1 84 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



ship to Rio de Janeiro * that Birkenhead does to Liverpool, 

 and is equally dead. The heat there, though nearly mid- 

 winter, felt very much more excessive than at Rio ; but I 

 am told that, as a rule, this is not so. After rambling about 

 Nichteroy, we came to Porto da Areia, one of the three 

 pretty bays that are grouped close together on that side. 

 Here there is a shipbuilding and repairing yard, but our 

 attention was especially drawn to a skiff in the bay, 

 anchored a little way off from the shore, the only inmates 

 of which appeared to be a large monkey chained to the 

 stern, who perpetually moved to and fro, as if fretting at 

 his confinement, and three small monkeys, which were 

 scampering up the rigging and over the decks, and anon 

 running along the jibboom, enjoying themselves in the 

 grilling sunshine. We had some slight refreshment at a 

 small cabaret, where the fruit and Rio beer were alike good 

 and cheap. 



The view of the town of Rio from Nichteroy, where we 

 sat awaiting our return ferry-boat, was very lovely : the Cor- 

 covado and fantastic outline of the mountain chain formed 

 the background ; below lay the town with its many hills ; 

 then the Sugar-loaf beyond which rolled the Atlantic, the 

 ports, islands, a multitude of shipping, and a wide belt of 

 the deep blue bay ; while in the foreground, on each side of 

 us, were the house-clad crescent arms of this small bay ; 

 the whole forming a beautiful picture, under an almost 



* The capital is generally known by the name of Rio de Janeiro, but its 

 real name is Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro. The discoverers entered the 

 bay in the month of January, and, before exploring it, deemed it to be the 

 mouth of a river, which they named Rio de Janeiro (January), and on building 

 the town called it after St. Sebastian. Of course, the bay is a bay and 

 nothing else, though of such a vast extent that it is large enough to hold all 

 the fleets of the world. It contains some three hundred islands, one of them, 

 the Ilha do Governador, about twenty-four miles long. 



