Journal Of A Voyage To Brazil Part 14

Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Sylva, V. President.

Martim Francisco de Andrada, Secretary.

Lazaro Jose Goncalves, Secretary.

Miguel Jose de Oliveria Pinto, Secretary.

Manoel Rodrigues Jordaen.

Francisco Ignacio de Souza Guimaies.

Joao Ferreira de Oleveira Bueno.

Antonio Leite Pereira de Gama Lobo.

Daniel Pedro Muller.

Andre da Silva Gomes.

Francisco de Paulo e Oliveira.

Antonio Maria Quartini."[83]

[Note 83: The Prince answered this on the 4th of January, by a.s.suring the Paulistas that he had transmitted the letter to Lisbon, and that His Royal Highness hoped from the wisdom of the Cortes that they would take measures for the good and prosperity of Brazil.]

This letter to the Prince expresses the sentiments of all the southern part of Brazil, and to a certain degree those of the northern captaincies also. The latter are certainly as averse as the former to the removal of the courts of justice to Lisbon, but they would prefer a more northern city for the capital; while here, there is a wish among a considerable number of persons to remove the capital to St. Paul's, on account of its safety, and its neighbourhood to the mines, where the greatest proportion of the riches, industry, and population of Brazil is situated. His Royal Highness has not yet expressed his determination.

The officers of the Lisbon troops talk loudly of his being obliged to do his duty, and obey the mandate of the Cortes. The Brazilians are earnest in their hopes that he may stay, and there are even some that look forward to his declaring openly for the independence of this country.

Whatever his resolution may be, it is feared that there will be much disturbance, if not a civil war. Our English merchants are calling meetings, I believe for the purpose of requesting this s.h.i.+p to remain, at least until one of equal force shall arrive, fearing that their persons and property will not be safe, and every body looks a little anxious.

10_th._--Yesterday there was a meeting of the camara of Rio; and after a short consultation the members went in procession, accompanied by a great concourse of people, to the Prince, with a strong remonstrance against his leaving the country, and an earnest entreaty that he would remain among his faithful people. His Royal Highness received them graciously, and replied, that since it appeared to be the wish of all, and for the good of all, he would remain. This declaration was received with shouts of enthusiasm, which were answered by the discharge of artillery, and every mark of public rejoicing.

The day as usual, on any occasion of public interest, was ended at the opera, but I unfortunately could not get ash.o.r.e; however some of the officers went. The house was illuminated. The Prince and Princess appeared in full dress in the king's box, which is in the centre of the house. They were received with enthusiasm by the people, the national hymn was sung, and between the acts of the play the people called on several of their favourite orators to address the Prince and people, on the event of the day. This call was obeyed by several speakers, and some of their addresses were printed and handed about the theatre; the best, or at least the most applauded, was the following by Bernardo Carvalho.

"It is now only necessary to exhort you to UNION and TRANQUILLITY!!![84] Expressions truly sublime, and which contain the whole philosophy of politics. Without UNION you cannot be strong, without strength you cannot command TRANQUILLITY. Portuguese! Citizens!

You have a Prince who speaks to you with kindness of your own work; who invites you to rally with him round the const.i.tution; who recommends to you that moral force which embraces justice and is identified with reason, and which can alone accomplish the great work we have begun.

To-day you burst the bonds which threatened you with suffocation. To-day you a.s.sume the true att.i.tude of free men. But yet all is not done.

Intrigue and discord, muttering furies, perhaps even now meditate fresh plans, and still endeavour to sow division, and to overthrow the trophies you have just raised to glory and to national honour. The same enthusiasm, ill directed, might produce the greatest crimes. Fellow citizens! UNION and TRANQUILLITY. The giddiness of party is unworthy of free men. Fulfil your duties. Yield to the gentle exhortation of your august Prince;... but in return say to him 'Sire! ENERGY and VIGILANCE.

Energy to promote good,--Vigilance to prevent evil. The whole world has now its eyes fixed on you. The steps you are about to take, may place you in the temple of memory, or confound you among the number of weak princes, unworthy of the distinctions which adorn them. Perhaps you may influence the destinies of the whole world. Perhaps even Europe, anxiously and on tip-toe, reposes her hope upon you! PRINCE! ENERGY and VIGILANCE. Glory is not incompatible with youth, and the hero of the 26th February may become the hero of the 9th January. Unite yourself with a people which loves you, which offers you fortune, life, everything. Prince! how sweet is it to behold the cordial expansion of the feeling of free men! but how distressing to witness the withering in the bud of hopes so justly founded! Banish, Sire, for ever from Brazil, multiform flattery, hypocrisy of double face, discord with her viperous tongue. Listen to truth, submit to reason, attend to justice. Be your attributes frankness and loyalty. Let the const.i.tution be the pole-star to direct you: without it there can be no happiness for you nor for us.

Seek not to reign over slaves, who kiss the chains of ignominy. Rule over free hearts. So shall you be the image of the divinity among us;--so will you fulfil our hopes. ENERGY and VIGILANCE, and we will follow your precept, UNION and TRANQUILLITY.'"

[Note 84: Referring to a speech of the Prince on determining to stay in Brazil.]

A priest, one of the favourites of the people, was called on to speak repeatedly. The national hymn[85] was sung again and again, and the Prince and Princess, who were observed to be chiefly surrounded by Brazilian officers, were again loudly cheered. And everything in the city, which was brilliantly illuminated, went off in the utmost harmony.

[Note 85: Composed by the Prince.]

Nothing can be more beautiful of the kind than such an illumination seen from the s.h.i.+p. The numerous forts at the entrance to the harbour, on the islands, and in the town, have each their walls traced in light, so they are like fairy fire-castles; and the scattered lights of the city and villages, connect them by a hundred little brilliant chains.

To-day our friends the merchants are under fresh alarm, and have made a formal request to the captain to stay. With that petty spirit which pa.s.ses for _diplomatic_, the deputy-consul and merchants, instead of saying what they are afraid of, only say, "Sir, we are afraid, circ.u.mstances make us so, and we hope you will stay till," &c. &c.; as much as to say, "You are answerable for evil, if it happens," although they are too much afraid of committing themselves to say why. I do not trouble myself now about their official reports, which I perceive are large sheets of paper, and large seals, without one word that might not be published on every church wall, for their milk and water tenor, but which I consider as absurd and mischievous, because they tend to excite distrust and alarm where no danger is. The truth is now, that there might be some cause of fear, if they would openly express it. The language of the Portuguese officers is most violent. They talk of carrying the Prince by main force to Lisbon, and so making him obey the Cortes in spite of the Brazilians; and both parties are so violent, that they will probably fight. In that fight there will doubtless be danger to foreign property; but why not say so? why not say such is the case?

However, the wisest of the sons of men in modern times[86], has long ago set in the second place those who could not afford to be open and candid in matters of business; so _I_ may leave them alone.

[Note 86: Bacon, _Essay on Dissimulation and Simulation_.]

11_th_.--I went ash.o.r.e last night to the opera, as it was again a gala night, and hoped to have witnessed the reception of the Prince and Princess. The Viscondeca do Rio Seco kindly invited me to her box, which was close to theirs; but, after waiting some time, notice arrived that the Prince was so busy writing to Lisbon, that he could not come. The double guard was withdrawn, and the play went on. I had, however, the pleasure of seeing the theatre illuminated, of hearing their national hymn, and of seeing the ladies better dressed than I had yet had occasion to do.

There is a great deal of uneasiness to-day. The Portuguese commander-in-chief of the troops, General Avilez, has demanded and received his discharge. It is said, perhaps untruly, that his remonstrance to the Prince against his remaining here has been ungentlemanlike and indecent. I hear the troops will not consent to his removal, and they are particularly incensed that the choice of a successor should fall on General Curado, a Brazilian, who, it is said, will be called from St. Paul's to succeed Avilez. He is a veteran, who has commanded with distinction in all the campaigns on the southern frontier, and his actions are better known among his countrymen than those distant battles in Europe, on which the Portuguese officers of every rank are apt to pride themselves here, however slight the share they had in them, to the annoyance of the Brazilians.

_12th_.--Yesterday the military commission for the government of the army here was broke up, and Curada appointed commander-in-chief, and minister of war. The Portuguese General Avilez made his appearance at the barracks of the European soldiers to take leave of them; they were under arms to receive him, and vowed not to part with him, or to obey another commander, and were with difficulty reduced to such order as to promise tolerable tranquillity for the day at least. It is said, that as it had been understood that they had expressed some jealousy, because the guard of honour at the opera-house had been for the two last evenings composed of Brazilians, the Prince sent to the Portuguese barracks for the guard of last night, but that they refused to go; saying, that as His Royal Highness was so partial to the Brazilians, he had better continue to be guarded by them. I am not sure this is true, but from the circ.u.mstances of the day it is not improbable.

The opera-house was again brilliantly lighted. The Prince and Princess were there, and had been received as well as on the ninth, when, at about eleven o'clock, the Prince was called out of his box, and informed that bodies of from twenty to thirty of the Portuguese soldiers were parading the streets, breaking windows and insulting pa.s.sengers in their way from barrack to barrack, where everything wore the appearance of determined mutiny. At the same time, a report of these circ.u.mstances having reached the house, the spectators began to rise for the purpose of going home; when the Prince, having given such orders as were necessary, returned to the box, and going with the Princess, then near her confinement, to the front, he addressed the people, a.s.sured them that there was nothing serious, that he had already given orders to send the riotous soldiers, who had been quarrelling with the blacks, back to their barracks, and entreated them not to leave the theatre and increase the tumult, by their presence in the street, but remain till the end of the piece, as he meant to do, when he had no doubt all would be quiet.

The coolness and presence of mind of the Prince, no doubt, preserved the city from much confusion and misery. By the time the opera was over the streets were sufficiently clear to permit every one to go home in safety.

Meantime the Portuguese troops, to the number of seven hundred, had marched up to the Castle-hill, commanding the princ.i.p.al streets in the town, and had taken with them four pieces of artillery, and threatened to sack the town. The field-pieces belonging to the Brazilians, which had remained in the town after the 26th of February, had been sent to the usual station of the artillery, at the botanical gardens, no longer ago than last week, so they entertained no fear of artillery. But they were disappointed in their expectation of being joined by that part of the Portuguese force which was stationed at San Cristovao. This amounted to about 500 men[87], who said the King had left them to attend on the person of the Prince, and they had nothing to do with anything else; a declaration that was looked on with suspicion by the Brazilians.

[Note 87: I am not sure of the correctness of these numbers, but I believe I am nearly right.]

While the Portuguese were taking up their new and threatening position, the Brazilians were not idle. Every horse and mule in the town was pressed, and expresses despatched to all the militia regiments, and other Brazilian troops, as well as to the head-quarters of the artillery. The Prince was most active; so that by four o'clock this morning (12th), he found himself at the head of a body of four thousand men, in the Campo de Santa Anna, not only ready, but eager for action; and though deficient in discipline, formidable from their numbers and determination.

The Portuguese had by no means expected such promptness and decision; they had besides not taken provision to the hill, and they were convinced that it would be an easy matter to starve them, by means of the immense superiority of numbers in the Campo. They therefore prepared to obey an order which the Prince communicated to them early in the day, to remove from the city to Praya Grande, on the other side of the harbour, only conditioning to carry their arms with them. His Royal Highness wished to have put them instantly on board of transports, to be conveyed to Lisbon, but the port admiral reported that there was neither s.h.i.+pping nor provision ready for the purpose; and therefore they are to be quartered at Praya Grande, until such shall be provided.

I went ash.o.r.e with an officer as early as I could, chiefly for the purpose of seeing the troops in the Campo de Santa Anna. In consequence, however, of the press of horses and mules, it was sometime before I could get a chaise to convey me there, and it was much too hot to walk.

At length, however, I procured one, and determined to call on the Viscondeca of Rio Seco in my way, to offer her refuge in the frigate. We found her in a Brazilian dishabille, and looking hara.s.sed and anxious.

She had remained in the theatre as long as the Prince last night, and had then hurried home to provide for the safety of her family and her jewels: her family she had despatched to her estate in the country; for the jewels, she had them all packed in small parcels, intending to escape with them herself in disguise to us, in case of a serious attack on the city; and she had left a quant.i.ty of valuable plate exposed in different parts of the house to occupy the soldiers on their first entrance. Everything, however, looks better now; and we a.s.sured her we had seen the first part of one of the Lisbon regiments ready to embark as we landed. We promised her, that on her making a signal from her house, or sending a message, she should have protection. She appears very apprehensive of evil from the liberation of the prisoners by the Brazilians during the night, and says, that there are some fears that the Portuguese will seize the forts on the other side, and hold them till the arrival of the reinforcements daily expected from Lisbon. This would, indeed, be disastrous; but I believe the apprehension to be ill founded.

Having comforted my good friend as well as I could, we went on to the Campo, and found the Brazilians housed for the most part in some unfinished buildings. The men, though slight, looked healthy, active, and full of spirit; their horses were the best I have seen in the country; and, it might be fancy, but they gave me the idea of men resolute in their purpose, and determined to guard their rights and their homes.

The scene in the Campo presented all manner of varieties. Within the enclosure where the artillery was placed, all was gravity and business-like attention: the soldiers on the alert, and the officers in groups, canva.s.sing the events of the preceding night, and the circ.u.mstances of the day; and here and there, both within and without the circle, an orator was stationed with his group of auditors around him, listening to his political discussions, or patriotic harangues. In the open part of the Campo were straggling soldiers, or whole companies, escaped from the heated crowd of the enclosure: horses, mules, and a.s.ses, many of all lying down from sheer fatigue. In all directions, negroes were coming, laden with capim or maize for the horses, or bearing on their heads cool drink and sweetmeats for the men. In one corner, a group of soldiers, exhausted with travel and watching, lay asleep; in another, a circle of black boys were gambling: in short, all ways of beguiling the time while waiting for a great event might be seen; from those who silently and patiently expected the hour, in solemn dread of what the event might be, to those who, merely longing for action, filled up the interval with what might make it pa.s.s most lightly. I was well pleased with the view I had of the people in the Campo, and still better as the day wore away, for I staid sometime, to feel a.s.sured that all was to pa.s.s without bloodshed, beyond the two or three persons killed accidentally during the night.

On our return to the s.h.i.+p, we were stopped for some time in the palace square, by a great concourse of people a.s.sembled to witness the entrance of the first Brazilian guard into the palace, while the last Portuguese guard marched out, amid the loud huzzas of the people; and on reaching the stairs, where we were to embark, we found the last of one regiment, and the first of another, about to sail for the Praya Grande, so that the city may sleep in security to-night.

The inhabitants generally, but especially the foreign merchants, are well pleased to see the Lisbon troops dismissed; for they have long been most tyrannically brutal to strangers, to negroes, and not unfrequently to Brazilians; and, for many weeks past, their arrogance has been disgusting to both prince and people.[88]

[Note 88: The heavy step of the Portuguese infantry has earned for them the nickname of _Pedechumbo_, or leaden foot; now applied to all partisans of Portugal.]

The appearance of the city is melancholy enough: the shops are shut up, guards are parading the streets, and every body looks anxious. The shopkeepers are all employed as militia: they are walking about with bands and belts of raw hides over their ordinary clothes, but their arms and ammunition were all in good order, and excepting these and the English, I saw n.o.body at all out of doors.

_13th_.--Every thing seems quiet to-day. From the s.h.i.+p we see the rest of the troops going over to the Praya Grande. Yet there is necessarily a great deal of anxiety among all cla.s.ses of persons. Some persons have sent some of their valuables on board the frigate, for safety; and a message, I do not know on what authority, arrived to know if the Prince and Princess, and family, could be received and protected on board.--The answer, of course, is, that though the s.h.i.+p must observe the strictest neutrality between the parties, yet that we are ready at once to receive and protect the Princess and children, and also, whenever he has reason to apprehend personal danger, the Prince himself. My cabin is therefore ready. I hope they will not be forced to come afloat. The more they can trust to the Brazilians the better for them, and for the cause of that independence which is now so inevitable, that the only question is whether it shall be obtained with or without bloodshed.

We have determined to have a ball on board, the day after to-morrow, that the people may get acquainted with us,--and then if any thing occurs to render it advisable to take refuge with us, they will know who they are to come amongst.

_14th_.--The shops are open, and business going on as usual to-day. The Prince is granting discharges to both officers and men of the Portuguese regiments, who wish to remain in Brazil instead of returning to Europe.

This is stigmatised by the Portuguese as _licensing desertion_, from the army of the King and Cortes; whatever they may call it, I am convinced that the measure tends to the present tranquillity of the capital. The Princess and children are gone to Santa Cruz, a country estate, formerly belonging to the Jesuits, now to the crown, fourteen leagues on the road towards St. Paul's.[89]

[Note 89: This journey was very disastrous, as it caused the death of the infant Prince.]

_15th_.--Our ball went off very well: we had more foreigners than English; and as there was excellent music from the opera-orchestra, and a great deal of dancing, the young people enjoyed it much. I should have done so also, but that Captain Graham was suffering with the gout so severely, that I could have wished to put off the dance. I had commissioned the Viscondeca do Rio Seco and some other ladies to bring their Portuguese friends, which they did, and we had a number of pretty and agreeable women, and several gentlemanlike men, in addition to our English friends.

A dance on s.h.i.+p-board is always agreeable and picturesque: there is something in the very contrast afforded by the furniture of the deck of a s.h.i.+p of war to the company and occupation of a ball that is striking.

"The little warlike world within, The well-reeved guns and netted canopy,"

all dressed with evergreens and flowers, waving over the heads of gay girls and their smiling partners, furnish forth combinations in which poetry and romance delight, and which one must be stoical indeed to contemplate without emotion. I never loved dancing myself, perhaps because I never excelled in it; but yet, a ball-room is to me a delightful place. There are happy faces, and hearts not the less happy for the little anxious palpitations that arise now and then, and curiosity, and hope, and all the amiable feelings of youth and nature; and if among it a little elderly gaiety mingles, and excites a smile, I, for my part, rather reverence the youth of heart which lives through the cares and vexations of this life, and can mingle in, without disturbing, the hilarity of youth.

_17th_.--Nothing remarkable yesterday or to-day, but the perfect quiet of the town. The Prince goes on discharging the soldiers.

_19th_.--This day the new ministers arrived from St. Paul's; the chief of whom in station, as in talent, is Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva.

According to the opinion entertained of him by the people here, I should say that Cowper had described him, when he wrote

Great offices will have Great talents. And G.o.d gives to every man The virtue, temper, understanding, taste, That lift him into life, and lets him fall Just in the niche he was ordained to fill.

To the deliverer of an injured land He gives a tongue to enlarge upon, a heart To feel, and courage to redress her wrongs.