146 Voyage of the Novara. 



cloth. The associates, with the exception of the Vice-Pre- 

 sident and Secretaries, seemed to have no fixed seats, but sat 

 in the order of their arrival. During the sitting there was the 

 most marked absence of ceremony, and the business was trans- 

 acted in the freest and easiest manner. 



The proceedings were uninteresting, the greatest portion of 

 the time being occupied in reading over the minutes of the last 

 sitting, and replying to certain strictures upon the incapacity 

 of land-surveyors in Brazil. Sir Robert Schomburgk had, in 

 one of his works published in 1843, upon the subject of New 

 Guinea, made some disparaging observations as to the method 

 of admeasurement pursued in Brazil, and one member of the 

 society. Dr. Schilch de Capanema, seemed to consider it his 

 duty in his double capacity as a Brazilian and an engineer, 

 to protest — somewhat tardily it must be owned ! — against 

 these, according to his opinion, unjust remarks. After the dis- 

 cussion was over, a manuscript was next brought forward con- 

 cerning some of the native tribes ; His Majesty expressed a 

 wish to have this treatise read. The secretary accordingly 

 made the attempt, but the writing was so illegible, that he was 

 obliged to abandon the task. At the conclusion of the meet- 

 ing, which lasted upwards of three hours. His Majesty con- 

 versed very affably with the Austrian gentlemen, and pre- 

 sented each with a copy of a national poem, " Confera9ao dos 

 Tamoyos," by a native poet, Gongalves de Magalhaes, and 

 recently printed at His Majesty*s expense, which relates the 

 wars of the Tamoyos with the Portuguese residents of San 



