CHAPTER XVIII.

Pará.

The city of Santa Maria de Belem do Graō Pará, founded by Francisco Caldeira do Castello Branco, in the year 1616, is situated on a low elbow of land at the junction of the river Guamá with the river Pará, and at a distance of about eighty miles from the sea.

A ship generally requires three tides, which run with a velocity of about four miles to the hour, to reach the sea from the city.

Pará is not fortified, either by land or water. There is a very small and inefficient fort situated on an island about five miles below the city; but it is only armed with a few ill-conditioned field-pieces, which do not command the channel. There is also a small battery in the city near the point of junction of the two rivers; but there are no guns mounted, and its garrison could be easily driven out by musketry from the towers of the cathedral.

The harbor is a very fine one; it is made by the long island of Onças in front, and at two miles distance, with some smaller ones further down the river. There is an abundance of water, and ships of any size may lie within one hundred and fifty yards of the shore. There is a good landing-place for boats and lighters at the custom-house wharf; and at half tide at the stone wharf, some five hundred yards above.

The corporation was engaged, during my stay, in building a strong stone sea-wall all along in front of the town. This will make a new wide street on the water-front, and prevent smuggling. Formerly, canoes, at high stages of the river, would land cargoes surreptitiously in the very cellars of the warehouses situated on the river.

The city is divided into the freguezias, or parishes, of Sé and Campina. Nine other freguezias are included in the municipio of the capital; but many of these are leagues distant, and should not geographically be considered as belonging to the city, or their population be numbered in connexion with it.

The population of the city proper numbered, in 1848, (the last statistical account I have, and which I think would differ very little from a census taken at this time,) nine thousand two hundred and eighty-four free persons, and four thousand seven hundred and twenty-six slaves.

The number of inhabited houses was two thousand four hundred and eighteen; of births, seven hundred and eighty-five; of marriages, ninety-eight; of deaths, three hundred and seventy-five; and of resident foreigners, seven hundred and eighty-four.

Pará was a remarkably healthy place, and entirely free from epidemics of any kind, until February, 1850, when the yellow fever was taken there by a vessel from Pernambuco. It was originally brought from the coast of Africa to Bahia, and spread thence along the coast. The greatest malignancy of the disease was during the month of April, when it carried off from twenty to twenty-five a day.

About the same time the next year, (the fever being much diminished,) the small-pox broke out with great violence. About twenty-five per cent. of the population died from the two diseases. I imagine that the city will now never be entirely free from either; and the filthy condition in which the low tide leaves the slips, in which lie the small trading craft, must be a fruitful source of malaria, and an ever-exciting cause of epidemic.

The crews of these vessels, with their families, generally live in them. They are consequently crowded; and, when the tide is out, they lie on their sides, imbedded in a mass of refuse animal and vegetable matter, rotting and festering under a burning sun.

Pará, however, is an agreeable place of residence, and has a delightful climate. The sun is hot till about noon, when the sea breeze comes in, bringing clouds, with rain, thunder, and lightning, which cool and purify the atmosphere, and wash the streets of the city. The afternoon and evening are then delicious. This was invariable during my stay of

a month.

The rich vegetable productions of the country enhance much the beauty of the city. In nearly all the gardens grow the beautiful miriti palm, the cabbage palm, the cocoa-nut, the cinnamon, the bread-fruit tree, and rich green vines of black pepper. The rapidity of vegetable growth here is wonderful. Streets opened six months ago, in the suburbs of the city, are now filled up with bushes of the stramonium, or Jamestown weed, of full six feet in height. There are a number of almond trees in various parts of the town, which are very ornamental. These trees throw out horizontal branches, encircling the trunk at intervals of five or six feet, the lowest circle being the largest, so that they resemble in shape a Norfolk pine. Mr. Norris and I thought it remarkable that in a row of these trees planted before a house, or line of houses, those nearest the door were invariably the farthest advanced in growth. This we particularly remarked in the case of a row planted

before the barracks, in two parts of the city. The tree under which the sentinel stood, in both cases, was the largest of the row.

We saw, in a walk in the suburbs of the town, what we thought to be a palm tree growing out of the crotch of a tree of a different species; but, upon examination, it appeared that the tree, out of which the palm seemed growing, was a creeper, which, embracing the palm near the ground, covered its trunk entirely for fifteen or twenty feet, and then threw off large branches on each side. It may seem strange to call that a creeper, which had branches of at least ten inches in diameter; but so it was. It is called in Cuba the parricide tree, because it invariably kills the tree that supports it. (Har. Mag., January, 1853.)

The most picturesque object, however, in Pará was the ruins of an old opera house near the palace. The luxuriant vegetation of the country has seized upon it, and it presents pillar, arch, and cornice of the most vivid and beautiful green.

The society of Pará is also agreeable. The men, I am sorry to say, seem to be above work. Most of them are Hidalgos, or gentlemen; and nearly all are in the employ of the government, with exceedingly small salaries. In the whole city of Pará, I am told, there are not a dozen Brazilians engaged in trade of any kind. The women are simple, frank, and engaging in their manners, and very fond of evening parties and dancing. I attended a ball, which is given monthly by a society of gentlemen, and was much pleased at the good taste exhibited in its management. Full dress was forbidden. No one was permitted to appear in diamonds; and the consequence was that all the pretty girls of the merely respectable classes, as well as of the rich, were gathered together, and had a merry time of it.

But the principal charm of Pará, as of all other tropical places, is the Dolce far niente. Men, in these countries, are not ambitious. They are not annoyed, as the more masculine people of colder climates are, to see their neighbors going ahead of them. They are contented to live, and to enjoy, without labor, the fruits which the earth spontaneously offers; and, I imagine, in the majority of cases, if a Brazilian has enough food, of even the commonest quality, to support life, coffee or tea to drink, cigars to smoke, and a hammock to lie in, that he will be perfectly contented.

This, of course, is the effect of climate. There was a time when the Portuguese nation, in maritime and scientific discoveries-in daring explorations-in successful colonization-in arts and arms-was inferior to no other in proportion to its strength; and I have very little doubt but that the bold and ambitious Englishman, the spirited and cos

mopolitan Frenchman, and the hardy, persevering, scheming American, who likes little that any one should go ahead of him, would alike, in the course of time, yield to the relaxing influence of a climate that forbids him to labor, and to the charm of a state of things where life may be supported without the necessity of labor.

To make, then, the rich and varied productious of this country available for commercial purposes, and to satisfy the artificial wants of man, it is necessary that labor should be compulsory. To Brazil and her political economists belongs the task of investigation, and of deciding how, and by what method, this shall be brought about.

The common sentiment of the civilized world is against the renewal of the African slave trade; therefore must Brazil turn elsewhere for the compulsory labor necessary to cultivate her lands. Her Indians will not work. Like the llama of Peru, they will die sooner than do more than is necessary for the support of their being. I am under the impression that, were Brazil to throw off a causeless jealousy, and a puerile fear of our people, and invite settlers to the Valley of the Amazon, there might be found, among our Southern planters, men, who, looking with apprehension (if not for themselves, at least for their children) to the state of affairs as regards slavery at home, would, under sufficient guarantees, remove their slaves to that country, cultivate its lands, draw out its resources, and prodigiously augment the power and wealth of Brazil.

The negro slave seems very happy in Brazil. This is remarked by all foreigners; and many times in Pará was a group of merry, chattering, happy-looking black women, bringing their baskets of washed clothes from the spring, pointed out to me, that I might notice the evils of slavery. The owners of male slaves in Pará generally require from each four or five testoons a day, (twenty testoons make a dollar,) and leave him free to get it as he can. The slaves organize themselves into bands or companies, elect their captain, who directs and superintends their work, and contract with a certain number of mercantile houses to do their porterage. The gang which does the porterage for Mr. Norris, and for nearly all the English and American houses, numbers forty. Each man is paid about three cents to fill a bag or box, and four cents to carry it to the wharf and put it aboard the lighter. It costs from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars to discharge and load a moderate-sized ship.

I have frequently seen these gangs of negroes carrying cocoa to the wharf. They were always chattering and singing merrily, and would few minutes to execute a kind of dance with the bags on

their heads, thus doubling their work. When the load was deposited, the captain, who does no work himself unless his gang is pressed, arrays them in military fashion, and marches them back for another load.

For carrying barrels, or other bulky and heavy articles of merchandise, there are trucks, drawn by oxen.

Churches are large and abundant in Pará. The cathedral is one of the finest churches in Brazil. Its personnel, consisting of dignitaries, (dignidades,) canons, chorists, and other employés, numbers seventyfour.

A large convent of the Jesuits, near the cathedral, having a very ornate and pretty chapel attached, is now used as a bishop's palace, and a theological seminary. The officers of the seminary are a rector, a vice-rector, and six professors; its students number one hundred and fifteen; its rental is about five thousand dollars, of which one thousand is given from the provincial treasury; and it teaches Latin, the languages, philosophy, theology, history, geography, and vocal and instru

mental music.

There are but two convents in Pará—one of the order of St. Anthony, and one of Shod Carmelites.

I attended the celebration of the festival of the Holy Cross, in the chapel of the convent of the Carmelites. There was a very large, welldressed congregation, and the church was redolent of the fragrance of sweet-scented herbs, strewn upon the floor. There were no good pictures in the church, but the candlesticks and other ornaments of the altar were very massive and rich. In the insurrection of the Cabanos the church property was spared; but I am told that, though they have preserved their ornaments, the priests have managed their property injudiciously, and are not now so rich in slaves and real estate as formerly.

I imagine that the priesthood in Brazil, though quite as intelligent and able as their brethren of Peru, have not so great an influence in society here as there. This is seen in an anecdote told me of a rigid Chefe de Policia, who forbid the clergy from burying one of their dignitaries in the body of the church during the prevalence of the yellow fever; but compelled them, much against their will, to deposit the body in the public cemetery, and accompanied the funeral procession on horseback to see that his orders were obeyed. It is also seen in the fact that the provincial assembly holds its sessions in a wing of the Carmelite convent, and that a part of the church of the Merced is turned into a custom-house and a barracks.

There are forty-one public primary schools in the province, educating one thousand and eighty-seven pupils. This gives a proportion of one