300 PERNAMBUCO, BRAZIL. 



these beauties, and endeavoured to fix in my mind 

 forever 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 beatitiful figures. 



Augtist Gth. — 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 lai-ge 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 flood- 

 ed with water, and I failed in all my attempts to 

 take long walks. 



The flat, swampy land on which Pernambuco 

 stands is surrounded, 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 on 

 one extremity of this range. One day I took a ca- 

 noe, and proceeded up one of the channels to visit it; 



