ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



10 At 



a marine invasion ; unless, indeed, 

 the French wvre to come heie with 

 the flat-bottomed boats they have 

 been these three hundred years pre- 

 paring lor a descent u])oii England, 

 and then 1 fear neither the fort, the 

 governor, nor his half-clothed rag- 

 ged regiments of long-haired Indi- 

 ans, and whiskered 'Spaniards — who 

 are wilhout exception the dirtiest 

 slovenliest set of soldiers I ever set 

 my eves upon — would be able to 

 accomplish much in defence of the 

 town : taken altogether, in some 

 points of viev', it affords an agree- 

 able prospect enough, from the gar- 

 dens and trees with which it abounds, 

 contrasted with the whiteness of the 

 houses, which, in their colour, 

 height, and form, greatly resemble 

 those in the British colonies in iS^orth 

 America. But the ert'ect of every 

 thing in this place is, in a great mea- 

 sure, destroyed by the extreme dirti- 

 ness of the inhabitants ; who, from 

 their natural itidolence and lazy 

 habits, are beastly to an excess in 

 every particular. Scrubbing and 

 .scouring are not in the South Ame- 

 rican dictionary, and I really think 

 were never even heard of. TJie 

 rooms of the wealthy are swept with 

 a kind of broom, made from a pe- 

 culiar sort of grass or flax which 

 grows in theswamps where ihe wild 

 suijar cane is found. This is collect- 

 cd into a large tuft, not unlike a 

 mop, and with this the slaves sweep, 

 or rather wipe the rooms, which in 

 suinuK-r arc c vered with a beautiful 

 matting wove by the Indians, and in 

 v'inler with an European carpet. 

 White- washing, scrubbing, and 

 sousing, would be far more grateful 

 Jierc than in more northern climes, 

 yet they are never even thought of. 

 The whole life of a woman above the 

 common class is one continued sceuc 



of indolent monotony ; and she 

 would think herself degraded to the 

 lowest state of servitude were she, 

 for a moment, to consider by what 

 D:eans any part of the house might 

 be made more commodiously clean 

 than the other. The domestics fol- 

 low the example of their superiors 

 as sedulously here as in Europe; 

 and none of them will do an item of 

 work more than their allotted por- 

 tion, let what will be the conse- 

 quence : nothing seems more irk- 

 some to them than to be compelled 

 to execute any thing out of the com- 

 mon way. As no master is served 

 here from principle or affection, 

 coercive measures are the only 

 springs which set these machines in 

 motion ; — for, literally speaking, 

 they are nothing but machines, and 

 that as if formed by some bungling 

 mechanic ; for surely there never 

 was such a lazy, dirty, stinking set 

 of mortals ever collected together in 

 any other civilised city.'' 



This unpleasant picturcis, ho.vc- 

 ver. a little softened by a description 

 of thedciicious fragrance whichis ex- 

 haled from the trees and shrubs, with 

 which the widely separated houses 

 of the city are surrounded — " for," 

 adds our traveller, " more refresh- 

 ing, or more odorirtiroiis scents, 

 never regaled the sense of mortal. 

 And this blessing of lieaven, on the 

 outsides of the houses, counteiacts, 

 in some degree, the disagreeable 

 smells 1 often encounte-r within." 



Perhaps the most instructive, as 

 well as entertaining, of Mr. Davie's 

 letters, is that in which he enters 

 upon tiie government of Paraguay, 

 by the Jesuits, a subject of the 

 greatest interest, and one on which 

 we have scarcely any information, 



" The more I contemplate the 



filth and laziness of theso people, 



3X2 ■ tJie 



