NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



105 



superior order of tradesmen in other countries ; but knowledge and refine- 

 ment were unthought of, perhaps despised. It was often necessary to show 

 them the application and use of articles, which we had to sell; even a 

 common thumb-latch has been known to require time and pains to explain 

 it. Merchants, as respectable in their line as most in the country, have 

 excited our astonishment, by asking, in what part of London England 

 was ; which was largest. Great Britain or Madeira ; which farthest from 

 Rio. Their ignorance extended beyond Geography ; few of them 

 were acquainted with more than the first principles of Arithmetic ; in 

 reading, they spelled out the meaning, and to write a letter was a 

 dreaded task. 



It was not to be expected that the shop-keepers, of different 

 descriptions, should surpass in attainments the first native traders in 

 Brazil ; for a man of business to come much short of them was hardly 

 possible. In some, at least, of the particular lines, in which these 

 inferior dealers are engaged, a considerable measure of attention and 

 quickness must be indispensable ; but few of them had concerns of such 

 variety and extent as to rouse them to any near resemblance of the 

 activity seen in our shops. Their Stocks were in general scanty and 

 defective, and the means of adding to them, or even of keeping them 

 up, not less so. The Shops usually occupy the whole extent of the front, 

 except where passages are taken off, leading to the other apartments of 

 the house. Many of them measure eighteen feet and have two doors, 

 the only apertures by which light and air are admitted, and which are 

 never closed but for a short period at dinner time, and at night. The 

 anterior part of the shop forms a vacant space for customers ; the counter 

 always running from wall to wall, parallel with the street. A strong 

 old table is placed behind the counter, on which goods are sometimes 

 piled for sale ; on other occasions, it is used as a depository for articles, 

 which require to be arranged in their places, when the customers are 

 served. The sides of the shop, to the height of three feet, are generally 

 fitted up with drawers ; and above these, with glass cases gaudily 



