PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



71 



capital ; but this difficulty would be remedied by the adoption of a different 

 system. Beef now pays a small duty, and by law is sold at 30 reas (or a! tout 

 3d.) per lb. and one man has the contract ; let it be of the worst quality the 

 price is the same ; by the payment of an adequate sum a piece of good beef 

 cannot be obtained. Let this important branch of commerce be thrown open, 

 without any restriction of price ; allow it to rest upon the basis of fair com- 

 petition, and a good quality of this article would be seen in the metropolis, 

 without any great additional price. Mutton is not very generally in use, 

 particularly amongst the Brazilians ; I have however seen some very good, 

 which was fed by an Englishman. Veal is rarely if ever seen. Pork is decided- 

 ly the best meat obtained here. Vegetables and fruit are very abundant, 

 and at reasonable prices. Potatoes are not produced, except by some of the 

 English ; but they degenerate after a year or two, by continuing to plant from 

 the same stock. Poultry of all kinds is dear, and fish is occasionally so, 

 arising more from the indolence of the fishermen, than any scarcity, as the bay 

 and outside of the bar furnish an abundance, and some of a very fine flavour. 

 Upon the whole, living at Rio is as expensive or more so than in London, with 

 none of the comforts of the latter place. A house two stories high, consisting 

 of a store below, and accommodation for a moderate sized family above, will let 

 for two hundred and fifty or three hundred pounds per annum ; and houses in the 

 vicinity of the city, with little comparative convenience, will rent at seventy or 

 eighty pounds a year ; while those more commodious are proportionably higher. 



