LAST DAYS IN BRAZIL. 211 



as Erebus — loll about and take the air. Behind this row 

 of domiciles rises the Morro da Conceicao, Hill of the Con- 

 ception (154 feet), covered with more or less picturesque, 

 irregularly built houses, and crowned by a bastioned wall, 

 which encloses the bishop's palace and the ecclesiastical 

 chambers. A few bananas and red-leaved trees are dotted 

 about, some twenty telegraph and telephone wires traverse 

 our triangle, numerous clothes-lines are erected on the top 

 of the houses, while multitudes of children — white, black, 

 and brown, both clothed and almost unclothed — play 

 about everywhere, dogs abound, and cats growl and fight 

 on the brown-tiled roofs. 



July 18. — This evening our fellow-lodger, Mr. Hector, 

 with whom we have struck up a great friendship, brought 

 two gentlemen to stay here, Messrs. Hoffman and Latt- 

 man, of New York. They arrived by the Advance, whose 

 entry into the bay I mentioned as having watched from 

 the summit of the Corcovado. They are very pleasant 

 and conversable, and detailed some of the experiences of 

 their voyage. Going on shore at Maranhao (Maranham), 

 they visited the market, which they described as abomin- 

 able. Mr. Hoffman said he saw there the thinnest dog 

 that ever existed, remarking, "You could see to read a 

 small-type newspaper through his body." He wished it 

 could have been photographed as a curiosity. The feeding 

 on the North-American liners is bad, and it appears the 

 purser is not allowed, as a rule, to buy food on the way ; 

 however, being remonstrated with, he bought some fowls, 

 which were cooked. Some of these happened to be of the 

 peculiar black-skinned type which I have often met with 

 up country. They certainly look disgusting, though their 

 flesh is as good as others. Our friend, however, was upset, 

 and remarked to the purser, " T don't know where these 



