RIO DE JANEIRO. 91 
house to another the httle tales of scandal that may be afloat, 
what an excellent opportunity would these men have of fa- 
i^ouring the world with a descriptive account of a country so 
^very interesting, and 3'et so little known ! 
The curiosity of these sacred characters to discover the na- 
ture and the scope of the embassy to China was sufficiently 
excited not to require much formality of introduction on 
their part. A constant intercourse was kept up between the 
convents and our hotel. Whenever their ciuiosity was satis- 
fied, as far as regarded our own concerns, the chief topics of 
their conversation turned on the obstinate character of the 
native Indians, whom they abused most profusely for not 
embracing Christianity, (to which, by the way, they had used 
little endeavours to convert them,) on reports of large dia- 
monds being found at the mines of such and such a weight, the 
roguish tricks of the slaves and, what in them was the most 
reprehensible, on the disposition to gallantry of the ladies of 
St. Sebastian. The lady abbess of a convent, not far from our 
lodgings, was complaining one day to Dr. G. of being subject 
to violent headaches, for which he promised to give her a few 
pills. In the hurry of embarkation he entrusted the box to 
a jolly fat friar of the order of St. Benedict, requesting he 
would take an early opportunity of delivering it to the abbess. 
The curiosity of this son of the church, getting the better of 
good manners, impelled him to open the box ; and, appljdng 
it to his nose, he observed to the Doctor, witli a significant 
leer, '^^ Aha, Domine, mercmnaUa ! ista simt rnercuriaUa T - 
The Doctor expressing a degree of displeasure, mixed with 
astonishment, that he should suppose the lady abbess to have 
N 2 
