44 
FROM BERMUDAS TO CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
BAHIA. 
The fame of the broad, lake-like sheet of water spread out before us has so far eclipsed 
that of the great commercial city built upon its northern shore as to have imposed its name 
upon the latter, originally called San Salvador, but now more generally known under the 
name of Bahia. The town stretches along the steep slopes of a promontory placed between 
the bay in the south and a river running into the sea to the north. The lower town, with 
its wharfs, warehouses, and shops, might be mistaken for a commercial emporium in Europe, 
but for the gangs of stalwart negroes, who carry or propel their loads along the streets to 
the sound of a monotonous chant. The upper town still retains the characteristics of a 
Spanish city—the iron-barred windows and balconies, the numerous churches and convents, 
and in the silent streets the long-robed priest and veiled senorita going to mass. About three or 
four o’clock in the afternoon, the merchants of Bahia, who keep early hours, are seen hurrying 
home to dinner, carried up the steep streets which lead to the upper town in curtained sedan- 
chairs borne by negroes in livery. Of course we, who had for weeks and months past inhaled 
the bracing sea-air, disdained such an effeminate mode of progression ; but the sallow 
complexions of the occupants of the chairs told but too well of the fever-breeding climate of 
Brazil. European enterprise has endowed Bahia with tramways and railway communication 
with the interior—conveniences doubly appreciated by those who live under a vertical sun. 
The wealth and grandeur of the flora of Brazil, which never fail to rouse the enthusiasm of 
