LETTERS FROM BRAZIL 73 



and conventional. One should speak of him as a man 

 of high intelligence, of warm affections, of truly human 

 character in the highest sense of the word." 



On the twenty-eighth we went over in the steamer 

 to meet the Emperor. Agassiz had told him what a 

 magnificent ship she was and how generous the con- 

 duct of the Company had been towards the expedi- 

 tion, and the Emperor sent him word on Thursday 

 that he would come out to see the steamer Friday. 

 The whole thing was perfectly informal; no one was 

 invited, and there were present only ten or fifteen 

 persons beside the Emperor and his suite. The Captain 

 received him with a royal salute of twenty-one reports 

 from his Parrott guns, the first full salute fired 

 from them and delivered with a promptness and ac- 

 curacy that did credit to the gunners. On arriving he 

 passed directly through the great salon without stop- 

 ping for presentation; his chamberlain, Viscount of 

 Something (whose name I forget) was introduced to 

 me and remained talking with me till His Majesty 

 returned from making the tour of the steamer. I 

 begged him two or three times to join the others, but 

 he declined, and indeed I rather think the Emperor's 

 inquiring mind makes it tiresome for his attendants 

 to follow him in all his peregrinations, and as the 

 Chamberlain was a remarkably agreeable man, I was 

 glad of his laziness, which induced him to take the less 

 fatiguing duty. The Emperor dragged his puffing, 

 panting staff from top to bottom of the establishment 

 from the pantries and the butcher's room down into 

 the infernal regions where the firemen live, indeed, 



