Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-07-01
THE nRAzTL ENTERPnIsE.
From the Tropics to New YorIx--LO1ter
From Young Man who Sought a
Fortune Butdld NOT Find IL.

! HOFtune butu40 NOS Etmd ~.
The following letter written to FRIEND
in this city by young man formerly con
nected with the Quartermsster's Depart
ment al this point, and Who left Nashville
some months ago for the tropics, will b
read with interest. The accounts if true
and we do not doubt them, will be apt t.
abate the South American fever TO sons
extent in this locality. We give it almost
rerJdtim:
UTICA, NEw YORK, June =, 1861
DEAR --; You will probably be
somewhat surprised to receive a letter
from me from the above place. have
! been 10 South America, TO Brazil, and
| have just returned from there. There were
three families of us in company, and we
| have all returned. We found there was
not word of truth in the reports we heard
in Nashville, in regard to the Hastings
| colony at Santarem. When we arrived in
| Para we found several of the families from
| that colony there and in the most destitute
! circumstances, trying to support their
| families by what little work they could
get to do and with small pay, barely re-
ceiving enough to keep from starving on
the coarsest kind of miserable food, such as
dried fish, farinah and the like.
/ Dat of one hundred and si1ty families
that once composed the colony, only four
now remain, the balance having left and
scattered everywhere The Pitts family
| Hastings died and the colony appointed
r al :. LII l.
| cessor, but the government refused to re-
cognize any successor, and consequently
the colony was left without head. The
government withdrew all assistance, re-
fused to cut and make the roads they had
agreed to, stopped all aid in the way of
provisions, etc, and of course those who
bought land Of Hastings can get no title
until the whole tract purchased by him is
paid for, which fear will never be. Yet
this colony is in no worse condition than
every other colony we could get informa-
tiOn of--eUery one are futures. And why?
Simply because it is no country for the
American people.
We have here a miserable set Of unciv-
ilized beings, whose right to the title of
human is half questionable, being mix
ture of number of uncivilized races that
should be classed as follows First-the
Indian (which predominates), then the ne
gro, then the native Brazilian, which,
in many instances are, but from their de-
generation, vastly inferior to either of the
former, and lastly, the Portuguese, much
inferior to the Brazilians. There are few
French, but no Je,ps, as the only family of
Jews that ever settled there actually starred
10 DEATH
attended the markets in Para regular
ly, and such market cabbage the size
Of door knob, a few miserable, sickly
looking peas, with about two peas in the
pod; beans, the same; corn, the ears about
three inches long eggs, five cents each,
two dozen would QlUt the market1, and
beef my God, what beef poor, black, thin
and tasteless--not worthy the name of beef;
potatoes full as large as marbles, not any
larger; no butter, milk, or chickens, and,
with the exception of bananas, no fruit as
good as we find in any of our markets on
almost any day. am speaking of tropical
fruits. The oranges are inferior, not near
so rich and juicy as ours; neither are the
lemons; besides everything is brought to
market green l did not see dozen pine
apples in Para; yet, on my return to New
York, saw wagon loads.
We stopped at the first class hotel in
Para, and found the fare not one-half so
good as our common soldiers or sailors have
every day but what was lost in fare was
more than made up in the companionship
of pleasant % visitors, such as lizards,
vampire bats, scorpions and ants. Some of
them were with Us all the time, and often in
the evening all together. Gentlemen from
Santarem told us that it was impossible To
make a living by tilling the soil, and that
they had been compelled to abandon their
farms on account of the prevalence of in
Vulnerable reptiles. Tomatoes as large as
an egg have been taken off by the lizards
and swallowed, and what the lizards and
grasshoppers left the ants would be sure to
"gobble up"
We only remained in the country a short
time, but think we know az much of the
prospects Of American people in that coun-
try as we would had we have remained
two years. i am fully satisfied that it is a
perfect swindle, and that the Brazilian
government is not alone to blame, for /
believe there are persons in the United
States az much and more to blame than
they, for they are deceiving their owa
people by writing such glowing descrip-
tions Of the country, in order to entice
them TO go. | think something ought to
be done to stop emigration 10 such an
abominable country. Why the sun Is 80
hot, so excessively hot, that none save In
dams and negroes can work under it. If
our people could stand collecting rubber,
they might do well, even make money at it,
but it grows only upon low wet ground,
under water half of the time and when
the water is not too deep they have to
wade up TO their knees in mud to procure
it, which will kill any white man in a very
short time.
| saw Mr.. Simpson, from Santarem.
He had little more money than most of
the emigrants, and had bought a planta-
ton, with some Improvements. He spoke
encouragingly of the country at first, and
advised us to go to Santarem. He said he
liked the place ever so much, but his fami-
", who were still in the States, would not
come to him, therefore he had about made
up his mind TO sell out if he could, and
Join his family, and when he found that
we were coming back GRUedy, he told us
that it was the wisest thing that we could
do, and freely acknowledged that it was no
country for Americans, and spoke Of his
intention of leaving for the States whether
he received any money for his place or not,
as soon as the government paid him his
dues for surveying, etc.
When we arrived at Para we found the
steamer Tartar there with emigrants from
New Orleans. Some few families stopped
at Para, and the rest went to Rio There
was quite a number wanted to stop, but as
they had shipped for Rio the Brazilian
government refused TO let them of at Para.
We had very fair weather out and with
the exception Of the usual amount of sea-
sickness on board, our ship had pleasant
time. We stopped at Sc. Thomas from
which place ! wrote yOu,) the only place
we stopped st on our voyage We came
home on a schooner, and from the time we
left the mouth Of the river until We saw
Sandy Hook, saw no land in twenty-five
days. We saw many things of interest
while gone, both at sea and on land, and
altogether / do not consider the trip as
wholly lost 70 US. We saw many monsters
of the deep, from the whale down to the
| flying fish snakes in Para torty-tpo feet
long; slligators, electric eels, monkies,
from the size of a rat TO those that