12 
SANTAREM. 
Chap. I. 
as it is pronounced, or according to unvarying rules, 
and the use of the decimal system of accounts, make 
these acquirements much easier than they are with us. 
Students in the superior school have to pass an exami- 
nation before they can be admitted at the colleges in 
Para, and the managers once did me the honour to 
make me one of the examiners for the year. The per- 
formances of the youths, most of whom were under 
fourteen years of age, were very creditable, especially 
in grammar; there was a quickness of apprehension 
displayed which would have gladdened the heart of a 
northern schoolmaster. The course of study followed 
at the colleges of Para must be very deficient ; for it 
is rare to meet with an educated Paraense who has the 
slightest knowledge of the physical sciences, or even of 
geography, if he has not travelled out of the province. 
The young men all become smart rhetoricians and 
lawyers ; any of them is ready to plead in a law case 
at an hour's notice ; they are also great at statistics, 
for the gratification of which taste there is ample field 
in Brazil, where every public officer has to furnish 
volumes of dry reports annually to the government ; 
but they are wofuUy ignorant on most other subjects. 
I do not recollect seeing a map of any kind at San- 
tarem. The quick-witted people have a suspicion of 
their deficiencies in this respect, and it is difficult to 
draw them out on geography ; but one day a man 
holding an important office betrayed himself by asking 
me, ''on what side of the river was Paris situated?" 
This question did not arise, as might be supposed, 
from a desire for accurate topographical knowledge of 
