Note 53 — Chapter IX · RIO JANEIRO, CAPITAL OF BRAZIL.

That the Brazilian capital should be deemed a pleasant place for the residence of many Europeans will be inferred from what Mr. Elwes says of the profusion find varieties of its supplies of food:—

The market of Rio is a fine large building, to the north of the principal square. It is well supplied with fish; but the price is always very high, as the fishermen have a sort of monopoly, and will only bring a certain quantity to market, in order to keep it up. The best fish is the garoupa; immense prawns (camaroes) are very plentiful. Strangers are often told, as a joke, that these are kept in pits, and fed with the dead bodies of slaves thrown in from time to time; and I have known people who would never touch them on that account. Parrots, monkeys, &c., are very common, and a few game birds. Occasionally, large lizards of two or three feet in length are brought to market, and they are said to be excellent eating. Deer are sometimes killed in the woods; but I have never seen them in the market, though there is a small animal, called the paca, to be had, the flesh of which is very good. Fruit is supplied in great abundance. Oranges and bananas are to be had all the year. The oranges were superior to anything I had before tasted, and excel the Maltese. They are said to be better in Bahia, and better still in Pernambuco; so it appears that the hotter the climate, the more suitable it is to this fruit, as the Maltese and the Egyptian are certainly far superior to those of Portugal and Sicily. The banana (Musa paradisaica, called ‘plantano’ by the Spaniards, and ‘plantain’ in the West Indies,) is a most nutritious fruit; but few people like it at first, as the taste is rather sickly and insipid. There are a variety of sorts, which bear fruit of different sizes, but the short thick one is the best. It is very nutritious and productive; and it is said that forty square feet, planted with bananas, will support a man for a year. The plant itself is very handsome, and the great leaves, ten or twelve feet in length, and two in breadth, make a splendid feature in the landscape of the tropics. Each plant bears one bunch of fruit, after which it should be cut down, when suckers spring up in all directions from the root, so that it is a vegetable more suited for idle people than even the potato, as it does not require planting, and the fruit can be eaten without the trouble of cooking it. The fruta do Conde, or chirimoya of the Spaniard, and custard-apple of the West Indies, is delicious, but varies a good deal in quality. The maricuja, Spanish granadilla, the fruit of the passion-flower, is very good. It is about as large as a swan’s egg, with a pulp and seeds like a gooseberry. The alligator or avocada pear, the mammon, papaw, or mammy apple, are common fruits, not so good as those before-named. Pine-apples are common enough, but not very good.