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Show 44 PERSONAL ADVENTURES CHAPTER III. Rio de J aneiro-Bumboat Joe-Symptoms of mutiny aboard-Volunteer discipline- Scenes on shore- Slaves and slavery-Visit to a monastery--A frolic and its consequences- Glorious news-Adieu to Rio. We cast anchor at a considerable distance frorn the town, and not far frotn a small English war-craft, of which we had clumsily run foul whilst coming round to our position, though without doing or receiving much damage. The harbour and the to\vn have been so frequently and so well described, that I shall content n1yself with stating little more than that both are eminently picturesque. The former is partially surrounded with lofty and shadowy hills, which seen early in the morning, before the sun has entirely dispersed the mists peculiar to this latitude, with the houses of the town peeping out of the vapours as they roll up the romantic declivities and craas 0 IN CALIFORNIA. 45 on which they are erected, for the most part, overtopped here and there by an ancient church of quaintest architecture, or by an equally venerable n1onastery, retaining in its age the evidences of its early strength-! say, that seen through this medium particularly, or in the full brightness of the noonday. sun, or again at eveningtide, or, lastly, when the tnoon is shedding its silvery lustre over the scene, the landscape presents one of those charming pictures 'vhich poets sometimes dream of in their fictions, but which artists n1ay never hope to realize in portraiture upon their canvass. We had not got comfortably moored when we were besieged by a fleet of bumboats, as they are called, veritable canoes, paddled in true Indian style, and manned by s·warthycomplexioned men and women, more than three parts naked, all striving to be first in the scramble · to supply us with bananas, • plantains, water-melons, cakes, cheese, bread, sardines, cigars, &c., articles which disappeared 'vith a celerity savouring of magic, for |