386 



PROVINCE OF PERNAMBUCO. 



risoned in all the trappings and paraphernalia of Portuguese saddlery. The 

 Brazilians generally, when they go from home, are fond of external show, with- 

 out regard to much neatness, and upon those occasions they form a striking 

 contrast to their general disgusting appearance in their domestic circles. There 

 the men are usually seen with a dressing gown, or a shirt worn loosely over 

 drawers, without stockings, their breasts exposed, and indulging inert and 

 slovenly propensities. The females, having this example before them, claim 

 some allowance for their loose and slatternly mode of dressing, when at home, 

 and their worse habit of generally expectorating, without regard to person, time, 

 or place. Young females are entitled to much consideration also, on account of 

 the illiberal system pursued in their education and manner of bringing up. They 

 are, it may be said, almost excluded from society ; and the suspicious treatment 

 they experience from tJieir parents must tend to extinguish every liberal and 

 moral sentiment ; in fact, it cannot be considered that those very parents them- 

 selves possess much, or they would not subject them to an ungracious and scru- 

 tinizing watch, by generally keeping them shut up, so that they do not enjoy 

 even the necessary exercise for health, to which their Turkish mode of sitting 

 on the ground or upon mats, is not very congenial. If a family walk out, the 

 daughters precede the father and mother, and the negroes, frequently composing 

 the whole household, bring up the rear. Their grand opportunities for display- 

 ing their persons are religious holidays and festivals, and the midnight masses 

 at the churches are said to be fully attended by the females. 



The lady of General Rego, the governor, who is a very accomplished woman, 

 has endeavoured, very amiably but ineffectually, to introduce a social inter- 

 course amongst the families, and particularly the females, of Pernambuco ; and 

 although this lady succeeded in making a commencement, it was afterwards 

 declined by the families themselves, from the ridiculous excuse that it would 

 become expensive to have new dresses for every fresh visit. The general also 

 gave a public ball to the inhabitants, which was followed by one on the part of 

 the English merchants ; but it would appear, with the exception of some of the 

 leading persons, that the inhabitants, from their little intercourse with the world, 

 are yet inimical to any refined system of society. 



The cotton planters, and senhors d' engetiho in the interior, are stated to be 

 liberal and hospitable to strangers ; and many of them, who have been recently 

 acquiring considerable property, live in a comparatively comfortable style. 



Apathy is a strong characteristic in the lower orders of Brazilians. In my 

 various excursions near Pernambuco, I have seen men, at all hours of the day. 



