58 



PROVINCE OF UIO DE JANEIRO. 



are stated by «ome travellers to have been fully and gaily attended some twelve 

 or fourteen years ago, are now quite unfrequentjed, and sunk into neglect. 

 This place of resort in former times consists of about two acres of ground, 

 bordering upon the bay, enclosed with a high wall, and neatly laid out in walks 

 of trees, overhung with a variety of evergreen foliage. There is a stone terrace 

 at the end, ascended by two flights of steps, commanding a view of the bay, 

 with the remains of two pavilions, and other mutilated objects. This place is 

 not left without regret, that so cool and agreeable a situation, and so well cal- 

 culated for a public promenade, is permitted to fall into decay. For the admi- 

 nistration of justice the same tribunals exist here as at Lisbon. At the period 

 of the suppression of the board of inspection, in 1808, was created the tribunal 

 of the royal junta of commerce, agriculture, manufactures, and navigation, com- 

 posed of ten deputies, a president, a secretary, and an official maior, (officiating 

 mayor.) The Jesuitical library is open to the public ; it contains about sixty 

 thousand volumes, amongst which there are but few modern works, and a great 

 many old ones on theology. I was in the habit of frequenting it, and as is the 

 custom at the national library in Paris, the librarian attends, immediately brings 

 any book that may be required, and places it upon a small reading desk on the 

 table, with which each person is accommodated. The very small number who 

 attended consisted generally of priests and friars. Manufactories have yet 

 acquired no footing in this city ; there is however, one of sailcloth, and another 

 of silk stockings ; also, a few miles distant, at Andrahi, there are works for printing 

 cottons upon a small scale, and conducted by a person who has been in Eng- 

 land. Coarse cottons are manufactured in the interior of Brazil, and they pass 

 the shuttle with the hand, according to the mode used in England formerly. 



The only place of amusement in Rio is the theatre, erected within the last few 

 years, and which, in point of external appearance, is beyond mediocrity. It con- 

 tains four tiers of boxes on each side of the house, thirteen in each tier, making, in 

 the whole, one hundred and four boxes, which are extremely gloomy, being shut 

 in at the sides. The royal box occupies the whole of the space fronting the 

 stage, above which there is a small gallery ; and the pit contains about four hun- 

 dred persons. The orchestra is esteemed very tolerable; but the performances 

 are indifferent. Two French dancers and their wives are at present the 

 magnets of attraction ; and there is great emulation between them for the palm 

 of superiority. The Campo St. Anna contains a large building, erected for the 

 purpose of bull-baiting ; but the Brazilian bull not possessing the fire and fury 

 of this animal in Europe, was the reason of its falling into disuse, and creditable 



