186 NARRATIVE. 



of mind, till the day before our departure, when a vessel arrived 

 with despatches from Lisbon. His conversation was good, his 

 manners polite, and he pressed the few delicacies he had to offer 

 for our acceptance, with a friendliness, which augured well of his 

 disposition. The higher classes of most countries combine dignity 

 with affabihty, and I never saw it more happily blended than in 

 the females of the family ; it completely reconciled me to the 

 strange appearance of coarse, coloured, cotton gowns, washed out 

 silk handkerchiefs, and a few nameless barbarisms, not yet banished 

 by Portuguese good breeding. 



Our second residence gave us a view of the Sunday cavalcade 

 going to mass. It was preceded by a parade, summoned by a 

 cracked drum ; and such a mixture of tall and short, fat and lean, 

 could not be exceeded by any caricaturist in the world. Not one 

 of the soldiers but wanted shoes, or some part of his uniform ; 

 and their dismissal reminded me very forcibly of Bombastes Furioso 

 taking leave of his men, the soldiers in question being quite as 

 incapable of " making a row !" The black priest proceeded a few 

 minutes before the rest, to assume his robes, and a servant in a 

 mock livery headed the procession, carrying the Governor's daughter 

 (a pretty clever child, five years old) in his arms. Papa and mamma 

 went next, the former in a full suit of black, knee buckles, cocked 

 hat, (^-c; his lady in black silk and velvet, which was carefully laid 

 aside immediately on her return, when she put on a white robe 

 for dinner, wliich was changed for a coarse cotton stripe by tea 

 time. The rest of the party walked indiscriminately, and feathers, 

 and flowers, and dyes of every hue, were mingled with aid-de- 

 camps, cadets, strangers, mulattoes, slaves, and ragged black 

 children ; the whole population running to the spot, to enjoy 

 this display of grandeur. 



A higher spectacle awaited us on the arrival of the vessel from 

 Lisbon, which decided the Governor's fate, and as it just entered 



