70 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



of the best of these establishments to numerous inmates or genuine 

 respectability. 



Cazal describes the inhabitants of the retreats as the orphan children 

 of white people, born in wedlock, who leave them at marriage, and then 

 receive a dowry. This is not a representation of the whole truth. Per- 

 sons, who are quitting the city on business for a time, and having, it may 

 be, no friends, with whom they can entrust their girls, often place them 

 in these houses, with a wish that they may be kept in security and good 

 order. Husbands, too, who suspect that they do not possess the w^hole 

 hearts of their wives, send them hither during an occasional absence, and 

 take them out again on their return. Some, of whose levity there can 

 be little doubt, are placed here by their friends, either as a punishment 

 for life, or for correction and restoration to virtue. Incongruous as it 

 may appear, females of some rank in society, and of unquestioned cha- 

 racter, sometimes choose a Recolhiraento for their abode, while their 

 husbands are from home. With what degree of intimacy they mix with 

 their fellow lodgers I know not. But, on the most favourable suppo- 

 sition, these houses present a strange jumble of age, character, and 

 purpose ; young and old, the innocent and the corrupted, female schools 

 and Magdalene Hospitals. A British parent would never select such a 

 place for his daughter, nor such persons for her companions and instruc- 

 tors. A British husband would never believe that his wife could here be 

 more secure from moral taint, than when left to her own sense of what is 

 due to herself, to her friends and society. But the Brazilians have little 

 delicacy of feeling ; they know next to nothing of the strong and over- 

 bearing influence of moral causes. 



The Misericordia, or house for the reception and cure of invalids^ 

 is an excellent structure, large and clean, endowed with considerable 

 estates, to the income of which additions are made by voluntary contri- 

 butions, and a small tax on the wages of seamen. The houses in the 

 city, which belong to it, have on their fronts, just over the principal 

 entrance, a small tablet expressive of the fact, and the number by which 

 each is distinguished in the books of the hospital ; an excellent method 



