XXI 



he was able to speak it with tolerable ease. Most of his time in 

 Portugal was passed at Lisbon, except during the hot months of 

 summer, when Mr. Smith resided at Cintra, a beautiful rural re- 

 treat, much resorted to by the wealthy inhabitants of Lisbon. 

 Here Mr. Pickering, little inclined to mingle in the fashionable 

 amusements going on around him, had leisure for his own pursuits, 

 and found constant enjoyment among the orange and lemon groves 

 abounding there, and from the mountainous, romantic scenery of 

 the place. He used to speak of some other excursions from Lis- 

 bon. He visited the famous monastery of Batalha, a grand speci- 

 men of elaborate antique architecture, which made a deep impres- 

 sion upon his mind, and he often spoke of it afterwards with 

 enthusiastic admiration. He also visited the ancient University of 

 Coimbra, where the venerable professors paid him the kindest 

 attentions, and at parting embraced him as a friend. He had, 

 indeed, always a language of the intellect, heart, and manner, 

 alike intelligible and pleasing to all, which at once secured him 

 friends wherever he went. 



He travelled little to see the country. Much as he loved nature, 

 he loved humanity more. Whatever related to the human mind, 

 or to human society, in any state or form of its existence, — insti- 

 tutions, laws, manners, arts, education, language, — engaged his 

 deep attention. In pursuing his studies at Lisbon, he felt at first 

 the want of books ; but making friends, in his wonted manner, of 

 some learned monks, whom he visited in an old convent, he ob- 

 tained through their kindness those which he most needed. The 

 civil law and the law of nations, with the study of languages, were 

 the leading objects of his attention. He read Vattel's Laio of Na- 

 tions, in the original French, and entered upon Justinian's Insti- 

 tutes. Meeting with a learned native of Damascus, where the 



