Travels on the Amazon

CHAPTER V

Natterer's Hunter, Luiz—Birds and Insects—Prepare for a Journey—First Sight of the Piroróco—St. Domingo—Senhor Calistro—Slaves and Slavery—Anecdote—Cane-field—Journey into the Forest—Game—Explanation of the Piroróco—Return to Pará—Bell-birds and Yellow Parrots.

I HAD written to Mr. Miller to get me a small house at Nazaré, and I now at once moved into it, and set regularly to work in the forest, as much as the showery and changeable weather would allow me. An old Portuguese, who kept a kind of tavern next door, supplied my meals, and I was thus enabled to do without a servant. The boys in the neighbourhood soon got to know of my arrival, and that I was a purchaser of all kinds of "bichos." Snakes were now rather abundant, and almost every day I had some brought me, which I preserved in spirits.

As insects were not very plentiful at this season, I wished to get a hunter to shoot birds for me, and came to an arrangement with a Negro named Luiz, who had had much experience. He had been with Dr. Natterer during the whole of his seventeen years' residence in Brazil, having been purchased by him in Rio de Janeiro when a boy; and when the doctor left Pará, in 1835, he gave him his freedom. His whole occupation while with Dr. Natterer was shooting and assisting to skin birds and animals. He had now a little land, and had saved enough to purchase a couple of slaves himself,—a degree of providence that the less careful Indian seldom attains to. He is a native of Congo, and a very tall and handsome man. I agreed to give him a milrei (2s. 3d.) a day and his living. He used to amuse me much by his accounts of his travels with the doctor, as he always called Natterer. He said he treated him very well, and gave him a small present whenever he brought a new bird.

Luiz was an excellent hunter. He would wander in the woods from morning to night, going a great distance, and generally bringing home some handsome bird. He soon got me several fine cardinal chatterers, red-breasted trogons, toucans, etc. He knew the haunts and habits of almost every bird, and could imitate their several notes so as to call them to him.

In this showery weather the pretty little esmeralda butterfly (Hætera Esmeralda) seemed to delight, for almost every wet day I got one or two specimens in a certain narrow gloomy path in the forest, though I never found but one in any other place. Once or twice I walked over to the rice-mills, to see my friend Mr. Leavens, and get some of the curious insects which were seldom met with near the city. Several young men in Pará were now making collections, and it is a proof of the immense abundance and luxuriance of insect life in this country, that in every collection, however small, I almost always saw something new to me.

Having heard much of the "Piroróco," or bore, that occurs in the Guamá River at spring-tides, I determined to take a little trip in order to see it, and make some variation from my rather monotonous life at Pará. I wished to go in a canoe of my own, so as to be able to stop where and when I liked, and I also thought it would be useful afterwards in ascending the Amazon. I therefore agreed to purchase one that I thought would suit me, of a Frenchman in Pará, and having paid part of the purchase-money, got it fitted up and laid in a stock of requisites for the voyage. I took a barrel and a quantity of spirits for preserving fish, and everything necessary for collecting and preparing birds and insects. As the canoe was small, I did not want many men, for whom there would not indeed have been room, so determined to manage with only a pilot, and one man or boy besides Luiz.

I soon found a boy who lived near, and had been accustomed to bring me insects. To all appearance he was an Indian, but his mother had Negro blood in her, and was a slave, so her son of course shared her fate. I had, therefore, to hire him of his master, an officer, and agreed for three milreis (about seven shillings) a month. People said that the boy's master was his father, which, as he certainly resembled him, might have been the case. He generally had a large chain round his body and leg as a punishment, and to prevent his running away; he wore it concealed under his trousers, and it clanked very disagreeably at every step he took. Of course this was taken off when he was delivered over to me, and he promised to be very faithful and industrious if I took him with me. I also agreed with a lame Spaniard to go as pilot, because he said he knew the river, and some little experience is required at the time of the Piroróco. He begged for a few milreis beforehand to purchase some clothes; and when I wanted him to assist me in loading the canoe he was feasting on biscuit and cheese, with oil, vinegar, and garlic, washing it down so plentifully with caxaça that he was quite intoxicated, so I was obliged to wait till the next day, when, having spent all his money and got a little sober, he was very quiet and submissive.

At length, all being ready, we started, rowing along quietly with the flood-tide, as there was no wind, and at night, when the tide turned, anchoring a few miles up the Guamá. This is a fine stream, about half a mile wide in the lower part. A short distance up, the banks are rather undulating, with many pretty sitios. During ebb-tide we managed generally to anchor near some house or cottage, where we could get on shore and make a fire under a tree to cook our dinner or supper. Luiz would then take his gun and I my insect-net, and start off into the forest to make the most of our time till the tide turned again, when we would continue our voyage, and I generally had occupation skinning birds or setting out insects till the evening. About thirty miles above Pará the Piroróco commences. There was formerly an island in the river at this point, but it is said to have been completely washed away by the continual action of the bore, which, after passing this place, we rather expected to see, now being the time of the highest tides, though at this season (May) they are not generally high enough to produce it with any great force. It came, however, with a sudden rush, a wave travelling rapidly up the stream, and breaking in foam all along the shore and on the shallows. It lifted our canoe just as a great rolling ocean-wave would do, but, being deep water, did no harm, and was past in an instant, the tide then continuing to flow up with very great velocity. The highest tide was now past, so at the next we had no wave, but the flood began running up, instantaneously, and not gradually, as is generally the case.

The next day we arrived at São Domingo, a little village at the junction of the Guamá and Capim rivers. I had a letter of introduction to a Brazilian trader residing here, on presenting which he placed his house at my disposal. I took him at his word, and said I should stay a few days. Luiz went into the woods every day, generally bringing home some birds, and I wandered about in search of insects, which I did not find very abundant, the dry season having scarcely begun; there were, however, plenty of pleasant paths about the woods to the rice and mandiocca-fields, and abundance of oranges and other fruit. Our food was principally fish from the river and some jerked beef, with beans and rice. The house was little better than a mud hovel, with a bench, a rickety table, and a few hammocks for furniture; but in this country the people away from the towns never think of expending any great labour or going to any expense to make a comfortable house.

After staying nearly a week, with not much success in my collections, I proceeded up the west branch of the river, called the Capim. My canoe was a very unsteady and top-heavy one, and soon after leaving the village a sudden squall nearly upset us, the water pouring in over the side, and it was with some difficulty we got the sail down and secured the boat to a bush on the river's bank till the storm had passed over. We went pleasantly along for two or three days, the country being prettily diversified with cane-fields, rice-grounds, and houses built by the early Portuguese settlers, with elegant little chapels attached, and cottages for the Negroes and Indians around, all much superior in appearance and taste to anything erected now. At length we reached São Jozé, the estate of Senhor Calistro, to whom I brought letters of introduction. He received me very kindly, and on my telling him the purpose of my visit he invited me to stay with him as long as I liked, and promised to do all he could to assist me. He was a stout, good-humoured looking man, of not much more than thirty. He had recently built a rice-mill and warehouses, one of the best modern buildings I had seen in the country. It was entirely of stone; the mill was approached by arches in the centre, and the warehouses, offices, and dwelling apartments were at the sides. There was a gallery or verandah on the first floor connecting the two ends of the building, and looking down upon the mill, with its great water-wheel in the centre, and out through the windows on to the river, and a handsome stone quay which ran along the whole front of the building. It was all substantially constructed, and had cost him several thousand pounds.

He had about fifty slaves of all ages, and about as many Indians, employed in his cane-and rice-fields, and in the mills, and on board his canoes. He made sugar and caxaça, but most of the latter as it paid best. Every kind of work was done on the premises: he had shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, smiths, boat-builders, and masons, either slaves or Indians, some of whom could make good locks for doors and boxes, and tin and copper articles of all kinds. He told me that by having slaves and Indians working together he was enabled to get more work out of the latter than by any other system. Indians will not submit to strict rules when working by themselves, but when with slaves, who have regular hours to commence and leave off work, and stated tasks to perform, they submit to the same regulations and cheerfully do the same work. Every evening at sunset all the workpeople come up to Senhor Calistro to say good-night or ask his blessing. He was seated in an easy chair in the verandah, and each passed by with a salutation suited to his age or station. The Indians would generally be content with "Boa noite" (good-night); the younger ones, and most of the women and children, both Indians and slaves, would hold out their hand, saying, "Sua benção" (your blessing), to which he would reply, "Deos te bençoe". Others—and these were mostly the old Negroes—would gravely repeat, "Louvado seja o nome do Senhor Jesu Christo" (blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ), to which he would reply, with equal gravity, "Para sempre" (for ever).

Children of all classes never meet their parents in the morning or leave them at night without in the same manner asking their blessing, and they do the same invariably of every stranger who enters the house. In fact, it is the common salutation of children and inferiors, and has a very pleasing effect.

The slaves here were treated remarkably well. Senhor Calistro assured me he buys slaves, but never sells any, except as the last punishment for incorrigibly bad conduct. They have holidays on all the principal saints' days and festivals, which are pretty often, and on these occasions an ox is killed for them, and a quantity of rum given, to make themselves merry. Every evening, as they come round, they prefer their several petitions: one wants a little coffee and sugar for his wife, who is unwell; another requires a new pair of trousers or a shirt; a third is going with a canoe to Pará, and asks for a milrei to buy something. These requests are invariably granted, and Senhor Calistro told me that he never had cause for refusal, because the slaves never begged for anything unreasonable, nor asked favours when from bad conduct they did not deserve them. In fact, all seemed to regard him in quite a patriarchal view, at the same time he was not to be trifled with, and was pretty severe against absolute idleness. When picking rice, all had a regular quantity to bring in, and any who were considerably deficient several times, from idleness alone, were punished with a moderate flogging. He told me of one Negro he had bought, who was incorrigibly lazy, though quite strong and healthy. The first day he was set a moderate task, and did not near complete it, and received a moderate flogging. The next day he was set a much larger task, with the promise of a severe flogging if he did not get through it: he failed, saying it was quite beyond his ability, and received the flogging. The third day he was set a still larger amount of work, with the promise of a much severer flogging if he failed to finish it; and so, finding that the two former promises had been strictly kept, and that he was likely to gain nothing by carrying out his plan any longer, he completed the work with ease, and had ever since done the same quantity, which was after all only what every good workman did on the estate. Every Sunday morning and evening, though they do not work, they are required to appear before their master, unless they have special leave to be absent: this, Senhor Calistro told me, was to prevent their going to a great distance to other plantations to steal, as, if they could go off after work on Saturday evening, and not return till Monday morning, they might go to such a distance to commit robbery as to be quite free from suspicion.

In fact, Senhor Calistro attends to his slaves just as he would to a large family of children. He gives them amusement, relaxation, and punishment in the same way, and takes the same precautions to keep them out of mischief. The consequence is, they are perhaps as happy as children: they have no care and no wants, they are provided for in sickness and old age, their children are never separated from them, nor are husbands separated from their wives, except under such circumstances as would render them liable to the same separation, were they free, by the laws of the country. Here, then, slavery is perhaps seen under its most favourable aspect, and, in a mere physical point of view, the slave may be said to be better off than many a freeman. This, however, is merely one particular case,—it is by no means a necessary consequence of slavery, and from what we know of human nature, can be but a rare occurrence.

But looking at it in this, its most favourable light, can we say that slavery is good or justifiable? Can it be right to keep a number of our fellow-creatures in a state of adult infancy,—of unthinking childhood? It is the responsibility and self-dependence of manhood that calls forth the highest powers and energies of our race. It is the struggle for existence, the "battle of life," which exercises the moral faculties and calls forth the latent sparks of genius. The hope of gain, the love of power, the desire of fame and approbation, excite to noble deeds, and call into action all those faculties which are the distinctive attributes of man.

Childhood is the animal part of man's existence, manhood the intellectual; and when the weakness and imbecility of childhood remain, without its simplicity and pureness, its grace and beauty, how degrading is the spectacle! And this is the state of the slave when slavery is the best that it can be. He has no care of providing food for his family, no provision to make for old age. He has nothing to incite him to labour but the fear of punishment, no hope of bettering his condition, no future to look forward to of a brighter aspect. Everything he receives is a favour; he has no rights,—what can he know therefore of duties? Every desire beyond the narrow circle of his daily labours is shut out from his acquisition. He has no intellectual pleasures, and, could he have education and taste them, they would assuredly embitter his life; for what hope of increased knowledge, what chance of any further acquaintance with the wonders of nature or the triumphs of art, than the mere hearing of them, can exist for one who is the property of another, and can never hope for the liberty of working for his own living in the manner that may be most agreeable to him?

But such views as these are of course too refined for a Brazilian slaveholder, who can see nothing beyond the physical wants of the slave. And as the teetotalers have declared that the example of the moderate drinker is more pernicious than that of the drunkard, so may the philanthropist consider that a good and kind slave-master does an injury to the cause of freedom, by rendering people generally unable to perceive the false principles inherent in the system, and which, whenever they find a suitable soil in the bad passions of man, are ready to spring up and produce effects so vile and degrading as to make honest men blush for disgraced human nature.

Senhor C. was as kind and good-tempered a man as I have ever met with. I had but to mention anything I should like, and, if it was in his power, it was immediately got for me. He altered his dinner-hour to suit my excursions in the forest, and made every arrangement he could for my accommodation. A Jewish gentleman called when I was there: he was going up the river to collect some debts, and brought a letter for Senhor C. He stayed with us some days, and, as he would not eat any meat, because it had not been killed according to the rules of his religion, nor any fish that had not scales, which include some of the best these rivers produce, he hardly found anything at table the first day that he could partake of. Every day afterwards, however, while he was with us, there was a variety of scaled fish provided, boiled and roasted, stewed and fried, with eggs, rice, and vegetables in abundance, so that he could always make an excellent meal. Senhor C. was much amused at his scruples, though perfectly polite about them, and delighted to ask him about the rites of his religion, and me about mine, and would then tell us the Catholic doctrine on the same questions. He related to us many anecdotes, of which the following is a specimen, serving to illustrate the credulity of the Negroes. "There was a Negro," said he, "who had a pretty wife, to whom another Negro was rather attentive when he had the chance. One day the husband went out to hunt, and the other party thought it a good opportunity to pay a visit to the lady. The husband, however, returned rather unexpectedly, and the visitor climbed up on the rafters to be out of sight among the old boards and baskets that were stowed away there. The husband put his gun by in a corner, and called to his wife to get his supper, and then sat down in his hammock. Casting his eyes up to the rafters, he saw a leg protruding from among the baskets, and, thinking it something supernatural, crossed himself, and said, 'Lord, deliver us from the legs appearing overhead!' The other, hearing this, attempted to draw up his legs out of sight, but, losing his balance, came down suddenly on the floor in front of the astonished husband, who, half frightened, asked,'Where do you come from?' 'I have just come from heaven,' said the other, 'and have brought you news of your little daughter Maria.' 'Oh! wife, wife! come and see a man who has brought us news of our little daughter Maria;' then, turning to the visitor, continued, 'And what was my little daughter doing when you left?' 'Oh! she was sitting at the feet of the Virgin, with a golden crown on her head, and smoking a golden pipe a yard long.' 'And did she not send any message to us?' 'Oh yes, she sent many remembrances, and begged you to send her two pounds of your tobacco from the little rhossa, they have not got any half so good up there.' 'Oh! wife, wife! bring two pounds of our tobacco from the little rhossa, for our daughter Maria is in heaven, and she says they have not any half so good up there.' So the tobacco was brought, and the visitor was departing, when he was asked, 'Are there many white men up there?' 'Very few,' he replied; 'they are all down below with the diabo.' 'I thought so,' the other replied, apparently quite satisfied; 'good-night!'"

Senhor Calistro had a beautiful canoe made of a single piece of wood, without a nail, the benches being all notched in. He often went in it to Pará, near two hundred miles, and, with twelve good Indians to paddle, and plenty of caxaça, reached the city, without stopping, in twenty-four hours. We sometimes went out to inspect the cane-fields in this canoe, with eight little Negro and Indian boys to paddle, who were always ready for such service. I then took my gun and net, and shot some birds or caught any insects that we met with, while Senhor Calistro would send the boys to climb after any handsome flowers I admired, or to gather the fruit of the passion-flowers, which hung like golden apples in the thickets on the banks. His cane-field this year was a mile and a half long and a quarter of a mile wide, and very luxuriant; across it were eight roads, all planted on each side with bananas and pine-apples. He informed me that when the fruit was in full season all the slaves and Indians had as much as they liked to take, and could never finish them all; but, said he, "It is not much trouble planting them when setting the cane-field, and I always do it, for I like to have plenty." It was altogether a noble sight,—a sample of the over-flowing abundance produced by a fertile soil and a tropical sun. Having mentioned that I much wished to get a collection of fish to preserve in spirits, he set several Indians to work stopping up igaripés to poison the water, and others to fish at night with line and bow and arrow; all that they procured being brought to me to select from, and the rest sent to the kitchen. The best way of catching a variety was, however, with a large drag-net fifty or sixty yards long. We went out one day in two canoes, and with about twenty Negroes and Indians, who swam with the net in the water, making a circuit, and then drew it out on to a beach. We had not very good fortune, but soon filled two half-bushel baskets with a great variety of fish, large and small, from which I selected a number of species to increase my collection.

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1

"Bemteví" (I saw you well); the bird's note resembles this word.