592 



PERNAMBUCO. 



Aug. 1836. 



by two long bridges built on wooden piles. The town is in 

 all parts disgusting, the streets being narrow, ill-paved, and 

 filthy ; the houses are very tall and gloomy. The number 

 of white people, which during the morning may be met with 

 in the streets, bears about the proportion of foreigners in 

 any other nation; aU the rest are black or of a dusky colour. 

 The latter, as well as the BraziHans, are far from prepos- 

 sessing in their appearance. The poor negroes, wherever 

 they may be, are cheerful, talkative, and boisterous. There 

 was nothing in the sight, smell, or sounds within this large 

 town, which conveyed to my mind any pleasing impressions. 



The season of heavy rains had hardly come to an end, 

 and hence the surrounding country, which is scarcely 

 elevated above the level of the sea, was flooded with water. 

 I failed in all my attempts to take any long walks. I was, 

 however, enabled to observe that many of the country-houses 

 in the outskirts, had like those of Bahia a gay appearance, 

 which harmonized well with the luxuriant character of the 

 vegetation. 



The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands, is 

 surrounded at the distance of a few miles, by a semicircle of 

 low hiUs, or rather by the edge of a country elevated perhaps 

 two hundred feet above the sea. The old city of Ohnda 

 stands on one extremity of this range. One day I took a 

 canoe, and proceeded up one of the channels to visit it ; I 

 found the old town from its situation both sweeter and 

 cleaner than that of Pernambuco. I must here commemo- 

 rate what happened for the first time during the four-and-a- 

 half years we have been wandering about, namely, having met 

 with a want of politeness amongst any class of people : I 

 was refused in a sullen manner at two difi*erent houses, and 

 obtained with difiiculty from a third, permission to pass 

 through their gardens, to an uncultivated hill, for the purpose 

 of taking a view of the country. I feel quite glad that this 

 happened in the^ land of the " Brava Gente,^^ for I bear 

 them no good will — a land also of slavery, and therefore of 

 moral debasement. A Spaniard would have been ashamed 



