The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-17
LIFE In BRAZIL
Difficulties that Beset Newly
Arrived Foreigners.
Many INTERESTING SCENES
PEWTER Plates and Brass Kew Tags for Cur
rency-Bills that Look Big, but
Amount to Little.

LILO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, March IL, 1877.
Especial correspondence of The SUNDAY
HERALD. AS in all countri where heavy
duties are imposed on imported goods, Rios
port regulations are extremely rigorous
and often veXatious. All incoming vessels
are required to drop anchor off Fort Vile
Eagnon-commonly known as the Pico-
sd there await the coming of the health
and custom officials. Those gentlemen
take their own leisurely time for it, and
their convenience must be awaited, how
aver imperative your reasons for expedi-
ton. Ii the steamer happens to have ar
rived near the dinner hours pm. is the
Brazilian rule for that most important
meal-or near the fashionable time for
promenading in the Rua do Ouvidor, say
an hour earlier; or if fiesta happens to be
in progress, or one of the political demon
strations so numerous in the republican,
attention will be paid to it till some time
next day, and meanwhile, no communica-
ton whatever is permitted between the
ship and the shore, not even so much as a
message to waiting friends or letters to
catch an outgoing mail.
Should quarantine be imposed, as it is
more than likely to be during
SEASONS OF EPIDEMIC,
though there may not be case of sickness
on board, the vessel is sent back to Ilha
0rsnde, sixty miles down the coast. There
is no accounting for quarantine regulations,
especially in times of scare. We expert
enced their unreasonableness to the full a
lew years ago, when sailing among the
West Indies. Because our ship had passed
place where smallpox was raging
though no passengers were taken on there
aud nobody went ashore but the purser on
his regular business-we were not allowed
TO come within three miles of any port.
Though not a soul on board was i'll, we
could not visit Martinique, Barbados, ST.
Thomas, nor any of the places we had come
SO far to see; nor send ashore for the
longed-tor home letters waiting in the con-
SUBS office, nor dispatch those we had
written during the voyage. Passengers
who must land were compelled to spend
fifteen days at the quarantine stations
pest house to which were consigned the
leaprous and diseased of every class and
al nationalities, in which the chances were
few tor a person who entered in perfect
health to come out alive at the end Of half 6
month.
Among oHr number was a charming
French family, who had been visiting in
Pera and who were coming to their home
at st. Pierre. OF course they were obliged
to disembark at Martinique, and mourn
full procession they made-husband, wife
four children and three servants, being
rowed away to
TIE DESERT QUARANTINE ISLAND
in the custody of officers, like criminals
headed by the yacht of the health commits
sioner with its significant yellow flag
Though the family were rich and influen
tisl and all in good health. nothing could
save them-simply because they happened
to take passage on a steamer that hai
stopped at an infected port several hundred
miles below the place where they embark
ed. A year later, happening to meet agar
the captain of the same steamer on more
fortunate voyage, l inquired after the
ouarautined family; and learned with sor-
row that the husband and three of the
children died Of yellow fever contracted a
the pest house.
About ten years ago the Brazilian author
tiles erected costly quarantine station OF
Grand island-Ilhe Grande-and have GO
their money back long ago from The
charges, fixed by law, for their compulsorJ
boarders. The rates are as follows: FRS
class passengers must pay 5000 refs PEI
diem for seml-starvation on villainous
food; second class, $500 reis; third class
500 refs; children between four and ter
years old, half rates; and between one anC
four years, one third rates. Then all thu
baggage must be disinfected, the charges
being 1000 refs per kilogramme-and thu
ordinary saratoga will weigh many kilo
Rrammes. 1t is useless to protest tina
nothing is the matter with your luggage
and you don't
WANT IT DIsINFECTED
it must undergo the process or be dumped
into the bay, and you must pay for ii all tht
same. In cases of merely quarantine OBJ
servations, which is usually from twenty
four to forty-elght hours, the vessel is re
ouired to anchor off Jurujuba point: bu
that is no hardship if ones business is no
urgent, for the glorious view amply com
pensates for being compelled to endur,
? sea food and a stuffy state room a while
longer. The ship lies in what the old nayi
gators called the ''Fathom bay" between
Icarahy beach, which is famed alike for it!
beauty and its bathing, and the rocky pen
insula which is crowned by the celebrated
Fortaleza de Santa Cruz One never
wearies of this magnificent harbor, which
far SURPRISES that of Naples or the Colder
Horn. The whole bay, 100 miles in circum
ference, is surrounded by peaked and tur-
reted hills standing one behind another il
every con >eivable position bare
others covered with yerdure, and all witt
palm trees growing at their feet. Mos
prominent, because nearest among The
dark hills looming close on every side i.
the Pso do Assucar-Sugar Loaf-s(
smooth and sharp that its conical peak doe,
not appear to be more than twenty feet il
diameter. 1t is the extreme aud highes
point of range OF granite hills that extend
a short distance along the coast, separated
from the larger range back Of the city by
narrow valley, in which has been built The
aristocr suburb called Botofoga just
behind the Sugar Loaf is the gap known a.
Praia Vermilha-Green Valley-where the
first Portuguese settlement on Botofoga was
located, in the year 1865. 1t is strongly
fortified and is the sight of the Imperial
military academy. A rocky peninsula iuts
out from the base OF the Sugar Loaf, anC
on it is the FortaleZa de S. Joao and some
extensive barracks. Some of the batterie,
belonging to this Saint Johns Fort are GU
into the solid rock and are said to be amonf
the strongest in the world. The Fortalezi
de Santa Cruz, under whose frowning wall.
the vessel is anchored, is
BRAzIL's MOST IMPORTANT STRONGHOLD
"a perfect Gibraltar in strength and mac
feasibility, ana as picturesque as formida
BILE. Itwas built in 1896, but has since beer
greatly enlarged and strengthened. |
holds large garrison, and is well armed
with modern cannons of the most approve,
type. Standing at the foot of two rock,
peaks, it is further defended on the outsid,
beach by strong water battery, while tn,
summit above is capped by a small but i'm
pregnable Forte do Pico. The only approach
to the Pico fertilization is through tn,
Santa Cruz fortress below; and that. il
turn, is assailable only by water.
Then there is the Fortaleza de Lage. bull
upon a partially submerged rock near TIL
narrow entrance-the site of the first at
tempted settlement in the "River of Jan
uary." Its fortihcation, constructed abou
$50 years ago, possesses no great strength
but its position gives il great ndrantnn n