50 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



April 24^A. To-day we ladies went on shore for a few 

 hours, engaged our rooms, and drove about the city a little. 

 The want of cleanliness and thrift in the general aspect 

 of Rio de Janeiro is very striking as compared with the 

 order, neatness, and regularity of our large towns. The 

 narrow streets, with the inevitable gutter running down the 

 m idle, a sink for all kinds of impurities, the absence 

 of a proper sewerage, the general aspect of decay (partly 

 due, no doubt, to the dampness of the climate), the indolent 

 expression of the people generally, make a singular im- 

 pression on one who comes from the midst of our stirring, 

 energetic population. And yet it has a picturesqueness 

 that, to the traveller at least, compensates for its defects. 

 All who have seen one of these old Portuguese or Spanish 

 tropical towns, with their odd narrow streets and many- 

 colored houses with balconied windows and stuccoed or 

 painted walls, only the more variegated from the fact 

 that here and there the stucco has peeled off, know the 

 fascination and the charm which make themselves felt, 

 spite of the dirt and discomfort. Then the groups in the 

 street, the half-naked black carriers, many of them 

 straight and firm as bronze statues under the heavy loads 

 which rest so securely on their heads, the padres in their 

 long coats and square hats, the mules laden with baskets 

 of fruit or vegetables, all this makes a motley scene, 

 entertaining enough to the new-comer. I have never 

 seen such effective-looking negroes, from an artistic point 

 of view, as here. To-day a black woman passed us in 

 the street, dressed in white, with bare neck and arms, 

 the sleeves caught up with some kind of armlet, a large 

 white turban of soft muslin on her head, and a long 

 bright-colored shawl passed crosswise under one arm and 



