BRAZILIAN RUDENESS. CURIOUS REEF. 301 



I found the old town, from its situation, both sweeter 

 and cleaner than that of Pernambuco. I must here 

 commemorate what happened for the first time du- 

 ring our neai-ly five years' wandering, namely, hav- 

 ing met with a want of politeness : I was refused 

 in a sullen manner at two different houses, and ob- 

 tained with difliculty from a third permission to 

 pass through their gardens to an uncultivated hill, 

 for the purpose of viewing the country. I feel 

 glad that this happened in the land of the Brazil- 

 ians, for I bear them no good will — a land also of 

 slavery, and therefore of moral debasement. A 

 Spaniard would have felt ashamed at the very 

 thought of refusing such a request, or of behaving 

 to a stranger with rudeness. The channel by 

 which we went to and returned fi'om Olinda was 

 bordered on each side by mangroves, which sprang 

 like a miniature forest out of the greasy mud -banks. 

 The bright green colour of these bushes always 

 reminded me of the rank grass in a churchyard : 

 both are nourished by putrid exhalations ; the one 

 speaks of death past, and the other too often of 

 death to come. 



The most curious object which I saw in this 

 neighbourhood was the reef that forms the har- 

 bour. I doubt whether in the whole world any 

 other natural structure has so artificial an appear- 

 ance.* It runs for a length of several miles in an 

 absolutely straight line, parallel to, and not far dis- 

 tant from, the shore. It varies in width from thirty 

 to sixty yards, and its surface is level and smooth ; 

 it is composed of obscurely-stratified hard sand- 

 stone. At high water the waves break over it ; at 

 low water its summit is left dry, and it might then 

 be mistaken for a breakwater erected by Cyclope- 



* I have described this Bar in detail in the Lond. and Edin. 

 Phil. Mag., vol. xix. (1841), p. 257. 



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