XX 



THE BRAZILIANS 



JO ROM my very first days in Brazil until my departure I always 

 felt at home in the country, and when, on returning from the 

 Argentine, I once more went ashore at Santos, and wandered at 

 will through the warm, fragrant air of the tropics, under the palms 

 and banana-trees, and between the pretty gardens and the pleasant 

 houses, meeting cheerful human beings of every shade of complexion, 

 I knew once more such a pleasant, comfortable feeling as when one 

 revisits intimate friends with whom one has lived as though in one's 

 own house. 



And how comfortably I Hved, even in Brazil ! In my room in the 

 monastery of Olinda I sat at ease in my rocking-chair, book in 

 hand, cooled by the gentle breeze that blew from the luminous 

 green ocean, which ever and again attracted my gaze. Slowly the 

 great, glittering crowns of the coconut-palms waved against the blue 

 sky, and with silent, gliding flight the black vultures passed over 

 the garden. 



In the Benedictine monastery at Rio I lived in a lofty cell with a 

 cross-vaulted ceiling. The great foursquare building rose from a 

 steep headland that ran out into the bay, so that as one wandered 

 along the wide verandah one could look out in three directions 

 over the bay with its islands, and the vessels entering and leaving, 

 and the picturesque girdle of beautiful mountains, until the sun 

 sank, and the coloured signal-lamps began to glow, while beaded 

 strings of light began to creep along the curves of the water- 

 front. 



Inside the monastery a broad cloister, with its great pillars and 

 arches, surrounded a green garden of palm-trees in which the 

 orange plumage of the ibises glowed like flowers. A contrast to 

 these two old monasteries was off'ered by the modern "Sao Bento" 

 in Sao Paulo. The great facade, with its calm, rigid outlines, rises 

 from the busiest square of the city. At the back of the building 

 is a ravine, across which a viaduct flings its arches. All is airy and 

 modern; the gymnasium which has been built on to the main 

 fabric is bright and sunny, and is even provided with a swimming- 

 bath. But the whole is dedicated to the service of the church, with 

 its wall-paintings and its magnificent organ. The constant proximity 



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