RIO DE JANEIRO. 87 
lurking about the skirts of the town ; but on its being signi- 
fied, after the suite of the Ambassador had landed, that we 
should very willingly dispense with such protection, we had 
the pleasure to find that the spies on our conduct were 
withdrawn. 
Tlie house provided for the Ambassador was sufficiently 
large, but not very clean ; and although it was represented as 
being completely furnished, there was, in reality, little in it 
beside some clumsy old fashioned chairs of heavy wood, a 
few tables, and wooden frames with cane bottoms, intended 
for bedsteads, but without either posts or curtains. For- 
tunately we took on shore our own bedding, by doing which 
we soon discovered that we had lost nothing in point of com- 
fort, the Portugueze not being over nice in this i-espect. 
Behind our dwelling-house was a long strip of ground, which 
had formerly been a garden, but which was now in a state of 
total neglect, and entirely overrun with weeds. To most of 
the better sort of houses in St. Sebastian are annexed pieces 
of ground, planted with fruits, flowers, and fragrant shrubs. 
We had little reason to complain of the climate of Rio 
during our stay. Though the sun was just on the southern 
tropic, and consequently nearly vertical, during our residence 
here, yet we seldom suffered any inconvenience from heat, 
or were prevented from taking our usual quantity of exercise. 
The general temperature of the air in the day was from 76° 
to 84° of Fahrenheit. The nights were by far the most dis- 
agreeable. If we attempted to walk in the open air, the bats 
or the fire flies {Lampyrus) were every moment threaten- 
