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I this day commence a
as I have several times before but now with
a determination to continue if I have my health
for some time I have started today in the ship
Montpelier. Captain Swift for Bahia
we went out of the
from the N.W. but when outside of Cape Cod
we met a N.E. storm as it blew a gale so they
had to scud before it all night
we had a gale from the S.W. and made all
aboard seasick but 3 or 4
the wind
came out N.W. and had the appearance of being fair
for a short time but it came on squally with snow
& hail and wind and such a time as monday night
was I never saw & hope I never shall again the
squalls came once in half an hour all night
and the sea sparkled & roared terrible
one of the horses was dead & they threw
him overboard the squalls come all day & night
the sea begins to be a little smoother
I have eaten a little breakfast this morning for
the first time. the captain & part of the sailors
have been sick & he says we may go to sea our
lifetime & never see a worse time than we have
had Roswell is sick yet but is getting better
As I sit in the aft of the
the Atlantic with its surface heaved almost into
mountains by the wind I wonder how so many
trust their lives upon it as there is at 3
today saw a large
all sails
weather
I was disappointed about
the weather last night for the wind come out
N.E. and blew a gale all night & today it seems
as if the
the thermometer in the coolest place I could find
this morning was 58 today we threw over
another of the horses & 5 hens died the Ladies
came on deck a few minutes today for the
first time since we left Boston but looked
rather pale I saw 2 or 3 small birds today they
called shearwaters & a lot of stuff that looked like
rock weed, roswell is sick yet but I can
eat my allowance
I have heard
tell of a calm at sea but words can convey no
idea of one last night the wind went all down
with a tremendous sea running & I thought it
would tip the
pieces I supposed in a calm the
roll slowly but it would go so fast that I could
not lie in my berth we have one fellow
Aboard 18 or 19 years old that is full of fun & wit
notwithstanding his sickness he lies in his berth
pale as a ghost & will poke his head out once
in a while & sing out that he is not dead yet
and call out to the cook for some dish or
drink that it is impossible to get he says his
folks
out the contrary in 3 or 4 years when they see
him coming home with a flock of young
ans
we had
squalls of rain all night but not quite so much
wind this morning at sunrise it is clearing away
& the thermometer at 64 this morning there is
lots of the gulf weed as they call it in lines
exactly the way the wind is blowing as far
as I can see the Captain says let the wind
shift even so sudden the first thing you see
is this weed formed in lines the same today
now we are in Latitude 32.4 Longitude
53. Roswell is no better today but the rest
are all nearly well it is not so
I expected to find it at sea & if we could have
pleasant weather I could enjoy it very well
we have plenty of fresh provisions yet I
know how it will seem when them are gone
but I think more of the water than anything else
of being a pleasant night saw a sail going towards
the west but so far off I could not make out what it was
well last night was pleasant and
I slept this morning there is a light breeze and the
thermometer at 68 it
clean up & things appear quite
difference from last Sunday all sick & the wind
blowing a gale the wind soon breezed up fresh
from the south but the day passed off quite
asantly
some flying fish
I am sick this
ing
or tea they try to have good things here but
it is all out of the question for me, some appear
to like it Roswell is quite well this morning
but there is 2 or 3 others pretty sick for the most
of the night was very rough the captain is a
great hand to flatter the passengers about what
good things he is going to have as soon as he gets
into pleasant weather & what wonders they are
going to see it is now noon & I feel much better
I took some bitters this morning the captain gave me
and I think was what made me sick the thermometer
this morning at 70 & the sailors are round forefront one
thing I neglected to put down that occurred last
Monday night when the squalls were raging hardest
I heard the mate sing out at the top of his voice
for some of the hands to run aft for the ship had
sprung a leak I jumped up and dressed & went on
deck and it was all still and I have not found
out yet what the matter was the clouds now
look heavy like a storm I watch every motion
of them but I dont think I shall ever be a sailor
we are now in Latitude 30 & Longitude 48, about
the Latitude of New Orleans one thing I notice as
we get into lower latitude and that is that as
soon as you see daylight it is sunrise and there
is scarcely any twilight.
another calm
of all things at sea now a calm is as bad as
any thing I have seen yet it was calm all night
and it rolled so that it nearly killed one of the
horses so they knocked it in the head and threw it
overboard this morning
at 65 but I want my overcoat on on deck there
has been a
2 or 3 hours
rigged their harpoons but when they got them
done they had disappeared the Ocean does not look
so green as I expected to see it when we got
out it has more of a blue shade
Victuals begins to taste better
eat quite hearty they had baked
tasted good we are going more to the East than
I expected on account of the trade winds we are
looking for them now every day
we
had a gale all last night from the north and
it is now 3
comes over the
inches deep on deck & the surface of the Ocean
is all of a white foam we are running nearly
before the wind with but little sail & take it
altogether it is a pretty loathsome day it comes
in squalls & it now looks as thick & gloomy as
I have seen it any time 5
dead & they are trying to throw him overboard but
I dont know how they will manage it is so rough
there is but one left and I think she will soon
follow the rest I dont expect to sleep any tonight
I got out an apple & eat today as it was a great treat
I was mistaken there is two horses left
there is not much wind
the captain says he never saw such a blow
so near the trade winds and that no
would thought of carrying any sail unless they
were going right before it I am sick
a headache thermometer 68 Latitude 28 Longitude 41
last night was still with just breeze
enough to keep the
got over my headache and feel quite well
there is a light breeze from the west but the
captain is disappointed in not finding the trade
winds there has been a black heavy cloud to the
west all the morning & it now 10 ½
to rain this morning a hen flew overboard from
the
could see her & looked pitiful but there was
no help for her
the sea is smooth enough & it is warm. Afternoon it
has cleared away & is pleasant we are between
the variable winds and the trades
last
night we took the trade winds from the N
E and today the thermometer was 68 at sunrise
& it is pleasant enough there is a light breeze
and the sea is smooth which a few days ago I
never expected to see it had been so rough all
the time since we started it was so still last
night that I slept as well as if I had been at
home this morning saw a tropical bird a small
black bird about the size of a martin the clouds
look warm like summer at home but I can see
nothing but ocean & clouds when I look from the
day after day
For want of something else to do I will give
a description of our ship & cargo both animate
& inanimate first comes the
pretty good accommodations for a merchant
with a cabin of 19 berths 2 petitioned of for the Ladies
4 for captain, boy & 2 mates & 13 for passengers and a
pantry & cook house etc, besides barn
coops next comes the captain a short thick
good natured yankee about 45 or 48 years old that
likes to hear or tell a good story and taste the
passengers brandy & have them praise his victuals
& tell wonderful stories if you dont know
thing
some one else but take him in all things I think
a first rate captain and a fine man. Next
comes the first mate a clever Frenchman that
was brought up in this country but has a little
of the french de in his talk to make it sound
funny he has always been a sailor and likes
to tell his adventures to any one that will listen
and give the latitude & longitude every day that
he can see the sun. his name is Francis
Bennett I should think about 45 years old the
Captains name is Joseph Swift
Now comes the second mate a young man
from Worcester by the name of
clever fellow then there is two old Yankee tars
1
three boys learning one spaniard & 2 yankees
and a little wrinkled faced Englishman for cook
but he is a good cook if he does look bad
he makes a capital pudding they call duff that helps
my living amazingly then we have a carpenter by
the name of Foster going out for the Company a singular
kind of man that laughs at every thing he says
or any one else whether it is grave or gay and
him talk he could make any thing from a needle to
an anchor or from a cider tap to a Meeting house
if they
hand to drive away blues for he will try to sing
and dance and every thing else that ever was
thought off and you can hear him all over the
going out to superintend the mill a machinist
by the name of Pollard Roswell & myself that
need no description then there is 7 young fellow
going out for the government as farmers one
one great & I should think lazy fellow by the name
of Jones from Northern New York 2 from
New Hampshire or Vermont 1 from Canada and
the others from the vicinity of Boston and
two ladies one Mrs Vial has a husband out there
at Bahia to work in a furnace the other Miss
Catherine Ross what she is a going for I dont
know shall find out
our loading it is hard describing it. it is principally
tools & stock for different kinds of mechanical
work and farming tools and a little of most
every thing they are repairing the
over & I take hold & help a little
to pass away time when we were opposite
the
painted white all turned black & remain so.
Part of this page is filled out near the end
of the voyage but I dont want to leave a blank
so I put in anything I can think of We
ran 4 or 5 days within 4 or 5 hundred
miles of the coast of Africa we found
Westerly wind between the trade winds
where we expected to find Easterly and
we went farther to the East than common.
last night was very pleasant & this
morning the thermometer is at 70 and almost calm
everything begins to look better the stock since
we got out of the squalls & gales eats & looks well
it is now near sunset & it has been as pleasant
as need be a good steady
so they have not altered a sail saw
flying fish
windward and going N.W. it come up squally in the
Evening & continued all night with rain and
wind
& last this morning
thermometer at 72 and a stiff breeze with squalls
& has continued blowing all day we are now
in latitude 22 & longitude 33 away to the
East of the west Indies it is cool enough with
a coat on there is so much breeze we are
now in the tropics that is south of where the
sun comes in june the moon now goes to the
north of us & the north star has got pretty
low the sun nor moon has rose or
since we have been out but when it is clear
in the evening it looks odd to see so many
more stars than we do at the north we just
saw the top of the masts of a ship this morning
is all I have seen worth noting
has disappeared & I hope we shall not see any more
Roswell has got over his sickness so he & I pumped
out the
walk a crack on the deck saw a bird flying
round the
like a great nighthawk
last night was quite pleasant with a
good breeze & not very squally but
has been squally enough this morning
a cow died and was thrown overboard &
if they get any stock there alive it will be a
miracle I saw a Nautilus & a
chicken today the first I have seen of either
the trade winds blow here from the NE
and we come to places frequently where the
sea is all in commotion caused I should think
by the tide for it appears different from what
effect wind would have upon it the captain
calls it tide rips saw a large
this morning steering west probably going
to the West Indies or New Orleans thermometer
this morning 72.
I sit up last
night
it looked like fire where there was any spray
it was squally & has been squally most all day
some of the time the wind blowing very hard
and shifted into the S.E. in the N.E trade wind
which is something they never expect but it
has shifted back this afternoon saw 3 large fish come
close to the
Grampus what we call I suppose black fish
they had a large white spot on the side saw a
petrel today & two birds they called noddys I feel
the best today I have since we have been out we
are in latitude 18 & longitude 31 I expect a squally night
it looks odd to see so many more stars here than
at home & different ones to the south the north
star is but a little above the horizon the moon
now goes to the north of us & the sun is pretty
high at noon we have run to the East so my watch
is between 2 & 3 hours to slow.
we had
some squalls last night but not so many as
I expected &
breeze saw a large
North
of the track of
we are
&
see them saw a small white bird
called a Mackerel gull we passed this afternoon
a large tide rip a
the water is all in commotion no regularity to
the waves at all thermometer at 72, this morning
Saw some more porpoises this morning went by
the stern of the vessel going to windward
inaugurated President of the United States
but as I am out of his jurisdiction I
care but little about it We killed & threw
overboard a cow
she could not live the voyage and they
killed her to get her out of her misery
we have had a strong breeze to day & last
night & the surface of the ocean is alive
with flying fish they fly out in
hundreds & I dont know but thousands at
a time two flew aboard of the
night they were 8 inches long & the
& shape of a
has a singular appearance
there appears to be 3
scud running quick then a white cloud
with but little motion & a thin haze above
that that has no motion at all that I can
perceive & has the most beautiful
ever saw of purple from light to dark
that faded out & the next on middle clouds
begun to turn yellow & become a bright
orange
this morning is the warmest
I have seen thermometer at 74 and the clouds
look heavy & dull but there is a good breeze
& it is comfortable with a coat on I feel well
and am on the look out for sights but there
is few to be seen see now & then a bird
that looks like a night hawk and a few
have a dull leady appearance & it looks smoky
like May we were today noon latitude 10.35
N & longitude 28.20 W
we had a
pleasant night & this morning saw a
ahead coming towards us when within a few
miles the captain of our
American flag and we soon saw the English
flag flying from his they came close to us and
spoke one another it proved to be a
New Holland bound to london & looked rather
rusty I must confess I felt a little pride in
the appearance of our
as we were to leeward of them and not loaded
very
barn etc. on deck it must have made quite an
imposing appearance to them as they passed they
give their longitude at 26.50 which agreed very
nearly with ours thermometer this morning 78.
time passes off quite pleasantly now in pleasant
weather the captain is very sociable and has been
nearly all over the world & observed a great many
things that is very interesting to me to hear him
tell we have a long talk every evening and more
or less every day we are now in latitude 8. and the
N.E trade wind continues to blow which is
uncommon for it to so far south it generally
leaves off between 9 & 13 then there is a space
to within 4 or 5 of the Equator with Variable
winds then comes the S.E. trade winds saw two
more
one was a large
have had a fine breeze all day from the N.E.
from the East just enough to keep the
steady & there is no chill to the wind at all
I have seen nothing today worth noting except
great numbers of flying fish & petrels we were
today at noon in latitude 5.41 N and longitude
25, 46 degrees East of Boston I begin to feel
some ways from home when I look at the north
star and find it has almost sunk below the
horizon I sweat at work today for the first time
since I started I can eat my allowance and they
tell me I am fatting up I hope it is so
the ocean look flatter today than usual and
it seems that I can see further I suppose it is
clearer & I can see further than when it is cloudy
we are now steering south to take the S.E. trade
winds & it seems more like getting
East as we have been I sat up last Evening to see
the ocean sparkle again it looked as if there was
a great light shining from the
water as far as the foam extended and that full of
sparks as bright as any I ever saw
but it is comfortable in the shade the thermometer
this morning at 84 the ocean is the smoothest
I have seen it I can see no swell looking off on
the water but can feel a long swell in the motion
of the it is so still there has been a
sight all day going S.W. & we are going south
there appears to be a current here going East
for in 24 hours steering south we went east
30 miles I think it is the current from the
Amazon although we are 3 or 4 degrees to
the north of it but the S.E. trade winds blowing
3 or 4
a tendency to sweep the current round as far
from land as we are nothing seen
the Nautilus
the captain is nearly in the same shape of old
John Kent that used to sail a small schooner
to Boston from some port down East in the
last war he had been to Boston with a cargo
and disposed of it and in laying in his stores
first & foremost was a
which he would lighten on the passage home
this time there happened to be an English man
of war outside the
out just at night it fell calm and he
in drifting round run afoul of the
and the captain sang out to know who
anded
God Almighty is commander now but when
there is a breeze she is commanded by one
John Kent
it has been
nearly calm all day and hot we have made
but little progress and the time goes off rather
slow I am so lame I can hardly get about the
with the window open the idea that a man
dont get cold at sea is false he may not get
to affect his throat and lungs but he will feel
it in some shape if he exposes himself. The
sailors are scraping & painting the outside of the
a first rate night to sleep last night
and I feel better this morning we had some showers
this morning and it rained tremendously but no
thunder or wind
from the S E. and brought a breeze with it
and I hope it is the SE trade wind for it is
usually found north of where we are now. we
expect to get to the Equator tomorrow if we have
a fair wind at dinner today they sang out porpoises
and I left my dinner and went out and a little
astern was a large
dinner & when I went out again there was a
of black fish close by to windward and the ocean
as far as I could see alive with porpoises cutting
all manner of pranks some would jump out and
shift ends before they went into the water again
and behind or among them was a sperm whale
a spouting every few minutes this afternoon there is
another large
none comes near enough to harpoon it is squally
this afternoon so I dont take much comfort
last night the wind went down
at midnight & this morning it is a dead calm
and the sun shining bright thermometer at 88
and 75 miles north of the equator we caught a
Nautilus
the sailors call them Portuguese men of war
they look the body of them like a great fish
bladder blown up with a great lot of long
on legs underneath of most beautiful
of purple & blue and a piece that comes to
an edge on top 3 or 4 inches high & 6 or 8
long like an old fashioned roosters comb that
they use for a sail the top of it is red and
changes to purple as you go down there is a
breeze from the west this afternoon & we have
seen two lots of porpoise we have lost the
North star but I can see stars & other things
at the south that I never saw before a white
spot they call one of the Magellan clouds but
it is not a cloud any more than the Milky way
I tried to dry my Nautilus but it all faded
out so I threw it away.
has been calm all day & hot we are drifting
round with the current which is first
one way & then another there is one thing -
near the Equator & that is there is a current
before the wind comes out any way in the
same direction the wind is blowing & he thinks
the porpoise feels the current is why he is
always going to windward in a calm or any
other time. last night the mate called me
to look at the Ocean & it was worth getting up
to see it was nearly calm & dark no spray
at all and on the sides & to the stern of the
glow worm from the size of a pea to the size
of my hat & larger they would be floating round
on the water different from what I have before seen
calm yet but we have plenty
of good living and so long as we have no
thunder & lightning & no squalls of wind I am
quite contented it is pretty hot thermometer
at 88 at noon but with nothing to do I can
keep comfortable in the shade we are
day
it has been cloudy nearly all the time we
have chickens every Sunday and have got
enough left for several sundays more but
I hope we shall not have to be on the ocean
but one more at most
last
night the wind breezed up about sunset with
heavy clouds hanging all round and soon one
of them came over and the rain poured down
in torrents with 3 or 4 flashes of lightning & loud
claps of thunder between ten & Eleven
captain came and called me to see a ball of
fire at the mast head but it had nearly gone
when I went out but it was raining hard and
the Ocean was covered with balls of fire or
what looked like it and a lot of fish they
called
flash like lightning take it altogether it looked
gloomy enough we were right under the Equator
and I expected we should have more showers
but we have had but one
with that we are a few miles south of the
Equator now with a light breeze from the
west which the captain says he never knew
before in this place saw a
steering east going I suppose to the coast of
Africa saw two large birds today they called
hagdon and two
first Mate Mr Bennett slipped on deck today
& sprained his knee I was afraid he had put
his knee out at first but I
sprained I hope that is all for he is a man
I like first rate Nothing can be more beautiful
than the appearance of the clouds
sun is setting they lie still like a painting upon
the sky & all
can imagine there is blue pink & purple the
handsomest I ever saw and some looks like gold
leaf
I had heard people tell of
a calm at sea so the Ocean looked like a
sheet of glass & after we had been to sea
three weeks I thought it must be a mistake
but for 3 or 4 days past I have seen it so
several times there was a long dull swell
but at a little distance from the
it looked perfectly smooth it is now 5
& the wind has blown from the S.W. since 3
clock
of the equator & it is raining hard in showers
but no thunder & lightning there has been a
sail in sight all day
raining going the same way we are but
several miles distant still it seems as if
we were in company I have seen a
of black fish
distance they called whales but I think they
were black fish the Captain is as uneasy as
a fish out of water in consequence of not getting
the trade wind he shifted his course once today
but had to run North of West & he shifted back
again the mates knee is so he cannot move it
I am afraid he will not be able to get round any
more this voyage & I miss him very much
Well here we are about
100 miles south of the Equator & the sun right
overhead with but little breeze & that to the
West & north but I am disappointed in the
heat here at the Equator it is not uncomfortable
on account of the heat thermometer this morning
at 78 & when there is a breeze it is cool enough
there has been a large ship near us all day
& I was in hopes they would come near enough
to speak but we appear to sail faster than
they do so there will be no chance
calm again
made but 17 miles the last 24 hours & are
just 2 degrees south of the Equator the wind
has shifted from the west to the SE this
afternoon & I am in hopes we shall have
a breeze before morning I saw something
last night that I never saw before nor
any one else on board the
was a shower to the Eastward & the moon
shone very bright so there was a perfect
low clear over & quite bright another
sight I saw today I looked over the side
of the
fish come right up to where I stood it
proved to be a sword fish he came close up
to the
the water in the sun so I had as fair view
of him as I could wish he then went down
under the
by the bottom of the rudder his sword looked
about 4
he came up to the
it was a whale
nothing of interest
to write about it was the pleasantest evening
last evening I ever saw it was clear & warm
with no chill or dampness at all & just breeze
enough to keep the
it feel comfortable we have now a light
breeze from the S.E. & made 30 miles the last
24 hours we sail out of sight of every vessel
but one & that has has kept in sight of us
since tuesday the Mates knee appears better
in this position -:- different from what I
cted
evening very bright & remained an hour or
more after sunset we are so far to the
east that we have more longitude to make
than Latitude to get to Bahia
it is hard work to think
of any thing to write
been a good breeze
as if we are going to get Bahia sometime
sooner than we could in a calm it is squally
which I dont like but they have not
been hard enough yet to make them take
in sail and we made 105 miles of Latitude
the last 24 hours & 70 of Longitude the Brig
was in sight this morning but it appears
to be steering more south than we are and
has got out of sight passed a large
this afternoon steering N.W. but some
distance off Latitude today 12
there has been a good breeze
today & last night so we run 105 miles of
Latitude & 70 of longitude we are now past
Cape St Rogue & steering S.W. the S.E. trade
winds feel as soft & pleasant as any thing
like a breeze can be no dampness except
when we have squalls the mates knee is
better so he is out on deck but he cannot
use it any sunday seems different from other
days at sea as well as on land the sailors
all clean up read & tell their stories all
but steering the
pay full as much regard to it as most of
the passengers we have been out now 36
days and I feel as if some cool water and
fresh provisions would taste good we have
good living but with the water it cannot
be expected to be like living on shore
a fine pleasant day with a
to make some calculation upon getting there this
repacking for landing
it is
almost worth a voyage out here to
a sunset as we had last night & enjoy the
breeze a person can have no Idea from any
description how pleasant it is here in the
South Atlantic Ocean at times when the
sun went down last evening the sky was
partly covered with clouds in all shapes
and as it went down they changed
some had the appearance of gold others yellow
some purple and some blue in fact all the
it has been very pleasant today a light breeze
and hardly any motion to the
except going ahead
I noticed last night that here where the
wind blows always one way the upper
of clouds was going in an opposite direction
we are
and Longitude 31.15 West I never saw so
pleasant weather day & night both as we
have here in my life before the Moon
is large and shines as bright as it
does at home in the clearest days in
ter
ing
rain as any we ever see at home in the
day time and more so we are nearly
opposite Pernambuco
never have any thunder but plenty of
rain and can see flashes of lightning
times
ning
the sun and moon rise in the N.E and
to see them when they are at Meridian
the Mate has hopped about the deck today
a little and I was pleased to see it as most
any thing I could have seen here. the water
has got very warm but I can drink it better
than I could a fortnight ago
I can hardly realize that
this is the month of march it is so pleasant
to see people with no coats or vests on lying
around on the deck of a
or eleven
icle
seems odd to me a cloud came up out of
the S.E. last night between 1 and 2
and for about two hours the rain came
down in torrents but
again as ever it is hard work to lie around
on a
a week sail on the ocean with such weather
as this would be a great treat to most any
one at the north I have not seen anything
are now within about 800 miles of Bahia
and it seems as if we are almost there as we
have now sailed 5000 miles or more thermometer
this morning 82 Latitude at noon 11 Longitude
33,50
another pleasant day
with less breeze and looks as if there
would be showers before morning it
is as warm here as it was under the
Equator in the middle of the day
I have been to work
a spar for the
it my hands blistered pretty bad lying
still so long they had peeled all over
the inside and was pretty tender I have
seen nothing
they are very gentle come close to the
with a white strip across their back close
to their tail and some of them with a
white spot back of their head Roswell
has got well and is making a board
to fit the mast in the Cabin to
pitcher and tumblers in
another pleasant Evening & day it was
full moon last evening and almost as
light as a cloudy day I could see to
read a coarse printed newspaper quite
well I thought I could see to read the
finest print
on deck at 1
apparently going the same way we was
but we were going SW. and he South they
sailed faster than we did and went right
across ahead of us so near I could nearly
or quite thrown a stone aboard of them
It was a large clipper ship and I should
think by the way she was going they had
been in to Pernambuco after water we are
120 miles of Bahia and
on the lookout for the Lighthouse I dreamed
last night of seeing the place where I was going
to work but I hope it will look better when
I come to see it than it did then we are
steering to the north of west with the wind
nearly north which no one on board even
saw before here in the trade wind
it is all bustle and excitement this
morning Land is in sight the first we have
seen since we left Boston and it is quite a
welcome sight there is small boats & vessels
in sight some going one way and some another
the wind is dead ahead & we are beating
to get in it is quite a curiosity to see a
man take a
Ocean for between forty & fifty days steering
Some of the time one way and some another
with nothing but the sun & stars and a
watch to keep his time tell when he gets
near his place of destination how far
he is from port and shape his
night direct for the lighthouse and know
just when to look out for it Three
crossed close to each other last night all steering
different directions ours & two others the coast
as far as I have seen yet looks uneven and the
thermometer now at 11
passed a Custom house boat with 8 Negroes in
it looking out for the small boats that is
sing
of vessels to smuggle ashore afternoon 6
clock
the
house closes at 4 we cannot go on shore
from the officers the health officer came
on board and the harbor master and
two boats with a man in each that knew
the captain they had to lay off from the
from the
they have all the visits from the different
officers I am disappointed in the appearance
of the city & country as we came in sight
of the land it looked smoky and barren
but when we came to get near enough
to see the trees and houses it was quite a
different affair the trees were all green and the
groves of
bodies and cluster of leaves on branches at the top
had a most
I could not tell what kind they were from the
vessel the city has a most
lay at anchor in the bay it is in a circular
form and I should think a mile and a half in
extent built around at the waters edge
way back. then there is a hill from 50 to 200
feet high with a true descent to the top some
of the way laid with stone and some covered
with Castor oil Bean wild & thick as they
can grow It is a Holy day
rockets and fire works are going in the Evening
and the bells are being rung and pounded all
the time there is lots of small boats cut out
of a log cutting round here in the
with one two and three men standing on
the side to windward hold of a rope attached
to the sail and as the wind blows they will
hang over the side to keep it from tipping
over and when it slacks they will straighten
up
the sailors when they see them with one
man on the side they say it is a one man
breeze and two a two man breeze and so
on there is the flags of most all Nations
flying here in the harbor there is no wharf
and the
harbor there is the English flag the French
Portuguese the Danish the
Sardinian the Peruvian the
the Dutch one from Hamburg one from
Bremen the Austrian the American
and I dont know but more that is all I
can see at present
house officers so we could go on shore
the first one that came off went through
the ceremony of sealing up our hatches
nailed a thin piece of tape over the joint
and then put some sealing wax over the nail
head and stamped it a piece of pork
prevented anything from being sealed
in the cabin then came a boat to search
above deck what was not sealed and
get the Captains papers & some beef and
biscuit and some Liquor prevented the trunks
or any thing else being searched very close
I had a chance to see the performances as I
assisted the captain about writing and I
covered
hard for a
as it is to see through a
is cut the object of sealing up the hatches is
to prevent
night and it is two hundred dollars fine
to break one of those small
people came off to us Americans and English
near enough so we could talk but were
not allowed to come to the
the ceremony all over we lowered a boat
and the Captain and four of us Mr Kelly
Pollard Foster and myself went on shore
so on Sunday the 27th of March 1853 at
about 1
Bahia in
in astonishment it seemed like being
transported to another planet more than
being on this continent everything was new
and
chimneys and covered with tiles the streets
narrow and full of negroes a jabbering
like so many geese the trees green
and covered with tropical fruit and
thing
was some time before I could realize that I
was here a great many shops were open and
the people at work and the Market was
open with monkeys, parrots, oranges
nas
sale as we came to the foot of the hill
to go to the upper town we found a great
number of negroes with a kind of chain
for carrying passengers up the hill for
the novelty of it we all got in to one
apiece as of course they carry only one and
rode up for 3 cents each of their money
equal to 6 of ours the chairs are made
about four feet high the top and bottom
shaped like a hens egg cut in the middle
with the small end forward with a seat
and arms like a common chair with a
stick over the top lengthwise and drop
down at each end so when they have it on
their shoulders it clears the ground about
a foot round the sides is some fancy
to bottom open up and down
in the
in to some and looked in to others they are
very rich looking but I must take some
other time to describe them I went in to the
public garden a splendid place with all
kinds of trees and flowers and a kind of
fruit they call the Jack fruit growing on
to the sides of the body and branches as
large as my hat crown some of them
grow as large as a pail and I like the
fruit first rate the only thing I saw that
looked like home was green cucumbers and
watermelons the buildings have a very good
appearance they are they are from 1 to 6 & 7
stories high made of small flat red stones
and plastered outside and then painted
it looks this morning as
if it was going to be hot and I stay on
board of the
of bells and rockets and snapcrackers going
so I think I had rather be here it is
comfortable and plenty to look at we
had quite a time this morning getting
the
have a visit from the different officers
and one of them assigns a place for them
to lie the Captain was on shore and left
the Mate to get in and it was a bad place
strong he found he could not get by and
he dropped anchor and the
swung round with the tide into a Portuguese
Bark and one of their spars run clear
through a new boat we had on deck and
they had to take their spar off and cut
ing
cost over three hundred dollars in Boston
I went on shore just at night to get
some oranges and fresh drink and I was
glad I did not go before when I came
to see the others come on board all beat
out and the sweat running off of them
Carson the man that we work for is
not here he waited
we arrived and went home but we expect
him tomorrow or wednesday we have to
wait here until he comes I should feel
better to go to work until I understand the
language than I do in looking round
now although the people are very civil
more so than any other place I ever was
in but it is unpleasant to go round and not
have a chance to ask a question or buy anything
only by signs I have a good cool place to
sleep on board the vessel and enough to Eat
but the drink is rather poor I have to go
on shore to get that but we cannot bring
any on board the
deal of ceremony so we have not got any yet
I buy some large sweet oranges for a cent
apiece juice enough in one for a good drink
to carry on board and we can get good drink
ashore
another warm looking
morning so I stay on board the rest have
all gone on shore the American Consul
Mr Gilmen came on board
ears
quite so much ringing of bells
they are ringing all of half of the time
there is a breeze
on board the
bird flying round here today they call a
Man of War bird I would like to shoot him
if it would not make a fuss
I went on shore this afternoon and the
city presented a different appearance
their holy days are over and the stores
were all open and the streets full of
Negroes some with water on their heads
some with sugar cane and others carrying
all kinds of loads I saw gangs of them
with two long poles carrying loads that
would weigh 12 and 15 hundred and
one with a bureau on his head walking
off without touching it we got a few pails
of water from shore warm but fresh & good
their money here is the most awkward
mess I ever saw their change is all copper
one & two cent
much he has to get a Negro to carry it round
the negroes when they are carrying loads
keep a kind of singing or hollering all
the time so when
main streets it sounds like a second
Babel I have not seen a horse nor an
ox at work drawing a load since I have
been here I have seen a few pleasure
carriages and people on horseback I see
mules come in from the country with
loads of beef slung on each side and a
long kind of grall for fodder there will
be a long string of them tied together &
a Negro leading them
I have not been on shore
in the streets & so cool and pleasant in
the
is five months since there has been any rain
except a few light showers still there is
nothing dried up but the grass on the hills
it requires a man with the patience of
Job to do any business with the
here we are with our hatches sealed if
we want any thing from below we have
to go and get a customhouse Officer to
eal
things to live on and then seal them up
again how long it will be so it is
ble
fruit and it agrees with me first rate there
is the best Watermelons here I ever eat I can
buy them from 4 to 12 cents large ones there
is a few cases of yellow fever here but it
creates no alarm all the rest are ashore
send and get what fruit I want
of weather and nearly the same
there is an American Bark anchored out
in the harbor and by the appearance within
spy glass it is a passenger
Australia I went on shore
Mr Carsen a few minutes he had just
arrived from Valencia and I could not
find out but little by him
today a boat came to the
and see Mr Carsen I went and found
him at the Consuls house with his loose
gown on without appearing in any hurry
and here is the
idle which must be at least one hundred
dollars a day expense if I could have the
wealth I see wasted here in one month
I would turn my back to Brazil I found
out he wants me to go 70 or 80 miles from
the rest of the mechanics on some sugar
plantations to fix machinery for making
sugar I am going when they get ready
which I expect will be next week to
try it it is different work from the agree
ment but perhaps I shall like it better
Roswell and the rest of them I
tomorrow
went on shore to see the rest of them off
and when I got to the Custom House I
had notice to get ready immediately for
there was a
to Santa Mar and stay a few days and
then go from there to some other plantation
to take charge of some sugar works I felt
a little disappointed in being hurried off
after so much delay in another direction
from the rest when I was expecting to go
with them at first and talked pretty
plain to Carson but as it is sickly at
ent
from the time we left the custom house
and took a basket of provision and two
bottles of Wine and
for Santa Mar with 5
for a crew and three of the Farmers with
me we were out all night and eat
up all of our provision and gave the wine
to the negroes it was very pleasant and
after we had got 20 or 25 miles up the river
the wind all went down and they had to
was narrow and we could hear animals
along on the banks and passed lots of canoes
and
fish or something else but as we could not
talk Brazilian nor the Negroes English we
could not find out I am going where they
dont understand a word of English nor I
hardly a word of
confidence in the people much more than
any other American I have seen and
I am sorry to write it much more than
I have in the Americans themselves I am
going to work at any thing they they
me about and do the best I can
understand the language at least and
then with health I am ready for any
thing that may turn up
here I am in the Interior of Brazil landed
at Santa Mar a village or City with nearly
as many inhabitants as Providence I should
think with churches and stores in abundance
and negroes in profusion the negroes on
the boat we were in understood where
we were going and we started this morning
and soon met the man a good looking
Portuguese and followed him to his house
it covered at least an acre of ground and
stituted
dwelling house cook house office for this man
is some kind of officer of the province but the
upper rooms are large and airy with windows
and board shutters which is rather extravagant
here but there is some old Dutch buildings and
churches here that are painted and flourish
off in great style and must have looked well
in their day but are now going to decay
I and one of the Farmers from New Hampshire
by the name of White took a tramp through
the country
Dutch Church we saw at a distance on a
hill and found it all deserted
the lizards and going to decay the roof
had fell in and the wood work most all
gone from the inside the walls were made
of bricks about 8 inches by 12 and 7 ½ thick
and about the same thickness of mortar or
cement between and then cemented over on
the outside the spires were covered
the spires were covered with a kind of
porcelain glazed it appeared the inside
was once covered with it as there was pieces
of it left on the walls painted in Dutch
style there was a kind of shoulder at the
base of the spires where Earth had collected
and it was covered with rank vegetation at
least 50 feet from the ground some had
len
long and 4 inches wide I have no way of
ascertaining how old it is but it has the
appearance of being very old the country
is hilly but rich in vegetation both hills
and valleys I measured leaves of the
that had fallen off from 12 to 16 feet long
and saw them on the trees I should think at
least 20 feet long there is one stem through
the
that which looks exactly like our largest
kind of flag 3 or 4
it looks like the tail feather of a turkey
only green we are having good
odations
ning
supper at dark, the beds are made
like our sofas only wider with cane
oms
and one over and a pillow and they are
the best thing for this country they could
have there is no room for insects as there
is nothing but a frame and they are cool
I get along very well with our
new acquaintance I can make him understand
all my wants and I have all the attention
that a man can wish there is some portuguese
workmen here
and at mealtime & evenings we have a great
time talking portuguese & English the language
is the nearest the Portuguese of any it is not
ish
mills carried on by Englishman but
ing
but one white man in it and he could not
speak English we expect to stay here
out
and there is no telling when that will be
I went through the streets here
last evening and found groups of people huddled
together in front of some painting or image fastened
to the side of a building and a light by the
of it singing and jingling their bells apparently
as sincere as any people I ever saw and all a
stranger has to do to have them think well
of him is to take of his hat in passing
them we found a cigar maker here that had
been to London that could speak a little
English and learnt considerable from him
there is an old Italian
clock in the distillery and I and White
took it down
it astonished them as much as any thing
we could have done they got a fiddle in
the evening and one of them sawed on it
a little but White is a first player and
he got hold of it and the way they showed
the white of their eyes would have made a
minister smile if nothing more there has been
3 or 4 showers of rain today but no thunder
this morning some
came to my room and muttered over something
that I could not understand but I went down
to the man I am stopping with and between us
all found out that they wanted I should go
and fix a clock somewhere in the place
I went and found an old brass clock the
striking part out of order so it would run
down without stopping and they thought they
must wind it up every time they wound up
the other part so they had wound some rags
round the hammers so it would make no noise
it took me nearly all day to fix it it told
the time of day the seconds the day of the
week the day of the month and the changes
of the moon and when I got it done they
looked upon me like the boys grandfather
in the song as a most wonderful man
saw the first Negro whipped
hope it will be the last I fixed my
quito
out of reach of them
this
morning the boy that lives here came up to
my room and took me by the hand and
led me down stairs and there was a tribe
of
round the room and they remained
until the man of the house gave each
of them a dish full of rice they appeared
to be the South American
some of them mixed with the Negro race
they were dressed in all styles and some of
them wore a lot of ornaments
we found an Englishman yesterday that had
been here two years and got him to explain
several things that we wanted to make
the folks understand and could not it
is about as hard to make them understand
by signs as it is to talk to them
this morning I am getting
ready for a move some 9 or 10 miles
to go on horseback it is pretty warm
and I expect rather a hard job I shall
carry my gun and a few clothes the
rest will
a large Porcupine brought in this
morning that some of them had killed
I should think it would weigh 40
there is an old dutch church
to where I am stopping marked over the
door 1667 it is used now at 2
some horses came and a little negro to
show us the
was about 10 miles through a hilly
country and some of the scenery was
wild enough the road was full of mules
and Negroes that had been
country with molasses and sugar
I am on the plantation of
a man by the name of junkara we arrived
here last night about dark on horseback from
supper and the first good cup of tea since I
left Boston this morning I got up and commenced
looking round it is a large estate with a great many
slaves employed principally in raising cane for
making sugar he has 300 oxen and how many
horses cows sheep and other animals I dont know
he has got a large building on his place on
a small stream with a wheel in it and a sugar
mill but it looks as if it was never used and
I dont think it can be as it is and I
ct
it is a hard looking job with the tools and
stock that is here the land looks rich
and as if it would raise almost everything with
a little cultivation I shall try to stay here and
like but I must confess I am a little homesick
of birds of all
chances for fishing I think I shall enjoy
self
here. I have so many things to look at
that I have read but little yet when I get
settled down I think that will pass away
erable
should feel different but I think he has got
a good place it is warm here in the morning
the same as all the rest of the places I have
been at and cool in the afternoon I see the
robin here and the wren and king bird and
it seems like having company there is large
birds that look like the largest kind of
hawks that light on the backs of the cattle
and the cattle dont appear to notice it at
all it is astonishing to see the number of
ming
forest tree covered with long yellow
oms
we passed yesterday large fields of castor
oil beans and they looked very pretty if
ever I go home I shall be almost ashamed
to look upon a morning glory there is such
lots of them here and so much larger
they appear to do all they can for us here to
make us satisfied and I hope I shall be
they have turkeys hens peacocks geese pigeons
and the
nothing to do but look
around as my chests have not come from
Amarro
erable
the tops of trees when I was under them and
some hawks and one long necked bird a species
of crane I should think I have heard something
whistling here in the evening and found out
it was a frog a little larger than our
ing
peeping frog I saw some coffee last night growing
and some
the coffee looks when ripe some like our
cherries only a little longer I saw carson
sday
that came out with us and had
Bahia had got the yellow fever but I did
not
in him one thing I think he dont understand
the business he has engaged in at all and I
am afraid he will get himself into a scrape
if he dont some of the rest as for myself
if I am well I am not concerned the things
that he talks of improving is very well for the
country much better than I expected to find
them and much better than has been
ted
than those he shipped from boston and the same
with the cows and pigs the tools want
roving
ed
the backs of horses and mules in bags made
of raw hide and there is no other way at
sent
is hilly and muddy and it is impossible to
make good roads without more expense
than the present inhabitants can afford to
pay
yesterdays story will
answer for
I saw but little that was new except long
ranges of bamboo it is used for making
fences it grows from 30 to 40 feet high
and the longest from 3 to 4 inches through
it grows in rows miles in extent I suppose
it must be planted when they want to
build a fence around a cane field they
cut out the thickest of the bamboo
and cut it up in pieces about 7
and drive them down close together then
tie two pieces of wood lengthwise with
a kind of grass they have and it makes good
fence it will keep out horses sheep goats and geese
my tools and clothes came this
ning
they have had to go through from shop to tram wagon
from tram to car from car to truck from truck to
vessel from vessel to Boat in the harbor of Bahia from
boat to customhouse for examination from there on
board a barkee to
roes
again and now brought 8 or 9 miles in a cart how
long they will remain here is uncertain it may
be three years and it may not be three weeks
I have not gone to work yet the
man that appears to have the management Carson
has not been here as he agreed nor sent any one
that can talk English I have the best kind of
g
to go to work but as carson has not done anything
since I have been here as he agreed to I am
ined
before I commence we have plenty of fruit
jack oranges etc and I feel well and at home
all but
I have got a portuguese dictionary
think it will be a great help about learning the
language
It has been pretty
warm
little I went down to the sugar mill
and took my tools out of the chest and took
the wrappers off of them and found them
in very good order I fitted 3 or 4 augurs
to
back in my chest locked it and went home
today the owners son and
hter
to want us to go to work and I picked out a
few words from my dictionary and made them
understand that we were not going to work until
we saw Carson and it appeared to satisfy them
I told them if he did not come by wednesday
I should go to Bahia the old man wanted me
to stay and said he would do well
I have been today to the old
mans fruit orchard and it is one of the
handsomest places I ever saw if not the
ndsomest
20 or thirty acres of fruit and
mostly fruit there is the Bread fruit the
tamarind and farina in any quantity the
jack fruit
lemons the sweet lemon there is no sour ones
grow here they have the lime
apples
citron and a great many kinds of fruit that
I dont know the name of yet and plants
and flowers in abundance a great many
common plants that we would be proud
of at the north they appeared to think
nothing of the oranges were the most
plenty of any fruit large sweet ones
out
over 4 inches through
I took
a long walk this morning to the north where I
had not been before and found a large cane
field with the best looking cane I have seen
and the ground covered with snail shells some
of them very large I could pick up a bushel
in a short time no one yet to
and I feel very unpleasant because I had rather
be doing something than to be round here not
knowing but they expect me to go to work
without any more being said we had some showers
this morning and the rest of the day was cool
and pleasant with a light breeze I dont think
the wind ever blows hard enough to raise the dust
it seems
of canary birds and a parrot round among them
the birds a chirping and the parrot a whistling but
they are here very plenty and come round the
houses like our chipper the old man sent me the
largest bunch of grapes I ever saw for dinner yesterday
I am laid up
have lain abed most of the day and not eaten much
and I begin to feel better I am expecting carson
sugar mill this morning and the negroes had a
piece of a snakeskin that had just been killed
they had a piece off his back over 8 feet long
and 6 inches wide if I had felt well I would
have tried to found out how large he was
I have
most of
sick last night with a
here is simple and good it is nothing more
than to drink cold water sweetened with sugar
all you can I tried it and I think it helped
me
it has been cooler
noon the thermometer was at 74 but it
was raining and that may have made
a little difference
I dont think now I shall get to work in
less than a week if I do then. they brought
two large copper kettles home last night
they had made at
or twelve miles down there and they went after
them with two drags made like a harrow of the
fork of a tree 6 yoke of oxen for each kettle
I got scared a little last night for the
first time since I have been here the old man had gone
away and not coming back until monday and the Negroes
act different when he is gone and about midnight the
farmer White that sleeps in the room with me hollered
and waked me up and said he thought there was
some one in the room it was very dark and there
is no window in it and we had no matches on any
way to get a light we listened and could hear him
breathe and White said before he waked me he heard
somebody hold of the latch we waited and at last could
hear him groan and appear to be asleep and could
hear others in the other parts of the house we talked
about it awhile and concluded to go to sleep and
risk it and when it came morning we found that
a clerk of Junqueira had come from
had made a bed for him close by our door and
I suppose he being tired stirred round and opened
our door it being only pushed to and it sounded
right in the room. I and White took a long walk
miles off and before we got there in the woods
we came to a cross
and as we went by we
most ever
flowers in the woods but when we came back it
and found it was around this cross where they
had been burning their Incense. We found a curious
vine with a leaf some like a strawberry and I
ned
closed up we found great quantities of it and by
touching the vine the leaves would all close
antly
I have not been out
much
is worth writing about it looked to bad to see them
king
working it so awkward they saw all their boards and
plank by hand hew a log square at first then mark
it on both sides and roll it up on a frame and one
stand at the top and two at the bottom of the saw
and they saw more and do it better than I should
it possible for them to with such tools
It is quite a lively time here sunday morning
for all the negroes come in for their weeks allowance of jerked
beef and farina it is weighed and measured out to them and
great lots of them get round at a time and make a
dous
a mosquito net over my bed and it astonished the waiters
they never having seen anything of the kind before the
ever see one in the daytime
I had a breakfast of ham and eggs this morning with
some eggs that one of the negroes brought in and give
me last night, it was first rate. There is a toad hopping
round the door evenings as large as 4 of our largest
ones at the north
but little to write
about as yet
if he comes I most likely shall go to work
row
traveling & sitting round I was sick last night
and was afraid I was going to have the dysentery
but I took a dose of Mrs Kidders cordial and
it cured me every day brings a new kind of bird
to view I saw two large ones
close to them they were black and white and
looked like some kind of a sea bird they
were very gentle and I wanted my gun badly
but few things to write
as yet today 2
to the mill every day and stay about 3 or 4
hours and look round and try to talk with
some of them a little there is three negroes
sawing boards by hand and they
if I am not going to build a sawmill and
I tell them yes for I cannot tell them I
dont know it is now most three months since
I done any work and I find I am getting lazy
well I have an interpreter
at last and have commenced work a little
32 years and is an American from
Vinyard
to explain my wishes and wants I have a smart
negro that works for me exclusively
I have been to work
I have shaved out a screw for a vice by hand
and cut it. There is nothing to do anything
with and if I had not brought tools for cutting
screws for bench vices I dont know what I
should have done I have a great many round
me looking of every tool I take out and
watching every motion I make
I have worked on my bench
very tender I have plenty of oranges and other
fruit brought to me and every thing done
to suit me that they can do I find that by
working a little my meals relish much better
I expect there is quite a
difference between here and New England
there the first flowers make their appearance
here it is fall but no appearance of fall
as we have it for some trees are in full bloom
and others loaded down with fruit we have
no going a Maying here it is still and pleasant
this morning and thermometer at 82 it seems
different now to have Sunday since I have got
to work from what it did when it was all
Sundays. there was a cobra killed yesterday in the
fruit orchard
learnt by our interpreter that it was a
French Count that owned a plantation
in the province and pretty soon they sent
for me to come up where they were so
I marched up and found a large tall
good looking man apparently about
thirty five or forty years old with
Some english papers
marriage of the Emperor of France that
he wanted me to look at and wanted
to ask questions so I
some wine and drank to the first of May
with some
tools and answer several questions and
cut dinner which used up all the
rnoon
I have worked on my bench
got it nearly finished there is several
round looking on and looking my tools over
with eyes & mouth open
I finished my bench
on a farina press the man I work for
had a letter from carson
not want me to send me down to
cia
could not come here I dont really
understand what he means but I sent
him a letter this
be sensible that I am here
I have been to work on a farina press
all day and feel pretty tired there has
a man come
works here I dont know what but I expect
to take charge of the Negroes and have the
oversight of all of it the old mans son
ted
and when I told him it made him stare I
dont feel as if every thing was right but
it may come out all right they had four
tle
four negroes to carry them on their heads
two of them was going 12 miles and the others
9 miles I have shifted my room today and
am well pleased with the change before it
was
rooms and some things in it so I had to
leave it open now it is on the ground and
all to myself I can lock it up and feel
easy and go to bed when I please
and the most like a storming
day of any I have seen it has been showery
since 10
has not thundered but once in all day
anywhere near I could hear it this
ing
have thunder and lightning on the coast
and when the showers get back here
in the country it is all gone but they
bring plenty of rain where I am at
work now is on the road to Santo Amaro
and Bahia and I have a chance to see
all that passes for the building is the
same as in the road for it is all
open and
and mules loaded with sugar came
right close up to my bench and
ded
ses
ground to dry them and get their
per
their lodging rooms and they are laid
with brick when I was at santo Amaro
they would ride in to the table when
we were eating dinner and jump off
and drink a glass of wine or a cup
of
to the table until they were ready to
go. and here there is a great many stops
some to get some water some to beg and
and a great many to see what is going on
considerable rain
in showers so the caravan that
here last night did not go away and
they are round me pretty thick and this morning
there was some of their long knives lying on my
bench
it cleared away last
night and this morning our visitors are getting
up their horses and loading for a start I have
worked hard today to finish a farina press I
have been making for I did not want to work
on it another week. The old man has gone to
comes back more about what I am to do for
I expect he will see Carson he and his son
went and it took four negroes for waiters two
to ride behind them on mules and two to
carry baggage one of them with a large
trunk on his head and lead a horse with
one hand and a dog with the other and about
three
negro close behind him on the horse upon
the run he must have run 7 or 8 miles
for the horse was all beat out and so was
the dog it was about ten miles where he was
going and he dare not go without dog
the week has passed off
very quick and very pleasant I have been
as well as I ever was in my life and
ing
the Negroes all had a new shirt last week
of coarse blue woolen cloth with a red collar
and it was funny to see them perform some
put them on outside for a coat some inside
some for all their dress and some saved
theirs
I shot a hawk and 5 large black birds
and one light
18 inches across the wings and 15 in long
they were all about of a size except
the hawk and he was larger I feel
as if this week was going to bring forth
something new but I can tell better
when it comes Saturday night the
are at home a little larger perhaps but
about as thick and bite about as hard
it seems odd to have no papers to read sundays
but the people dont seem to care about
ing
to work on a board to hang keys upon
and some Negro rakes with teeth on
both sides and making some pins for
hanging up things on for the new man
here is having everything tuned over
and it needs it bad enough. They have
been digging and bringing in what they
call the Mandioca
farina and there is a house full of
negroes
it and I shall have a chance to try
my press I have been making
the press worked first rate
and
for this evening and the Negroes make
such a jabbering that I cant write
I killed a green snake
I have killed since I have been here
there has been a
house full of Negroes
monotonous kind of singing all the
time they are at work they are making
Farina they come in evenings and work
until about half past eight all hands
as many as a hundred or more peeling
and grinding
about 15 work through the day the
dioca
three inches to 18 long and shaped like
the sweet
thrifty
and some large leaves at the top that
that looks like the castor oil bean
the root is the stuff of life in this
country they have a round block about
8 inches through covered with copper
punched so as to make a kind of grater
and a band round it and on to a large
wheel that is turned by two negroes and
some graters is long enough for two to
hold on and some for one they have
two graters here one double and one
single and they will grind about
ten bushels in a day then they press
it dry it in a large copper pan and
it is ready for use to eat as it is or
cook and I like it better than I
ted
make a dish they call
good
three months ago today
I sailed from Boston and it seems
but a few days ago there has been so
many new things to look at that time has
gone away without hardly missing it there
is nothing new to write about
has been much the same as yesterday
except some news from Bahia that the
yellow fever was raging there very bad
one vessel the Captain his wife and
all of his crew except one small boy
had died it was a
and at
bad that they sent a steamer round
every day to the shipping to bring
the sick on shore but as it never
has been in the country I dont feel
alarmed so long as I stay here
I have been finishing off
some rakes
for the negroes to rake something with
I dont know what they are strong ones
with teeth on both sides it is the rainy
season now and the fore part of the day
is very showery and the evenings pleasant
I saw a lot of their ploughs
they are a queer looking thing they are
some of them they yoke right on to the
beam and those that the beam is not
long enough to yoke to they use a pair
of forward wheels and fasten the beam
to the axle the
flat pieces of board one on each side
just alike about 3 ½
piece for the bottom about 5
a little piece of iron on the end one of the
longest is as much as 16
they are yoked to one of their wheel ploughs
with 4 or 5 yoke of oxen they are as much
as 100
I have been
making a board today for dealing out the
rations to the Negroes in room of writing
their names every time pasted a piece of
paper on each side and wrote their names
on it and bored two rows of holes down
the
had his rations pull out the pin and put
it in a box at the bottom we had showers
as pleasant as can be except the mud
I have been to work this morning
stopping the mice from coming in under my
door they prance round rather
are getting mischievous my board worked very
well I made yesterday for dealing rations they
are dealt out every sunday morning and
it takes some time for there is one hundred
and forty here besides waiters and children
etc and the beef is all to weigh and the
ina
quarts of farina for a week pretty cheap
board it cant exceed 50 cents a week I
took a tramp
I did not go far it was so muddy
the fields are full of flowers and it is
astonishing how quick the grass and
other things grow when the rains
come a few weeks ago when I came
here there had been no rains in five
months and the hills were some of
them brown but nothing what I should
expect from such a drought and as
soon as it begun to rain it seemed as
if every thing came up in shape of
vegetation as if by magic
but little rain
but I cannot help writing about how
pleasant it is evenings it is moonlight
and just warm enough and as still
as it can be I have been to work
repairing a cart wheel and it is slow
work but I dont make hard work of
it the negroes are still making
ina
yet to get a years supply
well
a shower the rain came down in torrents
for about two hours but no thunder &
lightning I have been to work
king
cloth across the top there is a tremendous
jabbering and singing with the negroes
this evening making farina fifty or sixty
of them at least I have commenced
in room of hot tea I think I shall sleep
better I sleep enough but I am dreaming
and uneasy all night carson has sent
word that he is coming tomorrow with
the farming and other tools but he has
told of coming so many times that I have
no confidence in his coming at all
well Carson has not
come as I expected I have not known
him to do a thing that he promised
since I have been in the country but
it dont make any difference to me if
the people where I am are satisfied
and I get my pay and I dont think
there is much danger about that I
find horse jockeys here as well as at
home the Frenchman that has been to
work here is one and two days ago
he brought a horse here and put him
in the barn sick and he was getting
along well but he came last night
and bled him and give him a dose
of medicine and he died in 5 or 6
hours it was a nice horse that
he was offered ninety dollars for a few
days ago which is considered a great
price here. I cant be very loathsome
as long as the Negroes are making
ina
kind of fun all the time they have one
old Negro that turns the wheel that
they will some of them get hold with
him and sweat him all they can and
then laugh at him there is two cranks
to the wheels and he knows just
gh
There has been but little rain
and looks as if the rains were about
over for the present
I have been
that it rained all over the country
there has been so much here and I
heard today that down to the other
had no rain and the grass is all dried
up here it has been all mud for a
fortnight at least and raining nearly
every day. there was a snake killed
in the building
a curiosity to me they called it a
double headed snake but it has but
one head although it looks as if it had
two it was about 18 inches long and all
the way of a bigness about 5/8 of an inch
through and a lead
shaped the same as the head that makes
them call it double headed it was
came close to it but at a little distance it
d
but I should not think it was by the looks
of it There has been five droves of cattle
by here
I should think there was from 50 to 100
in a drove I have been to work today
making some crosslegged chairs that I
have worked upon odd times for 3 or 4 days
with two sore toes the first I have had
since I have been here there is a thing
called a jigger that gets in persons feet
here and I have worn boots all the
time and thought I should escape but
there is a hole in one boot and the
first I knew there was three in my
toes I picked them out last night and
I expect they will be well in a day or
two the Interpreter wears shoes and he
has had several in his feet
I was more scared than hurt about my
feet being jiggered for they are nearly
well
tomorrow and I feel very anxious about it
for I have not heard from him since I
left him the farming tools is coming
orrow
Valencia where he is We had some salt
fish for dinner
potatoes the most of anything we have
had There has been no rain
it is warmer than it has been but not
uncomfortable now it has been so cool
some mornings that I have worked with
my coat on until breakfast
No tools or men came today
as I expected and I feel disappointed it takes so
long for the people to do nothing that I get
almost out of patience with them they may
come Monday and they may not come at all I
cannot tell yet what they are trying to do and
I dont think they know themselves I heard
of the tools and men last wednesday within 12
miles of here the rains appear to be over
for the present and it is pleasant again
both day and evening. Today the man that
interprets for me stood by my bench and
looked up and said there was a Sainted
man coming I looked and there was
a tall man with a long white beard and
a long staff in his hand without any hat or
shoes or any dress but a short pair of
pantaloons that tied around his hips with a
string and a red cloth over one shoulder
that went across his breast and back and
crossed under the other arm and was held
by it upon the whole he looked the most
like the pictures in the bible of the
of old of anything I ever saw he jabbered
away something and the Interpreter answered
and he went off he was begging for the
Church but as the old man was away
I dont think he got anything here
the week has seemed
very short I have had light work and
the room full of Negroes making farina
their African and Portuguese songs agoing
and a day has gone before I was aware of
it I walked out this morning to look around
and went 3 or 4 miles across another
tation
wade through the old bridge has all
rotted away and they are to lazy to
build another and as we did not want
to wade we turned and came back I took
my gun with me as everybody carries one
that has one to carry
that have two or three waiters with them
and are to lazy to carry one and I saw
two birds by the side of a small pond hole
and shot one and I wish I could have
it stuffed it is about as large as our plover
and the legs from the feathers is 7 ½ inches
and the toes 3 inches all of a length it is
purple and white and red with a long
neck and bill and on the middle joint
or elbow of the wing is a spur about half
an inch long this Evening the man has
come that I expected to bring the news
from Roswell and he has only been
to Bahia so I heard nothing from him
but he told me that he sent my letters
by the Captain that brought us out
about the 10th and that the cabin boy
that came out with us died on board
the vessel in the
him of the black vomit and it was
very sickly among foreigners in the
harbour but they kept it still as possible
Mr Junqueira came up
last night from the other
I have had a long talk with him about
my contract and Carson and I find that
he sent for a man by carson and that
he (Carson) has been lying to both of
us and is what I should call a scoundrel
I got out my contract and showed him
and he told me he wanted I should
continue to work for him and he would
give me what carson agreed to and
write a new contract and have nothing
to do with him he made a great show
in the United States but it was upon
somebodys money besides his I find him
to be the most confounded liar that
I ever met with and I cannot get a
chance to see him and give him a
ing
to stay and work for him the man that
came up yesterday Mr White is very sick
he has taken an emetic and is rather better.
Tthis evening it commenced raining this morning
like a storm and this evening so pleasant as ever
again
The farming tools came
last night and
looking them over and I have not
done much but to tell what such
and such things were for and how to
use them tomorrow I suppose they will
go to
patterns for boxes to a cart for two days
with no turning lathe I have them to work
out by hand and it is a slow job they
want me to make a cart and as near
as I can learn the trees are now growing
and the iron in the
is no better tonight and I feel a little
alarmed about him there has been no
rain
and I have a little cold the first I
The sick man is worse and I am satisfied
that he has got the yellow fever but I
shall take care of him as long as I can
for I have been with him all the time so
far and now I think there is no use in
trying now to run away from it I shall
be as careful as I can of myself and try to
escape
I got one of the farmers
to stay with me last night I let him sleep
so to take care of him
and I had to be by him all night getting
him up and down for he had taken physic
and was vomiting all or nearly all the time
the people here are doing all for him they can
we have put two beds together so to have one
as soft as we can and this morning the
black vomit has commenced and I have lost
all hope of his getting well they sent for a
doctor this morning and he came and said
he had the yellow fever and wanted we
should keep away from him as much as
possible we took care of him all the time
American that had had the fever to see
to the blacks and Interpret I went in
that we had any fear or but that we
was still taking care of him they have
got some good blacks to see to him tonight
and I shall sit up to see that they do
he is dreadful sick with the black vomit
and if he lives
may possibly
he will
I lay down in some
chairs a few minutes last night but I
could not sleep for I was close to Mr White
the sick man and he made such a
some
took the best of care of him but as he was
out of his head I only went in the room
once the doctor attends very close but by
his looks when he comes out of the room
I think he has no hopes of curing him
he gave him some medicine and left
for me to give him at half past ten but
at half past eight
think I can truly say that I never was
in a more loathsome situation than at present
the best and almost the only friend that I
had within thousands of miles dead with
the black vomit in my room and on my
bed for I had given it up to him. but
I intend to see that he has a coffin and as
decent a burial as possible. Evening
they got a coffin made but it did not suit
me and I went to work and altered it
and hired Mr Dunham
that he was put in and fixed as well
as he could we got a sheet and spread
over the coffin and laid him in and
ded
do under the circumstances if he had
not died of a disease so very dangerous we
should have done better and as we could not
in hand to take care of ourselves, the old
gentleman told us to pick out the best
place we could find and have a grave
dug and we went into the orange grove
and in a square of four orange trees full
of oranges and a bush full of some kind
of flowers at his head we had a grave
dug and as the sun went down with as
pleasant a sunset as I ever saw and in as
pleasant a spot as there is in Brazil we
performed the last office that man can
do for man for poor Mr Frederick White
he was carried upon the shoulders of
six blacks and all the rest of them
on the plantation followed and there
was three germans here that rode
on horseback and we four Americans
went on foot it was considered dangerous to
keep him any longer the scent was so
very bad and they have had to keep
tar and other stuff burning all the
time since he died to do anything
they are smoking the things this evening
and the room to prevent any more from
having it if possible
I fixed me a bed last night on a box
and some chairs for I dare not use
anything out of the room that Mr
White was in and slept considerable
for the first time in several nights
and this morning I went without my
breakfast and took a thorough dose
of castor oil and
house to prevent if possible having
the fever for the name of the yellow
fever or black vomit is bad enough
but to have it or see another have
it is quite a different thing for I
think there is no disease any worse
not even the plague I think I shall
stay here for I am acquainted here and
they are nice folks and if I am to
have it I have my medicines and clothes
all here and should be well taken care
of and have faith that if I have it I shall
know it in the commencement and can
cure it they took an account of Mr Whites
things
I dont know what will be done with them
yet but I suppose either sent to his friends
or sold and the money sent It has been a
warm sunny day and the mud is drying
up it is now about sundown and the old
black shepherd is yarding his sheep they
put them under cover every night in the
rainy season they have plenty of sheep
but no wool for the wool all comes off
here if they are brought here with wool
on and it comes out almost hair they
keep them for the meat and it is the
same with their cows they have any
quantity of cows but no milk they
are all kept together and the calves
grow up with their mothers for beef
if I stay here I shall try to have
milk to put in tea and coffee if no
more I would like some in room of beef
I feel very well
taking my medicine but I shall take some
more in a few days if not tomorrow for I
think if a person keeps himself clear of an
extra quantity of bile and is careful he may
escape even where it is plenty I dont know
how long before a person comes down with it
if he is going to have it but I shall not feel
easy for several days it is quite pleasant
most all day there is but three here now
the Interpreter has gone home and one of
these is going to another place in a few
days so there will not be but two we
all sleep in one room and we got up
this morning and dressed up and I
read a chapter in the Bible feeling
rather loathsome the other two are young
and thoughtless and appear to think
but little about it I shall try to hear
from Roswell as soon as possible and if
it was not for the fever I should go
where he is before many days passed over
it will cost me about twenty five dollars
to go down there and back
of castor oil and tomorrow if I feel well
I am going to work for I feel much better
with something to busy my mind about than
I do to sit in the house all day I heard a
cart squealing today and looked out and
it was a family going towards Bahia they
had some stakes and a piece of cloth spread
over the top and the women and children
sitting on the bottom of the cart and the
chests and other things lashed on behind the
men on horseback there was but three
yoke of oxen on the cart a very small
team for here
I have
been to work a little today but I
feel some weak and hungry as a shark
but dare not eat as much as I want
yet on account of its souring on my
stomach there is several negroes
lying round sick and some do not
appear as sick as they pretend the
farmers have been
a little between the showers with
four yoke of oxen to a plough and
three to drive and they made very
crooked work at that
It is now nearly four months since I left
Boston for Brazil and I have seen some
pleasant times and some loathsome or
unpleasant but so long as I am well
I am not sorry that I came it is very
perplexing but I bear it patiently for
when night comes I have earned something
I have been making a grindstone today
out of what we would call a pasture
stone but the grit is sharp and I have
got one about 20 inches across all ready
for grinding on and tomorrow if all is well
I will try to have some sharper tools I
have commenced living a little different
today I have been having breakfast at
from eight to ten
one to four and a cup of tea and a
cracker at 8 or 9 in the evening and
I told them that would not answer so
now I have breakfast at seven dinner
at twelve and supper when I have
done work at dark and they say I
can have it regular why I have not
had it different before was that I did
not know as I should stay here but
now I think likely if the old gentleman
pays me regular I shall stay and work
for him a while I shall make no bargain
for 8 years again for to be at work with
no one that you can speak hardly a word
to and have them understand and at
work that requires but little thinking it
seems too long
and a showery day but no thunder &
lightning heavy showers will come up
and the rain pour down in torrents &
in the afternoon clear off and be as
pleasant as ever I saw it if it was not
for the mud we burn a candle with the
windows and doors open and there
is seldom any breeze to prevent it
Today they brought in a snake they had
six feet long I have forgot the name
of it but the German here that speaks
a little English and has been here twenty
eight years said it was the most
sonous
bite a person
but bite cattle he said one last year
not so large as this killed several oxen
he would bite one every night but I
think their oxen was as likely to die
from some other cause as that for I
hardly even go out in the pasture of
a Sunday here now without coming
across a dead ox with hundreds of
turkey buzzards around it they never
skin one if he dies or bury him but
the buzzards are so plenty he is soon gone
I hardly know what
to write today for I have been to work in
the shop all day and have not seen
anything remarkable I have been making
a bench today for the negro that works
with me to work upon to keep him out
of my way as much as possible although
he is a good fellow for a negro and is
afraid he will have to go to work at some
other place and tries to help to much
They have no tools for him and if I wait
for their motion to get him any he will
wear some of mine out so I tell them
if they want him to work with me any
more they must furnish tools for I will not
any longer
I have finished
the darkies bench today and sold them a few
tools so he can work and he is so well pleased
I can see every tooth in his head I cannot
Imagine what I shall be set about next week
for there is nothing here that needs doing
to require a mechanic more than what they
have but as I am now situated I will do
nothing else for there is a German here that
understands the language and appears to have
charge of all the business and whatever he
points out I will do if it suits me if it dont
I shall quit for I feel as if the contract is
broken and that I can do as well elsewhere
as here he told me today he wanted a
road
if he will
I will show them how to do it but I
will not work out in the sun for
body
Evening and I have heard no more about
the railroad I asked him Monday morning
what he wanted me to do and he looked round
awhile and told me to make a cart
It seems queer to hear
people talking about winter in June and to have
the shortest days in the year and the sun
ing
the same as it does into the south at home in
April & May the weather here now is about
like our common summer weather in the
time
cool the mercury is not down in the thermometer
but I want a good lot of clothes on my bed
I suppose it is on account of so much wet
weather. Tthis morning a Negro woman was standing
at my door with a little young negro on her hip
a jabbering away about something and to get
rid of her I gave the young one a cent and
she went off in a few minutes I had all
the young Negroes in the place to appear
to me for a cent I happened to have enough
to supply them and they went off saying
all right etc. one thing I have noticed among
them that when I give one of them some
thing he has never asked me again but will
doff his hat and make his bow every time
he passes and every morning ask for a blessing
It is singular how soon one gets accustomed
to the different kinds of reptiles when I
first came I would shrink from a lizard
as I would from a snake now they are in
the room where I sleep and jump on me in
the evening when I am writing after bugs
and I think but little of it they are small
gray ones from six inches to a foot long there
is green ones that I have never seen in
houses from one to two feet long that I
dont exactly like the looks of now, I
have an orange in my Valise that I wish
was at home the same as it is here I
had 4
kins
is at least 4½ inches through sweet and
without seeds there is bushels on the
ground rotting in the orchard I suppose
they will not bring enough to pay for
carrying to market. We had some potatoes
for dinner but they tasted no more
like our potatoes at home than milk
does like brandy I dont know where they
got them but they were small and cut
like skim cheese not so good as their yams
nothing interesting today
I commenced making a cart for drawing cane
it is all to get out by hand and I should
think it will take me at least three months
to make it in the way they want it made
and they are such confounded fools and it
is impossible to tell them anything that
I do anything they want let it take longer
or shorter I have done work here that has
cost them one hundred dollars that is not
worth one hundred cents to them. The worst
thing I have to write today is that I go
to bed sick for the first time I believe
since I have been here
I got up so unwell this morning that I
could not go to work and took a dose
of physic and went without my breakfast
and without any supper last night except
a cup of tea I lay round in my room until
noon and took another dose of salts and
took amy saw and went to work with a
thick coat on to try to sweat I made
out by working all the afternoon and
this evening I have drank some wine
a lot of hot tea and am going to bed
I sweat and slept last
night and got up this morning much better
so I eat some breakfast took some more medicine
and went to work my medicine that I took
terday
if I am careful now I have escaped having a
fever for my pulse was at 90 and a tremendous
and I felt better than to be in my room alone
I eat some dinner today and drank a cup of
tea and eat a cracker for supper and this
Evening I feel quite well I have taken things
to keep from being sick at my stomach and
vomiting and taken physic and sweat with
as little medicine as I could I think that
vomiting is the worst thing that can be done
here
Well something
to write about today besides being sick I
did not sleep very well last night but
I got up feeling quite
well today all but feeling weak there has
been five or six large droves of cattle
past here today on their way to Bahia
for beef The Negroes have been hanging
up rushes round the building today
to dry for making things to sleep on
and for the insides of their work saddles
they are from half to an inch wide flat
on one side and round on the other and
from 8 to 14 feet long. It has been quite a
pleasant day cool enough in under cover
or out all but an hour two in the
middle of the day it may seem strange
but I suffer more from cold than I do
from the heat for the fore part of the
night is warm and I want but few
bed clothes on and I wake up towards
morning with the cold There is a flock
of young small green parrots across the
road on an old church and they make
such a confounded squalling sometimes
that I have a good mind to take my
gun and shoot the whole lot thermometer
this evening in my room is 76 and I am
comfortable with a thick coat on. There
was a Negro woman taken into the building
and whipped today I dont know what
for and it will do no good to ask for
it is by chance if I could find out and
it is no use to say anything here for it
would only make a bad matter worse
I finished off an old
case of drawers today that I have been fitting for
a kind of apothecary shop taken the drawers
out and put two doors in front and it makes
quite a respectable thing now the medicine
is all over the house and there is I should
think a hundred dollars worth They have
a room where they put all the little niggers
in daytime when they are at work and
have one to see to them it was in a
separate building but it got full of
jiggers and they have fitted a room in
the large
it is funny to look in there and see fifteen
or twenty crawling and running about
like so many young rats and I hardly
ever hear one squall they take them out
once in a while and souse them in a tub
of water and wash them the same as one
would a dirty dish their mothers comes
after them at night and swing them
up against their side and just put
their arm around them and they stick
right on just like a bug the larger
sized ones they wash for pouring the water
out of the second story and they stand under
Well another
Saturday night and in about the same place
I was last saturday I have lost a half days
work this week the first I have lost since
I commenced except to attend to the sickness
and death of Mr White tonight makes four
months since I left Boston but as my time
is to be three years from my arrival at
Bahia I dont expect to get my pay until
the first of August Mr Junqueira has now
gone to Bahia and when he comes back
I expect to find out more about what
I am to do or whether I shall stay here
today is clear and warm
and I have taken my clothes out of my chest
and give them a lot of sunshine one has
to look pretty close to his things here in
the rainy season for they will get damp
and
and there is an insect here that eats
unless it is kept dry and there is nothing
they say that will stop them except
ing
one piece of clothing get
and shoes and books is covered with it
I can hear from Bahia once in a while and from
all accounts the yellow fever is raging there very
bad but there is not much danger of it here
and I feel as well today as I have in years
I finished writing for today as I thought before
dark but I have had a most welcome visitor
that brought me a letter from home I read it
with pleasure because it was all good news
it was from Sabra and I hope she has one
from me by this time It has been a very
ant
at 68 and tonight it is 76
Not much to write tonight I am some
tired standing at my bench all day at
work on a cart the weather now seems
as it did when we first came here only
it is a little cooler Sabra wrote for
me to put some flower seeds in a letter
there is no seeds saved here nor but
few flowers cultivated for the fields
are full of wild ones and it is difficult
getting seeds there is hundreds of flowers
here wild that is thought nothing off
that would be considered handsome if
they were in the United States
I can tell nothing
about the weather here at all yesterday it
looked like dry pleasant weather and
today it has been as rainy as any day
I have seen I have been to work on my
cart today and the day has passed off pretty
quick I cant make it seem like June all I
can do I can Imagine about how it looks
in the states at this time but it seem as
if it was a little spot away in the N west
corner of the world
Another day gone and I have got about as
far with my cart as I can until I have
some more stock and I dont know where they
will get it I am at work the nearest from
hand to mouth that ever I did I get out
one piece at a time and then look for
another one if they are suited I am it
is not very hard work after one gets used
to it I have made some patterns and I
expect there is some Negroes in the woods
hewing out felloes and spokes etc they will
be ready to use in about one year from
the time they get them out I have given
up trying to tell them anything at present
there has been lots
of cattle by here today on their way to Bahia
for beef some of them looks as if the tallow
would be scarce when they are killed if it is
very soon some of these droves I am told are
on the road a year and some more when they
come to plenty of grass stop and let them
feed and then drive on again come three
or four hundred miles. I found two jiggers in
the bottom of my foot today they had been
in some time and I expect they will be
pretty sore I did not think of their getting
in the bottom of my feet and I did not
look out for them so they have been in
until they have got sore
them I suppose they got in through a hole
in my boot when the others got in. It
has been quite cool today the thermometer at
76 at noon and this evening it is 76 it is
a bad time for the Negroes now they
get wet it is so showery and get cold
and there is 27 sick here on this
plantation it appears that somebody
give them calomel some years ago
for everything that was the matter with
them and now they see the effects
It has been rather an
unpleasant day but it dont make but little
difference to me for I am under cover all
the time and when it is rainy the farmer
comes in and talks about going to the Diamond
mines there is three within sight of here
but there is not but one of them worked at
present and that is on a cone shaped mountain
about two miles from here there is a doctor
commenced about two months ago with fifty
or sixty Negroes and he dont allow them
to dig unless he is there nor anybody to
come and see them he finds plenty of
cious
monds
them sometime when it comes right but
I dont think there is any chance to
ate
as I can get one every day as easy as
I do now worth about two dollars and
a half I dont think I shall dig in the
dirt there is a young fellow here by the name
of Brigham that came out to work on the land
one year that is very earnest to go I think
when it comes summer he will think it is to
warm
nothing uncommon today
it has been showery all day with light rain and the
mud is getting pretty plenty round here and by
the looks of the people that go by here on
the road they find plenty for they are covered
with it many of them have nothing on but a
shirt the rest of their clothes tied in a
dle
and the shortest are as short
as any day in the year a few days now and
the sun will be traveling towards us and
away from the United States. It looks odd to
look north for the sun at noon but I have got
used to it so I dont often think of it I calculated
to have gone out today and got some flower seeds
and sent home if I could found any but it has
been rainy and when it holds up it is so muddy
that I have
thermometer is 82 today and I have a thick
coat on and dont feel uncomfortable on account
of the heat I get tired of reading and lie down get
tired of lying down and go to reading again the
birds appear to like this weather for they are
making noise enough singing and squalling
between the showers to almost deafen me
and a very pleasant
day the sun has shined all day and dried
up the mud considerable I have worked
on my cart some today and made gun rods
ground up a sword etc great business for
them to set a man to work upon that costs
them nearly three dollars a day but
I have no cause to complain if they
pay me and I must attend to the pay
for such management cannot always
pay. There is a dead calf out in the
pasture and it is covered with buzzards
and they are so gentle that the fellow
that is here farming went out and shot
two with a pocket pistol I expect this
week to hear from Carson and I hope from
Roswell it is more trouble to get a letter
from here to Valencia than it is from
Rome to California and takes about as
long I have felt much better today it
being clear than I have when it was
so rainy for then everything was damp
bedclothes and all so one would feel
disagreeable if he was well the farmer
saw a green snake today by his tell 5 or 6
feet long but could not kill it
another pleasant day and
pretty warm out in the sun but in under
cover it is comfortable It makes them stare
to see me work and not sweat and some
of the time with my coat on they think
it must be very hot where I come from
The Negroes are at work cleaning out the room
where they have made molasses and sugar
and of all the nasty holes that I ever
saw any labour done in that had anything
to do with eating or drinking that is
the worst John Remmingtons slaughter
house excepted. There is two rooms one is
as much as a hundred feet square and
rather dark and there has been all
kinds of things thrown in there for
years by the looks to get them out of
the way there is from 10 to forty or fifty
bats flying round all times of day any
quantity of mice and I wont undertake
to tell what there is for it would take
three or four evenings the other room
where the boilers are is a little better
it is the reason and all the reason that
the South American sugar is not so
good as the Louisiana or West India sugar
is because they are so nasty and careless
about making it the cane juice must be
the same.
This morning I went to work on my cart and
worked
been out on the plantation setting up a gate
the Negro that works with me has been
making it is pretty muddy but I kept
out of it most of the time I hung a ring
up on top of the fence and went to
reach up and get it and a snake about
five feet long lay across it I took up a
club and killed him he was almost as
slim as a whip and a dark green
apparently but upon a closer inspection
after I had killed him he was speckled
I was alone and laid him
find out what kind it was and first
I knew he was gone I suppose a buzzard
carried him off I feel as if every snake
in Brazil was poisonous but I suppose
they are not much worse than snakes
are at home none I guess worse than
the rattlesnake if there is any so bad
and a very rainy day
I think the most rain fallen of any one day
that I have seen in Brazil but the sun
has shined out some after all it feels
quite cool and the Negroes are shivering
but the thermometer is 74 this evening
Three young negroes that belong here took
each of them a horse out of the barn
here tuesday night to ride off somewhere
and the German that has charge here caught
two of them that night and the other
run into the woods or some other place
and has not come back yet he must get
hungry before many days and wet if he
has been out today but that is no more
than the rest of them has got for they
have had to work out all day I have
been shaving spokes all day and feel
pretty tired. It is now between 10 & 11
and I commence writing again. This afternoon
my room where I work was cleared out and
tonight the Negroes are having a great time
they built two large fires on the ground
for there is no floor and commenced singing
and dancing their peculiar dances and songs
with about 8 or 9
monstrous gourd shells with something in
them to rattle and of all the noises and
performances there is under heaven I think
there is nothing that can beat two hundred
Negroes in a room like this and have two
drinks of cachaca (new rum) and liberty
to perform and make all the noise they
want to I am some distance from them in
the end of the building and there is a
steady roar like that made by some heavy
machine and nothing pleases them better
than to have some to come in and notice
them and they will exert themselves to the
utmost there appears to be two performances
the Africans and the
is those that are born here in Brazil and
those that are brought from the coast they
are treated with oranges and liquor and
are having a great time they brought me
in cake. Boiled
that is a little like a boiled
sweet and white to eat with Molasses
and it is very good but I dont care about
any of their liquor or doing any dancing
I found out today
what they was making so much parade
for last night today is St Johns day one
of their great holidays and next week
is St Peters and I expect they will have
another then. the German that has charge
of the Negroes is not a catholic but he has
to let them have their performances because
it is
Pope has released them from observing the
celebration of every holiday as they have
done formerly so they have worked today
and they are not so strict here as in
the cities. There has been none since
I have been here that prevented my work
at all. I think there is as much money
spent in Brazil for powder and fireworks
every week as there is in the United States
on the fourth of July the 2d day of July
they celebrate their Independence and
it is a queer kind of independence to
make much fuss about The German
here told me some stories today about
his life in Brazil that had considerable
romance about them and I have no doubts
they were true
Well every day and
hour has its end and Saturday night has
come and I have no news from Roswell or any
one else except that carson has not come to
Bahia as was expected three weeks ago I
think some of the people here that he has
duped will go down there soon if he dont
come so we shall know something before
long about what they are going to do what
I am doing at present is worth but little
to anybody I have tried to tell them some
things that they needed but it is no use
and I have come to the conclusion to never
try to talk sense where nonsense will do
equally as well or better The black fellow
that
last night and as near as I can find out has
been to the other
lives the old man is not at home and I
he brought a letter from his wife for them not
to whip him. The traveling is very bad here now
there is so much water and mud the clerk went
away last sunday and went about 35 miles and
got back friday night in the night sometime he says
in many places the water came over the saddle on
the horse and twice he had to swim
I have been out into the orchard
today or garden for it is garden and orchard all
together to see if I could find some
send home but I could find but few for it is the
rainy season and there is plenty of flowers but
the seeds are all gone before they get ripe and
a great many flowers that had no seeds on them
It looks like waste to see the ground covered
with oranges rotting like apples and nothing
done with them we have them every day for dinner
but I filled my pockets so to have one every
evening through the week I got up this morning
with my upper lip
speak but it has all gone down pretty much now
it has not pained me any I expect some insect bit
it and poisoned it
One thing I forgot to write about saturday
and as I have nothing today to write about
I must make that answer A tall savage
looking fellow came up to me just before
dinner and wanted to sharpen his knife
I showed him the grindstone and he
took out a long knife from a sheath
at his side and stroked it a few times
on the stone and went out some in a
hurry I thought and directly I heard loud
talk and I went out and there was two
another one quarreling about an ox they
had here that belonged between them as
I could not understand but little they
said I went in to dinner and when I
came out they had knocked him down
and was skinning him in the mud
to divide they dressed him and one took
his part on two mules and went off and
the other brought his in the building
and sold it out by the piece and went
off and it is the last I have seen or heard
of them
I begin
to get tired of rain and mud although
I dont have to be in it but everything
gets damp and nasty or
you attend to it most every day and sun
them when the sun shines I expect about
four or five weeks more and then there
is about 5 months they have but little
rain there is no thunder and lightning
now at all and hardly ever any wind
and very
This is an old
and it appears that there has somebody lived
here at some time or other that had better
things than they have now for in clearing
out the rooms we find old carved furniture
that is made of rosewood and made well
old drawers, tables, desks etc some with
beef in them some old iron some with old
bottles pieces of old clothes and mice nests
and a lot of other things in the rooms:
tools, machines etc it looks as if it had
not been cleared out in a hundred years
Some kind of an animal got in the room
last night through the roof and run
over me and waked me up we got up and
lit a candle and chased him round the
room awhile and finally lost him it was
about as large as a red squirrel and
light
their rats
and last
Well I am almost satisfied that I never
shall hear from Carson or Roswell again
unless I go where they are I have waited
patiently for a man to come from Bahia
and then I expected to know all about
what I have been so anxious to know and
to hear from Roswell but he sent all his
letters up today and not one word about
either I shall wait now for him to come
and if I cannot find out anything then
I shall start myself. There has been several
droves of cattle by here today going to
Bahia for beef there is 6 or 8
with every drove covered with mud not
much on their clothes for they have but
a small quantity to catch mud. I hear
some
digging but if it is all the way as muddy
as it is along here I dont want to go at
present the German tells them and I dont
know where they are true or not but I
have no reasons to doubt them
It dont seem as if
it is July but there is no denying it at home
now I suppose there is some preparation
making for haying here there is none
only from day to day as the horses want
it oxen they never feed except in the
pasture if they are yoked at midnight
and go until the next midnight
today the Negro got back that was sent
to Bahia two weeks ago last thursday
morning he had only three days rations
and his master kept him at Bahia and
sent him off with a lot off goods to look
after without giving him a cent of money
or any thing to eat and still he is the
Negro that he trusts to look after all
his things when they are sent anywhere
and carry all his letters etc he is so
he is not faithful that if a lot of beef
or farina lacks a pound or two of
holding out when it is weighed over
here he will pay it out of his rations
or in money so he says that his
master will not think he is a robber
and I suppose they are mean enough
to take it. I told Mr Junqueira when
I first came here that I wanted a
grindstone for I could not do much
without one in working this hardwood
and today he sent me from Bahia one
of the smallest sized stones that shoemakers
use to sharpen their knives upon the
whole of it cast iron box and all would
not weigh over 8 or 10 pounds I was so
vexed that I told the German that
he must not leave it anywhere around
my bench so he carried it up stairs in
the parlour
Well last night at eight
a letter from Roswell but not so good
news as I should like to have had for
he is sick with the fever and ague and
so is carson Roswell says he was
taken the 18th of June and wrote the
23 and was getting better I shall feel
as anxious to hear from him now as
I was before or more so
I suppose today in the
States there is a great deal of flying about
especially with the young people getting ready
for tomorrow one class anxious for it to arrive
to spend the few cents they may chance to
have for firecrackers and sweetmeats another
lot looking over their dresses to see what
will best fit for a ride to some more noisy
place than home or to some odd fellow
ration
to prepare and wait patiently to go their usual
round of getting drunk only not so private
while the more quiet portion stay at home have
an extra dinner and go to bed at night with
feelings quite different from those that have been
running about all day and come home with the
headache or something worse and declare They
will never be such fools again the same
declaration that was made
doubt yesterday was their Independence day
here but they acted the wise part here where
there is but 3 or 4 but what is slaves and said
nothing about it but people has gone to the
city and I expect they have a great time
there I found a piece of Rosewood in the shop
and today I begun a box to send some things
home in if I should ever have a chance I
expect capt Swift here again in the fall and
I may see him I have an Idea now of
going to getting out choice wood to send
to the States or sell here if carson or
Mr Junqueira dont do different by me
from what they have done yet I am
I am working now apparently contented
and shall continue until I find out whether
I can get my pay or not
1853 and the first
4th day of July I ever spent out of the
noise of the celebration of American
Independence I have been to work and
it has hardly been in my mind except
when I have done work and sit down
I have been repairing a Brazilian plough and
it is a comical thing they are made in the
first place there is a stick of timber about
eight feet long and 5 by 6 inches square with
a post at the back and about two feet high
and slanting about 45 degrees with two
pieces framed through it to hold the
handles and
about 6 inches wide 2 inches thick and
3 ½ feet long framed for the beam to go
on which is about as large as as our
largest cart tongues it is 13 feet long and
it is framed on to the long piece that
is in the
then crooks down and is framed into
the short post at the back end The
handles are made of plank about
6 inches wide and one nailed to
the piece in the
is on close down to the mudsill and come
back and frame on to the piece that goes
across the sternpost
four feet and are rounded down a little
then there is a mouldboard on each side
about 15
on to the mudsill and framed on to
the other piece that is across the stern
post which is longer than the one that
the handles is on so the
outside the handles they yoke on to the
beam and there is a key at the side
of the front post to raise and lower the
beam the handles are about two and a
they are
than two feet and yet they are using
them today
the best American ploughs which they
have here upwards of twenty. I join in
with them now and tell them I never
saw so nice things since I came upon
the earth. Where Ignorance is bliss
tis folly to be wise They are using
one today with a pair of wheels to it
with five yoke of oxen and from the
forward oxens head to the man that
is holding plough is just about one
hundred feet there is three drivers one
goes ahead one on the off side and one
on the near side with poles about ten
and twelve feet long with a spur in
the end from ¾ to an inch long The
end of the mudsill to the plough is
tapered off at the point on the top side
and a piece of iron on and about
three feet back is a hole through
the beam and one in the sill and
a flat piece of iron
last night and this morning the teams
was sent to the landing to get a load of
farina and soon came back
was over their heads in the road two
others was sent to another place on horse
and they came back they then sent the
team down to the new engenho about a
quarter of a mile after some stuff for me
and they came back could not get there
on account of the water
It has been quite
pleasant today there has been but one little
shower and just warm enough to work without
sweating the thermometer this evening is 76 and
I am none to warm with a thick coat on
There is a lot of castor oil beans growing
in the yard close to the house and I thought
the leaves looked pretty large and I took
my rule and measured some of them they
are nearly round and measure thirty inches
each way some of them are more one way
than that. It is called here Mamona
I sent off a letter
yesterday to Roswell in hope that it will soon
reach him and find him well but I am
afraid if he really has the fever & ague
that it will be some time before he gets
rid of it one thing it is not dangerous
like the yellow fever. It has been quite
pleasant today without rain and the mud
has got quite hard thermometer at 76
the most of the day, I have been sawing
off some hubs today with a
that I found in the blacksmith shop and
fitted some handles to it and filed it up
and it is the best saw I have
It was thrown by I found on account
of its being hard and they have no files
here that will file one unless it is
soft as iron
I got up this morning and the first
thing looked at my thermometer to see
if it was low enough to look for frost
and found it at 70 and concluded not
to look there is something remarkable
about the weather that I cannot fully
account for I have a close room the
walls made of brick and plastered and
have it shut up close nights and
some nights it is so cold I have to
get up and get my overcoat and put
over me before I can sleep on account
of the cold and the thermometer I have
never seen below 68 and I find that
others are cold as well as me that
have always lived here It has been
very pleasant today cool enough and
clear and this evening it is beautiful
I can just see the new moon and it is
as still out doors as in a close room
I can see the new moon earlier or sooner
after it changes here than in the
Well this morning was
the coldest I have seen yet in Brazil the
thermometer was at 62 six lower than I have
seen it before but it has been a warm and
pleasant day and it is warm this evening
we built a large fire early this morning
on the middle of the floor and got some
fuel for tonight but it is so warm that
we dont need one. I have been to work
day
hubs by hand in room of shaving them
out as they expected me to and it works
well and I expect it looks queer to them
for they never saw a hub turned before
Another Saturday
night and I know no more about
my business than I did a month ago
or when I first came here I find I
have got plenty of patience and it is
one of the best things a man can have
here excepting health and plenty to eat
and drink I am looking now for next
wednesday to bring some news for Mr
Junqueira has been gone now nearly five
weeks and I expected him back in a week
I have been to work
today when I got tired of reading on a small
box I found a piece of Rosewood among the old
rubbish and it is so old and brittle that I have
to handle it as if it was glass. We are having
very pleasant weather now when the people
were not looking for it the rainy season
is not over generally until the first
of August and sometimes not until the
middle and I expect we shall have two
or three weeks more of rainy weather yet
This morning was the
coldest morning there has been yet the
thermometer was at 59 at sunrise but it
has been a very pleasant day and this
evening it is warm and not a cloud
to be seen. I have been to work today
rigging a temporary thing to mortise my
hubs in and drive my spokes a hard
way of making wheels and I never shall
make any more so unless I am obliged
to as I am these. We build a fire in
the room where we sleep mornings to
dry the room and think it will prevent
the fever and ague and this morning
the fellow that is here with me wanted I
should save some wood if I made any for
the cane made to many light ashes that
flew about the room and the negroes watch
very close and as soon as there is a piece
that is dry they grab it I had quite a
little pile made while they were gone
to breakfast and the fellow sat watching
them to carry off when I got through I
saw a negro coming and told him he
must pick them up or lose them the
negro came up and begun to gather the
chips and he trying to drive him away
with all the Portuguese language he could
muster the negro kept jabbering and
picking up chips and finally he had to
go to scratching or else lose the whole
of them and such a scratching as there
was around my heels for a few chips
was like the boys round the factory
when there is an apple thrown in among
them but the Negro got considerable the
most They consider them free plunder
unless they are piled up let one of
them throw them in a heap and the
others will not touch them
five months since
I left Boston and I think it well spent
if I get no more than than I have already
which is my board and passage out here
and improvement in my health which is
more than all the rest and I dont know
as there will be any trouble in getting the
rest of my pay I hope there will not
I never saw a more pleasant day in my life
than than it has been today and I never
felt much better It seems like a very
dull place here in pleasant weather
when it is stormy it dont make much
difference where one is if he only gets
enough to eat & drink
Well wednesday has come and gone and I have
got but little news and what I have got
is of no consequence Mr
got back from Bahia and has not seen
Mr Carson which is very essential on
my account and the farmers also. It
has been another pleasant day and I
have been to work on some old gates
all day raising sugar must be good
ess
they begin
last night a large
rat came in from the roof of the building
to the room where we sleep and kept
me awake a long time I got up twice
and tried to catch him but he would
get away he eat up part of a candle
that we had in the room and today one
came out and fell off in the room nearly
dead and I was in hopes it was the same
one but it was not for I can hear him
now over my head I have been to work
today filing saws for the Negroes and
making latches to gates the same work
or the same kind I done yesterday and
likely will have to do tomorrow. It
is pleasant weather yet and the mud
is nearly dried up
Well the rat is now certainly dead and
I hope I can sleep tonight without being
disturbed he came down last night and
ran over us and we got up and saw
him in the room but he hid somewhere
and we lost him and as soon as I got
to sleep again he ran over me and
jumped on to another man and waked
us both up and we got up again determined
to kill him if possible we chased him
round the room awhile and at last he
ran into one of our boots and I
suppose it is where he had hid before
when we have lost him but we heard
him this time and ended his fun
It has been another pleasant day and
I have been to work on gates and filing
saws all day I have the headache a little
tonight working in the sun but I think
sleep will carry it all off
I felt nothing of my headache
after I got to sleep last night and got up
this morning feeling well and it commenced
raining so I could not finish my gate work
and I have fitted tools for the Negroes and
drove the spokes in my hubs for my cart
I hope I shall have a chance to work on it
most of the time next week if I do I can
nearly finish it. We build a fire in our
room morning and evening now it has
commenced raining again and I think
it may prevent having the fever & ague
it makes the bed better to dry the bed
clothes
It has been showery today
and I have been mending clothes and looking
them over most of the day I feel so uneasy
about the business here that I cannot read
to do me much good. Mr Junqueira has been
gone now five weeks and the man here had
a letter from him last week and he has not
seen Carson and cannot get a letter from
him and he thinks of giving up his farming
speculation altogether whether he will want
me to stay or not I cannot tell and if not
I am afraid I shall be plagued to get my pay
for what I have worked all I care about it
is my pay for I dont like the way things is
going on at all two weeks more will be
four months from the time I landed at Bahia
and then I shall find out who I am at
work for and who pays me and what I
can get for what I have worked. I think
the farming affair is the worst managed
of any business I ever saw how it will
come out or who will make any money
by the operation I am not yet able to
tell I think it will not be the people
that furnished carson with money to go
to the United States
I finished off one
cart wheel today and it looked so much
different from theirs that they stared at it
considerable but can find nothing to say
against it A young heifer died here today
or was killed to save her life and they
have dressed it and I think calculate
to have it eat but they will have to get
me pretty hungry to get any down if
if I know it It has been quite pleasant and
this evening is one of the best kind that we
have so many off
Today I have finished off the other cart wheel
and I feel as if I had the hardest part of
my job done but the axle is to get out of
a log and that will be something of a job
but as this is the only one that I will
ever make in this way I can work
very patiently It has showered a little
today and this morning I thought it was
cold and looked at the thermometer and
it was 67 Tomorrow if it is pleasant I shall
look for Mr Junqueira and if he dont come
I shall keep looking until the first of
August and then some of them may look for
me
Well I am disappointed
today in not having any news from Mr Junqueira
or Carson it has been some showery today and
he may come or send tomorrow. I have been
to work today repairing rakes filing saws and
some on my cart. I am sleeping on a board
and have been for two months expecting
every week to know my destiny or where
I was going to stay here or not but now
I have sworn to not put up with it any
longer than the first of August
today is the day
for seeing droves of cattle and this morning
the road was full for a long time I
looked out at one time and the road
goes through a valley after they pass
here and one can see nearly or quite
half a mile for there is nothing but
grass in the way the roads here are
not fenced any of them (but I was
going to write about the cattle) well
I looked out and there was six large
droves in sight at one time in this
valley and it looked beautiful to see
such a mass winding one way and
the other as the road crooked. The
farthest ones I could not distinguish
the cattle and it looked like the moving
figures I have seen in a panorama
There must have been as many as twelve
or fifteen hundred cattle in sight at one
time and they were all oxen and as
large as oxen will
today the clerk
has gone to the other engenho to see if
he can hear anything from Mr Junqueira
for we are all getting rather anxious
to see somebody that has a pocket full
of money and will hand out some of it
I have told them that I should work
no more after next week until I had
my pay and the German that manages
is going to Bahia next week so it is
than what there is now I have worked
a little on my cart yesterday and today
and repaired old drawers and made
a little gate to put in a door to keep
pigs and Negroes out it has been
showery but not very cold
The clerk has not
come back and I am satisfied it is of no
use to make any calculation on anything in
this country where it depends upon the people
to perform it. The Sun rises and sets the
same as if they were not here and the
rains come in their season but when a
man
appointed time he rarely if ever does
it. An old man that takes care of the sheep
was whipped tonight I dont know what for
perhaps for some accident that he could
not possibly help the German appears to
be an ugly rascal and will whip when
there is no occasion and for that matter
I think there never is any need of
whipping after they are grown up.
There is some carts going by tonight squealing
and the Negroes singing and it sounds
like a band of music but not so good
as some I have heard. It has been
showery this afternoon but it is pleasant
this evening and I can hear guns firing
all round some saint day I suppose
tomorrow I hope will bring the clerk if not
Mr Junqueira
This morning there
was a negro woman whipped and I had a long
talk with the German about whipping them
but he thinks it is necessary to whip them and
it is but little use to try to convince them to
the contrary he showed me places they had
to put them in to punish them that made
me think of the old Spanish Inquisition
one thing was a plank eighteen or twenty feet
long and 5 inches thick and two feet or more
wide with holes in the middle of it the size
of a mans neck and some the size of their
these holes and fastened at the ends
and stands up on one edge so when
their neck is in it it is about one foot
from the floor
Well I heard today that Mr. Junqueira
had not come from Bahia the clerk
came back wet nearly to his arms
and said the water was so deep in
some places that his horse had to
swim. I have got tired of waiting and
am getting ready to go to
tomorrow and next day to Bahia
I got a horse this morning
Santo Amaro I had rather a poor horse and the
others (the German and a Negro) went ahead out of sight
and it commenced raining so hard as ever I saw it
my horse got stuck in the mud and I had to get off
and pull him out. I had on some old clothes so that
I did not care about the mud. A party of Brazilians
came along and I fell in company with them and
by their wading the rivers to find the best place
to cross we made out to get along until we came
to quite a large river and there I found the German
and 10 or 12 more waiting for the negroes to make
a bridge to get across for a mule in crossing
had broke through and torn the bridge all down
there was a man there that said we could not get
along the road any further that there was a path
over the mountains that we could get to the river
and take a canoe from there and that he was going
and would show us the way I changed horses with
the Negro (or changed my horse for his mule) and
we ran them across the bridge and mounted and
started I give the mule the reins and we went
over some of the wildest and some of the most
beautiful scenery that can be imagined
sometimes there would be hundreds of acres covered
with the most beautiful wild flowers and sometimes we
would be on the side of the mountain where we
could look down in the valleys eight hundred or a
thousand feet and perhaps more for the cattle looked
like sheep I saw some wild cactus as much as twelve
feet high and large fields of Indian corn We
arrived at the river in the afternoon wet and
covered with mud and got a canoe to carry us
up to Santo Amaro. the German had friends
there where he
place alone there is no hotel in the city
and I went to an
what I wanted and got some supper and
changed my clothes when the Negro came with
them and went to bed
I got up this morning quite refreshed and took
a canoe to go down the river to the steamboat
for it dont come within a mile of the city
I think more to make business for the canoes
than any thing else the boat lay
of some bushes (for there is no wharf) a little
green boat that will not hold more than a hundred
passengers but the
nice there is some beautiful places on the river
two cloisters
going to Bahia. They ran against two vessels going
into the
quarter of a mile from the shore so we had to
all go ashore in boats the distance they call
thirty miles and the fare is one dollar and a half
on the boat and the canoe fee brings it to two
dollars and more if you are alone in a canoe
I got my dinner and left my baggage at a Germans
in the lower city and found out that carson was
not in the city and it was hard work to get any
information about him In the evening I went up
the hill to an Englishmans that kept a coffee
Saloon and got some tea and toast and a bed
I got up this morning after a good night sleep
that done me as much good as any thing I have
had in some time got breakfast and went
down into the lower city to see what I
find out about Carson or Mr Junqueira
found Mr Junqueira who appeared
to see me here I told him I had waited three
or four months to find out what I was going
to do and now if Carson was in Brazil
I was going to find him as he Mr
Junqueira would not pay me until he saw
Mr Carson they all advised me to go to Mr
Gerimuabos a place about thirty miles from
here for carson was going there and they
expected he was there now I thought it was
a plan to prevent my seeing him and I tried
to find some way to go to Valencia but I
could not under several days In looking
round I found three letters from Valencia
one from Roswell stating that he was well
and had gone to work which changed my
mind some about going there as I found that
Mr Gerimuabo had sent his bark some days
before after Carson
I was awoke this morning by the firing of cannon
from the fort and the vessel in the
and upon inquiry found it was the birthday
of the Emperors daughter they fired again at
noon and night I found a
going to Cachoeira and I engaged a passage
to Gerimuabos in it and put my things on
board it was to sail at noon and I waited
ugly looking Negro got drunk and I took
advantage when he was away and got my
things out and expect to go tomorrow on the
Steamboat I came across the man that was up at
Mr Junqueiras a few days for an interpreter and
he is a miserable drunken thing and sticks
to me like the old man of the sea in Sinbad
the Sailor I had to drive him off
run away from him I went in the Arsenal
was a gang of prisoners chained together drawing
round stone and timber and carpenters at
work without any bench if they had a stick
to plane they would lay it on a plank on
the ground and sit straddle of it to hold
it I tried a Brazilian barber today for the
first time he did very well and when he
had shaved me he had a disk with a place
cut out of the rim that fitted round my neck
and he give my face a washing as was a
washing The people walk in the middle
of the streets and the Negroes have
ion
weaving etc while they are waiting for jobs
for a great portion of the negroes here
in the city pay their masters so much
a day and if by short living and hard
work they can possibly earn a few cents more
it belongs to them they have their clothing what
little they do have and victuals to look out
for themselves. I saw some tailors at work
today on the sidewalk with their cloth and
other things all down in the dirt
I got up this morning
and went down and got a Negro to carry
my things down to the shore to take a boat
to go on board the Steamboat I did not
eat any breakfast so to not be seasick
I found quite a nice boat with two
man
talk with them about the English steamer
the Great
ted
me everything and was very obliging at
last he wanted to know what part of
England I was from I told him I was a
Yankee that I never was in England in
my life. The devil says he I thought you
was an Englishman that rather put a
damper on our familiarity but as we
had got nearly to the place where I
was going to stop I did not care much
about it when I arrived opposite the place I
saw a canoe coming from the Engenho with three
Negroes in it the steamboat stopped and I
got out into the canoe and went on shore the
man looked astonished when I landed but
I inquired for Carson and soon explained who
I was and what I wanted he expected a
man on the boat from Bahia that was at
work on his water wheel and sent his canoe
out to bring him ashore but he did not
come and I went in his room, I found
two American farmers there that came out
with us in good health but doing nothing
waiting for carson I found that Mr Gerimuabo
had sent his bark after him seven days ago
and that it would be back in a day or two
whether carson came or not
I have the best of living here and a good bed
something I have not had before for two months
and have made up my mind to stay until the
bark arrives and if carson dont come to go to
Valencia
today I took a walk
3 or 4 miles through the woods and came to a
large pond where the water comes from to drive
a sawmill that there is here and the sugar mill
the water is carried in a trench made of brick
around the sides of the hills and some of the way
out through a soft kind of stone saw some beautiful
wild flowers and some cactus budded to bloom
I got up this morning and found
the
found that Carson had come I had a talk with
him and could not get him to pay me until he
sees Mr Junqueira and I am not going to leave him
unless he runs away from me until he does see
him. I saw something done today that I should
thought impossible and that was getting some
horses in some canoes they tied two canoes together
and led them in to one and made them step
over into the other and in that way they lead
in five and seven negroes got in and
paddled them off
been to work today repairing the sawmill
Carson found I was determined to stay with
him until he saw Mr Junqueira and he
has set me to work
I finished the sawmill today and put on a log
and sawed it out without marking it off and
I astonished the Negroes for they line all the
boards off and move the back end of the log
to make it follow the mark I see no prospect of
getting away from here under four or five days and
as we live the best kind I make myself as contented
as possible
I have not done
much today the rest have gone to another place
of Mr Gerimuabos called Guahi and not coming
back until tomorrow night I have been nearly
sick by eating a few mouthfuls of a dish made
from a kind of crab they have here
I have been trying to learn a Negro to
make and
headed one and it is rather a perplexing job
and I have given it up for it wants somebody
with him all the time for 6 months and then
it is doubtful if he could do it. They have
been raising an addition to the Engenho today
and by the number of negroes and the noise
they made one would think there was a
large job being done
I went to bed last night not feeling very
well and I have not since I eat the crab and
in an hour or two I was taken with as
severe
it out without taking any medicine and
today I feel quite well. I measured a
Canoe today that was fifty feet
44 inches wide on the inside and 29 inches
deep inside it must have been a very
large tree to make one so large fifty feet
from the ground or where it was cut
off and I hear that there is many larger
that this farther up the river
I have rather uneasy today for I
expected a bark last night to take us to
St Francisco or Santo Amaro. It is a
iful
other fruits and the scenery is beautiful
but I am not exactly in the mood to
enjoy it
well the
bark came last night and this morning
after breakfast we went on board and
started down the river Paraguaysu
for St Francisco Paraguaysu was the
Pocahontas of South America and the
river is named after her we had to go
out of the river into the bay of
and it was pretty rough but as the wind
was fair we got to
night we had a dinner on board and
as we were people as they thought of some
consequence they had a
stern of the
hoisted on it, the passengers were carson,
a young Brazilian that is with him that
has been a year or two in the United States
and myself and the cargo our baggage
and a Brazilian captain and three Negros
for a crew and one waiter We anchored
at the head of a large bay
old town of
Captain ashore in a canoe to the house
of a Mr. Manuel to inquire after Mr
Junqueira an excuse I thought on the part
of Carson to get an invitation to come
on shore to his house and if it was
it worked well for an invitation came
back for us to come up and two horses
sent down for us to ride and I and
the fellow that is with Carson went on
shore in a canoe and mounted the horses
and rode up to his house and sent one
of them back for Carson. I found a
short thick
and I think rich for he has formerly been
a government officer a treasurer I think
of the Province. He has the most splendid
house and furniture that I have seen in
Brazil his furniture is all rosewood and
his tea things and most of his other dishes
is of silver there is a great lot of ceremony
at meal time but I tell them that I dont
understand that part but if there is any
good things to eat I am ready to display
my skill with a knife and fork
It looks as if I had
got to stop here three or four days for we
have plenty of the best of living and wine
in abundance which makes me think
Carson will be in no hurry to get away
for I think he cares but little for
thing
and wanted me to go with them to a place
where Mr Manuel thought he
mine I went round by the old convent
to the place where the Negroes had dug
twenty or thirty loads of dirt out at the
foot of a large hill and found a kind
of blue clay almost as hard as slate and
they thought it must be coal it looked
more like making brick than it did like
finding coal I told him I saw no signs of
coal and he then wanted we should look
over his farm he has I should think five
thousand acres of as beautiful land as I
have seen some large fields of very
handsome cane and some corn in his
garden were fig trees grapes and many
kinds of fruit that I have seen but little
of in other places some of the largest
Jackfruit trees I have seen and he told
us that his farm had been cultivated
over three hundred years it being one
of the first settlements in South America
I had another turn
of
by riding round so much on horseback
in the sun and not being used to it I
feel quite well today only weak. I took
a turn round the old town of
today and a more miserable place I
never saw the people live mostly by
fishing and catching shrimps and their
huts are built all round the shore
side
looking houses and stores and several
old large churches and a large convent
and more hogs than christians. I went
round the convent and found one door
open but as I was alone I was afraid
to go in. I listened and it was all as
still as death I could not hear a
sound and I suppose there is a great many
people in it all I could find out was
that there was four monks and when
I was going to the coal mine I saw two
of them peeking out of a window
there is a large yard in front with
a cross standing in the
the stones in front of the cross were
nearly worn through I suppose where
the people come to kneel down take it
altogether it is a dismal looking place
I went out and spent the Evening last evening
and it was so pleasant and light that they
brought chairs out on the grass and we all
sit
The house of Mr Manuel is on a hill about
3 or 4 hundred yards from the river and
is about two hundred feet long and two
stories high with a steeple on one end and
is used for a church it is about sixty
feet wide and the rooms are large and handsome
and sixteen feet between floors the family live
in the upper story which is approached by a
flight of twenty marble steps in the
the building the six bottom ones laid in a
circle and then two marble pillars set upon
them and four at the door with a handsome
iron railing between them. The straight steps
are about ten feet wide the windows in the
upper story are large being 40 lights each
of 8 by 11 glass and the lower story is used
by the Negroes and has board windows painted
green They are always open except in the
night. This Engenho stands at the foot of
the hill towards the river and is five hundred
feet long and 104 feet wide it is of one story
and is built much the same as all the rest I have
seen in the first place they build four rows
of pillars (I will describe this one) two feet and
six inches square of brick and mud and
plaster them over and whitewash them then
if they want rooms they build in between the pillars
the row next to the river in this Engenho is arched
over between the pillars and looks very beautiful
as you go up or down the river it is driven
by a steam Engine and has the largest sugar mill
I have seen there is a canal cut from the
river up to it so barks can come up and load
sugar right out of the building. I found piled up
in one corner of his Engenho a large lot of cart
wheels made in tolerable good style with tires on
them and boxes in the hubs for iron axles
upon inquiry I found that they were some he
had made by a german sixteen years ago
and he said they ran so easy down hill that
they knocked the horns off his oxen and he
had laid the wheels one side and cut the axles
in two for grates to his furnace
Some horses came
and it looks now more like doing or knowing
something than it has before in some time I
waited as patiently as I could for Carson to
get ready
the horses were brought up and we started
the roads has dried up and the going was
quite a different thing from what it was
when I went to Santo Amaro. I went through
a country of the best looking land I have ever
seen and the scenery was rich we arrived
a little after dark and I got some warm
tea and some supper and went to bed
I got up this morning feeling much
better than I expected and as Carson has a great
deal of talking to do with Mr Junqueira I have
not troubled him today at all he has told
me that his patterns maker had gone away
from Valencia and that he should try to get
Mr Junqueira to let me off so I could go down
but I have no confidence in him and shall
now look out for myself and not trust to
any one If he pays me I shall
to Valencia and if he dont I shall go to Bahia
I think I can do as well there as I can with
him and as for being fooled round and lied
to as I have been I will not be any more
if I have my health. I found the two farmers
that I left as glad to see me I guess as ever
they was to see anybody for they had made
up their minds when I went away if I
came back that they should know something
whether Carson came or not and when
I came to bring him with me they felt
as if they were about to begin a new life
Carson wanted the farmer
to go today and look out some land that he
thought would plough well and I took my
gun and went with him (the rainy season
is over now and the mud is considerably
dried up) and on the way I shot three
large birds two of them was kinds that I
had shot before but one was a long necked
blue bird like some of our shore birds
and when we got back he wanted my gun
to shoot an owl he took it and went out
and in about five minutes he came in
with the most queer looking thing of owl
kind I ever saw it was about four feet
across the wings nearly white and the
face looked almost like a human being
I had some talk with Carson
this morning and found that he calculates for
me to go to Valencia but I cannot get
thing
give me an order for somebody to get it
in Boston and attend to it himself and
I think I have lived too long on the earth
to have any such business as that done
willingly. I may be
I saw the Negroes running today and looked
out and saw one of the negroes huts
was on fire we all ran out but it was
to late to save it for the roofs are all
made of thatch or a kind of wild
nut
or six burned down before we could
stop it and when the negro women
came and found their houses burned
they cried and made a great ado about
it I suppose they felt as bad to lose
what few little things they had as
body
so because it is harder work for them to
get more
Well today
I feel better I have got an order to get
five hundred
thirty four here in money and I expect
to start tomorrow morning for Valencia
and my things are to go Thursday another
way by a bark Mr Junqueira would not
pay for only what time I had been here
but Mr Carson says he will pay me the
rest when he gets things straightened out
it is a crooked mess and I think it will
take a long time
I was furnished
with a horse this morning and a negro
to carry my Valise and started for
St Francisco I expected the Negro to show
me the way but I had not gone far before
I missed him and went back after
waiting awhile but could find nothing
of him and I rode on alone I had no
difficulty in finding the way and enjoyed
myself very well in seeing things along
the path I saw a lot of hanging birds
nests eight or ten as close together as they
could build them the birds made a
mendous
as our woodpecker and as black as ink. I
got at
not come down the river and give my
horse up to the negro who came down
with me and had come out of a crosspath
and caught up with me a short distance
back and went up to the house of Mr
Manuel where I had stopped before and
he told me it was time for the boat to
be along and sent a negro with my
valise and to show me where to get a
canoe to go out to the steamboat, I went
down with him and found a place in front
of the prison where one could get into a canoe
off the rocks without going knee deep in mud
and the negro pointed out a great ugly
looking Brazilian that would carry me off
I saw them talking together and the Negro
came and told me it would be two
Reis
much and the
not go unless I gave him one
I told him to go on and got into the
canoe and another Brazilian passenger got
in also they paddled us out and the
boat stopped and took us aboard. I
looked out and got my things on the
boat and watched and saw the other
senger
is twenty four of their cents I handed
him but ten as he and the Negro
appeared to join together for speculation
and I gave him two for bringing my
valise a few steps They jawed away pretty
hard and hung on to the boat until
the captain drove them off and I
guess the next time they go into a
ulation
pay in advance. We got into Bahia a little
after dark and I got a boat to carry me
ashore and a Negro to carry my valise
up to the Englishmans where I
and got some supper and went to bed
this morning
after breakfast I went down into the
lower city to make arrangement about
getting my pay and sending some home
I found Mr Lacerda and he seemed
to talk that they did not want me
to Valencia so I made him pay me
the money in room of taking an order
and put it in my pocket for if I am
to be out of work I dont want to be out
of money but there is no fear of being out
of work for there has been a man to hire
me but Mr Lacerda knows nothing about
what is wanted at the factory all there
is about it he wants as little to pay as
possible
There is a
tremendous sea rolling into Bahia I
am glad I did not go yesterday
think there is rough weather outside I had
a talk with Mr Lacerda today and he talks
altogether different from what he did yesterday
when he finds that I care nothing about where
I go down there or not he now wants one
to go
The steamer came
in this morning and I sent two letters home
one by mail and the other by an Englishman
that has been to work at the factory to put
into the mail in England
It has seemed the most like being in a city
here today that I have ever seen it the
English were out in their carriages and
the sound of wheels seems to drown the
monotonous noise of the Negroes but there
is soldiers marching through the streets
and the President has just rode by with
quite a train following him The Negro
that drove the carriage on horses that the
President rode out with is in the saloon
this Evening treating all his friends for
he had a present from the President of Eight
We got up the river last
night a few miles above a place called
the Moro at the Entrance of the river and
the wind went down and they came to an
anchor I was in a little box they had on
the deck for sleeping in with the slide
door a little way open so I could see
what was going on on deck and there
was the captain and two
had gone ashore in the canoe a short
distance below) and six negroes the
captain had been drinking considerable
and I saw him go and whisper to one
of the men and then to the other and
then call one of the negroes and whisper
to him I did not know what may be
going on so I went out among them and
commenced asking questions if they were
a going to stop there all night etc and
the captain said he was and wanted to
know if I wanted to go ashore as the
other two men were going I told him no
I would wait until morning and go with
my things and I got out a few sweet
kers
and crawled back in my box and went to sleep
this morning I got up after sleeping much
better than I expected and the captain
and crew after yawning round awhile
went to work getting their breakfasts
they got it ready about an hour after sunrise
and the captain give me a hard cracker
and some coffee that was so strong that
I could not drink it but I eat the cracker
and about eight
had all died away and the tide had
going they got ready to hoist sail and
then with long poles
up the river four or five miles that
in the morning they could have gone in
an hour with but little labour they
now worked hard all but the captain
until twelve
craft on to a shoal a short distance
below the village of
to get the captain to carry me up in
his canoe but I could not nor find
out any thing hardly by him but a
canoe with a negro came up to the
launch after some things and I look
my valise and jumped in he paddled
me up to the village and I told him I
wanted he should carry me up to the sawmill
as I found he was a negro that belonged
to Dr Bernadine that owned the mill he
wanted me to wait until he carried
some things to the house and see what
the folks said he came back in a few
minutes and we started he paddled a
little ways and stopped and wanted to
know if I was going to give him any
money I told him yes if he paddled away
sharp and it was but a few minutes before
I was at the mill and there I found Mr
Foster that came out in the vessel with
us he was working there and boarding
up at the factory where I was going a mile
up the river he came down in a boat
boat in the morning and back at night
and brought his dinner with him I got
into his boat and got a negro to
row me up which took but a few minutes
I found the folks all well and got a
good dinner and felt much better for
it for I had not eaten much in two days
I looked round but
little yesterday I was so tired but today
I have taken quite a general view of
the premises I am disappointed in it for
it is much better than I expected to find
the factory is large and a good building
five stories high and only about one
third full of machinery the rest is used
for lodging rooms dining room dance room
a place to have their catholic performances
etc then they have a large building with
a waterwheel in it that is used for a
foundry, carpenters shop and stone rooms but
Roswell is putting in another wheel and
they are going to move their machine
shop out of the mill in to it. There
is great lots of logs comes down this river
and there is a sluice made at one end
of the dam for them to go down in
there is a deck hole at the foot of
it and when they hoist the gate for
the logs to go down it is all of a foam
and the
they will jump on to their logs and
go down under a bridge that is not
more than four feet from the water and
get them together and tie them without
falling off it is certainly a great feat
to get on to a log rolling and pitching
about as they are and not get a
This morning the old
priest comes and I suppose pardons the
sins (or pretends to) of the past week for
all that he is paid for I suppose. I did
not go in being a
see the performances likely if I stay here
long. I looked round a little today but
there is nothing near here very interesting
to see and I did not go far This
ng
in the room in the mill below the rooms
where we sleep and the girls and boys that
work in the mill are having a dance
They came up and wanted we should go
down and dance but we told them it
was Sunday and that it was not allowed
in our country but I suppose it is
mostly poor boys and girls that they have
taken out of the Asylums and they work
all the week and if they did not have
something to amuse them they would run
away
This Morning
I commenced work at the Fabrica Todos os
Santos at
present appearances I think I shall like
much better than any other place I have
seen in this country for there is something
to do and something to do it with and
several Americans.
I have been to work on a pattern most of
the day for a saw mill and what time
I have to spare on some bench screws for
they wanted some here and tried to make
some and could not and went to work
and made an iron one for a wood vice
that cost as much as a dozen wood ones
and is not as good
I cut one half the teeth out of a circular
saw they had here and sawed up a lot
of stuff for some bobbins and worked on
the bench screws.
It dont seem much like the first
ment
commencement of spring the rainy season
is all over and the weather is fine
there is a shower
thunder or lightning there is a man here
that has been here over two years and
he told me that he had not heard
it thunder but two or three times since
he had been here
I am laid up today with some sores
on my legs such as is common for all
to have that come
some have them soon after they get
here and others not until they have
been here two years or more they
swell very bad but are not painful
if a person keeps still and not stands
on his feet much I should not work
any if they were not in want of some
the screws I am making and I have
only worked part of the day and finished
a few
my legs feel
better today by keeping quiet yesterday
and today I worked a little while to
finish off the remainder of the bench
screws and I guess they dont mean to
be out very soon for they had me
make fourteen. There was another great
lot of logs come down today it appears
that they calculate on letting them through
Saturday afternoon on account of wasting
water I suppose but that is of no
nce
Mr Jones one of the Farmers that came out
is not very well and I am afraid will not be
in this country there is some it does not
agree with and such ones I should advise
not to stay for all the rest is nothing
without health
I have kept still as possible today
on account of my sores and I find
they are getting better quite fast I
have had a chance today to loan a lot
of my books for there is but few
American books here and the
icans
mine is a new lot. I find that
and the people will read it. It is
translated into Portuguese by a French
man and several of them have got into
the country but the Government has
prohibited the sale of it. I have seen a
Brazilian that can read English reading a
book that he appeared very cautious about
any one seeing the title of but I saw on
the cover,
I have not been to
work today because I think my sores are
getting well and I dont want to make
them any worse. I am in a room with
a Mr. Foster that come out with us and
is at work at the sawmill about a
mile below here but I have got a
room and moved my chest and trunk
into it and shall go in myself as soon
as I can get a table and some other
I went to work this morning with my legs
feeling quite comfortable but they swelled
and pained me so bad standing on my
feet that in the afternoon I had to give
up work and sit down. I have seen
nothing remarkable today to write about
except people going by here to market
riding upon oxen with a string tied
into their noses to guide them
my feet and legs
are better this morning but I am not
going to try to work any more until they
get well or so it will not affect them by
standing on them. The river is quite high
this morning and it makes a boiling
going down into the hole that they run
logs down into Awhile before we came
here Mr Irons that works here says he
saw an Indian come down the river
one day in his canoe and paddled into
this place and when he got to the
he stood up in his canoe and went
down and for a minute nothing was
to be seen but the foaming of the
water directly up popped the Indian
some distance down the river standing
upright in his canoe the same as he
went down paddled ashore and turned
the water out of his canoe and went
on down the river as if nothing
mmon
to be very deep at the bottom of this
lumbermen have hard work to get their logs
out sometimes
It is some one of
their Saint days today and every kind of
labour is stopped except the poor slave
and he has to work both Saint days
and Sundays. There is an old Priest
comes here and they have a kind of a
performance they call Mass and then they
are at liberty to conduct as they please
Roswell has been sawing him up some
Rosewood today to make him some boxes
It comes down from the country in pieces
four feet long and about 12 & 16 inches
wide and from 3 to 5 inches thick one
slung each side of a mule and they
cost here fifty cents apiece. One of my
legs is the sorest and lamest today that it
has been since they first came sore it is
almost impossible for me to get about
I have done nothing
today and as I have been in my room
most of the day I have seen nothing
to write about. My legs are very sore
but look tonight as if they were
getting a little better They had a dance
last Evening but I was so lame I did not
go in to see them
I am better today
and should go to work if it was not the
last of the week and by keeping still until
Monday I hope I shall be nearly well
There has been a lot of logs by here today
some of them very large
Today Mr Pollard & Mr Kennard had a
letter from home and I learned from them
that Capt. Swift. got home the 2d of July
so I think that my letters have got home
I and Roswell went out to an old saw
mill today that is close by here and it
is a hard looking thing we are looking
now for Capt Swift to come back and
then expect papers and letters
I is seven months
today since I sailed from the city of Boston
It is astonishing how fast time slips away
I have been to work today and my legs
feel quite comfortable tonight much better
than I expected and I hope I have got over
the worst of it at least. There was a mason
fell from the roof of a four story building
here this morning and and killed him
they dont seem to mind anything about
it and if one did not see him they would
not be likely to know anything had happened
unless it was from the other Americans
they carried him off in a canoe with some
lighted candles I think he was intoxicated
for when I first went out to work he came
across the dam and there is only two narrow
planks to walk on and he fell on them
There was three come together from Bahia
and a few days ago one of the others was
over the river and called a canoe to come
over after him and it did not come quick
enough to suit him and he tied his clothes
on his head and swam out into the river
and drowned so there now is but one
left
I have been
to work again today and find I sweat
very easy for I have done but little
work in six weeks my legs continue
to grow better and I hope in a few
days they will be entirely well I
have got about the worst pattern to
make about I ever see it is a cylinder
for a planing machine there has been
one made and they cant
want me to make one
It is for a new machine that Carson got
in the United States it is some new plan
and the first time it was started it
broke and very near killed a
a piece hit his under jaw and broke it
and cut the side of his neck very bad
Nothing to
write about today that is out of the
everyday track I have been to work
on the cylinder pattern and it is
not hard work but slow
The steamboat
arrived today that comes to
15th of each month and it brought quite
a number of visitors some that I had
seen before and a person is no stranger
in this country after you have
him once if he can speak your language
A black fellow brought a little monkey
into the shop today that he had just
caught out in the lot he found two
out in the field and before they could
get to the woods he caught one of them
and was round trying to sell him he asked
eighty four cents for him
This evening a little girl got her hand
caught in the
room and hurt it very bad
I had a letter
today from Brigham full of fun as he
is most all the time he has gone to
another place and likes much better
and it is the same with me My leg is
very sore tonight but I have been to work
all day,
I suppose the people who work in the
factories in the States are now thinking
that next week we shall have to light
up evenings and here they say after
this month is out we have done lighting
up until next April I nor Roswell
has worked any evenings but the
hinists
There is quite a lot of people goes by here
every friday and saturday to the village
to trade some on oxen some on mules some
on horses the women riding the same
fashion as the men and some on foot
they come in the shop frequently and
today one came in with some with
him and he had been in when it was
running and he in telling them the
wonders told them that the circular
saw made a devil of a noise when
it was grinding
I went down the river today in a canoe
to Dr Bernadines Sawmill about a mile
and there is quite a fall in the river
there when the tide is out the tide comes
part way up them when it is in
There was a lot of
getting logs over the falls and it looked
like dangerous work to see them on a
log
jump off. Take them altogether they were
a queer looking lot some white some
copper
with the sun pouring down on their bare
backs and heads so hot that it almost
blistered the top of my feet not being
able to shade them with my umbrella
when I was
is 84 in the coolest place in the mill
and tonight at half past eight it is
eighty two
It has been very
warm today and is about the same
this evening the thermometer does not
vary but 2 or 3 degrees between night
and day in the shade unless it is
where there is a breeze from the river
and there in the morning it is cooler
My legs are very lame tonight if they
dont get better in a day or two I must
stop work again
Well I can Imagine how it looks this
at home with the factories lighted up and
the people beginning to want a good fire
to sit down by and their peppers and
some choice flowers covered up with
kets
nice things they have about these times
but should like an apple and a
kin
there but the climate here balances that
I have worked
part of the day but my leg is so sore
and pains me so bad that I have to stop
a part of the time and sit down they are
in a great hurry for some patterns or I
not work any more until I got well
I have had quite
a number of visitors today and it is
astonishing to see how very Ignorant they
are about the most simple kinds of
machines. I have to watch them to keep
them off the circular saw and the other
machines where there is danger of getting
hurt
A Brazilian
came along today with two horses loaded
with 4 sticks of Rosewood for sale he asked
two dollars for them and I and Roswell
offered him eighty four cents and he unloaded
Roswell says it is the first time he ever
bought lumber by the cargo
The river is quite
low now and it is a hard job to get
large logs over the falls but there appears
to be a great number of
do nothing else and they will work
them along where it looks impossible
I have been nearly sick today on account
of eating something that did not agree
with me I am unable to tell what it
can be for I have been very careful
I have felt so
bad all day that I have laid on my
chest in the shop the most of the time
Roswell has been sawing up his Rosewood
because he wants it to be drying and they
want to draw the trench off tonight where
he is putting in a wheel and there may
not be a chance again to use the saw in
some time
I drank
some tea last night and went to bed at
dark but could not sleep on account of
the music and dancing in the room below
me but I hoped that I should wake up
this morning well but I was disappointed
for I
I eat no breakfast and about 11
I went in and took a dose of Mrs Kidders
Cordial that I brought with me and when
it came dinner time I eat some dinner
and went to work and this evening
I feel quite well and hope I have got
over it. My legs are getting better now
and I dont want sickness in room of
sores for they are bad enough here but
to be sick is much worse
They are
blowing rocks today backside of the factory
and know nothing about covering
them up to keep the stones from flying
and a lot came down through the roof
of a building that adjoins the factory
and is used for an office store room
etc and lodged on the entry floor one
quite large one, but as there was no
one hurt it was easily repaired I have
worked today but with my leg paining me
very bad
I have worked today but am nearly
sick I have been making patterns for
cast iron pipe
I have felt much better today finished
my pipe patterns and commenced a
pattern for some kind of rigging to let
water on to a water wheel it is
one of Carsons foolish Ideas and he
has as many of that kind as any
man I ever saw that had a chance
to put them in operation If I am any
Judge I think he expends the most money
for the least gain or to the poorest advantage
of any man I ever saw
It has been cloudy
for two or three days and rained a
little and I somehow got cold in my
old rotten teeth and have got the
ache
but I am better otherwise so I can bear
it very well. Tonight is the last of their
lighting up this year and some of them
feel pretty well about it
I had plenty of
Davis Pain killer and used it pretty freely
and today I feel much better. The river has
raised considerable and as there has
been but little rain here I think
it goes a great ways back into the
country and they have had rains
there while we have been having
this cloudy weather. I finished a
pattern today for a gate a great
heavy and I think awkward thing
but as I am not at present having
anything to do with
whatever they want without asking any
questions They are talking of having a
Steam Engine pattern made and I am
anxious to see them begin it
I was calculating
if I was not very lame to look around
here some today but it has been
rainy in showers all day so I have
not been away from the mill. I went
into the shop and made me a cane
and Roswell has worked on some of
his rosewood a little for a box
This evening they are having a dance
in the mill as they do every sunday
evening. I have never been in yet I
dont know as they like neither do
I care some of the Brazilians asked me
about it and I told them that in
our country we had no dances on
the Sabbath
I have been working today on some
patterns for a lathe and have felt
quite well but my leg ached so last
night that I had to get up and
put something on it before I could sleep
Mr Foster the sash & blind maker moved
this morning from the factory down to
the sawmill of Dr Bernadine about
a mile down the river he has been
to work there some time but has lived
here
I find there is
plenty of bedbugs & cockroaches here but
as there is no
jiggers I can bear with the others
quite patiently the bedbugs drive me up
some nights but they take the advantage
of the darkness. I get up and light a
candle and then I am enough for them
I looked out of
the shop this morning and saw three
in a canoe two of them with paddles
and the other standing up apparently
giving orders and it reminded me of
the accounts I had read of a race of
women warriors on the Amazon river
The women of the lower class are not
very delicate I have seen them come to
a river and want to cross where the
water was nearly to their waist and
a bridge but a few rods up the river
but rather than walk up to it wade
right through and there is three that
stands in the river here and washes
as much as three quarters of the day
time or more and every day but sunday
I have
ced
to cross the river Una at
It is built by Government and Carson
has something to do with it so he
is having a model made to show
them that he knows all about and
I wish he knew more than he
does so I would not have to do
the planning as I build it. It is
to be a Suspension bridge and a
draw to it for their
Launches to pass
If my leg was only well I should
feel today that I was enjoying good
health again and that is not very
sore today I think if I continue as
careful for a week or two as I have
been for the past 4 of 5 weeks that
it will be well I work every day
now but only walk from the shop
to my meals which is but a few steps
and keep it all the time wrapped up
It is very fine weather at present
a shower of rain every few days but
no thunder or lightning
I have been to work on the bridge model
today and it is light and clean work and
I dont care if I have a dozen to make
This morning some letters
came to some of the folks here by the
mail and as near as I can learn
there is no prospect of Capt Swift
ing
anxious to hear from home but it is
now uncertain about having any letters
in two or three months I have been
about a mile down the river today
in a boat and there is no mistake
but what it is beautiful to row along
under the shade of large trees and the
water deep and smooth as glass
I have been
ing
water wheel with Roswell and the
machinist Kennard and find that
it falls short of what it was
ended
and so did Roswell. They wanted
to know the power about putting them
in a weaving shop they are building
and in the factory but I think
now they will put in wooden ones
and if they do it will be quite a
job for Roswell
I went in last evening awhile to see
Miss Ross that came out with us to
learn girls to weave and she is
very sick with the Fever and ague
it is a hard place here to be sick
for there is no one to look after
you
that will there is a Mrs Vial that
came out with her that is a good
hand but there dont appear to be
anything here for medicine except
what is in the apothecarys I gave
her some Pain killer the only thing
I had good for that disease. There
is one of the farmers going away from
here tonight that came Saturday or
Sunday morning to see Carson and
I believe has done work and
cannot get anymore pay I think
he is very foolish after working or
staying so long (for they have not
done anything) in leaving without
getting his pay and when he found
he could not get that stayed his
time out which is not six months
and then he would have had it
without doubt and he may get it
now but I hardly think he will
My leg has been
very sore now for a day or two and pained
me some of the time very bad but I
have light work and can sit down some
of the time and have kept to work the
lady that has got the fever & ague is
no better and I wish I knew of something
that would help her
I saw a Brazilian today rafting logs
down the river alone and with but
one hand and what made me take
more notice of his was that there
is generally from 5 to 10 with logs and
to see him alone and with but one
hand it looked rather singular
There was a shower last night near
enough so I heard it thunder a few
times and lighten considerable which
is an uncommon thing here and I
never was more disappointed in my
life than I am in the quantity of
thunder & lightning
Miss Ross is a little better today and
I am in hopes she will soon be
about again for it seem very
sant
the table on account of sickness
And my leg is better today which
is very encouraging for me but
it has been so before and then
come worse but I hope it will not
be so this time I have been to
work on my bridge model and
I can see work enough to do yet
for several days
Today has been stormy so the steam
boat that comes here on the 15th of
each month has not arrived there
is but little wind here but it is
south and makes it bad for them to
get out of the
It has been a dull drizzly day and I
and Roswell and a Mr Vial had some
molasses sugar so we kindled up a
fire and made a batch of molasses
candy it made very good but we had
to give it away pretty fast as it
would turn to molasses again it is
so warm here It rained tremendously
last night so the river is the highest
today I have seen it
I got a new kind of salve of Mr
Kelly yesterday and put on my leg
it draws it pretty hard but I shall
try it awhile and see what it will
do I have the best kind of work
that I could possibly have for favouring
it and I have another model to build
when I get this done but it is not
on account of my leg that I have this
work for they dont know that it is
sore now at one time they knew it
for it was so bad I could hardly
get about and had to leave off work
for several days
I and Roswell
were speculating today upon what
the people or some that we knew
were about at present in the States
and we concluded that there was not
much change from what it was when
we came away The thermometer in my
room this evening is 80 and it dont
vary but two or three degree from
that hardly even that is in the evening
when I look at it A few evenings ago
I saw a cockroach as I thought
running across the floor and they
are so thick here that I hardly
ever try to kill one but as I
was just ready to get into bed
I took up one of my shoes and
hit him a slap and I thought
it did not feel like one of them
and took the light and looked
and it was a scorpion and I
find since that there has been
several killed here in the mill
in a short time My leg tonight
is very sore and plagues me badly
The
have an idea that the Americans are
giants in strength today one of them
asked me if I could lift the end of
a shaft that lay outside the shop I
told him that I thought I could not
he said that there used to be a man
here by the name of Sweet that could
and there was one here now that
could the furnace man And I found
upon Inquiry that Sweet was a machinist
that used to drink once in a while
and was a great stout fellow and if
any of them had any saucy talk he
would knock them right and left
and the furnace man Vial was
a sergeant in the Mexican war
and had rather knock one over
than not And there has been several
here pretty strong and is some here
now that has given them the
impression that they are nearly all
the same the boys all got so here
that if they saw Sweet had been
ing
There was some
papers come here yesterday and in
one of them is an account of some
Americans emigrating to the Amazon
and as near as I could understand it
(as I cannot read much) the
have stopped them from navigating
the river I dont expect to find out
much about it until I get some papers
from the states
I have commenced another model for
a bridge and the plank that I saw
the stuff out of is as handsome as I
ever saw it is the Lebanon Cedar
and is nearly as handsome as
feet long and thirty inches wide
all square edged and clean. It is
to be a Remmington bridge
I got some
alum and burnt it today and put
on to my leg thinking there was
what is called proud flesh in it and
it has pained me tremendously ever
since it ought to make it better to pay
for the pain I suffer
I went up the
river today with the Machinist Mr
Kennard to a fall I should think
of 60 or 70 feet and 25 or 30 of it
nearly
some places along the river that is
South American scenery as I have
seen it represented in pictures to
perfection the water still with here
and there a dry stub or tree
ing
and other kinds perched on them
watching for fish and the banks
overhung with green trees and
vines so thick that it is impossible
to get through them. I did not
look round but little on account
of my leg being so sore it is worse
in room of better today but I think
it is caused by putting on the Alum
and that it will be better tomorrow
I heard the Negro driver or somebody
else whipping negroes a few minutes
ago and they work them Sundays and I
blush when I think it is under the
management of a man that calls
himself an American
Every day is so
near alike here that one story will
answer for almost every one I see
some things in the course of the day
that is worth noting but when it
comes evening I am tired and have
forgotten all all about it
Roswell has
ced
they tried their Iron one to their
satisfaction and found it would
not do what they wanted of one
and I think he has work enough
already planned to last him his
time out so he need not fear of
being sent at any other place
Oranges begin
to get more plenty again they sell
now four for a cent and when they
are scarce we can get only three but
when plenty five unless they are very
large and then four but I never buy
them if I can get bananas
Today Vial the
furnace man is talking strong of going
home he has
months since his time was out and
there is not much for him to do at
present and he has a notion of going
soon but I hope he will give it up for
he has got acquainted here and is a
great help to us
There has been the usual number
of oxen, horses, and mules by here
today that there is every friday with
their loads of farina, sugar, and
other things going to market and as
they pass close by the doors they most
all look in to see what is going on
sometimes I and Roswell buys a few
cakes of sugar of them to eat through
the week it is made in cakes and
is similar in looks and taste to
Maple sugar it is made by people
that raise a little cane and have
no mill or apparatus for making it
for market so they make it in this
shape and sell it round the country
and it is used in room of Molasses
the people of the country never think
of using molasses to eat or in cooking
and when we told them we wanted
some to eat with rice they could not
help laughing it looked so odd to them
we melt this sugar and boil it a
little and it makes excellent molasses
This Evening
Mr Vial started for Bahia to see
if there is any vessel there that
he can get a passage to the States
I dont like to have any one disappointed
but I hope he will not find any
and conclude to wait until Capt
Swift comes and I think I shall
then go to Bahia and I could get
some things to send home
Today I have
hardly been out of the Factory for the
there was a man come to do some
work that cannot be done when
is running and he wanted me to
see to having it done right
They are getting
ready today for a great time tomorrow
for it is one of their greatest holidays
here and there is fowls and pigs and
beef brought in in abundance although
they say they are not going to have
but a small celebration this year to
what they commonly have
The great day called by
the Brazilians Todos os Santos is nearly
past and I for one am glad it is for
I am tired of seeing and hearing so
much foolish performance. I was waked
up this morning about daylight by
the jingling of bells large and small
and firing of crackers and rockets
etc which made me think of the fourth
of July in the States
All quiet
again today with plenty of good
things to eat that was left of the
feast but there is some serious
looking fellows about more in
consequence of drinking I think
than from any religious matter
well it all goes into lifetime in
some shape or other but I cannot see
much pleasure in it
I thought I had my bridges finished
but today carson wanted some more
work done to them and wanted them
Varnished. well it is not hard work
when I make up my mind to it
but of all men I ever saw have
the spending of other peoples money
I think he spends the most foolishly
and there is another thing he either
does not know how to treat people
decent or intends to be mean and
he has a hard
for there is some here that was
born as far East as he was and
is up as early in the morning
The more I
see of carson the more I dislike
his actions but I bear it as well
as I can so long as he does not
trouble me. It is seldom that he
speaks to me and then it must
be out of the sight of the Brazilians
so that may not know that he
stoops so low as to speak to a labourer
he turns people away by sending
them a letter and goes moping
round with a long gown and peeked
toed slippers and I think he needs
kicking out of them about three or
four times before he can realize
that he is nothing but an apology
for a man here upon earth
he is so confounded mean that I
cannot help saying something about
him if I have to say it all to my
self which I expect is much the
best way
Roswell bought about 35
today for a
molasses as he cannot buy any good
This morning
I and Roswell got a boiler and rigged
up a place to sit it up on some brick
so we could build a fire under it
and made between two and three
gallons of Molasses as good as ever
I tasted out of the sugar he bought
yesterday. My leg is very sore today
and it pained me the worst last
night it ever has but I think I
only got cold in it and it will be
better in a day or two. The furnace
man Mr Vial got back yesterday from
Bahia and could not find a vessel
going to the states so he is going
to work until there is a chance
or until Capt Swift comes
The bridge models
I have been making were carried off today
to go to Bahia and Carson is going
with them and I am pleased to have
them both out of my sight. I put
some burnt alum on my leg again
today and it was almost like taking
my life I dont think I can bear it again
Today one of
their mules kicked at an ox and hit
him on the horn and broke his leg
(the mules leg not the ox) one of the best
ones they had but they never pay any
tion
is no better today and plagues me the
worst kind quite a piece of flesh came
out by putting on the alum I suppose
and now I hope it will get well or
better at least
I and Roswell are at work together
this week making patterns for the
water wheels and I think we take
the most comfort of any two there
is of the Americans in Brazil but
if my leg was well I should take more
The weather
here now is so uniform that I seldom
look at my thermometer for it is
from 78 to 82 every night and morning
and I dont think
from that in the middle of the day
it is cool enough in the shop and
a short time in the morning rather to
cool
Oranges are
getting so cheap now that one can
afford to buy them for the juice in
room of drinking river water I went
out today to a basket of large sweet
ones and asked the Negro if she sold
three for a cent and she said yes
four in a short time there was
another selling and I went out
to look at them and she sold five
for a cent of course I had to buy
a cents worth which was as many as
I could carry at a time without a
basket or handkerchief
Nine months
today since I left Boston and I can
hardly tell where it has gone to
to look ahead three years seems long
but to look back it seems short
Today has seemed
rather long Roswell has not been
very well and lain abed most of
the day and I looked along the bank
of the river awhile with Mr Kennard
after some clear looking stones that
washes out of the earth here there
appears to be a great number of them in
the ground here and they are worn smooth
like the stone on the shore
Roswell was
better this morning so he went to work
and I felt well pleased but Miss Ross
is sick again with the fever & ague
she has a hard time of it
Mr Jones got back
today that went to Bahia a few weeks
ago for his health and looks much
better and thinks he is he brought
no news from the States as we expected
he would when he came and there
was not a letter or paper come by
the last mail for one of us and
nearly all were expecting something
this morning
a negro went out back of the shop
after charcoal and came in with
an animal looking something like
an anteater but different from any
thing I ever saw before they said
it eat their chickens and by the
smell of it I should call it a
ian
as ours and larger and take him
altogether he as a queer looking fellow
I have given
up work to try and see if my leg will
get well by not standing on I am
satisfied it will not by keeping to work
on it and not eat any more butter and
as little greasy or salt food as I can
get along with
Carson came back from Bahia and
says the President was pleased with the
models for bridges but it makes but
little difference to me as he claims all
the credit and is welcome to it only pay
me for the work
There was a heavy shower of rain a
day or two ago and raised the river
so that today it is covered with logs
and
the business that they will jump
on to a log when it is going like a
scared fish and I never have seen
but one fall off.
I have kept still
now four days and my leg is some better
and I hope by keeping quiet this week I
can cure it. The old Priest this morning
after saying mass and getting a good breakfast
went into a room close to mine and went
to playing cards with the boys their religious
business is all over for the week as soon
as they have said mass unless there happens
to be a saint day and then there is an
extra performance
Roswell went to the village yesterday
and bought him a hat and a bottle
of cordial for me I was so lame
I could not go very well and while
he was there he went into one of their
churches and when he came back he
said it was a hard place for the
floor was once laid with brick and
vaults made in the ground along
the sides of the room but it had
got broken away and they buried
all about and he said there was
human bones all about the floor
kicking round
This morning
we saw the negroes in the river
and appeared to be catching fish in
their hands and Vial the furnace
man went out and saw there was
a chance to catch some and sent
and got a net and caught sisxteen
some of them quite large would weigh
I should think two pounds and
night
if my leg was only well I should
a little nigger boy came dragging a
great snake about eight feet long
into the shop and wanted to sell
him and as there was no one that
wanted to buy him I told a Negro
after he had thrown him into the
river if he would skin him and
dry the skin I would buy it
I caught
cold somehow last night and today
I have been most sick with the teeth
and head ache I am going to take a
dose of molasses and gin and going
to bed without my supper and hope
it will cure it
I got up this morning much better but
my teeth ache some yet I am clear of
the headache which is a great help
I suppose yesterday
was Thanksgiving day in most of the states
and if it was as it generally is it was
some cooler than it is here the
meter
it was 83 the highest I have seen it in
the evening
last evening a Negro that works in the
furnace went down to the village and I
suppose had some jaw with another
Negro that owed him and would not pay
him and a soldier took him and
put him in jail today they gave him
one hundred and fifty lashes and sent
him home he complains of his back being
so sore that he cannot do much It is
a Negro that worked on the mill when
they were building it and one of the
masons struck him on top of the mill
and he took him in his arms and
started for the side of the building
to jump off with him and the rest
of them caught him or it would
have dashed them to atoms
It has been showery
all day so I have hardly been out
of doors I and Roswell sawed out some
stuff to make each of us a box some
saint day
I have stopped work this morning to
see if I can cure my leg by keeping still
and attending to it altogether
It has rained
for three days and I suppose has
drowned out the cockroaches in the
lower part of the mill somewhere
and they came into my room in
droves I have had a job of killing
them this evening and still they
come thermometer 81
I saw this morning a number of
butterflies and all appeared to be
flying up the river but thought
nothing of it until nearly noon
when the air was full of them
millions of them all going one way
up the river and none of them
and a Brazilian told me that works
here that they go every year in the
same way. This afternoon a fellow brought
in a young Brazilian monkey to sell
of a different species from any I ever
saw before it looked like a kitten in
the face and was yellow it was
very tame but I guess he did not sell
it as no one cared about the trouble
of taking care of it
Today at the North old Winter with his
cold chilling blast makes his appearance
and I am glad I am not there to greet
him here it is summer they have but
two seasons here summer and winter
the rainy season for winter which
commences from the middle of March
to the middle of April and ends about
the first of September so that I should
say that now was about the middle
of summer although they say that they
have the hottest weather in January
and February and sometimes later
the week goes off
rather slow sitting in the shops all
day without doing any work occupy
my mind but my leg gets better fast
and that alone satisfies me
The farmers
that come down with farina and other
things today to market found hard
work to get across the river it is
so high. I see some oxen crossing
that was hard work for them to
keep their noses out
There was a thunder shower last night
and it is so uncommon here that the
people are nearly frightened to death
and I could hear them praying and
calling upon their saints and the
Virgin Mary in every direction I think
there was more genuine prayers offered
than there has been before in sometime.
I killed a spider in my room an evening
or two back that the legs of it were at
least three inches long they are quite
common here but I never heard of their
hurting anyone
I have been to
work today and my leg is some sore
tonight but looks and feels as if I
was careful with it, it would get well
soon. It has been showery and the
river is very high and still keeps
rising if it continues to rise much longer
I am afraid they will have trouble for
there is no place to let the water off
but through the wheel and over the
dam. I never in my life saw so much
work and so much money expended with
out any calculation as there is here
there dont appear to be as much as
boys generally make in making a mud
dam in the gutter
There was a heavy shower last night
and the water has been
day and this afternoon there was the
hardest shower I have ever seen since
I have been here (of thunder & lightning
I have seen it rain harder) and tonight
the water is rushing through the cook
room and the negroes is lugging stone
on their heads trying to stop it.
It looks now as if the rain was mostly
over if not I think as much rise as
there has been since last evening at this
time will carry away nearly everything
there is here
The rain is over and the water is going down
a little without doing much damage it is three
or four feet deep under the shop where I am at work
and over the raceway wall to the mill. A boy
came running through the shop and said something
about logs and I looked out and the Indians
were getting logs over the dam one stood down
the river on the bank with a long pole and
when a log came down he would swim off to
it and get it ashore and wait for another
It is some kind of a
Saint day today and the mill is stopped so
five or six of us got a canoe and went up the
river to the falls we had quite a good time but
it was rather hot in the sun we shot some beautiful
red birds but saw no monkeys as Roswell and
some of the rest did that went up a short time
since.
A fellow
came here a few days ago with a kind of
parrot that he wanted to sell and the
foundry man Vial bought it for one dollar it
is a queer looking bird as I ever saw it is all red
except the wings and part of the tail and they
are green it is larger than the common parrot and
a head and bill that looks but little like a bird
it is very tame and stays round the shop
out
let anyone take him up
The river is getting down so that the farmers that
live above here came down this morning and tried
to cross but had to give it up but tonight I
saw a boy come across on horseback
I saw something this
morning that made my blood run cold. The Negro
driver started with the boat loaded with cloth
for the launch that lies down the river about
a mile for they cannot get up to the factory on
account of the falls and he had not gone but a
few rods before he ordered the negroes to run
it ashore what for I could not tell but as soon
as he got ashore he took one of the negroes
out of the canoe and had him tied up to a
post by another Negro and stripped and
whipped not only his back stripped but his
pantaloons let down around his heels
This of a sunday morning and before all the
boys and girls of the factory capped anything of
the kind I have seen in Brazil. I supposed
that here being under the direction of an
American would be a little better than some
of the others but I am sorry to write it that
I think there is the least human in John
M Carson of any man I ever saw in Brazil
or out of it
The
Apples
to market quite plenty and I and Roswell
eat as many as we think is good for our
health and they are so nice and good that
we would not own that they hurt us unless
we were obliged to we can buy
two & three cents apiece that one is as much
as we both can possibly eat
I have been at work
for three days past on a large
to go to some sugar works up in the country
and it will take me this week out to finish
it. I feel now as if my leg was getting well
it dont plague me but very little in the
day time and not any nights and I feel
much better by having a chance to sleep
Nothing to write about
today I am writing a letter evenings to send home
and have nothing to put in a journal
The steamboat came
today and as yet there has been no visitors
as there usually is when it comes that come up
to see the factory
Carson came up from the Moro today and grunted
round here a little and is going off again tonight
he dont appear to know anything about what he is
trying to do or have done and is not willing to
own it or let anybody else do anything but as
I have but little to do with him I don’t care
much about it
A man came today after the large wheel that
I am making the pattern for and says carson
told him to come Tuesday or Wednesday after
it and I never commenced the pattern
Saturday and it is ten days work to make it
with the things they have to use here and it
would be seven or eight with the best
kind of tools and I tell them if he (Carson)
dont know any more than to think that a
three or four days I am glad it is not ready
I went out into the
woods a little way today and heard a bird or
toad that made a noise exactly like a
and it sounded the most like home of anything
I have heard in a long time. They want we should
all hands go down the river next sunday for a
kind of a Christmas celebration any get some
there has been
some of the largest
today I ever saw Roswell bought one that
was all
and it weighed five pounds it cost four cents
I bought two as large as we ever see at home
for four cents, two cent apiece. I looked out
today and saw a woman wading across the
river leading two horses and on one of
the horses sat a great strong looking man
and I told the
it did not look very well to see a woman
wading the rivers and the man riding. Oh
said they she is a slave and so far as
was concerned it would be hard telling which
was the slave and which the master. The
wheel to the factory is broke down tonight and
somebody will have a bad job to repair it. It is not
me nor Roswell.
I have had a pattern
to fit today to have a new shaft cast to the mill
and my part of the job is over. They brought a great
speckled Lizard in to the shop today and it was
about as mean looking thing as I have seen but the
people here eat them and they have appetites like hogs
As I did not get the shaft
pattern done until nearly night the foundry man
cast it last evening and the folks all came out
from the mill to see it done and it was quite
a novelty to them I suppose. The Negroes are
breaking up stone in front of the shop today for
building an addition to the shop and the large
ones they build a fire on them and then throw
water on them and they then break to pieces
with a Sledge.
They have not got the mill ready to run yet
and the boys and girls are well pleased
Mr. Kelly the
and has been now for two days if he dont
get better tomorrow I shall feel alarmed about
him I have done what I could (that would
be sure to do no harm) for him but he
appears to have a
seems to be nothing to do anything with
Somebody killed another
great lizard today and carried him home to eat and
some boys went past here with an Armadillo they
are quite common and look more like being fit to
eat than a lizard
There is a great preparation making today for going
down the river tomorrow but as Mr Kelly is no
better I think I shall stay and take care of him
And the warmest Christmas
day I ever saw Thermometer this evening at 86
the folks were up nearly all night getting ready
for an early start they had the old Priest up
here at 2
off and a little past three they started nearly
a hundred of them with their provision for
the day and three large canoes and Negroes
to row of course and now about eight
sunday evening they are getting back a tired
and
Mr Kelly last night and this morning thought
he was better but tonight I think he is not
we do every thing for him that we think
will do him any good and some of us
Americans are with him nearly all the time
he has slept a little today and tomorrow I
hope to find him better
I went to bed last
night about half past nine
of getting some rest and finding Mr Kelly much
better for I and Mr Kennard put some dry
clothes on him this evening and got some for
his bed and he remarked after he laid
down that he never felt better in his life
only he was weak and about twelve
Mr Kennard called me and said he was
worse and had said he should never see
the sun rise again I went in and found
him very low and told him to keep his
spirits up and he would likely be better
in the morning but I felt of his pulse and
his feet and was satisfied that he could
not live but a short time we had some
hot poultices made immediately and put on
the bottoms of his feet and some on his legs
and he lay some time without speaking or
hardly moving at last he raised his hand and
I took hold of it and he shook and pressed
mine as hard as he was able I thought that
he could not speak and got some water and
put some in his mouth with a spoon and
he spit it out after rinsing his mouth and
spoke and said he could not speak before and
after that said but few words of no importance for
his mind appeared to wander and about six
like doing much labour but as he was a
friend and an American and had requested
a coffin made by us and buried I and
Roswell went to work and made him a
nice cedar coffin and lined it and had
a box to enclose it and Mr Vial the furnace
man had him a grave dug in as pleasant
place as we could find and had a robe
and other things as nearly as possible
like our customs at home and this
ing
long wax candles lit walking in front
and six of us Americans as bearers with
the corpse and the remainder of the Americans
and Brazilians following we performed the last
sad office required of man for his fellow man
for Mr Seth Kelly. Mr Kennard made
some remarks at the grave and read the
fifteenth chapter of Corinthians they then
blew out their candles and we returned
home in darkness and in mourning
What his disease was we are unable to tell
but think it was some disease of the chest that
was upon him before he came out here for he
never looked well and was quite ill at times
the Physicians say it was consumption and
mittent
has the consumption in this country if they have
the fever they die immediately
I went to bed last night
sleepy and tired and before long I felt something
waking me up I waked up fairly and found
there was something brushing across my face
like some one striking into my face with a
silk handkerchief I lay still to see if I could
hear anything and could not and at last it
came onto my face nearly all over it and
quite hard I sprung out of bed and lit
a candle immediately and could find nothing
I tried to get hold of it the last time but could
not and it is now thursday evening and I have
not been able to find out anything about it
I think it was a
killed one in his room two feet across
the wings and one got on to Carsons head
when it was bald and bit or sucked blood
out so it wet his face all over and the pillow
the
a little to say about not burying a man in the
church but we tell them some things that we
know about their customs and manner of burying
and they think it is best to say no more about it
I have felt strong
symptoms today of fever & ague but have taken
something for it and hope I shall feel no more
of it I have worked all the time but sometimes
I thought I should have to quit
I have felt better today
but my throat and stomach is very sore and my
jaws are swelled up with the
The last day of the week
and the last day of the month and the last day of
the year and I have not seen the thermometer
below 82 degrees in the month and most of the
time very pleasant they are taking an account of
stock here or pretending to I dont think they
know much about it when they get through
it is more for show than anything else to
satisfy the owners for they seldom come
here and Carson can palm a story on to
them to accommodate his case and they
will not know at present whether it is right
or wrong
It looked showery this morning and I have
at home all day although Roswell and
have gone to the village as there is a kind of
festival there at the church and I care but little
about seeing it I would like first rate to know what
the weather is today in New England
I have felt a little more
of the fever & ague today but I am in hopes that
when it comes pleasant again I shall feel no more
of it I have taken nothing but some of Davis
pain killer in some Holland gin and keep at
work and I guess I shall come out right
A lot of new canoes came down
the river today from the country they are not
entirely finished until they get them to market
they let them go through the same place that the
logs does and they went all under and filled
but they are so light that when they come up
they would jump nearly out of water. carson
came back today and finds no particular fault
as yet about what we are doing over the
place where Mr Kelly was buried as I expected
he would which makes me think much more
of him. I give him all the credit I possibly
can for every good thing I see in him
I noticed
the negroes appeared to take a great interest
in the manner Mr Kelly was buried as
they have to be all
have their bones kicked about some old
church and today one of them says if I
had known they would have buried me
under a jaca tree as they did Mr Kelly
I would not have been
Roswell is lame
today so he has not been at work and I miss
him out of the shop more than all the rest
but it is caused by a bile so I expect
he will get over it soon
It is some kind of a
saint day today but they are running
the mill and are going to take a day
before or after the next saint day in
lieu of it so to have two days together
I went down
the river last evening in a canoe and
a more pleasant time I never saw I could
not help thinking what a difference
there was between here and Rhode Island
I went ashore to the Village and it was
bright moonlight and the houses were mostly
open and their Saint boxes all lit up and
off in great style some were having a kind of
dance to the music of a guitar and singing
others were sitting round quietly some places
in the street it would be filled with people
going or returning from some of their performances
and other places would be filled with
ren
I bought some Peruvian bark to make some litters
and some few other things and to please the
people I had to let them remain and let
them send them up in the morning by a
Negro. five or six of us have been preparing
today to go down the river tonight to a beach
to bathe and get some
We got up last night
at two
and got aboard of a canoe and started
four of us and four Negroes to paddle
Roswell’s bile was so sore that he could
not go which I was very sorry for and
when we got down to the sawmill where
Foster works we found him ready with
two Negroes so we got one of the doctors
large canoes with a sail to it and all
got aboard of it and paddled down for
there is hardly ever a particle of wind here
in the night and landed just at daylight
after as pleasant a voyage as one could wish
the place where we
only one house built partly of mud and
partly of mason work situated a few rods
from the beach with a row of
trees in front and back of it the
were loaded with fruit and plenty of them We
got our things into the house and sallied forth
after
we wanted for one could pick a bushel in a
few minutes
I have felt the best
today that I have since I have been here at
the factory which makes me think more of our
before I think it will help my sore on my leg
Roswells bile broke saturday night and he has
gone to work today
I heard today that the planing machine at
Dr Bernadines broke again yesterday but the
people in the building were more fortunate
than when it broke before for this time there
was no one hurt
The launch has come from Bahia and I got no
letters from home this steamer and I have now
to wait patiently until the middle of next
month and perhaps not get any then I got
one from one of the farmers by the name of
Brigham and they are all very homesick I
should think
I sent an order today to Bahia to Mr
Lacenda for three hundred and seventy
five dollars for him to send home I
wanted to hear before I sent but had got
tired of waiting for I want it to get there
before the first of April
the weather is very
fine not near as hot as I expected to find
it here in summer it is more comfortable
than their winter weather for it is not so
wet and but little warmer except in the night
A great lot of
oranges came here today to sell and they
sold six of the largest ones for one cent
and the
they said they could buy twelve at the
village
I have kept
still today and hardly been out of my
room not on account of the weather or
ness
that came in and passed off the day very
pleasantly
Today a Negro brought a great snake
up to the door for us to look at that
he had killed it is called
some of them grow very large this was
about the size of my arm and six or seven
feet long I saw the largest specimen of
what is called the double headed
snake a few days ago that I have ever
seen
I have been making Mr
Kennards papers this evening and find that the
Japan Expedition has at last been to Japan
and that War is declared between Turkey and
Russia. the people here never bother their
heads about what is going on outside of their
village and unless one gets news from the
States or England he never gets any
It is really amusing
to see the astonishment depicted on the faces
of the country people when they come in
to the furnace or the shop for the first
time there was an old man come in
today when they were drawing iron out
of the furnace and he really thought it
was a miracle my says he I dont
stand
as water and wheel going here and
there the
anything at all and you must have learnt
of Jesus Christ and their Ignorance is not
to be wondered at when we consider that
here they have lived for three hundred
years without making scarcely any
improvements in mechanical or agricultural
business
nearly calm I write a few lines and if it show
to be a
in Longitude 24 W 47 degrees east of Boston and the thermometer
this morning at sunrise at 84 but it is comfortable
the breeze is as soft as a maidens whisper and the
water is warm enough to take a bathe every evening
and I never felt better in my life we have had a pleasant
passage so far except the first week & then it was so
rough that it killed nearly all of our stock
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