Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owe - Volume 1 - John MacGillivray (feel good books to read TXT) 📗

of Rio de Janeiro is magnificent. The glare of the red-tiled buildings, whitewashed or painted yellow, is relieved by the varied beauty of the suburbs and gardens, and the numerous wooded eminences crowned by churches and other conspicuous public edifices. Beyond the city the harbour again widens out to form an immense basin, studded with green islands, extending backwards some seventeen or eighteen miles further towards the foot of the Organ Mountains, remarkable for their pinnacled summits, the highest of which attains an elevation of 7800 feet above the sea.

The harbour presented a busy scene from our anchorage. The water was alive with small craft of every description, from the large felucca-rigged boat down to the fishing canoe simply constructed of a hollowed-out log, and steamers crowded with passengers plied between the city and the opposite shore. The seabreeze died away, and was succeeded by a sultry calm; after a short interval, the grateful land wind, laden with sweet odours, advanced as a dark line slowly stealing along the surface of the water, and the deep boom of the evening gun echoing from hill to hill may be said appropriately to have closed the scene.

CITY OF RIO AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

Landing at the Largo do Paco, or palace square, my first favourable impressions of the city of Rio de Janeiro were somewhat lessened by the stench arising from offal on the beach, and the vicinity of the market, under the conjoined influence of a perfect calm and a temperature of 90 degrees in the shade. The palace, now used by the emperor only on court days, has two sides of the large irregular square in which it is situated, occupied by shops and other private buildings. Close by is the market, which the stranger, especially if a naturalist, will do well to visit. The variety of fruits and vegetables is great, that of fish scarcely less so. On the muddy shore in the background, the fishing canoes are drawn up on their arrival to discharge their cargoes, chiefly at this time consisting of a kind of sprat and an anchovy with a broad lateral silvery band. Baskets of land crabs covered with black slimy mud, of handsome Lupeae, and the large well-flavoured prawns, called Cameroons, are scattered about, and even small sharks (Zygaenae, etc.) and cuttlefish are exposed for sale.

The streets, which, with few exceptions, are very narrow, are paved with large rough stones-they have usually a gutter in the centre, and occasionally a narrow pavement on each side. For building purposes, unhewn granite is chiefly used, the walls being afterwards smoothed over with a layer of plaster, whitewashed, and margined with yellow or blue. The two principal streets are the Rua Direita, the widest in the city, and the principal scene of commercial transactions, and the narrow Rua do Ouvidor, filled with shops, many of which equal in the richness and variety of their goods the most splendid establishments of European capitals. Of these the most tempting, and the most dangerous to enter with a well-filled purse, is the famous feather-flower manufactory of Mme. Finot, where the gorgeous plumage of humming birds and others of the feathered tribe is fabricated into wreaths and bouquets of all kinds. Although the absence of sewerage is everywhere apparent, the town is well supplied with water from numerous large fountains, filled by pipes from an aqueduct five or six miles in length, communicating with the Corcovado mountain. One is struck with the comparative absence of wheeled vehicles in the streets of Rio. Now and then a clumsy caleche is driven past by a negro postillion, in blue livery and jackboots, riding a second horse yoked outside the shafts, and omnibuses drawn by four or six mules, are not infrequently met with, and seem to be much patronised.

Many of the walks in the neighbourhood of the city are exceedingly beautiful; one of the pleasantest leads along the line of the aqueduct. Here the botanist fresh from Europe, will find subjects of interest at every step, and the entomologist may revel to his heart's content among gaudily coloured Heliconiae, Hesperiae, and Erycinae, or watch the larger butterflies of the restricted genus Papilio, slowly winging their lazy flight among the trees just beyond the reach of his insect net. A common butterfly here (Peridromia amphinome) has the singular habit of frequenting the trunks and limbs of the trees where it rests with expanded wings, and generally manages adroitly to shift its position, and escape when swept at with the net. Some large dark Cicadae are common among the branches, and the air often resounds with their harsh grating cries, especially towards evening. On the trunks of various trees along the path, especially a thorny-stemmed Bombax, the pretty Bulimus papyraceus is common, with an occasional B. auris-leporis, but I never during my walks was so fortunate as to find any of the more magnificent of the Brazilian landshells-for example, B. ovalis, a noble species, four or five inches in length, of which I have bought live specimens in the market.

Some of the lanes, in which, on one occasion I lost my way, about dusk, would have reminded me of those of the south of England on a fine autumnal eve, were it not for the scattered palms and papaw trees in the hedgerows, and the hedges themselves occasionally consisting of the coffee plant, concealing clumps of banana and sugar-cane. The Cicadae were singing their evening hymn from the branches overhead, and in due time the fireflies came out in all their glory.

DREDGING IN BOTAFOGO BAY.

I had looked forward with eager anticipation to the result of the first dredging of the Voyage. None of the ship's boats could be spared, so I hired one pulled by four negro slaves, who, although strong active fellows, had great objections to straining their backs at the oar, when the dredge was down. No sieve having been supplied, we were obliged to sift the contents of the dredge through our hands-a tedious and superficial mode of examination. Still some fine specimens of a curious flat sea-urchin (Encope marginata) and a few shells, encouraged us to persevere. Two days after, Mr. Huxley and myself set to work in Botafogo Bay, provided with a wire-gauze meat cover, and a curious machine for cleaning rice; these answered capitally as substitutes for sieves, and enabled us by a thorough examination of the contents of the dredge, to detect about forty-five species of mollusca and radiata, some of which were new to science. Among these acquisitions I may mention a new species of Amphioxus, a genus of small fishes exhibiting more anomalies than any other known to ichthyologists, and the lowest organisation found in the class; it somewhat resembles the sand-eels of Britain in habits, like them moving with extraordinary rapidity through the sand. By dint of bribery and ridicule, we had at length managed to get our boatmen to work tolerably well; and when we were alike well roasted by the sun and repeatedly drenched, besides being tired out and hungry, they had become quite submissive, and exchanged their grumbling for merriment. A more lovely spot can scarcely be found, than the secluded bay of Botafogo with its pretty village, and the noble Corcovado mountain immediately behind, and we paid it other visits.

SLAVERY.

One of the principal characteristics of Rio is slavery. Slaves here perform the work of beasts of burden; and in the business parts of the city the attention of a stranger is sure to be arrested by gangs of them heavily laden, proceeding at a jog-trot, timing their steps to a monotonous song and the noise of a tin rattle filled with stones, carried by their leader. What their domestic condition and treatment may be, I know not, but, among the slaves one sees out of doors, the frequency of iron collars round the neck, and even masks of tin, concealing the lower part of the face, and secured behind with a padlock, would seem to indicate extreme brutality in those capable of resorting to such means of punishment. Yet these, I was told, were rare exceptions, the Brazilians not being worse task-masters than the people of other slave-holding countries-and such may be the case.

RELIGIOUS PROCESSIONS.

Whatever he may think of the true state of religious feeling, it soon becomes obvious to a stranger that great care is taken to celebrate the numerous festivals of the Church with all possible pomp and splendour. One day I happened to encounter a procession in honour of St. Januarius, the patron saint of Rio. The number of ecclesiastics taking a part amounted to several hundreds, and a body of military brought up the rear. The streets and windows were crowded with people in their holiday costume, bands of music were playing, bells were ringing, flowers were scattered about and showered down from the houses. The profusion of tinsel and embroidery was very great, and the balconies and windows in the line of procession were hung with rich brocade in all the colours of the rainbow.

BRAZILIAN CHARACTER.

A short stay, such as ours, afforded very limited opportunities of judging of the national character; and my impressions on this point were, probably, often erroneous. The Brazilians and English did not then reciprocate very cordially, on account of the existing state of international relations. Of late years great advances appear to have been made upon the mother-country, judging from the increasing liberality of their institutions, the establishment of commercial relations abroad, the freedom of discussion and influence of the press, the attention paid to public education (especially of the middle classes) the support granted to literature and science, and the declining influence of the priesthood in secular matters. The national character, however, can scarcely be considered as fully formed; the Brazilians have been too recently emancipated from the thraldom of a modified despotism to have made, as yet, any very great progress in developing the elements of national prosperity and greatness which the vast empire of Brazil so abundantly possesses, and the foul blot of slavery, with its debasing influence, still remains untouched.

CROSS THE SOUTH ATLANTIC.

On February 2nd we sailed from Rio for the Cape of Good Hope. The morning being calm, we were towed out by the boats of the squadron until a light air, the precursor of the seabreeze, set in. While hove-to outside the entrance, a haul of the dredge brought up the rare Terebratula rosea, and a small shell of a new genus, allied to Rissoa. The remainder of the day and part of the succeeding one were spent in a fruitless search for a shoal said to exist in the neighbourhood, to which Captain Stanley's attention had been drawn by Captain Broughton, of H.M.S. Curacao.

At one P.M. of each day, when the weather was favourable, the ship was hove-to for the purpose of obtaining observations on the temperature of the water at considerable depths, under the superintendence of Lieutenant Dayman. As these were continued during our outward voyage as far as Van Diemen's Land, and the number of observations amounted to 69, the results will more clearly be understood if exhibited in a tabular form, for which the reader is referred to the Appendix. "Two of the Sixe's thermometers were attached, one at the bottom of the line of 370 fathoms, the other 150 fathoms higher up. The depth recorded is that given by Massey's patent sounding machine. As the same quantity of line was always used, the difference of depth of each day should be trifling, varying only in proportion to the ship's drift; yet on several occasions the depth recorded by the machine gives as much as 100 fathoms short of the quantity of line let out."*

(*Footnote. Lieutenant Dayman, R.N.)

BOAT CAPSIZED.

While engaged in sounding, a process