310 THELIFEOF 



letter to me has been already given. As Ma^ 

 nique knew nothing of me, it fhould feem that 

 fome weighty arguments had been made ufc of 

 to him by fome of thofe gentlemen I had offended 

 in Brazil, and who there made an attempt to 

 affadinate me. Whether he who had the po- 

 ll tencfs to declare to my face that " the Englifh 

 " troops were good for nothing 1" and had 

 learnt that I did not fuffcr fuch infolence to 

 pafs with impunity, joined his mite of influence 

 to injure me, he muft determine. 



The air and climate of Portugal are well 

 known for their lalubrity and pleafantnefs, the 

 weather being feldom inconveniently hot in 

 fummer, nor is the winter ever fo cold as to 

 require the ufe of fires, fo that hardly fuch a 

 thing as a fire-place is feen. The inhabitants 

 are fo intolerably lazy, that it is no unufual 

 matter to fee a parcel of lufiy fellows fitting on 

 the ground picking the vermin off each other; 

 a;id their fuperfiition furpaffes all imagination. 

 The churches here are numerous and fine; in 

 that of St. Antonio they {'h&w a ffone in which 

 the holy man, as they believe, made the figure 

 of the crofs with his finger : the marks of the 

 chizzel are not, however, io totally obliterated 

 but that the impofture ffrikes the moff fuperfi- 

 cial obfcrver. 



Portugal 



