THE VICAR. 



13 



to give up those notions of the connection 

 between the patron and the dependant, which 

 are yet too general ; he urges them to educate 

 their children, to have their dwellings in a state 

 of neatness, to dress well themselves, their 

 wives, and their children. He is a good man ; 

 one who reflects upon his duties, and who 

 studies to perform them in the best manner 

 possible. He has had the necessity of display- 

 ing likewise the intrepidity of his character — 

 his firmness as a priest, his courage as a man — 

 and he has not been found wanting. He is a 

 native of Pernambuco, and has not degenerated 

 from the high character of his provincial coun- 

 trymen ; he was educated at the university of 

 Coimbra in Portugal. 



From the state of society and government in 

 Brazil, the individual character of the person 

 who holds any office of importance makes a 

 most wonderful difference, and indeed in some 

 districts a man of an active mind with some 

 wealth, but without any appointment, has more 

 weight than a person of a contrary disposition, 

 although the situation of the latter might give him 

 great power, if he thought proper to exerthimself. 



I passed some portion of each day with the 

 vicar and his party ; the conversation never 

 flagged, and I often thought how very superior 

 the persons were with whom I associated, to 

 any that my friends in England could suppose 



