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Show 592 PERNAMBVCO. Aug. 1836. by two long bridges built on wooden piles. The town is in all parts disgusting, the streets being narrow, ill-paved, and filthy; the houses are very tall and gloomy. The number of white people, which during the morning may be met with in the streets, bears about the proportion of foreigners in any other nation; all the rest are black or of a dusky colour. The latter, as well as the Brazilians, are far from prepossessing in their appearance. The poor negroes, wherever they may be, are cheerful, talkative, and boisterous. There was nothing in the sight, smell, or sounds within this large town, which conveyed to my mind any pleasing impressions. The season of heavy rains had hardly come to an end, and hence the surrounding country, which is scarcely elevated above the level of the sea, was fl.opded with water. I failed in all my attempts to take any long walks. I was, however, enabled to observe that many of the country-houses in the outskirts, had like those of Bahia a gay appearance, which harmonized well with the luxuriant character of the vegetation. The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands, is surrounded at the distance of a few miles, by a semicircle of low hills, or rather by the edge of a country elevated perhaps two hundred feet above the sea. The old city of Olinda stands on one extremity of this range. One day I took a canoe, and proceeded up one of the channels to visit it; I found the old town from its situation both sweeter and cleaner than that of Pernambuco. I must here commemorate what happened for the first time during the four-and·ahalf years we have been wandering about, namely, having met with a want of politeness amongst any class of people : I was refused in a sullen manner at two different houses, and obtained with difficulty from a third, permission to pass through their gardens, to an uncultivated hill, for the purpose of taking a view of the country. I feel quite glad that this happened in the -land of the " Brava Gente," for I bear them no good will-a land also of slavery, and therefore of moral debasement. A Spaniard would have been ashamed Aug. 18.~6. PERNAMBUCO. at the thought of refusing such a request, or of behaving to a stranger with rudeness. The channel by which we went to, and returned from Olinda, was bordered on each side by mangroves, which sprang like a miniature forest out of the greasy mud-banks. The bright green colour of these bushes always reminded me of the rank grass in a churchyard: both are nourished by putrid exhalations ; the one speaks of death past, and the other too often of death to come. The most curious thing which I saw in this neighbourhood, was the reef that forms the harbour. It runs for a length of several miles in a perfectly straight line, parallel to, and not far distant from, the shore. It varies in width from thirty to sixty yards ; it is dry at low water, has a level smooth surface, and is composed of obscurely-stratified hard sandstone. Hence, at first sight, it is difficult to credit that it is the work of nature, and not of art. Its utility is great; close within the inner wall there is a good depth of water, and ships lie moored to old guns, which are fixed in holes on its summit. A lighthouse stands on one extremity, and around it the sea breaks heavi1y. In entering the harbour, a ship passes within thirty yards of this point, and amidst the foam of the breakers; close by, on the other hand, are other breakers, which thus form a narrow gateway. It is almost fearful to behold a ship running, as it appears, headlong into such dangers. With respect to the origin of the reef, I believe a bar composed of sand and pebbles formerly existed beneath the water (a circumstance no ways improbable) when the low land, on which the town now stands, was occupied by a large bay; and that this bar was first consolidated, and then elevated. These two processes are of such frequent occurrence in South America, that there can be no objection to using them in accounting for any remarkable structure in the land. There is another and slightly different explanation which possesses equal probability, namely, that a long spit of sand, like some that now run parallel to parts of the neighbouring coast, had its central part consolidated, and VOL. III. 2Q |