



AN ANECDOTE. 



279 



bourhood of the city, with an English gentleman 

 who was residing there. The roads are ex- 

 tremely bad, even in the immediate vicinity of 

 St. Luiz, and our usual practice was to ride se- 

 veral times round the open piece of ground upon 

 which the barracks stand. Maranham is again 

 in this respect far behind the place I had lately 

 left ; the number of country-houses is small ; 

 the paths are few, and no care is taken of them. 

 Notwithstanding this, several persons have car- 

 riages, which are of a form similar to those used 

 in Lisbon, and not unlike the cabriolets drawn 

 by a pair of horses, which are to be seen in 

 France and Flanders. The horses that may be 

 purchased at St. Luiz are small, and few of them 

 are well formed. Grass is scarce, and the in- 

 ducements to take exercise on horseback are so 

 few, that the number of these animals upon the 

 island is not considerable ; this, too, may be one 

 cause why fine horses are not to be met with 

 there ; for if a ready sale was found for the 

 beasts of this description, some would, doubt- 

 less, be carried from Piauhi to Maranham, which 

 might be done with almost as little difficulty as 

 is experienced in conveying many of them from 

 the interior of Pernambuco to Recife. 



An English gentleman with whom I was ac- 

 quainted, arrived at Maranham, a short time 

 after the opening of the trade to British ship- 

 ping j he was riding in the vicinity of the city 



t 4 



