492 BRAZIL. 



dry the bones of brother Paulo " These boxes contain the bones only, the flesh having been 

 consumed in quicklime. 



The Brazilians are much inclined to make vows, in danger, and often impose on themselves 

 strange penalties. A fisherman in Rio made a vow, that if he should escape a present peril, 

 he would marry the first unengaged female he should meet. He performed his vow, though he 

 found a wife little to his taste or advantage. Though this people are less attached than the 

 Spaniards to relics, they yet believe at Rio, that they have the descendant of the cock which 

 crowed when Peter denied his Master. Dr. Walsh was favored with a sight of him, and de- 

 scribes him as an ungainly bird of great size, and with a sort of croak in his crowing, that was 

 quite monitory. 



Among the strange creeds is that of the Sebastianists, who believe that king Sebastian, 

 who lost his army irtiJ577, at the battle of Alcazar, and who was, they believe, carried away 

 by Providence and concealed in a desert, where he is still alive, will reassume the throne of his 

 ancestors. On this subject there are many oracles. There are 2,000 Sebastianists in Brazil, 

 and some of them will enter into bonds to pay, or remit payment ol money, if the king should 

 fail to appear by a certain time. 



Though the laws are often contradictory, and the forms of proceeding not the best, yet a 

 greater evil is, that the salaries of the judges are insufficient to secure them from the tempta- 

 tion of a bribe, so that the suitor who pays the most, too often has the strongest case. In fact, 

 the judges with a stipend of 300 milreis, spend about 10,000, and bribes are administered 

 without concealment or delicacy. The executions are similar to those in Spain. 



18. History. Brazil was formerly a Portuguese colony, — subsequently it was raised to the 

 dignity of a kingdom under the same sovereign with Portugal, and in 1825 it was declared in- 

 dei)endent of Portugal, and the sovereignty was transferred by the king to his son Don Pedro, 

 who was acknowledged Emperor under the title of Pedro the First. Various grievances, real 

 or alleged, proved a source of misunderstanding betwixt the Emperor and his subjects ; and on 

 the 7th of April, 1831, Don Pedro abdicated in favor of his son, a child five years of age ; 

 and a regency was nominated by the Brazilians. This regency at present continues to exercise 

 the sovereign authority, but the government is said to be tending towards a repubhc 



CHAPTER LXIX. ATLANTIC OCEAN. 



1. Situation. The Atlantic Ocean separates America from Europe and Africa, and extends 

 from the Arctic Ocean to an imaginary line drawn from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good 

 Hope. The southern part of this great mass of water is called by some wrhers the Ethiopic 

 Ocean. 



2. Extent. In its narrowest part, between Europe and Greenland, it is upwards of 1,000 

 miles wide, and opening thence towards the south, it becomes, in the latitude of the tropic 

 of Cancer, about 4,000 miles in width. Stretching north and south from 72° N. to 55° S. 

 latitude, it covers, with its bays and gulfs, about one seventh of the earth's surface. 



3. Depth. Its mean depth has been estimated at about 3,000 feet ; the greatest depth ever 

 sounded is 7,200 feet, but it is probable, that there are deep cavities or valleys in the bed of 

 the ocean, corresponding in depression to the elevation of the mountains on the surface of the 

 earth. 



4. Currents. There are several remarkable currents in the Atlantic Ocean, setting whh 

 more or less rapidity and strength in particular directions, like great rivers in the midst of the 

 sea ; 



(1.) The South Atlantic Current., coming round the Cape of Good Hope, flows northerly 

 along the western coast of Africa, to the equinoctial line in the Gulf of Guinea, where meeting 

 another current from the north, and turned by the Guinea coast, it takes a westerly direction, 

 and becomes the head of a still more powerful stream, called the Equatorial Current ; 



(2.) The Equatorial Current flows from east to west, from the Bight of Biafra to the An- 

 tilles, in a course of about 4,600 miles. Its rapidity varies from 20 to 50 miles in 24 hours. 

 Off Cape St. Roque, it divides into two streams, one of which sets along the coast of South 

 America towards Cape Horn ; 



(3.) The other stream, setting towards the Mosquito and Honduras coasts, passes into the 

 Gulf of Mexico by the Cuba channel, and, after making the circuit of that bay, pours itself 



