Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1845-01-07
ENCOUNTER WITH A MADMAN.

| i Nc
/ When first came cut to Brazil got a
situation as clerk in the counting house of
DiaZ Brown & Co., the extensive merchants
at Rio Janeiro. The only other white clerk
in their place of business was one Lopez
de Pereira, Portuguese by descent and
birth, but educated in England. Of course
we became companions, and although, he
was eccentric to absurdty, found him a
very agreeable fellow on the whole, his
whims being often irresistibly ridiculous,
while he was not at all annoyed at any
laughter, but would laugh himself with his
whole heart, while he still persisted in the
4 proceedings that caused it, These were
often, while very odd, both hurtful to him.
self and painful to his friends--as, for in
stance:
The inhabitants of MADEIRA have a singu-
lar head dress it consists of blue little
skull cap, lined with red, not sufficient TO
cover the head Of an infant, and having a
small stiff pig-tail about four inches in
length projecting in the air from the middle
Of it. This curious affair they perch on a
bushy head of hair and certainly acquire
thereby an aspect sufficiently remarkable to
a stranger. Now this cap Porera had seen
at that Island on his voyage out from Eng
land, and once he took it into his head TO
; wear one, made under his direction, of a
} similar construction, at Rio: nor did he
leave off his noticeable head piece till an
attack of brain fever made him adopt a
more shady covering. He was, of course,
Roman Catholic, and devou,ly believed
in the agency of the devil, upon whom,
when his whims had left him, be invariably
, laid the blame.
One day when he had been about year
together, the day being HOLIDAY, we re-
: solved an expedition to the top of the Cor
covado. Accordingly, hiring horses; we
rode up till the horses could go no further
As we rode | began to laugh and question
him about his singular weakness. My
thoughts were directed to this subject by
seeing him turn round upon his horses back
and ride with his face to the tail; and this
though the animal was very spirited, and
the path SO narrow that one horse only had
room to 60 upon it, with the stone wall to
the aqueduct Oh one side, and succession
Of wooded precipices on the other. On
my nquiring the cause of this remarkable
manoeuvre, he replied, laughing loudly him
self, that he thought il was good idea, as
he could talk to me better face to face, for
was riding in the rear. But | remarked
that we could converse quite well without
seeing each other, and reminded him of the
misers who conversed in the dark to save
candles. Upon this he stated that as all
the view lay behind US, and nothing in
font but woods, this was the most rational
way of riding for an admirer of the pictur.
esque. | bantered him out of the a-gu-
ment also, when he plainly confessed that
he rode in that way from an internal i'm
i pulse, no more to be resisted or controlled
!, by him than the DEGREES of fate, that there
q was devil within him who prompted hin
u to make himself ridiculous, and that be
! could no more gaipsay this mastering spirit
than he could fly in the air. For the resi-
. of the ride he continued to practice this
uncayalier-like style of horsemanship, &c
the vast entertainment Of sundry blackies
we encountered working at small repairs on
the aqueduct, or bringing down loads o.
> ticks from the woods Nevertheless he
continued TO talk with infinite good humol
of his own curious turn of mind. He told
l me that this devil of his ceased its mali
; cious promptings at all times when heavy
business occupied him-that cold bathing
ID went far against il, and that once, when fol
considerable time under anti-nhammator,
Il treatment for some complaint, it entirely
: disappeared.
At length we arrived at the last collec
! ton of houses on the ascent, and here We
. left our horses, mounting the last sleeps OF
d foot.
/ As soon as we stood upon the rocky ball
. !, and looked around US, overwhelmed by The
u grandeur am The danger of the scene.
{ was full Of ordinations. From the brin
Il down direct 10 field and lagoons, two o
J. three thousand feet beneath us: and thu
J, precipccs, from what | could see of then
o made my blood cold. The vasiness Of The
J. horizon, with the distance and diversity o
the parts filling it up-the silence, the soil
y tude, the apparent eternal nature of the
mighty rocks-even the forests-all these
!, ideas, combined with the precarious nature
y of our position on this airy and often cloud
} covered pinnacle, and the certain dreadful
u fate that awaited one who should topple
from such stupendous height flor on three
sides were precipices of from one to two
thousand feet r'ssed my mind TO very
y high state Of excitement. But when
4 looked at Pereira, expecting to see in hin
. an equal enjoyment, observed his dark
!. Portuguese features pale with that tawny CO.
Tor which constitutes the pallor of southern
Europeans; his bloodless lips quivered, and
i there was sort of conyulsve starting OF
different members of his body.
!. "What, said |, you are certainly not afraid
of falling?-come nearer to the centre and
I, your head will not swim so much"
, "Afrsidw he replied, vaguely and inco-
herently. "No!-Yes-afraid-for Gods
sake save yourselfr'
''No! we shall never go down tina, path
, THE DEMON! D., THE DEMON! MY HEART
PROMPTS ME TO THROW YOU FROM THIS
PINNACLE SHEER TO DESTRUCTION, and he
: will not but be obeyed! o Mother of Deity
Queen of Heaven! look on me in mercy"
"Gracious Heaven!' said I; you cannot