NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



565 



same year, three females had been married out of the Hospital, in which 

 case a dowry of 200,000 Reis is given to each. 



A Recolhimento, for Female Orphans, was established in 1739. 

 It received, in the year 1817, for rent, 1,592,000 Reis ; as sums paid on 

 account of children entering into it, 2,234,000 Reis ; and by legacies, 

 1,848,000 Reis. For the support of the house, during the same year, 

 was paid 5,274,000 ; and for eight dowries, 1,600,000. I was not able 

 to ascertain the number of Recolhidas upon the funds of the establish- 

 ment, but it appeared to me to maintain too great a number of idle 

 servants, and to be managed upon an expensive plan. 



From the accounts for 1817, which were the first made public, it 

 appears that the revenues of the Lazaretto amounted to 10,350,000 Reis ; 

 but there is not in them the slightest hint at any sums received as 

 charity, nor of any previous balance in the hands of the treasurer. The 

 former of these circumstances I was induced particularly to notice, from 

 having been a subscriber to the house for the seven preceding years. 

 At the same time I am perfectly aware that the term Rendas, or Rents, 

 may include the idea of revenues in general. Yet it ought to be 

 observed, that treasurers and trustees, who are honest, and value their 

 characters, are commonly particular and precise in their accounts. The 

 expenses, during the same period, amounted to 10,057,000 Reis ; and, 

 if my memory does not fail me, the number of patients was eighty-four, 

 by far the greater proportion being black people, which gives, for each 

 individual, the extravagant sum of nearly one hundred and twenty 

 Milreis. 



During the same year, on the 18th of March, the King issued a 

 decree, and gave the land necessary for the establishment of an hospital 

 near the sulphureous springs of Cubatao, opposite to St. Catherine's^ 

 and ordered that they should be open to all. Within the next six months, 

 that island alone had raised, for the purpose of carrying the plan into 

 effect, the sum of 4,133,000 Reis. This place will, probably, ere long, 

 become the Harrogate of Southern Brazil, though happily not the 

 only one where medicinal waters are found. They have been discovered 

 and used with success both in Minas Geraes and Goyaz. 



