458 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



and cruelty was obtained, and the people were now preparing to com- 

 memorate it by a public dinner within the building. A full length 

 picture of the Governor, in his robes, had been painted privately for the 

 occasion, by the young artist already mentioned ; and a few respectable men, 

 at whose suggestion and charge it had been provided, allowed me to see it. 

 The resemblance to the worthy original was a good one, but, in other 

 respects, the picture was extremely defective, and must derive much of 

 its merit from the mode in which it was to be exhibited. The plan was 

 to give a pleasing surprise to the company on the festal day, by suddenly 

 displaying it over the chair of the President. The good people of St. 

 John love to compliment by stealth, and this is not the only instance in 

 which they have gratified their taste. 



On paying my visit of ceremony, to present my passport to the 

 Governor, the Desembargador Manoel Ignacio de Mello e Souza, I found 

 his person about the middle size, broad and stout, he possessed a coun- 

 tenance singularly expressive of good temper and ease, was lively, 

 active, unobservant of forms, and exhibited those manners which are 

 peculiarly agreeable to strangers. In his apartment I again met my new 

 French acquaintance, who had preceded me a few minutes on the same 

 errand, and was now dressed in the uniform of the National Institute, 

 The character of the Governor soon displayed itself, not merely in the 

 frankness of his manners towards strangers, and the easy terms upon 

 which he admitted to his presence every respectable individual of the 

 place, but also by the kind notice which he took of a poor sickly Indian 

 boy, who had accidentally seated himself upon the steps of the house ; 

 the tender interest which the condition of this poor outcast excited, in 

 the bosom of a person whom fortune had placed so much above him, 

 quite won my heart, and rivetted my esteem for a man so gentle 

 and humane, nor had I occasion afterwards to detract my respect. As a 

 friend he was warm and sincere, as a judge upright and inflexible. 

 In the latter respect his character, just before, had been put to a severe 

 trial, by the appearance of a person at his tribunal who had till then 

 •shared his esteem, and fcM: whose acquittal great interest had been made ; 



