Travelers were people of both sexes, varied social classes, professions and diverse intellectual backgrounds, who described aspects of Brazil, by chronicles, travel accounts, letters, memoirs, logs, collections of pictures.

 

The set of works left by these travelers compose the so-called “travel literature” and constitutes a literature of testimony, whose records and observations help to know the reality of Brazil at the time.

 

The presence of foreign travelers and their published accounts of Brazil date back to the 16th century. There are more than 260 works, in several languages. The authors address aspects of the inhabitants, social life, cultures and customs, fauna, flora and other aspects of the former Portuguese colony, mainly during the 19th century, after Dom João VI decreed the opening of Brazilian ports in 1808. After the opening of the ports there was an increase in navigation and consequent increase in the foreign presence in the country. 

 

Pero Vaz de Caminha wrote the first account of Brazil, in a letter to D. Manoel I, King of Portugal, when Pero Vaz found the Terra de Santa Cruz (Land of Sant Cruz).

 

Also in the 16th century, there are the accounts of Hans Staden, True History: An Account of Cannibal Captivity in Brazil (1557) and that of Jean de Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil (1574).

 

Among the large number of foreigners, travelers, and adventurers (English, French, German, Portuguese), who wrote their perception and chronicles about Brazil, some of those journeyed through the Brazilian Northeast region and made their reports about the region.

 

The Englishman Henry Koster wrote one of the best narratives about the Northeast region in the first half of the 19th century, the book Travels in Brazil, published in 1816, London. In 1898, it was translated by Antônio C. de A. Pimenta and published in the Journal of the Pernambuco Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Institute. However, only in 1942, the first edition of this book was published in Brazil, translated by Luís da Câmara Cascudo with the title Viagens ao Nordeste do Brasil.

 

As a complement to Koster’s account, the Frenchman Louis François de Tollenare wrote, between 1816 and 1818, a travel log addressing important aspects of social and political life, uses and customs, popular festivals, slavery, political movements, and the economy of society of the time. The chapters on the states of Pernambuco and Bahia were translated by Alfredo de Carvalho and published under the title of Notas dominicais, in the Journals of the Pernambuco Archaeological and Geographical Institute, in 1904 (v.61), and of the Historical and Geographical Institute of Bahia, in 1907 (v.14).

 

James Henderson’s account is noteworthy. This English traveler and diplomat visited Brazil from 1819 to 1821 and wrote the book (still untranslated for the Portuguese), A history of Brazil: its geography, commerce, colonization, aboriginal inhabitants, published in London in 1821.

 

The German Johan Moritz Rugendas has a significant work for the study of physical characteristics, habits and customs of the Black and Indigenous population in Brazil, as well as the mulattos and mestiços (mixed-race) that compose the so-called Brazilian race. The book was translated into Portuguese and published in 1940 under the title Viagem pitoresca através do Brasil.

 

Another important account of Brazil and the Northeast region in 19th century is that of the English woman Maria Graham, who visited Brazil three times and wrote the Journey of a Voyage to Brazil, and Residence There, During Part of the Years 1821, 1822 and 1823 (Diário de uma viagem ao Brasil e de uma estada nesse país durante parte dos anos de 1821, 1822 e 1823, title in Portuguese), published in Brazil in the Série Brasiliana,  v. 8, in 1956.

 

Two German scientists, Johan Baptist von Spix and Karl Friedrich Philip von Martius, made a great journey through the countryside of Brazil, from 1817 to 1820, traveling through several provinces, following through the course of the São Francisco River, through Minas Gerais and Bahia, through the backcountry of Pernambuco, Piauí, and Maranhão, analyzing and taking notes about local populations. His notes were translated into the Portuguese and published by the Imprensa Nacional (National Press), under the title Viagem pelo Brasil, in 1938.

 

Richard Francis Burton was one of the greatest English travelers of the 19th century. In 1865, he was appointed British consul in Santos and, in 1867, obtained permission to travel throughout Brazil, lasting five months. He visited the state of Rio de Janeiro, the state of Minas Gerais, Paulo Afonso, in the state of Bahia, going to Penedo, in Alagoas, following the course of São Francisco River, which he called “Brazilian Mississippi.” His notes were recorded in the book, Explorations of the highlands of the Brazil, published in London in 1869 and translated into the Portuguese as Viagens aos planaltos do Brasil (1941).

 

The narratives of the travelers, gathered in books—sometimes printed in more than one edition and translated into several languages—were very successful at the time, being disputed by the public interested in descriptions of exotic peoples and customs.

 

Therefore, travelers were the great chroniclers of Brazilian life from the 16thto 19thcenturies, describing in their works aspects of land, people, customs and cultures of Brazil. All the works mentioned in the text can be found at the Blanche Knopf Central Library of the Fundação Joaquim Nabuco .

 

Recife, June 29, 2004.

 

sources consulted

ANJOS JÚNIOR, João Alfredo dos (Org.). Viajantes ingleses no Nordeste do Brasil no século XIX. Recife: Fundaj; Instituto de Documentação. Biblioteca Central Blanche Knopf; The British Council, 1991.  [Não paginado]. Catálogo de exposição bibliográfica.

CALDEIRA, José de Ribamar C. O Maranhão na literatura dos viajantes do século XIX. [São Luís]: Academia Maranhense de Letras; Edições AML/Sioge, 1991. 93p.

SILVA, Leonardo Dantas. Viajantes: a paisagem vista por outros olhos. Ciência & Trópico, Recife, v. 28, n. 2, p. 249-260, jul./dez. 2000.

how to quote this text

GASPAR, Lúcia. Travelers: Accounts of Brazil (from the 16th to the 19th centuries). In: PESQUISA Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2004. Available from: https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/pt-br/artigo/viajantes-relatos-sobre-o-brasil-seculos-xvi-xix/. Accessed: day month year. ( Ex.: Aug 6. 2009.)