第13章

The province is governed, like all others in the empire, by a President, as chief civil authority.At the time of our arrival he also held, exceptionally, the chief military command.This functionary, together with the head of the police administration and the judges, is nominated by the central Government at Rio Janeiro.The municipal and internal affairs are managed by a provincial assembly elected by the people.Every villa or borough throughout the province also possesses its municipal council, and in thinly-populated districts the inhabitants choose every four years a justice of the peace, who adjudicates in small disputes between neighbours.A system of popular education exists, and every village has its school of first letters, the master being paid by the government, the salary amounting to about ?0, or the same sum as the priests receive.Besides common schools, a well-endowed classical seminary is maintained at Para, to which the sons of most of the planters and traders in the interior are sent to complete their education.The province returns its quota of members every four years to the lower and upper houses of the imperial parliament.Every householder has a vote.Trial by jury has been established, the jurymen being selected from householders, no matter what their race or colour; and I have seen the white merchant, the negro husbandman, the mameluco, the mulatto, and the Indian, all sitting side by side on the same bench.Altogether the constitution of government in Brazil seems to combine happily the principles of local self-government and centralisation, and only requires a proper degree of virtue and intelligence in the people to lead the nation to great prosperity.

The province of Para, or, as we may now say, the two provinces of Para and the Amazons, contain an area of 800,000 square miles, the population of which is only about 230,000, or in the ratio of one person to four square miles! The country is covered with forests, and the soil is fertile in the extreme, even for a tropical country.It is intersected throughout by broad and deep navigable rivers.It is the pride of the Paraenses to call the Amazons the Mediterranean of South America.The colossal stream perhaps deserves the name, for not only have the main river and its principal tributaries an immense expanse of water bathing the shores of extensive and varied regions, but there is also throughout a system of back channels, connected with the main rivers by narrow outlets and linking together a series of lakes, some of which are fifteen, twenty, and thirty miles in length.

The whole Amazons valley is thus covered by a network of navigable waters, forming a vast inland freshwater sea with endless ramifications-- rather than a river.

The city of Para was founded in 1615, and was a place of considerable importance towards the latter half of the eighteenth century, under the government of the brother of Pombal, the famous Portuguese statesman.The province was the last in Brazil to declare its independence of the mother-country and acknowledge the authority of the first emperor, Don Pedro.This was owing to the great numbers and influence of the Portuguese, and the rage of the native party was so great in consequence, that immediately after independence was proclaimed in 1823, a counter revolution broke out, during which many hundred lives were lost and much hatred engendered.The antagonism continued for many years, partial insurrections taking place when the populace thought that the immigrants from Portugal were favoured by the governors sent from the capital of the empire.At length, in 1835, a serious revolt took place which in a short time involved the entire province.It began by the assassination of the President and the leading members of the government; the struggle was severe, and the native party in an evil hour called to their aid the ignorant and fanatic part of the mongrel and Indian population.The cry of death to the Portuguese was soon changed to death to the freemasons, then a powerfully organised society embracing the greater part of the male white inhabitants.The victorious native party endeavoured to establish a government of their own.

After this state of things had endured six months, they accepted a new President sent from Rio Janeiro, who, however, again irritated them by imprisoning their favourite leader, Vinagre.