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44 



BRAZILIAN CUSTOMS. 



obtaining, at a low rate, earthenware, cutlery, 

 and table linen ; in fact, the very spur given to 

 the mind by this appearance of a new people 

 among them ; the hope of a better state of 

 things, that their country was about to become 

 of more importance ; renewed in many persons, 

 ideas which had long lain dormant ; made 

 them wish to show, that they had money to ex- 

 pend, and that they knew how it should be ex- 

 pended. * 



It was the custom in Pernambuco, to uncover 

 when passing a sentinel, or on meeting a guard 

 of soldiers marching through the streets. Soon 

 after the opening of the port to British shipping, 

 three English gentlemen accidentally met a 

 corporal's guard of four or five men, and as they 

 passed each other, one of the latter took off the 

 hat of one of the former, accompanying the 

 action by an opprobrious expression ; the Eng- 

 lishmen resented the insult, attacked and abso- 

 lutely routed the guard. This dreadful mark of 



* When the Englishmen, who first established themselves 

 at Recife, had finished the stock of tea which they had 

 brought with them, they enquired where more could be pur- 

 chased, and were directed to an apothecary's shop. They 

 went, and asked simply for tea, when the man wished to 

 know what kind of tea they meant; he at last understood 

 them, and said, " O, you want East-Indian tea," " Cha da 

 India" — thus considering it as he would any other drug. 

 But at the time of which I am now speaking great quanti- 

 ties are consumed. 



