]4 A SPRING TOUR IN rORTUQAU 



tering to this country, was forced to exclaim, as tiie bril- 

 liant city burst upon his view : — 



Wlmt bciiutios doth Lisbon first unfold t 

 Ilor image flouting in that noble tldo 

 Wliicli puctb vainly piivo with sands of gold. 



As soon as we had cast anchor, we took our leave of the 

 courteous Captain Jeliicob, as well as the purser and the 

 other excellent officers of the Shannoni and leavin<T our 

 baggage to the tender mercies of the custom liouse officers, 

 we entered one of the many boats which by this time had 

 Hurrounded us, and pulled ashore. Then, after the usual 

 wrangle with the good-tempered boatmen, wliich I iind is 

 become the universal accompaniment to setting forth on 

 shore in a strange land, we climbed up the steep streets to 

 the Hotel Braganza, glad to breakfast on ieirafirma, and 

 to secure rooms in that comfortable house. As we made 

 the Braganza our liead-quarters for several weeks, it was 

 pleasant to find ourselves in a central position, and yet 

 high up above the river; so that not only our windows 

 commanded a magnificent view of the city, the Tagus 

 crowded with shipping, and the hills on the opposite shore, 

 but we enjoyed the signal advantage in a hot country of 

 pure air and the sea breeze, which was daily wafted up the 

 river. It wiis the business of a morning, even with tb.e 

 help of an English resident in Lisbon, who most kindly 

 volunteered his services as interpreter, to pass our baggage 

 through the custom house, for Portuguese inspection is 

 still as minute, and Portuguese curiosity quite a^ intense, 

 as in the old days we remember so well at Calais and at 

 Dover, So we not only had to unlock every box and un- 

 strap every portmanteau, but the rigid search for contra- 

 band articles required a lengthened investigation of the 

 contents of every package, which is always very annoying 

 and somewhat humiliating to the owner. But this ridicu- 

 lous search to gratify curiosity (for it did »ot appear that 



