CHAPTER XI. SCENERY OF THE ORGAN MOUNTAINS. PETROPOLIS- HEAD-QUARTERS WITH THE TURK-A BRAZILIAN A SEVERE REMEDY-CARAPATOS AND JIGGERS-YANKEE EX- PETRO ETROPOLIS is one of the most successful results of foreign emigration to Brazil, and a comparatively flourishing town now occupies the place of a miserable little village called Corrego Secco. Don Pedro I. obtained all the land in the neighbourhood, with the view of establishing a German colony there, and the present Emperor has carried out his father's scheme. Being only six hours' journey from Rio, and situated in a lovely position among the Organ Mountains, Petropolis had very great advantages. The Emperor has built a beautiful palace there, to retire to in the hot season, and most of the foreign ministers and fashionable Brazilians are very glad to R avail themselves of such a delightful situation; the town is studded with good houses, and there is employment for tradesmen and artisans of all countries and of all sorts. The town is about 2,500 feet above the level of the sea, and is completely embosomed among mountains, which are covered with luxuriant forest, except where the colonists have made way for their patches of maize. From the centre of the town numberless roads struggle away among the mountains in all directions, dotted with houses, and cottages, and gardens, till the verge of cultivation is reached, and the paths lose themselves in impenetrable forests. One thing which I have no doubt is very conducive to the salubrity of Petropolis is a stream of running water, which has been diverted into several channels so as to pass through the principal thoroughfares. A road is carried along both sides of it, crossing it at proper intervals, over excellent bridges for carriages; besides which, others are provided for foot-passengers only. There is a hospital, and schools which are doing good service for the rising generation of Petropolitans; some very fair cafés and billiard-rooms are ready for the delectation of idlers; and Petropolis altogether may be, in some respects, considered as a combination of happy valleys. The Hotel Oriental, my particular head-quarters, was an establishment both peculiar and polyglot. The THE HOTEL OF THE TURK. 243 landlord was an elderly Turk, named Said Ali, who, having accompanied a distinguished nobleman about the world in the capacity of valet, had feathered his nest thereby, and then settled down as proprietor of the hotel. He was, and I hope is still, a right good fellow. I certainly did not understand the languages of the shining Orient, and my knowledge of Portuguese was, to say the least, imperfect; so I liked him all the better when I found we could get on together in French, which was tacitly agreed upon as our corresponding medium. The only waiter was a Portuguese-quiet, and by no means a genius; but possessed of inexhaustible good-humour, and a partial knowledge of the French tongue. The chambermaid was a bare-legged daughter of Deutschland, great at scrubbing, and a most persevering enemy of the dirt and insects which are too commonly the pest of tropical countries. The fourth and last element in the household was the boots;' a young negro of unprepossessing exterior, but very amiable disposition, who was always ready to make himself useful upon the slightest provocation. I had been told that the Turk rather objected than otherwise to the incursions of visitors, because he felt bound to exert himself in the department of cookery; but that he felt it was his 'kismet' to keep an hotel, and he kept it accordingly. Whether his taking a personal fancy to me, or the paucity of visitors at that season of the year, made the endurance of his kismet more tolerable than usual, I know not; all I can say is, that everything was done for me in a manner that ought to satisfy all but the most unreasonable of men. If I got up earlier than sure to find Said Ali usual in the morning, I was smoking his cigar, and carefully pounding a beefsteak to the maximum of tenderness, or skilfully manipulating a fowl which had just been decapitated by the attendant ' boots.' His cooking was admirable; and this circumstance, added to pretty good powers of digestion, enabled me at all times, and in the hottest weather, to enjoy everything he put before me, and to leave the house after a stay of several weeks without having had a single hour of any kind of bodily discomfort. I had a perfectly clean bedroom, with new furniture; and close by me was a very pretty public sitting-room, with a pianoforte for those who understood the mysteries of that instrument; and though I was for the greater part of the time the sole guest in the house, every Saturday brought a few who, exhausted with the heat and bustle of business at Rio, came up to enjoy their Sunday among the cooler beauties of Petropolis. At the back of the house was a small garden, with a profusion of the lovely flowers of the country mixed with others of a hardier race, most conspicuous among which were the giant orange and red Gladioli which are so popular in England, and which, whatever may have been their original habitat, appear to arrive at unusual perfection in the hill-gardens of Brazil. Close behind this rose up a hill, the greater part of which was still covered with noble trees, feathering palms, rich clusters of bamboos festooning into natural bowers, and tree-ferns in all the beauty of their bright green fronds, 7 or 8 feet long. Underneath was a mass of tangled ferns, creepers, and lycopodiums-all new to the European, except those which he might have known in hothouses at home, and so beautiful in their variety of form and colour, that when I took my first morning climb up a zigzag path among them to a point which overlooked the chief part of the town and the countless hills of equal beauty around me, I almost felt glad that my solitude prevented the disturbance of a charm which was increased by silence. After breakfast came my friend Mr. Malet, from the British Legation, which he was occupying during the absence of Mr. Christie, the minister, and away we went for a walk, armed with the conventional umbrella, which is almost indispensable in a country where it may be at any time wanted as a defence against excessive sun or rain. We followed one of the winding valleys for a little while, and then took a branch road leading rather steeply up among the hills. The view increased in beauty and extent as every moment's ascent revealed some new summit, delicately blue with distance, and contrasting exquisitely with the rich colouring of the nearer hills, which were separated from us by deep glens of the forest stretching below towards Petropolis. |