MR. G ARDNER'S TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF BRAZIL.
HERE at last is a book of travels; not indeed distinguished by such wild adventures or hairbreadth escapes as characterized some of the older ex- plorers, who carried their life in their hand, or exciting in the reader such mystetious interest as Park when he penetrated the wilds of Africa to trace the then unknown course of the Niger. But Mr. Gardner is for a great part of his route upon new ground : nearly the whole of it has only been twice traversed before ; and even the sea-ports of Rio, Bahia, and Pernambuco, have a freshness in their varied races, singular society, and Tropical vegetation, which form an agreeable contrast to the eternal pictures of Europe and Asia. There is adventure also. Travelling through a thinly-peopled country without a government, he was beset by wars and rumours of wars, and tales of Indian robbers ; a naturalist, he was exposed to dangers from the reptile tribes ; a wanderer in the wilderness, he was dependent upon his stores or on accident for provision for himself and cattle; and though his privations were not equal to those which many travellers have encountered, he had to undergo hunger, thirst, heat, and cold, and was continually thrown upon the kindness of strangers. His profession as a medical man, in a country where even the humblest apothecary is a rarity, and where anything like surgical skill is unknown, often procured him greater consideration than would have attended any other character, and introduced him more familiarly into society, besides obtaining for him solid assistance.
The first object of our traveller was botanical. A pupil of Sir William Jackson Hooker at Glasgow Mr. Gardner so profited by the Professor's instructions, that Sir William appears to have procured friends who assisted the aspirant for scientific research with the necessary funds to traveL Brazil was the region fixed upon ; and in May 1836, Mr. Gard- ner departed from Glasgow; reached Rio Janeiro in July ; and remained in the country till June 1841. Of the five years, two were spent at Rio, Bahia, and Pernambuco, as head-quarters, whilst botanical ex- cursions were made in the vicinity of those towns. Three years were occupied in travelling from the port of Aracaty, in about the 5th degree of South latitude, through the interior as far West as the 48th degree of longitude, and thence back to Rio ; the extent of country traversed embracing some ten degrees of latitude and twelve of longitude, and passing through the gold and diamond mine districts, as well as the un- cultivated wastes of the interior.
The Tropical fertility of parts of this great continent have frequently, and naturally enough, excited in the minds of men an almost overwhelm- ing idea of boundless production ; and some writers have luxuriated in the notion of the sugar and coffee with which Brazil could furnish the world if permitted to do so by free trade. These prospects of commercial El Dorados vanish on a near approach. The pages of Mr. Gardner show that many districts of the interior are unproductive from want of water, while many others cannot raise Tropical productions, though within the Tropics, owing to the cold of their elevation as table-lands. With all the drawbacks, however, of sterility, cold, and mountains, there is fertile land enough in Brazil to produce a vast deal more than it does at present, were it not for the laziness of the people. The Brazilians of the interior seem preeminent among the idle of the earth. They had rather hunger than work. With enough of materials round them, their houses are of the most miserable character, often mere Irish hovels; and with land in plenty at their disposal, they do not grow sufficient for their own consumption : at many places Mr. Gardner could not purchase food, for theall-suffichmt
reason that there was none. In the neighbourhood of the sea-ports and in the mining districts, demand and the example of foreigners stimulate then Brazilian to more exertion ; but his temperament and habit prevent him from becoming industrious. He extends the power of the doke far niente beyond himself even to his slaves. After bearing testimony to the fact of the continuance of the slave-trade in defiance of the law, and observing that when he was in the country the supply was fully equal to the demand, Mr. Gardner goes on to describe slavery in the Brazils.
"Previous to my arrival in Brazil, I had been led to believe, from the reports that have been published in England, that the condition of the slave in that coun- try was the most wretched that could be conceived; and the accounts which I heard when I landed—from individuals whom I now find to have been little in- formed on the point—tended to confirm that belief. A few years' residence in the country, during which I saw more than has &Ben to the lot of most Euro- peans, has led me to alter very materially those early impressions. I am no ad- vocate for the continuance of slavery; on the contrary, I should rejoice to see it swept from off the face of the earth: but I will never listen to those who represent the Brazilian slave-holder to be a cruel monster. My experience among them has been very great, and but very few wanton acts of cruelty have come under my own observation. The very temperament of the Brazilian is adverse to its general occurrence. They are of a slow and indolent habit, which causes much to be overlooked in a slave that by people of a more active and ardent disposition would be severely punished. Europeans, who have this latter peculiarity more strongly inherent in them are known to be not only the hardest of taskmasters,
but the most severe punishers of the faults of their slaves. * • •
"The master has it in his own power to chastise his slaves at his own discre- tion: wane, however, prefer sending the culprit to the Calabonca, where, on the payment of a small sum, punishment is given by the police. Many of the crimes for which only a few lashes are awarded are of such a nature that in England would bring upon the perpetrator either death or transportation. It is only for very serious crimes that a slave is given up entirely to the public tribunals, as then his services are lost to the owner, either altogether or at least for a long On most of the plantations the slaves are well attended to, and appear to be very happy: indeed, it is a characteristic of the Negro, resulting no doubt from his careless disposition, that he very soon gets reconciled to his condition. I have conversed with slaves in all parts of the country, and have met with but very few who expressed any regret at having been taken from their own country, or a de- sire to return to it. On Some of the large estates at which I have resided for short periods, the number of slaves often amounted to three or four hundred; and but for my previous knowledge of their being such, I could never have found out from my own observations that they were slaves. I saw a set of contented and well- conditioned labourers turning out from their little huts, often surrounded by a small garden, and proceeding to their respective daily occupations; from which they returned in the evening, but not broken and bent down with the severity of their tasks. The condition of the domestic slave is perhaps even better than that of the others; his labour is but light, and he is certainly better fed and clothed. I have almost universally found the Brazilian ladies kind both to their male and female domestic slaves: this is particularly the case when the latter have acted as nurses. On estates where there has been no medical attendant, I have often found Ile lady ur the proprietor attending to the sick in the hospital herself." In a literary point of view, this book is respectable, but not stitting. The general reader may perhaps feel that the botanical and geological accounts rather interfere with the personal narrative; though they are not pushed so far as in several works. The descriptions of the towns on the sea-coast, and of some of the excursions in their neighbourhood, are rather fiat, from dealing with scenes that have already been described ; and although the features are by no means common, Mr. Gardner wants the power to give force and novelty to scenes with which we have already been made acquainted. Indeed, he apologizes in his preface for the cir- cumstances under which his notes were taken—" for the most part writ- ten during those hours which under other circumstances should have been devoted to sleep." Such, however, are precisely those parts to which the charge of flatness does not apply ; and these are by far the larger portion of the volume. When camping out on the mountain-top or in the wil- derness—roughing it in his long journies through the interior—observing the very singular mode of life there presented to his notice—describing the curious characters that fell under his observation, or giving an ac- count of more tangible things—as the nature of the diseases, the arts, or substitute for arts of the people, and the natural productions of the country—Travels in the Interior of Brazil are full of attraction. In short, wherever the subject has sufficient life and interest in itself, Mr. Gardner has sufficient power to present them to the reader ; but he wants art to endow the known or the commonplace with novelty and animation by his mode of treating them. The book, like the country it describes, is full of new matter, and would furnish extracts of a very various and extensive kind ; Cut we must confine ourselves to a few samples. Here is one on a subject which just now possesses an interest from the stir on the Tea-duties.
BRAZILIAN TEA.
The avenue [of the Botanical Gardens at Rio] which leads up from the en- trance is planted on each side with the pine-like casuarina: it is on a piece of ground about an acre in extent, on the left-hand side of this avenue, that the tea- Pants grow which were imported from China by the grandfather of the present Emperor. It was thought that the climate and soil of Brazil would be suitable for its cultivation; but the success of the experiment has not equalled the expec- tations which were formed of it, notwithstanding that the growth of the plants and the preparation of the leaves were managed by natives of China accustomed to such occupations. In the province of San l'aulo a few large plantations of tea have been established; that belonging to the Ex-Regent Pekin containing upwards of twenty thousand trees. The produce is sold in the shops at Rio, and in ap- pearance is scarcely to be distinguished from that of Chinese manufacture; but the flavour is inferior, having more of a herby taste. It is sold at about the same price; bat it is now ascertained that it cannot be produced so as to give a suffi- cient recompense to the grower, the price of labour being much greater in Brazil than in China: to remunerate, it is said that Brazil tea ought to bring five shil- lings per pound.
MIRACULOUS CASE.
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, ac- companied 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.
NAVIGATING AGAINST THE WIND.
The canoe was carried down the stream by the force of the current; but in the afternoon, and during the greater part of the night, the sea-breeze blew so strong as to impede our progress. The boatmen, however, adopted a plan to overcome this, which I have never seen elsewhere, nor even heard of; and I will therefore explain it in a few words. Landing at a place where trees grew in abun- dance, the men set to work and out off a considerable quantity of branches, which were tied tightly together with cords; one end of a long rope was made fast round its middle, while the other end was secured to the canoe. They then steered for a part of the river where the current was strong, and threw the bundle overboard; which, being heavy from its green state, floated just below the surface of the water, and in this manner being entirely out of the influence of the wind, it received the whole force of the current; by which means the canoe was dragged down at a rate little inferior to that by which we descended during the calm of the day.
MORALS IN THE INTERIOR: CRATO.
Scarcely any of the better class live with their wives: a few years after their marriage they generally turn them out of the house to live separately, and re- place them by young women who are willing to supply their place without being bound by the ties of matrimony. In this manner the people have two houses to keep up. Among others who are living in this condition, I may mention the Juiz de Direito, the Juiz dos Orfaos, and most of the larger shopkeepers. Such a state of immorality is not to be wondered at when the conduct of the clergy is taken into consideration: the Vicar (Vigario), who was then an old man between seventy and eighty years of age, is the father of six natural children; one of whom was educated as a priest, afterwards became President of the province, and was then a Senator of the empire, although still retaining his clerical title. Daring my stay in Crato, he had arrived there on a visit to his father, bringing with him his mistress, who was his own cousin, and eight children out of ten he had by her; having at the same time five other children by another woman, who died in child- bed of the sixth. Besides the Vigatio, there were three other priests in the town all of whom have families by women with whom they live openly, one of them being the wife of another person.
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