252 A JOURNEY IX 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 Xew 

 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 



