SS2 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



mounted, of genteel appearance, and even dignified manners. They 

 travelled in the character of military officers; and wore a brown uniform 

 of the Hussar kind, were well armed, but without a servant. They said 

 their home was in the farther part of Matto Grosso, and certainly fur- 

 nished a fine specimen of the people, should we even rank them with 

 the superior class, who inhabit a region so remote, so little known, and 

 so excluded from European influence. One of them retained, in a 

 degree, the habit of his country, for over his uniform he wore one of 

 those splendid Ponchos, which are commonly obtained from Tucuman 

 or Lima, originally of Indian manufacture, but which, I have since 

 learned, has been successfully imitated by the white inhabitants of their 

 country. He carried also a clothes bag of the same shewy texture. The 

 other had complied, in some measure, with our manners, and carried 

 behind him a small English Portmanteau, which he had purchased at 

 Villa Rica, and was highly delighted with its convenience. They were 

 going to Rio to see Lisbonian splendours, and foreign manners ; the 

 reports of which, they said, had greatly excited their curiosity. I was 

 the only foreigner they had ever seen — the first individual of a people 

 whom they had heard of, and were disposed to place, in the scale of cha- 

 racter and respectability, as second only to the Portuguese. My appear- 

 ance excited their surprise, and the rencontre evidently gave pleasure 

 to us all. Their minds seemed to be in that state, which an inquisitive 

 boy experiences, when he first approaches the Metropolis of his Nation. 

 Nor is this to be wondered at, when we consider how much of novelty 

 they must have witnessed on their route, and how much was still before 

 them. Two of their neighbours. Merchants from Cuyaba, were dining 

 at my table, soon after the Royal Family had emigrated, and after 

 inquiring much about the state and the wars of Portugal, about the 

 British, and about the French, they said,— Well ! no nosso canto do 

 mundo, — in our corner of the world we have never heard till now, of 

 European wars ; we did not even suppose, until lately, that there were 

 any people on the face of the earth but Portuguese and Spaniards, besides 

 Gentio, a name which they contemptuously give to South American 



