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hundred mules frequently arrive, loaded with the produce of the 

 country, and return with salt, iron, copper, earthen wares, and 

 European manufactures. For the traffic of its immediate vicinity, 

 it has the convenience of water-carriage, its river being navigable 

 about twenty miles, up to Cuberton, where an officer with a guard 

 of soldiers is stationed to receive the King's duties for the repair of 

 the roads and other public purposes. 



The governor of Santos being subject, in all cases, to the governor 

 of St.PauFs, we applied to him for permission to go thither, which 

 was immediately granted. It was now eight in the evening, and 

 we were without an asylum for the night. I had several letters of 

 recommendation, not one of which procured us any civility, and 

 we found that the inhabitants were far from being courteous to 

 strangers. We were willing to impute this to want of convenient 

 accommodations, but it may be generally observed, that along the 

 whole coast the same shyness prevails, while in the interior the 

 people vie with each other in acts of hospitality. Perhaps in all coun- 

 tries this duty is most practised where the occasions for its exercise 

 most rarely occur. 



Being unable to procure a bed at Santos, we were obhged to en- 

 gage a canoe to convey us up the river to Cuberton, where we ar- 

 rived at two in the morning, and were introduced into the guard- 

 house for a lodging. The corporal being called up, accommodated 

 us as well as he was able ; we lay down on the softest planks we 

 could find, and made pillows of our portmanteaus, but though much 

 wearied we found ourselves little disposed to sleep on so uneasy a 

 couch. At sunrise, when we got up, an extraordinary and busy 

 scene presented itself ; before the guard-house was a large space of 

 ground enclosed J)y the storehouse and other outbuildings, and h6re 

 above a hundred mules were led out to be harnessed and loaded ; 

 the gentleness and tractability of these fine large animals pleased us 

 much, and the expertness of their masters, particularly of the negroes, 

 in placing and replacing the burdens, was truly surprising. 



