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men, however, have been accufed of much trade practices, 

 in yielding to depraved and unnatural appetites. 



Among the more innocent pleafures of both fcxes are- 

 operas, plays, and mafqucrades. Company often afiembles 

 at a garden, fituated near the fea, at one extremity of the 



R I O 



redounded chiefly to the benefit of England. The benefit 

 has probably been reciprocal ; and, it is hoped, will thus 

 continue. The exterior appearance of the inhabitants indi- 

 cated eafe and comfort ; their dwellings were generally in 

 good condition, many of them large, and well adapted to 



the climate ; the magazines and markets well ftored with town, and laid out in grals plats, fhrqbberies, a 



merchandize : new buildings, private and public, creeled ; terres, ornamented in Various ways. In thefe recedes the 



tradefmen bulily employed ; and befides the aqueduct: and gay fociety of Rio, after taking the exorcife of walking in 



fountains, which adorr.cd the city, it had fome public the evening, and after hearing fongs and mulic, fit down to 



walks, and a fpacious quay of granite, of which material, partake of banquets, occafionally accompanied by mufic and 



found upon the fpot, many of the chief edifices were con- fire-works. On the fide of this garden next the fea is a terrace, 



itructed. The place, however, is faid to-be unhealthy; and at the extremities of the terrace there :re two neat fquarc 



and inftances of longevity are rare. This infalubrity may buildings, like Englifh fummer-houfes. In one the walk 



be owing, perhaps, to local and temporary circumltances, are decorated with paintings, reprefenting views of the liar- 



more than to the neceffary influence of the climate. The bour, and particularly of the whale-filhery, which was for- 



fituation of the town upon a plain, almoil wholly furrounded merly carried on in it ; until the large black whale, which for- 



by hills thickly covered with foreil trees, deprives it of a free merly frequented it, was dilturbed and driven away, in con- 



circulation of air, and expoles it to the morning and evening fequence of the increafed concourfe of fhippinrr. The cieling 



damps of humid nights, preceded by fcorching days, and of of this and the other fummer-houfe are covered with various 



courfe putrid and intermitting fevers mult often be the con- appropriate devices, in fhell or feather work ; and the walls 



fequence. Water is alfo fuffered to ftagnate in marfhes near of the latter are decorated with eifdit large paintings de- 



fcriptive of the principal productions to which the country 



the town ; and to thefe difadvantages we may add the tor 

 menting influence ot infinite (warms of mufquitoes, or large 

 gnats, which attack Grangers for fome time after their ar- 

 rival. But none of thele real, or any imaginary, evils re- 

 train the propenlity of all dalles of fociety towards gaiety 

 and pleafures. See Brasil. 



The inhabitants of Rio are very numerous, and confift of 



country 

 is indebted for its opulence, including views of the diamond 

 and gold mines, with the operations performed in them ; of 

 the cultivation of the fugar-cane, and the procefi'es by which 

 its juice is extracted and granulated into fugar ; of the man- 

 ner of collecting the fmall animals which produce the cochi- 

 neal, and preparing the rich dye from them ; of the culture 



I'ortuguefe, Negroes, and Indians, the original natives of of the manioc, with the proceis of making cafiada and ta- 

 che country. This town (hip, which is but a fmall part of pioca ; and of the culture and preparation of coffee, rice 

 the capitanea, or province, is faid, according to Cook, to and indigo. Near the town is another garden, originally in - 

 contain j 7,000 white perfons, and 629,000 blacks, many tended for promoting the progrefs of botany, but now 

 of whom are free, amounting together to 666,000, in the chiefly curious for a fmall manufaft ure of cochineal • but 

 proportion of 17 to 1. The Indians, who are employed to the garden at Rio does not produce annually above 10 

 do the king's work in this neigbourhood, can fcarcely be pounds of this commodity. The preparation of cochineal 

 confidered as inhabitants ; their refidence is at a diftance, however, is now encouraged by the trade being laid open 

 from whence they come by turns to their talk, which they which was formerly a monopoly to the crown. Another 

 are obliged to perform for a fmall pay. The guard-boat fpecies of manufacture is carried on in the vicinity of Rio • 

 was conStantly rowed by thefe people, who are of a light an exclufive privilege having been given to a company, upon 

 copper colour, and have long black hair. See BiiASii.. paying one-fifth of its profits to the crown. To this har- 

 When walking abroad, men of the lower clafies generally bour was brought, for the purpofe of converting it into oil 

 wear cloaks ; and thofe of the middling and higher ranks the blubber or firm fat of the black whales. The whale- 

 never appear without fwords. The ladies wear their hair bone or cartilages of the jaw were alfo properly feparated 

 hanging down in treilcs, tied with ribbands, and adorned and cleanled here, before they were fent to Europe. In 

 witli flowers ; their heads being uncovered. In their vifits another part of the harbour of Rio, called Val Lengo, are 

 to the churches, both at matins and vefpers, they are re- warehoufes for the reception and fale of flaves. See 

 gular ; at other times they are generally feated at their win- Brasil. 



dows or balconies. Many of them have fine dark eyes, The eitablifhment for the defence of Rio eonfifts of two 



witli animated countenances. In the evenings they amufe fquadrons of cavalry, two regiments of artillery, fix rcpi- 



themfelves by playing on fome kind of mufica) inltrument, ments of infantry, two battalions of difciplined qnilitia, be- 

 chiefly the harplichord or guitar. At this time the doors 

 and windows are thrown open for the admiffion of cool air. 



If a ftranger fhould happen to Hop to hear the mufic, it 

 often happens that the lather, hufband, or brother of the 

 lady that is playing, Heps out and politely invites him into 

 the houfe; and the ladies, not unfrequently, having bunches 

 of flowers in their hands, exchange them with gentlemen as 

 they pafs by. This practice may perhaps be an imitation 

 of that of the ladies of Lifbon, who on particular davs, 

 called " days of intrufion," throw nofegays from their bal- 

 conies upon perfons walking under them. Captain Cook 

 charges the lame indelicate want of referve on the ladies of 



fide above 200 difciplin-d free Negroes ; making, in the 

 whole, a body of at (eaft 10,000 men, excluflvely of a very 

 numerous regiftered but undilciplined militia, of whom a 

 eonfiderable proportion is in the city and its neighbourhood. 

 The entrance of the harbour, which is fcarcely a mile from 

 point to point, is eroded in every direction by heavy bat- 

 teries. The fort of Santa Crux is a work of Ion.? flrength, 

 and the principal defence of the harbour. But the defence 

 of the city «f Rio is fuppofed to depend chiefly on the works 

 erected on the Serpent illand, which is about 300 yards 

 long: it mounts 46 gum, 20 facing the fouth and fouth- 

 ealt, and the remainder looking to the oppolite points. 



Rio; but we trull the accufation which (oine perfons have The parapet, along the front of the town, recently con 



brought againlt them, that there is not one modelt woman 

 among them, is not only too general, but founded on a mif- 

 repi dentation of what they may conceive to be an allowable 

 practice, founded in cuilom and courtefy. Some of the 



itructed, will atl'ord a good line for mufquetry and light 

 guns. 



The high conical rocks at the entrance of the harbour of 



Rio, and the furrounding hills, are all of granite, in which 



Pp Z the 



