number
of whale boats going out, manned by negroes. On visiting Bahia, one
circumstance which forcibly strikes the attention of a stranger, even
coming from the other provinces of Brazil, is the appearance of the
blacks met with in the streets; they are the finest to be seen in the
country, both men and women being tall and well-formed, and generally
intelligent, some of them even, as I have elsewhere observed, being
tolerable Arabic scholars. They have nearly all been imported from the
Gold Coast, and, not only from their greater physical strength and
intelligence, but from being united among themselves, they are more
inclined to insurrectionary movements than the mixed races in the
other provinces. Only a fortnight after I left Bahia a serious
insurrection took place, headed, indeed, by white Brazilians, but
supported by most of the black population; they kept possession of the
city for many months, nor were they fully dispossessed of it till after
the destruction of much life and property.
On
the 31st, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we set sail for Per-nambuco.
On the second night after we left, while I was walking the quarter-deck
with the captain, the watch forward reported a sail close on the
weather-bow; the crew were immediately piped to quarters, and in less
than five minutes were all on deck ready for action. Shortly afterwards
we saw the vessel pass us at some distance and disappear. As these
packets generally carry home a large amount of specie to England, it
was not without reason that the captain prepared himself for what might
happen, especially on a coast where suspicious craft are not
unfrequently hovering about. There was something exciting in this
little incident, and it afforded matter for conversation on the
following day.
After
a passage of nine days, land was descried early in the morning from the
mast-head, and in the course of a few hours we could see it from the
deck, rising above the horizon like a long black cloud. On nearing the
coast, it presented a very flat and barren-like aspect, forming a great
and unpromising contrast to the magnificent entry to the bay of Rio de
Janeiro. The town being built nearly on a level with the sea, we could
only obtain a view of that portion of it which immediately skirts the
shore, the
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