EXCURSIONS ON THE COAST. 



395 



become attached to this neighborhood also from its beauty. 

 The wide street, bordered for two or three miles with 

 mangueiras, leads into the wooded country, where many a 

 narrow green path in the forest tempts one to long rambles. 

 One of these paths has been a favorite walk of mine on ac- 

 count of the beauty and luxuriance of the vegetation, mak- 

 ing some parts of it shady even at noonday. I have often 

 followed it for two or three miles in the early morning, be- 

 tween six and eight o'clock, when the verdant walls on 

 either side are still fresh and dewy. Beautiful as it is, it 

 leads to one of the saddest of all abodes. For a long time I 

 could not understand why this lane was always in such 

 good condition, the heavy rains making unfrequented forest- 

 paths almost impassable in the wet season. I found on in- 

 quiry that it led to a hospital for lepers, and was kept in 

 good repair because the various stores and supplies for the 

 hospital were constantly carried over it. The prevalence of 

 leprosy has made it necessary to provide separate establish- 

 ments for its victims ; and both at Para and Santarem, where 

 it is still more common, there are hospitals devoted exclu- 

 sively to this purpose. This terrible disease is not confined 

 wholly to the lower classes, and where it occurs in families 

 whose circumstances are good the invalid is often kept at 

 home under the care of his own friends. Bates states that 

 leprosy is supposed to be incurable, and also adds that, dur- 

 ing his eleven years' residence on the Amazons, he has never 

 known a foreigner to be attacked by it. We have, however, 

 been told by a very intelligent German physician in Rio de 

 Janeiro, that he has known several cases of it among his 

 own countrymen there, and has been so fortunate as to 

 effect permanent cures in some instances. He says it is a 

 mistake to suppose that it does not yield to treatment when 



