278 



HORSES OF ST. LUIZ. 



dark-coloured mulattos and blacks, and are en- 

 tirely naked excepting the hats which they wear 

 upon their heads ; but when they come on shore, 

 they partially clothe themselves. The print will 

 give some idea of the strange appearance which 

 they make. The nakedness of the negro slaves 

 is also not sufficiently concealed ; neither males 

 nor females have any covering from the waist 

 upwards, excepting on Sundays and holidays. 

 Though the climate may not require any more 

 clothing, decency certainly does. I speak here 

 of slaves who are at work in the streets, for the 

 household servants are at least tolerably covered, 

 and some of them are neatly and even gaudily 

 dressed. At Pernambuco, the slaves are always 

 decently clothed. The criminals who are to be 

 seen chained together, as at Pernambuco, are 

 here more numerous ; and in walking the streets, 

 the clanking of the chains is continually striking 

 the ear, reminding every man of the state of the 

 government under which he resides. Such is the 

 power of a governor, that a respectable person 

 might be sentenced to this dreadful punishment, 

 at least until redress could be obtained from the 

 seat of the supreme government at Rio de Ja- 

 neiro, a period of four months or more inter- 

 vening. 



I brought with mc the horse which had 

 carried me as far as Rio Grande on my journey 

 to Seara, and took several rides in the neigh- 



