Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1859-10-12
A BRAZILIAN PICNIC.
BY HON. G. F. BERKELEY.

operdndt' IN getting up these anti-arist0cratic
sylvan reunions, must certainly decide in
favor of having them continued forever, and
will vote, the first opportunity Tor Congress,
or the city; council, or the clerk of the wealth
er, to pass an act to the effect that summer
shall be continued for five years without inter-
mission and at the expiration of that time,
if the plan works well, we can pass a law to
have sumrnerand pic-nic's reign perpetual.
And now, as every body in this country
knows exactly how these affairs are conduc-
ted in ssYankeedom,s s. = and as the spirit of i'm
proyement is the spirit of the age, have
thought that description of the manner of
doing the same thing in South America might
not be altogether void of interest.
shall select, as my model, picnic at
whichI had the honor to act as one of the
stewards; and if any one should discover any
improvements in the principles upon which it
was got up and carried out, they have the full
lest liberty, SO far as l am concerned, to adopt
them whenever they think proper.
1t was some time in the month of December,
1913, that ten of lis, citizens of Pelotas,
beautiful town situated on the right bank of
the Rio Gonzales, in the province of Rio
Grande, put our heads together, and our wits
to work, one afternoons in order to conjure up,
contrive, and adopt some plan whereby We
should be enabled to kill time, or get killed
ourselves-for it was terrible tedious times
with us, living there with nothing to do, and
no disposition to do tive, who for the last
six years had been constantly the wing in
the revolutionary service against our Legitimate
sovereign, DonPedroSegundo,t to be thus penn
ed up without any kind of excitement, we'd
die unless got up something that would put
our blood in circulation.
have said that there were ten of us, and
will now add, that we represented about as
many different nations we did indis idual
specimens Of humanity-and that we were all
,cere plenty in that revolution and each OF us
had wife, and-not much of anything else.
Yes-we had each a couple OF first rate horses,
worth perhaps six dollars piece, a half do
zen dogs, as many ssniggers,' a prime rife,
and pair of choice reyolvers.
The afternoon session was about to adjourn
without having hit upon anything definite.
when Doctor Tom Vernon, whose pretty Span
ish wife had relations living somewhere on the
Paraguay river, only about hundred leagues
distant proposes that we should club together,
and get up regular picnic excursion, and
have a cruise in the country on horseback.
ssThat's it Hurrah for Uncle Tom 20 we
all shouted. ssJust the thing. Wouldn't we
have a time ?''
And away We all scattered to get ready for
the cruise.
About noon on the following day,we all met
on the lee side of the old cathedral, men, wo-
men, ssniggers,'' horses, dogs, and provisions,
and proceeded to call a court of inquiry for
the purpose of ascertaining if we were all in
good sailing order. The result was perfectly
satisfactory. There We were-ten colonies,
captains, and doctors, ten decidedly pretty
women, twenty of the blackest kind OF blacks,
Just forty-four horses, and dogs-there were
more dogs than ever you saw in one flock, l
know.
We had lots of provisions slowed away in
in the huge raw hide baskets, sluDg one on
each side of our four pack horses; and then
among our other sea-stores we had slowed
away few dozen bottles of old. You sons
of temperance and teetotalers, you can't think
how uarm tits out there. Why, bless you, we
never hear of such a thing as cold water in
Brazil.
Well, we made sail, and got under way for
the cruise of three hundred miles, through
country almost native wilderness, swarming
with every variety of reptiles, serpents, and
wild beasts, from the Internal little niggers to
the monstrous puma, and infested with rowing
bands of runaway blacks, native tribes OF fe-
rocious sayages, and hordes of fierce banditti,
who robbed for amusement, and murdered for
pleasure.
Pleasant, wasn't it
But then it was nothing to us, s,who had spent
nearly six years of our lives on horseback, in
those same woods-not to ourwives either, who
were brace of revolvers in their belts, twelve
inches of cold steel under their garters, and
used two stirrups to their saddles.
Well,we went through in about week with
out accident, except losing dog, which
young anaconda swallowed for his breakfast
one morning, and ssnigger," that big puma
trolled off with for his supper one evening.
However, that was no consequence, as we had
dogs and niggers enough.
After visiting among all OF our friends
and some of our enemies along the river, for
about six weeks, we set out in high spirits,
and with fresh stock of provisions and
bottles, on our homeward bound passage.
For the first two days the time passed off
very agrecably, and We had fine sport running
down an ostrich, or shooting an Indian, now
and then for the fun of the thing-that is, the
ostriches--the Indians we only shot to prevent
them from shooting u.s..
On the morning of the third day, when we
had finished our breakfast, we concluded to
have chase after some forty or more ostriches,
which we discovered about half mile off. and
so dispatched six Of our blacks with the four
pack horses on ahead, with orders to halt on
the banks of small river, which ran along
the edge of broad sandy plain, where we di
rected them to have dinner prepared against
our arrival.
The distance TO the river was about eighteen
miles, and we guessed we could chase the
long legged birds couple of hours, and then
have plenty of time to get through by two o.
clock p. NJ, which was our usual dinner hour.
We chased the ostriches till we caught about
a dozen of them, which we. robbed OF their
tails and let them GO again.
At length we got tired of the sport, and
started off at a round gallop after our dinner,
and perhrps taste of something else, which
we remembered was in our leathern lockers
aboard the pack horses.
At two, precisely, we arrived at the river,
but not horse or niger was there In sight.
And worse than all, there was no dinner In
sight either--not a drop Of, murder we
couldn'tdrink that warm ,insipid water, no how.
After ranging up aud down the river for I've