LETTERS FROM BRAZIL 73 



and conventional. One should speak of him as a man 

 of high intelligence, of warm affections, of truly human 

 character in the highest sense of the word." 



On the twenty-eighth we went over in the steamer 

 to meet the Emperor. Agassiz had told him what a 

 magnificent ship she was and how generous the con- 

 duct of the Company had been towards the expedi- 

 tion, and the Emperor sent him word on Thursday 

 that he would come out to see the steamer Friday. 

 The whole thing was perfectly informal; no one w^as 

 invited, and there were present only ten or fifteen 

 persons beside the Emperor and his suite. The Captain 

 received him w^th a royal salute of twenty-one reports 

 from his Parrott guns, — the first full salute fired 

 from them and delivered with a promptness and ac- 

 curacy that did credit to the gunners. On arriving he 

 passed directly through the great salon without stop- 

 ping for presentation; his chamberlain, Viscount of 

 Something (whose name I forget) was introduced to 

 me and remained talking with me till His Majesty 

 returned from making the tour of the steamer. I 

 begged him two or three times to join the others, but 

 he declined, and indeed I rather think the Emperor's 

 inquiring mind makes it tiresome for his attendants 

 to follow him in all his peregrinations, and as the 

 Chamberlain was a remarkably agreeable man, I was 

 glad of his laziness, which induced him to take the less 

 fatiguing duty. The Emperor dragged his puffing, 

 panting staff from top to bottom of the establishment 

 — from the pantries and the butcher's room down into 

 the infernal regions where the firemen live, — indeed, 



