130 Anecdotes of Brazil. [[FEB. 



grasp of British enterprise; and, in the blind infatuation of the moment, 

 they wildly imagined that the dream of poetry and romance the golden 

 age was about to be substantially realized in the nineteenth century. 



It is easy, I am aware, to reason after an event ; for the causes and 

 effects being then developed, there remains only to place them in their 

 juxtaposition to arrive at the wished-for result. The history of this 

 singular period, unparalleled in the annals of human folly, will be 

 pointed at by the future historian as a faro on the ocean-rocks of time 

 a salutary warning to after ages. As a climax to this mania, there 

 was wanting but the formation of a company, whose object was, Titan- 

 like, to scale heaven by piling the huge mass of Cotapayi on the giant 

 Chimborazo. 



But the illusion has passed away. This fata morgana of the mind, 

 like its prototype in the natural world, after dazzling the imagination 

 with its fantastic imagery, has disappeared. Spanish- America, the sub- 

 ject of so many magnificent aspirations and conceptions, has proved a 

 failure. A fearful reaction has been felt through every gradation of 

 life. The soldier found there a grave the merchant, ruin ; while the 

 political projector has heard the death-knell of his hopes in the words of 

 the master-spirit of the revolution : " After twenty years' struggle," 

 said the Liberator Bolivar, " we have obtained our independence, but 

 at the sacrifice of every thing else !" 



While the tide of public attention was setting with headlong current 

 towards Spanish-America, Brazil in whatever point we view her 

 indisputably the most valuable and important part of this vast continent, 

 attracted to itself none of the capital or enterprise so prodigally lavished 

 on the sister colonies. This may, in some measure, be accounted for 

 from the barrenness of her early history, and the absence of all that 

 could gratify the high-seasoned and romantic taste of the present age. 

 What the sagacious mind of the great Pombal was unable to carry into 

 execution, the terror of Napoleon's arms finally accomplished. Threat- 

 ened with the fate of the Spanish monarchy, the house of Braganza 

 transferred the seat of their empire from Portugal to their extensive 

 transatlantic dominion. Although our commercial relations with Brazil 

 have, ever since this event, been on a most extensive and important 

 scale, it is really singular how little we yet know of the interior of this 

 beautiful country. Thinly scattered along an immense line of maritime 

 coast, the English residents in Brazil, with very few exceptions, were 

 all engaged in commercial pursuits, and were composed of a class of 

 men who, from their previous habits of life, were as little gifted with the 

 requisite powers of observation and deduction, for forming just and ade- 

 quate ideas of the vast resources and capabilities of the country in which 

 they resided, as they were formed by education and intellectual attain- 

 ments for inspiring the Brazilians with any more elevated ideas of our 

 own national character, than such as the plodding virtues of a counting- 

 house could convey. But a new era has dawned: the vast mineral 

 resources of this country are on the eve of rapid development, by the 

 combined operations of British science and enterprise, assisted by a 

 train of favourable circumstances, that must ensure the most splendid 

 success. 



In this early stage of her history, it would be as futile as vain to spe- 

 culate on the future destinies that await Brazil. I am well aware that it 

 may be alleged, that all improvement is there personal, and that, in fact, 



