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light is a serious inconvenience to travellers in all parts of Brazil, 

 and no one ought to undertake a journey without an ample provi^ 

 sion of candles, with the necessary implements for using them. Snuf- 

 fers are articles of luxury, very rarely to be met with, except as 

 curiosities. I need not add that beds are an equally indispensable 

 part of a traveller's equipage. 



We resumed our journey at an early hour next day, along an ex- 

 cellent road in the middle of a valley, formed by lofty mountains. 

 After travelling about three miles, we came to a house, called the 

 Panedera (bake-house), which is reckoned half way between Zapitiva 

 and the capital. From this place the road gradually becomes more 

 enlivened by dwellings and plantations, (but many of the former are 

 wretched hovels erected for the sale of bacon, corn, liquors, &c.) 

 and by numbers of countrymen bringing produce from every part of 

 the south-west, even from the far districts of Goyazes, Coritiva, 

 -Cuyaba, St. Paul's, and Mato G rosso. It is not uncommon to see 

 eight hundred or a thousand mules passing and repassing in the 

 course of a day, besides numerous droves of fine cattle for the use 

 of the city. Our heavy-laden and weary mules travelled so slowly, 

 that we did not come within sight of Rio de Janeiro, until about 

 three in the afternoon. On reaching the eminence, which com- 

 manded the first prospect of this fine city, our joyful sensations 

 banished every feeling of fatigue. One of the party, who had ad- 

 vanced a few paces, rode back as fast as his mule could go, exclaim- 

 ing, " the English flag." We hastened onward, and beheld one of 

 the most welcome sights that ever greeted the eyes of a traveller, 

 with a remembrance of his native country — a squadron of our men 

 of war at anchor in the bay, which had recently escorted the court 

 of Portugal to an asylum in their own dominions, beyond the reach 

 of their foes. We no longer felt uneasy at the thought of entering 

 a large city inhabited by strangers ; we knew that the name of Eng- 

 lishman would be a passport among them, and we anticipated 

 something of that dehght which is connected with the near prospect 



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