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PORTUGAL. 



Portugal. 



Colonies* 



Character 

 and habits 

 oF the 

 people. 



Europe ; but she trades pretty extensively with her co- 

 lonies, with the United States, and the East Indies. 

 The internal trade of this country is much limited, as 

 previously stated, by the badness of the roads, the want 

 of canals and bridges, and the difficulty and precari- 

 ousness of river navigation. 



The colonial possessions of Portugal, it may not be 

 improper to mention in this place, are the Madeira, the 

 Azores, and Cape cle Verd islands, with some settle- 

 ments in Africa, as Guiana, Angola, Mozambique ; and 

 in Asia, Goa, Timor, and Macao. The Asiatic settle- 

 ments may be regarded as mere relics of former great 

 splendour and importance. Of the recent revolution in 

 Brazil, long the most important colony of which Por- 

 tugal was possessed, an account may be found in a sub- 

 sequent portion of this article. 



Of the cities and towns of Portugal, an account may 

 be found in this work under separate heads. Referring 

 the reader to these articles, we need merely at present 

 mention that the most important cities are Lisbon, the 

 capital, situated on the Tagus, and containing 230,000 

 inhabitants;* Oporto, lying on the Douro, and amount- 

 ing to 65,000 ; Coimbra, on the Mondego, containing 

 15,000; Elvas, on the Guadiana, 16,000; Evora, Bra- 

 ga, Setubal, about 12,000 each; and that the other 

 towns and villages, (and their number extends to se- 

 veral thousands,) are small, poor, and thinly inhabited. 

 Braganza, which lies in Tras os Montes, may be men- 

 tioned, as it confers the ducal title on the present 

 reigning family of Portugal. The only great sea-ports 

 are Lisbon, Oporto, and St. Ubes, or Sstubal. There 

 are many maritime towns, but of an interior descrip- 

 tion, being accessible only to small vessels, and pos- 

 sessing scarcely any thing but a mere coasting trade. 



The Portuguese are characterized by different fea- 

 tures in the diiferent parts of the kingdom. In Lisbon 

 they are pre-eminently remarkable tor corruption, for 

 insincerity and luxury ; in the southern provinces they 

 are simple and unsophisticated, polite, but extremely 

 indolent ; while in the northern districts they are open, 

 candid, industrious, enterprising, and ambitious. The 

 general features, however, of the peasantry, and the 

 inhabitants of the minor towns, are primitiveness and 

 simplicity, such as may be expected to obtain among a 

 people that have enjoyed little intercourse with strangers, 

 inactivity, want of enterprise, silenca, retirement, 

 dislike to social pleasures, attachment to the higher or- 

 ders, blind reverence to their priests, and loyalty to their 

 sovereign. Treachery, ingratitude, vindictiveness, have 

 also been uniformly laid to their charge. Notwithstand- 

 ing their fondness for seclusion, they are hospitable 

 to strangers, particularly if they belong to the Popish 

 church, which is the national religion. The nobility 

 are proud, ostentatious, and tyrannical, displaying that 

 feudal illiberality and despotism which is so baneful to 

 the progress of liberal knowledge and to independence 

 of spirit, and which has now nearly disappeared in all 

 the more civilized countries of Europe. The peasantry 

 are, consequently, in a state of complete vassalage to 

 the Fidalgos, or gentlemen ; though, in opposition to 

 this, it may be mentioned, as a favourable indication of 

 character, that the utmost kindness and affability are in 

 general shown to domestic servants, no small number 

 of whom spend their days in the same family. That 

 indolence, for which the nation, with the exception 

 of the inhabitants of the northern provinces, are so 



remarkable, may probably be accounted for from the Portugal, 

 endless holidays of the Catholic church, and the ge- v^-J^/ 

 neral debasing effects of that superstitious creed which 

 it so assiduously inculcates. In Lisbon and the pro- 

 vincial towns there is a total disregard of cleanliness, 

 a' thing so remarkable in the capital, that there is 

 not probably another city in the world in which 

 there is so much filthiness and inelegance. Tnis 

 grossness is least perceptible in Oporto. The Portu- 

 guese of every rank are temperate, or rather abste- 

 mious, both in eating and drinking. The only luxury 

 of the common people is tobacco; and if any of them 

 can reach the height of a dried Newfoundland cod- 

 fish, he regards himself as at the summit of earthly 

 felicity. In consequence of the beauty of the climate, 

 they spend most of their time in the. open air ; and 

 their houses, therefore, instead of being, as in Britain, 

 an object of embellishment and care, are plain, of are 

 neglected to a degree inconceivable to a stranger ; and 

 the furniture even of the most elegant edifices is in- 

 dicative of poverty, or a total disregard of taste. The 

 houses even of the most opulent and eminent Portu- 

 guese have not yet been distinguished by paintings, or 

 any work of art and genius. Billiards, back-gammon, 

 cards, and dice, have been long known and practised ; 

 but their chief amusements are bull-fights in the am- 

 phitheatres, a practice common both in Spain and 

 Portugal, and incompatible with great delicacy or re- 

 finement of feeling. Mendicity is .very prevalent ; and 

 beggars will scarcely submit to a refusal, but exhibit 

 a degree of rudeness and pertinacity which ought to 

 be checked and punished. The high nobility are de- 

 nominated Titulados, the gentry Fidalgos, both, as 

 mentioned above, remarkable for pride and illibe- 

 rality. 



The female character in Portugal is extremely re- 

 tired, domestic, amiable, and chaste. Their bland and 

 simple manners are not corrupted, nor their attach- 

 ments dissipated, by an extensive communication with. ' 

 thu world. " As to their persons in general," says Mr. 

 Murphy, " they are rather below than above the mid- 

 dle stature, but graceful and beautiful. No females 

 are less studious of enhancing their attractions by ar- 

 tificial means, or counterfeiting, by paltry arts, the 

 charms that nature has withheld. To the most regu- 

 lar features, they add a sprightly disposition and cap- 

 tivating carriage. The round face and full-fed form 

 are more esteemed in this country than the long taper- 

 , ing visage and the delicate frame." " Cottons, mus- 

 lins, and coloured silks/' says the same author, " they 

 very rarely wear. A kind of black garment, called 

 mantilha, over a petticoat of the same colour, both of 

 woollen cloth, or silk, but oftener the former, is the 

 usual dress, except in Lisbon, where the women wear 

 black silk mantos, a kind of garment which covers the 

 head and upper part of the body." Ladies of rank 

 still imitate the industry of their ancestors in spinning 

 flax from the distaff; and the oriental way of sitting 

 on the floor, or on cushions, is often practised. The 

 dress of the men, (who are neither very tall nor very 

 handsome,) is nearly the same as that of the French or 

 English. Their noses are in general round, and their 

 lips thick ; and the inhabitants of the southern pro- 

 vinces bear a striking resemblance, in many respects, 

 to the features of their Moorish ancestors. 



The Portuguese language, like the Spanish, is de- Language, 



F The English, it may be remarked, have a burial ground in Lisbon, in which are deposited the remains of Henry Fielding, the cele- 

 brated novelist, who, having visited that place for the benefit of his health, died there in 1754. 



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