BOOKS.

PRINCE ADALBERT'S TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.* THE author of these travels is the elder brother of Prince Waldemar of Prussia, whose share in the glories and dangers of our first campaign against the Sikhs during his Eastern travels must be fresh in every me- mory. Prince Adalbert, like his younger brother, had a strong love for travelling, and an especial liking for the sea. Having visited the Crimea, Constantinople, and Greece, Prince Adalbert found himself in Italy in 1842 ; and received from the King of Sardinia the offer of a frigate to convey him to Brazil and back again. On his return, he printed account of his travels for private distribution; from a copy of which the volumes before us have been translated by Sir Robert Schomburgk and Mr. John Edward Taylor, with the Prince's sanction.

The most important part of the Travels consists of the visit to Rio Janeiro, and several excursions in the neighbourhood ; an ascent of the Amazon, from Para, as high as the mouth of the Xingti; and an exploring expedition up the Xingii itself. An introductory portion, on less novel subjects, contains the account of an ascent of Mount Etna, visits to Gra- nada and Gibraltar, with the voyage thence to Brazil, including a passing call at Madeira and Teneriffe.

Although the travels of a Royal Highness do not often come before us, these volumes have no occasion to rely upon their rarity in that respect as a substitute for intrinsic merit, or to put in a plea of privilege, beyond the fact of their being addressed to Germans. To an inland people, the sea and the places reached by sea have an interest of newness which they do not possess to a nautical and travel-publishing nation like the English, owing to the frequency with which they have been brought before us. The narrative of the European excursion and outward voyage, however, possesses attraction from the simple unaffected character of the man, his varied knowledge, and his military criticisms at Gibraltar ; but for Englishmen, the travels properly begin at Rio. The author's tendency to describe fully whatever struck him forcibly, which rather clogs the earlier narrative, is no longer felt. The novelty of the New World, the variety and luxuriance of Tropical vegetation, with the grandeur and magnificence of American scenery, are more clearly depicted by Prince Adalbert than by any other traveller we remember. He realizes to the mind the feelings with which the first discoverers must have looked upon the New World they had reached, and enables one better to comprehend the wild and enthusiastic notions they accepted as verities. Prince Adal- bert's visit to Rio, however, furnishes other matter than descriptions of external nature and its impressions. For those who like such things, there is no lack of Imperial receptions and public fates; for the Prince received great attention from the Emperor of Brazil. There are remarks on the natural power and resources of Brazil, especially in a naval and military point of view ; true in theory, but of little practical bearing, as the resources have small prospect of being developed. In various ex- cursions in the neighbourhood of Rio, and through the province, Prince Adalbert displayed the qualities of a well-trained traveller, by the spirit and good-humour with which he bore exposure and scanty fare. He moreover observed the state of society and the economy of planting, when they fell in his way ; as in this example.

"We dismounted in a pretty garden, the chief ornament of which was an ar- bour of passion-flowers, and entered the spacious mansion; where we met with genuine French society, consisting of Madame Henry, Madame David, Dr. Trou- bas, and M. David: their cultivated manners and deportment struck us the more forcibly from meeting them thus as it were in a wilderness. The Black servants, however, and a few negrinhos' who were playing with the White children, re- minded us that we were not in Europe. The conversation soon turned from the fatigues of travelling in Brazil to the condition of the Negroes; who seem to be regarded here as merely an intermediate step between man and the brute creation. On this point even the ladies observed, Ils ne soot pas a la hauteur du manage"; adding, that on this account no marriages were allowed among the Negroes at the fazenda.

"After taking some refreshment, we were accompanied by the gentlemen over the establishment, and shown the system of coffee-cultivation. This plant re- quires the best soil, and exposure to the sun; it is generally grown upon tracts of the old forest recently cleared by fire,—sometimes, but rarely, upon old capueira, of at least twenty years' standing, the ashes of which serve as manure. The plant bears fruit well for ten or fifteen years; it is then cut down, and the new shoots bear at the end of two years. One negro is required for every thousand or fifteen hundred coffee-plants: at Aides there were a hundred and seventy, be- sides the children, who tended 250,000 plants. The profit derived from coffee- cultivation is shown by the fact, that the sum of 110,000 inilreie, the price at which the proprietors purchased this fazenda, with a hundred

and thirty negroes

uponqfiveyeaabfore,hada already nearly beenrioff. * • lilbtlwaswnversingwith the ladies of the mY companions went to sea the dwelling where the negroes are lodged,—a long, dirty building, one story high, externally resembling a stable. In the hospital, which my friends first visited, the hall and rooms for the two sexes were separated. A negress was lying on a mat, with her little 'negrinho' at her breast, to which she had given birth only the night before. 'In a few days she will be able to resume work,' said the Doctor to Count Bismark. In the men's room there were fear or five patients, suffering from accidents of various kinds. Then followed the laundry, where each negro has a shelf, numbered. The men receive every Sunday a pair of clean white linen trousers and a shirt; the women, a gown and chemise. Passing through a long corridor, the visiters entered the rooms set apart for the negroes, which are small and blackened by smoke. Every evening, when their work is done, they light fires in these awtments, around which they sit for hours, even after the lieverest day's work, all talking and smoking, women as well as men: they have every week a certain allowance of tobacco. "Work begins at the fazenda at four o'clock in the morning, after every slave has had his coffee: at ten o'clock they take a second breakfast, which consists of mandioca-meal, and boiled rice, or maize: at two o'clock they dine, off cane secca, (dried meat, mostly imported from Buenos Ayres,) with rice and farinba; but in the csuntry around Cantagallo, the Degrees have more frequently pork and bog's lard, the carriage of the dried meat from Rio being too expensive. After this they continue their work until seven in the evening, from which hour till nine o'clock they have supper, consisting again of rice, mandioca or maize- meal: then comes their time tur sleep, although they generally sit up talking till • Travels of his Royal Highness Prince Adalbert of Prussia, in the South of Europe and in Brazil; with a Voyage up the Amazon and the Xingti. Translated by Sir Ro- bert H. Sehomburgit and John Edward Taylor. In two volumes. Published by Bogue.

twelve or one o'clock. Seven or eight persons lie in one room, each being provided with a mat; many, however, construct recesses of branches and boards, which toth they prefer e teiras, or mats,—a prejudice perhaps derived from their for- met wild life."

The following remarks originated in a visit to another plantation in the satne neighbourhood.

"The dinner, to which we did ample justice, was excellent, and introduced us to some Brazilian dishes. The principal topic of conversation was again the Ne- groes, their condition and treatment. It is true that instruments of punish- ment, of various kinds, were hanging around the walls of the room; nevertheless it seemed to me, that the Negroes are less ill-treated in Brazil than we are wont to imagine; nor indeed do they appear, from what I observed, to be conscious of the grievance which we attach to slavery, as the same exists also in their own country, and they are accustomed to it from youth. The Blacks require a strict bet just treatment, and the self-interest of the master demands that they should be well fed and provided for. They did not appear to me to be overworked; at least they certainly did not tax their strength. M. de Lnze has resided alone for many years among his slaves; he and his foreman were the only White men among seventy Negroes. The loaded guns and pistols hanging up in his bedroom, how- ever, showed that be had not entire confidence in them; and indeed, he had more than once been obliged to face them with his loaded gun."

The expedition up the Xingti has more of the true character of travels than the previous sections. This tributary of the Amazon rises in about the 15th degree of South latitude and the 53d of East longitude, falling into the lower part of the Amazon where its waters assume the character of a sea. The course of the Xingti is about twelve hundred miles : little, however, is known of its upper part, its tributaries, the nature of the country though which it flows, or the Indians inhabiting its banks. Two centuries ago, an adventurer, who acquired the surname of the " great Devil "among the Indians, from having, among other conjuring tricks, set spirits on fire, and persuaded the simple people that he could burn rivers in the same way, declared that the region near the source of Xingti was the seat of gold-mines as rich as those of El Dorado ; but no steps appear to have been taken to verify his statement. Two or three settlements dignified with the names of towns, and a few stations for the gathering of Indian rubber, sarsaparilla, &c., are met with during the first hundred miles of its lower course; at about which distance the tide ceases, and a series of rapids and cascades render an ascending navigation almost impossible. Beyond this a priest has penetrated from religious motives, baptizing some of the Indians on its banks ; and a stray adven- turer may occasionally have ventured as far as Father Torquato, the connciller and companion of the Prince's expedition, but few White men appear yet to have ascended as far as Prince Adalbert.

Beyond the natural desire which many feel to explore a wild and un- known region, the Prince's main object was to visit a tribe of Indians not yet sophisticated by communication with White men. As far as the cus- toms of the country permit, the party were well treated ; but there is not much accommodation to be met with even in the delta of the Amazon. The naval department at Para placed at the Prince's disposal an "igarite," (probably "great canoe,") a boat purposely constructed for the navigation of the Amazon ; but a poor substitute for a man of war or an English gentleman's yacht. It was an open boat, only covered at the stern with a thatch of palm : the pilot and crew consisted of some ten persons, and with the Prince and his four companions filled the boat; so that the party had to cook and wash for themselves. At Souzel, the last settlement on the Xingti, where Father Torquato joined them, even this sorry convey- ance had to be abandoned ; and, except in travelling under protection and with guides, they were no better off than the first discoverers of those regions. For several days their route lay through a Tropical forest, to avoid the long and laborious ascent of the river : the rest of the journey was made in native canoes of a very primitive fashion : their fare was plain and sometimes scanty, for they seem to have been indifferent sports- men ; and their lodgings at night the same as the Indians', with this difference;that the Prussians were not, like the Indians, used to the expo- sure and the musquitoes. In the descent of the rapids, on their return, the whole party endured the same sort of hardships as are undergone by the Canadian voyageurs. Everything, however, was borne by Prince Adalbert with the greatest good-humour, except perhaps the nightly attacks, and of them he makes no complaint even with a night like this. "Supper awaited us; a roasted mutUm, which we despatched with great appe- tite. The mosquitoes, which had hitherto not molested us much, came out this evening in great numbers. Scarcely was our supper ended, when these gnats (chiefly a small species called carapana) attacked us in such a manner that we danced about with the pain as if mad. Some of the party in despair jumped into the Xingfi. I seized a bottle of spirits of camphor. which we had been advised to bring with us, and rubbed it on my skin: this relief was, however, only momentary, and the irritation grew worse than ever. At last, after running, jumping, and rubbing ourselves, fatigue got the better of our sufferings; we seized a burning torch, and, brandishing it in the Indian fashion, made our way into the thicket to two dilapidated ranchos, which were to shelter us for the night. We slung our hammocks, got into them, and shut our eyes, but tried in vain to sleep, rolling from side to side, till the poles began to crack, and our toes and elbows broke through the meshes of our hammocks. Every now and then we started up as if bitten by a tarantula, and had no little trouble in regaining our equilibrium, to prevent our falling out of these swinging beds. At last we hit upon a means of protection for at least one part of our body, and wrapped our ponchos round our feet; but alas! this afforded small relief, for the dear little creatures now settled only the more resolutely upon our faces. This failure to obtain ease was moreover accompanied by another disagreeable discovery: the poor Consul found that he had slung his hammock to a pole con- taming a large nest of ants directly above his head, which from time to time !hopped upon his nose, and effectually kept him from sleeping. In despair he Jumped out of his hammock, and sought shelter from their attacks near the fire: I too followed his example, for the mosquitoes actually began to sting me through the poncho, and had found their way to my skin in spite of boots and trousers. My patience could endure it no longer: wrapping myself in my poncho, and hold- ing both hands before my face, I left the dark thicket, and went up to the glim- mering fire, where Count Oriolla sat, apparently enjoying a sound sleep, en- veloped in his ' mosquiteiro,' a fine gauze covering, and his poncho: this sightgave US at last hopes of rest. Mr. Theremin, however, soon retired again to the rancho; and our young Indian friend alone remained with me, his face beaming with jcy at the acquisition of his white shirt : he assisted me in getting dry bftghs, and piling them on the fire, to drive away the plague of mosquitoes. Placing myself—alternately head and feet—close to the fire, I obtained some re- lief, and at length fell asleep, in spite of the combined attacks of Mum (sand-fleas)

and mosquitoes. Presently, however, I awoke in torments: though we had slept, the carapanis had been awake and busy. Count Oriolla too was no longer se- cure against these enemies; and others of our companions quitted the rancho, and joined our party round the fire.

"floe men were lying huddled together near the shore, under the sailcloth from the Growler,—it looked like a large grey heap on the sand, whic.h occasionally gave a heaving motion. Whitish clouds now skimmed across the bright face of the moon, and presently drops of rain fll. We retreated to our hammocks, and the torment of the mosquitoes somewhat abated: the rain, however, soon fell in torrents, all our men crowded for shelter into the rickety sheds, and we dropped asleep."

Padre Torquato, though a worthy man and a capital guide, does not seem to have been eminent as a religious teacher, if we may judge from the samples of his converts.

" While we were waiting for the dance, I questioned Padre Torquato relative to the religious belief of the Juminas. Instead of answering, he turned to an old Indian near us, whom he had himself baptized when once op a visit to Souzel, and asked him what was his faith. The old man answered without hesitation, that he believed in a Deity from whom came all good, pointing at the same time to the moon, and on a being from whom came all evil. The Padre himself translated this to me: he seemed to have expected from the old man this naive confession of his pure Jurdna faith,—a proof how little the missionaries instruct their converts. in the doctrines of Christianity. Baptism is to them simply a political act; it con- fers on a man a name, and he henceforth considers himself as belonging to Souzel, and as one of the children of their great father the Emperor; while the Govern- ment can add another subject to the returns of population, of whose existence it would otherwise not have known. The moon, as the representative of the Deity, is held in great reverence by the Jurdnas; and the day when she becomes full is their chief festival."

Although not a professedly scientific traveller, Prince Adalbert has made a good many scientific observations. The following is a curious instance of the working of nature by minute causes, analogous to the formation of coral islands or of chalk strata; only in this case destruc- tion is the first result.

"Early this morning, after a refreshing bath in the neighbouring stream, we started at half-past six o'clock. The ground we traversed was less hilly and un- dulating; and it was clear that we were again approaching the Xingd. A num- ber of tall prostrate trees were lying about, upon which large columns of ants of all kinds moved busily to and fro. In penetrating into the depths of the primeval forest, one sees evidence at every step that these minute creatures are the de- stroyers of the colossal trees, whose strength braves all the attacks of storm and wind. A striking instance is this of how small are often the means which the Creator employs to produce the mightiest results; for what greater disproportion can be imagined than between an ant and one of these giants of the forest? No sooner is a tree attacked by them than it is doomed—its size and strength are of no avail; and frequently these little insects will destroy it in such a manner that the bark alone remains, and all the woody fibres crumble away, until the tall tree falls at length to the ground with a tremendous crash, a prey to the united and persevering attacks of millions and millions of the ants. Beside these proofs of the destructive power of these insects, the forests along the estrada exhibit evi- dence of their skill, in the pyramidical ant-hills, similar to those we had seen on the coast of the province of Rio de Janeiro. We also observe large trunks of trees pierced with deep holes, having the appearance of filigree on a grand scale: this, too, was probably the work of these destructive insects."

One feature of Prince Adalbert is an unaffected simplicity of manner, and a readiness to take things as they are. He travelled from Malaga to Granada in the diligence, and mingled cheerfully with such company as accident sent him in the half-settled province or the wilderness. Here is the party with a newly-caught Indian.

" While the fires were being lighted we amused ourselves in joking with our new friend the young Janina Indian, who had come from the interior, and had never before seen White people. Count Oriolla handed him a loaded gun; but no persuasion could induce him to fire it off; not that he evinced any suspicion of us, but the report had on a former occasion frightened him. He danced with us readily enough; and we one after another took his arm, imitating as well as we could the steps of the Indian ladies at the ball of Tavaquira. At this he laughed heartily, and was beside himself with delight ; nay, he even joined in our songs. With the aid of the interpreter, we endeavoured to learn from whence he came; whereupon he pointed to the moon, and described eight well-marked circles with his arms, his whole body following the same motion ; intending perhaps to indi- cate that it required eight months for him to reach his home. He evinced great interest in the different articles we possessed, which he touched with considerable curiosity: we gave him a knife, and Mr. Theremin added the present of a shirt. This delighted him; he immediately dressed himself in the shirt, and seemed never satisfied with looking down on himself in his new attire. My blue cloth jacket was an object of especial interest to the young Indian, who watched me eagerly when I put it on and buttoned it up."

There might be some delicacy in altering the text of a prince's present- ation-copy, but we think the attraction of the book would have been increased bad the work opened with the traveller's arrival at Rio, and the survey of the South American system of rivers been reproduced in a more condensed form. Some good maps of the districts through which the travellers penetrated are interspersed in the volumes.