1836.] TROPICAL SCENERY. : 497 
possession of by man, who has studded it with gay houses and 
formal gardens. How great would be the desire in every ad- 
mirer of nature to behold, if such were possible, the scenery of 
another planet ! yet to every person in Europe, it may be truly 
said, that at the distance of only a few degrees from his native 
soil, the glories of another world are opened to him. In mylast 
walk I stopped again and again to gaze on these beauties, and 
endeavoured to fix in my mind for ever, an impression which at 
the time I knew sooner or later must fail. The form of the 
orange-tree, the cocoa-nut, the palm, the mango, the tree-fern, 
the banana, will remain clear and separate; but the thousand 
beauties which unite these into one perfect scene must fade 
away; yet they will leave, like a tale heard in childhood, a 
picture full of indistinct, but most beautiful figures. 
August 6th.—In the afternoon we stood out to sea, with the 
intention of making a direct course to the Cape de Verd Islands. 
Unfavourable winds, however, delayed us, and on the 12th we 
ran into Pernambuco,—a large city on the coast of Brazil, in 
latitude 8° south. Weanchored outside the reef; but in a short 
time a pilot came on board and took us into the inner harbour, 
where we lay close to the town. 
Pernambuco is built on some narrow and low sand-banks, 
which are separated from each other by shoal channels of salt 
water. The three parts of the town are connected together by 
two long bridges built on wooden piles. The town is in all parts 
disgusting, the streets being narrow, ill-paved, and filthy ; the 
houses, tall and gloomy. ‘The season of heavy rains had hardly 
come to an end, and hence the surrounding country, which is 
scarcely raised above the level of the sea, was flooded with 
water; and J failed in all my attempts to take long walks. 
The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands is sur- 
rounded, at the distance of a few miles, by a semicircle of low 
hills, or rather by the edge of a country elevated perhaps two 
hundred feet above the sea. The old city of Olinda stands on 
one extremity of this range. One day I took a canoe, and pro- 
ceeded up one of the channels to visit it; I found the old town 
from its situation both sweeter and cleaner than that of Pernam- 
buco. I:nust here commemorate what happened for the first 
time during our nearly five years’ wandering, namely, having 
