BAHIA AND PERNAMBUCO.
Departure
from Rio de Janeiro—Arrival at Bahia—Description of this City—Voyage to
Pernambuco—Jangadas—Description of the City and Environs of Pcrnambuco
—The Jesuits—The Peasantry—Town of Olinda—Its Colleges and Botanic
Garden—Visit to the Village of Monteiro—The German Colony of Catuca—The
Island of Itamarica—Pilar—Saltworks of Jaguaripe—Prevalent Diseases in
the Island—Its Fisheries—Peculiar Mode of Capture.
On the
tenth of June, 1807, I arrived in Rio from the Organ Mountains, and
during the remainder of that month, July, August, and the early part of
September, occupied myself in arranging and packing the collections
brought down with me, and in making a few excursions in the
neighbourhood. Having at length despatched everything for England, I
took a passage for Pernambuco in H.M. Packet Opossum, being now
desirous to explore the northern provinces. We sailed from Rio on the fifteenth of September and after a passage of thirteen days, during which we had much bad weather and contrary winds, reached Bahia. At three o'clock p.m., on the twenty-eighth, we came to an anchor in the bay opposite the city, and about a mile distant from it. As the land along this part of the coast rises only a few hundred
feet above the level of the sea, it is not seen at so great a distance
as the high lands are at Rio. In sailing up the bay, we kept pretty close to the shore, and I could not help remarking the great luxuriance of the vegetation. Cocoa-nut trees and other large pahns are very abundant, and the mango trees are both larger and more numerous than those about Rio. The city of Bahia, when first seen, has a very imposing appearance, the greater part of it being built on (he face of a hill, which rises about 500 feet
