40s and 50s Memories
4
J. ANNESLEY-SMITH
King Alfred 1945
John Annesley-Smith came to King's in 1941
and spent his years in King Alfred. His studies
went in the direction of singing, and on the
sporting field he played football.
He left King's in 1945 and from his later life he
offers a narrative describing an episode when
he worked on a big cattle ranch in Brazil.
In 1954, I was offered a contract in London to
work in Brazil. I worked on a big cattle farm
(fazenda) in São Francisco, as assistant to the
manager. I knew very little about cattle farms and
had to learn everything but not by just watching
the cowboys work. I had to do everything and
learn from riding, milking, rounding up cattle,
castrating, vaccinating and many other things.
I thought it would be interesting to write a story
about my experiences on the farm and one
episode of boiadas (in English herding steers)
Every four or five months steers were sent to
the slaughter house (frigorifico). About 1000
head were sent each time. From the farm to
the slaughter house is about 250 kms ride and
it took eight days driving the cattle. The team
usually consisted of one foreman and eight
cowboys. Each cowboy had two mules to ride
on alternative days and the mules that were
rested were driven in front of the boiada by one
other cowboy.
Meals were taken at 4.00 am, a small cup of
black coffee, lunch at 9.00 am, consisting of
rice, beans and salted meat called charque
and the late meal, served when the boiada
arrived at the stopping place and once again
this was rice, beans and charque. If lucky, you
sometimes got chicken. The next boiada was
due to go on a Sunday morning and my boss
wanted me to go to get experience. I chose two
mules for the journey. It was July which was
winter in Brazil, so pretty hot during the day
and cold at night. I took a pullover, jacket and
woollen cape for the cold and rain. In July there
is hardly any rain and luckily during our journey
it didn´t rain. We set off around 7.00 am the first
day. When we stopped for the day we always
slept near a stream where we could wash, but
at night it was cold. We all slept in hammocks. Actually the trip went very well and luckily no
rain occurred, but as I said it was hot during the
day and cold at night. I hated the cold but the
Brazilian cowboys didn´t mind it and laughed at
me saying imagine an Englishman feeling the
cold.
There were one or two incidents that stand
out to mind until today. One day I was alone
in front of the boiada and we came to a small
river which we had to cross, so in I went and
almost in the middle my mule stepped into a
hole and I fell off. After a while two cowboys
arrived and seeing me just laughed their heads
off and explained that there was a bridge behind
some bushes. On another occasion when the
boiada stopped to spend the night in São José
dos Rio Preto, one of the steers near me ran
up an embankment to the train line and I had
to go after it at full speed to stop it going onto
the line. I managed to round the steer up and
after a lot of shouting and cursing drove it back
to the herd. I was lucky because a train was
approaching.
The trip was pretty boring and I used to teach
English words to one of the cowboys, for example
words like horse (cavalo), steer (boi) etc. About
midday each day I used to feel hungry so when
approaching a town I used to go into town for a
sandwich because only eating rice, beans and
charque was terrible. On the last day we had
a good lunch with a drop of pinga (cane spirit)
followed by rice, beans and chicken, followed
with dessert guava and cheese and the usual
black coffee. When we arrived at the slaughter
house I went to the English club had a lovely
bath and shave. I had some beers, a good lunch
with boys at the club and after lunch travelled
back to the farm in an old bus.
I remember we stopped the night at a hotel
in São José do Rio Preto and the foreman
complained that he couldn't sleep in the bed as
he was used to a hammock. Hammocks are
good to lie for an hour or so. We arrived at the
farm and found out, due to the dryness half the
farm had burnt down. So when I got to the farm
the manager told me to get the Jeep and to go
and inspect the damage from the fire. We had a
tough life but I loved it.