26 The Andes and the Amazon. 



diamonds, and far more brilliant than koh-i-noors, swept 

 the pavement with their long trains ; martial music floated 

 on the gentle breeze from the barracks or some festive hall, 

 and a thousand gas-lights along the levee and in the city, 

 doubling their number by reflection fi'om the river, beto- 

 kened wealth and civilization. 



We landed in the morning to find our vision a dissolving 

 view in the light of the rising sun. The princely mansions 

 turned out to be hollow squares of wood-work, plastered 

 within and without, and roofed with red tiles. Even the 

 " squares" were only distant approximations ; not a right 

 angle could we find in our hotel. All the edifices are 

 built (very properly in this climate) to admit air instead 

 of excluding it, and the architects have wonderfully suc- 

 ceeded ; but with the air is M^afted many an odor not so 

 pleasing as the spicy breezes from Ceylon's isle. The ca- 

 thedral is of elegant design. Its photograph is more im- 

 posing than Is^otre Dame, and a Latin inscription tells us 

 that it is the Gate of Heaven. But a near approach re- 

 veals a shabby structure, and the pewless interior is made 

 hideous by paintings and images which certainly must be 

 caricatures. A few genuine works of art imported from 

 Italy alone relieve the mind of the visitor. Excepting a 

 few houses on the Malecon, and not excepting the cathe- 

 dral, the majority of the buildings have a tumble-down ap- 

 pearance, which is not altogether due to the frequent earth- 

 quakes which have troubled this city; while the habitations 

 in the outskirts are exceedingly primitive, floored and wall- 

 ed with split cane and thatched with leaves, the first story 

 occupied by domestic animals and the second by their own- 

 ers. The city is quite regularly laid out, the main streets 



on the sugar-cane. On the Upper Amazon we found the P. clarus, P.pellu- 

 cens, and P. tuberrulatns. At Bahia, on the opposite coast, Darwin found 

 P. lummosus, the most common luminous insect. 



