Disemborkafion at Rio de Janeiro. 123 



rapidly-increasing city, or the axe of the emigrant settler ; it is 

 but little one can add to or alter in the picturesque descrip- 

 tion which travellers, alive to its natural beauties, had already 

 given, half a century ago, of the wonderful haven of the Bra- 

 zilian metropolis ! Very different, however, is the impression, 

 when the stranger, on disembarking, sets foot on the new 

 world, and has to make his way through narrow, steep, filthy 

 streets, greeted by yelling crowds of blacks and whites, poor 

 negro slaves, and wealthy planters, into the interior of this 

 bustling port. An entirely altered state of affairs has sprung 

 up since the separation of Brazil from Portugal, and he who has 

 not seen Rio within the last ten years would hardly recognize 

 the capital of the Brazilian empire. Along with the most con- 

 spicuous deficiencies, in numerous particulars, one finds such 

 institutions as are not to be met with, in a similarly flourishing 

 condition, in anv other State of South America, or amonsf the 

 republics of the Isthmus. But Brazil is emphatically "The 

 Land of Contrasts." 



When the traveller, stepping on shore from the anchorage 

 for ships of war, (which is a little to the south of that for mer- 

 chant vessels), has forced his way through the swarms of 

 human beings at the landing stage, and in front of the hotel 

 Pharoux, he finds himself on the Largo do Payo, or Palace 

 Square. Here on his left rises the singular-looking Imperial 

 Residence, and on his right, close to the shore, the Market Hall. 

 A dense bustling crowd throngs the streets, while numerous 

 vehicles, some drawn by horses, others by mules, as also omni- 



