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knee; and no one ventured to pass a common soldier on duty, or to read a public notice stuck against the wall, without performing some act of homage. These humiliating marks of respect were in some measure compensated by the studied courteousness which descended from the representative of royalty through all the gradations of society, and the easy intercourse which subsisted between him and his courtiers, and the citizens. The comparatively exclusive state, and the more ceremonious bearing, in which it behoved royalty to regulate its intercourse with the people, were therefore at first deemed by them as a serious public evil, and the circumstances of privation and distress to which the House of Braganza were at that time reduced, must have deepened this feeling of regret, in as much as the real condition of royalty came far short of the splendour and magnificence with which in Brazilian ideas it had been dignified. The queen was too old to feel the whole extent of her misfortunes, and though her person was in Rio, her imagination was said to have presented to her generally Lisbonian scenes. Her son, the Prince Regent, has been accused of apathy; but his want of energy is to be ascribed to the "cowardly sycophants and hypocritical priests" by whom his councils and conduct were influenced. His gratitude to the British nation was shown in the kindness and the protection displayed toward the English resident in Rio. The Prince Regent's consort is described as a woman of energetic character, and the widow of his brother was a person of mild uninteresting habits, but retired from public life. Besides these personages, his family consisted of seven children, and a relation from Spain the Infante Don Carlos de Bourbon. All of them, with their attendants, nearly three hundred in number, were crowded into a miserable abode, which had formerly contained the mint and a prison, and was united by a covered way with the convent of Carmelites. The royal equipage was a small chaise, drawn by two mules; the guard rode on unshod, lame, blind, and galled horses, and were clothed in jackets, exhibiting every possible shade of blue, "that various and varying colour," and many of them were much patched; they had no waistcoats, gloves, or stockings; and their boots were old and torn, never blacked, nor even brushed. The Prince Regent's wife sometimes went out on horseback, when, in compliance with the custom of the country, she rode astride. The children very seldom took the air, until a good strong family-chariot arrived, a present, it is said, from the king of Great Britain.

"Some idea of the low state of the colony, low in the arts and conveniences of life, may be formed from the fact, that on the anniversary of the Queen's birth-day, which occurred some months after my arrival, there were only six carriages mustered on the occasion, and these all open ones, with two wheels, and driven by dirty negroes. Yet this was a gala-day, and the wealthy part of the community had done their utmost to make a show.”

The lawyers meet every unhallowed morning in the street called Rua-da-Qui-Tandi, to transact business; and we have a ludicrous description of their dress and appearance.

"The generality were dressed in old, rusty black coats, some of them well patched, and so ill adapted to the height and form of the wearers, as to excite a suspicion that they were not the first who owned them. Their waistcoats were of gayer colours, with long embroidered bodies, large flaps, and deep pockets. Their breeches were black, so short as scarcely to reach either to the loins or the knees, where they were fastened with square buckles of mock brilliants; their stockings of home-spun cotton, and their shoe-buckles enormously large. Their heads were covered with powdered wigs, surmounted by large fan-tailed greasy hats, in which was usually placed a black cockade. The left thigh bore a very old shabby dirk. It was amusing to observe with what punctilious ceremony these gentlemen and their subalterns addressed each other; how exactly in order they bowed, and held their dirty hats; with what precise forms, and cool deliberations, they combined to pick the pockets of their clients. There were in the crowd a few respectable-looking men, but they were indeed a small proportion; the leading characters of the profession did not find it necessary to attend these street meetings. In general the meagre and sharpened features of the persons present, and their keenly piercing eyes, added to their sallow complexions, would have led a pretender in the science of Lavater, to determine the features of their minds with a glance, and to come to no very favourable conclusion."

Apothecaries shops are fitted up in a gaudy style. Merchants make their purchases of goods before breakfast, dine at noon, and then sleep till the evening; when they come forth to pay their visits and enjoy their amusements. They are represented as lamentably ignorant.

"Merchants as respectable in their line as most in the country, have excited our astonishment, by asking in what part of London England was; which was largest, Great Britain or Madeira; which farthest from Rio. Their ignorance extended beyond geography; few of them were acquainted with more than the first principles of arithmetic; in reading they spelled out the meaning, and to write a letter was a dreaded task."

The mechanics are said to be very unskilful, yet so proud that they think it beneath them to be seen carrying their tools. Slaves are sent into the streets to act as porters, and regulate their step by an African song. No playfulness of the young, or shouting of the more advanced, is to be seen or heard in the streets of St. Sebastian. Begging is not confined to the necessitous, for even the wealthy ask boons, borrow with a tacit understanding never to pay, and buy on an undefined credit; officers of the army have been seen soliciting charity; " and it is to be regretted, but ought to be

recorded, that more than one person who wore a star, fell into deeper disgrace-stole, and were detected." The dress of the females is extremely slight, often nothing more than a single habit "bound about the waist by the strings of a petticoat;" they wear no stockings, and seldom slippers. Their hair is long and fancifully decorated with artificial flowers; their manners are coarse and pert; and their minds uncultivated.

"At eighteen in a Brazilian woman, nature has attained to full maturity. A few years later she becomes corpulent, and even unwieldy; acquires a great stoop in her shoulders, and walks with an awkward waddling gait. She begins to decay, loses the good humour of her countenance, and assumes, in its place, a contracted and scowling brow; the eye and mouth both indicate that they have been accustomed to express the violent and vindictive passions; the cheeks are deprived of their plumpness and colour; and at twenty-five, or thirty at most, she becomes a perfectly wrinkled old woman."—" Premature age is owing partly to climate, partly to a constitution enfeebled and ruined by inactivity; most of all to the unnatural and shamefully early age at which females are allowed to marry.

The shopkeeper and his servants both eat and sleep on the ground-floor of the houses occupied as shops and warehouses; and persons of rank and riches inhabit the upper stories, to which there is an entrance from the streets. The front room is called the Sala, and is fitted up in rather a fantastic style; the varanda is in the back part of the house, and is usually occupied by the family. The principal meal is the dinner at noon, which consists of soup full of vegetables, carnesecca, feijam, and farinha. Knives are used only by the men; women and children employ their fingers. The female slaves eat at the same time in different parts of the room. Wine is drunk only during dinner; after it coffee is brought in; then water is carried round for the purpose of washing the mouth, the hands, and even the arms, and is generally poured upon the guests by a female slave; and, lastly, each retires to his siesta, to indulge in "the luxury of laziness." There is among the Brazilians a great want of personal cleanliness-the houses and the beds are overrun with vermin-and filth of all kinds is allowed to accumulate in the streets.

"When a gentleman calls upon another, if he be not intimate at the house, he goes thither in full dress, with a cocked hat, with buckles in his shoes and at the knees, and with a sword or dirk by his side. Having reached the bottom of the stairs, he claps his hands as a signal to attract attention, and utters a sort of sibilant sound, between his teeth and the end of his tongue, as though he pronounced the syllables chee eu. The servant,

who attends the call, roughly inquires in a nasal tone, who is it? and being told, retires to inform the master of the house, what are the wishes of the visiter. If he be a friend, or one so

well known as to be received without ceremony, the master quickly comes to him, and ushers him into the Sala, making loud pro-. testations of the pleasure given him by the visit, mixing his complimentary speeches with a great number of bows. Before business is entered upon, if that be the object, repeated apologies are offered for the free mode in which the visiter is received. And, indeed, there is often no little occasion for such apologies, for the gentleman very generally makes his appearance with a beard of many days growth, with his black hair in the roughest state, though besmeared with grease, and with no clothing over his cotton shirt. This garment is, indeed, well made, and ornamented with needlework, especially about the bosom. But then it is commonly worn in the house, so as to expose the breast; and the sleeves are tucked up at the elbows. Or if, by chance, it be secured at the neck and wrists by its globular gold buttons, the flaps appear on the outside, hanging half way down the thighs, over a waistband, which secures round the loins a short pair of trowsers; while the legs are quite bare, and the feet covered with tamancas. All this is not very delicate; more especially as the skins of the Brazilians abound with hair, and are much sun-burnt about the breast and legs.

"Should the call be a ceremonious one, a servant is sent to conduct the visiter to the sala, from which, as he enters, he often sees the persons who were in the room escaping at the other door. Here he waits alone, it may be, half an hour, when the gentleman appears in a sort of half dress. They both bow profoundly, at a distance; after a sufficiency of skill in this science has been displayed, and thus time gained to ascertain each other's rank and pretensions, they approach; if unequal, with corresponding dignity and respect; if supposed to be nearly equals, with familiarity. The business is then entered upon, and despatched at once. These bows between strangers, and this slow approach, I almost love, as they give men some opportunity to measure and appreciate one another, and prevent a thousand awkward blunders, and equally awkward apologies. With my countrymen in general, I participate in an abhorrence of the Brazilian embrace."

"In the city, persons retire after dinner to their own houses, to take their repose and spend the evening as they please. Out of the city, particularly if the moon be nearly full, evening finds the remaining guests in full gaiety of spirits; sleep has dissipated the fumes of wine, if too much had been taken, the company is enlarged by an assemblage of the neighbourhood, the guitar strikes up, for every one can touch it; the song succeeds, generally in soft and plaintive notes; and the dance is not forgotten. In this way the hours of evening pass, or in the ever-varying deals of manilla, in free remarks and smart replies, in feats of agility and harmless frolics. The reserved character, which seldom fails to make itself conspicuous in the earlier part of the day, wears off; and not unfrequently people run to the opposite extreme The loose at

tire of the ladies is peculiarly favourable to the exertion of their limbs, and they engage with great hilarity in the rough, but innocent exercises of the other sex. Here and there a jealous old husband looks after his young and sprightly wife, and she deems it prudent to restrain her gaiety; but it makes little difference, and occasions no interruption of the general glee."

"Their feet are the most cleanly parts of their persons, for it is necessary to wash them occasionally, in order to keep them from the injury which the neglected bite of different insects frequently produces. The faces, hands, arms, bosoms, and legs, all of which are in both sexes much exposed, are rarely blessed with any cleansing; and hence, more than from a burning sun, acquire a considerable degree of brownness. The skin of young children is commonly fair, but being permitted to roll about continually in the dirt, and being seldom, or carelessly washed, their hue soon becomes as dingy as that of their parents. No such instrument as a small-tooth comb, nor any substitute for it but the fingers, is known in this part of the American continent. Men and women, children and servants, indulge publicly in one of the most disgusting of Portuguese customs; one reclines with his or her head in the lap of another, for a purpose unnameable; even monkeys are taught to fill the same office, and do it with dexterity and plea

sure."

Our author, in quest of a better market than Rio afforded, made a voyage to the Plata, and thereby obtained some valuable information respecting the newly acquired Brazilian territory in the south. This, he says, cannot be less than seventy thousand square miles in extent, possesses the natural advantages of a fine climate, a fertile soil, and mighty rivers, and comprehends nearly the whole of the district first civilized by the Jesuits. It is divided into two capitania's or provinces, named from the rivers by which they are bounded. The information in the following extract is worth knowing.

"One of these rivers, the Paraná, rises in the heart of Brazil, flows through the country to receive the Paraguay, and becomes the western boundary of the province, to which it communicates its The latter river had been, previously, the limit of Brazil on that side, from its remotest source, and of the province of Paranà from the lake of Xarays. Their united streams flow with a sea-like majesty, until they contribute to form the immense estuary, familiarly known as the Rio de la Plata. Different persons who have written of these rivers, have confounded the names of the principal and the tributary streams, in a way which an acquaintance with the native language might have prevented. Para always describes a large body of water; Na or Nha signifies sufficiency; hence the term Parana, besides being technically given to one particular river, is applied also to the ocean, as well as any great expanse of fresh water. Guay describes a smaller portion

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