NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



391 



an apartment ; and though the host offered to accommodate me in the 

 Varanda, the artificial apartment of packages was preferred. 



I wandered a great deal about this place, charmed with its lovely 

 dells and well cut roads, with the planting of milho, which is conducted 

 upon a larger scale than usual, and managed with industry. The number 

 of small birds, which we observed, seemed to indicate an unusual quan- 

 tity of cleared ground ; among them the Moorhen was common, and 

 so tame as to show itself freely, in the small pools with which the place 

 abounds, and the Tesoura hovered above seemingly conscious of their 

 security. 



Having described myself as an English Merchant, my host took a 

 bunch of keys, opened a small store at the other end of his premises, 

 and invited me to remove to it as a more agreeable place than the 

 Varanda, where we were sitting. He was manifestly vain of his goods, 

 and wished to show that he also was a merchant ; and he was right in 

 feeling as much pride, and consciousness of importance, as the first retail 

 dealer out of London does, for his stock consisted not only of the articles 

 commonly foimd at a Venda, such as a barrel or two of poor wine, a few 

 bottles of sour British porter, some garlic, cheese, and rosea, which is 

 brought baked from the city, a little bacon, a few beijus and boxes of 

 marmalade, with some rum and tobacco, but comprised also articles of 

 linen and woollen drapery. He had a few coarse hats, a few yards of 

 woollen and cotton cloth, half a dozen pieces of muslin, three or four pairs 

 of cotton stockings, a piece or two of tape, and a little thread, the whole 

 set off by a dozen of indecent French snuff boxes. All these articles 

 were kept locked up in a sort of cupboard, with a pair of folding doors, 

 which he set wide open, and placed seats directly in front of them. The 

 goods might probably have cost him from fifteen to twenty pounds 

 sterling, and yet scanty as this may appear, I have no doubt that 

 it was the largest collection on sale, out of the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Rio, within a hundred and fifty miles of the place. 



In his person this man was very broad and heavy, loaded with fat, 

 and moved with listlessness, he was in every respect a true bred country 



