finding that the unfavourable wind prevented our performing more than half the voyage, we determined to land at a small fishing village called Pao Amarello, and there pass the night. It was not without some difficulty that we obtained a shelter wherein we could sling our hammocks; after meeting with several refusals, the owner of a small public-house (Venda) pointed out an empty hut made of cocoa-nut leaves, and permitted us to take possession of it for the night. Hither, therefore, we moved our luggage, and after a supper of stewed fish and farinha, slept soundly till daybreak. After getting up, we took a walk a little way into the country; the soil we found to be sandy, and the herbaceous vegetation completely scorched up by the drought. At this place the reef is about a mile distant from the shore, and is distinctly perceptible along its whole line, both at high and low water, for although the ebb tide leaves the rocks quite bare, the surf marks its position even at the highest flow. The wind having now shifted more to the eastward, we were enabled after breakfast to proceed on our voyage, and as we made much more rapid progress than on the preceding day, we reached the island at noon, and landed on the eastern side of it at Pilar, the principal town.

We carried with us two or three letters of introduction, and the first we delivered obtained us quarters. The name of our host was Alexander AlcantarÁ, the proprietor of a large salt-work, of which there are several on the island. His house, like nearly all the others we saw, was of one story, the walls consisting of a frame-work of wood, the interstices of which were filled up with a kind of clay, and the roof was covered with tiles; there were four good rooms in it, all floored with boards; it was delightfully situated near the sea, and surrounded by cocoa-nut trees. In the afternoon we were taken by our host to see his salt-works, which were established in a valley into which the tide flows at high water. The water from which the salt is made, is kept in large reservoirs, whence it is from time to time made to flow into pits, where it is allowed to evaporate. At this place, which is called Jaguaribe, there are twenty-four distinct manufactories, belonging to as many individuals. The place where the water is evaporated is divided into small compartments, measuring sixteen feet by twelve. In that belonging to Senhor AlcantarÁ, there are one hundred and twenty such compartments; into each of these, two inches of water is allowed to flow from the large reservoir, and in eight days this is completely evaporated. It yields him, altogether, annually, about four hundred alqueires of salt, each alqueire weighing eight arrobas, and each arroba thirty-two pounds. Three qualities are produced, the best being used for domestic purposes, a middle sort for curing fish and an inferior kind used principally to salt hides. On an average it brings about 2s. 6d. an alqueire, so that his whole income from this source is only about 50l. a year. Besides the manufactories at this place, there are others in different parts of the island.

The island, which is separated from the main land by a strait about half a league broad, is nearly three leagues in length, and from one and a half to two in breadth. It contains only two small villages, viz., ItamaricÁ, situated on a height near the sea, on the south-east side, containing only about twenty houses; and Pilar, the place at which we landed, formed of a few irregular streets, and containing about eighty habitations. The whole number of houses in the island, we were told, amounted to three hundred, and the entire population to about two thousand. Although there are many very comfortable looking dwellings, yet the mass of the houses have a poor appearance, being either formed of wicker-work and mud, or of cocoa-nut leaves. As fishing is the principal occupation of the inhabitants, their houses are generally near the shore. The fish are mostly taken in pens (currals) that are constructed of stakes a little beyond low-water mark. Another source of income to the inhabitants, is the cocoa-nut trees, which form a dense deep belt round the upper part of the island; both the fish and nuts are taken to Pernambuco for sale. In the interior of the island there are three sugar plantations; and several of the more wealthy of the inhabitants cultivate grapes and mangoes to a considerable extent, both of which sell well in Pernambuco, bringing a better price than those cultivated elsewhere in the province. Good grapes I bought at tenpence a pound, but they give the cultivator a great deal of trouble, as the vines are sure to be attacked by a large brown ant, and stripped of their leaves in a single night, unless care be taken to have the lower part of the stem isolated by water. The whole of the province of Pernambuco is much overrun by these insects. During the time of our visit the mangoes were just getting into season, and I found them to be very much superior in flavour to any I had previously tasted; they are much smaller than those cultivated near Pernambuco, and very much resemble peaches in colour.

During the few days we remained on the island we made many excursions through it in all directions; instead of the almost uniformly level character of the country in the vicinity of Pernambuco, here there is a gentle undulation of hill and dale. There is not much large timber, the wooded portions generally consist of small trees and shrubs, which give to many parts of the island an aspect more like that of an English orchard, than an uncultivated equatorial region; some of the views we obtained from the hills, if not grand, were at least pleasing. Though there are both a priest and a lawyer on the island, there is no medical man; and as soon as I was known to be one, my assistance was solicited from all quarters. The first individual I was requested to visit, was a man with a large abscess in the neck, from the suppuration of the right submaxillary gland; he could neither speak nor swallow, and his relatives thought him on the point of death. I opened the abscess, which gave him instant relief, and next day when I called, he was sitting up, and able to overwhelm me with thanks for what he conceived to be a miraculous cure. This case so established my reputation, that I had more medical practice than I desired. Two of my patients were in the last stage of consumption, but by far the greater proportion of the cases resulted from intermittent fever, chiefly arising from derangement of the digestive organs, accompanied with enlargement of the spleen. Consumption is rare in Brazil: during the whole of my travels I did not meet with more than half a dozen cases. As I would receive no fees, many presents of fish, fowls, and fruit were sent me.

I have said that the chief occupation of the inhabitants is fishing, and that the fish are nearly all taken in pens (currals). These enclosures are very common all along the coast of Pernambuco, and of the following shape.

They are made of strong stakes, driven firmly into the ground at the distance of a few feet from each other, the interstices between them being afterwards filled up by small straight rods closely tied together. The straight line of rods is sometimes nearly a quarter of a mile in length, and runs out away from the shore; it answers the purpose of guiding the fish into the enclosures at the farthest end of it.

The day before we left the island, we accompanied our host to visit the curral belonging to him, in order to witness the method of taking fish; they are only visited at low water. We went in a canoe to the entrance of the innermost enclosure; our host then stripped himself, as did also another person who accompanied us, and entered the inner enclosure, taking with them a small net a little deeper than the water, with a short pole fixed to each end of it. One of the men then fixed one of the poles perpendicularly close to one side of the entrance to the enclosure, while the other began to unfold the net, closing with it the entrance so as to prevent the escape of the fish; he then walked round by the side of the enclosure till he reached the other person, when the net was rolled up, thus enclosing in it all the fish contained in the curral, which amounted to about a dozen very fine ones. We were informed that at this season very few are taken; so few, indeed, that they are scarcely sufficient for the consumption of the families to whom the currals belong; in the rainy season, however, they are taken so abundantly, that boat-loads of them are sent to the Pernambuco market. We returned to Recife in a large canoe.