1831.] 
RIO DE JANEIRO. 
53 
child was raised up, and imprinted upon the feet of the saint a 
feeble kiss ; and the saintly one moved on, seeking farther 
" whom he might devour." 
We felt for a moment as though we could have cut oE the fel- 
low's ears, together with those of his employer ; and he looked 
at us as if he could have willingly served us in the same manner. 
There may be those who will deem the relation of this in- 
cident an attack on the Roman Cathohc religion; but, gentle 
reader, it is not so intended ; no, not even as we find that religion 
in the Brazilian empire. We have travelled some in Catholic 
countries, and shall have something to say on the moral and reli- 
gious condition of these countries in another place, perhaps in 
another volume. We shall state abuses where we have seen 
them, fearlessly, independently; but, if we shall trace the causes 
of these abuses to sources different from many writers, it is be- 
cause we have seen differently. Yet in these days, even the 
abuses of religion cannot always be adverted to with safety, or 
its professors named, unless it be indiscriminately to praise. Of 
this timeserving timidity we have none ; believing that there is 
much truth in the appropriate language of the poet who has 
said — 
" All hail, religion ! maid divine, 
Pardon a muse so mean as mine, 
Who, in his rough, imperfect line, 
Thus dares to name thee ; . 
To stigmatize false friends of thine, 
Can ne'er defame thee." 
On no subject have we heard such contrariety of opinions, as in 
relation to the population of Rio; the various estimates not 
agreeing with each other by one hundred thousand. We will 
also give our opinion. The city of Rio has been divided into 
seven parishes ; and it has, of late, been ascertained with con- 
siderable accuracy that each of these sections contains, on an 
average, tvy^enty thousand inhabitants, giving an aggregate of one 
hundred and forty thousand souls ; and allowing for slaves whose 
masters did not give them in, from fear of taxation or some other 
motive, we may say, with the utmost confidence, that Rio does 
not contain less than the number just stated, nor more than one 
hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants. 
