CHAPTER VI. 



TOWN OF St. PEDRO do SUL, 



OR RIO GRANDE', AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

 A.D. 1809. 



COAST OF RIO GRANDE'. BAR OF ST. PEDRO. APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. — ■ 



LANDING. TOWN OF ST. PEDRO. CHURCH. FORT.*— CUSTOM-HOUSE. FERRY. 



GOVERNOR. POLICE. ASSASSINATION. STATE OF MEDICINE. MILITARY 



AFFAIRS. COMMERCE. OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS.^ DOMESTIC CIRCUM- 

 STANCES. DRESS. MANNERS. ECCLESIASTICAL PHILIPPIC. TOLERANCE. — 



SINGULAR BENEVOLENCE. INTRUDO.^ VISIT TO A FARMER ; HIS CHARACTER, 



FAMILY, FARM, AND COMFORTS. STRANGERS AT ST. PEDRO; THEIR APPEAR- 

 ANCE, DEALINGS, MANNERS, AND EaUIPAGE. SLAVES AND FREE NEGROES. 



ON approaching the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, we first made land 

 in the neighbourhood of Estreito, about nine leagues North-East of the 

 Bar of the River whence the province takes its name. Little round 

 hillocks of sand, without the slightest degree of vegetation, seemed to 

 rise out of the water, to which a splendid sun communicated a dazzling 

 whiteness. Soon it appeared that these were only inequalities of a sandy 

 shore, from the midst of which arose the Church of Estreito, a small 

 building in the usual style of such edifices in the villages of Brazil. A 

 few trees and a scanty portion of verdure about it, now becoming 

 visible, served to increase the forbidding appearance of the surrounding 

 desert. Long before we saw any marks, by which to guide our course, 

 we were in shoal water and encompassed with sand banks. 



The Captain having stationed himself at the mast-head saw these 

 shoals, and the channels between them, more clearly than they could be 



