1852.] IMMORALITY, AND ITS CAUSES. 381 
number, leads to the general use of trickery and lying of 
every degree, as fair means to be employed to entrap a 
new customer or to ruin a rival trader. — Truth, in fact, 
in matters of business is so seldom made use of, that a 
lie seems to be preferred even when it can serve no pur- 
pose whatever, and where the person addressed must be 
perfectly aware of the falsehood of every asseveration 
made ; but Portuguese politeness does not permit him by 
word or look to throw any doubt on his friend’s veracity, 
I have been often amused to hear two parties endea- 
voming to cheat each other, by assertions which jeach 
party knew to be perfectly false, and yet pretended to 
receive as undoubted fact. 
On the subject of the most prevalent kind of immo- 
rality, it is impossible to enter, without mentioning facts 
too disgusting to be committed to paper. Vices of such 
a description as at home are never even alluded to, are 
here the subjects of common conversation, and boasted 
of as meritorious acts, and no opportunity is lost of 
putting the vilest construction upon every word or act 
of a neighbour. 
Among the causes which tend to promote the growth 
of such wide-spread immorality, we may perhaps reckon 
the geographical position and political condition of the 
country, and the peculiar state of civilization in which 
it now exists. To a native, a tropical climate certainly 
offers fewer pleasures, pursuits, and occupations than a 
temperate one. The heat in the dry, and the moisture 
in the rainy season do not admit of the outdoor exercise 
and amusements, in which the inhabitants of a temperate 
zone can almost constantly indulge. The short twilights 
