40 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



and mules singly, the abutments of which still remain to the Soutli of 

 the new one. The wooden bridges did not then exist, nor did the road 

 between them ; passengers waited until the tide was in part gone 

 down, or went through it, sometimes at considerable risk. The Campo 

 do St. Christophe, and the country round it, were so full of wood, 

 that Avhen shooting in it in July, 1808, having separated from our 

 companions, two of us could think of no better means of rejoining them 

 than ascending the hill, which overlooked the forest, in order that we 

 might discover any trace of them, by their firing or otherwise. At this 

 period only two boats, and about a dozen canoas, plied upon the water 

 for hire. St. Domingos and Praia Grande, on the opposite side, were 

 small pleasant villages, consisting of a few scattered houses, embosomed 

 in woods. All round the bay of Rio de Janeiro appeared one intermin- 

 able forest, every hill was clothed with lofty trees, and every valley filled 

 with fire-wood ; little cultivated land was discernible in the wide extended 

 landscape. It was found generally in small patches, near to the farm 

 and country-houses ; but these were hidden from the view, and frequently 

 accessible only by water. 



Circumscribed as this picture represents the young metropolis, I 

 am persuaded that no one, who saw it at the period referred to, will say 

 that the outline is incorrect. The advance of the city, on spots so 

 recently covered with forests, surprised many of its new inhabitants, 

 while those, who were accustomed to its former appearance, were still 

 more astonished. By one of this latter description, the idea was simply 

 expressed in my hearing ; an old negress, whom I met near the church of 

 St. liOrenzo, was coming down the declivity on which the church stands, 

 spinning as she walked, and had just reached the turn, where the city 

 and the shipping came full in view below% when this soliloquy burst 

 from her lips, — " O what a great Rio de Janeiro this has become !" 

 The object which produced this exclamation was not so much the 

 number of new buildings, for then the increase was little more than 

 commenced, as about fifty sail of merchant-vessels, of all descriptions, 

 lying between the town and the Ilha das Cobras, and about ten sail of 

 the line in the roads. 



