NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



499 



objects are only some of the Churches and other public buildings, and 

 that the dwelling-houses lie in the hollows between them. 



The road entered tiie town at the Western end, crossing a small 

 stream, which runs close to it. In the limpid w^aters of this rivulet, 

 some females, almost naked, were washing clothes. They gave as a 

 first impression, a poor opinion of the people, for their countenances 

 and appearance exhibited the squalidness of poverty, and their language 

 and manners the deformity of vice. 



Before we arrived at our Estalagem, situated in the midst of the 

 town, my guide was recognized and familiarly accosted by a number of 

 vagabonds, who, held together by a chain, were at work in the streets. 

 On my inquiring how this happened, he told me that they were assassins, 

 whom he had conducted to Villa Rica, in an official capacity, about two 

 months before. It Avas natural to think in what light the man, who was 

 now arrived under the same guidance, must appear to the people. There 

 was, however no remedy, and we rode on quietly together. Our inn 

 was situated near the middle of the town, and on that account was pre- 

 ferred to the only other house of public accommodation which the place 

 contains. 



It was a spacious building in an elevated situation, at the corner of 

 two streets, near the Church of St\ Rosa, and had^ a balcony along two 

 of its sides, into which the apartments opened without communicating 

 with each other. I made choice of the room at the angle, because of 

 the view which it commanded ; for this was almost the only circumstance 

 in which it differed from the rest, all of them having unglazed windoAvs, 

 furnished with shutters and upright bars, like some of our stables. 

 In my apartment were two bedsteads, as many old chairs, and a poor 

 dirty table ; and into it were brought my baggage, saddles, bridles, and 

 every thing belonging to me, except the horses and mules. I insisted 

 upon it, that the guide should not occupy one of the two beds, but 

 have a separate room ; and he fixed upon that adjoining to mine, 

 requiring in his turn, that my black attendants should be placed 

 in a third. 



The host was a tall, rough-looking-man, with a countenance, which 

 3 R 2 



