NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



41 



When I first arrived in this country, Rio was said to contain eighty 

 thousand inhabitants ; but it appeared to me that the estimate was 

 considerably too high. On counting the streets, and the number of 

 houses in many of them, I thought that there might be about four 

 thousand dwelHngs ; the average number of persons in each was probably 

 fifteen ; making a population of sixty thousand, of whom one-third 

 were white people, or white mulattoes. The number of inhabitants 

 allowed to each house will appear to be large ; but it must be remembered 

 that, in some cases, more than one family dwelt under the same roof, 

 and that many slaves were kept for domestic purposes, while others 

 of this rank, whose usual labour called them out of the city, returned 

 in the evening and slept there, requiring little more than shelter, and 

 reposing on the floors or in the passages of the houses, rolled up in 

 blankets or coverlets. The strangers, who are not included in this 

 account, amounted to about sixteen thousand ; ten thousand of whom 

 were continually afloat, and the far greater part of the remaining six 

 thousand never intended to continue in the country, and could not, with 

 any propriety, be counted among the inhabitants of Rio. This mass of 

 people was divided, probably with no great accuracy, into the following 

 classes : — 



1000 connected in various ways with the Court. 

 1000 in public offices. 



1000 who commonly resided in the city, but drew their support chiefly from 

 lands in the neighbourhood, and from ships. 



700 resident priests. 



500 lawyers. 



200 medical men. 

 40 regular merchants. 

 2000 retailers of different descriptions. 

 4000 clerks, apprentices, and commercial servants. 

 1250 mechanics. 



100 vintners, commonly called venda-keepers. 



SOO fishermen. 

 1000 soldiers of the line. 

 1000 sailors belonging to the port. 

 1000 free negroes. 

 12000 slaves. 

 4000 females at the head of families. 



F 



