The Emperor of Brazil, 1887
"What sort of a man is the Emperor?" This was the question most frequently asked me on my return from Brazil to the United States.
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“The Emperor of Brazil” from Brazil: Its Condition and Prospects by C. C. Andrews, 1887
"What sort of a man is the Emperor?" This was the question most frequently asked me on my return from Brazil to the United States.
Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, is six feet tall, and weighs one hundred and eighty pounds. He has an intellectual head, eyes a grayish blue (his mother was the Archduchess Leopoldine of Austria), beard full and gray, hair well trimmed, also gray, complexion florid, and expression sober. He is erect, and has a manly bearing. Being now upward of sixty years of age, he is not, of course, so sentimental a man as when, thirty years or so ago, he used to talk to American travelers about our poets.
Descended from a long line of rulers, he came to the throne in 1840, at the early age of fourteen and a half years. His reign began fifteen years after Brazilian independence, for his father, being unwilling to accept so liberal a Constitution, frankly expressed his sentiments, honorably abdicated, though at great sacrifice of his feelings, and retired to Portugal. During this long period there have been some provincial rebellions and some local turmoil, but the Emperor has always shown a tact, energy, and humanity that helped much to restore order, quiet, and good feeling.
Thus, while he has held the scepter his country has continued to prosper. Its vast area has been held intact, and it has become an important empire. As I have looked at his gray head, when he has been driving in his carriage through the streets of Rio, I have said to myself, "There certainly is an august and venerable character."
The sixtieth anniversary of his birthday, December 2, 1885, was celebrated by the Municipal Council of Rio by the liberation of one hundred and thirty-three slaves, with funds contributed by private parties for that purpose. The whole amount thus contributed was 34,925 milreis ($12,256), of which the sum of 30,000 milreis was from some person unknown, but generally believed to be the Emperor himself. During the ceremony of conferring the letters of liberty upon the slaves, the Emperor is said to have expressed the wish that God would give him life to bestow liberty upon the last slave in Brazil.
My wife and I had the honor of being presented to the Emperor and Empress of Brazil, at the Palace of Sao Christovao, some little time after our arrival, and were graciously received by both. As was natural on this occasion, reference was made to the Emperor's visit in the United States, and I was glad to assure him of his popularity there. I told him he had many friends in the United States. He replied! "That is a good record."
On his learning that the place of my nativity was in the same region of country as Boston, the Emperor said that Boston pleased him more than any other city in the United States. The first person he visited when in Boston was Mr. Clark, of Cambridge, the celebrated telescope-maker.
As all the world knows, the Emperor is not only a scholar, but a man of great activity. He is unwearied in his visits to observe and encourage industrial and educational enterprise. Day. after day one hears of his spending two or three hours at a time at some of the public institutions or establishments—it may be a department of the Government, or the National Library or Museum, or a public-school examination, or a hospital, or the Military Academy, or the Government machine-shops, or the Arsenal.
Daniel Webster would get up at four o'clock in the morning to study a patent case, and has been seen thus early with his coat off, lying on the floor on his back under a machine, studying the principle and details of its operation. The Emperor does almost as much, for he has been known, on an American vessel at Rio, to descend on ladders through a narrow passage-way down to the bottom of the vessel and minutely study its machinery. He makes journeys, lasting several days, into the interior to assist in the opening of new railroads, and on these occasions he is frequently accompanied by the Empress, a very popular lady, of fine manners.
A recent instance of his notice of scientific work, which he seems always particularly glad to honor, was his visit, October 10, 1884, on board the United States Coast-Survey vessel Charles S. Patterson, then lying at Rio on her way to Alaska for scientific service. He was welcomed on board by the American minister, ex-Governor Thomas A. Osborn, and Lieutenant Clover, commanding the vessel. He went through the vessel, examined carefully its library, scientific instruments, charts, new apparatus for measuring depth, as well as the newly invented steam launches.
Later in the day he attended the opening of the new inclined-plane Corcovado Mountain Railway to Paineiim The following day, according to the journals of October 11th, he spent three hours at the Government Office of Public Archives, where he read several documents of historic interest, among others the original correspondence of Lord Cochrane, the defense of Count Barca, a curious manuscript of Father Francisco Jose da Serra Xavier, etc.; also looked at some of the work of the office.
If Peter II, Emperor of Brazil, lacks some of those great qualities of statesmanship which distinguished Peter the Great of Russia, he must be admitted anyhow to possess much tact as a ruler. Probably he does not exercise a hundredth part of the one-man power that is used by the President of the United States.
In case of his death the Emperor would be succeeded on the throne by his daughter the Princess Isabella, born July 29, 1846, and married, October 15, 1864, to Count d'Eu (Louis Gaston, Prince d'Orleans), grandson of Louis Philippe. The princess bears a strong likeness to her father, and is regarded as an earnest Catholic.
When the Emperor goes out in the city he always rides in the imperial carriage, drawn by six mules or horses, with a mounted escort of eight or ten men, two of which ride ahead. The carriage is always driven rapidly, and the Emperor's coming over the stone pavements can be heard some distance off. He generally sits bareheaded in the carriage, reading, and returns salutations with a slight nod.
I am told that his library, into which visitors are not usually admitted, is in a state of great disorder—books, pictures, and other objects being scattered over the floor. He gives no dinners nor balls, but is accessible to the public generally every Saturday evening. He is very benevolent, and gives away a good deal of money to the poor.
Though a man of liberal ideas, he fulfills those religious duties and ceremonies required by his office. One of these is to wash annually the feet of a certain number of poor people. Respectable persons are selected for this rite, who, after its performance, are treated to a good dinner.
At Easter likewise he attends the long service at the Cathedral, and publicly drinks a glass of holy water. A beautiful and pious duty, which he never neglects, is to visit his mother's tomb on every anniversary of her death.
The newspapers mentioned that, during the political excitement in April, a young man called at the palace in Petropolis, sent in a card, and asked for an interview with his Majesty the Emperor, which was granted. Upon being introduced, the visitor informed his Majesty that he had come from Sao Paulo especially to warn him that the Conservatives must be called to take the Government. The Emperor replied that this required reflection, and invited the visitor to remain in an antechamber, from which he was expelled by the servants. Some of his political duties will be referred to in the chapter on Government.
Andrews, C. C. Brazil: Its Condition and Prospects. D. Appleton and Company, 1887.
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