1836.] TROPICAL SCENERY. 497 



possession of by man, who has studded it with gay houses and 

 formal gardens. How great would be the desire in every ad- 

 mirer of nature to behold, if such were possible, the scenery of 

 another planet ! yet to every person in Europe, it may be truly 

 said, that at the distance of only a few degrees from his native 

 soil, the glories of another world are opened to him. In my last 

 walk I stopped again and again to gaze on these beauties, and 

 endeavoured to fix in my mind for ever, an impression which at 

 the time I knew sooner or later must fail. The form of the 

 orange-tree, the cocoa-nut, the palm, the mango, the tree-fern, 

 the banana, will remain clear and separate ; but the thousand 

 beauties which unite these into one perfect scene must fade 

 away ; yet they will leave, like a tale heard in childhood, a 

 picture full of indistinct, but most beautiful figures. 



August 6th. — In the afternoon we stood out to sea, with the 

 intention of making a direct course to the Cape de Verd Islands. 

 Unfavourable winds, however, delayed us, and on the 12th we 

 ran into Pernambuco, — a large city on the coast of Brazil, in 

 latitude 8° south. We anchored outside the reef; but in a short 

 time a pilot came on board and took us into the inner harbour, 

 where we lay close to the town. 



Pernambuco is built on some narrow and low sand-banks, 

 which are separated from each other by shoal channels of salt 

 water. The three parts of the town are connected together by 

 two long bridges built on wooden piles. The town is in all parts 

 disgusting, the streets being narrow, ill-paved, and filthy ; the 

 houses, tall and gloomy. The season of heavy rains had hardly 

 come to an end, and hence the surrounding country, which is 

 scarcely raised above the level of the sea, was flooded with 

 water ; and I failed in all my attempts to take long walks. 



The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands is sur- 

 rounded, at the distance of a few miles, by a semicircle of low 

 hills, or rather by the edge of a country elevated perhaps two 

 hundred feet above the sea. The old city of Olinda stands ov 

 one extremity of this range. One day I took a canoe, and pro- 

 ceeded up one of the channels to visit it ; I found the old town 

 from its situation both sweeter and cleaner than that of Pernam- 

 buco. I must here commemorate what happened for the first 

 time during our nearly five years' wandering, namely, having 



2 K 



