On the homeward passage, when we visited Rio Janeiro for the second time, it was found to be rife with politics; but like Joseph's coat, of so many colors as to be confusing to a foreigner. It may reasonably be doubted if the natives themselves clearly understood what they wanted. The revolutionary element seemed very strong, and was led by men who had nothing to lose by agitation, but everything to gain by a lawless uprising. The most intelligent citizens predicted a popular revolution of some sort in the near future, and their anticipation proved to be correct. Revolution is chronic in South America.
Petropolis.--Summer Residence of the Citizens of Rio.--Brief Sketch of the late Royal Family.--Dom Pedro's Palace.--A Delightful Mountain Sanitarium.--A Successful but Bloodless Revolution.--Floral Delights.--Mountain Scenery.--Heavy Gambling.--A German Settlement.--Cascatinha.--Remarkable Orchids.--Local Types.--A Brazilian Forest.--Compensation.
Petropolis,--or the city of Peter,--the fashionable summer resort of the citizens of Rio Janeiro, is a modern town, dating only from 1844, and contains at that season of the year a population of some eight thousand. The intense heat of the crowded city in the summer months, not to mention its usually unhealthy condition, makes even the acclimated inhabitants seek a refuge in the hills. So long as the fever continues to rage, merchants leave their families here, and come up nightly to sleep and breathe the fresh, pure air. It is only on the coast and in crowded communities that epidemics prevail. We were told by residents that a case of yellow fever never originated at Petropolis; that it was too elevated for the citizens to fear anything of the sort. It is so generally throughout the country; the yellow fever prevails only in the ports and at sea level, a peculiarity also observable in Cuba and the several West Indian islands. When the fever prevails, as it does annually at Havana and Matanzas, the wealthy citizens, and all unacclimated people who are able to do so, retire inland to elevated localities, where they are comparatively safe from the scourge. The same rule applies to the coast cities of South America,--Pará, Pernambuco, Bahia, etc. It is a very important matter to the merchants of Rio that they have, within two or three hours' reach of their overheated city offices, a resort where they can sit in a dry skin and sleep in quiet and comfort. Had they not this resort, they would be obliged to succumb to disease, or to leave Rio for half of the year annually.