1848.] 



ENVIRONS OF PARA. 



S 



the only good shops in the city. The houses are many of 

 them only one storey high, but the shops, which are often 

 completely open in front, are very neatly and attractively 

 furnished, though with rather a miscellaneous assortment of 

 articles. Here are seen at intervals a few yards of foot-paving, 

 though so little as only to render the rest of your walk over 

 rough stones or deep sand more unpleasant by comparison. 

 The other streets are all very narrow. They consist either 

 of very rough stones, apparently the remains of the original 

 paving, which has never been repaired, or of deep sand and 

 mud-holes. The houses are irregular and low, mostly built 

 of a coarse ferruginous sandstone, common in the neighbour- 

 hood, and plastered over. The windows, which have no glass, 

 have the lower part filled with lattice, hung above, so that the 

 bottom may be pushed out and a peep obtained sideways in 

 either direction, and from these many dark eyes glanced at us 

 as we passed. Yellow and blue wash are liberally used about 

 most of the houses and churches in decorating the pilasters 

 and door and window openings, which are in a debased but 

 picturesque style of Italian architecture. The building now 

 used as custom-house and barracks, formerly a convent, is 

 handsome and very extensive. 



Beyond the actual streets of the city is a large extent of 

 ground covered with roads and lanes intersecting each other 

 at right angles. In the spaces formed by these are the 

 "rosinhas," or country-houses, one, two, or more on each 

 block. They are of one storey, with several spacious rooms 

 and a large verandah, which is generally the dining-room and 

 most pleasant sitting and working apartment. The ground 

 attached is usually a swamp or a wilderness of weeds or fruit- 

 trees. Sometimes a portion is formed into a flower-garden, 

 but seldom with much care or taste, and the plants and flowers 

 of Europe are preferred to the splendid and ornamental pro- 

 ductions of the country. The general impression of the city 

 to a person fresh from England is not very favourable. There 

 is such a want of neatness and order, such an appearance of 

 neglect and decay, such evidences of apathy and indolence, 

 as to be at first absolutely painful. But this soon wears off, 

 and some of these peculiarities are seen to be dependent on 

 the climate. The large and lofty rooms, with boarded floors 

 and scanty furniture, and with half-a-dozen doors and windows 



