NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



275 



we were weary, and lulled by the smoothness of the motion and the soft 

 melody of music into a sort of extatic enjoyment At ten o'clock we 

 reached the dwelling of our host, and received from him a cordial 

 welcome. 



Near to the Taguahy we presented our Passports at one of the 

 Registers, which are established on the boundaries of each province^ 

 generally in a double line and a few miles distance from each other. 

 In each of them a guard of soldiers is stationed, to whose commanding 

 officer passengers are required to present themselves and their licence for 

 travelling. Our Passports were not quite regular, having been obtained 

 from the Commandant of the district whence we set out, and not from 

 the Police-Office of the Capital, to which we ought to have gone for 

 them. This circumstance occasioned some delay, and might have put us 

 to great inconvenience, if the officer on guard had not been civil When 

 the gratification of curiosity is the only object of travelling, and espe^ 

 cially wh«n it is undetermined how far an excursion is to extend, public 

 forms are too frequently neglected ; in Brazil, however, travellers will 

 find their interest in complying with them exactly. 



Going to Sepetiva, at a subsequent period, we arrived at Lameron 

 €arly in the morning of a Dia Santo, and found the people of the venda 

 gone to church. While sitting on the steps, waiting their return, we specu- 

 lated on the moral advantages of a frequent attendanco on religious cere- 

 monies, and concluded that a mild superstition was greatly pi^ferable to utter 

 ignorance and unrestrained licentiousness. The conduct of our host threw 

 some new light on the case, for he had assumed a new character, sullenly 

 refused us any thing but fish for our breakfast, and did not spare his 

 sarcasms on Englishmen and Heretics, We had seen him before a 

 civilized and well behaved Heathen ; now he appeared a bigotted and 

 furious Catholic. With difficulty we secured the horses, which had 

 been turned loose ; for he would neither give us any assistance himself^ 

 nor suffer his people to do so. 



Hungry and offended, we proceeded on our way ; when seeing on 

 the left hand a track, which led into the woods, we determined to find 



M m 2 



