524 



CHARLES DARWIN 



paved, and filthy; the houses, tall and gloomy. The season 

 of heavy rains had hardly come to an end, and hence the 

 surrounding country, which is scarcely raised above the 

 level of the sea, was flooded with water; and I failed in 

 all my attempts to take walks. 



The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands is sur- 

 rounded, at the distance of a few miles, by a semicircle of 

 low hills, or rather by the edge of a country elevated per- 

 haps two hundred feet above the sea. The old city of 

 Olinda stands on one extremity of this range. One day I 

 took a canoe, and proceeded up one of the channels to visit 

 it; I found the old town from its situation both sweeter and 

 cleaner than that of Pernambuco. I must here commemorate 

 what happened for the first time during our nearly five 

 years' wandering, namely, having met with a want of polite- 

 ness. I was refused in a sullen manner at two different 

 houses, and obtained with difficulty from a third, per- 

 mission to pass through their gardens to an uncultivated hill, 

 for the purpose of viewing the country. I feel glad that 

 this happened in the land of the Brazilians, for I bear 

 them no good will — a land also of slavery, and therefore 

 of moral debasement. A Spaniard would have felt ashamed 

 at the very thought of refusing such a request, or of 

 behaving to a stranger with rudeness. The channel by which 

 we went to and returned from Olinda, was bordered on each 

 side by mangroves, which sprang like a miniature forest out 

 of the greasy mud-banks. The bright green colour of these 

 bushes always reminded me of the rank grass in a church- 

 yard: both are nourished by putrid exhalations; the one 

 speaks of death past, and the other too often of death 

 to come. 



The most curious object which I saw in this neighbour- 

 hood, was the reef that forms the harbour. I doubt whether 

 in the whole world any other natural structure has so arti- 

 ficial an appearance. 6 It runs for a length of several miles in 

 an absolutely straight line, parallel to, and not far distant 

 from, the shore. It varies in width from thirty to sixty 

 yards, and its surface is level and smooth; it is composed of 



« I have described this Bar in detail, in the Lond. and Edin. Phil. Mag., 

 *ol. xix. (1841), p. 257. 



