New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-28
THE sELF.ExILED sOUTHERNERs.

| Terrible Sufferings of the Planters Who
Went to Brazil-A Picture of Despair,
Depravity and Destitution-An Intelli-
gent Planters Opinion of Brazil and
His Venture-A Sensational Story Re-
fated.
From the New York Times]
Immediately after the collapse of the
great rebellion hundreds of adherents of the
Lost Cause" some of whom had been sol
diers in the armies of the defunct conted-
eracy, and many of whom had been large
planters, declaring that an existence within
the limits of the United States was abso-
lutely uncomfortable, emigrated to the tionr-
ishing empire of Brazil. The deluded col
Onists were led to believe that in Brazil
they would find climate and country suited
to their luxurious tastes, and land flowing
with milk and honey arose in their imagina-
tions as their future paradise.
The government of Brazil, thinking they
saw a favorable opportunity in the dis
affected population of the Southern States
of cOlonizing Brazil's enormous tracts of un-
improved territory with experienced agri-
culturists, established colonization agencies
in New York, Richmond, Savannah, Mobile
and New Orleans. These depOts were ex-
pressly provided with view of expediting
emigration by offering, as it was supposed
by the emigrants, superior facilities and in
ducements for making Brazil an attractive
home for the settler. The agent in this
city, besides sending number of Southern
ers, furnished transportation to over two
thousand persons, comprising among them
the rough and scruff gathered from all
quarters of the habitable globe, ready and
willing for anything but hard work. Ar
irving at Rio JaneirO, most of the latter
class of emigrants refused to comply with
their contracts by colonizing the interior,
~ .,,... E IL.
eklng out miserable existence as best they
could. After making the city of Rio per
feet pandemonium for nearly two years,
they were sent home at government eX-
pense, the Brazilians feeling perfectly salts
fled in suffering the additional expense in
order to be released from their turbulent
colOnists.
But, number of very estimable gentle
men, among whom were tobacco growers
from Virginia, cotton planters from the
CarOlinas, Georgia, Alabama and Missis-
sippi, and extensive sugar planters from
the famous Red river district of Louisiana
and middle Texas, dazzled by the brilliant
prospect of recuperating their depleted
fortunes, emigrated with their families to
the provinces of st. Paulo and Espiritu
SantO, in lower Brazil. Whole districts of
the finest lands i'll the South, from Mary
land to Texas, were sacrificed for mere
song. Entire counties were almost COM
pletely depopulated by the great exodus of
reputable emgrants and disreputable ad-
venturers, who were alike infected with the
fever for Brazilian colonization. 1t has
now been nearly six years since the de-
parture of the first party of Brazilian col
Onists from the United States, and in all
there must have been several thousand
persons of all classes and degrees who have
left their comparatively comfortable homes
in the free States of America to exchange
them for questionable residences in the
wllds of mongrelized Brazil.
These misled people have since learned
terrible lesson of sad experience, and now
bitterly repent the course they have pur-
sued. Every day in the gay thOroughfares
of the Brazilian capital are to be seen hun
dreds who have, years gone by, reveled in
luxury and affluence, and who are now ac-
tually begging from door to door, and max
ing poor, pitiful effort to drown their mis-
cries by spending the pittance thus obtained
in the nearest drinking booth, where potent
libati0ns of villanous dgnddiente-the vilest
decoctiOn in ChristendOnl-is peddled for
the smallest fraction of a cent. The writer
of this sketch was walking down the Rua
Dereita, the great boulevard of Rio Janeiro,
one evening last January, when he was ac-
costed by a miserable, ragged and squalid
looking object, who implored him, "for
Gods sake only give him a winte" (less than
quarter of a cent?, ''to get something to
eat" The wretched man said that he had
been in Brazil four years He had left a
young wife and child in Baltimore, and had
emlgrated, with many others, whom he said
were then as destitute as he, hoping to re-
pair his fortunes, but, instead, he had been
going rapidly down hill ever since he had
first landed on Brazilian soil. The gentle
man, for despite his haggard look and ap-
pearance the man bore semblance of respect
ability, said that he was graduate of the
jefferson College Medical School in Phila-
delphia, and had at ono time a large and
lucrative practice in Richmond, Virginia.
When reaching Brazil, he had at first en-
deavOred to practice medicine among the
American cOlUnists of the San Paulo pro-
vince, but the cOlOnists were as poor as he,
and he was finally compelled to return to
Rio JaneirO, sick at heart and much
more sick in body. Wandering about the
dingy streets of the lower part of the vast
city for days upon days without place to
lay his head or scarcely a morsel to eat, he
at last applied to the city authorities for
employment, and, though greatly debilitated
by long suffering and exposure, he accepted
work on the public highways. Under the
scorching rays of a torrid sun this gentle
man trundled his wheelbarrow through the
streets of Rio filled with sand or stone for
s.
Finally the dOcter was taken i'll, and was
consequently obliged to relinquish even
that laboriOus means of subsistence, and a
few days after the reDcontre on the Rua
Dereita, spoken of above, he was found
dead in filthy hovel i'll an obscure section
of the city. Being a Protestant he was de-
MED Christian burial by the ecclesiastical
authorities, when fortunately a few gen.
erous- hearted American sea-captains, and
the officers of the United States flagship
Lancaster, had the poor fellow decently in
tered.
In remote quarter of one of the lowest
precincts of the capital is rckety little
building, far inferior in it's filthy, slovenly
appearance to the vilest Sixth Ward grog-
gerry in this city. Over the door of the di- |
hovel is sign in glaring capitals |
which proclaims the nationality of its owner |
beyond all question. The sign reads thus: |
"The Dixie Free and Easy Concert Saloon" |
There, behind the counter of that miserable |
Brazilian drinking shop, surrounded by |
lewd women, and dispensing the common
est native liquors to as vile a set of scOun-
drels as ever cut a throat, is all that re
MAINS of a man who was once might
among his people-a man who has been the
mayor of one of the principal cities of the
Umted States, and also prominent officer
IN the Southern army. His story is not dis
similar TO that of the poor physician. Want
despair. drink and its attendant evils, have
made him what he is. In the penal colony
Of Ferdinand de Naronha are two or three
gentlemen criminals who were once re.
spected citizens of the South, but who,
having lost all their worldly possessions in
-he United States, were tempted to emf
crate to Brazil by visions of speedy afflu-
ence and freedom from toll, and having
.hese bright dreams as sDeedilv disnelIed |