American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1845-04-10
SOUTH AMERICAN CORRESPONDENTS.

SOUTH AMERICAN CORRESPONDENTS.
RIO DE JASEIRo. February 4, le45.
Clipper .8hoy'
Here am 7, for brief space of time, So
journer in the farfamcd Queen City Of Brazil,
the garden spot of Southern American,-of
that metropolis whose name is as familiar as
household word; whose immense commerce
and varied intercourse with the nations of the
earth is more extensive and OvcrshddoWn9,
with a single exception perhaps, than that OF
any city of modern or of ancient growth: OF
her within whose bosom is congregated repre-
sentatves of the known nations OF the world,
gathering together into one focus children OF
The cities of the earth; the arena where jostle
each other Swedes and Englishmen, Russians
and Poles,--Giir-ha phegmatc Germans,
and Spanish Dons of swarthy hue,-dark-ey'd
sons of Italia, cautious Scot, slow-movng
Dutchman, careless Hibernan, and active
American-uncouth-loo looking negroes, and huge
mulattoes black and tawny, mahogany color
and yellow, whole-breeds and halt-breeds; live
ly Siclian and sombre Ottomite Dane and
Sardnian Genoese and thoughtless French
,nen;-composng one confused, mingled, hete-
rogeneous mass of Neutrality-suspicious. whose
bounds may be heard as many languages as
Babel could boast of; and from whose noble
harbor issues daily scores of the white-winged
messengers of the deep, laden with the rich
fruits of the soil, that the fertile womb of this
favored land gives forth with such teeming fol-
son. In Rio, methinks | hear you utter, and
at this period of the season, too; Is the man de-
mented; was not the heat of the summers sun,
even in his own land, sufficient Well, allow
me to say that what the old song utters about
May and December never agreeing, may BIO
perfectly correct, applied to youth and old age,
but the contrary, referrible to climate; change
your location, and the affair is accomplished;
and the idea, too, which we generally enter
tain of the extreme heat of Southern cline
during the summer months, is false one; tor
] should most individually prefer enduring
'sthose ills that flesh is heir to-" here,-yea
even in this same city of Rio de Janeiro than
undergoing the fiery ordeal one is certain OF
experiencing during the months Of June, July
and August in our own land. Here few hours
out of the day are certainly extremely enervat-
ing; listless apathy overpowering the spirits
and energies, in spite of exertion to the contra
nv; but remedy has been ordained by Provi-
dence. more than sufficient to counterbalance
the suffering occasioned by the intense heat,
and that IS the sea breeze, at such time more
welcome and refreshing than mama to starv-
inp souls. 1t sets in from the ocean about ten
or eleven O'Clock in the forenoon, continuing
until night-fall, when it ceases; the land-breeze,
after brief interval, commencing, and blow
inp sea-ward until A. NJ, or Whereabouts -
There are some few days when this regularity
is not preserved, but they are few and far be-
tween The sea-breeze is especially grateful
and anmating, infusing life and renewed vigor
to the system, and causing the blood to tngle
merrily in ones veins deprived of it, Brazil
would be intoerable, the inhabitants could
scarcely exist: it is a pearl of price to them;
the richest gift that Heaven has conferred on
this bounteous land. But lam speeding before
my steed to market, as some quaint old author
has it, no matter whom. . The Ocean,!
what pleasing sensations does it not call forth,
as our barque, skimming FER its swelling waves,
whose gentle and measured undulations heave
her yielding form to and fro upon their bosom,
so softly and gracefully, that, like the airy mo-
ton of beautiful dancer, one wishes they may
be always thus: or gazing adown whose blue
depths the deeper blue of the armament is re-
fiected pcturing another sky: there is charm
and an exquisteness of enjoyment in such a
scene that language cannot express,-it can be
only felt. Strange too are the sensations ex-
perienced those of wonder and terror inter-
MINGLED, when like unto Titan refreshed with
wine, the Sea awakens from slumber and puts
forth his power, majesty and grandeur: when
the vewless winds, sweeping with resstless
fury over the countless and dreary hell of wa
tiers, lashng the leaping and heaving surges in
to wild alright and maddenlng frenzy, wave
answering unto bilIow in tones to alright the
sleeper. who repose beneath them; then indeed
is there displayed resplendent and majestic
beauty, awful sublimity, interviewer strongly
with feelings of the nothingness and petty
strength of man. question strongly, though,
whether the boldest, possessed of mind capa-
BILE of enjoying and approaching such scene,
would not barter all the feelings it inspires for
triling moiety of his mother earth.
The approach to that part of the coast of
Brazil, near unto the entrance to Rio de janet
70, is of a grand and noble character, the land
being the most elevated portion of the chain OF
highlands, running nearly N. E. and s. w. from
Cape Negro, (Black Cap) and can be deserted
in clear weather from the distance of 40 miles,
rising from the sea-
g Small aud undistinsuishabe,
Like far off mountains turned into clouis,'
the highest point being called ola Gabia," OF
the Main-Top, that and the peak "Pafoo d'As-
SUGAR." or the Sugar Loaf, being the marks
usually used by navigators in making the port
the latter standing at the entrance to the har-
bor singly and alone, resembling the article from
whence its title is derived, as much as it is pos
sible to conceive. There is quite number oil
small islands, dotting the ocean near the mouth
of the river, many of them sadly in the track Of
ships; on one of them "Raza," or Bare Island
stands the lighthouse, an excellent, effective
beacon, which by the way is not generally the
case with many of the most important ones on
this coast, being built at so great an elevation