BAHIA THE HOLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 67, 20 March 1926, Page 21

BAHIA THE HOLY.

A DAY' OF MUDDLE.

WITH A NIGHT ON A BRAZILIAN TOMBSTONE.

(By CAPTAIN FRANCIS McCULLAGH,).

BAHIA, Brazil.—The meticulous exigencies of American law on the subject of passenger vessels made it necessary that I) a perfectly respectable person, should first set foot, outrageously, in this the ecclesiastical capital of Brazil as' a deserter from a tramp 6teamer, for, in order to get here at all from a certain port in old Virginia, I had to inscribe myself as a member of the crew. "It's the only way I can take you," quote the skipper, a gruff Yorkshire man. "Otherwise there will be a whole hornet's nest of officials down here to see that we have a doctor and a dentist and a midwife and a wet nurse and a dry nurse, and a sufficiency of boats and no explosive or inflammable cargo." Therefore "deserted, taking his effects with him," is the stern entry which occurs opposite my name on the ship's papers. I might have signed off at the Consul's, but not without reason is Bahia the bay "de todos los Santos," so it was on a Saint's Day when we landed, nnd the Consulate was closed. Bahia, in fact, is one of those plums of the consular service where the weary traveller has to sit down and "figure out" the few days of the year when the Consulate will not be closed. A Wonderful Picture. Though it was seven o'clock in the morning when I stepped ashore, I had already boen up for three hours, and richly was I rewarded for being so early, as never before in all my life had I seen a more beautiful sight than that presented on this occasion by the wonderful bay of All the Saints. There .are more magnificent bays of course, hut never have I had the good fortune to enter- any of them under such favourable circumstances. It wa,s a gorgeous sunrise, and everything contributed to make it more gorgeous still. There was a brilliant southern moon, much more powerful at first than the faint glimmer of light which appeared in the east at about half past four. Straight ahead the Southern Cross hung suspended in the sky ilke an immense ornament of four purest and most brilliant diamonds, and the superb colours of the clouds grew more and more vivid, as the Lord of Day came nearer to the horizon. But even under ordinary circumstances Bahia de todos los Santos is noteworthy for its magnificent amplitude, for its one hundred beautiful isles, for its quaint old Portuguese city of Sao Salvador, now known generally as .Bahia. It is probably the fourth most beautiful bay in the world. Before it I would put only Bio de Janeiro, Naples and Sydney. Heralding a Saint's Day. -d As I watched from the bridge the tropical riot of colour in the clouds, a small brownish puff suddenly appeared among them, and from it darted a quick tongue of white arid dazzling flame. A few seconds later a heavy report reached my ear. "Is it a revolution?" -said I, startled.-"No, a Saint's •Day," replied fhe'xaptain wearily, "that was a rocket, and see that church on the water's edge all lit up with electric lights!""-, ■'■ -.; ~•■.-... "-,:.) We were now rounding Santa Maria fort, and, sure enough 1 , in the. town far ahead a church was .outlined in tiny electric lights. As we came, nearer we found something uncanny' in this celebration without celebrants, in the contrast between the deserted streets oh the one hand, and on the other, the broad daylight, the rockets, the flags, the decorations and the electric lights. "This means that I shall not be able to unload until to-morrow," said the skipper gloomily, "and! was calculating to get away before nightfall." He did manage to get away, and I would ha given a good deal to have been in a position to get away with him for the experiences I underwent before nightfall were of a nature to make mc long for escape at all costs from Bahia the Holy. A story of muddle is not, as a rule, entertaining; but this is a story of muddle within muddle, and it reaches such a point of intricacy, such a climax of chaos, as to be almost unique. How the Muddle Originated. I had a friend awaiting mc in Bahia, a foreign friend to whom I had been of some slight service in Lisbon on the occasion of the revolution which dethroned King Manuel. This friend, whom I shall call Senhor A., had invited mc to Brazil, and was anxious to welcome mc. I had cabled him that I would arrive on December 3, but, owing fo the quality of the American coal we had bought before leaving the States, we did not arrive till the Bth. When off Pernambuco~the captain had sent a radio to his agent in Bahia saying that he would arrive on the morning of the Bth. He sent this on the 4th, and followed it up by another, on the 6th. Both radios reached their destination, and as - I knew that my friend would be certain to make inquiries at the steamship oflice, I refrained from sending him a wireless to say when we would land. He did make inquiries, and was told that the steamer would not arrive till December 12, and when our captain's two messages arrived the agent omitted to inform Senhor A of their contents. Senhor A had. by this time gone to the island-of Itaparica in the Bay with the intention of staying there till the 11th. When I called at the steamship office with my-trunk, the-agent-had not arrived. When he did come, he admitted that he had made -what he correctly described as a "muddle," But he said that he would try to set things right by sending mc in * steam-launch to Itaparica. ']'.. ' Worser and Worser. I went thither, expecting of course that the English-Speaking negro in charge of the launch knew where he was. going and where he was to make inquiries. It turned out, however, that c did not. Itaparica is as large as the Isle of Wight, and as full of visitors in summer time; and I soon found that I was in the same position as a man who goes from Southampton to thelsle of Wight, to find a friend called Smith, Who is somewhere in the island, he does not know where. After interrogating several scores of perfect strangers who all assured mc, very politely, that they did not know of my friend's existence, I determined to return to Bahia. By this time I had developed a splitting headache, due to the sun, which had now. become murderously hot; and. I felt the heat all the more because I had just come from a part of North America where winter had already made ,

its appearance.' / On arriving hack at Bahia at about 1 p.m* I went directly to the agent* offices with the. object, of getting my

i trunk, inside of which my money was locked up, and moving to an hotel; but I was* horrified to find the office dosed, for I knew that on account of f the holiday it would not re-open till ! next morning. . Impossible to' ascertain ! where the agent lived or where the i consul lived, and, in any case, both were probably away yachting. | I made a' fruitless round of all the hotels and "pension?" My lack of , baggage was ratal. "Sem bagagem!" My negotiations never got beyond that point. As the sun grew hotter, and T become redder and dustier, .my interi views with hotel managers grew briefer. As I descended in the managerial scale, ; I encountered less politeness and less circumlocution. The managers came to the point at ohce' and told mc to "git." j Such as werje unable tqj; talk, indicated I their desires by unmistakable gestures. For some were unable to talk through copious libations of caxassa, the fiery local drink. One landlord's flushed face and bloodshot eyes scared mc off before [ihe j.could -make - any :gestures at; all. | When hot■■ interviewing landlords,. I was- ; simply walking the white,-hpt streets in blinding, sunlight, amid dense, interminable, sweating crowds of negroes. ( • The Silent Watches. Sometimes I went down long, side streets which were curiously deserted, ihfit after a while I avoided them on 'account of a strange circumstance. Out l'of every ground-floor window in those long streets hung a black woman or girl. I do hot mean that she hung by her neck; she hung by her elbows on the wihdoWsill, and gazes fixedly and with I complete Silence . and passivity at the • passers-by. Nothing . moved except her ' great black eyes. Under the concentrated .fire of all' those eyes I. felt very un- | comfortable; even more so ".han- I would have felt under the eyes of a large ' audience waiting for mc to begin a ! lecture which had completely faded from my memory. I did not .know enough Portuguese to explain matters to the police, who were, in any case, extremely busy keeping order among the enormous crowds that filled the streets. And there was no. use -in my hitting a policeman with the J object-of getting free lodgings for the j night, as' he might have hit -mc back : with his ugly-looking tnmcheon. And ; even if he arrested mc, it would, have [been no advantage to pass the night in ! the same cell, as, a. crowd of negroes, j mad-drunk with caxassa. Alone in a Cemetery. Towards dark I found myself in what I seemed to 'be a sequestered public garden on the edge of :a cliff. It was planted i with cypresses, and, despite the crowds ! that surged past, it was absolutely deserted and strangely silent.-A parrot lin a house- nearly repeated endlessly, ! again and again, * a melancholy Portuj guese phrase / which ' sounded like' 'a[witch's incantation, and on the: tall j stump of a ' royal, -palm': that had lost ! its leafy crown, a-huge cormorant sat as . immoveably as if• carved ; - in. stone." A , marble slab; on the wall 'attracted my i attention. It contained an inscription in (English. I was in-the;'English-cemetery! ' The first four inscriptions: Which 7 1 read i told of ■ Englishmen, iwho ■ had "died, of ! yellow fever.", The fifth was on the tomb iof a young man of. 24, ' who had died j two months after reaching Bahia. In ■ many of the "graves-lay. British captains' j and British sailor-. j Leaving the cemetery, 'with somewhat of a chill at my heart, I again returned to the centre' of the-town, where the noises were now reinforced, by , the loudest crackers I had ever' heard since I left Chipa. I was hot> of course,' in a position to judge dispassionately, but I ibelieved- at ike 'time that .1 'had never., ' before 'seen' faces as' repulsive as some lof those which I saw' that' night.' None 'of those repulsive faces belonged to pure negroes; they were all, as far as 1 could judge, the' result's of curious crossings between."the negro on.one; side, and on the other, the white man, the mulatto, the zambo, and other \races. ..Qneman with tick .lips, sooty, skin, woolly hair, and other.' indications of negro, blood, had also a Jewish nose and-'slant Mongolian -eyes. After I had. caught f sights of him I decided'that the cemetery* was a'more. comfortable place after all, and: accordingly directed my steps towards it. The gate was closed, but I easily climbed the' wall, and slept : -till -abrning on a tombstone, which, as I afterwards dis-. covered, bore the following half-effaced , inscription: "Captain John .McGregor,' . .'-'... . -the barqu'- 'Annie' Laurie.' .;.. .. I Lorn at! Fife_hire,,'.Scotland.;,Died.-';o"|V 'yellow fever. e| . Respected'-*y-aU who knew him." - *i ."-:■-