Travels in the Brd^iih. 

 CHAPTER II. 



RESIDENCE IN llIO DE JxiNEIUO. 



The City and its Environs. — The Indians of St. Lourenzo, — - 

 Preparations for a Journey up the Country. 



RIO DE JANEIRO, during the latter half of the i7th cen- 

 tury, contained only 2500 inhabitants, and about 600 military. * 

 Now, however, this capital is in every respect totally changed, and 

 it may be accounted one of the principal cities of the New World 

 Two thousand Europeans emigrated with the King from Portu- 

 gal, and thus the manners and customs of Europe have been 

 transplanted to Brazil. The fir»t thing which excites the asto- 

 nishment of a stranger on landing at Rio, is to find that the num- 

 ber of negroes and people of colour greatly exceeds that of the 

 whites. The natives of every country are here united together 

 in commercial pursuits, and their intermarriages produce various 

 new races. The most distinguished and privileged portion of the 

 inhabitants of all the Portuguese Brazilian states, are the natives 

 of Portugal, called Portuguezes, or Filhos do Reim ; the next are 

 the Brazileiros (Brazilians, or Portuguese born in Brazil, of more 

 or less purity of origin,) Mulatos^ (Mulatos, born from the union 

 of whites with negroes,) Mamaluccos^ (Mamalukes, born whites 

 and Indians, also called Mestics,) Negros, (the pure African Ne- 

 groes, also called Muleccos,) Creolos^ (Creoles, born of Negroes 

 in Brazil,) Caribocos, (born of Negroes and Indians,) Indios, pure 

 Indians, or aborigines of Brazil, of whom the most civilized are 

 called ICaboclos, and those who still live in a state of primitive 

 rudeness are distinguished by the names of Gentios, Tapuyas, 

 or Bugres. 



Rio de Janeiro contains abundant specimens of all these differ- 

 ent races ; the Tapuyas, however, are not so numerous as the rest. 

 These various tribes of people are seen in the streets of the city, 

 busily employed with the Europeans. Englishmen, Spaniards, 

 and Italians, are very numerous here ; the French also emigrate 

 in great numbers to Rio de Janeiro, but Germans, Dutch, Swedes, 

 Danes, and Russians, are very seldom seen. Negroes, almost in 

 a state of nudity, are employed in carrying burthens, and this 

 useful race of people transport all kinds of merchandize from the 

 harbour to the city ; ten or a dozen of them together are frequent- 

 ly seen carrying heavy loads upon thick poles, and marching to 

 the measure of their own wild songs. Carts are never used for 

 the conveyance of merchandize, though coaches drawn by mules 



• Southey's History of Brazil, Vol. II. p. 667. 



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