PARA— Continued 



29 



regard to the treatment of women. Formerly the Portu- 

 guese would not allow their wives to go into society, or 

 their daughters to learn reading and wiiting. In 1848, 

 Brazilian ladies were only just beginning to emerge from 

 this inferior position, and Brazilian fathers were opening 

 their e3^es to the advantages of education for their daugh- 

 ters. Reforms of this kind are slow. It is, perhaps, in 

 part owing to the degrading position always held by 

 women, that the relations between the sexes were and 

 are stil] on so unsatisfactory a footing, and private morality 

 at so low an ebb in Brazil. In Para I believe that an 

 improvement is now taking place, but formerly pro- 

 miscuous intercourse seemed to be the general rule amongst 

 all classes, and intrigues and love-making the serious 

 business of the greater part of the population. That 

 this state of things is a necessity depending on the climate 

 and institutions I do not believe, as I have resided at 

 small towns in the interior, where the habits, and the 

 general standard of morality of the inhabitants, were as 

 pure as they are in similar places in England. 



CHAPTER II 



PARA — continued 



After having resided about a fortnight at Mr. Miller's 

 rocinha we heard of another similar country-house to be 

 let, much better situated for our purpose, in the village 

 of Nazareth, a mile and a half from the city and close to 

 the forest. The owner was an old Portuguese gentleman 

 named Danin, who lived at his tile manufactory at the 

 mouth of the Una, a small river lying two miles below 

 Para. We resolved to walk to his place through the 

 forest, a distance of three miles, although the road was 

 said to be scarcely passable at this season of the year, 

 and the Una much more easily accessible by boat. We 

 were glad, however, of this early opportunity of traversing 

 the rich swampy forest which we had admired so much 

 from the deck of the ship ; so, about eleven o'clock one 

 sunny morning, after procuring the necessary information 

 about the road, we set off in that direction. This part 

 of the forest afterwards became one of my best hunting- 

 grounds. I will narrate the incidents of the walk, giving 



