244 



SANTAREM 



The performances of the youths, most of whom were 

 under fourteen years of age, were very creditable, especi- 

 ally in grammar ; there was a quickness of apprehension 

 displayed which would have gladdened the heart of a 

 northern schoolmaster. The course of study followed at 

 the colleges of Para must be very deficient ; for it is rare 

 to meet with an educated Paraense who has the slightest 

 knowledge of the physical sciences, or even of geography, 

 if he has not travelled out of the province. The young 

 men all become smart rhetoricians and lawyers ; any bf 

 them is ready to plead in a law case at an hour's notice ; 

 they are also great at statistics, for the gratification of 

 which taste there is ample field in Brazil, where every 

 public officer has to furnish volumes of dry reports annu- 

 ally to the government ; but they are wofully ignorant 

 on most other subjects. I do not recollect seeing a map 

 of any kind at Santarem. The quick-witted people have 

 a suspicion of their deficiencies in this respect, and it is 

 difiicult to draw them out on geography ; but one day 

 a man holding an important office betrayed himself by 

 asking me, * on what side of the river was Paris situ- 

 ated ? ' This question did not arise, as might be sup- 

 posed, from a desire for accurate topographical know- 

 ledge of the Seine, but from the idea, that all the world 

 was a great river, and that the different places he had 

 heard of must lie on one shore or the other. The fact of 

 the Amazons being a limited stream, having its origin in 

 narrow rivulets, its beginning and its ending, has never 

 entered the heads of most of the people who have passed 

 their whole lives on its banks. 



Santarem is a pleasant place to live in, irrespective of 

 its society. There are no insect pests, mosquito, pium, 

 sand-fly, or motuca. The climate is glorious ; during 

 six months of the year, from August to February, very 

 little rain falls, and the sky is cloudless for weeks together, 

 the fresh breezes from the sea, nearly 400 miles distant, 

 moderating the great heat of the sun. The wind is some- 

 times so strong for days together, that it is difficult to 

 make way against it in walking along the streets, and it 

 enters the open windows and doors of houses, scattering 

 loose clothing and papers in all directions. The place is 

 considered healthy ; but at the changes of season, severe 

 colds and ophthalmia are prevalent. I found three 

 Englishmen living here, who had resided many years in 



