Part 7

On Sundays and other holidays, the church processions are extraordinary. On a Sunday afternoon, soon after my first arrival in Rio Jeneiro, I witnessed a grand example of the above fetes. The streets were thronged with a gaping multitude, who were eager to pay their devotion to the rites of mother church. First in advance appeared a guard of soldiers, marching to slow music; these were followed by a number of citizens, dressed in black, each bearing a long, lighted, wax taper; then came a small guard of soldiers, followed by four beautiful females, dressed in light muslin, having wings of gauze, extended by wires, and crowned with a wreath of flowers, holding in their hands emblems of a harp; and immediately following, under a superb canopy, upheld by eight soldiers, appeared the grand object of all this ceremony, the reverend and holy Father of the church, to whom, as he moved along in mighty pomp and solemn show, the crowd on each side spontaneously dropped and bowed the knee. Another file of soldiers and citizens next came up, followed by the underlings of the church—some of various shades of color, even to sooty black, but who were, notwithstanding, arrayed in clerical robes—brought up the rear of this gorgeous pageant.

LA PLATA.

In thirty four degrees south latitude, equi-distant from the equator as New York, is the grand and majestic La Plata. On approaching the river from the sea, the low and level land appears wholly different in appearance from the wild and towering front along the coast of Brazil.

This vast river is a hundred and fifty miles wide at the mouth, and extends, with a gradual contraction and in a winding direction, along the shores of Paraguay, in the heart of South America, a distance of twelve hundred miles. At Monte Video the water is brackish, and cannot be drank, but at a short distance above, though it appears at all times turbid and discolored, as if with the yellow mud at the bottom; the taste is sweet and palatable. A sealing ship was once cast away on the rocks of Faulkland Island, and a few of the hands with difficulty saved themselves in the long boat. Being on a barren land, they resolved, with one barrel of beef, which they had fortunately recovered, and a scanty supply of water, to commit themselves to the mercy of the waves in their frail bark, and pushed for the river of Plate. After a miserable passage and expending their entire stock of provisions, they arrived at last, even to the inner roads of Buenos Ayres, ascended the deck of the first vessel they saw, and implored, ‘in the name of God,’ a draught of water!—having traversed over a surface of one hundred miles of good fresh water, for twenty four hours, not apprehending that it was fresh, and sailed dismally over it, perishing with intolerable thirst.

The tides in the river, as far up as Buenos Ayres, are, in general, regular, except when influenced by strong and constant winds, and the rise and fall is about eight or ten feet. The bed of the river is of hard sand, and when the tides are low no boats can come near the shore, and many persons gain a living by conveying goods and passengers from the boats and craft to the shore, which is sometimes a quarter of a mile. The following fact will illustrate the power of the wind upon the water of this river. Many years ago, during the contest with Spain, a Spanish sloop of war was lying in the outer roads, distant at least seven miles from the city. A succession of strong pamperos,[3] in a few days laid bare the whole ground of the inner harbor, and the vessels and craft were left motionless and dry. The winds still continuing to roll back the waters, even the proud Spaniard, it was discovered, was laid bare to the keel. Preparations were immediately made by the patriots to attack her, in this her stationary and perilous situation. A large body of artillerists, with some pieces of heavy cannon, descended the banks of the river, and were drawn along on the sand by horses, and all the bustle of a march, and preparation for battle, as on the tented field, were seen on ground which the winds had cleared for them, and over which the waves were wont to roar. The astonished Spaniards saw with alarm and consternation, the approach of an enemy on horseback, where a few days before their ship had rode in ten fathoms of water. They, however, prepared for a desperate conflict, being resolved to defend their ship, rather now their castle, to the last. Their fate appeared almost certain; but fortune, for once, favored them, and accomplished more in ten minutes, than their own greatest bravery. The action had commenced, when an unusual shout of triumph from the deck of the Spaniard, caused the assailants to look beyond, when with a dismay like that of Pharaoh’s host, they beheld the surge rolling in and roaring towards them! The battle ceased instantly—the alarm was electric—the traces were cut from the cannons—the guns were abandoned—and they gallopped off in full retreat, with the sea in close pursuit at their heels, and were precipitantly driven up again, by this new enemy, from the invasion of her possessions.

Monte Video is so called from the hill near the entrance of the harbor. It is on the eastern side, or ‘Banda Oriental,’ of the river. It has a good appearance from the water; but on traversing the streets, there is nothing in the buildings to interest or admire. The houses are low, covering a great extent of ground; generally two stories in front, and but one in the rear, forming a square and a court or yard, in the centre. It is strongly fortified, and the citadella or castle well garrisoned. The city is now in possession of the Portuguese. In 1813 it was taken by the Patriots, who invested it by sea and land for a long period, and cut off all supplies. The famine was at last most distressingly severe, and means at which humanity shudders, were employed to gain a pitiful morsel to protract a miserable existence. With true Spanish obduracy, they refused all terms, till they sold for food all they possessed, and parents even bargained their daughters’ honor for a handful of bread. Every thing eatable, and every living animal was devoured—horses, cats and mules—and rats, with the immense numbers of which, the city was once overrun, either alive or dead, sold for a dollar each! The Patriots did not long hold possession of the city, for the Portuguese, who had always laid claim to the lower or eastern side of the river, as the southern bounds of the Brazil dominions, soon took possession of it, and are still its masters. During these occurrences, the Patriot General Artigas, of Buenos Ayres, taking offence at some measures of the government, ambitious and well informed, deserted the common cause, and crossed the river to Colonia, where he soon mustered a formidable body of adherents, whom he urged to assert their independence of all other powers, and form a separate government, though they were before considered as equally concerned in the common cause of the country. Various detachments of troops were sent at different times from Buenos Ayres, to subject them, but without success, and but few returned. Artigas’ army being all mounted, would fly when success was doubtful. Thus affairs remained till a short time since, when this people, now called _gente_ of the ‘Banda Oriental,’ declared war against the encroaching Portuguese, and attacked Monte Video. The other provinces of the La Plata, deeply concerned in the event, and being now on good terms, assisted them, at first secretly, and at last openly, against the common enemy. The Portuguese declared war against the Patriots in toto, and the privateers of the latter will greatly annoy the Brazilian commerce, and probably be gainers by the struggle.

Ensenada is a small village, situate on the same side with Buenos Ayres, and about forty miles below. Several vessels generally lay here to take in the jerk beef, which they carry mostly to the West Indies. The manner of preparing this is simply by cutting off the flesh of the slaughtered ox, and hanging it in the air to dry. No salt is used, such is the purity of the atmosphere in this delightful climate. The entrance from the river to the village is, as before related, through narrow, winding creeks, on the sides of which, innumerable varieties of the feathered tribe, twittering from grove to grove and from spray to spray, and expanding their brilliant plumage to the sun, pour out their melodious strains of praise to the great God of nature, whose goodness is over all, and who delights in the happiness of all his creatures. The people are sociable and kind, and fond of the company of strangers, particularly Americans, whom they often amuse by their absurd and ludicrous questions respecting the customs of other countries. The houses are low, and built of earth and cane. The villagers are of a dark complexion, but many of the women are fair and have peculiarly sweet voices.

Buenos Ayres, the capital of the provinces of the Rio de La Plata, has an ancient and gloomy appearance from the water; but the traveller, on landing, finds much to be pleased with. The streets cross each other at right angles, and are mostly paved, with good side-walks. A street runs along the beach, parallel with the river, nearly the whole extent of the city, from which there is nothing to shade the prospect of the pedestrian, who can enjoy, in his early rambles, the pure and balmy breath of the morning, (which are here, in this southern latitude, particularly fine) and behold the great king of day rising in the east, as from the bed of the ocean. At the edge of the water, and below the banks, he may see, too, from the earliest dawn till noon, an immense number of black washer women, who line the whole extent of the shore, for all the washing is performed in this manner. They bring down upon their heads, large trays of clothing to the river, and select a hole or natural excavation in the tuskers of sand, which the ebbing tide has filled with water, and which is covered with grass; and kneeling upon the ground, with their pipes or cigars in their mouths, commence their labor, which is by beating instead of rubbing. They are, however, called excellent in their business, and clean clothing is considered by all ranks as an indispensable requisite.

During the warm months of summer, it is the practice in which all ranks partake, to enjoy, after a sultry and dusty day, the charming refreshment of bathing. From an hour before sunset till dark, may be seen, in the place before occupied by the washers, a mixed multitude of many hundreds of both sexes, and of all classes and ages, old men and children, young men and maidens, promiscuously, and apparently with much pleasure, performing their daily and healthy ablutions.

But start not my fair reader! Though this mixed assemblage, so employed, would appear to the refined citizen of the north to savor of a want of propriety, yet this luxury is enjoyed without any deviation from decency or good breeding. Such is the force of custom. Whole families, even the clergyman, with his household, come down and enter the water together. The females of all ranks generally form separate parties, and are each attended to the water side by a female slave, who carries a change of dress and a bathing habit. Then seated on the grass and enveloped in a sheet, they disrobe beneath their ample covering, slip on the _camisa_, and trip into the water. There is no appearance of impropriety, but all seem only bent on refreshing themselves, and improving this ready and cheap bath, after the heat and the dust of the day. Let the following anecdote corroborate. I was one afternoon, after my disaster, indulging in my favorite recreation of swimming, at a time when the tide was fast flowing and the waves beating to the shore. I had reached some distance from the beach, and had gained and stood resting upon a small eminence at the bottom, with my head only above water. I was desirous of trying my former feats under water, and partly forgetting my disabled leg, I plunged beneath the surface and swam a great distance farther from the bank. On rising, I perceived the tide was fast conveying me up the river, and it would require my strongest efforts to recover the shore, for the waves ran quick and short. I wanted breath, and on the ability of my lame limb I had placed too much dependence. I attempted in vain to reach the Mole Head, and the lone sentry at the end stood wondering at the motions of an object so far within the stream. Finding my situation extremely hazardous, and wishing no impediment, I stripped off my nankin pantaloons, threw them to the waves behind me, and made a last, anxious and resolute push to the land. I succeeded so far as to reach a tusker or sand bank, at the bottom, and on tiptoe I could keep my chin above water, and balancing myself to the undulating swell of the waves, I sufficiently rested myself, and luckily regained my pantaloons, which came drifting along by me. Taking a leg of this garment in my teeth, I ventured another stretch, which brought me breast high on the sand. I there drew on my covering, and searched along for my dress. Various groups had assembled on the beach during my aquatic excursion, and I was concerned for the loss of my clothes. A black, female slave at last came towards me, whose mistress she said had sent her to inform me that ‘she had removed my articles of dress higher up the banks, to a safe deposite, as the rise of the tide had threatened to sweep them away.’ I sent back for answer, that ‘I felt infinitely obliged to her, and would cheerfully, on a similar occasion, reciprocate the favor.’

At the extremity of the city, on an elevated plain, is the Plaza de los Toras, in the midst of which appears a vast amphitheatre for exhibiting the barbarous amusement, or rather cruel spectacle, of a Bull Bait. These take place in summer, of the afternoons of Sundays, and sometimes on other holidays. Their description must be shocking to the feelings, but the relation of the revolting scenes certainly may be perused, when many of the softer sex are there the applauding witnesses.

The bulls are taken from the wild herds in the interior, and they capture those of the most fierce and wild character; in other words, those that will give the most sport. These are driven by force and stratagem into the adjoining stables, where their natural ferocity is increased for several days, by starving and goading, and otherwise tormenting them.

These exhibitions are generally fully attended, and by a third part ladies. The circular and rising seats of this amphitheatre, will contain and will afford an equal view of the fight to ten or twelve thousand. On one of these sights, I remember to have seen ten bulls, six horses and one human being killed, and another wounded, in the space of three hours.

Every thing being ready, the bulls remained to be driven across the area from the stables where they were, to a smaller stable behind the amphitheatre, where each was to be kept apart. The first stable was not far from the amphitheatre, and a wall of boards six feet high was put up the whole way the bulls were to pass. At a quarter past four the ten bulls were let into the area, in order to be put into the stables at the opposite door; a man on foot led a tame ox, which had been bred with the bulls, before, to decoy them into these: they followed the ox very quietly; but they do not always do so. The three horsemen placed themselves at some distance, one on each side of, and the other opposite to the door at which the bull was to enter; the tap of a drum was the signal to let a bull in, and the man who opened the door got behind it immediately.

During this last quarter of an hour the bulls had been teazed by pricking them in the backs; this is done by persons placed on the ceiling of the stables, which was low, and consisted only of a plank laid here and there, and between those planks was space enough to use any instrument for that purpose. The bulls were distinguished by a small knot of ribbon fixed to their shoulders, the different colors of which shew where they were bred, which is known by the advertisements.

The bull made at the first horseman, who received him on the point of the spear, held in the middle tight to his side, and passing under his arm pit, which making a wide gash in the bull’s shoulder, occasioned him to draw back, the blood running in torrents; the force with which the bull ran at the man, was so great, that the shock had nearly overset him and his horse. It was then another man’s turn to wound the bull, as only one is to cope with it at a time. They are never allowed to attack the bull, but must wait the animal’s approach. The bull trotted into the middle of the area, and stared about, frighted by the clapping and hallooing of the multitude. The man on horseback always facing the beast, and turning when it turned; it then ran at the horse, and got another wound in the breast, and a third from the next horseman it attacked. It was now become mad with pain, the blood issuing from its mouth in streams, and faintness made it stagger; its eyes ‘flashed fury,’ it pawed up the ground, and lashed its sides with its tail; its breath was impetuously discharged like smoke from its nostrils, so that its head appeared as if in a mist. A drum then sounded, which was a signal for the horsemen to retire; and the men on foot began their attack, sticking barbed darts into every part of its body; the torture they inflicted made the bull leap from the ground, and run furiously at one of the men, who jumped aside; the bull then turned to another man, who had just stuck a dart into his back; the man took to his heels, and leaped over the rails, where he was safe; in this manner all the men continued tormenting the bull, who could hardly stand through loss of blood. The drum then sounded again, upon which the matador appeared, with a cloak extended on a short stick in his left hand, and in his right a two-edged sword, the blade of which was flat, four inches broad, and a yard long; he stood still, and at the moment the bull in the agonies of despair and death, made at him, he plunged the sword into the spine behind the beast’s horns, which instantly made it drop down dead. If the matador misses his aim, and cannot defend himself with the cloak, he loses his life, as the bull exerts all its remaining strength with an almost inconceivable fury. The dead bull was immediately dragged out of the area by three horses on a full gallop, whose traces were fastened to its horns. A quarter of an hour was elapsed, which is the time allowed for the murder of each bull, five minutes to the horsemen, five to the footmen, and five to the slayer.

Another bull was then let in; this was the wildest and most furious of any I ever saw. The horseman missed his aim, and the bull thrust his horns into the horse’s belly, making the bowels hang out; the horse became ungovernable, so that the man was obliged to dismount and abandon it to the bull, who pursued it round the area, till the horse fell and expired. Four other horses were successively killed by this bull, which till then, had only received slight wounds, though one of the horses had kicked its jaw to pieces. One of the horsemen broke his spear in the bull’s neck, and horse and rider fell to the ground; the rider broke his leg, and was carried off. The footmen then fell to work again, and afterwards the matador put an end to the life of this valiant animal, whose strength and courage were unavailing to save it. The third bull killed two horses, goring them under the belly, so that the intestines hung trailing on the ground. The seventh bull likewise killed two horses. In this manner were ten bulls massacred, and the whole concluded in two hours and a half. The bull’s flesh was immediately sold to the populace at ten quartos per pound, which is about three pence.

When the last bull had been sufficiently wounded by the horsemen, the mob were allowed to enter the area; they attacked the bull on all sides, and killed it with their knives and daggers. The bull sometimes tosses some of these fellows over its head.’

It should be remembered that in the interior, around the circle, are double walls of oak, with sally ports to the inner one, and a passage way between them of three feet wide. These apertures are sufficient to admit a man, but the _toro_ cannot enter. Through these, when hotly pursued, the gladiator will escape, and the bull vents his rage on the impregnable walls.