Rambles about Rio de Janeiro 77 



street-cars move to and fro looking like ants, and 

 human beings are mere specks of black, scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable except with an opera-glass. We staid 

 a half -hour upon the summit feasting our eyes, and then 

 the writer walked down the mountain botanizing and 

 entomologizing as he went. The walk was hot, but 

 it is never to be forgotten. What pleasure to be alone 

 in the woods, with no sounds but those of the wind, the 

 brooks, and the birds ! What exquisite delight to ram- 

 ble free of foot along pathways lined with plants, 

 known hitherto only by carefully nourished specimens 

 grown in conservatories, or preserved in herbaria. 

 If a visit to the palm-house at Kew is a delight, what 

 a delight it is to have the whole wide world apparently 

 transformed into a colossal conservatory, and to be free 

 to go up and down in it, gathering flowers everywhere. 



The five days at Rio de Janeiro came all too quickly 

 to an end. I promised myself as the anchor came up and 

 we stood out to sea that, if life and health should be 

 spared to me, I would again some day renew my ac- 

 quaintance with this fascinating region, of the charms of 

 which I had only had a taste. 



As we made our way out of the bay I recalled what I 

 had read of the history of the spot. Here the Huguenots 

 of France once assayed settlement, and the memory of 

 their occupation is perpetuated in the name of the 

 fortified island which still bears the name of Villegagnon, 

 the commander of the company of French Protestants 

 who made the first attempt to colonize the region in 

 : 555- They were driven out a few years later by Mem 

 da Sa, the Portuguese Governor of Brazil, who laid out 

 and effected the settlement of what is now the busi- 

 ness quarter of Rio, and remained as Governor until 

 his death in 1572. It is as idle to speculate as to what 



