392 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



Brazilian, and his countenance possessed the pecuHar features of that class 

 of people. Their most obvious peculiarity is in the eyes, which ar6 

 large, prominent, and distorted ; the iris being exceedingly dark, ^while 

 the cornea possesses a dazzling brightness and displays itself between 

 eyelids unnaturally expanded. The man seems to look over both 

 shoulders at once, seldom, when unroused, places his eyes directly upon 

 any thing, nor keeps them long in one position. Such countenances, it 

 is obvious, to a stranger unfamiliarized with them, express the extreme of 

 savage ferocity. This distortion has been acquired at first, I think, by 

 the constant alarm in which the early settlers lived, and by the usual 

 processes of nature has been communicated from father to son, when the 

 circumstances which produced it have ceased to exist. This unamiable 

 figure however wished to be civil, assumed the whole duty of a host, and 

 did the awkward and noisy honours of the table in a style which might 

 have been expected from him. Afterwards I began to think him a 

 forester of a superior kind, for in the evening, he produced a number of 

 German Portraits of Officers, who had served in the Hungarian Army 

 of 1743, and seemed peculiarly delighted with them. Evidently with 

 a view to surprise, perhaps to overwhelm me with astonishment, he sent 

 into another room for an old lense and mirror, such as are used for viewing 

 coloured engravings. He placed beneath tlie instrument a view of 

 Madrid and one or two other Capitals of Europe, and at last one without 

 a name, which, from several objects, such as the Bridge with houses 

 upon it, the Monument and the Dome of St. Paul's, I pronounced to be 

 London, about a hundred years ago. Ah ! he exclaimed, I liave been 

 told so before, but would never believe it, till now ; and seemed so 

 enraptured with his treasure, that I believe he would not then have 

 exchanged it for one of David's finest productions. 



As we sat chatting after supper, this mass of ignorance and inconsistency 

 did indeed surprise me, for he said that my servant had behaved ill during 

 the day, and hinted that he ought to be dismissed, offering himself at tlie 

 same time, as my attendant to any part of the world. Supposing that the 

 man was only feigning a case, in order to create some diversion, as is very 



