Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

592 PERNAMBUCO. Aus:. 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 prepos- sessing in their appearance. The poor negroes, wherever they may be, are cheerful, talkative, and boisterous. There was nothing in the sight, smell, or sounds mthin 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 flooded 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 commemo- rate what happened for the first time during the four-and-a- half 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 difi"erent houses, and obtained with difiiculty 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