392 



PROVINCE OF PERNAMBUCO. 



processes of boiling, and when completed is much inferior to the West-Indian 

 sugar, and generally in a very dirty state. 



The English merchants were desirous of getting a clergyman from England, 

 having been without the performance of divine service for a considerable period; 

 and, besides the want of an opportunity to fulfil one of the most essential and 

 important duties in life, an unfavourable impression could not but operate 

 against them in the minds of the inhabitants, from their having no public obser- 

 vance of religion. The contribution fund, in the hands of the committee, 

 amounts to upwards of five thousand 4)ounds, which those gentlemen have been 

 anxious to apply to the purposes for which it is intended, that of building a church 

 and an hospital, and the payment of a clergyman and a medical man, which 

 latter appointment is filled by Dr. Ramsay, a gentleman of great acquirements in 

 his profession, and deservedly and universally beloved and esteemed. 



I accompanied him and some of the merchants, upon one occasion, amongst 

 many others in which they had been endeavouring to obtain suitable buildings 

 for a church, hospital, and residences for the doctor and a clergyman. The 

 building which we saw had been recently erected, was very spacious, surrounded 

 with some grounds, and well adapted for the purpose ; the reason it was not 

 rented or purchased arose from the proprietor demanding an exorbitant price.* 



We, at the same time, paid a visit to Mr. Koster, (a gentleman known to the 

 literary world by the publication of his travels in the northern part of the Brazil,) 

 who had just arrived at Recife from Goyanna, from whence, in consequence of 

 his indifferent state of health, he travelled in anet suspended between two horses, 

 which was rendered, he said, a less disagreeable mode of conveyance, by the 

 ambling pace of the horses. Mr. Koster had removed his residence to Goyanna, 

 in hopes that the climate would be more suitable to his health and constitution; 

 but his very delicate appearance indicated a rapid decline, and I regret to say 

 that he did not long survive. 



The population of Pernarabuco is estimated at about sixty-five thousand per- 

 sons, St. Antonio containing much the greatest proportion. I endeavoured to 

 discover the site and remains of Fribourg House, the first edifice built upon it by 

 Prince Maurice of Nassau ; and was finally assured that its remains constitute 

 the present Casa de Fazenda Real, which, though exhibiting some antiquity in 

 its aspect, in consequence of being white-washed, could not be identified with 

 positive certainty. But its appearance, (pretty correctly represented in the 



* 1 have been infonued, since my return to England, that a clergyman had arrived atPernambueo. 



