432 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



Sertoens or depths of the forests to find new land." The poor fellow was 

 highly delighted with the representations 1 gave, and frequently bid his 

 neighbours remark them, adding, every now and then, with emphasis, it is 

 true, it is true. I wish the dialogue may have restored his credit, for he 

 spoke with great feeling of his reception at Plymouth ; and both I and my 

 servant, a native of Interior Africa, fared the better to-night, for the 

 kindness which this man had experienced several years before in my own 

 country. So wide, in its influence and effects, is the interchange of good 

 offices in society. 



Our company here consisted of seventeen persons, the greater part 

 of whom made their beds on the bare ground, yet all sought a place 

 which was sheltered, for the night was very cold. My bed was prepared 

 in a small interior room, where my guide, as a guardian, took his 

 station also. 



As our baggage did not arrive until very late, two bags had been 

 filled with the dry husks of Indian corn, and were brought for us from 

 a large Farm-house at a little distance. Each of them was placed in a 

 small crib, made of sticks as they had been cut from the woods, and 

 bound together with Sipo ; the sheets were of good, though coarse, cotton 

 cloth, and beautifully white. At dinner, or rather supper, for it was 

 served at nine in the evening, we fared somewhat more sumptuously ; it 

 was set out with silver forks and spoons, and slaves afterwards appeared 

 with warm and cold water, that we might perform our ablutions 

 comfortably. 



In the morning I thought it right to show my sense of these civili- 

 ties, by waiting upon the family. The males belonging to it were all 

 gone into the woods, yet there were nearly thirty persons at home, of 

 all shades, from a jet black to the white cornplexion of the mistress, 

 who, at sixty years of age, had not lost all claim to be numbered among 

 the fair. She was surrounded by a group of chubby and healthy children 

 of various ages, rolling upon the floor, naked as nature had formed them. 

 The full grown females wore, as usual, the chemise and short petticoat. 

 The abode of this numerous family consisted of one very large room, 



