36 PARA. Chap. I. 



and is besides extremely unhealthy. Although lying 

 so near the equator (1° 28' S. lat.) the climate is not 

 excessively hot. The temperature during three years 

 only once reached 95° of Fahrenheit. The gTeatest heat 

 of the day, about 2 p.m., ranges generally between 89° 

 and 94° ; but on the other hand, the air is never cooler 

 than 73°, so that a uniformly high temperature exists, 

 and the mean of the year is 81°. North American 

 residents say that the heat is not so oppressive as it is 

 in summer in New York and Philadelphia. The 

 humidity is, of course, excessive, but the rains are not 

 so heavy and continuous in the wet season as in many 

 other tropical climates. The country had for a long 

 time a reputation for extreme salubrity. Since the 

 small-pox in 1819, which attacked chiefly the Indians, 

 no serious epidemic had visited the province. We were 

 agreeably surprised to find no danger from exposure to 

 the night air or residence in the low swampy lands. 

 A few English residents, who had been established 

 here for twenty or thirty years, looked almost as fresh 

 in colour as if they had never left their native country. 

 The native women, too, seemed to preserve their good 

 looks and plump condition until late in life. I nowhere 

 observed that early decay of appearance in Brazilian 

 ladies, which is said to be so general in the women of 

 North America. Up to 1848 the salubrity of Para was 

 quite remarkable for a city lying in the delta of a great 

 river in the middle of the tropics and half surroimded 

 by swamps. It did not much longer enjoy its immunity 

 from epidemics. In 1850 the yellow fever visited the 

 province for the first time, and carried off in a few 



