THE CONVICT-ISLAND OF BRAZIL. 35 



story of this peculiar craft, and it was then drawn in near the 

 shore by means of the cable. When we struck bottom I was 

 taken on the wet, slippery, naked back of a convict, who waded 

 ashore and deposited me on the dry beach. Everybody and every- 

 thing landed from the raft, I was escorted by a man who took 

 me in charge, and whom I afterward found to be a convict directed 

 by the commandant to look after all persons and all things land- 

 ing, and escorted up the very steep hill, through the well-paved 

 streets of the village, to the house of the commandant, closely fol- 

 lowed by the newly arrived convicts under guard. 



The commandant I found to be a very aged man, an officer in 

 the regular Brazilian army. His thin gray hair was cut close to 

 his angular head, and his mustache was white with age and yellow 

 with tobacco-smoke. He received me indifferently for a Brazil- 

 ian, for, though he placed the island itself and everything and 

 everybody on it at my orders, in true Brazilian style, I could see 

 that there was a coolness beneath his politeness. I afterward 

 found that this was due to a suspicion that I had been sent here 

 by the Government upon some secret mission. This impression 

 removed, he became heartily kind to me, and did all in his power 

 to aid me in my work. He gave me a room in the official resi- 

 dence, the seat of honor at his bountifully served table, and a 

 motley crew of convicts for servants, while the slender resources 

 of the island were in reality placed at my disposal. 



At the house of the commandant certain ones of the convicts 

 were admitted freely and treated with more or less indulgence. 

 The chief amusement of the officers of the garrison and their 

 wives was to assemble during the evening around the big table 

 in the reception-room in the official residence, and there to play 

 kino. On such occasions (and this game was played every even- 

 ing during my stay save two) there were from one to five privi- 

 leged convicts standing about the room as lookers-on, and some of 

 them were even invited to take, and did take, part in the game. 

 At meal-time they frequently dropped into the dining-room, and 

 gently encouraged the old governor to scold them while at his 

 meal. Some of them, being ready conversationalists, were permit- 

 ted to talk freely, and were even asked, before the meal was over, 

 to take places at the great dining-table ; and, though they always 

 sat below the wine, were generally given some sweetmeats or a 

 cup of coffee at the end of the meal. 



Among the convicts thus specially privileged about the house 

 was a tall, handsome Italian, apparently a man of education. He 

 spoke, besides his native language, Spanish, German, some English, 

 and Portuguese almost perfectly. I asked his story of the son of 

 the commandant, who also told me the personal history of many 

 of these men, and learned that he had killed five persons in less 



