94

EPISCOPAL PALACE AND

every other locality on the shores of these charming

waters.

The episcopal palace is situated on the summit of an abrupt and elevated hill, in the midst of the city, enjoying fine air, and a variety of splendid views. The ascent to it is by a winding paved way, too steep for comfort in a carriage, either in going up or coming down, and we alighted at the foot and walked.. The building is an old monastic quadrangle of stone, plastered and whitewashed. On ascending to the second story, we were shown into a large square hall, containing one or two heavy old tables, and two settees, covered with embossed leather, of an antiquity that might entitle them, in a mu¬ seum, to a place beside relics of the ark, as curiosities of an antediluvian age. Several persons

were here waiting an audience with the bishop.

While our names were being announced, we stepped into a balcony in front, beneath which the city lies as a map at your feet; while the several hills within its precincts rise around in all their verdure and freshness, seemingly within call. The view of the bay too, with all its shipping, and of the sea and islets beyond the Sugar-Loaf, is full and unobstructed, and exceedingly fine.

In making our way to the bishop, we passed through two corridors; the first open on one side the whole length of the area within the quadrangle and the other, lighted by a window at the farther end, at right angles to it. He received us in his study, from which a country curè, an humble and serious looking man, passed out and took a seat near the door, as we

BISHOP OF RIO DE JANIERO.

95

were introduced by a secretary. The dignitary is a mild and agreeable looking old gentleman, of pleasing and cordial manners, and unostentatious in his whole appearance. The room in which we were, and an adjoining one open to our observation, were almost without furniture; a shabby writing table or two, with a few old armed chairs, constituting the whole; while bare walls and uncovered floors, threw a comfortless air around. Instead of the luxury which I had anticipated, at least in a degree, in the residence of the first metropolitan of the empire, every thing in the establishment was marked with the most primitive and self-denied simplicity.

He is a liberal minded and upright man; and from the purity and benevolence of his character, very popular and highly venerated in the city and throughout the diocese. His face is set against vice in all its forms, and wherever seen. The licentiousness of the court is openly reproved by him; and he visits the palace, I am told, only when commanded by the emperor. He offered to dismiss our carriage, and send us home in the evening in his own, if we would remain to a lenten dinner with him; but we declined the civility.

In the course of conversation he made many inquiries about the Sandwich Islands, their language, former habits, improvements, and present state ; professed his interest in the general extension of Christianity; his respect for the character of the Moravian and other missionaries; with an assurance of his love for all defenders of the Cross-saying, that his library contained the works of many distin

guished Protestants: those of Lardner, Butler, Warburton, &c. At the end of half an hour we took our leave, much gratified with this specimen of the clergy of Brazil.

LETTER VII.

PRISONS, JUDICIARY, AND SLAVE TRADE.

Praya do Flamengo, at Rio de Janeiro,

April 14th, 1829.

IN leaving the episcopal palace on Saturday, we walked near one of the city prisons, the grated windows of which on the street, allow a full view of the interior of two of the apartments. The spectacle presented was truly affecting: criminals of every age, from beardless boys to gray headed men; of every color, from the jet of Congo to the fair skin of Germany; and probably of every crime, were seen crowded together in haggard filth and rags. Many of them appeared to be hardened villains, scowling upon us in satanic impudence, in return to the look of compassion given to their misery; and I drew back in horror from the sight of such a den, no less the receptacle, than it must necessarily be the school of vice.

It presents a fair sample, I am told, of the prison discipline, not only of the empire, but of the whole southern continent; and shows how wide a field there is in its fermenting kingdoms, for the philanthropic ex

ertions of one breathing the spirit, and clothed in the mantle of a Howard.

The whole judiciary of the empire is in a state worthy the darkest ages of Portugal; and to effect a reform, to the praise of the emperor, has been a leading feature in his late addresses to the cortes. At present, there is no process of form in an arrest, no habeas corpus, and no notice of the witnesses to appear against the accused. The time of trial is left entirely to the accuser, while the subject of the arrest, whether innocent or guilty, is in oppressive confinement, without an allowance of food, or any means of bringing his innocence to a legal test.

But for the charities of the monastic establishments, from which a daily pittance of food to prisoners is served, many doubtless would constantly thus perish; and under the persecution only, it might be, of an unprincipled enemy.

A glimpse at a still more abhorrent and tremendous evil was caught, in the same vicinity, while crossing the end of a street appropriated to newly arrived and unsold slaves. It is here the emaciated and halfstarved cargoes are deposited from the stifling holds of the slave-ships, and daily exposed to brutal examination, till a purchaser is found. The sight is such, to an unaccustomed eye, as unavoidably to sicken the heart, and unnerve the soul; and hitherto, at the strong solicitation of others, I have avoided it.

The number of slaves brought into this port has, for the last ten years, amounted to more than twenty thousand annually; and this year it is probable there will be three times that number, for no VOL. I.

9

98

GENERAL ASPECT

less than thirteen thousand have already been en tered since the first of January. Ships are daily arriving, crowded with them; and almost at any time, gangs just landed, and nearly naked, may, with their drivers, be seen in one part or another of the city.

The streets of Rio are in general narrow, and regular, notwithstanding the hills, jutting in at the sides, and rising from its centre. These, indeed, are highly ornamental; and having their abrupt acclivities in most places covered thickly with the verdure of trees, creepers, and rich parasitical plants, they rise upon the eye, from various points of view, both in the streets and habitations, in near and refreshing beauty.

The city contains a population of 200,000, and is an active and business-like place, resounding with the hum of varied mechanical industry; while in its numerous shops are exposed all the luxuries produced by foreign arts and manufacture. Still, to one accustomed to the general elegance, neatness, and purity of such cities as Boston and New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and a hundred others in our own happy land, and to the intelligence, competency, and respectability exhibited by the various classes seen in their streets, Rio, with all the magnificence of its scenery, the superior advantages of its location, the beauty of much of its architecture, and the wealth of many of its inhabitants, is a most disgusting place: more so, in most of its streets, than even the lowest haunts of poverty and vice in New York or Philadelphia.