Remember the Rainforest tm

Home

Expedition Index

Expedition Text

Expedition Etchings

Etching locations

Maps

Plants

Animals

People and Scenes

Eco-petitions and project proposals

Lesson plans

Statistics

Authors and Artists

Contact us

page 273 ---Santa Cruz---flowers and gemstones---royal establishment---December 10, 1817---

We saw in the ravines some boulders, and rolled pieces of greenstone, which lie scattered on the granite ground. On the morning of the 10th of December, having traversed only well-watered meadows, we arrived at Santa Cruz, and were received in the most friendly manner, by our countryman, Lieutenant-colonel Feldner, who happened to be then on the spot. This little place with a population of a few hundred inhabitants, and which only a short time before had received from the king the title and privilege of a town, is situated on a flat sandy eminence, entirely surrounded by a marshy plain, and consists, with the exception of the royal palace, of nothing but wretched clay huts.

Royal palace at Santa Cruz, province of Rio de Janeiro

The principal building, formerly the property of the Jesuits' college at Rio de Janeiro, and at present belonging to the crown-prince, Don Pedro d'Alcantara, to whom it was given by his father, contains the necessary accommodation for the royal family and is surrounded by some dependent buildings. Notwithstanding very extensive pasture grounds, an extraordinary stock of cattle consisting of several thousand head, a number of nearly a thousand negro slaves, who are designed for this estate, and not withstanding the predilection of the court for this seat, this rich domain is still in the same neglected state in which Mawe found and described it several years ago.


page 274 ---royal establishments---

They have not yet succeeded to make a dairy in the European manner, and the king, who possesses in his very neighbourhood one of the finest herds of cows, must content himself with Irish salt butter, which has performed a voyage of several months. The advantages which such an establishment would produce for the cultivation for the whole province, if it were arranged so as to serve as a model, are beyond calculation. The greatest part of the cattle bred here, are derived from such as were imported long ago from Portugal, but no care has been taken to improve them, by bringing others from Rio Grande do Sul, where, in a state of perfect freedom, they attain an extraordinary size and strength.

These cattle, therefore, are in general smaller and worse-looking than those which we see grazing, half-wild, in the pastures of Sao Paulo, or driven in great herds from the Rio Grande to the north. They are for the most part of a dark brown colour, the horns but slightly bent and not large. It is certain that the cows, in hot climates, give less milk than in ours, and it is therefore entirely left to the calves, who suck for a long time. Even European cows here gradually lose their milk; a fact which is probably to be explained only by the predominant action of the cutaneous systems and increased perspiration.