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be rendered fine ; mutton is almost unknown, as the natives will riot 

 eat it*; the poultry of every description are excellent, but they are 

 very dear. Pulse and vegetables of all kinds are very abundant, and 

 the fish-market is not ill supplied. Turtles are frequently caught, as 

 well as a great variety of fish ; here are abundance of very fine large 

 prawns. The oysters and muscles, though not equal to ours, are 

 very tolerable. 



Owing to its low situation, and the general filthiness of its streets, 

 Rio de Janeiro cannot be called healthful. Improvements are now 

 making which will in part remedy these evils ; but other causes tend 

 to increase the insalubrity of the air, and to spread contagious dis- 

 tempers, the principal of which are the large importations of negroes 

 from Africa, Avho commonly land in a sickly state, the consequence 

 of close confinement during a hot voyage. It is much to be regretted 

 that the city was not originally built on the plan of those in the 

 Netherlands, with canals for brigs and small vessels, which might 

 then have been unloaded at the doors of the warehouses : such an 

 improvement would have also greatly tended to the cleanliness and 

 salubrity of the town. 



The police is by no means ill regulated ; and, from the attention 

 which has been paid to it since the arrival of the court, there is every 

 hope that it will be placed on a footing equally respectable with that 

 of any European capital. The prisons are loathsome, and require 

 the benevolent genius of a Howard to reform them altogether. One 

 great step in favour of humanity has been gained : the inquisition 

 has been abolished, and with it the spirit of persecution, so that no 

 one can now be offended for his religious tenets, unless he openly in- 

 sult the established religion. 



* By way of experiment, I had some killed, and it was acknowledged by those who tasted 

 it to be excellent ; but some strange prejudice or other deters the inhabitants from intro- 

 ducing it at their tables. 



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