542 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



and with difficulty obtained permission to sleep in one of the filthy 

 rooms on the other side of the river. A good supper was sent in 

 after midnight, but my treatment in other respects was so uncivil, and 

 so totally at variance with the usual customs of the country, that I 

 thought myself justified in showing some resentment. For this, we had 

 ample time, the mules and horses having strayed from their pasture, 

 and detained us three hours in the morning ; a good deal of punctilio was 

 observed on both sides, and several messages passed between the house 

 and the hovel. At length, having manifested my unwillingness to pay 

 for my accommodation by respectful acknowledgments, and my deter- 

 mination not to receive a boon from the hand of such a man, I was 

 alloAved to discharge my debt, and the trifling sum of 240 reis, or 

 eighteen-pence was all, which in rigour it amounted to. The man 

 who received payment, made many apologies for his master's conduct ; 

 but they did not come from the right quarter, and furnished no remedy 

 for the inconvenience which had been endured ; nevertheless, as he 

 seemed anxious upon the point, I took pains to convince him, that 

 I complained only of his master's conduct, and left his premises with 

 a conviction, that he disgraced himself even in his own opinion. 



Gur ride from hence was well calculated to dissipate the fumes of 

 displeasure ; but being over ground already described, the few remaining 

 occurrences of the journey shall be hastily related. 



At the Patrulha, one of the Soldiers observing that my horse was 

 beginning to be lame, through the loss of a shoe, set about preventing 

 farther mischief ; and when he had finished the work, strenuously refused 

 every recompense, besides the pleasure of having done a kind and a 

 generous action to a stranger. I have usually found the lower orders of 

 people in this country, not only more civil, but more ready with their 

 good offices, than those of superior circumstances. My baggage was 

 strictly examined, and a few sealed letters detained. But this was done 

 in a way very different from what I have had occasion to remark in some 

 British Custom-Houses, — with a seeming wish to render an unpleasant 

 duty as little grating as possible. 



