1832.] MANNERS OF THE HOST. 3j 



Providence for having guided us to so good a man. The 

 conversation proceeding, the case universally became 

 deplorable. "Any fish can you do us the favour of 

 giving ?"—" Oh, no, sir." "Any soup ? "— " No, sir." 

 "Any bread ? "— " Oh, no, sir." "Any dried meat ? "— *'Oh, 

 no, sir." If we were lucky, by waiting a couple of hours, 

 we obtained fowls, rice, and farinha. It not unfrequently 

 happened, that we were obliged to kill, with stones, the 

 poultry for our own supper. When, thoroughly exhausted 

 by fatigue and hunger, we timorously hinted that we should 

 be glad of our meal, the pompous, and (though true) most 

 unsatisfactory answer was, "It will be ready when it is 

 ready." If we had dared to remonstrate any further, we 

 should have been told to proceed on our journey, as being 

 too impertinent. The hosts are most ungracious and 

 disagreeable in their manners ; their houses and their 

 persons are often filthily dirty ; the want of the accom- 

 modation of forks, knives, and spoons is common ; and 

 I am sure no cottage or hovel in England could be found 

 in a state so utterly destitute of every comfort. At Campos 

 Novos, however, we fared sumptuously ; having rice and 

 fowls, biscuit, wine, and spirits, for dinner; coffee in the 

 evening, and fish with coffee for breakfast. All this, with 

 good food for the horses, only cost 2s. 6d. per head. Yet 

 the host of this v^nda, being asked if he knew anything of 

 a whip which one of the party had lost, gruffly answered, 

 "How should I know? why did you not take care of it? 

 — I suppose the dogs have eaten it." 



Leaving Mandetiba, we continued to pass through an 

 intricate wilderness of lakes ;* in some of which were fresh, 

 in others salt water shells. Of the former kind, I found 

 a Limnaea in great numbers in a lake, into which, the 

 inhabitants assured me, that the sea enters once a year, 

 and sometimes oftener, and makes the water quite salt. 

 I have no doubt many interesting facts, in relation 

 to marine and fresh-water animals, might be observed 

 in this chain of lagoons, which skirt the coast of Brazil. 

 M. Gay* has stated that he found in the neighbourhood 

 of Rio, shells of the marine genera solen and mytilus, and 

 fresh-water ampullarlae, living together in brackish water. 

 I also frequently observed in the lagoon near the Botanic 

 Garden, where Ihe water is only a little less salt than in 

 the sea, a species of hydrophilus, very similar to a water-beetle 



• " Annal«»K des Sciences Naturclles " ff>r iR-t^. 



