SOUTH AMERICA. 



125 



of a sick child, in order to try the effect of the 

 fresher and purer air of the more elevated re2;ion. 

 The honors of the house were very gracefully per- 

 formed by the daughter of the minister, a young 

 lady of sixteen or seventeen years of age. Mr. 

 Sumpter has a numerous and amiable family, who all 

 speak the Portuguese, and the younger hardly any 

 thing else. He has been six or seven years at this 

 court, and is extremely anxious to return home. He 

 speaks highly of the climate, and of the vast resources 

 of the country; thinks favorably of the king, but ex- 

 presses gi'eat dislike to the state of society, as w ell as 

 disapprobation of the thousand vexations and abuses 

 practised on the people in the name of the govern- 

 ment. He said that there was a sincere wish on the 

 part of the king to cultivate a good understanding and 

 friendship with the people of the United States, and 

 in this he was much more liberal than his courtiers. 

 On the subject of the insurrectional movements, he 

 seemed to think, that the spirit of revolt was by no 

 means extensive through Brazil, and he gave no credit 

 to the assertions that similar designs to those of Per- 

 nambuco, had been formed at St. Salvador and Rio. 

 On the subject of the mission, probably mistaking its 

 objects, he thought it premature. He professed to be 

 well acquainted with the state of things at Buenos 

 Ayres, and expressed a very unfavorable opinion of the 

 kind of spirit by which they were generally actuat- 

 ed. He appeared to think that selfish rivalry and 

 false ambition, actuated a greater part of those who 

 aspired to authority; there was hardly a major, he 

 said, who did not think himself qualified to be supreme 

 director! With respect to men at present in power> 



