252 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
airy room hang our hammocks, and here are disposed our 
trunks, boxes, <fcc. ; in the other half are a couple of writing- 
tables, a Yankee rocking-chair that looks as if it might have 
come out of a Maine farmer's house, a lounging-chair, and 
one or two other pieces of furniture, which give it a do- 
mestic look and make it serve very well as a parlor. There 
are many other apartments in this rambling, rickety castle 
of ours, with its brick floors and its rat-holes, its lofty, bare 
walls, and rough rafters overhead ; but this is the only one 
we have undertaken to make habitable, and to my eye it 
presents a very happy combination of the cosey and the 
picturesque. We have been already urged by some of 
our hospitable friends here to take other lodgings ; but we 
are much pleased with our quarters, and prefer to retain 
them, at least for the present. 
On our arrival we were greeted by the tidings that the 
first steamer of the line recently opened between New 
York and Brazil had touched at Para on her way to 
Rio. According to all accounts, this has been made the 
occasion of great rejoicing ; and, indeed, there appears to 
be a strong desire throughout Brazil to strengthen in 
every way her relations with the United States. The 
opening of this line seems to bring us nearer home, and 
its announcement, in connection with excellent news, pub- 
lic and private, from the United States, made the day of 
our return to Manaos a very happy one. A few hours 
after our own arrival the steamer " Ibicuhy," provided by 
the government for our use, came into port. To our great 
pleasure, she brings Mr. Tavares Bastos, deputy from Ala- 
goas, whose uniform kindness to us personally ever since 
our arrival in Brazil, as well as his interest in the success 
of the expedition, make it a great pleasure to meet him 
