

1 831 .] Anecdotes of Brazil. 133 



The revenues of the convent would, I have no doubt, have borne 

 ample testimony to the justice of the reverend father's remark. As we 

 were quitting the convent, one of our party, a youngster, indulged in a 

 jest on the ridicule of some passages in the life of St. Francis, which 

 were rudely delineated in Dutch tiles on the walls of the corridors. To 

 our surprise, he was sharply rebuked though I thought, at the moment, 

 more in jest than earnest by the lay-brother, in our own vernacular 

 tongue. On our eagerly questioning him as to where he had acquired 

 his knowledge of English, he told us that he had been for ten years a 

 mizen-top-man in the British navy j and, at the close of the war, being 

 paid off, he returned to Portugal, where he exchanged the blue jacket 

 for the flowing robes of St. Francis. Judging from his appearance, he 

 had no reason to be dissatisfied with his new mode of life. As the door 

 of the convent swung heavily on its hinges after us, the aphorism "from 

 the sublime to the ridiculous" forcibly occurred to me. 



To one accustomed to the gaieties and amusements of European 

 society, nothing can be imagined more dull and insipid than life in 

 Brazil. The existence of the Brazilian may be likened to a stagnant 

 pool, unmarked by any thing to enliven its undeviating monotony, or 

 embellish its career. In most of the large towns there are theatres, many 

 of them really handsome structures ; but the artists are execrable while 

 their performances consist of a few miserable translations from the 

 French and Spanish dramas. During Lent, sacred pieces termed, 

 during the middle ages, " Mysteries" are still performed, arid, in the 

 shape of dramatic representation, were decidedly the best things I saw. 

 Familiar intercourse between families is almost totally unknown j their 

 indolence and the intense heat of the climate render visiting too great 

 an exertion. The vrais spectacles du pays are the churches, which, on the 

 high festivals, are sure to be crowded. In the cool of a moonlight even- 

 ing, so beautiful in a tropical climate, a Brazilian family will sometimes 

 sally forth. Their order of march is conducted according to all the 

 rules of the military art ; their advance-guard formed by a sable- 

 coloured duenna and her attendants ; at some distance follow the young 

 senhoras, in pairs, according to age their rear scrupulously guarded by 

 the elder branches of the family. In spite of all their vigilance, how- 

 ever, I have often observed a group of gallants hovering, like guerillas, 

 on the flank of the column, succeed, by a dashing manoeuvre, in con- 

 veying some love-token into the hands of a pretty brunette, whose dark 

 gazelle eye danced with joy at their success. At others, they may be 

 seen inhaling the evening breeze in their spacious verandahs ; the 

 mother engaged in animated colloquy with a solemn friar ; the father 

 discussing the politics of the day ; while the younger branches of the 

 family form a beautiful group in the fore-ground of the picture, and sing 

 to a guitar accompaniment some of their sweet modenhas, with all the 

 impassioned tones of their sunny climes. 



The political independence, while it cost the Spanish-American 

 colonies a twenty years' struggle to effect, was in Brazil achieved in 

 only as many months a result, produced rather by the operation of 

 intrigue than the force of arms. The constitutional system of Portugal, 

 proclaimed in Brazil in 1821, was a prologue to the grand drama of 

 independence. Previous to the dawn of this eventful period, the poli- 

 tical condition of this extensive colony had been as still and unruffled as 

 a mountain-lake. Unlike the neighbouring Spanish colonies, she had 



