12 SANTAEEM. Chap. I. 



as it is pronounced, or according to unvarying rules, 

 and the use of the decimal system of accounts, make 

 these acquirements much easier than they are with us. 

 Students in the superior school have to pass an exami- 

 nation before they can be admitted at the colleges in 

 Para, and the managers once did me the honour to 

 make me one of the examiners for the year. The per- 

 formances of the youths, most of whom were under 

 fourteen years of age, were very creditable, especially 

 in grammar; there was a quickness of apprehension 

 displayed which would have gladdened the heart of a 

 northern schoolmaster. The course of study followed 

 at the colleges of Para must be very deficient ; for it 

 is rare to meet with an educated Paraense who has the 

 slightest knowledge of the physical sciences, or even of 

 geography, if he has not travelled out of the ]3rovince. 

 The young men all become smart rhetoricians and 

 lawyers ; any of them is ready to plead in a law case 

 at an hour's notice ; they are also great at statistics, 

 for the gratification of which taste there is ample field 

 in Brazil, where every public officer has to furnish 

 volumes of dry reports annually to the government ; 

 but they are wofully ignorant on most other subjects. 

 I do not recollect seeing a map of any kind at San- 

 tarem. The quick-witted people have a suspicion of 

 their deficiencies in this respect, and it is difficult to 

 draw them out on geography ; but one day a man 

 holding an important office betrayed himself by asking 

 me, "on what side of the river was Paris situated?" 

 This question did not arise, as might be supposed, 

 from a desire for accurate topographical knowledge of 



