1850.] 
THE CITY OF BARRA. 
165 
inferior quality, and quantities of coarse cutlery, beads, 
mirrors, and other trinkets for the trade with the Indian 
tribes, of which this is the head-quarters. The distance 
I from Para is about a thousand miles, and the voyage up in 
! the wet season often takes from two to three months, so 
that flour, cheese, wine, and other necessaries, are always 
I very dear, and often not to be obtained . The more civi- 
[ lized inhabitants of Barra are all engaged in trade, and have 
j hterally no amusements whatever, unless drinking and 
gambling on a small scale can be so considered : most of 
I them never open a book, or have any mental occupation. 
I As might be expected therefore, etiquette in dress is 
j much attended to, and on Sunday at mass all are in full 
i costume. The ladies dress very elegantly in a variety 
of French muslins and gauzes ; they all have fine hair, 
which they arrange carefully, and ornament with flowers, 
j and never hide it or their faces under caps or bonnets, 
i The gentlemen, who pass all the week in dirty warehouses, 
I in their shirt-sleeves and slippers, are then seen in suits 
I of the finest black, with beaver hats, satin cravats, and 
i patent-leather boots of the smallest dimensions ; and then 
j is the fashionable visiting time, when every one goes 
J: to see everybody, to talk over the accumulated scandal 
:l of the week. Morals in Barra are perhaps at the lowest 
; ebb possible in any civilized community : you will every 
I day hear things commonly talked of, about the most re- 
j! spectable families in the place, which would hardly be 
Ij credited of the inhabitants of the worst parts of St. Giles’s, 
i The wet season had now set in, and we soon found 
I 
there was little to be done in collecting birds or insects 
at Barra. I had been informed that this was the time 
