NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



309 



example. If he refuse to taste of any dish, it generally goes away 

 imtouclied. This is the mode when the guests are not familiar, and 

 ceremony is thought to be proper ; when friends meet, the scene is more 

 like that which formerly appeared in an English farm-house at a coun- 

 try wake. 



Some of our countrymen arriving at this village, and wishing to 

 find a house where they might spread their mattresses, and pass the 

 night, one was immediately given up to them. They received, also, an 

 invitation to dinner, which they declined because they thought their 

 party too numerous ; yet, at the usual hour, a variety of dishes were 

 sent in, with such requisites for the comfortable enjoyment of them 

 as the place afforded. At supper-time another meal was sent in the 

 same style, and after it baskets of clean linen and other things, in 

 sufficient abundance to make up a bed for each individual. In the 

 morning, horses appeared to convey them to the place where they had 

 ordered their boat to be in waiting, and slaves to carry their luggage. 

 Hospitality is a common Brazilian virtue; but among the superior class of 

 Ilheos, as the people from the Western Islands are called, it is exercised in 

 modes and to an extent which are peculiarly amiable. 



In consequence of a circumstance which had occurred before the 

 commencement of my first journey through this place, we here prepared 

 for the remaining part of it with extraordinary, perhaps unnecessary 

 caution. At my application for a passport, the Minister of Police 

 honoured me with an audience, and expressing an earnest desire to serve 

 me, requested to know the particulars of my route and business. As I 

 gave him credit for his motives, and had no occasion for concealment, I 

 informed him that I wished to see an estate on the other side of the river 

 St. Joan, and as I promised myself much pleasure in the journey, I 

 might cross the Parahyba, proceed as I found things agreeable, and return 

 by Macacii and Maje. He informed me that it was a difficult under- 

 taking, that a part of my intended route lay through unappropriated 

 lands, and that from St. Joan to Macacu there was no beaten track. He 

 advised me, if determined to pursue my plan, to be continually on my 



