Vessels bound to Western Africa, South America, or the East Indies, generally take in refreshments at this port, which affords a safe anchorage for vessels at all seasons of the year, excepting the month of September. During this month it is visited by a violent gale from the south, that would place in the most imminent danger any vessel which might seek for security beneath the bold and rocky precipice that rises in many places, nearly perpendicularly, one hundred and twenty feet above the shore.
At the summit of this rocky acclivity is the plain on which Porto Praya is built, and where a large open square, from which three or four streets diverge, serves as a market-place. Within this square is a building used for a jail. On its eastern side are situated the governor’s house and a church; the latter being the only place for religious worship in the town.
At the request of the governor, Capt. G. and myself paid him a visit. We were received with courtesy and affability. He is of noble family, not quite thirty years of age; and on this occasion was bedecked with six orders of merit, which he frequently gazed on with apparent satisfaction and delight. The houses here are generally built of stone: those facing the public square are two stories in height, and well stuccoed; on the western side, many of them commodious, well finished and furnished, and fastidiously neat in their appearance. A gallery, resting on a precipice seventy or eighty feet high, extends along their rear, and commands a prospect of neat gardens, securely walled in, and laden with tropical fruits, vegetables, and flowers. We observed several negro girls, in the valley beneath, drawing water for the inhabitants of the town, and, with well filled jars, winding their way up the side of a zig-zag and dangerous path on the hillside. As the eye followed their ascent up the fearful height, from which a false step would have dashed them in pieces, we could not but admire the seeming ease with which they balanced their vessels, and the apparent disregard of danger displayed by them as they frequently bent, in wanton sportiveness, over the projecting crags of the precipice.
The population of Porto Praya is said to amount to fifteen hundred or two thousand, nineteen twentieths of which are black or of doubtful origin. As a suitable return for the hospitality we had received from the inhabitants, a supper and dance were given to them on the quarter-deck of the Peacock, which was fancifully decorated with evergreens and flags; that of Portugal holding a conspicuous station.
We found fish in abundance in the waters around Porto Praya, and by the help of a seine obtained a good supply, among which we found the mullet and red grouper. Two lancet-fish were also taken: these singular fishes are furnished on each side of the tail with a weapon resembling the spring lancet, which they use both in defence and attack. The date-palm flourishes in the valleys, and all the intertropical fruits may be obtained in abundance in their proper season, and vegetables at all seasons.
Having replenished our diminished sea-stock, we sailed from Porto Praya on the thirteenth of April. After clearing the roadstead, we had a clear view, to the west, of Fogo; its towering altitude rising thousands of feet above the bosom of the ocean in which its base was laid. This ocean-mountain bears evident marks of its volcanic origin. Volumes of smoke were seen issuing from its numerous craters, so long as its bold outline was distinctly defined. Ere sunset, the Cape de Verds were completely hid from the view, and we stood south, inclining to the eastward, until the eighteenth, when we reached the latitude of 3° 31′ north, and 21° 41′ west longitude. We now shaped our course more to the westward, and on the nineteenth, being in latitude 2° 22′ north and 22° 8′ west longitude, we took in a light breeze from the south and east, and crossed the equator on the twenty-second, in longitude 23° 30′. The usual ceremonies of a visit from Neptune, which not unfrequently terminate in quarrels and fights, were judiciously dispensed with. An attempt was, however, made to play a trick on the uninitiated, which for a short time afforded much mirth and amusement. A hair was placed across the centre of a telescope-glass, and handed round, for the purpose of seeing the equatorial line; but a young midshipman having obtained another glass, in which he could not see the line, the trick became at once discovered. To make some amends to the crew for the loss of their usual frolic on crossing the line, a modicum of good punch was served out in the evening, when it was found that out of the whole number there was one-eighth (or twenty-one men) belonging to the “total abstinence” society; a proportion which I suppose to be as large as could be found among the same number of landsmen.
With pleasant breezes and moderate weather, we proceeded on our course, keeping the ship one point from the wind, so that a foretop studding would draw. At day-dawn on the third of May, we discovered Cape Frio, and at ten o’clock, A. M., the Sugar-loaf at the entrance to the harbour of Rio Janeiro. From the time we discovered the cape until the following evening, a most perfect and, to us, annoying calm prevailed. A brisk gale at length sprung up from the southwest, accompanied by thunder, lightning, and rain: so stormy, dark, and tempestuous was the evening, that we only occasionally obtained a glimpse of the fine revolving light on Raza island: at intervals, a vivid flash of lightning would disclose to us the Sugar-loaf mountain and a small twinkling light at Santa Cruz. The bearings of the principal points of land having been obtained, before the evening closed, notwithstanding the war of elements, we dashed onward in fine style under three topsails. As we came abreast Santa Cruz, we were hailed, and answered; but not heaving to, three guns were fired, followed by the burning of as many “blue-lights.” We now proceeded up the harbour, and cast anchor at ten o’clock. The city was saluted the following day, and the salute answered by an equal number of guns.
RIO DE JANEIRO—HARBOUR.
The seacoast from Cape Frio to Rio is remarkable for the boldness of its features, possessing various obtuse peaks and mountains; but southward of the harbour is a remarkable range of hills, presenting a rough profile of a human countenance lying with its face upward. It is formed by a table-mountain and two jagged hills: the resemblance is so striking at the first view that no force of imagination is necessary to complete the picture.
No one can enter this harbour without admiring the beautiful panorama which is spread before him. At the entrance, called the Pao de Assucar, the celebrated granite peak is seen, piercing the clouds, at an altitude of thirteen hundred feet, and the prospect is every where varied and magnificent. Nature seems, here, to have spread a banquet for her adoring admirers. Every spot is covered with beautiful flowers; even the rocks are festooned with various parasitical plants, which exhibit a perennial bloom. The harbour is surrounded with wooded hills, studded here and there with a chapel, a venerable church, or a beautiful villa. The imagination has free scope to picture forth scenes of bliss in the numerous valleys, where peaceful cottages lie partially concealed amid groves of orange and lemon, lime and citron. On the bosom of this spacious harbour may be seen, tranquilly reposing, the vessels of all nations; and the water is dotted in every direction with boats issuing from the numerous inlets and islands, from the first blush of morn to dusky night, laden with passengers for the city-market and the shipping. These boats are managed by slaves. This harbour, called by the natives Nitherohy, was discovered on the first day of January, 1531, by De Souza, and named Janeiro, or January river, as he supposed it to be an outlet to a great river, from the extent of its bay. It will probably ever retain, as at present, its name, notwithstanding the extreme absurdity of calling a bay a river: for it was soon ascertained by discovery, that no large body of water emptied into it.
The city of St. Sebastian, better known to the commercial world by the name of Rio de Janeiro, lies on the southern shore, skirting the base of several prominent hills and occupying the valleys between them; from Boto Fogo to its western extremity it measures nearly eight miles. The most conspicuous buildings are the numerous churches and chapels—the bishop’s palace—the theatre—and the royal palace, fronting the harbour, at the great landing for boats and vessels from Rio Grande, the town on the opposite shore. The streets, regularly laid out, intersecting each other at right angles, are not more than twenty feet wide, and wretchedly paved. The sidewalks are narrow and inconvenient for a town thronged with people. The houses are generally built of unhewn granite, and are from