1831.] Anecdotes of Brazil. 131 



the whole social system is dependent on so frail a tenure as the existence 

 of one man. "What countervailing chance," it maybe asked, " does 

 there exist for this country, that, in the event of the present emperor 

 being snatched from this life ere he has consolidated the disjointed parts 

 of his immense empire, a similar reaction to that which, in the Spanish 

 colonies, has reduced every thing to a chaos of confusion, may not 

 happen ?" On a superficial view, it will perhaps be difficult satisfac- 

 torily to answer these objections. But it must be recollected that the 

 Brazilian people are eminently monarchical in their habits and prejudices 

 that, for upwards of twenty years, they have been accustomed to the 

 residence of a court that the example of the Spanish colonies, so far 

 from proving alluring, will operate as a salutary warning to them to 

 say nothing of the difference of caste and colour an insuperable obsta- 

 cle to a republican form of government wherever it exists. 



What most forcibly strikes the stranger in Brazil, is the extraordinary 

 melange of antitheses in the character of its people. Singularly blen- 

 ded with the most artless simplicity he discovers consummate hypocrisy, 

 the basest superstition with the most frightful latitudinarianism, and abject 

 servility with an impatience of control bordering on savage indepen- 

 dence. Unlike the old countries of Europe, morality in Brazil is at a 

 lower ebb in the country than in the towns, in the interior than on the 

 sea-coast. In the latter, by means of commerce, the inhabitants have 

 been kept up to a certain degree of civilization, though, it must be con- 

 fessed, of the lowest ebb ; but in the interior, where the restraints of 

 religion can no longer be observed, the only preservative has failed, and 

 the descendants of the first settlers have fallen into a state infinitely 

 below that of the aborigines they have displaced. Accustomed, almost 

 from the cradle, to wander at will over their extensive and boundless 

 plains, they naturally imbibe ideas of independence, which spurn at all 

 social control, and which but too often betray them into fits of lawless 

 passion, productive of the most fatal results. Of this singular state of 

 manners, I had myself a melancholy example, while in the interior of 

 the province of Bahia. A Senhor d'Eugenho (a planter), of high rank 

 and influence, on his return from the chace, stopped at the house of a 

 lavrador (a farmer), and requested refreshment and shelter from the 

 burning heat of a vertical sun. The farmer was from home ; but he 

 was, in the mean time, hospitably received by his wife, who adminis- 

 tered to his wants with the best her humble residence could afford. The 

 senhora was a remarkably pretty woman, and her interesting appearance 

 caused her guest to forget the better feelings of his nature. The propo- 

 sals thus made were indignantly repelled : and, baffled in his criminal 

 designs, the brutal ruffian precipitately quitted the house, breathing 

 revenge which he was not long in executing ; for, on the night of 

 the same day, he returned at the head of a band of hirelings, set fire 

 to the house, inhumanly butchered the husband, and carried off the 

 unfortunate wife. His high rank and influence locked the wheel of 

 justice, and enabled him to enjoy in triumphant impunity the fruits of his 

 atrocious crime. 



In this world, the merits of every human conception, whether on a 

 narrow or an extended scale, must be measured by the success of its prac- 

 tical application. Those institutions which, in the improved state of 

 European society, are found to be so prejudicial to its best interest, and 

 dangerous in their operation, were, at the hour of their birth, and during 



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