PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



60 



would it be if so irrational and cruel an amusement was discontinued. 

 Within the last two years, this building was the scene of the various feats 

 in horsemanship of Mr. Southby and his troop, for which it is well adapted. 

 The clown, soon acquiring some of the local peculiarities of the people, pro- 

 duced amongst them a fund of merriment they had been little accustomed to; 

 and they expressed themselves more highly astonished and pleased with those 

 performances, and the wonderful display of agility by Mrs. Southby on the tight 

 rope, than any thing they had ever before witnessed . 



The city of Rio de Janeiro was taken by the French, in the year 1711, under 

 M. Duguay Truin, and afterwards recovered by the people. In the preceding- 

 year, M. du Clerc had entered the town, conducted by two fugitive negroes, 

 from Ilha Grande. 



There are three principal roads leading from this city, none of which are 

 adapted to the use of a carriage for more than six or seven miles. The first, 

 leading to the southward, after passing the public gardens and the Lapa, pro- 

 ceeds, for a short distance, along the banks of the bay, commanding a view of 

 its entrance, which is soon interrupted by the Gloria Hill, behind which the 

 road passes, and continues in a parallel line with the Pria Flemingo, which is 

 adorned with several neat houses, many of them decupled by English merchants. 

 The Hon. Mr. Thornton had taken up a temporary residence in one of 

 them. After crossing a small bridge at the Cateta, the road conducts, for about 

 a mile and a half, betwixt luxuriant and verdant hedges, to the beach or Pria 

 of Bota-fogo, which is a fine bay, shut in by picturesque promontories and head- 

 lands, leaving only a narrow channel for the ingress and egress of its waters. 

 This beach is edged with some of the neatest and most elegant houses in the 

 vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, many of them occupied by fidalgos, and others by 

 English merchants ; one of which, in the possession of Mr. Harrison, exhibits all 

 the beauty, elegance, and comfort of an English villa. Bye-roads lead from 

 hence to the Pria Vermelha, to the royal powder manufactory, and the 

 botanical garden already mentioned. In many parts the Cateta road is in a 

 very bad state of repair, and the holes and hollow places form pools of water 

 after the least fall of rain. The other two roads lead to the north of the city, 

 both branching from the Campo St. Anngi, and again communicate in passing 

 Matta Porcas. The first and principal one proceeds from the right of the 

 Campo, and continues for about a mile and a half, to the wooden bridge of 

 St. Diogo, across a marshy flat, which eight or ten years ago was impassable, 

 and is now denominated the Cidade Nova, of which it may in time constitute 



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