96 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



seven children, and a relation from Spain, the Infante Don Carlos de 

 Bourbon. All these, thirteen in number, with their attendants amount- 

 ing to nearly three hundred, were crowded into a miserable abode for 

 Royalty, thougli, of course, dignified with the name of a palace. They 

 had, indeed, in addition, the range of small buildings before mentioned, 

 on another side of the square ; but still the accommodations must have 

 fallen greatly short of their wants. The house stood upon a piece 

 of ground measuring seventy yards by twenty-six ; and from this con- 

 tracted space must be deducted an open court in the centre. The lower 

 story, or ground-floor, was wholly occupied by piazzas, guard-rooms, 

 and other offices ; above them were apartments for the elder branches of 

 the family, and their immediate attendants ; about half the house has 

 another story, and in these attics the children, with their servants, were 

 lodged. This building, before it became a Royal residence, contained 

 within its walls the mint and a prison ; from both of which the occupiers 

 were soon ejected, and the house imited, by a sort of covered way, with 

 the Convent of the Carmelites. It was thus rendered much more 

 spacious and commodious, though still very defective in these points ; 

 the lower part of the convent being converted into kitchens and offices, 

 the upper into domestic apartments of a superior cast. The Carmelites 

 were translated to the Lapa, where had been a school, previously 

 suppressed. 



If the residence of Royalty was humble, its equipage and attend- 

 ants, when it appeared in public, were still more so. The best vehicle 

 which the rich colony of Brazil could afford to its sovereign was a small 

 chaise, brought out by the same vessel in which she arrived. It was 

 drawn by two very ordinary mules, and driven by a servant in an old 

 and discoloured, if not tattered livery. She was attended, in her rides, 

 by a maid of honour, in the same carriage with herself, two soldiers in 

 advance, and an officer and twelve others following, by a single trumpet 

 and a private footman. The military were wretchedly mounted and 

 appointed ; their horses were unshod, and most of them lame, blind, 

 galled, or otherwise disabled; the clothing of the men was, generally 



