390 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. 
still very weak and quite unable to make any exertion. 
The yellow fever, which the year before had cut off thou- 
sands of the inhabitants, still attacked new comers, and 
scarcely a ship was in port but had a considerable por- 
tion of her crew in the hospital. The weather was 
beautiful ; the summer or dry season was just commenc- 
ing, vegetation was luxuriantly verdant, and the bright 
sky and clear fresh atmosphere seemed as if they could 
not harbour the fatal miasma which had crowded the 
cemetery with funeral crosses, and made every dwell- 
ing in the city a house of mourning. Once or twice I 
attempted to walk out into the forest, but the exertion 
generally brought on shiverings and sickness, so I 
thought it best to remain as quiet as possible till the 
time of my departure. 
Since I had left the city it had been much improved. 
Avenues of almond and other trees had been formed 
along the road to Nazare and round the Largo de Palacio; 
new roads and drives had been made, and some new 
buildings erected: in other respects the city was the 
same. The dirty, straggling, uncovered market, the carts 
of hacked beef, the loud chanting of the Negro porters, 
and the good-humoured smiling faces of the Indian and 
Negro girls selling their fruits and doces,'' greeted me 
as of old. Powls had risen in price from about ^s. to 
3^. 6^/., and fruits and vegetables in about the same pro- 
portion ; while in changing English money for Brazilian 
I now got about ten per cent, less than I used, and 
yet everybody complained of trade being very bad, and 
prices quite unremunerative. I heard many stories of 
miraculous cures of the yellow fever, when at its worst 
