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, 
