Paraguay, Brazil, and the Plate. Letters written in 1852-1853

Front matter

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PRINCETON, N. J.

Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund.

Preface

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here a short account of the country and of his stay there, supplied by Mr. Mansfield himself, at the request of several members of the Pliilological Society, in a letter to one of its Honorary Secretaries, dated Wey bridge, April 15, 1854. This will show at once, on the one hand, the extent of the writer’s opportunities for knowing the country, — on the other, his feelings respecting it.

My dear F ,

I promised to answer your inquiries about Paraguay. I have nothing very interesting to tell you ; nothing to put into formal shape. But I will make a plain statement for your benefit, and you may make any use you please of it.

Of course you know that Paraguay has been shut up, like Japan, from the day of the foundation of its capital till last year. The keys of course were kept by the Spanish Government, until the independence of the country was declared in 1813. From that time till his death, in 1S40, Francia, the despot elect, locked the world out from within ; and from that time till February 1852 the malicious jealousy of Rosas, the tyrant of Buenos Ayres, closed the river, which formed the only easy channel of communication between Paraguay and Earth. During the last twelve years or so, almost the only access to that country has been by a tedious horseback journey from Bio Grande do Sul on the Brazilian coast. A few foreigners have made that trip.

The only published accounts of the country, in Eng-

PREFACE.

Vll list, are, I believe, the following : — ‘ An Account of Francia, and his Reign of Terror,’ in three volumes, by the brothers Robertson : an amusing book, got up only to sell, twenty years after the authors had been there trading. The Robertsons visited Paraguay just at the commencement of Francia’ s reign, before his rigorous system of isolation was fully enforced. ‘ An Account of their Detention in Paraguay by Francia,’ by Messrs. Rengger and Longchamps, — from which the Robertsons’ last volume is made up, — dreary, but tine. ‘ A Memoir on Paraguay,’ communicated to the American Geographical and Statistical Society by. Mr. Hopkins, in 1852, which contains not a syllable geographical or statistical, nor anything remarkable, except a seasoning of childish jealousy of everything English. Also a Report, by Mr. Graham, another American, published some years ago in the ‘ Morning Chronicle.’*

After the fall of Rosas in 1852, our Government sent out an Embassy to recognize the independence of Paraguay, and make a treaty with that Republic. The navigation of the Parana was declared open by Ur quiz a, who succeeded Rosas in power at Buenos Ayres ; so ships went up to Assumption with English goods, to bringdown tobacco and Paraguay tea.

I arrived at Buenos Ayres in the August following Rosas’s fall, and went up-stream as far as Corrientes in one of the sailing schooners which ply on the river. Having then applied by letter to the President of Para-

* Since the text of this letter was written, some interesting communications about Paraguay have appeared in the New York ‘ Courier and Enquirer,’ from the pen of an “ Owu Correspondent.”

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PREFACE.

guay for leave to enter his country, and to travel by land to the capital, I received permission, and (as is generally accorded also, if such leave is granted, which was then a rare case) had post-horses and every other want supplied gratuitously by the hospitality of the Government.

About a month after I arrived in Assumption, the capital, Sir Charles Hotham, our Envoy, arrived. I remained two months and a half in the capital, and then returned down the river to Buenos Ayres by ship ; and a month later the Embassy returned, having made their treaty.

I only went to Paraguay to gratify a whim, which I have cherished for many years, of wishing to see the country, which I believed, and in many respects truly, to be an unspoiled Arcadia.

I was not the first Englishman who had been there, even lately, for I found three young Englishmen in the country, two of them established as merchants. One of these two, and the third, had come up since the fall of Eosas had enabled Argentine vessels to go up, some months before I arrived. The other had come up when, in 1845, the combined English and French squadron foi’ced the passage of Obligado, where Eosas had blockaded the river, and convoyed a fleet of merchantmen to Corrientes. He had remained there ever since. I believe no Englishman had ever been there to see the country before I went ; and I was obliged to come home without learning a tithe of what I wanted. In fact, I know next to nothing about the country ; indeed little more than could already have been gathered from the odds and ends that have been published.

PREFACE.

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Assumption is a town of some fifteen thousand inhabitants, beautifully placed on the banks of the Paraguay. These inhabitants are of mixed Spanish and Indian blood, the former pretty pure among the more comfortable class, the latter predominant among the labourers. These latter are of the Guarani race, and are a noble set of fellows. Guarani, a very beautiful language, full of nasals, gutturals, and vowels, of which you probably know more than I do, except as to pronunciation, is the language of the country. Spanish is spoken to foreigners in the capital, and is the language of state. Roman Catholic the creed.

#*###* Paraguay is the most interesting, loveliest, pleasantest country in the world, I believe. Wishing my yarn about it could give to your members even the edge of the shadow of the pleasure ivhich my short residence there afforded me,

I remain, yours very sincerely,

C. B. MANSFIELD.

One word more, though perhaps unneeded. Let none forget that this work is a posthumous one, — put together out of letters written with all the careless familiarity of one who is addressing his nearest kindred, his most intimate friends, — materials “homespun for home use,5’ to quote some happy words respecting them. Had the writer lived to shape out these materials, who knows how much he might have suppressed, how much added, how much rewritten ?

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PREFACE.

Those only who have had in hand his graver works (such as that on the “ Constitution of Salts/’ now in the press) can tell with what scrupulous, almost painful care he was wont to elaborate the finished expression of his thoughts.

And the task of one editing a posthumous work, unchosen moreover by the dead, differs greatly from that of the chosen editor of a work by a living writer. The latter stands on the author’s own footing, and may well deem himself bound to alter or omit whatever might be excepted to. The former should rather seek to preserve all that is capable of being defended, all that the writer might have really wished outspoken. What might have been his last word, we know not ; we only know that this was his first. And most especially is one called upon to be diffident in altering the writings of one like Charles Mansfield, in whom so many rare and loveable gifts were so strangely blended, that though one may meet his equal, none who knew him will ever expect to meet in this world his like.

XI fit lllcimrriam €. §J. |tt.

The Author of these pages was one of those rare spirits to whom this life and this world have been, as far as human minds can judge, little beyond a schoolhouse for some nobler life and world to come. Cut off at the very climacteric of his years, just as he was beginning to give the world evidence of his extraordinary faculties, and just as he had acquired the power of using them in an orderly and practical method, he has left little behind but the disjecta membra philosophi. His scientific works, many of them fragmentary, all of them (according to the verdict of those best able to judge) most valuable, are in course of publication. This more popular work goes forth as a sort of specimen of his intellect, when employed in more common and general subjects. However colloquial its style may be, the observant reader will find its very jests full of thought and earnestness.

XI)

MEMOIR.

He was born in the year 1819, at a Hampshire parsonage, and in due time went to school at Winchester, in the old days of that iron rule among masters, and that brutal tyranny among the boys themselves, which are now fast disappearing before the example and influence of the great Arnold. Crushed at the outset, he gave little evidence of talent beyond his extraordinary fondness for mechanical science. His desk was full of mysterious fragments of springs, pulleys, woodwork, and what not, and of scientific books, such as came to hand. But the regime of Winchester told on his mind in after-life for good and for evil ; first by arousing in him a stern horror of injustice (and in that alone he was stern), which showed itself when he rose to the higher forms at Winchester, by making him the loving friend and protector of all the lesser boys ; and next by arousing in him a doubt of all precedents, a chafing against all constituted authority, of which he was not cured till after long and sad experience.

From Winchester he went to Cambridge; and none who knew him there but must recollect with pleasure his graceful figure, slight and delicate, yet trained to all athletic sports, and of an activity almost incredible ; his forehead full and high, and yet most bland ; his fair locks ; his finely-cut features, most gentle and most pure ; his eyes beaming with thought, honesty,

MEMOIR.

Xlll humour, and a superabundance of genial life, such as I who write have never beheld in any other man.

None can forget the brilliance of his conversation, the eloquence with which he could assert, the fancy with which he could illustrate, the earnestness with which he could enforce, the sweetness with which he could differ, the generosity with which he could yield. Perhaps the secret of that fascination which, even at Cambridge, and still more in after-life, he quite unconsciously exercised over all who really knew him (and often, too, over those who but saw him for a passing minute, or heard him in a passing sentence, yet went away saying openly that they had never met his like), was that virtue of earnestness. Never have I met a human being to whom, as clearly as to him, the thing which seemed right was a thing to be done forthwith, at all hazards and any sacrifice. Even where most mistaken, truth seemed his only goal ; and, thank God, he reached truth, and had rest at last, though too late, perhaps, for this his short mortal stay. Such a man would hardly find himself at ease in any of the now recognized professions. And in fact he tried more than one, medicine especially, and after mastering the elements of each sufficiently to show that he might have excelled in any, settled or rather unsettled himself into a purely scientific course. One profession — holy orders — in which I think that

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MEMOIR.

he might have done more and been more, whether among the most cultivated or the poorest congregation, than almost any man I ever met, was closed to him till a comparatively late period by doctrinal doubts, which arose rather from intellectual than from moral difficulties. Those doubts vanished at last : but the scar given in youth was not healed till mature manhood, when his profession in life was fixed, and a noble worker lost to the English priesthood.

From the time of his leaving Cambridge he devoted himself to those sciences which had been all along his darling pursuits. Ornithology, geology, mesmerism, even old magic (on which subject, as on others, he collected a curious library) were his pastimes; chemistry and dynamics his real work. The history of his next ten years is fantastic enough, were it written, to form material for any romance. Long periods of voluntary penury, when (though a man of fair worldly fortune) he would subsist on the scantiest fare, at the cost of a few pence a day, bestowing his savings on the poor ; bitter private sorrows, which were schooling his heart and temper into a tone more truly angelic than I have ever seen in man ; magnificent projects, worked out as far as they would go, not wildly and superficially, but on the most deliberate and accurate grounds of science, then thrown away in disappointment, for some fresh noble dream;

MEMOIR.

XV intense interest in the social and political condition of the poor, which sprang up in him (to his great moral benefit) during the last five years of his life ; and in the meanwhile, as a recreation from mingled toil and sorrow, the voyage to Paraguay described in the following pages; — here were the elements of his schooling, — as hard a one, both voluntary and involuntary, as ever human soul went through.

At last, when he was six-and-thirty years of age, the victory seemed complete. His enormous and increasing labour seemed rather to have quickened and steadied, than tired his brain. The clouds which had beset his path had all but cleared, and left sunshine and hope for the future. His spirit had become purified not only into doctrinal orthodoxy, but also into a humble, generous, and manful piety, such as I cannot hope often to behold again. He had gathered round him friends, both men and women, who looked on him with a love such as might be inspired by some being from a higher world. He was already recognized as one of the most promising young chemists in England, for whose future renown no hope could he too high-pitched; and a patent for a chemical discovery which he had obtained, seemed, after years of delay and disappointment, to promise him what he of all men coveted least — renown and wealth. There is no bathos, as will be seen, in mentioning this the last of all.

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MEMOIR.

In February, 1855, he was at work on some experiments connected with his patent, in a room which he had fitted up near the Regent's Canal. By a mistake of the lad who assisted him, the apparatus got out of order ; the naphtha boiled over, and was already on fire. To save the premises from the effects of an explosion, Mr. Mansfield caught up the still in his arms and attempted to carry it out ; the door was fast ; he tried to hurl it through the window, but too late. The still dropped from his hands, half flayed with liquid fire. He scrambled out, rolled in the snow, and so extinguished the flame. Fearfully burnt, bruised moreover about the head whilst escaping, he had yet to walk nearly a mile, leaning upon a woman’s arm, to reach a cab, and was taken to the Middlesex Hospital, where, after nine days of fearful agony, he died like a Christian man. His servant died in the course of the same night.

Oh fairest of souls ! Happy those who knew thee in this life ! Happier those who will know tlice in the life to come !

C. Kingsley.

Chapter I. Voyage To Pernambuco

Page

Best of Lodgings at Sea. — Weather. — Fellow Passengers. — Arrival at Lisbon. — Sights there. — Whales. — Life on Board Ship. — The Horse Latitudes. — St. Vincent's. — Neophron Vultures. — Delays in Coaling. — A Consular Diplomatist. —

The Thrasher. — The Region of Calms. — Flying Fish. — The Equator through a Telescope. — The Southern Cross. — Arrival at Pernambuco ......... 1

Chapter II. Pernambuco

Scenery. — The Reef. — Negroes. — Climate.- — Sitios. — Life in the Town. — The Singing Lady and Praying Mantis. — Butterflies.

— Ants. — Climbers. — Palms. — The Environs of Pernambuco.

— Projected Excursion.— Frogs ...... 26

Chapter III. Environs Of Pernambuco

Trip to the Engenhos. — Mangroves. — Matutos, or Sugar-Carriers.— The Road and its (inner) Landscapes. — Atoleiros. — Engenho Suasuna. — Engenho Carrauna. — Forest Scenery.—

CONTENTS.

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Creepers. — The three kinds of Forest. — The Capoeira and its Imbauba-trees. — Parasites. — Palm-trees. — Life on an Engenho. — Mate, or Paraguay Tea. — Engenho Macuje. — Engenho Noroaga. — Return to Pernambuco. — A Negro Baby cured of Convulsions. — How small Blacks eat Farinha. — Past good Fortune. — Plans. — St. John’s Day in Town and Country. — Arrival at Rio 43

Chapter IV. Brazil

Crime.- — Political Economy. — Colonization. — Slavery. — Commerce 69

Chapter V. Rio And Its Environs

Petropolis to Fazenda Bom-Jardim. — Milho-Threshing. — Lodgings.— View from the Serra. — Another Engineer-Guide. — Thorny Palm-Tree. — Rancho Roberto. — Slave-Drove. — Mule- Droves. — Fazenda Benjamin. — An energetic Cultivator. — Timber-woods of Brazil. — The Virgin Forest. — Monkeys. — Snakes. — Birds. — -Termite Nests. — Security of the Country.

— Winter Heat. — Cross the Parahyba. — Gigantic Arums. —

The Pahnito.— Physiognomy of the Forest. — Sand-Flies. — A broken Crupper. — Large Fazenda. — Washing for Diamonds. — Return to Estrella. — Steaming to Rio. — Plans . . .79

Chapter VI. From Rio To Buenos Ayres

Departure from Rio. — The River Plate. — Buenos Ayres and its Stenches. — Gaucho Costume. — Plans for reaching Assumption.— Jiggers. — Carrapatos. — Irish Gauchos. — A Ride in the Outskirts of the Town. — Disgusting Sights. — The TJmbu Tree. — Regularity of the Town. — Beauty of the Ladies. — Trip

CONTENTS.

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Page

to Monte Video. — The Nine Years’ Siege. — Matadero, or Slaughter-house. — Misnomers. — English and Spanish Cemeteries.— Return to Buenos Ayres. — Prospects on Board the ‘ Neptune,’ bound for Corrientes. — Paraguay and its History.

— A Sunday in the Pampas. — Interview with Urquiza. — Oxhorn Fences. — Ostriches. — Biscachos. — Saladeros, or Salting-places. — Travelling Companions to Paraguay. — Opening of the Rivers .......... 122

Chapter VII. Up The Parana^ Erom Buenos Ayres To Cor- Rientes

Difficulties at Starting. — Fellow Passengers. — Bill of Fare. —

The Island of Martin Garcia.- — Run aground. — A Bathe. — Appearance of the Country.— A Fire. — Four Steamers pass up the River. — A Honey-wasps’ Nest. — Trial of Canoe Paddling.— Obligado. — Rosario. — Locusts. — The Steamers Return.— Diamantes. — Another Prairie Fire. — Aground Again.

— A Fleet of Vessels. — A Storm. — Scenery. — Change from ‘ Neptuno ’ to ‘ Rosario.’ — Vegetation. — Another Storm. — Breadth of the River. — Aground again. — Locusts. — Mirage.

— Arrival at Corrientes. — Natives. — Interview with the Governor 169

Chapter VIII. The Future Of Eastern South America

Waste of Land in South America.- — Possibilities of Anglo-Saxon Colonization. — Paraguay the choicest Site for a Colony. — Fertility of the Regions about the Plate. — Timber Tram-Roads.

— Steam Timber Rafts. — How Rivers may do their own Tug- Work 222

Chapter IX. Corrientes

A Country Ride. — Trees. — Birds. — The Misiones.— A Ball. —

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CONTENTS.

Page

Public Buildings. — Dwelling-houses. — A Visit to the Bishop.

— Birds’ -Nests. — A Soiree. — Projected Expedition to Misiones. — News from Buenos Ayres. — Needle-work. — Eleas and Jiggers.— Verbenas. — Silk-Cotton Tree. — Dogs and Frogs. — Crossing a Ferry. — Visit to Don Pedro. — Unsuccessful Tiger Hunt. — A Play. — Brilliant Lightning. — Co-operative Spiders.

— An Extensive Horsedealer. — A Fete Day. — A Storm. — Churches. — Oven Bird. — Manners and Customs. — Don Pedro.— A Ford. — Mandioca Planting. — A Primitive Plough. — Cattle Doctoring. — An Ant-Lion. — Ant-hills. — The Emperor of Cranes. — Wild Turkeys. — Sensitive Plants. — A Letter of Introduction. — Politics . 235

Chapter X. Corrtentes To Assumption In Paraguay

The Cavalcade start at last. — Costume. — The Parrot. — Ferry across the Parana. — Paraguayan Fort. — A Sharp Look-out.

— The Encampment of Paso. — Military Music. — Peculiar Features of the Country.—' The Phoenix Plant. — Birds. — Pilar. — Paraguayan Bread. — An Ant-Eater. — Red Pigs, Goats, and Men. — Camauba Palm. — Costume and Equipment. — Grasshoppers.— A Pair of Spurs.— The Ferry across the Tebicuare.

- — Plan of a Cottage. — A Four-post Bedstead. — Stage for Vines. — The Urundu-igh. — Corrals. — Treacle and Honey. — Cactuses. — Villa Franca. — Goitre. — An Estero. — A Fire-Fly.

— Mosquitoes. — An LTpset. — Mountains in Sight. — A Bridge.

— Hard Work and Bad Quarters. — First Glimpse of Assumption.— Arrival. — Hospitable Quarters 288

Chapter XI. Paraguay And The Gran Chaco

High Qualities of the Paraguayans. — Saxon appearance of the People in many cases. — The Gran Chaco the Empty Cradle of a Great Nation. — Can the Chaco Indians be civilized ? —

CONTENTS.

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Colonization of the Misiones — of Rio Grande, in Brazil. — Bamboos. — Slavery ........ 350

Chapter XII. Assumption

Temperature. — The Siesta. — Introduction to and Interview with the President. — Passports. — Fruit. — Wasps. — The Guarani Language. — A Funeral Service. — Smoking. — Mountebanks.— Falls of the Parana. — Indian Corn. — Mandioca. —

A Swedish Naturalist. — Salt-Making. — The Chaco. — The Payaguas. — Market Place. — Arrival of Sir C. Hotham. — Tame Birds. — Salutations. — Introduction to the Royal Family.— System of Government. — Christmas Day. — Fete of the Manger. — Manners and Customs. — The Guarani Language.— A Grand Ball. — A Curt Refusal. — Future Plans. — Sudden Determination to start for England. — Farewell to the President. — Passage taken ....... 362

Chapter XIII. The Voyage Home From Assumption To Southampton

Guardias.— Cicadas. — A Deer Slain. — The ‘Vixen.’ — The ‘San Vicente ’ taken by the ‘ Correo.’ — Passengers transferred to the latter. — The ‘ Merced ’ taken. — The ‘ Vixen ’ comes up and Passengers are transferred to her. — Arrival at Buenos Ayres. — A Siege. — Voyage to Rio Janeiro. • — Scarcity of Birds. — Voyage from Rio to Pernambuco. — Nearly too Late.

— Arrival at Southampton ....... 410