^80 



NOTES ON BiaAZXJL. 



found a record in these pages, had they been considered as isolated, or 

 even as rare facts. Such things will occur in the most virtuous commu- 

 nities ; but in Brazil they are, too truly, illustrative of the general 

 character. In publicly stating them 1 consider myself as doing a real 

 service to the Planters and Traders of the country ; and every honest man 

 among them will allow that I am entitled to his thanks. 



Returning once more to head-quarters, we determined to find and 

 proceed by a track nearer to the coast than any which we had hitherto 

 followed. Mentioning this project to our host, he at first said there was 

 none, and seemed astonished at our folly : his neighbours added their 

 dissuasions to his own. At length relenting, and more shrewd than the 

 rest, he said to his son, whom he had often called to mark how the 

 strangers acted ; — " there must be another way, for the people from 

 Maranbaya, in going to the city, do not pass through our village, they 

 go along the Restinga ; these Englishmen are right, they know more 

 about the country than we do ; until they came we kept our eyes shut, 

 and are only now awaking." 



When the British first came to Brazil in considerable numbers, 

 the same sentiment was expressed in a variety of ways. Not only 

 was their real superior intelligence freely acknowledged, but, with the 

 simplicity of childhood, the people seemed sometimes to attribute to 

 them more than human attainments. It was natural to expect that such 

 feelings should abate ; more especially in the capital and its neighbour-, 

 hood. As the Brazilians learned from the new comers, they wondered 

 less, and, as their views expanded, easily retreated into their characte- 

 ristic self-complacency. 



When the hour of departure arrived, the old man unexpectedly 

 made his appearance in the attire of a traveller, alledging that, since 

 we took such strange resolutions, he was determined to maintain 

 the character of his house by not suffering us to leave it without his 

 guidance and protection ; we repeatedly assured him that both were 

 unnecessary, but nothing could move him from his purpose. 



We rode briskly about twenty miles, chiefly over a rich clayey 



