NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



197 



fared well, though unsheltered, being tied to the trees, and the ground 

 about them liberally strewed with grass. The Garros or Waggons, 

 resembled those originally derived from Portugal, with equally little iron 

 in their structure or harness ; here they were drawn by six or eight oxen, 

 instead of four. 



In such a place there could be no want of provisions for the table ; 

 we had a plentiful repast of beef, bacon, and good poultry, together with 

 different vegetables, European as well as native, in high perfection. The 

 guests had previously sent wine, and Rosea, a kind of bread, had been 

 provided from the town. This, I am told, is kneaded with milk, and, 

 being baked very hard, continues good for a long time. 



Although such abodes, their supplies and accommodations, may be 

 thought in England greatly deficient, the Brazilians certainly enjoy in 

 them a considerable share of comfort, which depends less on circum- 

 stances than on habits. He, whose attachment to the things and modes 

 of a long established country is inflexible, can never be pleased with a 

 new one; yet the latter may, abstractedly considered, be the happier 

 region of the two. In Brazil, the warmth of the climate converts much 

 clothing by day, or covering by night, into a redundancy ; and a fire, 

 except for culinary purposes, would, in general, be a burden. The 

 common appetite, too, demands nothing beyond the simplest productions 

 of skill in cookery. The ground is dry, the floor may easily be kept 

 clean, and, though used as a couch, is never dangerous. For my own 

 part, after being a little habituated to it, I have found a hard bed 

 pleasanter than a soft one, and a stretched raw hide sweeter than some of 

 the mattresses of London. 



It is probable that the class which I am next to bring forward was 

 well content in a situation still more bare of superfluities, — the persons 

 who occasionally appeared in Rio Grande, as the purchasers of goods, 

 from a considerable distance in the interior. They were, in general, 

 short and robust ; with some mixture of Indian blood, manifested by a 

 thin beard, lank hair, and an unsettled eye. The men of genuine 

 Spanish and Portuguese origin have thick and strong beards, the hair 



