Part 33
A very fine specimen of brown sandstone was found in large quantity upon this land, and the fact is mentioned to illustrate the resources of the country.
Footnote 18:
I am constantly reminded of my obligations to this gentleman in the use of a fine large blank-book, which was presented by him for my records, besides many other acts of kindness on his part.
Footnote 19:
Members of the same family very generally have different names in Brazil; and when a family name is recognized, it is not always placed last as with us, but is arranged with the other names as fancy may suggest.
Footnote 20:
I am informed that extensive hat-factories are in operation in Perecicaba, Rio Claro, Campinas and in the province of Minas, where they are made in several of the fazendas. They are prepared of good quality from both fur and wool, but the price of the latter should secure an excellent article.
Footnote 21:
There is no tax on lands except a small per cent. paid at the time of purchase, and that even is not required in the sale of government land to our people.
Footnote 22:
Captain Lie tells me this custom of shaking hands all round after dinner is very common with the families of Norway when there is company at their houses. It is not general in Brazil, but so far as observed, is confined to this family, and I supposed that all were taking leave to depart for their respective homes, but found that they repaired to the parlor for further social intercourse.
Footnote 23:
In the midst of all this poverty it is most remarkable that theft is very rare in this country, and throughout every class of people there seems to be no necessity for any special safeguards to property of any description.
Even in the towns and cities through which I have passed there are fewer precautions observed against larceny than is customary in all parts of the United States, and the general confidence manifested in the honesty of the people is a very commendable feature of society.
Footnote 24:
This amount, in common with other expenses of travel, was paid by the agent of the government, Senor G. D. Street, and while noting the want of generosity on the part of this representative man of Conceicão, I would not fail to acknowledge our obligations for the bounty of the Brazilian government in providing for all our wants while exploring the country.
Footnote 25:
On arrival at this place we found a portion of the men seated upon the dirt floor of a house playing cards for money, while the more religiously-inclined population were assembled in the church to pray for a cessation of the continuous rains which flooded the lands. So go the different elements of society.
Footnote 26:
As a matter of history, the following paragraph of a correspondent from this place, of September 18, 1865, to the Diario de São Paulo, is translated, though I hear of no other instance of the kind in this or any other part of the province.
Within little more than one month there has occurred in this section seven assassinations of Christian people, namely: those of Sonsa, his son and son-in-law, by the Indians of São Domingos, that of Filisbino, according to report, by his native slave Silverio, on the Rio Novo; those of Francisco Bernardo, and Leopoldina Cordoso Martines, in the same region, and that of Salvador José Leite, on the small river Das Pedras.
Footnote 27:
Major Meriwether writes me as follows:
“BOTOCATU, January 8, 1866.—I was not prepared to see lands so immensely rich as we see here. We have examined the country ten miles in one direction, and every foot of it is the very best quality. Immense bodies of the best land are here.
“January 13, 1866.—We have just returned this day from Lençoes, taking five days to make the trip there and back, forty or more miles, to avoid crossing a belt of country fifty miles wide, in which the chills prevail unusually severe. In going to and returning from Lençoes, not on the same road both ways, we were never off good land, and the most of it first quality terra rocha. Corn was certainly the best I ever saw, and not a plough in all the country. Coffee trees, none of which are over four years old, loaded down with fruit. Cotton, little planted, but that little very fine. Grasses in abundance; and stock, mules, horses, cattle and hogs as fine as any country can grow.
“I have visited the fine stockgrowing portions of Kentucky and Tennessee, but this beats all ever seen before.
“In addition to growing grain, coffee, sugar and cotton grow as finely here as in any other part of the province. Farms can be purchased in this and the adjoining district, with good improvements in the shape of dwellings, sugar-mills, grist-mills, &c., for $2.50 per acre and less, that being the highest price asked, and $1.50 per acre being the usual price asked for lands as good as lands can be.
“The best information as to depth of soil is, that it averages about thirteen (13) feet deep. From the best information we can get, the good land extends fifty or sixty miles in length and ten or twelve in breadth. It is not uncommon to see trees seven (7) feet in diameter here.
“The people here treat us with great hospitality, and are exceedingly anxious for our people to come amongst them, offering inducements the most substantial, provisions, &c. If this country is ever peopled by an industrious and progressive race it will soon be a paradise on earth.
“I have thus tried to describe this immensely fertile tract of country, but the description is poor in comparison to the reality. It is the most desirable I ever expected even to see.
“I have changed my mind in regard to the expense of settling in this country. When it was said by Mr. Street that we must not expect to use ploughs the first few years here, I laughed at him. But he is right.
“A single man can here clear and fence and plant ten acres of land in two months.
“Five acres will make him at least two hundred and fifty bushels of corn, the other five will make him as much cotton as he can pick, without other culture than the hoe. So that not only a support may be made the first year, but also money may be saved.”
In connection with this communication, it is proper to state that there are large numbers of uncivilized Indians near that region, and that “not long since the neighboring district of São João Baptista was the victim of an outbreak of these savages,” as is stated in the public prints. Facts are important guides to us.
Footnote 28:
This embrace consists in passing the arms round each other, much in the same manner that is observed when two boys are about to engage in wrestling, and is resorted to very generally among Brazilian gentlemen, to express a particular regard upon meeting or parting with each other.
Footnote 29:
In addition to the other remarkable things, two very large cobras were encountered and killed by one of my attendants. This is a most venomous serpent, and resembles very much the rattle-snake in its shape and color. These were found close together, and were supposed to be male and female. Each was lying quietly upon a separate stump of a large tree, and seemed to bask in the warm sun without any sense of danger.
“They are so unacquainted with man, Their tameness is shocking to me.”
Upon seeing the first this man alighted and cut a stick, walking up deliberately, so as to strike a deadly blow, without any movement on the part of the snake.
He had remounted when the other was observed, and the same process was repeated with it as the first. Both were wide awake, and kept their sly wicked gaze fixed upon their slayer as he advanced, ready to destroy him if he had afforded the opportunity.
With the exception of a small specimen, about a foot and a half long, killed near the Jacaré river, these are the only cobras seen during the tour, and they are unusually large, being three feet long, with a thickness such as a rattle-snake of similar length would have. The bite of one of these serpents, without a prompt remedy on hand, is considered certainly fatal to man or beast, but fortunately they do not seem to be numerous in any part visited.
Footnote 30:
The only means of cleaning the cotton used at this place are sundry little hand-rollers, worked by little darkies, which cannot average over two pounds each to the day.
The spirit of enterprise is sadly deficient along this river, though the communication of the steamboat could place any thing at their doors that might be desired.
Footnote 31:
A considerable lot of cotton gathered from these stalks lies in the seed at the residence, and does not give evidence of nice handling, but the fibre is good. Even with the spirit of progress which Senor Miguel manifests in his appliances generally, the little hand-roller is his only reliance for picking cotton, and hence this seed cotton remains on hand.
He has attempted to use an English apparatus with a roughened roller, but apart from the insufficiency of size it is totally unfitted for accomplishing any satisfactory results. He is now impressed with the necessity of supplying himself with a good cotton-gin to meet the demands of his forthcoming crops here and at Ponto-Grosso.
The want of information as to the conditions for proper culture of cotton is shown in the planting of sugar-cane among the cotton, and yet I counted upon a single limb of one branch of a large stalk in that field twenty-two bolls, the entire stalk having certainly over two hundred bolls.
Footnote 32:
This troublesome fly is found to a greater or less extent in various parts of the country, and seems to attack some animals in a herd in preference to others. There may be something in the particular stock of cattle rendering them more liable than others, and it seems that those in the best condition are generally more exempt; but this may be an effect rather than a cause, as the presence of these festering points over a large portion of the surface must prevent the animal from thriving that is so affected.
One of these insects imbedded its germ in two points upon my person, and I subsequently extracted a rough ugly-looking sort of worm from one of the places, which was near my shoulder, and consequently under the clothing. It is a mystery as to how the fly could deposit the germ through a flannel shirt, which was worn at the time. This result is liable to occur with children in localities where the fly prevails, and I have no fancy for living amongst them.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Page Changed from Changed to
112 seja nosso sentor Jesus Christ,” seja nosso senhor Jesus Christ,” that is said by almost every that is said by almost every
● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. ● Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=.