The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1817-12-25 00:00:00

BRAZIL.

LETTERS PR4II PRINCE MAXIMILIAN OF Nk:UIVIAD,
DESCRIPTIVE OF NIS TRAVILS IN BRAZIL.
[From " The Vete Monthly rflogaskel

Campos, or Villa de San Salvador, Oct 13.
Here formerly dwelt the mat of the Swot: moss
!submit, who, however, were long. Moue re 111111111 l
by the Jesuits to Sass Pedro alas holies. Oat the
right bank of the Paraiba. eight leagues from this
place, some Italian Capuchin Missionaries settled
;donut illittv years sego, the aldea or mission of
San Fiihrlia, with Coroados Wiens, with wl
they associated some Curubos. These Coneultes
were at continual war with the potion of the
Puris, who extended themselves from the left batik
of the Paraiba, to Mines Ceram and who rove
about in the woods,- being incessantly engaged
in hunting. The.monks provided huts for 11w Co-
roados, who have btrottee accustomed to permanent
habitations : they still have their bows and arrows,
and their stets in their bettors : besides their native
language they speak Portuguese, and wear
the same dress ai the lower classes of the
Portuguese, that is, a white shirt. and short
wide linen breeches : the chilthen iso naked, and
the women with one shotiker and breast ancover-
ed. Al San Fetlelia they are at pewee with the
Purls; but eight leagues oil they shot a Pain shout
four weal' since, and for several days held ;citric-
nags, at which they drink immoderate!). It is as-
'cried here that the Puris sometimes eat lumen
flesh, which the Butoctides are known to do : it is
• also believed that the Puns alto lately made mew-
-1 lions it Morasses and Mimeos, are the stone that
now haunt the woods opposite to San Fidelis, end
although very peaceable, are yet a great a tttttt yonce
to the planters, as they consume a prodi.nous quasi- i
lily of their sugar-canes during the dey.
Puri, sometimes appear quite suddenly, and toil.
finite some weeks in a place, especially if it aboutids
with. apes end other animals, and then depart as
abruptly an they came. The Colonel of a regi-
. Went of militia cut 1111 l muting here, upon our ex II
-
pressiug a wish to visit this colony, gave us a very
clever soldier and a Setthor Trieste (Lieutenant)
to conduct us, sod provide for our couvenience.
We took wins us our I tent and arms, and rode
along the picluiesque batik of the Paraiba, which
in many places is as broad as the Rhine at Neu-
wied. Lofty mountains with naked crags and
precipices, thickly cuvered with coloseal trees, rise
gradually frow the river, which is at first skirted by
verdant hilts, and afterwards by the extremities of
ranges clothed with dark green wood, between
which, wild dales wind in diversified forms. Here
you see the tall Sapukaya trees, which form varie-
gated spots is the dark forests ; ass these trees,
when they are getting new leaves, as at present,
have beautiful red foliage and violet Bowers : it is
the Leerlies olearia, with very large eatable fruit.
We reached, towards evening, the Rio do Colege,
whialt it was scarcely possible to ride throogli, said
as the batik was very steep and slippery. we slid
down with the hstgw', and sonic of the party fell
with them.
Night came on, and we had still before us a ride
of au -how sad a half or two hours, through the
gloomy forest Close to Ow hank. It soon grew very
dark ; luminous insects new about like spanks of
tire the frogs croaked in a peculiar tone; the Cif.
primes/yrs and• the grasshoppers were also very
loud. Every moment we were stopped by faille*
trees, which it was necessary to clear away, or rim
with.our faces against branches. At uneven and
slippery parts of the road, we were obliged to dis-
mount. and a bridge of three planks crowned the
whole. At length we reached the olden of San
Fidelis, 'situated its *savannah on the hunk of the
riser. its front of the lofty wooded moutitaitts. %Ye
ktiocktd at Free Juane.. but being refused admit-
tance, were glad to take up our quarters in nit
empty house, and went to sleep, es we were often
obliged to du,lkour clothes, with empty bellies.
The morning brought us a sheep from the Padre,
and whoa we had frosted upon it, we went to the
huts of the Coruatlos, to see them shoot with bows
said arrows. 1 bought a parrot, of which they have
great numbers perched upon poles, and as I in-
tended to have it stuffed, I desired a little boy to
kill it with a bon. These bows were five or six
feet lung, the arrows much longer, and of various
kinds. We purchased sonic epecitnens of all of
them, and likewise other articles, such as baskets
of palm-leeves, tic: About ten o'clock, mass was
held in the convent of the Italian Missiousnee,
which is now empty, sod Free Juan afterwards
related to U. many tuterestiug particulars concern-
Mg the mileages.
La the afternoon we crossed the Peraiha to a
plantation, the proprietor of which, is he lived near
the Puris, sent a luessener to fetch them. Towards
evening, when we had surveyed the sugar-littu-e
and the environs, the Puris arrived. These brown,
short. squat creatures, five men and three amen
with children, armed with long bows end imams,
and almost etitirely sulked, made a .peculiar nu-
preseion upon me. We weut to meet them, prided
them with brandy, and were enabled to converse
with them, as three or four could speak the Pettus •
guest language fluently, having been brought up
among the Portuguese, but having afterward* run
away from them.
Some were painted red and black, but most of
them have a red spot upon each cheek and upon
the forehead, and sevend hare black cross stripes
upon their brown skin. One of them wore round
tier head a band of pale yellow ape's skim
the species hare called Mono. Their faces
partly resembled those of the Calinucks ; all of
them having protnitteet cherk-bouee. mid Omit •
brood noses. The women in generall tie strings
laeluw the kisses mid alleles, that their legs 'ltaly
be small in those ports. When we were goose
the following day, according
to protium, to visit
them in their woods and huts, and had just turned
the corner of the sogar.bonse a ith the melt srtst
to COluitlet us, we to our surprise the !
whole horde collected. An ussentlitage of fifty
Person". completely naked, brown, and pointed
111 VlllOll/I ttJ‘ while some of the children were
path through the, solitury valley became gradually
isol;tk,leitlVl:kietrotgli•leitnleedu-tho7l:4l7;liellOVOotrida,y%heetrireirltel
narrower and tale:et, till i.r tettulted the filet hut,
termed of palm-haves tied talus' poles fastened
to tWir tees helat. them was suspended the net

k ; bows and Airmss were vsa.lined
one of the trees; a small lire wilt burning neat
the hantimuck ; and some calebashes, togitilies
with mule- wart, fruits for foal, and 5 rew articles
of personal ornament, lay upon the groitinl. They
o:tered to sell us their arms and all their toils-
kris. We had with us- knives, small looking-
glasses, rosaries of variegated glass beads, liatiolkisr-
chief., red woollen caps, &c. and bartered many
things with them. I gave them a knife for a tine
large net hammock. IVitli a knife. a rmaiY, uml
some other trifles, Sir. Freyreiss ptircliastql a buy
of thirteen or fourteen year.: the 'liniment when
the father, the women, and the head of the family,
were consulting oti the subject, was unique. A
number of women amid children sitting Weibel. in
a hut, hrgaii -their lamentations in their extraordi-
nary language ; they were apparently dissati-lied
with the bargain, and the grandfather was NI ali(istag
by in 3 leo.ive attitude. Our little Indian. Flail.
CISCO, had already told then' that the buy would be
well treated, 1.4 we were very good people. Frey-
reiss added a few other trilling articles, on which
the father took the boy by the baud and delivered
him to 33. lie is soon to be baptised, when be will
receive the mime of Eduardo Fidelis de Paraiba.

Whet' we hail finished bartering at the lints, we
mounted our beasts; a naked Pori got tip► behind
each of us, awl thus we proceeded farther into the
wood to the other huts. About noon we returned
to the plantation. The savage behind me availed
himself of the opportunity to purloiu my handl:l-r-
-. chief. I caught him in the fact, awl demanded
bow in exchange, but though he agreed to these
terms he did not think fit to bring the how. %%glen
the Purls reached the plantation, tis we had no mess•
dim.° floor Kfurinhio) to appease their hunger, we
begged of the owner a little pig for the [whims to
shoot. As the animal was rating, one of them with
g►eedy looks, crept towards it and shut it too high, so
that it was able toren away, The Initial), irritated at
his failure, tout; a second arrow, and whilst running
shut the pig in the shoulder: after pursuing it for
some hundred paces lie caught it by the arrow._.
'They then pierced it in the neck with another arrow,
and kindled a fire ; the pig screamed vehemently,.
but the savages threw it quite alive upon the tire to
broil. The yells of the poor creature under these
tortures made them laugh most heartily. It was
Hot till they saw us manifest signs of abhorrence
of their barbarity. that one of them.plunged a knife
into ti►e breast of the animal. Whey they scraped
it and cut it up it was still alive. The pieces
were not half roasted. indeed they were yet
raw, when they greedily tore the skin and flesh with
their white teetlt, and devoured them. It seems
that they broil all their; animals in this way, and
eat them with the skin; at least they offered os
;leers of apes which had been broiled with the skin
ou, and winch bore a most disgusting reoetnltlatice
►o human subjects that had beeu cu} up. What a
fate, to fall ►nto the hands of such savages, a►►d
perhaps to be roasted alive 1. We rode back aloug
the left hank, where we passed the night; and lis
the moo g, after a• couple of horses had been
caught for us with- nooses, we crossed the Itiu del
Mu►iace, and theft the Paraiba, and returned to the •
to If we are not detained by a sick young In-
ditto, we shall set out after this interesting four days'
tour for Villa de Vittoria.

It is a common notion among us that the rainy
sraieois Isere is the winter Or cold season of Brazil[[
but this is erroneous, fur theie are not eau • it
rains of Many days, but intervals in which the wea-
ther is very line and warm. . Itt winter, during
which seasibis I arrived at Rio, the temperature! is
very agreeable, as with us in spring and the early
part of • 1111 l ober ; every thing is coveted with ver-
dure, and all those trees and plants which hear fruit
in bummer, with flowers of every colour. The birds
in general build their nests in September and Octo-
her. We have provided large new ox-hides to pro.
wet our !manges from the frequent heavy shower,.
We have also had large tin boxes made, lis which
every evetinig in our quarters or bivouacs we dry
the birds and animals rewired during the day, by
making a fire underneath the boxes ; so that our
birds are always completely dried in twelve or six-
teen hours, and cannot afterwards lose their shape.
On the lath of October thirteen chests %tele
packed and sent off to Rio. Numbers 1 sod
contain 130 or 140 buds, !butterflies, etc.-3 to 7,
250 birds, plant., above 100 kinds of seeds, and
route goadl upeds-8, plants mud seeds-9, a beard-
ed ape aid many birds-10, birds, nests. feathers,
sod the skulls of two sees—l 1, serpents in bottles
of spirits-14, a barrel with twelve different kinds
of animals in spirits-13, weapons of the savages.

NAVAL IN7'ELLIGENCE.

ToßmltoU4ll._Dte_ 43.

Arrived the Fame, Patel, from —.ailed bih Decent.
ber is company with the Phipps fur Liverpool
Also arrived the Overhand. MVOs, Count Jamaica—sailed 3d
November;- left there the End bliiira and Seise; the Neva,
Adonis, sailed for Loudon td Nor ember. 'llbe Cleveland,
experienced continual gales of wind, in winch her bulwarks.,
&e. acre carried sway.
Po bath the Trent transport.
Sailed the 'fair Brutheta, filileb.riet, for Anttrriii, and
ftuyal Charlotte, Weary, fur Jamaica.

riAmouTn, nec. /2.
Arrived the Bideford, Ratters; and Surres., Wayauod,
from St. Juba's, New Brummiek Isabella, Nicol,
rims. Archangel.

Sated the litt.trirve, ['ague, fur Rio Janeiro; awl 11w
Agnes; Shaine for Chainnte.

_ .
FA/A.01;1/T, DFC. 21.
'Arrived the Viilkindershain; Viper, t Amsterdam fur
Busirdeativ, leaky and damapel ; and the Juba, fruin
dun for the Mediterratteau.

ov to, ore. 22.

The London Packet, Cunniughniii, ha. 1«•eu gut off and
brought in here, but the extent of her damage is out yet as-
certained.

Dutra, nve. 23.

The Abiwirk Packet,..4.!ains, which WIA4 011 ~Itiorr near 24.
ma,gari.O. H.q., hut been got uff, *oil brought iu herr, but
with wiry couti.lcr:hle damagt.

HARWICH, DFC.
Put buck ihe Thom nickel with n mail fur Gcdtvulnirgh,
with lon of twat, and °thy, thmage.

GRATEIEND, DEC. 23.
Sailed the Caniiiiiz, W Pattemuii, for India and China i
Hoke of York, Campbell, for ditto; Marquie of Hltiiiily,
foe ditto; Thom'. Cootta, Allarjurebatiks, for ditto;
Coiiintrec,ll Packet, Kinti, for //,tend; Wakefield, Aaron,
for Am*. ; 31111 JI11141: Htll4l iL, ---,for CalNii.
P4%4141 by the %tiliain„ Hatfield ; Wary, lioton ; and
Gallant, filWie„ from liamhoolgh ; Swift, Mitchell; and
Merrsiey, IYano, from fiuttealioreb ; Chmte, --, from
Cluidiaua ; Home Solt, 60111 Hantrie ;
; Mortar-ace, Brunet; and_ Guiml Hoop, kilt:,frost Hutt( rdata.