Here I saw the first practical adoption of the Brazilian railway system, in the working of a tram road, to level a large space of uneven ground called the Campo, on the Victoria Hill, by which means a large amount of work has been done in a very short time. For much of this the natives are considerably indebted to the English clergyman who officiates as chaplain to the British residents, and who, not satisfied with paving the road to heaven leading to the path he points out, and building a handsome new church in this locality, has been public-spirited enough to afford material assistance in the construction of highways, building of bridges, and other engineering works, thus clearly and beneficially proving his aptitude for business of this kind.
Bahia has suffered severely from that dreadful scourge the yellow fever; but we found it had in a great measure passed over; and it is to be hoped that it will gradually die away, though it appears that the chief medical men in the empire have decided that it will remain a permanent, or at least intermittent, visitant, something probably like the cholera amongst us, which has apparently become acclimated in England, continuing a steady course of mortality, without those sudden inroads whose speedy devastation so greatly shocked, because they so much surprised, us.
There is a romantic kind of history attached to the first settlement of this province, embodied in an attempt to copy Camoens in his splendid work, commemorative of the discovery of India by Vasco da Gama. (_Vide_ introductory chapter.) It is called ‘Caramaru,’ and was written by José Basilio da Gama, a Brazilian, born in Minas Geres, about the year 1740, and is descriptive of the adventures of a Portuguese sailor, who was wrecked somewhere near Bahia, and rescued from the fate of his shipmates (who were sacrificed by the cannibals, then in possession of the coast) by an Indian princess, who became enamoured of and married him; he then figured in the wars of the Indians, by whom he was looked upon as a kind of demi-god, and afterwards made a trip to Europe with his wife. Some of the scenes in this poem are well and graphically depicted, giving a good insight into the state of the country at that period, and of the savage life existing; but after reading Camoens, it sinks immeasurably into the shade, and we have difficulty in believing it to be written in the same language.