*S$i 



106 



PILLAR FORT. 



which were all treated in the same manner, to 

 the number of about forty persons. . 



I here take the opportunity of mentioning 

 another common amusement at festivals, which 

 is known under the name of comedias ; but this 

 I did not chance to see. A stage of the same 

 kind is erected, and regular farces are performed ; 

 but I believe that women do not ever appear 

 upon these stages, though they do upon the 

 stage of the theatre at Recife. 



I slept one night at Pillar, and in the morn- 

 ing following accompanied the chaplain to the 

 fort, who was going to say mass at his chapel, 

 as it was a holiday. The fort is situated upon a 

 projecting sand-bank, and was formerly quite 

 surrounded by water ; but the channel for small 

 craft, which ran between the fort and the island, 

 is now nearly closed by the accumulation of sand 

 at its mouth.* When we dismounted at the 

 gate, our horses were taken into the fort, and 

 were put into the commandant's stable. The 

 sentinel desired me to take off my spurs, and we 

 then passed through the gate, and along the 

 covered way until we entered the area in the 

 centre, with the chapel and other buildings 

 along two sides of it. The commandant is a 

 captain of the Olinda regiment, an elderly and 



* I have seen a print in Barlaeus representing this channel 

 as still heing open, and the fort situated upon an island which 

 it almost entirely covers. 



