544 PORTUGUESE AMERICA. 



the inhabitants of most southern climates, they are much more fond 

 of show, state and attendance, than of the pleasures of free society, 

 and of a good table ; yet their feasts, which are seldom made, are 

 sumptuous to extravagance. When they appear abroad, they cause 

 themselves to be carried out in a kind of cotton hammocks, called 

 serpentines, which are borne on the negroes' shoulders, by the help 

 of a bamboo about twelve or fourteen feet long. Most of these ham- 

 mocks are blue, and adorned with fringes of the same colour : they 

 have a velvet pillow, and above the head a kind of tester, with cur- 

 tains: so that the person carried cannot be seen, unless he pleases; 

 but may either lie down, or sit up leaning on his pillow. When he 

 has a mind to be seen, he pulls the curtain aside, and salutes his ac- 

 quaintance whom he meets in the streets; for they take a pride in 

 complimenting each other in their hammocks, and even hold long 

 conferences in them in the streets ; but then the two slaves who 

 carry them make use of a strong well made staff, with an iron fork 

 at the upper end, and pointed below with iron ; this they stick fast 

 in the ground, and rest the bamboo, to which the hammock is fixed, 

 on two of these, till their master's business or compliment is over. 

 Scarcely any man of fashion, or any lady, will pass the streets with- 

 out being carried in this manner. 



Chief towns. ...The capital of Brasil is St. Salvador, frequently 

 called Bahia, where all the fleets rendezvous on their return to Por- 

 tugal. This city commands a noble, spacious, and commodious har- 

 bour. It is built upon a high and steep rock, having the sea upon 

 one side, and a lake, forming a crescent, investing it almost wholly, 

 so as nearly to join the sea, on the other. The situation makes it in 

 a manner impregnable by nature ; and it has very strong fortifica- 

 tions. It is populous, magnificent, and, beyond comparison, the 

 most gay and opulent city in all Brasil. 



St. Sebastian, more usually called Rio de Janeiro, from the name 

 of the province, is situate on a spacious and commodious bay : it is 

 a rich and populous city, containing, it is said, 200,000 inhabitants. 

 On the south side of a spacious square is the palace of the viceroy, 

 and there are several other squares, in which are fountains supplied 

 with water by an aqueduct of considerable length, brought over val- 

 lies by a double row of arches. In an island in the harbour, called 

 Serpent Island, are a dock-yard, magazines, and naval store-houses. 



Trade. ...The trade of Brasil is very great, and increases every 

 year ; which is the less surprising as the Portuguese have oppor- 

 tunities of supplying themselves with slaves for their several works 

 at a much cheaper rate than any other European power that has set- 

 tlements in America ; they being the only European nation that has 

 established colonies in Africa, whence they import between forty and 

 fifty thousand negroes annually, all of which go into the amount of 

 the cargo of the Brasil fleets for Europe. Of the diamonds there is 

 supposed to be returned to Europe to the amount of 130,000/. This, 

 with the sugar, the tobacco, the hides, and the valuable drugs for 

 medicine and manufactures, may give some idea of the importance 

 of this trade, not only to Portugal, but to all the trading powers of 

 Europe. 



The chief commodities that European ships carry thither in return, 

 are not the fiftieth part of the produce of Portugal ; they consist of 

 woollen goods of all kinds from England, France, and Holland ; the 



