THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 

 
 
 

 
 , 
 
LETTERS HOME 
 
 FROM 
 
 SPAIN, ALGERIA, AND BRAZIL, 
 
 DUEIXG 
 
 PAST ENTOMOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. HAMLET CLARK, M.A., F.L.S. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCLXVII. 
 
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, 
 RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A BUNDLE of old letters of mine has recently revealed its 
 contents, the perusal of which has lightened the weari- 
 someness of a sick room. I am asked to allow them to 
 be published. The following pages are sent to the press 
 for the most part exactly as they were originally written, 
 much that was only personal, or that had merely a family 
 interest, being omitted. 
 
 The series is not complete; letters from Malaga and 
 also from Brazil are missing; and unfortunately, by a 
 most untoward accident, the whole of my private journals 
 for several years, together with many MS. notes made on 
 these and other expeditions, have been destroyed ; so that 
 to supplement these letters, or to add to the too meagre 
 notices of natural history that they contain, has been 
 made impossible to me. 
 
 The letters are for the most part addressed to my dear 
 lamented father, the late Vicar of Harmston, Lincoln ; one 
 of them is to my friend Dr. Power, well known as being 
 among the most eminent of British Coleopterists ; two 
 are, with the kind approval of the Editor, reprinted from 
 
 >/rv/i *~* 
 
iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the pages of the ( Zoologist/ to which periodical they 
 were originally sent as a contribution from Brazil. 
 
 The lithographs are copies of water-colour drawings 
 made by my friend and fellow traveller John Gray, Esq., 
 during our rambles together, first on board his yacht, and 
 then in the province of Rio Janeiro, and are selected from 
 his portfolio. 
 
 I am amply repaid for the work of conducting through 
 the press this unpretending volume by the happy remi 
 niscences of much innocent enjoyment which its contents 
 have suggested, and which have had power often to charm 
 away for the moment bodily suffering. I shall be more 
 than doubly repaid if they should prove the means of 
 suggesting to any the value of NATURAL HISTORY, either 
 as an unfailing recreation, or as a more scientific pursuit. 
 
 H. C. 
 
 Rhyl, Easter 1867. 
 
LETTERS, 
 
 &c. 
 
 R.Y.S. < Miranda, 
 off Hythe, Southampton, 
 
 April 24, 1856. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 Here I am, in what will be, I am sure, a very pleasant 
 home for the next month or two, as pleasant as it is now 
 strange. I can hardly realize my present existence ; every 
 thing around me is not only a complete change from my 
 work at that ant-hill Northampton, but it is something 
 entirely new to me, and very charming. 
 
 On Tuesday night we mustered at the Cottage a large 
 party : some of us, I among the rest, slept on board the 
 yacht ; Gray filled his bedrooms on shore and sent the rest 
 of his guests to the hotel. Before 7 A.M. all were on 
 board, when we weighed anchor; but early rising for once 
 did not pay : we weighed anchor, and spread no end of 
 sail, and whistled ; but there was no wind ! not a breath. 
 It took us more than two long mortal hours to do a mile ; 
 there were at least eleven miles of space to cross before 
 this end of the great fleet at Spithead could be reached, 
 and more than twenty miles to the other end (which was 
 
A REVIEW AT SPITHEAD. 
 
 our programme, wind and weather permitting) ; and the 
 Queen was to leave Portsmouth at eleven o clock ! We 
 were in despair, and gave up all hopes of seeing anything 
 after all, notwithstanding Gray s arrangements : but good 
 fortune came to us at last ; a handsome-looking steamer 
 from Southampton, crowded with visitors for S pithead was 
 passing us, when suddenly she stopped her engines oppo 
 site us, and somebody on board sang out, " Get out your 
 hawser." The steamer was the Rattler/ from Liverpool, 
 chartered by Liverpool men come over to see the Review ; 
 and on board of her was Gray s brother and one Colonel 
 Blackburn, and others who knew Gray : they steamed 
 round us, took the end of the rope on board, and away 
 we went behind them at the rate of 10 or 12 miles an 
 hour so fast that the yacht s gig towing at the stern, had 
 it not been a lifeboat, would have sunk ; as it was, it was 
 half-filled with water, and seemed as much below as above 
 the surface. Well, we were going on right famously, when 
 all at one a chorus of voices from the Rattler s stern 
 sang out, " Your hawser s broken ! " and so it was ; the 
 rope seemed strong enough for anything, but it could not 
 stand the pace. However, these splendid Rattlers did not 
 desert us, for it was a dead calm ; they let us get a still 
 stronger cable out, and took us in tow again, past Cald- 
 shot Castle, past Cowes, past Osborne and Ryde, along 
 the whole length of the fleet, some 8 or 10 miles, past the 
 gunboats, the mortar-boats, the floating-batteries, the 
 frigates, and, lastly, the grand men-of-war. As for de 
 scribing the sight, I cannot ; I never saw such a spectacle 
 before, and never shall again : nay, I suppose such a sight 
 never was seen before by man ! I hear (for people round mo 
 
REVIEW AT SPITHEAD. 3 
 
 are better up in naval history than I am) that the nearest 
 approach to it was in about 1790, when Lord Howe s 
 fleet was gathered here : then the sight was grand ; his 
 line of ships extended nearly from S pithead to Stokes Bay, 
 about five miles ! but now we have two lines of ships, and 
 stretching right away to the Nab, more than double that 
 distance ! while on either side of them are ranged in 
 groups gunboats, mortar- boats, &c., to be counted by 
 hundreds ! Nothing so much impressed me with the 
 power and the vast resources of England as the gunboats ; 
 they were long past counting, stretching away for miles, 
 packed together as if even this grand anchorage were too 
 small and all built within the last year or two ! Well, 
 when we got to the last vessel of the Fleet, the good 
 Rattler said good-bye to us : a nice steady breeze was 
 blowing ; we worked to windward so as to be out of the 
 clouds of gunpowder-smoke when the saluting came, and 
 to be exactly opposite the harbour (Portsmouth) when the 
 Queen s yacht should appear. We were but one of a 
 dense group of beautiful yachts, looking all the more beau 
 tiful by their contrast with the grim stately men-of-war, 
 like a bevy of graceful girls hovering round an army of 
 giants. At last the Queen came : distant thunders of the 
 shore batteries told us of her approach ; quickly her yacht 
 glided into the open, and then at a signal from the flagship 
 (the Duke of Wellington ) each man-of-war, or rather 
 each vessel, thundered out its hoarse greetings. We were 
 well to the windward, the immense volumes of smoke 
 rolled away from us, not to us ; but we heard as much 
 as any one of the awful roar of the guns, like vast deep 
 pedal pipes of an organ. Then the Queen passed rapidly 
 
 B2 
 
REVIEW AT SPITHEAD. 
 
 down the line, just in the same course as that of the 
 Rattler and our tiny Miranda/ each ship manning yards 
 (a beautiful sight) and the men cheering ; then she passed 
 up between the two long lines of vessels, this time more 
 slowly, and waited when she got opposite the flagship 
 with the other three-deckers, either to visit the flagship, 
 or, as some suggested, to pay courtesy to a French frigate 
 lying close there. This was the time for our luncheon, 
 we still remaining with a hundred other yachts well to 
 the windward. After an hour s interval the Queen s 
 yacht stood out ; but this time she was not alone, all the 
 vessels had their anchors up, and the Queen went forward 
 at the head of her whole fleet. They all steamed in grand 
 procession to two pivot-ships lying two miles further out, 
 rounded them, and returned in a parallel course : the Queen 
 was foremost, in the centre ; on either side of her and 
 behind her were her leviathan body-guards; so in the 
 afternoon we were enabled to see the whole fleet under 
 steam, just as in the morning the Rattler enabled us to 
 see it at anchor. But now it was getting calm, the wind 
 was sadly going down ; the ladies on board the Miranda 
 began to speculate as to how and where they could 
 spend the night ; so we turned homewards towards South 
 ampton Water, and did our best to accompany Her 
 Majesty en route to Portsmouth. Then came the second 
 general salute (grander to us even than the first), and 
 the Review was over ! the Queen was gone ! the fleets of 
 monster passenger steamers were following her. Now for 
 home at Hythe : the large square sail was set ; we began 
 to get tranquil, and recapitulate one to another the 
 glorious sights it had been our privilege to see. Dinner is 
 
REVIEW AT 8PITHEAD. 
 
 announced for seven; it is supposed that we shall get 
 home to Hythe somewhere about midnight, when at last 
 calamity seemed to overtake us ! we were aground ! indu 
 bitably, hopelessly ! The unhappy mate had taken the 
 wrong side of a certain buoy, and for a whole hour we 
 stuck fast in the mud, until the men with warps and the 
 rising tide set us afloat again. But meanwhile the wind 
 has dropped, and it is now a dead calm ; so sails are furled, 
 and we drowsily rest at anchor, and rest pleasantly enough 
 too (ladies 5 fears notwithstanding), in the middle of the 
 whole fleet just opposite the harbour. And now came, 
 indeed, the finest sight of all a sight we should entirely 
 have missed (as did nineteen- twentieths of the sight-seers) 
 had it not been for that lucky blunder of the mate s. A 
 signal-rocket was fired from one of the ships ; we all were 
 on deck in a moment, and then, as if by one act, every 
 ship in that vast fleet was illuminated so as to turn night 
 into day. It was 9 o clock gun-fire : blue lights burned on 
 every yardarm and at every mast-head, every port was 
 thrown open and burst into a blaze, and then came a 
 distant subdued roar the cheerings of thousands on shore 
 and the responsive voices of tens of thousands afloat. For 
 an hour bouquets of rockets from the different ships eclipsed 
 the stars, and rained down golden rain ; but when all was 
 over, when the last rocket was fired, and the ladies began 
 to feel chilly and to nestle themselves for the night in the 
 different cabins below, and the men began to look for their 
 cigar-cases, and to make preparations for a night on deck, 
 then the wind, like a good-natured friend, got up again. 
 It had waited just to give us the illumination, and now 
 was ready to give us a help home ; so we up anchor, 
 
REVIEW AT SPITHEAD. 
 
 threaded our way through the fleet, and got here about 
 4.30 A.M. 
 
 Thus the day has been a thorough success : our last 
 misfortune was the best thing that could have happened 
 to us ; we saw everything that was to be seen (by night 
 as well as by day), and returned home just when it was 
 quite safe to move, when all the fleet was at anchor 
 and all the giant steamers at Southampton or at Ports 
 mouth. Our feeling this morning is that we have seen 
 as much as, under the most happy auspices, it was possible 
 to see far more than any one could have seen on board of 
 any of the men-of-war. 
 
 And now good-bye to our visitors, all are off with bag 
 and baggage ; and we, too, are off as soon as possible. But 
 as our expedition is to last for weeks, it is likely enough 
 that there are matters still to be attended to, and we 
 may not start till to-morrow. I will write again before 
 we finally leave. Much love to all. 
 
 I am, my dear Father, 
 
 Your very affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
CO WES. 
 
 Il.Y.S. < Miranda, 
 oft Cowes, April 26, 185(3. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 The workmen have nearly finished, and we are off in an 
 hour the wind is brisk, but right ahead, dead against us. 
 However, Gray is bent upon a start, and so am I : we 
 may perhaps put into some Dorsetshire bay this evening, 
 and work across for Ushant in the morning. It is im 
 possible at this moment to forecast any plans : the season 
 is advancing for entomology, and we both are anxious 
 to get into the south without delay ; so if the wind changes 
 and is fair, north or north-west, instead of south as it 
 is now, it may be better to run right away to Gibraltar, 
 or even Malaga at once, or, should the weather or wind 
 be unpropitious, the north of Spain for a few days would 
 be better. 
 
 Yesterday I added to my outfit a macintosh, the most 
 necessary perhaps of all garments on board a yatch; and 
 I had actually not thought of one ! I found the value of 
 it last night ; it made me independent of a heavy shower 
 of rain. Our hours on board are, breakfast 9 A.M., lun 
 cheon ad libitum, dinner at 4 P.M., tea at 8, and bed at 
 10. I am already very much better in health than I was 
 when I left Northampton, so much so that I quite hope 
 to be strong when I return. This life is a most pleasant 
 one for a season, but a sadly idle one; it is necessarily 
 idle, you cannot work, whether you desire to do so or 
 not. I like my host Gray ; he is very quiet and delibe- 
 
8 COWES. 
 
 rative, solemnly contemplative, and, as to good nature 
 and attention, a thoroughly good fellow : though he pro 
 fesses not to smoke himself, he is good enough to tolerate 
 it, or even to enjoy it from others ; so I prophesy that he 
 will do. 
 
 I do not suppose that I shall be able to send off a 
 letter again for some time : as I said, we may land either 
 at extreme north or extreme south anywhere in Spain 
 or Portugal. I fear, however, that entomologically our 
 trip will not produce much of value. Be sure that you do 
 not underestimate entomology : you cannot overestimate 
 it ; it is invaluable as being a healthy and intellectual 
 resource at all times and under all circumstances ; it takes 
 a man into the country instead of into the town ; it makes 
 him love the woods and meadows better than society ; it 
 gives him health instead of tempting him to late hours, 
 and makes him independent of pocket-money instead of 
 robbing his purse : it has one drawback, I confess, it is 
 too excellent and fascinating ! There must be always with 
 regard to it (just as with other kindred studies) a ten 
 dency to give it too much of one s time, and to let it 
 absorb one s interest too much, to the hindrance of one s 
 proper and more serious vocation ; but, then, surely that is 
 not the fault of the subject \ 
 
 As to Bibles and tracts, I have taken none with me 
 whatever, except my own Bible, and that not by accident, 
 but designedly, not because I forgot my clerical capacity, 
 but because I did not quite see my way. I mentioned it 
 to F., and he seemed quite to agree with me. 
 
 Touching other matters in your letter before me (my 
 future sphere of work, town or country ?) / am more 
 
COWES. 9 
 
 catholic still and have no objection to make it a question 
 of England or the antipodes. There is nothing outside 
 dear old Harmston home that tempts me much to stay in 
 England : men are wanted everywhere, the sun shines 
 everywhere ; I am open to anything : but I don t want to 
 think of this now ; nunc est ludendum ! " Please God 
 I get safely home again, we shall, I trust, have many an 
 opportunity of talking it over together. 
 
 You must none of you be the least anxious about me. 
 When the wind is blowing your chimneypots off, no doubt 
 it is a wearisome dead calm with us poor fellows, who sigh 
 for your privileges ; and Gray says our crew is good, all 
 picked men, known to himself or his captain. My best 
 love to all. May a good Providence have us all in 
 keeping. 
 
 Always your affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
10 CO WES. 
 
 R.Y.S. Miranda/ 
 
 Wednesday night, 10 P.M., April 30, 1856. 
 
 Eve of Ascension Day and of May Day. 
 
 Inlet of Barquero, lat. 43 47 45", long. 7 35 30". 
 
 [Spain, north-west corner, 20 miles N.E. of Corunna.] 
 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 What with a lively sea-boat and a lively stomach, this 
 is the first opportunity I have had of writing. I sit up to 
 night for the purpose of doing so, with the hope of posting 
 a letter either in this neighbourhood or at Corunna. I 
 have been quite unable to write before ; my head wants 
 steadiness when the Miranda is dancing. 
 
 Let me begin by assuring you (this time from a small 
 fragment of experience) of the steadiness of everybody else 
 and everything else on board ; the yacht is dreadfully sea 
 worthy, not the ghost of a chance of an interesting ad 
 venture in the shape of a shipwreck. Gray does not seem 
 to care for that sort of thing ; and so his captain is wide 
 awake, and his crew as lusty and clever as they seem 
 respectable; humanly speaking you have no more cause 
 to fear for me than if I were all the time at Harmston. 
 Vessel, crew, and captain all have been somewhat tried, 
 and all have given proof of their excellence. 
 
 My last letter, I think, was dated Cowes, and was 
 sealed up as the men were getting up the anchor, and sent 
 off on Saturday the 26th. We started with a fair tide ; 
 but a strong wind right ahead teazed us, so that we had to 
 tack (that means go every way but the right way) up 
 
OFF THE NEEDLES. 11 
 
 to the Needles. We passed close by Alum Bay, which I had 
 never seen before ; but before we had got two miles into 
 the Channel the wind dropped, there was a complete calm, 
 and we were helplessly drifting for many hours, just as 
 tide and current willed. Of course the results, as to 
 myself personally, were important and material ; every 
 one has to do homage to King Neptune. Then I lay down 
 in my berth, and shut my eyes, and got into a semi- 
 dreamy state, and wondered why Gray would stand side 
 ways against the wall, instead of on the floor like other 
 Christians, and declined all manner of food ; and then 
 I began to count the different noises above, on deck ; 
 below, my own traps at high jinks in lockers around, 
 the swash of sea, and talking of mysterious mortals, and 
 creaking of mast and pannelling : and yet none of it 
 had anything to do with me ! I was supremely indif 
 ferent, and perfectly willing to go to the bottom to please 
 any one ! and then I discovered that just above my berth 
 a tiny leak in the deck had created a drop of water which 
 kept migrating backwards and forwards at the lower edge 
 of a beam, just like the oscillations of the bubble in a 
 spirit-level, in obedience to the sway of the vessel. This 
 began to be quite interesting to me ; I had to notice the 
 average duration of its life, to speculate on the different 
 points which it would reach by the varying deflections 
 from the horizon of the joist, to discover its invisible 
 birthplace ; its end was somewhere on my body, but that 
 did not matter in the least ; and then there would appear 
 another baby drop, the sport of circumstances just like 
 me, which lived its little life of ups and downs, and then 
 vanished into splash ! All this I saw in my dreamy state, 
 
12 TO USIIANT. 
 
 half fact, half fancy ; and then I came to a better mind, 
 and .could look about and enjoy the wonderful sight of 
 Gray eating his solitary dinner ; his table, occasionally at 
 any angle you like with the horizon ; its upper surface 
 mapped out into deep ledges, put up all along to box up 
 dishes, glasses, &c., my friend, severely anchored by one 
 of his legs round a table-leg, and left arm stretched out as 
 a purchase on the table-side, eating and drinking just 
 as if there were no such thing as sea-sickness, and posi 
 tively enjoying food! And there was I feebly looking 
 at him, with half- closed eyes, from my berth. How 
 small I felt ! In a few hours, however, I got the better 
 of my trouble, and began to take some interest in what 
 was going on, and to be hungry. Since then the worst of 
 my sea-sickness has been that I have been obliged often 
 to go and lie down, and, though ravenous and in all other 
 respects perfectly well, not daring to eat more than a very 
 little at a time. To-day I have been much better, and to 
 night have had a most hearty supper of bread-and-butter, 
 a Yarmouth bloater, and a huge basin of cocoa. Well ! 
 to return to the Needles. Early on the morning of Sunday 
 the wind took compassion on us, and veered round. 
 We ran past Portland, Teignmouth, Torquay, &c., and 
 about 3 P.M. were off the Start. Thence we shaped our 
 course for Ushant on the coast of France, which was 
 wanted that we might see our way exactly across the vast 
 Bay of Biscay. We sighted Ushant, distant 10 or 12 
 miles, on Monday morning ; and from that time till one 
 o clock this morning the wind was so favourable that we 
 carried the big square sail. During all this time I was 
 getting somewhat better and better each day ; and I began 
 
BAY OP BISCAY. 13 
 
 to fancy that the ominously reported Bay of Biscay was, 
 like other bad things, not so bad as it was painted; for 
 there were no vast long rolling waves, no wind except 
 what was moderate and in our favour, no storms of rain, 
 no " Biscay weather " at all ; on the contrary, we were 
 (at least I was) getting more and more jolly every day. 
 We were in a warmer latitude, could sit on deck without 
 extra wraps, and the wind was propitious ; never had we 
 hitherto been a mile out of our true course. But, alas 
 for the transitoriness of all human enjoyments ! Early 
 this morning the wind suddenly chopped round, and blew 
 dead in our faces, and the sea began to get up, and the 
 sky predicted squalls. We were in sight of the high 
 Spanish coast-line, and were working for Corunna : after 
 a solemn contemplation of charts, barometer, compass, 
 &c. it was resolved not to make for Corunna we could 
 not, by any chance, reach it that night, and we should 
 have to lie by till morning (which meant make every one 
 on board uncomfortably damp and tired), but rather to 
 run off to the left, and try and reach some more easterly 
 harbour, where we might cast anchor and be cozy. All 
 this time the sea was rising, the wind was getting into a 
 passion, and sudden squalls became more frequent and 
 more severe; so double-reefed mainsail; then, after a 
 time, took in usual jib, and set up storm-jib, a small and 
 very stout little sail that looked as if it could laugh at a 
 tornado : still the wind rose, and still the barometer went 
 down ; then the men took in foresail, so that we carried 
 only double-reefed mainsail and storm-jib. 
 
 And now comes another bother. There seems to be no 
 end of charts on board ; the Captain says he has every- 
 
14 BAY OF BISCAY. 
 
 thing; the latest books of sailing-directions are being 
 diligently thumbed by dripping hands on the cabin table ; 
 but we don t quite see our way ! we know exactly where 
 we are ; but the weather is hazy,, and the slashing wind 
 cuts off bodily the tops of the waves, and drives them 
 (spray and rain, almost a deluge) furiously in our faces ; 
 we are soon as blind as we are wet ; we can t see. Here, 
 in sailing- directions, there is a little shelter-place just the 
 thing for us, and just about here, but we can t find it ; all 
 we can do is to challenge the storm, and to fight along 
 yard by yard, keeping as near the land as we dare. At 
 last, just before it was too late, and when the Captain had 
 almost resolved to run out, and make sure of a safe night 
 at the expense of a fagging one, somebody discovered the 
 narrow entrance to the bay in which we lie now. It was 
 not easy to work up to it right in the teeth of the storm, 
 and not quite the sort of weather in which, with adverse 
 wind, to enter a narrow opening. However, we tried ; and 
 to try was to succeed, with just one failure she missed 
 stays once. The bay is a little arm of the sea about a 
 mile deep, narrow, and sheltered by high hills close to the 
 shore ; it took us some time to work up this narrow passage, 
 but we did it, and put a bold cliff between ourselves and 
 the wind, when at last came the pleasant order " get 
 ready anchor," and then " let go anchor ; " and here we 
 swing from two anchors, safe and quiet. Gray has just 
 given the Captain a couple of black bottles, which the 
 Captain cuddled up tenderly one in each arm, just as if 
 they had been babies, and vanished with them down the 
 forecastle. I guess rum for the crew. And now the 
 Captain, after, no doubt, his nightcap, has turned in a 
 
BARQUERO. 15 
 
 sure sign that everything is secure ; but certainly the wind 
 was almost a hurricane; with our diminished sails we 
 were often gunwale under, and shipping green seas ; Cap 
 tain Dyer said he never was out in such a sharp squall 
 before. There is a technical name for these gusts I can t 
 remember it. They come down the mountain-gorges as 
 through a funnel, gathering strength as they go, and tear 
 ing up everything in their path ; and then they lay hold of 
 the waves, and twist and twirl off the tops bodily, sweeping 
 them along as if they were so much smoke, twisting and 
 curling it about like vapour. I wish I could give you a 
 picture of the scene; it was very wonderful and exciting : 
 one rejoiced to see the good little craft fighting such a 
 plucky fight with its enemy. Even now, sheltered as we 
 are, the wind is pouring down upon us at such a rate that 
 the Miranda dances about as if she were alive, while the 
 howling and whistling of the wind, as it turns every rope 
 into an ^Eolian harp, make appropriate music. 
 
 I have just been on deck for a look round, &c. A 
 steamer has, like us, run in for shelter, and is anchored 
 close to us, with two anchors out. We went forward to 
 have a look at the strain on our cables ; it is nothing at 
 all, the cables seem to hang almost slack. The water is 
 quiet ; and so long as this is the case, the worst the wind 
 can do is to howl : it is the swell of the sea, lifting a vessel 
 bodily away from the holding- ground, which is the test of 
 an anchor ; it then might have to bear the whole weight 
 of the vessel. Here behind the mountains we are safe 
 enough. 
 
 The bay, as we came in, was very pretty and interesting. 
 On one side, sheltered from the north, was a clump of poor- 
 
16 BARQUERO. 
 
 looking hovels huddled together; these human pigsties 
 give a name to our resting-place. Above them are what 
 I take to be vineyards : just immediately above us was a 
 poor man digging the corner of a little field ; but very 
 bad digging it was, for, as I made out by the glass,, he left 
 it as green as he found it. Ford describes all this strip of 
 country as very poorly cultivated and thinly inhabited; 
 all round the bay are high cliffs, more or less dotted with 
 patches of green ; for twenty miles along the coast it was 
 just the same want of sinews and want of capital. 
 
 Now I must go to my berth, for I wish to be up in good 
 time in the morning ; in fact there never is a chance of 
 sleeping here after 5 A.M., when the men turn out to scrub 
 decks. To-morrow s wind and weather will decide to 
 morrow s programme ; it may be that I shall not be able 
 to add more. I conclude, as I began, there is no sort of 
 reason for nervousness for us ; the yacht has been tested 
 this afternoon, and was more than equal to severe work. 
 I only wish some of you were with me ! 
 
 I am, my dear Father, 
 
 Your very affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
BARQUERO. 17 
 
 Thursday night, May 1. 
 At anchor, Barquero. 
 
 We have had a most enjoyable day. After a quiet 
 night, interrupted only by the music of the wind and the 
 tread of the solitary watch on deck, I got up at six, and 
 went on deck to inhale the pure fresh air of the land ; it 
 was indeed pleasant. At eight o clock (the commence 
 ment, it would seem, of the maritime official day) we hoisted 
 our colours : ensign, a red cross on white ground the 
 white ensign of Her Majesty s fleet, the squadron colours ; 
 and the burgee at mast-head, a little flag, St. George s 
 cross with crown in the centre. Ever since sunrise the 
 crew have been hauling at ropes, hoisting sails, and hang 
 ing them out to dry. At 8.30 came the first visitors to 
 the f Miranda } this cruise, pratique officer to see our 
 " bill of health/ custom-house officer to see that we are 
 not smugglers in elegant disguise, and some other swell 
 official in wonderful uniform : ten or twelve sailors rowed 
 the boat, all very dirty and sallow-brown and haggard; 
 their language was the purest patois ever spoken by 
 Christians on the verge of civilization, and ours most un 
 mitigated English; so, of course, we could understand 
 not a single word of each others talk. What is the reason 
 why, when a person speaks to another in a language which 
 he knows the other does not comprehend, he invariably 
 shouts ? We made up for slowness of tongue by liveliness 
 of gesticulation ; the Captain invited all three on board ; 
 
 c 
 
18 BARQUERO. 
 
 and Gray being in his cabin, I showed them all over the 
 vessel, above and below, and enjoyed their unmistakeable 
 wonder ; they must touch and turn over and chatter over 
 everything ! The thing that pleased them most was a 
 portrait of our Queen, which Gray has hung up in the 
 place of honour over the fireplace ; they got round this, 
 inspected it on this side and that side, far off and near, 
 and chattered over it like schoolboys. They went ; we 
 lustrated the cabin by ^opening windows, and then sat 
 down to breakfast, our talk of course being of the 
 marvels of insects we should see, and the different chances 
 of divers tracts of shore supplying good and rare beetles. 
 The yacht s gig was got out, we filled our pockets and 
 wallets with the needful apparatus and luncheon, and set 
 off on our first ramble. The bay terminates on either 
 side with rocks, bedded in a shore of the purest white 
 sand; two narrow streamlets run into the sea through the 
 sand, the abode of Steni, Dyschirii, and other thirsty 
 beetles : all the sides of the rocks are clothed not so much 
 with green as with flowers some that I never saw before, 
 some that I recognized as allied to flowers not despised 
 by English gardeners (squills, mignonette, and others) ; 
 I unhung my wallet from my shoulder, and incontinently 
 gathered a big bunch, though I knew I should have to 
 throw them all away ; I only wish I had a few quires of 
 BenthaPs drying-paper with me, I think I could bring 
 home a pleasant souvenir of the Spanish flora as well as 
 fauna with which to delight myself when I am getting 
 old : we two admired all these, standing still among 
 them, and slowly creeping about, basking in their beauty, 
 like flies on a sunny wall; and then we worked inland. A 
 good many beetles turned up, and several that were quite 
 
N.W. SPAIN. 19 
 
 strange to both of us, and a few spiders for Mr. Black- 
 wall. We got among the vineyards, little scrubby patches 
 of ground, evidently the care of poor men, straggling up 
 and down the rugged hillsides : the vines are trained on 
 heavy horizontal trelliswork three or four feet from the 
 ground ; and under the trelliswork we often got splendid 
 sweeping among the herbage with our nets, on hands and 
 knees. At one time the natives came out and caught me 
 at it, when I found out by their vociferations and a some 
 what rank smell that I was prostrate in the midst of a bed 
 of garlic ! I soon got out of that, and came and had a 
 look at them : two or three modest pretty-looking girls 
 enough, but the majority old men and old women frightful 
 to behold, wrinkled grotesquely and dark brown like 
 dirty parchment, noses across their cheeks, and mouths 
 only stopped in dimensions laterally by their ears ; the 
 young are very nice-looking, but as soon as they get old 
 they are very old indeed. I went on to the mite of a 
 village by a wind-about foot-road, with stream sometimes 
 on one side sometimes on the other but generally in the 
 middle : such an apparition of a pig met me ! gaunt, thin- 
 legged, mangy, long-legged, narrow beast ! I gave him a 
 good kick, and he was up one side of the w r all and down 
 the other in a twinkling. From pigs we proceeded to cot 
 tages, little w r hite-washed cabins ; I could not understand 
 them, which was door, which window, and which chimney : 
 our conviction after some research was that most of the 
 natives were inspecting us out of their chimneys, and that 
 
 windows and doors were one and the same thing. If 
 
 or - - were with us photographing, they would find any 
 amount of queer costumes, faces, and bits of cottage life : 
 
20 BARQUERO. 
 
 one child I saw awfully dirty, but quite a beauty, large 
 inquiring eyes, dark-brown broadly oval face ; I gave it a 
 bit of biscuit, which vanished in no time : so you see 
 the young ones are not afraid of me. It was holyday in 
 both senses of the word, being Ascension Day ; at least no 
 one seemed to be doing anything, but enjoying a good 
 stare at us and our odd ways. At 3 P.M. a little church 
 bell began to tinkle for mass ; no one stirred : it tinkled 
 louder and more fiercely, as if it said " Why does not one 
 of you make a move?" Still no one went; all stayed 
 lying on the ground looking at me : I sat, or rather lay, 
 on the opposite bank, carefully poking up the ground, 
 and looking at them : I fear the parson had but a poor 
 gathering ; if I had dared I should have liked to have 
 gone inside myself; but I was very ignorant, and a heretic: 
 who knows whether they might not have driven me into 
 the bay ? Gray was all this time at the other end of the 
 village " doing " the church in water-colours ; he said 
 that he had all the population. I wonder what they all 
 thought of us both, two whiskered creatures in strange 
 garb, with bottles slung to their button-holes, bunches of 
 wild flowers in caps or hanging at buttons, in their hands 
 queer unknown machines of nets, solemnly investigating 
 and shaking out their rubbish-heaps and poking up their 
 garlic-beds ! " Verily these English are mad ! " such 
 would be their verdict. However, they were very civil in 
 their fashion, and so were we ; they permitted our rambles, 
 and we in return made small presents of tobacco and other 
 foods. While we were on shore the captain had to receive 
 another set of visitors on board ; a boat full of girls came 
 off " ladies, sir, but rather of the rougher sort," as Cap- 
 
X.W. SPAIN. 21 
 
 tain Dyer called them when we got back ; he had to 
 show them over the vessel like the others, and then 
 showed them over the side. Evidently the Miranda is 
 making a sensation, and our bunting is not absolutely 
 
 thrown away. But I must tell about the ferns : I 
 
 found such a lovely grotto, too good for any place but 
 Paradise, a cave about as large as Harmston drawing- 
 room, on the sea-shore, hollowed out by waves ! who 
 can say how many ages ago ? One side of the cave was 
 open to the sea, the others damp with trickling threads of 
 water : and round the edges and dotted about in clumps on 
 its walls were such beautiful ferns : Asplenium marinum, 
 with fronds a foot long ; a giant species of maidenhair ; 
 two or three other species, smaller ; two or three delicate 
 Cistopteris-looking things ; Osmunda regalis, magnificent 
 in wealth of fronds, &c. &c. I counted eight or ten dis 
 tinct species, all but one or two un-English, and all in 
 such perfect beauty and luxuriance of growth. I could only 
 sit down in the cavern and gaze at them with all my eyes. 
 The wind is getting round ; so instead of staying here 
 to-morrow, as we had proposed, we shall probably start to 
 night for Corunna ; I will post this letter there : you will 
 excuse it if it is not sufficiently prepaid, for I have as yet 
 neither Spanish coins nor knowledge of Spanish ways. 
 Corunna is nothing but Spanish, Vigo being the com 
 mercial port ; so we must take our chance. I shall be 
 glad to get away south to Malaga, &c., as soon as possible ; 
 for evidently the season (not the London season, but the 
 beetle season) is not quite advanced enough here, and in 
 the south it may be all too much advanced, and we per 
 chance too late. 
 
22 COKUNXA. 
 
 I am writing when table and seat (with everything else) 
 are heaving and rolling from side to side like a baby in a 
 swing ; and I have not yet learned to write thus at my 
 ease. Now I turn in. 
 
 May 3. Harbour of Corunna. 
 
 Safe here at 3 A.M. this morning, having had a rough 
 passage, short heavy seas, rain, and fogs, and wind right 
 against us. This is a pretty town, famous in history for 
 two great events (of events connected with England) : the 
 fitting out of the Spanish Armada ; and the victory of the 
 English army over Soult, and the death of the English 
 leader Sir John Moore, whose elegy was sung by Wolfe. 
 We are lying in the magnificent harbour, next to a French 
 man-of-war steamer taking in coal, and with Spanish 
 men-of-war around us : it appears to be the privilege of 
 E/. Y. S. yachts, and perhaps of those of other clubs, to 
 lie in harbours at the men-of-war stations if they choose, 
 and not among the merchantmen. 
 
 At noon we go on shore to stretch our legs, look about 
 us, and post letters; to-morrow morning at daybreak we 
 sail for the south for Gibraltar direct. This part of Spain 
 is essentially damp, as its locality, an elbow sticking into 
 the ocean, would suggest ; our clothes are wet, books are 
 damp, cabins are damper still, and nothing will get dry ; 
 we want to run off and look for the sun in his power and 
 get aired as soon as we can, so we leave our proposed land- 
 trip across the country to Vigo till our return, when we 
 can make it, or not, as we like. 
 
 I find it almost impossible to write at sea ; the motion 
 of the boat makes my head swim too much ; nor can I 
 arrange or set out insects : all I can do is to be indolent, 
 
CORUNNA. 23 
 
 and sometimes read, more often talk, or meditate over the 
 past versus the present. What a change ! it seems like a 
 dream; a week to-day I was at Tredegar Square, three 
 weeks to day I was at Weltoii, now I am in an outlandish 
 corner of Spain ! I have been looking over the medicine- 
 chest and other matters you have so well prepared for me, 
 and they remind me of you all very pleasantly ; so that, 
 though, comparatively speaking, I am almost alone, I am 
 not lonely a bit. I often think it possible that this trip 
 may give me a wandering turn, and that it may not be so 
 easy to settle at all events that there is a chance of my not 
 settling near you : just as " Northampton is not all Eng 
 land " (your own kind words) , so England is not all the 
 world. 
 
 Yesterday I was in my berth most of the day sea-sick ; 
 1 had a thorough touch of it, and Gray all the time eating 
 immense meals (as they seemed to me), and as fresh and 
 bright as usual. I hope I shall soon be as good a sailor 
 as he is; for sea-sickness is a bore, and to-morrow we shall 
 have rough weather outside again, and I shall be on my 
 back as usual. 
 
 We may be a fortnight or a very few days in getting to 
 Gibraltar ; all depends on wind and weather ; anyway I 
 shall expect letters there ; and please send all letters there 
 until you hear from me again. 
 
 I must now conclude ; boats are visiting us. 
 
 I post this, or rather leave it with the Consul at Corunna, 
 on afternoon of May 3. 
 
 Your very affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
CORUNNA. 
 
 Corunna Harbour, 
 May 3, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 This afternoon I placed in the hands of Mr. Santos, 
 our Consul here, letters for England; among them one 
 for Harmston ; our call on him was formal and short ; 
 then we wandered forth up and down the town. Of course 
 all is strange to me, very strange : bullocks harnessed 
 to sledges were the only beasts of burden, if you care to 
 except women. I went on the heights above town (very 
 dry and barren) a few plants I did not know, a few 
 beetles under stones (Harpali and Calathi) with others 
 sparingly in herbage ; but it is not a place I care to visit 
 again. The chief feature of the zoology seemed to be 
 the lizards : they abounded ; I saw from fifty to a hun 
 dred specimens, and probably three distinct species. Moths 
 and butterflies were not seen ; but I could only work for 
 an hour and a half, and had no apparatus with me, as we 
 were dressed for calls and not for country rambles. 
 Hemiptera (bugs) were in great profusion, some very 
 beautiful and noting more distinctly a region south of 
 England. 
 
 Several ladies and gentlemen were strolling about in 
 the streets the former in mantillas or having no head 
 dress all, the latter in large Spanish cloaks and hats. To 
 English travellers the strangest sight, perhaps, is the 
 contrast between (and actually jostling one with another) 
 the upper and lowest classes not only well-dressed 
 
COKUXNA. 25 
 
 men, but, I should suppose, true gentlemen and ladies 
 absolutely shouldering the most filthy of paupers : on 
 the sunny sides of the streets lie right across the footway 
 lines of sturdy dirty men and women, all most diligently 
 scratching their bodies, and covered, or sometimes not 
 covered, by the most squalid rags; and threading their 
 way among these abominations are ladies with their fans 
 and dons with their cigarettes. Some of the costumes 
 with all their dirt were picturesque : every one is fond 
 of bright colours, red and yellow (the national colours) 
 being the favourites ; a few of the ladies were nicely and 
 quietly dressed; but for the most part strong contrasts 
 in colours were more abundant than harmony. I did not 
 see a single priest, though I was on the look-out for them, 
 and the church and monastery bells were going all the 
 afternoon. As to buildings, the place is poor enough : I 
 saw one arch of a church of the old dog-tooth pattern ; 
 but this was nearly hidden or destroyed by a miserable 
 shop built into the arch, and the bit that was revealed was 
 coated with whitewash : even in England we should not 
 tolerate such vandalism as this ! 
 
 At Sea, 100 miles from Gibraltar, 
 Wednesday evening, May 7, 1856. 
 
 Since I wrote the commencement of this letter, our life 
 has been entirely without incident. On Sunday morning 
 we weighed anchor at daybreak and left Corunna for Cape 
 Finisterre : wind dead againt us ; so after sunrise, inas 
 much as I am not yet inured to sea life, I got very little 
 sleep indeed. During the day we had half a gale of wind, 
 
26 TO GIBRALTAR. 
 
 and had to reef mainsail; in the evening rounded Cape 
 Finisterre, and set our course for the south. 
 
 Monday. Weather fine, but precious little wind, so \ve 
 get on but slowly : at noon our reckoning is lat. 41 39 N., 
 long. 9 43 W. The ship s reckoning is kept regularly 
 by Gray, his Captain sometimes working out the slate 
 calculations ; I know nothing in the world about it. On 
 Sunday I could only keep well by sitting quite still 011 
 the deck, lodged in a safe corner, and wrapped up in 
 macintosh and great coats, and, notwithstanding all, I 
 got well drenched with rain and spray; but now I am 
 almost well, and free from stomach disturbances. 
 
 On Tuesday the weather is finer and the sun is more pro- 
 pititous and genial ; he has given us his full warmth for two 
 hours, and we have dried our clothes and warmed our 
 selves. At noon (lat. 39 25 N., long. 9 42 W.) we 
 were off the Berlings (little islands I had never heard 
 of before) about ten miles from the coast; and at 6 P.M. 
 we were off the E/ock of Lisbon, where I plainly saw 
 Cintra, the fashionable mountain suburb of Lisbon, with 
 its palace, convent, &c. 
 
 To-day, Wednesday, at 8 A.M. we were approaching Cape 
 St. Vincent. We have had a glorious day, the weather and 
 sunshine bright, the winds propitious, so that we have done 
 8 to 10 knots an hour : and the wind promises to hold good 
 during the night ; we hope, therefore, to be in sight of the 
 Rock of Gibraltar early to-morrow morning. As yet, we 
 have seen very few vessels ; but whales, dolphins, sharks, 
 &c. have been more abundant. We are now in a sensibly 
 warmer climate; the men are looking out their white 
 clothes, and lounging on deck is very agreeable : I trust 
 
TO GIBRALTAR. 27 
 
 that we have done with rain for some time. Our plans are 
 the subject of many interesting discussions and examina 
 tions of maps, charts, and almanacks : several routes have 
 been considered. We propose to stay but a few hours at 
 Gibraltar, and then to get on at once to Malaga (we must 
 touch at Gibraltar, to make divers arrangements as to 
 letters and deliver letters of introduction) ; from Malaga 
 our idea is to go inland to Granada, and, after examining 
 these neighbourhoods (the first sea-shore and on the 
 plains, the second inland and among the mountains), 
 then to rejoin the Miranda and run across to Africa, 
 probably to Algiers, thence making our way to the 
 Atlas Mountains, afterwards to go on by sea to Oran or 
 some other port, that we may see the North African fauna 
 from as many points as possible, and to return then to 
 Gibraltar, taking perhaps on our way Majorca or 
 Minorca just as a flying visit. So much for our more 
 immediate plans, they are enough surely to satisfy the 
 most ambitious of tourists ; but we have ideas even be 
 yond Gibraltar. You will like to know what we pro 
 pose; but, as you are well aware, so entirely does 
 everything depend on health and good weather, that it 
 is impossible absolutely to decide upon anything, either 
 as to our movements or dates. 
 
 Gibraltar, Thursday, May 8. Arrived here, all well, 
 this morning, and at once take letters on shore and get 
 a run for a few hours. Best love to you all. 
 
 Your very affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
28 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 R.Y.S. < Miranda, Gibraltar Bay, 
 May 8, 1856, Thursday night. 
 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 I posted my last letter to you this morning, with the 
 bare tidings of our safe arrival here. I have been on 
 shore with Gray all day : we have had dinner, and got 
 cool again; and I propose, though very tired, to finish 
 a capital day by making you all, if possible, share some 
 what in our enjoyment. We have wandered up and 
 down the streets, gone out on the neutral ground to view 
 the grand old rock from the land side, mounted by stairs 
 and roads to some of the nearest galleries, caught a few very 
 few insects, talked with several persons, and have got back 
 again to our cheerful little floating home. Well, I ask 
 myself, what have I seen and learned ? Let me try and 
 put my thoughts on paper. First, certainly, if I were a 
 Spaniard, I should be very sore indeed at the idea of 
 Gibraltar belonging to any other flag than mine; for it 
 is such a splendid natural fortress, impregnable by nature to 
 attacks, and by nature the key to the Mediterranean; 
 and moreover it seems to be the centre of a vast amount 
 of smuggling of contraband goods, especially tobacco 
 that precious blessing, dear to Spaniards as an essential 
 of daily life, and to the Spanish government as a most 
 important source of revenue, tobacco in all shapes being a 
 sort of imperial monopoly ; then, further, this is notice 
 able, that Gibraltar is a thoroughly free-trade town and yet 
 the dearest to live in of any in Europe, that there is free 
 
GIBRALTAR 29 
 
 trade utterly in religion, and that its motley inhabitants 
 are able to attend Church,, or Presbyterian, or Roman 
 Catholic, or Mahomedan places of worship, and yet (as 
 it is told to me) that a larger proportion than usual go to 
 no place of worship at all. There is one other strange 
 peculiarity : the whole rock is governed permanently, as it 
 were, by martial law, by military discipline, and it is a most 
 quiet, orderly, and respectable town ; every night at sun 
 set the gates are locked and a guard mounted, and under 
 no possible circumstances are the gates unlocked again till 
 sunrise : if you are wandering across the lines or among 
 the cork and chestnut forests, and you cannot get back 
 before sunset, you had better stay where you are ; for 
 otherwise you must sleep on the sands all night. 
 
 The streets of Gibraltar are much too small, crowded with 
 idlers, arid merchants, and sailors, and, of course more 
 than all others besides, with military. We saw to-day 
 men and costumes from many different nations English 
 (phlegmatic, perspiring and deliberate), the Arab trader, 
 men black as my hat (merchants from the interior of 
 Africa), Spanish, Greeks, Jews, all sorts, and I suspect all 
 characters ; the town is very poor a bad attempt at being 
 English. We had no time to ride to the other end of the 
 rock, where, they say, we should have found buildings 
 superior to those in the town itself. As to the fortifica 
 tions, of course I know nothing ; all I can say is, that plat 
 forms with cannon on them and neat little pyramids of 
 balls met one at every turn, at every angle of every road, 
 and often where one would least have expected them : 
 many of the cannon were old, and some not too large. 
 
 The peculiarity of the Natural History of the rock (that 
 
30 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 in which alone I am really interested) consists in its mon 
 keys. A large tribe of the Barbary ape (becoming, as they 
 say, less and less numerous) inhabits the high inaccessible 
 crags ; they seldom are seen except in severe weather : in 
 very bad weather they have been known to come down 
 and steal. I wonder how they got there ! where from ? 
 and when ? This is the only spot in the whole of Europe 
 where they are found. No doubt they have come from 
 the south, from Africa just as, of the many insects that 
 we find common to both sides of the Mediterranean, 
 some have come from south to north ; but how and when 
 are mysteries to me, or why, when they got to Gibraltar, 
 they did not occupy some of the Sierras also ; this is a 
 puzzle. I should fancy that insects are scarce here, though 
 this special peculiarity of the rock being an insulated 
 home for ages of the monkey would make a careful and 
 thorough examination- of the rest of the fauna particularly 
 interesting. Some one has published a list of the flora*, 
 and a very respectable one it is : it seems there are 450 
 species in round numbers, of which 400 are, so to speak, 
 indigenous, though I do not know in what sense the word is 
 used ; and 50 are manifest importations : what I should 
 like to know is, how many of these 400 are found else 
 where in Spain or in Europe, how many arc found else 
 where only in Africa, and how many are found in both con 
 tinents. The fish are very interesting, if one may judge 
 from the fish- markets ; and indeed the markets, both of 
 fish, birds, and vegetables, are very attractive quantities of 
 new species (new to my eyes I mean, who have seen hardly 
 anything before alive except British forms) . 
 
 * l Flora Calpensis, by Dr. Kolaa.rt, who treats also of the <reoloiry 
 of the rock. 
 
TO MALAGA. 31 
 
 R.Y.S. < Miranda, 
 
 off Gibraltar Rock, 
 
 Friday, May 9. 
 
 It is only a month to-day since I was present at the 
 Sunday School Teachers farewell meeting, and I seem 
 to have lived as many years as weeks ! The fixedness of 
 all the eventful past in one s memory makes the present 
 often seem to me a magic-lantern sort of unreal but beau 
 tiful visions ; soon perhaps the past and the present may 
 change places to my imagination, the former becoming the 
 visionary and the latter the only solid and real : it is no 
 fault of Gray s if the present is not real and full of enjoy 
 ment now ; in a very quiet way he constantly shows an inten 
 tion of making me feel at home. I have just come from 
 on deck. We weighed anchor at sunrise this morning, but 
 the wind was so light that we could hardly move : I was on 
 deck enjoying the scene; till 10 A.M. we were drifting up 
 and down close to the rock. Now a very light but fair 
 wind is springing up and we hope to get into Malaga har 
 bour this evening. The view, indeed, is lovely ; all around is 
 the Mediterranean blue of the sea, on the left horizon is 
 the snow-capped range of the Sierras, on the right horizon 
 are the snow-capped Atlas Mountains, and above our heads 
 is the brightest and purest colour of all ; but Gray says I 
 must not expend all my notes of admiration, for this is 
 but the beginning. We are in the midst of upwards of 
 500 vessels ! The masts in the roads look like a forest, 
 all wiiidbound like ourselves. 
 
32 CJRANADA. 
 
 Granada, 
 May 26, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 I must write again before we leave this strange city, 
 although since the 21st there has not been much to tell of. 
 We have had Corpus -Christi day here, a grand field-day for 
 the Romish Church ; and this year the festivities were on a 
 large scale, the procession of priests in the morning was 
 nearly two miles long, hundreds of priests and twenty- 
 five or thirty great metal crosses, each cross representing 
 some neighbouring parish. This I give you from hearsay ; 
 for as I did not feel any " call " to move in the matter, and 
 as my own private views on the " Real Presence " happen 
 to coincide with those of the Catholic Church, and to be 
 entirely opposed to those of the Roman branch of the 
 Church, and, besides, as I do not want to hurt any 
 one s feelings or get hurt myself, I decline the oppor 
 tunity of not genuflecting, and, like a wise man, shoulder 
 my wallet and spend the day as usual among the hills, 
 where there is the true " Real Presence " always, and to 
 any one ! 
 
 But I saw, for the first time since we landed, plenty of 
 priests : a few certainly I might take to be well-bred and 
 cultivated; but the majority are very much below the tone 
 and style of clergy of the English Church. Take away their 
 dress, imagine those faces in some other than a priest s 
 garb, and they become at once, what perhaps they really 
 are, peasants faces, unlettered, unintellectual, and some- 
 
GRANADA. 33 
 
 what animal. I should guess that they fare very well, and 
 that study of books is unknown to them. I was told by a 
 gentleman at Malaga that frequently he had had private 
 visits from them (for the most part seeking for pecuniary 
 assistance), and that almost invariably they were unedu 
 cated, not only as to the Bible, but as to the rudiments of 
 ordinary knowledge. 
 
 But if I abstained from publicity in the morning, I 
 attained enough, and more than enough, in the evening : 
 for the first (and certainly the last) time in my life I have 
 assisted at a Bull-fight ! It was so utterly barbarous that I 
 am angry with myself, and seek to find excuses to justify my 
 having ever gone there. There must have been thousands of 
 spectators, and a few, very few English present ; the only 
 decent animals in the whole place I felt to be Gray and 
 the bull, and perhaps myself ! The poor bull, I pitied 
 him and respected his manifestations of bulldom from 
 my heart; fight however pluckily he might, his end 
 was come : for every other beast in the arena (biped and 
 quadruped) there was a chance of life, for him none ! and 
 yet he was the assailed and on the defensive, and all 
 others were the cowardly assailants : the wretched horses 
 too, I pitied them ; blindfolded, drugged, galled with cruel 
 spurs, they were in the hands of the butchers, and their 
 fate, too, was almost certain death ! Whatever the virtues 
 or the labours of their past lives, they were doomed to 
 be slaughtered, as it were, bit by bit, in detail, just to 
 grace the holiday of some biped animals who had the 
 demon-fit on them strong ! How I should have liked to 
 have seen one plucky little bull toss aside his cruel per 
 secutors and jump over the barricades (as he was very 
 
 i) 
 
34 GRANADA. 
 
 nearly doing) and set to work among the spectators, and 
 ask them how they would like it if they were made to take 
 his place ! We had to fight our way in, literally ; for 
 there was a rabble of dirty ruffians in the seats to which 
 our tickets entitled us, and I insisted on turning them 
 all out : and we had to fight our way out ; for before it was 
 nearly over (I confess I was half ill) we both had had 
 more than enough, and determined to elbow our way into 
 the streets again : as soon as our movements were seen, 
 the motive was understood, and a chorus of hisses saluted 
 us. I felt as savage as the bull ; but their hisses did not 
 draw blood, and we could get over or round our living 
 barricade; so we departed, having been among " beasts 
 at Ephesus " to any amount, and seen two bulls and five 
 or six horses killed ! I have had enough of Spanish bull 
 fights for ever and a day ! 
 
 As to myself, notwithstanding the great heat in the 
 middle of the day, which is very oppressive, I continue 
 in perfect health; my skin is as brown as I suppose it 
 well can be; but Gray, I am sorry to say, and other 
 English here have not been quite well; Gray has been 
 obliged to keep indoors and remain quiet, to get rid of 
 the effects of the climate. I go to bed very early, and get up 
 very early ; generally am dressed so as to begin work at 
 sunrise. I stay in my room till 9, when breakfast, and 
 at 10 till 3.30 or 4 P.M. wander forth among the moun 
 tains, striking out new paths if any tempt me by trees or 
 greenness of herbage, or retracing the steps of the day 
 before to take more of some insect which I then found as 
 busy and actively engaged, both in body and mind, as it is 
 possible to be : all this time I am alone ; Gray perhaps 
 
GRANADA. 35 
 
 is in sight working just in the same way, and we make 
 our paths converge for the sake of comparing notes and 
 examining each other s captures, and, it may be (if there 
 is a bit of cool shade), sitting down for a moment or two 
 and refreshing ourselves with an orange ; then to work 
 again more sedulously than ever : or sometimes a native 
 comes up to me, seldom speaks, but keeps close to me 
 examining intently every action ; one of them said some 
 thing, which I interpreted into his idea that I was col 
 lecting materials for medicine. At 5 P.M. every day there 
 is table d hdte; after dinner we perhaps have a little 
 gossip with any English at the hotel : then generally 
 Gray comes to my room, or I go to his, for a quiet talk 
 over the events of the day ; it is too dark to examine spe 
 cimens, but there is much that has been well done during 
 our rambles, or else wants attending to on the morrow, 
 and all this makes good talking after the energetic part 
 of the day s work is done. At 9 P.M. bed. 
 
 I am (or endeavour to be) careful to avoid fever and 
 overwork, because I of course am anxious not to throw 
 away an hour of this special opportunity ; but on the day 
 on which I ascended a branch of the Sierra I really was 
 quite knocked up : Gray, most unfortunately, was too 
 unwell to go. A Prussian gentleman who is here, I, and 
 four guides (or whatever they called themselves) started 
 at 2 o clock in the morning on horseback, the guides 
 carrying stores of meats and drinks : we got back at 
 nine o clock at night. I have not been actually upon the 
 snow, for I had no object in doing so, but have been 
 where snow was only two or three weeks ago ; every 
 thing when we got into the real mountain-districts was 
 
 D2 
 
36 GRANADA. 
 
 very grand,, and the details new and beautiful splendid 
 orchisses, and crimson peonies, and strange trees, and 
 many plants all in full flower. Of insects, although I 
 expected much and worked very hard, I found but few : 
 there must be some species in such a district in abun 
 dance, and probably many species might be found; I 
 conclude that we are too early for the higlj. Alpine Sierras, 
 too early, it may be, by five or six weeks. 
 
 I am thankful to say that I have never had anything 
 like an accident of any kind, though every day I have 
 been among the mountains, and often quite alone : for 
 the ladrones or hill-robbers I am always prepared ; pro 
 bably here, as everywhere, rumour magnifies dangers, and 
 there are not really so many robbers about as is reported ; 
 anyhow their existence or non-existence has not the 
 smallest influence on my movements. No doubt there 
 are plenty of solitary wanderers among the mountains, 
 and each of these wanderers always has some sort of a 
 gun over his shoulder and can boast moreover of a most 
 villainous physiognomy and a murderous-looking dagger- 
 knife in his waistband : for me, I have a very bland and 
 serene smile for any of the worthies who may come up to 
 me ; I have, pleasantly sticking out of my pocket, or hang 
 ing by a string round my neck, a loaded revolver that has 
 six charges all available in any six moments, and more 
 over I have in my wallet cigars which I offer judiciously, 
 and no gold studs or watch-chain or good clothes to tempt 
 cupidity; and so we fraternize, and I have never come to 
 grief yet. My revolver is a sure protection against any one 
 or two, but I hope I shall never have to use it ; I should 
 be very sorry to have to wing a man, but I do not know 
 
GRANADA. 37 
 
 what might happen if any were to take liberties with the 
 contents of my insect-bottles. 
 
 To-day I was in a cave, resting for a few moments in 
 the shade, quite in sight of Granada : the cave is peculiar 
 and well known; in this very cave a few days ago a 
 couple of ladrones robbed a wretched priest (I can t con 
 ceive what his reverence was doing there) and mulcted 
 him of all his clothes, leaving him in the cave, and 
 nothing else around him, to get out of the mess as he 
 could. I am sure the priest had not a revolver, but only 
 a missal in his pocket ; and that could do no good. You 
 remember what Napoleon said about Heaven being always 
 on the side of the biggest guns. 
 
 From priests I naturally pass to their religion ; I have 
 said as yet nothing about this, and of course the opinion of 
 a mere visitor of a few weeks is worth but little. However, 
 there is always to everything a surface appearance which 
 a few glances will comprehend, as well as a more hidden 
 and perhaps more real life of motives and sources of action 
 which none can measure fairly unless they have special 
 opportunities. I have been into several churches, have 
 attended their services, have watched the demeanour of 
 the priests and the demeanour of the congregations, or 
 of the few who almost always may be found at their 
 private devotions at whatever hour one may enter the 
 church, and have not knowingly brought to the subject a 
 biased mind. 
 
 You will remember that of all the kingdoms in Europe 
 Spain is one of the most ultra Roman ; she goes so far as 
 to condemn as illegal the worship of the Creator after any 
 other fashion than that of the Romish Ritual. All the ex- 
 
38 GRANADA. 
 
 cellencies therefore of this form of Christianity may fairly 
 be supposed to be developed fully and to be manifest in 
 Spain ; and any religious defects that are patent in Spain 
 are directly chargeable to their system ; for here Popery 
 has free swing, unalloyed and unchecked by opposing 
 influences as in Protestant or more liberal countries. I 
 cannot say that I have seen no devotion ; but certainly 
 any foreigner visiting our churches in England would 
 never see what I have seen here. With us there would be 
 some interest in the services on the part of the congrega 
 tions ; every one would not be sleeping, or ogling, or eye- 
 wandering, or day-dreaming. It may be fair to impute a 
 large proportion of the thoroughgoing indifference and 
 formality of the celebration of the mass to the uneducated 
 stolidity of the people; it probably may be so, but what 
 but the system of popery has left the people in such gross 
 ignorance ? I do not want to use hard names, and I look 
 out for what I can approve of, as well as for what I con 
 demn ; but I must say that the public worship of our 
 Maker in Spain, so far as the instances I have seen are any 
 fair illustrations, assimilates in essence more nearly to the 
 practical working of idolatrous worship than I could have 
 conceived possible. Compare it with Romanism in Eng 
 land, it is entirely different ! In England Romanism is not 
 taking root, but permitted among a people who are edu 
 cated, because England is a free and Protestant country ; 
 here it has taken root among a people devoted to the 
 papacy, who never have been influenced by heresy or libe 
 ralism : the result is very painful to look upon ! I would 
 advise any one, young or old, who has any doubts as to 
 which church is in nearer accordance with the Church of 
 
GRANADA. 39 
 
 the Apostles,, the English or the Romish, to put the matter 
 to a crucial test and come and live here for a few weeks, 
 and simply use his own eyes. Popery in England is not 
 real popery, confessedly; it is a grievance with them in 
 England that they are in partibus infidelium and tram 
 melled on every side : here, if anywhere in the world, 
 Popery must be the real thing ; and yet, if ever in the world 
 there is real material idolatry, I have seen it inside the 
 churches in Spain. Nevertheless, notwithstanding all this, 
 I believe there is certainly some true religion (as far, at 
 least, as it is possible for any one to assert this of another) , 
 not only apparent formalism, but real religion : among 
 other acquaintances I have made here is that of a trades 
 man, a cabinet-maker, who is a sort of miracle among his 
 countrymen ; he is devotedly attached to natural history : 
 I arranged to spend a day with him among the mountains ; 
 we had fixed an hour (an early one in the morning) for 
 me to call for him at his house ; it happened that I called 
 half an hour before the appointed time, as I wanted to 
 make the most of the morning, and fancied he might be 
 late : when I called, his wife said he was not at home, he 
 was gone to mass, and that his habit was to go every 
 morning : the man s face would quite give me the belief 
 that this self-adopted habit of his proceeded from some 
 thing better than formalism. Remember, he was an ento 
 mologist ! this may explain a good deal : seriously, it 
 proves that his mind was infinitely more cultivated and ad 
 vanced than the minds of most of his countrymen. 
 
 I forgot whether I told you that in Malaga we made one 
 at least very pleasant acquaintance. The Archdeacon of 
 Dromore has been residing there for some months, and, 
 
40 MALAGA. 
 
 seeing me (as we suppose) at the service on Sunday at the 
 Consul s, clerically dressed, was good enough to call on us 
 the next day on board the yacht. His whole family 
 (Mrs. Archdeacon, a sister-in-law, and two daughters) are 
 as pleasant as he is ; and somehow or other we were soon 
 at home with them, and saw them or some of them every 
 day. We have planned two or three excursions with them 
 when we get back ; they are to have a yachting excursion 
 and luncheon at some point on the coast, and propose to 
 us in return a picnic or two with them among the Malaga 
 hills. * * * * * * * 
 
 I am, my dear Father, 
 
 Your very affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
MALAGA. 41 
 
 K. Y.S. Miranda/ 
 Malaga Harbour, 
 
 May 30, 1856. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 Since I sent off my last letter to you, on the 27th_, I 
 have received your two most welcome letters. In order 
 to enjoy letters thoroughly it is necessary to be away 
 from England ; the picture in one s mind of friends, and 
 English life, and dear old home habits, and loved faces is 
 much more clear and absorbing as suggested by the con 
 tents of a letter received among strangers in a strange 
 land than it would be if received at one s own home 
 among personal friends. Even natural history, engrossing 
 as it deserves to be and as it is, for the moment is for 
 gotten or passed over when letters from England come ; 
 these waken up other feelings, and hurry the mind away 
 from the present into the other present, the past. 
 
 I have not written in the form of a journal ; for no one 
 at home (alas that I should say so !) cares for entomo 
 logy ; and one day is so much like the next day, that my 
 letters would be to you mere repetitions, though to others 
 full of interest. There would be on Monday such and 
 such insects taken (then a host of Latin names) in such or 
 such a locality (then Spanish names) ; on Tuesday ditto, 
 with variations, and all interspersed with notes and me 
 moranda. 
 
 I am writing after breakfast. To-day we are to take 
 the Archdeacon and his party a cruise to sail to a point 
 along the coast, on a sort of picnic-entomologico-botanical 
 
42 MALAGA. 
 
 excursion : our visitors are late, and the wind is dropping ; 
 I fear we may lose the day. 
 
 The King of Portugal, or ex- King, the cousin of Prince 
 Albert, is here at Malaga, and our next-door neighbour in 
 the harbour (we as being of the R.Y. Squadron of Great 
 Britain lie on the best side of the harbour among the 
 men-of-war, and on the opposite side to that occupied by 
 merchantmen) ; he is going incog, to Granada on a visit. 
 On Tuesday evening, from 10 P.M. till past midnight, the 
 harbour round us was most gay ; one of the Spanish gun 
 boats lying on the other side of us illuminated from stem 
 to stern with coloured lamps, and then took on board a 
 garrison band, and swept round us and came between us 
 and the Portuguese man-of-war to serenade the King ; so 
 we had the benefit of the whole of it, as if we had been 
 ourselves serenaded. 
 
 These Spanish gunboats lead no idle life : they are 
 small and draw but very little water, but have one heavy 
 gun amidships, and are crammed with men ; they can 
 spread an enormous amount of canvass, are lugger-rigged, 
 and as able to make the most of catVpaws of wind as 
 any vessels afloat; and besides their sails they can 
 use oars ; several on either side, each worked by three or 
 four men, can sweep the little craft along in the stillest 
 weather. The object of all this motive power is the cap 
 ture of smugglers, who abound on this shore : every even 
 ing about sunset on one or other of the gunboats we can 
 see signs of animated life ; sails are spread or oars are got 
 out, and the pretty little vessel gracefully leaves our side 
 on its night-duty of watching the shores. 
 
 At last the party is come, and we are all right; but 
 
MALAGA. 43 
 
 there is one serious difficulty, we really do not know their 
 names. It is not really serious ; for if the worst comes to 
 the worst we can ask, or to-morrow I can go to the Con 
 sul s and inquire. 
 
 May 30. Friday night, 
 
 I must finish my letter : we have had a very pleasant 
 day, although our visitors were so late, and the wind so 
 light. We sailed a few miles across the bay as smooth as 
 glass, to a village (Torre Malinos, as I make out the name) , 
 and landed ladies and all through the surf, intending to 
 wander up the country to some wooded ground that we 
 saw, some of the sailors accompanying us and carrying 
 hampers &c. ; but before we had well set foot on shore 
 we were met by an ofncial who would not allow us to stir 
 until we had obtained leave from the governor of the 
 village. Well, all we could do was to wait and humbly 
 sue for leave to defile this orthodox land of Spain with our 
 footsteps. Alas, leave is refused refused utterly and un 
 conditionally ! the reason which the great man chose to 
 give was that we were in quarantine ! We were so disgusted 
 with the impudence of this Spanish "do," that we re 
 solved we would not purchase our liberty by a farthing. 
 They said that the smallest coin would frank us all any 
 where and everywhere ; but no small coins they saw from 
 us. It was a great joke ! on one side were a good many of 
 the country-folk come to have a look at us ; these were on 
 the margin of the cliffs and shore ; they were made to stand 
 aloof from us by a couple of dirty emaciated wretches 
 with soldiers uniform on, and driven away from us if they 
 came too near ; on the other side were we from the yacht 
 in the rudest health and vigour, isolated by these soldiers 
 
44 MALAGA. 
 
 from the peasants, and kept at a distance from themselves 
 for fear we should give them disease ! Alas, Conservatism ! 
 what foolish deeds do foolish men sometimes commit in 
 thy name ! and so we were confined to the shore ; I 
 worked away at entomology,, and took eight or nine new 
 insects besides several that I had discovered on the shore 
 at Malaga ; Gray with the ladies attacked the botany of 
 the sands, and he was more successful still : the bright- 
 blue larkspur and other interesting flowers were common. 
 On the whole we spent a very pleasant afternoon on that 
 strip of desolate sands, although we were all supposed to 
 be smitten with the plague ! We sailed back into harbour, 
 gave the ladies dinner on board, and saw them safe home 
 all in good time. 
 
 To-morrow we are to be at the Archdeacon s house at 
 six o clock in the morning, having previously breakfasted, 
 to spend the day up some ravine that they describe as 
 specially cool and delicious some mountain -course a few 
 miles off. The family is Irish, and very agreeable; the 
 sister of Mrs. Archdeacon is of a well-known Cheshire 
 family. Then in the evening, almost to my sorrow, and 
 I think to Gray s, we are to leave this charming Ma 
 laga and sail for Algeria. These evenings are unspeak 
 ably delightful, so calm and cool and refreshing after the 
 great heat of the day. Now I must give over, and turn in, 
 or I shall not be ashore according to appointment to 
 morrow morning. 
 
 I am, my dear Father, 
 
 Your very affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLAIIK. 
 
MALAGA. 45 
 
 R.Y.S. Miranda, 
 Algiers Harbour, 
 Saturday, June 7, 1856. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 For the first time since we sailed from Cowes I am 
 not perfectly well nothing the matter whatever really, 
 only a little sluggish and tired ; and so simply from pru 
 dential motives I stay at home this evening, take a peep 
 into the medicine- chest, and write letters, instead of taking 
 a walk. It is merely what I have seen in several others, 
 results of heat and of changes in temperature stomach 
 out of order, and a little bodily weakness. I quite trust 
 to be perfectly well before I send this off. 
 
 My last letter was dated May 30, and sent to the 
 Consul s at Malaga on the 31st. On that our last day at 
 Malaga I enjoyed myself even more than on any previous 
 day ; our excursion into the hills was a perfect success. 
 Neither Gray nor the Archdeacon would join the party, 
 the former to his regret, inasmuch as he had yacht busi 
 ness to settle; the latter probably (after the manner of 
 Archdeacons) preferred repose to gadding about. At 6.30 
 A.M. we all started off in a car, or whatever they call it, 
 for the mountains, three ladies and myself one to 
 sketch, one to botanize, one to look on, and one to ento- 
 mologize. We got to a wild bit of scenery, where each 
 one worked in his or her vocation, and did so to some profit : 
 the plants were lovely, and these little thread-like ravines 
 that do not reveal themselves till you are in them harbour 
 many rare species that are never met with elsewhere ; 
 
46 TO ALGIERS. 
 
 insects, too, invited perspiration and toil ; as for sketching, 
 there was not a single tame bit of nature, look where you 
 would ; that glen would make the fortune of one of our 
 R.A.s. At 11 A.M. under the grateful shade of a rock 
 we breakfasted a second time, compared notes, chatted, 
 and then set to work again ; the result was to me that I 
 took more good insects than I had done on any previous 
 day, and (as I hope) that I made an entomologist. 
 
 In the afternoon we returned to an early dinner at their 
 house, where Gray met us ; at dusk we said " good-bye ! " 
 I rushed off to the Consul s to leave a memorandum about 
 letters, and then in hot haste on board; every one was 
 waiting to be off; but not a breath of wind ! It is of no 
 use making a trouble of it ; we tranquilly repose on the 
 deck for an hour or so of that most delightful of all times 
 in Spain, twilight ; I tell Gray of all our adventures ; he 
 narrates his less interesting visits in the town ; we watch 
 our neighbours the men-of-war, and then turn in with the 
 almost certainty of being able to go to church here to 
 morrow. But at two A.M. a kind or unkind breeze gently 
 fills the sails; the watch heave up anchor, and we creep 
 out of harbour : the wind does thus much and no more. 
 All Sunday we were nearly becalmed within sight of (al 
 most close to) Malaga, but could neither get forwards 
 nor back again : it was a very uncomfortable day with me ; 
 for the swell of the sea rolled the vessel incessantly from 
 side to side, so that (without being absolutely ill) I did 
 not at all like it. During the whole day we only made 
 good fourteen miles. 
 
 Monday, June 2. All night becalmed; at 11 A.M. a 
 N.W. breeze sprang up, which helped us along famously; 
 
TO ALGIERS. 47 
 
 in the afternoon we had another experience : a magnificent 
 thunderstorm burst over us ; the waves in a short time 
 became as black as the sky, the sky blacker and blacker 
 till we seemed wrapped up in an inky shroud; the sea 
 rose, the lightning was incessant and made the whole 
 scene lurid ; the thunder crashed in explosions rather than 
 in rolls : it was a very grand, an awful sight, something to 
 be felt, riot to be talked about or written about. Before 
 dusk we sighted Cape Gat, bearing N.N.E. nine miles 
 away; from that we took our course southward. 
 
 Tuesday, June 3. At noon, lat. 36 30 N., Ion. 53 W. 
 
 Wednesday, June 4. Up and on deck at 7. Sighted 
 the African coast near Cape Tenez ; but the wind was 
 contrary, and so after breakfast, instead of beating up to 
 Algiers, turned round to look for Mostaganem, 60 miles or 
 so to the west. At 2 P.M. the weather changed, thunder 
 and much haze, and soon after the wind chopped round 
 again to W. ; so we were as badly off as we were before : 
 we rounded also, and put her nose again towards Algiers. 
 At 6 P.M. we were exactly where we were at 7 A.M. ! such 
 are the vicissitudes that make yachting so full of interest. 
 The weather was very hot, the air close and heated as 
 from an oven. 
 
 Thursday, June 5. At 11 A.M. anchored in the harbour 
 of Algiers, and entered on a fresh world ; after luncheon 
 went on shore to deliver bill of health, and to take a first 
 look (first, that is, to me] of Africa and its inhabitants. 
 Here we are where thirty years ago it would have been 
 madness, or perhaps utterly impossible, for any Englishman 
 to show himself. Then Algiers was a nest of pirates, whose 
 hand was against all civilized nations; to-day we walk 
 
48 ALGIERS. 
 
 about its streets as safe as if we were at Southampton. 
 Thirty years ago it represented bloodthirsty Africa ; now 
 it resembles civilized Europe, thanks to French energy 
 and perseverance : in twenty years they have made Algiers 
 more French than the Spanish have made Granada Spanish 
 in 200 years. 
 
 June 9. For the last three days I have been obliged to 
 keep perfectly quiet, and to remain for the most part on 
 board; diarrhoea has made me rather weak. When I am 
 able, we go to Blidah and Medeah ; but if I am not better 
 to-morrow, Gray shall start without me, for I do not like 
 his waiting merely for me, and then I can quietly stay 
 till I get stronger or till he returns. Sunday is much 
 better observed here than I had supposed : it resembles 
 London on that day as to general externals ; shops are all 
 closed except a few cafes, tobacconists , and haircutters . I 
 have got rather badly stung by a beast of an Ichneumon ; 
 I bottled him for his mistake, and then managed to squeeze 
 some of the poison out, but my hand and wrist were 
 swollen for some hours. This is a splendid place, I should 
 fancy, for shell-collectors : whenever we land we pass the 
 fish-market, which is well supplied with all sorts of queer 
 things, both sellers, and things sold, and buyers ; I counted 
 at one stall upwards of twenty different species of shells, 
 there were lobsters with feelers 15 or 18 inches long : I 
 
 O s 
 
 much coveted the beauties, not for their insides, but for 
 their outsides. Fish also are abundant and curious. I fear 
 that insects and plants are scarce, and that we are too late 
 for much entomology. 
 
 Your affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
ALGIERS. 49 
 
 R.Y.S. Miranda/ Algiers Harbour, 
 
 June 10, 1856. 
 MY DEAR AUNT, 
 
 You have heard all about me of course from Harm- 
 ston, and read in my letters of all the ups and downs of 
 yachting life ; very few downs, none all ups. But never 
 theless I must send one letter to you direct. I am kept 
 at home in Algiers, and for the most part on board the 
 yacht, by a slight indisposition ; it is nothing but the 
 change of climate, and the great heat of the last week or 
 two to which I am unaccustomed ; at these my internal 
 machinery has rebelled, and I am just poorly enough as 
 to weakness and diarrho3a to find it more desirable to 
 be quiet and to take a little medicine for a day or two, 
 than to rush out and face the burning heat even in quest 
 of beetles : you see how prudent I am ; it is my cha 
 racter. To-day my friend Mr. Gray has started for the 
 interior, for Blidah at the base of the Atlas Mountains; 
 I follow him when I am able. 
 
 I cannot describe to you how entirely I am enjoying 
 this life ; it is anything but an idle life. My chief if not 
 my sole object is Entomology ; and " make hay while the 
 sun shines " is specially applicable to my case : of course 
 I cannot expect to do anything of real importance in a 
 few days, even among the rich products of such a teeming 
 region as this; but I may do something as the basis of 
 future more critical work, and at any rate my captures 
 will be beautiful and interesting souvenirs of pleasant 
 strolls and strange incidents, and something to admire 
 
50 ALGIERS. 
 
 and waken up memories in future years. Our habits are 
 most regular and uniform ; the description of one day is 
 for the most part that of every day. I get out of my berth 
 as soon as I awake,, about 5 o clock, and then am most 
 busily engaged in arranging yesterday s captures, and 
 filling storeboxes, labelling, &c., till breakfast-time. At 
 8 A.M. is breakfast ; (we devour mountains of food of all 
 sorts, and meals are a serious thing to us, so hungry arc our 
 stomachs !) after breakfast we make ready for the day, i. c. 
 fill our pockets and wallet with bottles, diggers, luncheon, 
 &c., see to our nets, and then to the country : we always 
 set out together, but seldom return together ; the excite 
 ment of the exploration is greater than the pleasure (for 
 the moment) of each other s company: from 10A.M. to 
 4 P.M. we are wandering about by shore or river or on 
 mountain or in garden or wood ; then home, dress, just 
 make sure of all our captures by killing them, and then 
 to dinner : till dusk we are engaged in small gossip, and 
 putting a little in order the results of the day : at 8 P.M. 
 tea; then reading, writing up notes, backgammon, or a 
 lounge on deck till 9.30, when we light bedroom candles 
 and retire to our cabins. This is our almost unvaried 
 course of life. I shall have taken, I hope, and set up, 
 from 5000 to 6000 specimens of beetles, and besides 
 these a few plants (I know nothing of them, but they were 
 irresistible). I fear, however, we are not fortunate in 
 our time : here at Algiers everything seems parched up 
 and withering; we are several weeks too late; at Gra 
 nada we were some weeks too soon, the high altitude of 
 that part of Andalusia making all the difference. Sundays 
 are days of at least bodily rest ; I go to the churches, and 
 
ALGIERS. 51 
 
 have seen much to amuse or interest me, and some things 
 that have astonished me. 
 
 These Moors or Algerians are not a tenth part so 
 curious and inquisitive about my in season and out of 
 season beetle-catching propensities as the Spanish were. 
 Of the latter I generally had a small group about me, 
 redolent of garlic, and as prying as children j but here the 
 Moors won t condescend even to glance at me ; they pass 
 on their way as if no one were near them, supremely in 
 different whether a Frenchman comes to take their 
 country, or an Englishman comes to take their beetles ! 
 " Allah is great!" " There is one God, our God, and 
 Mahomet is His prophet," satisfactorily accounts to their 
 minds for everything. A charming faith indeed, saving 
 a man from many a toilsome effort of body or mind ; but 
 it is like other forms of faith nearer our own homes, some 
 what unprofitable. They are a very stoical race, except 
 their tvomen, who, if eyes can talk, as we meet them 
 veiled up to the eyes in street or road, are like all other 
 daughters of Eve. I can t tell you whether they are 
 pretty or ugly : their eyes will do, certainly ; for the rest, 
 they have well-arranged ample white draperies, yellow- 
 stained hands, and yellow-stained feet. One of them I 
 fetched out of her house the other day in a precious hurry, 
 shrieking, screaming, running as if her women s apart 
 ments were on fire : I was quietly and successfully pick 
 ing up beetles in the midst of her garden ; the old lady 
 fancied that I was pocketing her flowers ! When she 
 saw my innocence she allowed me to go on ; but even 
 in her hurry she would not put down her veil, though I 
 
 E2 
 
52 ALGIERS. 
 
 asked her to do so by signs and she was ancient and 
 garnished with wrinkles enough to stock a whole alms- 
 house of dames. 
 
 I believe, if I could do exactly as I liked, I would not 
 come back to old England for some time ; this life is so 
 thoroughly enjoyable : my present accessories as to com 
 fort and companionship leave nothing to be desired, and 
 travelling ripens and opens out the mind, finding new 
 regions for thought, giving breadth of view and toleration 
 instead of the miserable blear-eyed sectarianism that we 
 find even in educated England. This is what many have 
 reported as their experience, and this is what I am be 
 ginning to feel already myself. 
 
 We (Gray and I) are carving out all sorts of plans, and 
 incubating almost every night, with the hope of hatching 
 some scheme of further future travel together. 
 
 As I write, I hear in the silence of the evening the loud- 
 sustained chant or cry of the Mussulmen on the tops of 
 their mosques calling to prayer. Are their prayers an 
 swered or not by Him to whom they are addressed? I 
 pass on to you the question that has set me thinking 
 for the last few minutes. 
 
 I am, with much love, 
 
 Your very affectionate Nephew, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
TO BLIDAII. 53 
 
 RY.S. Miranda, 
 
 June. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 My last letter to you was dated Algiers, June 10, 
 written just before I left for the interior ; I will now re 
 sume from my journal from that date. 
 
 Thanks to your medicine, which I found safe among the 
 Harmston things, I was soon better after my slight at 
 tack, without the aid of any Algiers doctor, and was well 
 able on the llth to follow Gray to Blidah, a native French- 
 occupied town in the interior, at the base of the Atlas 
 range, on the south side of the great plain of the Metidja. 
 I put eatables, drinkables, and cigars for self and chance 
 companions into my wallet, left the yacht early in the 
 morning, and started by the diligence, having secured pre 
 viously the third place in the coupe. 
 
 It is a splendid morning the air sweet-scented and pure, 
 the dust considerable. We slowly creep up the road that 
 leads to the Upper Mustapha, overlooking the bay very 
 slowly, for the zigzag road is steep, and the heavy French 
 diligence with its great hill of luggage seems too much 
 for the team of little wiry horses. But I for one do not 
 grumble at the pace, for the views we get, as we are 
 mounting of bay and town and hills are exquisite ; each 
 turn gives a fresh point of view, and details of beauty all 
 different ! Many a green bit of herbage did we pass and 
 many a shady ravine, on the hills above us, that sorely 
 suggested rare insects and pleasant rambles ; and I re- 
 
54 TO BUD AH. 
 
 gistered a resolution in my own breast that, if I could, 
 I would know much more of this Upper Mustapha on 
 some future day. At last we reach the summit of the 
 coast hills, on the slope of which Algiers is built ; we have 
 below us stretched southward right across the horizon, 
 bounded in the distance by the blue Atlas range, the plain 
 of the Metidja, perfectly flat, of a grey autumnal hue with 
 patches of green : the view reminded me somewhat of the 
 splendid view from Harmston hillside, although on a smaller 
 scale and with the Atlas Mountains in front instead of 
 Lincoln Cathedral and its hill on the right. We descend 
 the hill more rapidly, and pass many little pretty -looking 
 cottage-farms, with more the look of French than of 
 Moorish occupancy : I see what I take to be crops of 
 tobacco, and sugar-cane, and barley. 
 
 We come to Birkaden, entirely French in manner 
 though Moorish as to its name French hostelries and 
 small shops, just as we see in the French provinces. 
 French residents lounge about or come up to look at us ; 
 they are now certainly the real occupants of this district ; 
 the Africans are wayfarers come from a distance ; every 
 now and then we meet one, swarthy, clad in white 
 bournous, always smoking, jogging along as slowly as if 
 he had no care or wish in the world. From Birkaden 
 we have still to descend for a mile or two, and then we 
 are actually on the Great Plain ; we gallop along a first- 
 rate road, skirting the plain which lies on our left : 
 houses (always white) are few and far between, indeed 
 the road on each side is margined by jungle; it is the 
 exception to come to a bit of cultivated land. And now 
 we cross the plain almost at right angles to our previous 
 
TO BLIDAH. 55 
 
 route ; we meet camels a few,, with their deliberate step 
 and intensely ill-natured face; sheep, cattle, waggons 
 laden with produce, and an occasional diligence crowded 
 with passengers for Algiers. The road itself and the 
 occupants of the road are all excellent, and look as if 
 somewhere there was colonization ; but the country around 
 us is simply desert. 
 
 We reach Boufaric, a sort of central village in the 
 midst of the plain in former years the scene of many a 
 tight between French and Arabs, and, what was perhaps 
 worse still, a hotbed for malaria-fever. Now the French 
 have changed all that ; it is just a superior French village, 
 with French-looking houses forming little streets that 
 run at right angles to each other, well drained and 
 tolerably healthy; fruit-trees (mulberries, oranges, and 
 olives) look well and nourishing ; rows of trees skirt the 
 road-sides, as in France ; tobacco is rank, luxuriant, and 
 admirable in quality. We saw a cafe or two, so clean and 
 cool that I longed in my heat and dust for a quarter of 
 an hour and a bottle of lemonade in their shade; but 
 coaches are relentless, our team is replaced, and we are off 
 again into the desert-like plain. Boufaric is a success in 
 French colonization ; but then Boufaric and its cultivated 
 home-farms occupy but two or three square miles, while 
 the whole Metidja plain contains at least eight hundred 
 square miles. Once, in by- gone generations, the whole 
 was most carefully cultivated, a perfect garden, and the 
 corn-warehouse which supplied other countries besides 
 Algeria ; now it is all waste. The land is as fertile as ever, 
 occupation is perfectly secure and safe, freehold possession 
 may be had for a trifle; the only serious expenditure 
 
56 BLIDAH. 
 
 would be that of grubbing up the thickly matted roots of 
 dwarf palms and other trees; the climate is not un 
 healthy, for the French colonists seem strong and robust ;. 
 but yet colonists will not come ! What is the reason ? 
 
 Away we gallop over a splendid road, I suppose almost 
 due south dusty, straight, interminable, fatiguing, for 
 I can see neither beast, bird, nor flower to excite me ; all 
 is dull, uncultivated scrub or marsh, dreadfully monoto 
 nous : at last the white walls of Blidah glisten in the 
 distance; it opens out to us just in appearance a small 
 French country town. As we draw nearer, French occu 
 pants, military and civilians, become more abundant ; the 
 streets have an air of comfort and contentment in the 
 cool of the evening; we gallop up to the hotel, and 
 there cooler and a better sight to me than anything else 
 is the shooting-coat of friend Gray, come to see whether 
 I had recovered sufficiently to follow him by the next 
 diligence. As for me I am so well that after a wash and 
 dress we saunter out together to explore Blidah; we 
 listen to a firstrate military band on the Square, enjoy 
 unmistakeably good lemonade and coffee at one of the 
 cafes, and do not get back to our rooms till a later hour 
 than usual. We arrange to start for Medeah to-morrow 
 by midday diligence. 
 
 June 12. Up at 4 A.M., and out of doors among the 
 gardens and fields from 7 to 12.30; then to our hotel, 
 packed up, and started for Medeah at 1 P.M. The scenery 
 through which we pass is superb ; we are travelling along a 
 well-arranged military road that will take us through the 
 gorge of the ChifFa into the very heart of the Atlas Moun 
 tains. At first the mountains are to our left, approaching 
 
TO MEDEAH. 57 
 
 us nearer and nearer ; deep chasms appear in the plain, at 
 this season sandy and barren, but in winter the overflowing 
 watercourses of vast torrents. And now we begin to climb ; 
 I can t paint with a pen, and the lovely and stern beauties 
 of the afternoon s drive baffle description. Now we are 
 threading our way amidst forest scenery ; now steep pre 
 cipices, rugged bare rocks, and overhanging cliffs surround 
 us : we pass many little mountain rills alas ! impossible 
 to us just now, though often we longed to have just an 
 hour by their margins, for certainly they are the homes of 
 un-European water-beetles ; and by the side of the road 
 are little bits of water, fringed with ferns and mountain 
 plants. We envied the labourers mending the roads, for 
 they could learn all about the beauties among which they 
 lived ; but for us, stern fate and galloping steeds "and a 
 frantic driver hurried us away from everything, leaving 
 with us only the power to admire, and to covet, and to 
 remember. 
 
 We come to a roadside inn, in the midst of a grateful 
 wood shady and sweet-scented, where we stay a quarter of 
 an hour. Here monkeys are said to abound among the 
 trees ; of course we saw none. I do not know how the 
 others spent their moments; I spent mine in savagely 
 turning over every stone along the road, and was rewarded 
 by a tube-full of Coleoptera that I found lurking beneath 
 them, and got into the coupe again, very hot and as dusty 
 as ever, but well pleased with my success. 
 
 In the evening we arrive at Medeah, and find queer 
 quarters in a strange -looking box of an hotel in the midst 
 of the little town. 
 
 June 13. Our night has been one of misadventures to 
 
58 MEDEAH. 
 
 each of us : by day we prey upon insects, by night insects 
 prey upon us. We have a splendid invention to resist 
 their attacks, we call it a " flea-bag" simply two thin 
 sheets sewn together round three of the sides, and capable 
 of being drawn up tightly with a strong tape through a well- 
 sewn hem on the fourth : we get into our bags, draw 
 the string tightly round the neck, fasten it from the inside, 
 and if we are cunning we are safe, except on neck and 
 face ; but here, alas ! whole squadrons of light cavalry 
 assail us, and they find their way through the creases of 
 my tightly drawn bag ; they prevent sleep, they promote 
 fever and thirst, and in the morning offer themselves an 
 inglorious prey to my righteous wrath. In other words, 
 the hotel we had found was very dirty and uncomfortable ; 
 and so (for it may have been on this account ; if so, reason 
 enough) Gray returned this morning to Algiers and the 
 luxury of a clean home on board the Miranda/ leaving 
 me behind him to revenge myself by a day s work in the 
 mountains among the beetles, and to brave the night 
 attacks of the tenants of the hotel once more. 
 
 I was out working in the lanes and fields for twelve 
 hours that day, and got home so tired that I could enjoy 
 a bad supper and slept through everything. Among 
 small adventures that befell me, I must tell you of one. 
 I saw a little stream at a distance crossing the road, 
 and made for it as being a fitting place for luncheon 
 &c. ; when I got to the trees whose shade I was seeking, 
 I found another occupant, a swarthy Mussulman ; and as 
 I came up, the poor man was on his knees saying his 
 prayers and bowing every now and then his body to the 
 earth as he believed, towards Mecca, but, as I know, to- 
 
TO ALGIERS. 59 
 
 wards Paris. Of course I waited till he had finished, and 
 then went up to him and made friends by giving him a 
 cigar and a light and a strip or two of orange. I wonder 
 whether you might not walk all England through without 
 ever finding a Christian thinking in this way more of God 
 than man, and caring nothing for bystanders, saying his 
 daily prayers " as he did aforetime ! " My fellow traveller 
 went his way; I filled my bottles before I got home, 
 and was well satisfied with the result of the day s work. 
 
 June 14. A very long day s journey back again to 
 Algiers by the same route : Gray met me at the diligence- 
 office, with a couple of his crew, for my traps, and I got 
 on board the yacht safe and well before dark ; and now, 
 having looked at the neighbourhood of Algiers and run 
 across the plain to the Atlas, we propose to leave to 
 morrow morning for somewhere : Gray, with the help 
 of his captain, has to-day settled all necessary business 
 as to stores and ship^s papers, and there is nothing to 
 detain us. 
 
 June 15. Up anchor at daybreak for the west; we 
 propose to visit Oran, another seaport of Algeria. But at 
 breakfast time we are hardly out of the harbour ; there is 
 something to detain us after all want of wind! The 
 whole of the day we are tossing about in the bay a very 
 hot day, and, because we are restless, an uncomfortable 
 one. At 11 P.M., when I went to bed, Algiers lighthouse 
 bore S.S.E., just eight miles off! 
 
 June 16. Very rough and stormy; wind right ahead 
 and plenty of it : the yacht rides like a duck ; but even 
 ducks must get rather damp in such wind and waves as 
 these ! 
 
60 TO GIBEALTAK. 
 
 I am pretty well, not at all sea-sick ; but I like being on 
 deck and being blown upon and pelted by the spray 
 rather than being below and partaking of the gymnastics 
 of this eccentric cabin. As for Gray, he sometimes comes 
 and sits by me on deck in his waterproof, but most 
 obviously solely for the sake of good fellowship, and not in 
 the least driven from below by any straits of stomach ; he 
 proposes a pipe as a change, or he suggests sherry and 
 soda-water in the tipsy cabin, or he reports the reckoning 
 of the vessel, and then goes back again to his occupation, 
 whatever it may be, below, caring little or nothing for the 
 hurly-burly. It is only Gray and flies, or creatures accus 
 tomed to walk with their heads downwards, that can enjoy 
 life below deck when every minute or so the side of the 
 cabin suddenly becomes the ceiling, and the floor a per 
 pendicular plane ! 
 
 At noon, lat. 36 48 N., long. 2 20 E. 
 
 June 17. Calm all day, not a breath of wind, the reef- 
 points rattling on the mainsail with the swing of the 
 vessel. The look-out espied turtle at a little distance 
 asleep on the surface of the water ; our captain had in no 
 time the smaller boat over the side, and managed to 
 capture three of them : the shells were about two feet 
 long. At once every one speculates as to the possibility 
 of turtle-soup and the capacities of the cook. One of the 
 creatures is forthwith killed, to be the basis to all on 
 board (cabin and forecastle) of a grand feast to-morrow. 
 The shell is to go to the gardener at Gray s cottage at 
 Hythe, as a decoration and a memorial ; so says the Cap 
 tain, the gallant captor of the beast. 
 
TO GIBRALTAR. 61 
 
 At noon, lat. 36 55 N., long. 5 E. 
 
 June 18. A fair steady breeze at last, which determines 
 us not to stop at Oran, though I should much have liked 
 to have seen it ; for we have already lost so much time 
 by calms. 
 
 N.B. Turtle soup an unmitigated failure, an impossi 
 bility ! The cook is only saved from being anathematized 
 by our remembering that it is not the West-Indian spe 
 cies that he had to deal with a fact which we might have 
 known before ; but, alas ! gastronomic desires too often 
 cloud the reasoning powers, sometimes even on board 
 a yacht ! 
 
 At noon, lat. 36 31 N., long. 35 E. 
 
 June 19. At noon, lat. 36 7 N., long. 2 32 W. 
 
 June 20. At noon, lat. 36 38 N., long. 3 45 W. 
 
 June 21. To-day we are again becalmed; small puffs 
 of air come and make us hopeful, and then leave us; 
 we are within sight of Malaga, but cannot reach it; 
 we can beat everything in the shape of a ship that has 
 come across us, and can almost go ahead in a calm, but 
 not quite; so Malaga is still beautiful in the horizon. 
 Gray wants to be at home soon ; but so long as this calm 
 lasts, unless some one will get out and push behind, it s 
 little good looking into the future and wanting anything. 
 * * * * * 
 
 Sunday morning, Gibraltar. 
 
 Just anchored in the harbour : we are going on 
 shore to service at the Cathedral, and to post or 
 leave this and other letters with the Consul : we stay 
 here till to-morrow, wait till the market is open to 
 secure fresh provisions, and then set sail for Tangiers, 
 
62 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 where I hope to find letters from you, and thence pro 
 bably sail direct for Cowes ; so this may be the last letter 
 you receive from me before you hear of our return to 
 England again. Please to have all letters &c. sent to 
 me to Mr. Gray s at Hythe. The probability is that I 
 shall leave Gray and the yacht at Southampton, and make 
 my way at once to London and Harmston : I want to see 
 you all again very much. 
 
 As to the future, to which some of your letters refer, 
 I do not write about it, though it is a subject often in my 
 mind; I hope to have soon an opportunity of talking 
 matters over with you. Somebody suggests the Punjab, 
 to join Robert, and try missionary work among the Sikhs. 
 No; that won t do, I think; for, first, though I should 
 cordially rejoice in getting near to my brother, there 
 are other points which might not be so certain. I don t 
 say that I should lament such a transplantation as a 
 calamity ; but the question would be very doubtful ; and 
 then, again, I am not good at learning languages, and 
 much time would be spent in the drudgery of grammars, 
 and perhaps lost. 
 
 Let me say that it has often occurred to me that some 
 of you at home may a little over-estimate missionary " 
 work generally, and exaggerate the self-sacrifice which 
 it involves. To my mind a clergyman, a teacher, is 
 under all circumstances a clergyman, a teacher : if he 
 is right-minded he cannot be less; under any cir 
 cumstances he cannot be more. An English curate is 
 a home missionary; a foreign missionary is an English 
 curate abroad : there can be no distinction. The con 
 trast between different sorts of English clerical work at 
 
GIBRALTAR. 63 
 
 home (e.g. town and country) is infinitely more striking 
 than any contrast that can be raised between home and 
 foreign clerical work: if there be a difference, and the 
 difference is to be measured by sacrifices and self-denial,, 
 I believe the superiority would be, as a rule, with the 
 English curate. In almost every detail which is supposed 
 to confer human happiness the young clergyman abroad 
 has the advantage over the young clergyman at home : 
 his salary is greater (if at least our home specimen is a 
 curate) ; he has the advantage of changes of scene, of 
 varied climate (in no cases worse than that which the 
 merchant or soldier undergoes, and undergoing comes 
 back to spend a green old age at home), of knowledge of 
 men and manners, of the ripeness of experience to be 
 attained only by travelling and intercourse with many 
 men of many minds, and, last though not least, of com 
 parative ignorance of, and hence less anxiety about, his 
 people among whom he has to minister. The only dis 
 advantage to be set off against all these is his comparative 
 distance from his own relations; this I acknowledge 
 would be a great trial to me, although as I think of it 
 and the infrequency of intercourse often among members 
 of a family in England voluntarily, merely because the 
 intercourse might be frequent and " any time is no time," 
 I fancy that this is a trial which I exaggerate. With 
 regard to clerical usefulness, the approximation to the 
 Scriptural standard of a minister, and the opportunities 
 of devotion to his work, at least the two are on a level. 
 
 I write this because I have fancied that in one of your 
 letters you touched upon the idea that a broad line really 
 existed between the two, as if the one were morally as far 
 
64 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 above the other as ecclesiastically a bishop is above a 
 deacon. Just think this over again, please. Suppose that 
 I were to become a curate abroad (i.e. a missionary), I 
 should not myself change, like a grub into a gorgeous 
 butterfly, or a mud-loving tadpole into a full-blown frog ! 
 but I should be just the same as I am now, with no more 
 hopes and fears, with no greater inducements to self- 
 imposed toil, with no better opportunities for usefulness, 
 but simply with greater means and capacities for en 
 joying the innocent enjoyments that life gives than I 
 ever have had before. 
 
 I am, my dear Father, 
 
 Your very affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
TO TANGIERS. 65 
 
 R.Y.S. Miranda. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 I resume the epitome of my Journal, although you 
 will not get this letter till our arrival in Southampton 
 Water. We are travelling very slowly homewards very 
 slowly because of calms ; it is absolutely a fortnight since 
 we left Algiers. 
 
 Although yacht life is incomparably superior to every 
 other mode of travelling, there is just one drawback to it. 
 It is private and permits a retired life (which no pas 
 senger steamer ever does) ; it is in every climate a real 
 English Home, always waiting and looking pleased to 
 receive its occupants; clean and pure and bright, in 
 whatever nastiiiess of peoples or of waters it may 
 find itself, by it you enjoy the perfection of God s 
 scenery with the perfection of man s civilization; and 
 then the whole sea is to it one highway, one is not 
 cribbed between walls as in land travelling, or tied to 
 time as in railroads or diligences, but free to go just 
 when and how and where you like ! It is the ne plus 
 ultra of travelling ! And yet, as I said, there is one 
 drawback. There is no place or opportunity for ex 
 ercising one s limbs : the cabin of course is too small 
 for pedestrianism, though amply large enough for all 
 sedentary and otiose purposes ; the deck is required for the 
 management of the vessel, and the whole of its amidships 
 is taken up by the boats, which always are stowed in 
 board on reaching the open sea : the only exercise I can 
 
66 TO TANGIERS. 
 
 take is by going up and down the companion stairs, and 
 changing my position from standing to sitting or sitting 
 to standing*] sometimes I would give anything for a 
 good fagging walk. I have wanted to climb the shronds 
 and attempt gymnastics with the yardarm bnt tins only 
 in my heart, for I feared to come to grief and become 
 a langhing-stock to the sailors. 
 
 The weather has been on the whole fine indeed far 
 too fine. I like a gale of wind much better than a calm, 
 when the sea is as motionless as the sky, and everything 
 seems half dead ; then you see the mate hitching up his 
 trousers, and the men obviously chewing tobacco, and the 
 captain sedulously whistling to himself, invoking the winds, 
 and looking (if you catch him at it) as if he never meant 
 it and it were somebody else ; and the steersman has that 
 dreamy far-off look into the horizon as he listlessly sways 
 himself with the motion of the tiller, I know he is 
 thinking about the bairns at home ; and two of the crew 
 are snoozing in the sail-room, I find them out by their 
 snores. The only happy men on board are the cook and 
 the steward ; for they are as busy as ever ; come storms or 
 calms, men must eat and drink and be cared for. But 
 in running across the Straits of Gibraltar we had a 
 regular spanking breeze. We wanted specially to go to 
 Tangiers in quest of letters ; the gates of the town would 
 be closed at sunset, and afterwards no boats allowed to 
 land: we could not leave Gibraltar before 2 P.M., and 
 had a very rapid current all against us, and nearly forty 
 miles of it ; however, the wind was on our side, we put 
 her nose in the right direction, got the square sail on and 
 every stitch the little thing could carry. She behaved 
 
TANGIERS. 67 
 
 beautifully, danced over the seas or cut through the 
 waves as if she were running for a Cowes cup ; we did at 
 least ten knots an hour without any stopping to take 
 breath. She splashes away the crests of the waves as 
 easily as a good hunter goes through the top of an old 
 fence, gracefully curtseying to each big wave as she 
 advances, " stooping to conquer/ just like other beauties 
 in other breezes. Of course every one is on deck en 
 joying the race against time, and of course every one gets 
 thoroughly wet : everything from stem to stern above 
 deck is dripping with sea-water ; for the Miranda means 
 to be there in time, and life like this is serious work to 
 her, she never can have enough of fighting when she is 
 in the humour. 
 
 Well, we arrived in time ! The lifeboat took us through 
 an angry surf; there was no pier or landing-place to be 
 seen, so we jumped out anyhow into the centre of a great 
 crowd of Moors, who wondered, I have no doubt, what 
 manner of beings we were, who came in the thick of a 
 storm and so unceremoniously landed in their midst. 
 We had just half an hour; the crew kept in the boat 
 and backed her off from the shore, for we were not sure 
 of our natives ; and we, finding an extempory guide (who 
 blasphemed in English but did everything else in Moorish, 
 and who was therefore perfectly qualified for his work), 
 rushed off to the Consul s, and found (alas, that I should 
 have to say so) no letters at all ! Either my letters to 
 you or yours to me have utterly gone astray. For the 
 moment we were dejected, and felt that life was a vanity; 
 but Gray, after one moment was over, bethought himself, 
 " Let us go and see Mrs. Ashton ! " Who Mrs. Ashton 
 
 F2 
 
68 TANGIERS. 
 
 was, or what Mrs. Asliton was doing among turbaned 
 unbelievers, I could not conceive ; but we went. She is a 
 decent homely sort of body, Scotch, who keeps an hotel or 
 a caravanserai, or whatever a place of refuge for man and 
 beast is called here. She chattered at us incessantly, 
 praised herself and her house and the town, was heartily 
 glad to see us and to air her English, and coaxed Gray 
 into accepting (which, of course, meant buying for ten 
 times its value) a bottle of most villanous wine : what 
 possessed him I can t conceive, for we had, as I knew, 
 plenty of vinegar on board, and I had heard no whispers of 
 the wine-bins getting low. We took possession of this pre 
 cious souvenir, and then went to a fancy shop (a charming 
 place to spend half an hour in) and bought Barbary Morocco 
 cushions : I longed to buy a pipe. We got back to the 
 shore with our guide, who filled the air all the way with 
 cursing, solely for our gratification as Britons. The gates 
 were just closing; the boat paddled in to us, and we 
 waded out to the boat, safely encountered the surf, and 
 w r ere in a few minutes again on deck and at home. 
 Gray has a conference with Captain Dyer ; it is arranged 
 that we jog easily on to Lagos during the night; and then 
 we went below, changed all our clothes, had tea with a 
 dash of brandy in it, and a nightcap afterwards, and were 
 none the worse, but all the better for our adventures : 
 Gray had his bottle of vinegar, and I my material for 
 my journal. 
 
 June 25. Anchored early in the morning off Lagos 
 (coast of Spain). A heavy sea and an ugly-looking white 
 margin of surf! We waited an hour or two to sec 
 whether the barometer were going up or down; it was 
 
CORUNNA. 69 
 
 creeping slowly but assuredly down : so to land seemed 
 impossible ; it would not be safe for any boat to attempt 
 it in a surf like that ; better far to lose no time, but up 
 anchor and get out to sea, and make all safe if a storm 
 should be coming this way. 
 
 July 1. We landed yesterday at Corunna, merely to 
 take in fresh beef and mutton, vegetables, &c. We get 
 on indeed very slowly ; early this morning we got under 
 weigh from Corunna, and are now (ten o clock at night) 
 well within sight of the lighthouse, having sailed just 
 about half a knot an hour : at this rate it will take us 
 another fortnight to get to England. 
 
 July 5. Oh, these dreadful calms ! Since July 1 we 
 have never done more than twenty miles a day ; yesterday 
 there was a wind right ahead, with a nasty hollow swell of 
 the sea, which made me feel uncomfortable; so I did 
 nothing all day but endure existence. This morning it is 
 again almost perfectly calm, and the vessel is quite steady 
 enough to enable me to write at my ease. I hope it may 
 be as fine as this to-morrow ; then, I think, we can have 
 morning prayers on deck. The rattling of the reef-points 
 is incessant, scores and scores of them are knotted on the 
 stretched surface of the sails, and as the vessel heaves to 
 the right or to the left with the swell of the sea they 
 every one of them rattle and chatter like the hoarse 
 deep twitterings of a huge flock of sparrows in autumn 
 time all gathered for a talking-match in the Harmston 
 shrubbery; only our Miranda sparrows talk morning, 
 noon, and night, are most unmusical, weary instead of 
 please, and we can^t drive them away. 
 
 It is curious to notice the very marked difference of 
 
70 TO COWES. 
 
 temperature as we get northwards, and the power of 
 acclimatizing that our bodies possess. We have been 
 basking in warm climates only for two months ; and yet 
 that short time has so seasoned us to heat that we quite 
 feel the least approach to more moderate warmth, and ac 
 cuse it as being cold. The thermometer now ranges about 
 seventy degrees, a very decent and respectable tempera 
 ture : in England you would call it mild, or some of you 
 perhaps even warm ; and yet, contrasted with an African 
 climate, it seems to us so chilly that I have begun to wear 
 woollen shirts, and have looked out all my warmest clothing. 
 The musquito-net has been most useful in several ways, 
 in this the last : I have been tormented night and day 
 with a little species of black fly, smaller than the mus- 
 quito, which swarmed when we were off Spain, and bit me 
 even through stockings : it has only just left the vessel. 
 I do not know the name of the little imp ; I wish I did, 
 for it ought to be recorded as representing an intolerable 
 nuisance. My habit always is to sleep with my cabin- 
 door hooked wide open for the sake of ventilation, and 
 these wretches got into the habit of assembling in my 
 cabin every morning, and making an early wholesome 
 breakfast off my juices. However, I stopped their little 
 game at last by pinning up at night across the door the 
 thin net, and then, when I am safely bottled up inside in 
 company with a candle, killing with the towel every black 
 atom that I can discern. The results are at once mani 
 fest comfort of body and a small heap of specimens 
 in the soap-dish every, morning : by half an hour s work 
 at night I secure the great blessings of sound sleep and 
 good air. 
 
TO CO WES. 71 
 
 July 7, Monday evening. After a grand run across 
 the Channel (nine or ten knots an hour all day) we have 
 just sighted the Needles and Hurst-Castle Light. Of 
 course we always catch up everything afloat going our 
 road ; this afternoon it was very interesting to see how 
 we walked into a good-sized brig just in our track. As we 
 came up with her, in the midst of the gale,, our captain 
 hauled in the mainsheet a little, so as to diminish our 
 speed and bring us to the brig s rate of sailing ; we were 
 about twenty-five or thirty yards distance from her, side 
 by side, and then Captain Dyer and her captain set to 
 and had a regular contest in shouting; I have not an 
 idea of what they said ; I hope they had ; but Captain 
 Dyer seemed relieved as to his mind. He must have 
 been pretty well exhausted ; it was as good to him as a 
 stiff run uphill for a couple of hundred yards. He eased 
 off the mainsheet again, and we jumped ahead at once, 
 the envy of that brig s crew. 
 
 We shall probably get to the old anchorage off Cowes 
 about midnight, and go ashore to-morrow morning, when 
 I shall post this at the club-house. I hope we shall both 
 be on shore at Hythe to-morrow night ; and if so, this is 
 my last night on board the good yacht ( Miranda/ I am 
 eagerly expecting letters from you. I am perfectly well 
 and robust, better in health I suppose than I have been 
 for years ; but it is dreadfully cold : I feel the change of 
 the temperature much. It has been raining all day in 
 the old English fashion; we are sure we are getting 
 nearer home; leaden skies and dribbling indolent rain 
 can only be found in perfection like this in northern lati 
 tudes ; everything is damp, and everything feels chilly. 
 
72 
 
 COWES. 
 
 It is our last night on board; Gray orders in hot water 
 and tumblers and sugar; black bottles, too, appear. We 
 congratulate each other on the perfect success in every 
 detail of our trip, fight some of our battles over again, 
 and drink to the health of all at home, to the success of 
 Entomology, and to the prospects of some second expe 
 dition together in some other direction. The crew in the 
 forecastle too are not forgotten, but have material sent 
 them for big bowls of hot punch. 
 
 July 8. We got to Cowes, all well, last night, and 
 anchored in the dark in the midst of a fleet of yachts. 
 I hope to be with you very shortly. 
 
 Always your affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
TO LISBON. 
 
 Roy. Steam Nav. Corap. S. 
 < The Tyne, Bay of Biscay, 
 Wednesday, Nov. 12, 1856. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 As far as I know I am the first among the passengers 
 to put pen to paper. I have seen no one attempting it yet, 
 partly of course on account of sea-sickness, but partly on 
 account of the more than usually rough weather. I am 
 most happy to find that even in bad weather I have a 
 chance of being free from illness, thanks perhaps to my 
 Miranda experiences ; at all events I have not had 
 since I came on board a single moment s sickness or uneasi 
 ness j in fact I am much better than Gray is. As for the 
 other passengers, I certainly have not seen half of them, 
 except just for an hour as we steamed down Southampton 
 Water ; but, to make up for not seeing them, I can hear 
 them all day and almost all night long ; meanings, sigh- 
 ings, and all the ominous sounds of sea-sickness assail us 
 everywhere below, in the saloon as we sit there in the in 
 tervals between meals, in cabins behind our seats at table, 
 and in cabins adjoining our own cabins at night sounds 
 not very pleasant at first, till one gets a little accustomed 
 to the novel state of things. 
 
 Of our passengers a few are going to Lisbon among 
 them a Portuguese field-marshal the Duke of somewhere, 
 and his English wife whom he is now taking home for the 
 first time; several passengers for Madeira, all of them 
 English, I believe, and most of them ladies. Our total 
 number of passengers is now about 180; at Lisbon we are 
 
74 TO LISBON. 
 
 to receive some forty or fifty more, Portuguese or Brazi 
 lians, travelling like us to Bio ; at most of the subsequent 
 stations we shall receive as many or more than we lose ; 
 so we have the pleasant prospect of a continued series of 
 sea-sicknesses till we finally land at Bio ! Our crew of 
 sailors is about thirty-five, and engineers and firemen an 
 other thirty-five. I have made acquaintance with the Cap 
 tain quaint, old-fashioned, with plenty of dry humour, 
 plenty too, I guess, of prejudices, and plenty of fire if he 
 chooses to scold. Among the English passengers there 
 are some four or five with whom I am disposed to attempt 
 a further acquaintance : the majority of them are unap 
 proachable, evidently are very shy of my white tie, call 
 me " sir " whenever I speak to them, and are on their best 
 behaviour. I hope to goodness this will wear off, or I 
 shall put on the blackest tie I have, and try what that will 
 do. Several of them are merchants and cattle-owners, 
 going back to their homes at Monte Video and the Plate. 
 There is one clergyman-looking man on board ; I never 
 saw him till this morning, when he just crawled on deck 
 for a moment and then crawled down again. 
 
 Every one says our vessel is a good one ; just what is 
 said of every ship at the beginning of a long voyage by 
 every set of passengers that ever sailed in her. She (that 
 is, ours) is slow and sure, by no means one of the fastest, 
 but roomy and well ventilated ; certainly she walks along 
 as if the pace were no effort to her. She is iron-built, and 
 iron-built vessels they tell me are not so easy as wooden ; 
 every little sea that bangs against her makes her quiver 
 all over ; it may be the peculiar vibrating quality of iron, 
 or it may be that her great length (for the sake of speed) 
 
TO LISBON. 75 
 
 diminishes her strength and solidity. I am writing this 
 at the only place available, at a round table at the end of 
 the saloon close to the ladies cabin - } and here the ship is 
 quivering incessantly, so that it is not easy to write ; and 
 she rolls so deeply from side to side that about every half 
 minute all the windows on one side suddenly become dark 
 ened they are all buried feet below the surface of the 
 sea ! then they emerge and let me go on for another half 
 minute. The ladies saloon, close to me, is crowded with 
 ladies : the English are all quite quiet, reading or working or 
 more probably doing nothing ; there are four or five French 
 girls, supine as to their bodies no doubt, like most of the 
 others, but their tongues are in full vigour ; in tones half 
 querulous, half laughing, they keep up an incessant chatter, 
 making much more noise than all the rest put together. 
 
 I have not yet made out Mrs. ; to-morrow I shall get 
 
 at one of the stewardesses and inquire for her. 
 
 We have just been shipping a whole series of seas be 
 tween decks, and I have been looking at the fun going on 
 forwards. There is on board such an unusual quantity of 
 luggage, that the luggage-compartments in the hold are 
 not large enough, and so the residue is piled in masses six 
 or eight feet high, on the saloon deck between the engines, 
 just opposite the doors used for emptying into the sea the 
 baskets of ashes &c. from the furnaces. One of these 
 doors, probably open too long, let in four or five big seas 
 one after another, and these seas washed bodily one great 
 pile of luggage to the other side of the vessel. The little 
 captain was standing, when I saw him, high and wet in 
 the midst, on an insular packing-case which looked lamen 
 tably like a piano-case ; he shouts and gesticulates to his 
 
76 TO LISBON. 
 
 army of helpers, while the water rushes from side to side 
 as the vessel rolls, carrying with it all trifles of luggage 
 like portmanteaus, and swirling round the heavier islands 
 of cases ; some of the crew set pumps going to get rid of 
 the water, others screw the doors more tightly down, others 
 devote themselves to the luggage and try to repile it : 
 cases marked "to be kept dry" are always the greatest 
 sufferers ; and one especially, containing evidently a harp, 
 consigned to some Bahia firm, has been the particular butt 
 of the mischievous waves for the last five minutes ; this is 
 marked in big capital letters, with two black underlines, 
 " TO BE KEPT VERY DRY." Alas for the lady who sits in 
 her Bahia home, waiting and wishing for her long-expected 
 Erard ! I go away to my writing, selfishly happy that all 
 our traps are safe and far away below. 
 
 Nov. 13, somewhere off Vigo. 
 
 At last we have got across the Bay of Storms and are 
 in comparatively a smoother sea. Now passengers come 
 out more boldly into the daylight, and muster well at 
 breakfast. The passengers, collectively and in detail, in 
 terest me much; it is a very Babel. Many languages 
 you may hear without leaving your seat on deck Por 
 tuguese, and German, and French, and English ; and the 
 languages are not greater contrasts than are the manners 
 and customs of the speakers : we have more pigs on board 
 than in the sty on the forecastle ; and geese are not only 
 forward in feathers, but in the afterpart among the passen 
 gers in broadcloth. The English are by far the best set ; 
 the others are, with exceptions, evidently not fair repre 
 sentatives of the refined of their respective nationalities. 
 
TO LISBON. 77 
 
 This morning we are quite bright and lively; nearly 
 all the ladies are on deck. Of Madeira passengers, many, 
 alas, are wearing respirators, and are wrapped up as if 
 it were winter ; the Duchess all graces and smiles with 
 her devoted bridegroom and her own little devotions to 
 her lap-dog in her arms ; the French girls are all here, 
 with eau-de-Cologne and French manners; and the men 
 of every nation looking their best, improving acquaintances, 
 and trying to be agreeable. There is a splendid specimen 
 of flirtation going on, which seems to be ripening under 
 the increasing heat : an English girl, under the " care " 
 
 of Mrs. who is always ill in her cabin, and a certain 
 
 German are the individuals. 
 
 It is curious to note how quickly on board a steamer, 
 when passengers are compelled to live in each others pre 
 sence nearly every hour of the day, restraint in manners 
 disappears ; it only requires a very few days to effect the 
 change. At first we all are on our very good behaviour, 
 attentively courteous to each other on deck during meals 
 &c. ; but such seems the natural selfishness of our nature, 
 that this more refined civility quickly vanishes. Of course 
 it is only outside ; but it is just that sort of outside which 
 makes all the apparent difference between a well-bred 
 gentleman and a selfish clown. Here on board real cha 
 racter crops out unequivocally every day from behind the 
 French polish ; there is much to learn of human nature 
 by the eyes only. Last night card-playing and gambling 
 on rather an extensive scale began in the saloon : some of 
 the English attempted whist ; the gambling seemed to be 
 confined to a set of Brazilians Bio tradesmen as they were 
 described to me, to whom deep gambling is a common 
 
78 TO LISBON. 
 
 pastime. This morning they are playing an innocent- 
 looking game on deck, " Bull/ 3 with leaden disks, some 
 thing like the game of quoits; the game is made the 
 opportunity of plenty of betting. We expect to arrive off 
 the Tagus to-night or to-morrow morning, and at daylight 
 take a pilot on board, so that we shall be at anchor at 
 Lisbon by eight o clock. 
 
 Nov. 14 ; at anchor, Lisbon. 
 
 Soon after midnight we were off Lisbon Rock, blowing 
 off steam, tossing about waiting for a pilot ; at daybreak 
 he came on board and brought us in. We have just gone 
 through the botheration of pratique boat, custom-house 
 boat, and the many official impediments to free travelling. 
 Most happily we are not in quarantine, as everyone ex 
 pected would be the case ; so as soon as breakfast is over 
 Gray and I are going on shore to see what we shall see 
 till 3 P.M., when we start again. We passed the squadron 
 of the English fleet at anchor in the Tagus, saluted the 
 Admiral with dipped ensign, which was returned, the 
 band on board the Flagship playing our national anthem ; 
 the sight and well-known melody stirred our blood, and 
 brought out a genuine English cheer : it did us good to 
 feel that at the capital of a foreign power we were not 
 without manifest evidence of the strength and ubiquity of 
 the British flag. What a grand position England occupies 
 throughout the world ! What an enormous influence is 
 hers for good or for evil ! thus some of us soliloquized 
 and discoursed ; the sight that we saw turned our thoughts 
 into another channel and sent them right back to dear 
 old home. I have no time to tell you passengers gossip ; 
 we have it satis superque, some foolish, some amusing, 
 none specially edifying. 
 
TO LISBON. 79 
 
 The Duchess we have on board is an English lady, a 
 
 widow, whom the Duke of met at Bath ; she clearly 
 
 was much interested in everything (speculating doubtless 
 as to her untried future) as we steamed up the Tagus. 
 This morning the Duke s flag is hoisted at our fore, and 
 the indications of his rank begin to show themselves : 
 boats arrive containing officers in full uniform, eight or 
 ten, come to pay their respects ; then his large barge with 
 eighteen oars, magnificently fitted up, came to take his 
 Duchess and himself on shore : poor lady ! or let me say 
 happy lady ! for we all trust that she may be as happy here 
 as in her old quiet English home. 
 
 This life at all events is most healthy. Reading and 
 writing seem impossible ; I spend much of my time in 
 walking about, especially when the sea is just a trifle 
 rough ; for then the ladies and some of the men are driven 
 below, and there is room for an uninterrupted stretch on 
 deck. 
 
 They say we are sure to have to go through some days 
 quarantine at Rio, as we must touch at places where cholera 
 has been bad and is now only abating ; this is the one 
 little cloud on our horizon. 
 
 We have had several invitations to pay visits, and visits 
 of some duration, to Madeira, Pernambuco, and the Plate : 
 
 we are not likely to avail ourselves of any of them. 
 ********# 
 
 I am now going on shore to deliver this letter at the post- 
 office and then set out to see the lions of Lisbon. I will 
 begin another letter on my return on board. 
 
 Always your affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
80 LISBON. 
 
 < The Tyne, Lisbon, 
 Saturday, Nov. 15, 1856. 
 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 Our letters were posted before eleven o clock, and we 
 had the day before us. Gray was not quite well, so he set 
 out in quest of an English doctor that he had heard of; I 
 got a guide from the English hotel, old, deaf, and most 
 innocent of English, and made him take me to places I 
 had been told to visit. Lisbon is fair-looking as to the 
 exterior, but is very dirty indeed in many of its details ; 
 London is very common-looking on the outside, but can 
 not approach Lisbon in filth. The churches do not re 
 quire much description ; they seem in all Roman Catholic 
 countries to be similar in type gorgeous interiors got up 
 with a taste that at least is not English, with a great deal 
 of showy gilding, with many pictures and looking-glasses, 
 artificial flowers and bright colours : some of the details 
 are really beautiful, but there is far too much of it for 
 simple northern tastes. The worshippers are curiously 
 the same in manner as those that I have noticed elsewhere, 
 profoundly reverent on occasion in outward demonstra 
 tion, with genuflections, semiprostrations, and the like ; 
 but if you more carefully watch their worship, it is quite 
 obvious that their attention is anywhere but with the 
 service : they do what they are taught to do in worship of 
 their Maker, and they do it as well as they know how; 
 the stream never can rise above its fountain, nor a people 
 above its teachers. It is very good for protestant English 
 
LISBON. 81 
 
 to see such sights ; they make us thankful for our clearer 
 perceptions and better knowledge, and we learn, more 
 over, to cultivate a large-hearted charity towards those 
 who oppose themselves to us. We at home, 1 think, often 
 fail here : in our zeal for truth, and our confidence that 
 of all sections of the Church ours is the possessor of the 
 truth in all its aspects, we forget that others are as honest 
 in their zeal and in their confidence and their study of the 
 subject from their point of view as we can be. 
 
 But to go on. The cathedral here disappointed me. There 
 were some little side chapels that were beautiful : I saw 
 one very curious sight ; in one of the cloisters at the back 
 of the cathedral is a long slab of stone or wood, on this 
 are placed at any time any dead bodies whose relatives are 
 unable to afford the cost of a funeral : all dead bodies 
 placed here are buried by the Church. Yesterday there 
 was lying on it such a mite of a baby-corpse; I quite 
 thought at first it was a little doll : it was dressed up in 
 white lace and silk, with a garland and sash of artificial 
 flowers, and painted cheeks and lips ; it was only by taking 
 hold of the hand that I could convince myself that it was 
 real flesh : well, all this was pretty in its way, and, as 
 an index of a certain professed care which this form of 
 religion takes of the body as well as of the soul, in 
 teresting; but my next sight was really amusing, as a 
 remarkable proof of the quaint superstitions that are 
 fostered in the Church of Rome. 
 
 Long ages ago the saint to whom the cathedral is de 
 dicated, and who by the sanctity of his past life gave 
 existence to Lisbon after he had become a corpse, lived 
 and died somewhere on the sea-coast of the country ; after 
 
 G 
 
82 LISBON. 
 
 his death his body remained for some cause unburied; but 
 a flock of ravens discovered it, and, discerning the virtues 
 of the saint, they protected it, and in some unexplained 
 mode floated it down to Lisbon, where it was seen and 
 buried. In recognition of this holy and miraculous act, 
 the devout Church has ordained that these birds shall al 
 ways be inmates of the cathedral ; and there they are now, 
 the descendants of the miracle-workers of old ! firstrate 
 specimens as to the flesh, fat and impudent as only ravens 
 can be, knowing well that nothing but good is in store for 
 them, and looking at visitors as if they wished that they 
 should know it too. This is the tale as told to oe ; the 
 fact is certain ravens, fat, sleek, and tame, are living in 
 the cloisters of the cathedral. * 
 
 As to myself, I am very well ; the whole day is taken 
 up with meals and walking and sleeping and talking; it is 
 not much reading or writing that I can get. 
 
 Monday, Nov. 17. 
 
 Yesterday we had Divine Service on board, I, as the 
 only clergyman passenger, officiating : several Roman Ca 
 tholics, Brazilians, attended, and many English; of the 
 latter, however, not a few, as I am told, absented them 
 selves. We had service on deck under an awning with 
 canvas sides ; everyone seemed attentive, and many made 
 the responses audibly : the middle portion of the vessel 
 was crowded with lookers-on, smoking and commenting in 
 whispers. I offered to have a second service either for 
 wards or in the saloon, but the Captain declined : we had 
 the crew and firemen present (such as were off duty); 
 service was over at 11.30 A.M., as I gave them no sermon; 
 and the rest of the day was spent more like an English 
 
TO FUNCHAL. 83 
 
 Sunday than I had expected; neither card-playing of 
 any sort nor gambling is permitted (indeed absolutely 
 forbidden, as I was told, by the company s rules). The 
 Roman Catholics and some of the Protestants had their 
 newspapers ; but several of the English, I was glad to see, 
 brought their Bibles and Prayer-books out instead of their 
 novels, and read them on deck or in the saloon. 
 
 The Bible Society sends out an agent for Brazil, one of 
 our fellow travellers ; he with his wife and children are 
 about to find a home in Rio Janeiro, he spending his time 
 either in the city and suburbs, or in itinerating in the 
 provinces. He is quite companionable; men are not 
 obliged to agree in everything in order to be pleasant 
 acquaintances : this ought to be so under all conditions of 
 life; at all events it is so when travellers converse and 
 argue away from home. 
 
 The evening was spent in much confusion : about noon 
 we sighted the Desertas, and arrived at Funchal about 8 
 or 9 P.M. ; after firing our cannon as signals several times 
 and sending up rockets and burning blue lights, boats 
 came off from shore and took away all our poor invalids. 
 May better health be soon theirs under these sunny skies ! 
 The ship was not quiet till nearly midnight. 
 
 Of course, in such a crowded varying life as this, I 
 could give you page after page of gossip and anecdote ; 
 but, with all the inclination, I have not the means of writing 
 amply. One idea, however, I will give you, the experience 
 of the last day or two ; it is this, whenever any one having 
 girls to transplant to another country is looking out for 
 some mater familias to whose charge they may be intrusted 
 with comfort during the voyage, let the first (not the 
 
 G 2 
 
84 FUNCHAL. 
 
 second, but the very first) requisite be the sailing -qualities 
 of Madame : she may be most superior, and discreet, and 
 watchful, and anxious to do her duty to her young friends, 
 but all this avails nothing at all if she is unhappily con 
 fined to her berth by sea-sickness. One or two ladies here 
 have been making acquaintances which older and wiser 
 people could see at once were not desirable, by no fault of 
 their own, but by almost pressure of circumstances ; they 
 had only one friend on board, who was taking them to 
 their family in Madeira ; and she is always ill in bed below ; 
 they cannot be for ever with her in her berth : under 
 these circumstances the generality of chance acquaint 
 ances are those which are the least eligible. 
 
 This morning Gray and I and De Mornay, one of our 
 fellow passengers, went on shore. We made friends with 
 the steward over night, were up at 5.30 A.M., got an early 
 breakfast, and had to be on board again by nine o clock, 
 the hour of sailing. We got some beautiful glimpses of Ma 
 deira mountain-scenery, and had (not the least of the ad 
 vantages of our trip) a good steady hard walk of an hour or 
 two. All the roads leading into Funchal seem to be lined 
 with dreary stone walls for miles ; so we could get only 
 glimpses of paradisiacal beauty, and no insects. When we 
 got back to the ship we found on the deck a crowd of men, 
 having pretty inlaid ornaments and other things (as deck 
 chairs) to sell, and around in boats several amateur divers, 
 whom the passengers were enriching by tossing small coins 
 into the water ; they jump in, and catch them long before 
 they get to the bottom. The water is so clear and bright, 
 and the surface so smooth, that we can see their brown 
 bodies some three or four fathoms down. 
 
TO TENERIPFE. 85 
 
 Have I told you our hours on board ? I get up at seven, 
 walk and lounge about till nine the best part of the 
 day for walking-exercise ; at nine breakfast ; from 10 till 
 11.30 the saloon is fairly at liberty for writing; at noon 
 luncheon, then deck again (walking, or reading, or talking) 
 till four, when we dine. At 7 P.M. tea, and bed about 
 ten : all lights are put out soon after. The great dis 
 advantage, or rather the only grievance I can complain of, 
 is the almost total absence of convenience for reading 
 and writing below, except in one s own cabin, which is 
 dark and has no table. The ladies cabin is turned into a 
 nursery, with its noisy 20 or 25 occupants and their bevy 
 of nursemaids ; so the ladies have to join the gentlemen 
 on deck or in the saloon between meals ; thus the saloon 
 is full all day long : between our meals the nurses and 
 children and deck passengers have to get theirs ; so you see 
 it is the headquarters of food, and noise, and smells through 
 out the day. However, I do not mind it : the food is all 
 very good, well cooked, and fairly served ; breakfast con 
 sists of several hot dishes, besides eggs and more trifling 
 adjuncts of marmalades and other Brazilian confections ; 
 at luncheon we have cold meats ; and at dinner almost 
 everything ; yesterday we had on the table, according to 
 the bill of fare, twenty-seven kinds of cooked meat, and 
 puddings, preserves, and fruits in proportion. 
 
 Tuesday, Nov. 18. 
 
 We are now within sight of Teneriffe. If the weather had 
 been clear yesterday, we should have seen it last evening ; 
 the Peak is often visible 150 miles off. We shall arrive at 
 Santa Cruz about noon, 25 hours from Funchal. They 
 
86 TENERIFFE. 
 
 say there is hardly any chance of going ashore. The 
 captain said this morning at breakfast (Gray and I are 
 close to his end of the table, and so get scraps of intel 
 ligence from the fountain head) that he had perfectly clean 
 bills of health from both Madeira and Lisbon, but that 
 his experience was that in nine cases out of ten the Com 
 pany s steamers were not allowed to land through-passengers 
 for a run on shore at this station. How charmingly 
 Spanish ! It reminded us of that most Catholic nation s 
 treatment of us in the Bay of Malaga last spring. The 
 view of the island, anyhow, is splendid : we are now 
 about thirty miles off; and the grand Peak towers up to 
 heaven, above two separate banks of clouds, about tAvelve 
 thousand feet high. The weather is fine, and has been so 
 all the voyage ; the temperature is not at all oppressive, 
 not so hot as it sometimes is in England ; but for the last 
 two days the weather has been cloudy. 
 
 I shall post this at Saint Vincent, and not here at Santa 
 Cruz ; for they say that these idiotic Spaniards fumigate 
 and splash letters without mercy. The Portuguese are 
 better, and have more rational notions about infection, 
 though they are bad enough. 
 
 Wednesday, Nov. 19. Teneriffe. 
 
 At noon yesterday we passed close along the shore, which 
 seems (as seen through our telescopes) dry, barren, and 
 almost entirely uncultivated, except where the cactus is 
 cultivated as a pabulum for the cochineal-insect, now (and 
 since the terrible grape-disease) an important article of 
 commerce. About 2 P.M. we arrived at Santa Cruz, a 
 clean-looking little town on the coast, where Nelson lost 
 
TENER1FFE. 87 
 
 his arm, A.D. 1797, and where in the churches several 
 British colours are still to be seen, a memorial to this 
 generation of the visit of his fleet. 
 
 Most of us had arranged to go on shore, Mrs. 
 
 and De Mornay to buy Teneriffe wine, the latter having a 
 wine-introduction, Gray and I for something far less 
 venturesome, a ride up the country, others to make pur 
 chases of different sorts. But it was just as the Captain had 
 predicted ; we were in quarantine ! No single passenger 
 was allowed to set foot on this inhospitable shore, and all 
 because our papers from Lisbon (in every respect perfectly 
 regular and complete in themselves) had not been vise by 
 the Spanish Consul: we had clean bills of health from 
 everywhere ; there was no single person on board with a 
 shadow of an illness ; and yet, for what might have been 
 an informality perhaps, they kept every one on board, and 
 prevented the tradespeople of Santa Cruz receiving some 
 50 or so in gold in the way of business ! If you want a 
 good, continuous lesson in patience, go and live among the 
 Spaniards ; whatever their blue blood may have taught 
 them, it has not taught them the simplest rudiments of 
 political economy. 
 
 But, if man is vile," it is only man : everything else 
 seems full of beauty and interest. As to the scenery, 
 among those mountain-slopes it must be splendid. Hum- 
 boldt, who had travelled over some of the most glorious 
 regions of the globe, said that even he had seen nothing 
 finer*. In the botany of the islands there is very much 
 
 * " Under the torrid zone I found sites where nature is more ma 
 jestic and richer in the display of organic forms ; but after having tra 
 versed the banks of the Orinoco, the Cordilleras of Peru, and the most 
 
88 TENERIFFE. 
 
 indeed of special interest. In the first place, there is the 
 grand Peak itself, so high that several sorts of vegetation, 
 each entirely different from its neighbours, are met with 
 at the several altitudes on its slopes (as it were in great 
 zones or belts), offering the greatest possible variety to the 
 botanist, and all within the limits of a few hours ride. 
 At the foot of the Peak, on the lowest slopes, is a climate 
 in its most sunny parts hotter than Northern Africa; 
 here the sugar-cane and banana and the date-palm will 
 grow, and that wonderful dragon-tree, the most indigen 
 ous of all indigenous trees at this our epoch of the world s 
 history. Then comes a region with heat equal to that of 
 the South-European climate, where the vine flourishes, or 
 once flourished ; and then (about 4000 feet high) comes 
 the region of laurels and other trees. At this altitude it 
 is always damp ; clouds gather here nearly every day, and 
 thus vegetation is rank and luxuriant ; here, too, are 
 found the lovely ferns of Teneriffe. Then come the regions 
 of heaths and brooms, then of lichens, then of bare dry 
 rock and cinder. Seven hundred different species of Ca- 
 narian plants are known to botanists, of which one-fifth at 
 least are indigenous. The insects have been hardly looked 
 at ; but with such a fauna it will be strange if a good 
 worker cannot make a truly interesting list of. Coleoptera : 
 would that I could be that worker ! 
 
 But the greatest wonder of the island is the far-cele 
 brated dragon-tree, certainly one of the oldest, if not quite 
 the oldest, living inhabitant of this globe, an object of 
 
 beautiful valleys of Mexico, I own that I have never beheld a prospect 
 more varied, more attractive, more harmonious in the distribution of 
 the masses of verdure and of rocks than the western coast of Teneriffe. " 
 
TENERIFFE. 89 
 
 veneration (as tradition reports) to the former race of men 
 that inhabited the island. It measures round the base of 
 the trunk about eighty English feet, and now is quite hollow 
 from age. The isolated geographical locality of the tree 
 is as remarkable as its vast age : how it ever got to 
 Teneriffe is one of the puzzles which has (like every other 
 puzzle of nature) a solution, and which will be revealed 
 some day to the truth-loving, self-denying student of 
 nature*. 
 
 I have heard a good deal about the terrible grape-disease, 
 the " Oidium," which so utterly devastated Madeira and 
 Teneriffe a year or two ago : in Madeira especially the 
 ruin of vineyard-proprietors is complete; and it would 
 seem to be almost without hope of recovery in this genera 
 tion. I was struck by a remark that one man, who evi 
 dently knew the subject, made : he said, " Some day or 
 other the poison of the disease will have died out ; plants 
 will grow, and grapes will be produced just as heretofore; 
 but not probably in our time. Then, however, from what 
 ever stock the young vines may come, the civilized world 
 
 * I have just seen a very interesting paper by the Rev. R. T. Lowe, 
 " On the Fruits and Vegetables of Madeira/ &c., in which he says 
 that the Dragon-tree (Draccena Draco) is by no means confined to 
 Orotava, or exclusively indigenous even in Teneriffe. * It is per 
 fectly indigenous in each of the three groups of islands. It is found 
 wild still on the sea-cliffs of the Madeiran, and on the higher moun 
 tain-crags of the interior of the Canarian and Cape Verde islands ; and 
 in all it is often planted here and there in gardens or near houses, 
 though little or no use is now made of its medicinal gum (Dragon s- 
 blood). " The same paper reports on the present condition of the 
 vines in Madeira, after the ravages produced by the Oidium, and the 
 progress of the cultivation of cochineal in the Canaries. (Journ. Royal 
 Horticultural Society, 1867, vol. ii. p. 161.) 
 
90 TENERIFFE. 
 
 may be sure of getting the real old Madeira wine once 
 more. The quality of wine depends always and absolutely 
 on the locality in which the vineyards are cultivated,, 
 not on the stock whence the young trees are derived. 
 The same vine which in the south of France produces 
 French wines, will, if transplanted to the Cape, produce 
 Cape, to Madeira, Madeira, to Teneriife, Teneriffe wine/ 
 This no doubt is true enough of the vine as a general rule ; 
 for we know it to be true of the special characteristics, 
 either good or bad, that always obtain with regard to the 
 more limited wine-producing districts of Europe ; but it 
 is striking and, I think, singular : insects can be trans 
 planted, dogs and cattle, without losing the distinctive 
 specific character that belongs to them in their former 
 home ; even of plants (roses for instance, and many 
 English garden-flowers) many can be transplanted so as 
 to become acclimatized and the constituents of English- 
 looking gardens in New Zealand and Australia. 
 
 Now that we are well away from those inhospitable 
 islands the weather is quite fine and sunny, and the sea 
 perfectly calm; we travel along night and day at the con 
 stant rate of ten knots an hour, and all the time without 
 any unpleasant rolling or tossing of the vessel this much 
 to our personal comfort; for now the saloon- windows, 
 which till we got to Madeira were carefully screwed and 
 panelled up, are opened wide, admitting pure fresh air into 
 the saloons and cabins. There is plenty of amusement on 
 board to any one who cares for it : last night we were 
 invited to a mild champagne supper to be given shortly 
 by the Admiralty agent in his cabin, six or eight ladies, 
 and, of the men, the captain, De Mornay, Gray, and myself ; 
 
TO ST. VINCENT. 91 
 
 we thought it better to decline; we shall see nobody 
 whom we don t see twenty times every day, and perhaps 
 whom we are already almost tired of seeing. 
 
 Everything on board is very clean; no insect-pests 
 plague us, no mice or rats, nothing but a few cockroaches, 
 who are made bold by the warmth of the temperature, 
 and are no annoyance whatever. 
 
 We have few " sensations" or subjects of excitement on 
 board ; yesterday we had one, which I describe just to 
 show how fidgetty and unbalanced the minds of even sen 
 sible men may easily become by the irritating monotony 
 of a voyage, and how small a cloud will then make a big 
 storm. 
 
 Hitherto during the voyage smoking has been allowed 
 on all parts of the deck, aft as well as forward ; and cer 
 tainly there has been plenty of it. One of our English 
 passengers, who has a delicate wife, complained of this to 
 the captain ; and so a notice has been posted up this morn 
 ing setting apart certain parts of the vessel only for 
 smokers, and forbidding smoking abaft the engines; the 
 officer of the watch is charged with the carrying-out of 
 the rule. But how intensely indignant is every one on 
 the subject ! It is a real tempest, although in a tea-cup ! 
 the poor gentleman is sent to Coventry; notwithstand 
 ing that even some of the smokers admit, like myself, 
 the arrangement to be an improvement, inasmuch as there 
 is abundance of room forward, and now it is possible to 
 sit on deck without the imminent risk of being half stifled 
 by villanous Brazilian tobacco : I have no doubt the old 
 system will obtain again very shortly; in the meantime 
 our poor fellow-passenger is cut by some, and reviled or 
 
92 
 
 TO ST. VINCENT. 
 
 laughed at to his face by others; of course I have 
 nothing to do with the matter either on one side or the 
 other. 
 
 A dance on deck ! this is another, even a still greater 
 sensation : the young ladies from Brazil have sent a 
 deputation with their compliments to the captain, peti 
 tioning that on an early evening the after-deck may be 
 made over to them. Of course our old captain smiled his 
 brightest smiles, and offered them the whole ship and her 
 commander too ! everything was at the service of such 
 passengers as he had the privilege of conducting across the 
 water ! At once the passengers, young and old, ladies 
 and gentlemen, are in a bustling semi-feverish condition : 
 the ball is to be to-night ; some are engaging partners, 
 some are helping the sailors to rig up a ball-room on deck^ 
 some are decorating it with flags ; the ladies are deep in 
 consultation among themselves. We are all very much like 
 grown-up babies on board the Tyne/ angry with nothing, 
 made happy by nothing ! 
 
 We have now for some time been in the tropics : the air 
 is sensibly warmer, although, owing to the trade- winds, 
 by no means oppressive; in our cabin the thermometer 
 has never been higher than 75, not at all hotter than an 
 ordinary summer day in England, indeed not so hot. In 
 a week or so we are to have it 95 in the saloon : I don t 
 know how I shall stand that, but I am preparing for it by 
 not changing at present any of my ordinary English 
 clothes for lighter ones. I often think of you all in 
 England shivering in the cold fogs and rains of November, 
 while we are basking every day in sunshine, and enjoying 
 the most delightful weather never too hot, never rain, no 
 
TO ST. VINCENT. 93 
 
 dews at night, just cool enough late in the evening to 
 suggest a cloak or extra wrap on deck. 
 
 We are now looking forward to arriving at our next 
 halting-station, St. Vincent; we both are hoping to be 
 able to find out something of the entomology of the 
 island, if only three or four new species -, for of that group 
 of islands nothing is known, and everything will be of 
 interest. 
 
 We have to take 150 tons of coal on board. On the 
 island there are a dozen English labourers sent out by the 
 last mail with an officer, and besides these there are the 
 natives, who may be all dead with cholera ; no one can 
 tell till we get there ; so there is every probability that we 
 shall remain at anchor during one whole day. 
 
 After St. Vincent comes the longest part of the voyage, 
 the run across from St. Vincent to Pernambuco, which 
 will take seven or eight days, thence in less than two 
 days to Bahia ; then three days more only, and we arrive at 
 Rio and take final leave of our fellow-passengers bound 
 for the Plate. 
 
 I find that the letters of introduction which I had from 
 Liverpool are all of them good ones ; all the firms are 
 first class : it may be that we shall not use them ; but it is 
 a satisfaction to have the power of getting assistance in 
 one s possession, if ever such should be necessary. 
 
 There are the most magnificent ideas of us both among 
 the passengers : we are to travel across the continent of 
 South America, to remain abroad for three years, to 
 achieve wonders of travels in Peru ! and goodness knows 
 what other lands, and, finally, to, return home and be 
 
94 TO ST. VINCENT. 
 
 famous ever after. We have had a good laugh at our 
 sudden elevation. 
 
 I have just heard what is the daily butcher s bill to the 
 company for our food : we are on board, passengers and 
 crew, about 260 persons. To sustain life and strength, 
 every day are killed, as I am informed, one ox, one or two 
 sheep, one pig, geese and ducks ad lib. Our commissariat, 
 at all events (whatever may be the accuracy of this bill of 
 fare), is well arranged. I have one great grievance against 
 the company, and only one ; and as it is felt by all the 
 English more or less, I will mention it, though I do not 
 know that the company could help matters : fellowship at 
 the meals in the saloon is of course determined by equa 
 lity of rates of passage-money; i. e., all first-class pas 
 sengers live together. Among the Brazilians or Portu 
 guese on board there is a large number who, by habit, 
 education, and absence of all refinement, would be much 
 more at home in the forecastle, among the labourers &c., 
 than anywhere else, but who if they have nothing else 
 have wealth ; and so of course they take first-class tickets, 
 and thus take all their meals with us. We have too many 
 passengers, even if all were decently refined : under 
 pleasant circumstances a perpetual crush is not agreeable ; 
 but now, as we are, it is my doom to have to take every 
 meal (one or two other civilized English being near us) 
 in the midst of a set of vile fourth-rate barbarian Por 
 tuguese or Brazilians mechanics they must be, or still 
 more vulgar shopkeepers, who howl at the waiters, 
 greedily seize on every dish before it is put on the table, 
 pile up their own plates with different sorts of food till 
 
TO ST. VINCENT. 95 
 
 the layers of accumulated provisions almost equal in 
 height the diameter of their base, and all the time audibly 
 masticate and bolt down their supplies like dirty puppies. 
 Yesterday we gave them a hint; for really meals under 
 such circumstances were a burden and an apprehension 
 to us ; we deliberately handed to each every dish within 
 our reach, and then ranged the dishes close round their 
 plates elaborately, ordered from the waiters other dishes 
 from a distance, bread, &c., we ourselves all the time 
 remaining without anything whatever on our own plates. 
 After they had helped themselves to every dish handed to 
 them, and had begun to accumulate besides proffered 
 oranges and fruits, the animals attained to a ray of per 
 ception and understood our meaning; the rest of their 
 meal was more seemly ; but pigs of yesterday are pigs 
 to-morrow, " naturam expellas " even by ironically fos 
 tering nature, " tamen usque recurrit" and I fear that our 
 neighbours have very thick as well as coarse skins. But 
 what a pity it is that decent people are victimized by such 
 a bedding together of clean and unclean ! and how simple 
 the remedy appears to be ! 
 
 While I am writing in the saloon at night, at the next 
 table, close to my side, are eight Portuguese or Brazilians 
 gambling over some game of cards : it is a game at which 
 the stakes are so high that 20 or 30 are won or lost in 
 a few minutes. Each of the men has a small heap of gold 
 coin before him : now they are altercating in high tones ; 
 for a moment there is a lull of suspense ; then comes a 
 sudden universal howl or shout as the stakes are swept up 
 by one of the players. This has been going on for an 
 hour, and I leave them at it. 
 
96 TO ST. VINCENT. 
 
 I adjourn on deck for a discussion, by appointment, 
 
 with Mr. , a truly good, narrow-minded Christian 
 
 man. He has been offending many on board by giving 
 them strong tracts on religion, and forcing conversations 
 on religious subjects. I have myself noticed nothing of 
 his obtrusiveness, and rather like him for his sincerity. 
 To-night we are to debate between ourselves whether 
 those who dance (we have just had a ball here) are the 
 victims or the emissaries of Satan and on the highroad 
 to perdition, or not. He has been submitting this view 
 to others, to their displeasure ; he broached it this morn 
 ing to me, and I proposed its consideration between our 
 selves this evening. You know that I cannot dance a bit, 
 nor indeed have I ever to my knowledge even seen any 
 one dance ; but I think I am more than a match for him, 
 and I am sure that his smallness of soul does harm, as 
 must always be the case, to his own cause. 
 
 I post this to you at Saint Vincent s. 
 
 Always your affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
ST. VINCENT. 97 
 
 1 The Tyne, St. Vincent Islands. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 We arrived here in the middle of the night ; after our 
 arrival sleep was impossible, owing to the cessation of noise 
 of the engines and paddles. At daylight I was on deck ; 
 we were anchored in a bay, shut in entirely by volcanic- 
 looking hills : the steward gave us an early breakfast, 
 and then at once Gray and I, with others, went on shore. 
 The town or village is simply a collection of cottages ; I 
 could see no shops whatever, except for the sale of abomi 
 nations in the shape of intoxicating drinks. There are from 
 twenty to tnirty white people on the island, all the rest are 
 either blacks from the African coast, or Mulattos; the 
 only beings we saw as we walked past the rows of cottages 
 were a few very barely clad men and women, a sprinkling 
 of soldiers, and several naked children, all black. It was 
 quite sad and depressing to hear of the great desolations 
 recently caused by the cholera : we went off to the inn 
 or hotel (the hovel does not deserve either appellation), 
 it was shut up ; every one was dead \ Where is the post- 
 office ? shut up ; every one is dead ! A church was being 
 built, but now is without any workmen ; all are dead ! 
 architect, masons, labourers, all are gone. We hear that 
 750, a large proportion of the whole population of the 
 islands, have been swept away by cholera and concomitant 
 diseases during this summer. 
 
 After we had viewed the desolateness of the wretched 
 town, we started for a walk into the country : but country 
 
 H 
 
98 ST. VINCENT. * 
 
 is certainly the wrong name for it ; it is anything but 
 country, nothing but dry sand, or acres after acres of 
 loose stones, till you get to the rock itself. Here and there 
 are a few parched-up plants, and in one of the valleys were 
 a few low bushes ; but we did not see a single tree, and 
 hardly a single flower. The reason is plain, the rainy 
 season is not come, and except in the rainy season no 
 rain falls; and, indeed, there have been times when the 
 island has been without rain for three years together ; 
 that, of course, means failure of all crops, famine, and dis 
 ease. In the ravines they say trees will grow (bananas, 
 canes, &c.) ; and in the ravines, to any one who has the 
 courage to come and explore them, would be found at the 
 proper season nearly all the entomological fauna of the 
 islands. There is nothing here, where we have been work 
 ing ; during the whole day we have not taken more than 
 twenty species among us"*. I worked as hard as I could, 
 but there was hardly anything. If it were possible for 
 these islands to be inhabited by English, it is probable 
 that everything in a few years would be changed. If rain 
 water were stored up and trees planted and watered so 
 as to create a vegetation, these would soon change the 
 climate, attracting clouds and bringing sufficient rain to 
 
 * Since the above was written, Mr. Vernon Wollaston has de 
 scribed the fifteen species of Coleoptera taken by us on this visit in 
 the Annals and Magazine of Natural History/ 1858 and 1861. More 
 recently the Coleoptera and Botany of the islands have been very 
 thoroughly investigated by Mr. Gray, Mr. Wollaston, and the Eev. 
 R. T. Lowe, in Mr. Gray s yacht l Garland. The entomological 
 results, which are highly interesting, are being examined by Mr. Wol 
 laston, and will be published by that gentleman. 
 
ST. VIJSTCENT. 99 
 
 cause fertility : so, at least, I believe ; but with Portuguese, 
 what is must be. 
 
 I went on board again in the middle of the day to get 
 something to eat, for nothing was to be had on shore ; and 
 then had another ramble till six, when the mails were to 
 be on board. 
 
 On Sunday morning the coaling was not completed, and 
 so we are detained here, and the whole vessel is in dire 
 confusion and dirt ; crew and black men and even black 
 women are pressed into the service : but the work will 
 not be completed till nearly noon ; so some eight or ten 
 of us borrow a ship s boat from the captain, and spend an 
 hour or two more on shore. 
 
 Nov. 28, 1856. 
 
 Yesterday we passed the line, and, I am thankful to say, 
 without any absurd folly ; all practical joking is forbidden 
 by the Steam Company. I wish you could see, just for 
 once, the glorious sunsets of these latitudes : I always go 
 on deck for the purpose of admiring and studying them, 
 such a richness of colour, or rather of colours, infinitely 
 richer and more varied in hues than under English skies ; 
 and the clouds are no less singular in their supreme 
 beauty than in their quaint and elegant forms. 
 
 Dec. 1, 1856, off Pernambuco. 
 
 Yesterday morning we cast anchor at Pernambuco, out 
 side the curious reef, which runs for hundreds of miles at 
 a short distance from the line of coast. The ship was a 
 perfect Babel of noise, and hurry, and heat. Gray and I 
 were glad enough to escape from it all for a few hours, 
 shake off the weariness of our long run from Saint Vincent, 
 
 H2 
 
100 PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 and set foot for the first time on American soil. We 
 landed in the midst of some of the vilest stenches that 
 noses were ever subjected to. Gray went off into the 
 town, I walked by myself to a suburb, Olinda, the old 
 town ; the sun was very powerful, but I was defended by 
 a stout umbrella and trudged on. I saw little to repay me 
 for my exertions ; the road lies along a marsh full of 
 mangroves, an ugly shrub of some ten or fifteen feet high, 
 which grows only near the sea or tidal rivers; a more 
 unhealthy-looking tract of country it would be hard to 
 conceive. I walked to Olinda and then walked back again ; 
 no insects of any sort could I find. A small species of crab 
 by millions crowded on the vast expanse of mud- banks : a 
 few splendid flowers were worthy of admiration ; one espe 
 cially compelled notice, a giant convolvulus -looking runner, 
 with flowers as large as a coffee-cup, in colour purple 
 tinted off to exquisite blue ; a single plant extended along 
 the sand for a distance not at all less than in our Harmston 
 croquet-ground, from post to post : for the rest the scene 
 savoured of decay, and musquitos, and pestilence. I got 
 to the landing-place and found Gray. We had a walk 
 through the town, and found very much to admire and 
 learn in the fruit-market, Bananas a hatful for a half 
 penny; pineapples, one mill-rey, or about two shillings, 
 apiece, splendid-looking, fresh, and full of fragrance; mangoes, 
 water-melons ; caju (a fruit like an apple with a nut at the 
 end) worthless ; jaca, an immense affair, as big as a bolster, 
 which grows from the stem of the tree ; farhina, the com 
 mon food of the lower orders, the produce of the Mandioca 
 tree. It is a curious fact that the juice of this tree is 
 most poisonous, but that the dry fibrous residuum that is 
 
PERNAMBUCO. 101 
 
 left when this poisonous juice is pressed out is most 
 nutritious, and a staple article of diet : as yet I have not 
 tasted it myself, although it is on the table every day, and 
 the Brazilians eat it to everything ; it has exactly the ap 
 pearance of sawdust. 
 
 Others of our party took carriages and drove out in 
 another direction into the country round the town ; and, 
 judging from the splendid flowers they brought back and 
 their descriptions of all that they saw, they must have got 
 into beautiful scenery : the idea of " shady lanes " which 
 they discovered and in which they roamed was most 
 tantalizing. 
 
 Last night about eight o clock we had a marvellous 
 escape from what might have been a terrible accident ; it 
 was quite dark, nearly every one was on deck walking and 
 smoking and gossiping, when we heard a shout from the 
 distant forecastle, " Helm hard a starboard \" " Hard \" 
 I was near the helm at the moment, and jumped across 
 with a Frenchman to help to jam the wheel hard up; 
 these big vessels at ten knots or so an hour cause such a 
 pressure against an oblique rudder, that four or even six 
 men are wanted to make the rudder exercise suddenly all 
 its force. Well, we got the helm hard up ; and the 
 moment after we discovered the reason of the sudden 
 order, a schooner with all sail set was on our bows meet 
 ing us, and only just cleared the paddle-box ! I think I 
 never heard such a fearful howl or wail before as that 
 which arose from the deck of that schooner ; there were 
 men s voices and women s voices, and among them all 
 rang out, crisp and clear, an English voice cursing and 
 upbraiding ! The fault was entirely and absolutely their 
 
102 PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 own : they carried no lights, they could have had no look 
 out ; our lamps were brilliant, we saw them long before 
 they saw us, and then as soon as they saw us they put 
 up their helm the wrong way, and there they were right 
 across our bows ! ten seconds later, and we should have 
 cut that vessel right down, and sent her to the bottom at 
 once, without, as the captain said, our own e Tyne J feeling 
 the least concussion ; probably every one on board of her 
 would have been lost. This teaches us two lessons, how 
 thoroughly careless are the captains of many ordinary 
 sailing-vessels, and how safe, humanly speaking, we are, 
 and how well our sailors keep a look-out. 
 
 Dec. 1. The heat is come at last ; I do not think it 
 particularly oppressive, though many on board seem to be 
 quite overcome by it. This morning the thermometer is 
 87 in the coolest shade, and we have no wind and no 
 fresh air, for we are running with, and not against, the 
 wind : people are lying about all over the ship under 
 awnings or any sort of shade, smoking or drinking iced 
 wines, or eating iced fruits. 
 
 Let me show you by an illustration how it is that so 
 many English die of fever, apoplexy, &c., in hot countries : 
 one of our poor sailors was struck down by the sun as he 
 was rowing across Pernambuco harbour; he was laid at 
 the bottom of the boat and brought on board, and has 
 never been conscious since. The doctor tells me that he 
 has bled him, applied ices, and used all means in his 
 power, but that he fears he will never get over it, or 
 indeed last many hours. Certainly the heat was very 
 great that morning, as I found out when walking to 
 Olinda ; but in the open harbour, where there was a brisk 
 
TO BAHIA. 103 
 
 breeze, it could not have been so bad as among mangrove- 
 trees, where there was not a breath of air stirring. On 
 making inquiry into the case, I found that the man was 
 actually rowing all the time bareheaded, without any sort 
 of protection to his head from the almost vertical rays of 
 the sun ! and, moreover, that a short time before, while on 
 shore, he had drunk off a whole quart bottle of porter ! 
 After this, there is no matter for surprise at all in his 
 seizure ; but the incident plainly reminds us of the two 
 great difficulties that English have to contend with in 
 tropical countries, first, they are constitutionally so ob 
 stinate that they persist in English habits of life in a 
 climate that is just the opposite to that of England ; and, 
 secondly, they are so reckless that in order to satisfy the 
 craving for thirst, and to meet the drain that the climate 
 makes on their energies, they will drink to excess intoxi 
 cating liquors, although every one of them has been told 
 often, and knows that strong drinks are in a country like 
 this absolute poison. Since I came on board, I have not 
 once tasted wine, beer, or spirits, except on one occasion 
 a thimbleful of champagne with a fraternizing neighbour. 
 Mr. Gray has abstained also ; and I verily believe that it 
 is mainly owing to this temperance that we both are so 
 well in health (while others have to seek the doctor) , that 
 we feel the heat so little, and that my eyes (after my 
 grievous accident) stand so well the glare of sea and 
 skies. 
 
 At this moment, while I am writing in the saloon, four 
 Brazilian shopkeepers have come down and have called 
 for drink : they have seated themselves next to me. I 
 will tell you the ingredients of their brew : the basis is 
 
104 BAHIA. 
 
 strong black porter, tumblers half full ; to this half tumbler 
 of porter they add two spoonfuls of sugar and a wine-glass 
 (more or less) of neat brandy; they then fill up with 
 water. After they have drunk a couple of tumblers, or 
 perhaps more, of this, they will go on deck again, and 
 complain of the heat ! 
 
 We are both perfectly well in health in every respect ; 
 Gray is certainly much better than when we left England. 
 My one only trouble is lack of suitable clothes, which 
 I must try to supply when I reach Rio. 
 
 Bahia, Dec. 2, 1856. This morning I hear that during 
 the night we were as near as possible running down 
 another vessel, a brigantine, and from the same cause as 
 before, a want of look-out and a want of lights on the 
 part of these ill-found little vessels ; it was our alertness 
 and not their precautions that saved them. Before day 
 break we hove to, and at sunrise entered the bay of All 
 Saints on the shore of which Bahia is situated: at ten 
 o clock all of us went on shore ; Gray and I to the country 
 as soon as possible, after we had delivered two letters of 
 introduction, one to the consul, who most kindly gave us 
 much practical information, the other to Mr. Thomas 
 of the firm of Messrs. Napier of Liverpool : I heard 
 after I had got on board again that this gentleman (whom 
 we did not find at home when we called, and whom neither 
 of us knew personally) actually spent above an hour riding 
 about the town looking for us, although it is packet- day, and 
 to him the busiest day of the month. We were the more 
 sorry that we had been so unfortunate as to miss him for 
 our own sakes, as well as from a regret that we had taken 
 up so much of his valuable time. 
 
BAHIA. 105 
 
 I cannot describe to you the beauties of scenery like 
 this. At some moments I could fancy that we had 
 jumped right out of this dirty world, and found ourselves 
 all at once in the old Hesperides (the islands of the 
 blessed), where the fruits are ever ripe, the sun is always 
 bright, the shadows invite repose, and plants, and birds, 
 and insects, and all created nature the perfection of beauty ; 
 but as for man, as soon as I think of him, I am back 
 again in my natural existence ! These negroes smell so 
 unutterably, and have such vacant incapable faces, and 
 are so devoid of any sort of beauty of feature that they 
 would spoil any landscape, if in the foreground ; at least 
 they spoil this. It is strange to our unsophisticated minds 
 to remember every now and then that we are in a land of 
 slavery, and that all these men and women are so much 
 private property, and may be bought and sold just as you 
 sell your horses or sheep at home. I suppose I shall get 
 used to it, though certainly I shall not invest. The men 
 here, as to physique and build, are fine-looking animals ; 
 their dress trousers and jacket : the women are in dress 
 and appearance their appropriate companions; all have 
 scars on the cheek or shoulder, a few are marked with the 
 scars of the lash, and one or two I have seen wearing 
 broad iron collars as a punishment ; but they seem happy 
 enough, more jolly and free from care than the whites. 
 
 At one lovely spot in the suburbs, where there was a 
 pool of water, I came upon a black mass of female 
 humanity (some eighty or more of women and girls) 
 washing clothes and drying them in the hot sun ; but oh ! 
 the cruel way in which they murdered the linen, beating 
 
106 BAHIA. 
 
 it with rough sticks, pounding it with stones ! and amidst 
 a chorus of screams of laughter and noise that was very 
 far removed from English ways ! We found some nice 
 insects by the side of that pool as well as some strange 
 women-kind: the laughing and the joking were not a 
 whit stopped by a sense of our presence. When we got 
 on board again we found three gangs of niggers, twenty or 
 so in each gang, getting in coal and getting out cargo; 
 they made the whole ship resound with their merry choruses. 
 Probably the negroes are not capable of very intense 
 feelings of any sort (except as children can feel) ; at all 
 events, those that I have seen cannot be very unhappy : 
 they excite my curiosity rather than any special interest. 
 I cannot as yet learn much about them : the English here 
 say they have no religion or real religious ideas at all; 
 they have a make-believe, a sort of debased popery dwarfed 
 down to fetishism, or fetishism in the guise (as to images) 
 of popery. 
 
 Bahia, as a town, is far superior to Pernambuco ; the 
 latter stands low, with the worst houses facing the shore : 
 from the deck of a ship in the offing not more than one- 
 sixth of the town is visible; but at Bahia the coast is 
 high ; the town extends from the edge of the bay to the 
 top and beyond the top of the range of hills, and is 
 broken by green gardens. The bay is very fine, fish 
 abundant, sharks and all; every now and then a sailor 
 goes overboard to bathe whole, and only a part of him 
 comes back again : so there was some excitement to over 
 come the heat this morning when our paddle-wheels 
 crumpled up a shore-boat and sent four people into the 
 
TO RIO. 107 
 
 water ; their black woolly heads bobbed about for a minute 
 or two and then they were picked up, but the boat and 
 the rest of its contents were all gone. 
 
 When I was on shore I went into the cathedral, a 
 cool resting-place. I saw there an arrangement as 
 secularly sensible as it religiously was undevotional ; the 
 area near the doors was covered with groups of mahogany 
 chairs, which were most of them occupied by well-dressed 
 men, gentlemen, pleasantly chatting one with another in 
 subdued voices with their hats off, but with no other sem 
 blance of outward recognition of the place. A cool rest 
 and a glass of cold water which I got also are very 
 grateful as a parenthesis in a hot walk. 
 
 December 5. 
 
 This morning before daylight the rain did come down ! 
 the first rain since we have left England. I was hot and 
 sleepless below, so I turned out, slipped on goloshes and a 
 Macintosh, and had a splendid bath on deck. I think I 
 never saw such rain before; the wind rose, and drove 
 bucketfuls of water at me : it was over very soon, and I 
 turned in all the better for the visitation. 
 
 To-day is our last day on board the good old Tyne/ 
 We have just given the captain an address, with the usual 
 amount of honey and butter ; Gray and I headed it with 
 our autographs. We are to get to Rio about ten to 
 morrow morning ; already the crew are beginning to drag 
 about big packages and to get out passengers luggage, 
 and to prepare for an emptying of the ship of merchan 
 dize and passengers. 
 
108 RIO. 
 
 December 8. 
 
 Mrs. Johnson s Hotel, Botofogo 
 (a suburb of Eio Janeiro). 
 
 Here all well : we arrived on Saturday about noon, 
 anchored off the coaling-island in the Bay, having passed 
 scenery that was as lovely as it was strange : it was 
 marvellously grand and beautiful ; fine bold rocks jutting 
 out into the sea, with palms and other unknown foliages 
 clothing their broken surfaces with all hues of green right 
 down to the water s edge. Very often I have been dis 
 appointed at the first aspect of scenery of which I had 
 heard much praise ; here, instead of disappointment, there 
 is bewilderment and happy surprise the half had not 
 been told me. As soon as we had cast anchor, Mr. 
 Glover, the representative here of a large English firm, 
 came on board in his boat and took us both ashore. 
 Gray came over here at once, three miles out, to secure 
 rooms, while I stayed behind to try and get our baggage 
 through the Customs and obtain possession of it; with a 
 good deal of trouble I got it, though every one said I 
 should not succeed, and got a rattling headache also, and 
 by eight o clock was riding in a carriage with all our 
 traps on board to join Gray at this hotel. 
 
 On Sunday (yesterday) I went to the English Church 
 here : a sadly small congregation, for which there seems 
 to be quite sufficient reason. 
 
 To-day (Monday) I have been up the walk made 
 famous to us English naturalists by the book of travels 
 written by Gardner, the great Brazilian botanist, with 
 whom it was a favourite excursion. At the back of the 
 city is a range of hills, from the upper forest-land of 
 
S. THEEESA. 109 
 
 which water is brought down for the use of the inha 
 bitants and shipping by an aqueduct of several miles in 
 length : along the side of this aqueduct through the 
 midst of the mountain-forest is a broad road; this was 
 the road which marked our first real introduction into 
 Brazilian scenery. We left for Santa Theresa at ten in 
 the morning, and got back to the hotel at four in the 
 afternoon, having been out for six hours in the hottest 
 part of the hottest day they have had here yet ; the ther 
 mometer in our room, which is cool compared with out- 
 of-doors, is 89 in the shade. The walk was not fatiguing; 
 I kept well under an umbrella : at one time my nose bled 
 much from the great heat, but a good Samaritan whose 
 suburban house was near found me out, and gave me 
 water to wash away the blood, and Bass s pale ale and ice 
 to restore my vigour. Mr. Wilmot and the kindness of 
 his family to a perfect stranger will not soon be forgotten 
 by me : that was the whole of my troubles. The ento 
 mology of our first trip was supremely exciting : we got 
 nothing probably that is not most common and well 
 known ; but everything was new to us, and we saw every 
 thing, not pinned in cabinet drawers, but at home, just as 
 it lives naturally ; so when we got to our rooms you may 
 imagine how we had a great emptying of collecting bottles 
 and tubes and assorting of their contents, and how in 
 wondering delight we passed the evening, every now and 
 then looking at our captures and discussing their beauties, 
 although we had hardly anything unpacked and could not 
 put them away. 
 
 Now I will tell you of our temporary home ; we are at 
 one of the best, and, I fear, one of the most expensive 
 
110 
 
 EIO. 
 
 hotels in Rio, the most expensive city in the world. Our 
 set of rooms on the first floor are two large bedrooms and 
 one airy sitting-room,, with plenty of shade and ventila 
 tion, all of them above twenty feet high. Our next-door 
 neighbour on the same floor is the Prussian Minister. 
 Everything is dreadfully dear ; I had to pay twenty-one 
 shillings to get here from the Custom House with our 
 luggage, a ride of not more than three miles : a straw 
 hat is not to be had for less than ten or fifteen milreis 
 (a milrei, or dollar = 25. 3d.)-, a common wide-awake six 
 or ten milires ; a common uneducated black servant costs 
 .40 per annum, with lots of perquisites. In the purchase of 
 the ordinary necessaries of life a shilling in England equals 
 perhaps half- a- crown, perhaps three or four shillings, here. 
 This is one drawback to the place ; there are two others 
 one is the great heat, which, however, is never severely felt 
 till the second or third year of residence (new comers have 
 generally stamina enough to resist its influence) ; the other 
 is the swarms of musquitos and fleas. Now while I am 
 writing the former are singing and buzzing about my 
 ears ; however, it is no use making a trouble of them : 
 when they are past bearing I begin an onslaught, in which 
 I generally am victorious; till then grumbling does not 
 help matters at all. 
 
 But, barring these three evils, everything is delightful ; 
 our present feeling is that we ought to stay here two 
 or three years instead of a few months. You have no 
 idea of the gorgeous tout ensemble of the living forms that 
 we meet with on our walks, butterflies in profusion of 
 the richest or most dainty or most quaint colours ; beetles 
 like precious stones for brilliancy ; bugs and flies gro- 
 
EIO. Ill 
 
 tesque and of all hues; ferns lovely (one hundred and 
 twenty-one different species are found in one single 
 locality, S. Theresa hill, the scene of our first walk) ; 
 palms, cocoanuts, flowers, orchids, flowering-trees of all 
 forms and hues and scents ! and all these, not as in an 
 English greenhouse, single gems in the midst of more 
 ordinary woodlands, but the component parts of a vast 
 expanse of forest- scenery, each individual item of which 
 is just as beautiful as they ! I cannot describe it ; I can 
 only (as I often do) just sit down in the midst of it all 
 and look and think, and feel it. 
 
 Some of our old travelling acquaintances, who are wait 
 ing here for the Buenos Ayres steamer, are about to make 
 a party and ascend the steep Sugar-loaf Mountain, and 
 proposed to us to join the expedition; we had no difficulty 
 in declining their kind suggestion. I for one have no 
 genius for ascending precipices, unless you can prove to 
 me that something worth having is to be got at the top ! 
 Holding on for some hundreds of feet by hussocks of grass 
 and chance roots, where a slip means broken limbs, is not 
 in my line: if H. were here, it would be just the thing 
 for him, and another feather in his cap. 
 
 It is nearly eleven o clock at night. Gray has been in his 
 room an hour ; I am sitting writing in the airiest of apparel 
 at an open window ; the fireflies are gleaming in the dark 
 like stray atoms or sparks of animated sunshine; the 
 musquitos are (thanks, perhaps, to the open window, only 
 it is so deliciously cool) in heavy clouds and full chorus of 
 harmonies (not all unisonous) round my lamp ; cockroaches 
 as big as mice are racing noisily across the Indian matting ; 
 strange sounds come to my ears from the distant forests ; 
 
112 RIO. 
 
 fleas are biting me, and every now and then a flop against 
 the lamp announces the visit of a beetle. What can mortal 
 man enjoy more ? 
 
 Dec. 9, 1856. 
 
 I have a very pleasant recollection of this day two months 
 ago; it was a clear fresh morning at Harmston when 
 
 and I set off to search for mushrooms in the dewy 
 
 fields on the hill-side ; I remember we got thoroughly wet 
 through with the dew, and came home again with baskets 
 full of agarics. I have been thinking of it, and contrasting 
 the pleasant present with the pleasant past : all that I 
 wish is, that you could all be with us here just for one 
 hour to inhale the pure cool fragrance of this early morn 
 ing. It is now half past six ; I have been up since daybreak 
 setting out some insects, and writing, and lounging in the 
 garden. 
 
 Our plans are not at all decided : it is so pleasant to 
 propose them, that we often build castles in the air, and 
 carve out magnificent schemes, which are with our limited 
 time practically hopeless. 
 
 To-morrow we leave for Constancia, a sort of farm and 
 boarding-house at the end of the bay, on the other side of 
 the Organ Mountains, and on high ground ; we go by 
 steamer to Piedade, at the head of the bay, twenty or 
 twenty-five miles distant, and thence go on by mules, or 
 as we can. We propose to spend a fortnight there, and 
 then perhaps to return here, en route for somewhere 
 else. 
 
 I hear there is a case or two of yellow fever in the city ; 
 it always appears about this time of the year. I mention 
 it to you as it may be noticed in the English papers : there 
 
EIO. 113 
 
 is no (not the slightest) occasion for uneasiness j it is 
 not yellow fever, it is fleas and musquitos that are my 
 trial. My bag in which I sleep is a great success ; I do 
 not know what I should have done without it : I have 
 never got into a bed since I have been here, but simply 
 got into my bag and lain down on the outside, and slept 
 the sleep of the just till daybreak. 
 
 ********* 
 
 Always your affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
114 PIEDADE. 
 
 Constancia, Organ Mountains, 
 Province of Rio Janeiro, 
 
 Dec. 18, 1856. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 I posted two letters (tied together) to you at Rio 
 Janeiro,, just before we started for this place. Notwith 
 standing our inability to speak Portuguese, we got on 
 fairly ; in fact had much less difficulty than I had expected. 
 We travelled by steamer to Piedade, at the head of the 
 beautiful bay, and there we got two carriages with four 
 mules each (one for ourselves, one for our traps), and set off 
 for Barrera early in the afternoon. The country adjoining 
 the head of the bay is tame, flat, and uninteresting, except 
 to a naturalist; a rich heavy soil produces any amount 
 of vegetation, and I suspect that its low situation, a plain 
 on the level of the sea-coast, might produce any amount 
 of malaria; but one would be inclined to gird one s self with 
 an extra raiment of prudence, and face the chance of the 
 latter, if only the insect world were (as, no doubt, it really 
 is) on a par in luxuriance with the vegetation. I looked 
 round at Piedade for some roosting-place that might be 
 made available to much-enduring naturalists ; but I could 
 find nothing that did not seem much worse and more fatal 
 to comfort than a tent, and no appliances for eating and 
 drinking ; so good-by to Piedade, it would not suit us at 
 present in our innocence of language and customs. About 
 midway between Piedade and Barrera we came to trouble ; 
 our axletree broke in two : happily no one was hurt, and 
 happily, also, our luggage-carriage was behind us ; so we 
 
I 
 
 
 
 HI 
 
PIEDADE. 115 
 
 turned out, and while the men were changing the luggage 
 from one carriage to another, we had half an hour or so 
 in wandering about among orchids, ferns, and flowers ; 
 so we lost nothing but time. The forest trees without 
 being giants were well grown, and they had many species 
 of parasitic orchids on their trunks. I noticed that although 
 parasitic plants were in abundance, they seemed to affect 
 special trees : most of the trees had their trunks clean 
 and bare ; but if any had a growth of parasites, that tree 
 was probably covered with them from root to topmost 
 branches, and with several quite different species. I ac 
 counted for this, in my own mind, not by any greater age 
 of the tree, but by some probable greater rugosity of the 
 bark, which would give better holding-powers to the little 
 parasitical roots j at all events the effect was curious : 
 here was a tree three or four times its proper diameter, 
 bulging out like one of our ivy-clad ash trees at home, but 
 not with one special overgrowth, but brilliant with scar 
 lets and many-hued greens, while all around it were other 
 trunks of trees clean and bare : why had not they, too, 
 their extra coat of many colours? Well, our pleasant 
 delay of course took up time, and it was dusk before we 
 reached Barrera. We had intended to go on at once, and 
 we found our mules all saddled and waiting for us ; but, 
 though we had no one to advise us, we felt that to proceed 
 further that night was impossible : our difficulty was not 
 ourselves but our baggage ; in the dark we could take care 
 of ourselves by keeping near the guide, but if any of our 
 traps got loose, no one would miss them till we got to our 
 journey s end, and they with their indispensible contents 
 would be lost ; so we determined to remain here all night 
 
 i2 
 
116 BARRERA. 
 
 if it were possible. No one about the place could speak a 
 word of French or English, but I made them comprehend : 
 first of all I beckoned the mule-driver and led off with him 
 the mules to the rancho; this was intelligible as staying here 
 all night : then I found my way into the den that did duty 
 as a kitchen, and got some eggs for supper, and, what is 
 more, got the familiar of the den, an ancient negro woman, 
 to set about cooking them at once ; then, prowling about 
 the house, I found one room which was manifestly the 
 guest-chamber a place, that is, that contained three or 
 four shakedowns on the floors : we took possession of 
 this by making another black, the head or the tail of the 
 establishment, bundle out of the room all but two beds, 
 so that if any natives should arrive during the night they 
 might have the privilege of sleeping elsewhere. We 
 thought at the time that this was rather neat ; but, alas ! 
 while catastrophes often are the precursors of pleasant 
 surprises, sagacious contrivances sometimes bring sorrow ! 
 We got nothing whatever by our arrangement but worries. 
 I never spent such a night before, and I do not think it 
 possible ever to spend such a night again : I did not sleep 
 a wink. Our lean-to had a door and a window ; the door 
 was a door that would not be shut, and the window was a 
 mere chasm in the wall without sash or shutter; early 
 in the evening a flock of goats began to serenade us from 
 the outside, and for some special reason (it is not a 
 hircine habit) kept up their music all night : but inside it 
 was positively dreadful, all manner of unclean beasts 
 came and feasted on us, and then ran away to tell their 
 neighbours of the windfall of healthy skins; so relays 
 assailed us all through that livelong night of horrors : our 
 
BARRERA. 117 
 
 bags seemed useless; we had not dared to open out the 
 bundles they called beds, but lined them with cloaks of 
 our own, and then lay down in our bags on the top ; but 
 what was the use ? Scouts spied out the feast in store, 
 and every parasite in that metropolis of hungry vermin 
 was told the good news at once ! We lighted candles 
 from our travelling-bags, but to no purpose, except to 
 offend the eyes. " No/ we said ; " let us try and endure, 
 but, if you please, in the dark ! " I wandered out ; the door 
 that opened into the fresh air, the outer door, was 
 locked, so to dress and sit outside was impossible ; but as 
 soon as the long- wished for daybreak dawned, I got up, 
 roused the man up, dressed, packed up everything, carried 
 bag out of doors, unpacked everything, and shook out and 
 hung on bushes everything, while I went further to find a 
 bathing-place. Oh, the luxury of that fresh cool bath ! 
 My tortured skin was in an absolute fever, after the rest 
 lessness and the warfares of a sleepless night : I found a 
 place where the little river tumbled over a small ledge of 
 rock ; here I stripped and sat down in the middle of the 
 stream, and let the pure cold water dash over me, and 
 meditated, and counted (I will not tell you how many 
 meals I had afforded, but well into the three figures) : it 
 was delicious the bath, not the other thing. Well, I 
 counted, got splashed again and pummelled by the grateful 
 water, dressed and packed up ; and then the glorious sun 
 came out ! and the whole valley in one instant seemed to 
 wake up to reply to his greeting everything laughed with 
 brightness; trees got up a little crisp fresh rustling in 
 their foliage, flowers brought out their brightest colours, 
 bushes and vegetation all at once dressed themselves in 
 
118 TO CONSTANCIA. 
 
 gorgeous suites of countless diamonds; even the spiders 
 webs, with their geometric tracery, are decked with 
 diamond drops ; one or two sensible, sober-minded little 
 mites of ants came out from under a twig, where they had 
 been belated last night, just like ourselves, and, sunning 
 themselves in a cozy nook, stretched their limbs and 
 combed out their antennae : and in the midst of this fairy 
 land wandered a happy mortal with a glass tube in his 
 fingers, picking up from bush and flower pretty little 
 beetles, pleasant souvenirs in after days of a wretched 
 resting-place, reconciled again to existence, and thinking 
 how strange it is that man at his lowest estate can mar 
 the most lovely scenes of nature, and that man at his 
 highest estate can make the wilderness blossom as the 
 rose. I wish you would tell me of the place where there 
 is perfect nature and perfect man ; that is the place for 
 me ! 
 
 Revenons ! I found friend Gray the picture of a good 
 man struggling manfully with adversity : I told him of 
 my wanderings, and exhibited my spoils this did him 
 good. Then coffee and eggs again for breakfast, and to 
 the rancho to wake up the mule attendants : mules already 
 are being saddled, two for our traps, one for our guide, two 
 for ourselves : but these negro slaves are not bright ; if a 
 thing however trifling wants doing, they gather round it 
 and stare and gesticulate and talk : it took five men 
 upwards of ten minutes to decide which way my port 
 manteau should be strapped on the mule ; there it lay in 
 the middle on the ground, and they all five proceeded to 
 vociferate and gesticulate and almost dance around it. 
 At seven we started, and got here soon after noon ; our 
 
CONSTANCIA. 119 
 
 road was a mere mule-track, often, I imagine, quite im 
 passable for wheeled carriages ; we met hundreds of 
 mules in groups of from ten to forty during the whole of 
 the way, carrying produce of the country, coffee, sugar, 
 &c., to the coast. 
 
 We have got two bachelor rooms, tolerably comfortable. 
 Heath our landlord is a sort of gentleman, owns an 
 estate three leagues and more long, and has built this 
 house as a mountain home for English in Rio ; and round 
 it has built a set of little isolated cabins for ladies and 
 families to occupy during their residence here of generally 
 one or two months. He makes himself the head of the 
 family, and makes his family to include whites and blacks, 
 visitors and dependants, and is a jolly, good-natured, 
 happy-looking Englishman. He came out as a clerk to 
 Rio, and has done pretty well for himself. He showed us 
 yesterday his garden ; here he grows everything wanted 
 for the house and kitchen : then we inspected his quarters 
 for his slaves. He has a list of slaves hanging up, giving 
 names, dates of birth, ages, and parentage , then, next to 
 this, a list of his saddle-mules, so many, with ages and 
 dates ; then comes a list of cargo-mules ditto : thirty-four 
 slaves, nineteen saddle-mules, thirteen cargo-mules; all 
 grouped together on paper, and manifestly all grouped 
 together in the master s mind as so much property. As 
 to his slaves, you may read them at a glance, very fat, sleek, 
 stupid, and happy : the mules were not so easily reckoned 
 up ; I could not tell a kicker or a biter or a roller from a 
 pattern of all mule virtues, though Heath tried hard to 
 teach us. 
 
 Since we have been here we have had rain, rain, rain ! 
 
120 CONSTAtfCIA. 
 
 I go out every day, and prophecy that between the damp and 
 the heat I shall soon wear out all my clothes ! Every day 
 I am wet through once or twice : we are in the very midst 
 of real virgin forest, more than 3000 feet above the sea-level, 
 with hills all around us of perhaps another three thousand. 
 Wild animals are rare about here ; tapirs are to be found 
 in some of the hills, and we are exhorted to have a day 
 after them. Birds are rare, at least large birds ; I can see 
 none that I know of by pictures or in collections : humming 
 birds are more abundant, of all hues, and brilliant like 
 precious gems : spiders and beetles too want looking for, 
 but their absence is accounted for by the excessive rain. 
 
 We had at least an interesting introduction to the 
 Organ Mountains ; we were slowly riding along in single 
 file, our guide leading, when as we passed a broken hori 
 zontal limb of a tree close to the side of the path, all at 
 once he woke up into active life ; he was off his mule in a 
 trice, handed me (I was next in file) the rein and his whip, 
 had cut down and whittled clean a cane-sapling, and then 
 with all his force whack came the cane on the broken 
 branch ! Now we knew what the man was after : at once 
 there uncoiled itself and fell to the ground a splendid 
 serpent (the man said 9 feet long ; we thought not quite 
 so much), the deadliest serpent known here. He was sleep 
 ing twisted round the branch in the sunshine, black and 
 bright yellow, very hideous in its beauty ; a villainous flat 
 broad head, made uglier by a thin neck, snapped at us 
 in every direction as we stood round it, and a single snap 
 that hit its mark would have been certain and speedy 
 death to man or beast. The creature was soon killed; the 
 guide smashed its head with a stone, and then for the 
 
CONSTANCIA. 121 
 
 first time in my life I saw, as I pushed back the lips with 
 a twig, the horrible poison-fangs, as sharp as needles. We 
 left it in the path as a caution to others, and went on our 
 way musing on our introduction to Organ-Mountain life 
 and manners. 
 
 Heath has several visitors besides ourselves ; the house 
 and cottages are all full. Our English Minister at Rio 
 with his family and suite are here, with a proportionate 
 number of servants ; a young gentleman from the States, 
 come here to cure a consumption, and divers English and 
 half-English half-Portuguese families from Rio : at pre 
 sent I have seen but little of any of them ; we shall make 
 one another out presently. 
 
 Dec. 23. This morning Gray is gone back to Rio, and 
 only for more clothes ! Ours have not followed us as we 
 directed ; this will show you the great difficulty of obtain 
 ing anything : it is awkward to have to make a long two 
 days journey for such trifles, but it can t be helped. I 
 am here alone, and am getting a little more used to the 
 people and the scenery ; as for the visitors, I see nothing 
 of them at all, they never appear till breakfast-time (we 
 all have our meals together) : immediately after breakfast 
 I disappear to dress for the forest ; and, though they do 
 not go to bed till nearly midnight, I see nothing of them 
 at night, for I am generally in bed three hours before 
 then. I get up at or before daybreak : at the end of the 
 garden is the bath-house for the gentlemen, a shed built 
 over a little talkative brook that is made to run through 
 a large tank of masonry ; I am the first of the household 
 to pay a morning visit there and to make sport for the 
 little crabs, who run up and down my body as I am in the 
 
122 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 water and fancy they have found a new playground a 
 curious sensation that of being a promenade, till you are 
 used to it : after my bath I have three hours till break 
 fast, which I spend in my own room : from 10 A.M. till 
 2.30 P.M. I am in the forest ; at 3.30 there is dinner (a 
 most inconvenient hour to us ; but we are too modest to 
 propose any change, or to say how precious the afternoon 
 would be to us among the trees) ; about 8 P.M. there is tea 
 going on, and soon after I am in bed : of course, after 
 this, especially if I add that I drink no wine or spirits, I 
 need not say that I am in perfect enjoyment of health, and 
 in perfect enjoyment of much happiness. 
 
 Dec. 24. Yesterday I had a complete introduction to 
 forest-scenery. Early in the morning I set off with the 
 
 Honourable , one of the attaches at the embassy, to 
 
 visit, if we could, certain falls, celebrated for their beauty, 
 and celebrated also for their unapproachableness : we 
 got as complete instructions as we could, and set out. For 
 the first three miles all was plain sailing enough; our 
 pilgrimage was along a mule-track deep in mud; there 
 was nothing for it but to splash and wade : this is the 
 great thoroughfare leading from Rio to the rich province 
 of Minas ! at best it is an unmade mule-track, at worst 
 (which is always in the rainy season) it is a treacherous 
 quagmire ! I envied the black mule-drivers that we met ; 
 they could do without shoes and stockings and so were 
 independent of mire ; as for me, contemplate my costume ! 
 A white wide-awake, a woollen shirt, trousers, socks, and 
 shoes a walking- costume light enough on paper in 
 England, but none too light in the actual warfare of 
 forest, and clay, and sun. Our real difficulties began as 
 
CONSTANCIA. 123 
 
 soon as we left this precious road : we turned into the 
 forest opposite the reputed falls at the back of a hut, 
 and for another mile had an apology for a foot-track ; but 
 at last we lost it ; it became gradually less and less, till 
 at last I declare it went up a big tree, and we were left 
 alone and to our own resources. But I had never conceived 
 that any process of walking could have involved such 
 physical labour ; every limb and every muscle of the body 
 were brought into active exercise : we were in the deepest 
 shade ; some 50 or 80 feet above our heads were the bushy 
 tops of closely packed trees ; then below them a second 
 covering of palms, fern trees, and such like, all loaded 
 with parasites : below them, again, was thick-tangled brush 
 wood, not in the least like our English brushwood that 
 good naturedly gives way to your arms and hands as you 
 stride through it, but interlaced in all directions with long 
 trailing creeping plants, some with stems as thick as my 
 wrist, others thinner; the thinnest, and by far the worst 
 for us, were thread-like runners that were no thicker than 
 string, so tough that to break them was impossible, and 
 so long that they would not give way before us. Under 
 neath this monster vegetable net (through which we had 
 to struggle for hours) was the ground, covered with masses 
 of dead leaves, broken branches, all the debris of the vast 
 vegetable creation above that had been accumulating for 
 countless ages, and often green with little plants and 
 ferns. Well, this was the ground over which we had to 
 make our way, across all sorts of country, up precipices, 
 down hollows, over or under fallen trees, through brooks 
 or quagmires ; now on all fours creeping below the trunk 
 of a fallen tree ; now perched up in the branches of another 
 
124 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 prostrate giant : we both were soon exhausted with such 
 a continued strain on our muscles ; but we determined to 
 persevere, and at last we got to the Falls ! We could not 
 lose our way, for we had none to lose ; and we could tell 
 pretty well, by the direction of the streams which we had 
 to wade across, where we were. I cannot describe to you 
 the loneliness and the strange magnificence of the scene. 
 We climbed up by the side of the Falls till we got to a 
 large flat ledge of bare rock nearly at the top, in what is 
 evidently sometimes the bed of the river ; there we sat and 
 rested and ate luncheon and were refreshed. Above and 
 below and on one side of us was the rushing river wan 
 dering along through trackless forests ; trees of many- 
 hued foliages and blossoms were crowded up to the very 
 margin some stooped down bending their tops laden 
 with creeping climbers over the water; sometimes the 
 the climbing plants had thrown themselves right across 
 the river in elegant festoons, and, wreathed with orchids, 
 joined themselves to the tops of the trees on the opposite 
 side of the river; this, I imagine, was accomplished in 
 the first instance by trees themselves falling across, and 
 thus giving a foothold to these restless climbers, which 
 they would be sure to improve till they had reared them 
 selves aloft. Below and all around the foot of the Falls 
 were delicate little mosses and plants and ferns (giants 
 and minute) in luxuriance : one in particular I noticed as 
 conspicuous where all was beautiful; it was a parasite, and, 
 as I think, a fern. You might have some idea of it if you 
 were to tie sprigs of parsley close together on strings 2 or 
 3 feet long, and then supposed four or six of these clothed 
 strings placed side by side and constituting one of many 
 
COtfSTANCIA. 125 
 
 similar pendant fronds; it was a lovely mantle to the 
 trunks of trees : others but I have not the power or the 
 time to describe. We rested for an hour on the rock; 
 we did not talk, hardly spoke a word to each other, but 
 drank in in silence the scene in all its wonderful details a 
 scene the like of which neither of us probably will ever 
 see again in this life. My thoughts were those not only 
 of delight and admiration, but also of inquiry and wonder : 
 here, in this spot, to speak only of it, has all this exuber 
 ance of creative power and matchless beauty been mani 
 festing itself, not for a generation or two, but for thou 
 sands, or it may be millions, of years, and manifesting 
 itself not for the teaching of blind error-loving mortals 
 (that would be intelligible enough), but in solemn ever 
 lasting silence and loneliness. There s a subject for a 
 sermon for us clergy ! the love of the Creator for all His 
 works ; the satisfaction of Him (if I may dare to say so) in 
 their beauty as the incarnation of His ideas of beauty, 
 to-day just as much as at their first creation. " Behold 
 it was very good;" that makes it all clear and intelli 
 gible ! and I say to myself, as I desire to know more 
 of laws and His scheme of progressive creation, the student 
 of nature is a happy man ; " it is enough for the disciple 
 that he be as his Master." 
 
 We remained on the ledge for an hour, and then set off 
 on our return. Of all the climbing that we had to en 
 counter that day, I suppose a new " clearing " (in antici 
 pation) is the hardest : suppose our hill-side at Harmston 
 were twice as steep as it is, with ridges of rock, gullies, 
 and entirely broken ground ; let this hill-side be covered 
 with a dense forest, trees hundreds of years old, so closely 
 
126 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 packed that the branches intertwined and interlaced each 
 other in all directions ; then let all (every tree) be cut 
 down and left to rot where it falls, and imagine yourself 
 having to get through, under, or over all this, from one 
 end of the field to the other. If you can fancy doing this 
 in our hot-house temperature three or four times over, 
 remembering that one-third of the trees have awful spines 
 sticking out of the bark, you will get an idea of what it is 
 to have to cross a newly felled embryo " plantation," as 
 we had to do three times ; but we did it, and got back to 
 the mule-track again safe and whole, whole, that is, as 
 to our courage and bodies ; the reverse of whole as to our 
 
 raiment. What plights we were ! Mr. had on once 
 
 a white jacket and trousers ; now they were as black as a 
 coal-heaver s and ornamented with divers rents : as for 
 me, my casualties were endless ; I was not fit to be seen 
 my hands all blood, face of all colours, legs up to the 
 knees mere mud, and in such a state that I would have 
 given anything, even the rarest specimen in my insect- 
 boxes, for a needle and thread ! As we were trudging 
 along, who should meet us, to our horror, but the 
 whole party of ladies from Heath s, come out, as far 
 as the mud would let them, to see whether they could 
 learn tidings of us ! We could not run away : the 
 interview was very brief; but they found they had some 
 thing to laugh at for a long time after. The practical 
 result to me is, that I send a letter to Gray at Rio, 
 exhorting him to bring up more clothes as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 The next morning I am all right, but a trifle stiff, and 
 having nothing to do before breakfast : an expedition is 
 
CONSTANCIA. 
 
 127 
 
 being got up to beat up the haunts of monkeys a few miles 
 off in another part of the forest ; I do not know whether 
 I shall go or not. 
 
 I am writing at night at a table against the window. 
 My room is on the second floor ; outside the panes I can 
 see by the candlelight two pretty green frogs running 
 about; their feet are constructed like air-pumps to ex 
 haust the air, so that they can run up or down or side 
 ways with the greatest ease. Every now and then comes a 
 flop against the glass, a beetle or moth is attracted by the 
 light. My two green friends are wide awake; they scurry 
 over the glass and occasionally secure a good mouthful : 
 in the intervals they walk leisurely about, amusing them 
 selves with the small deer of gnats, musquitos, and flies, 
 which, like the others, are attracted by the light : that is 
 a curious sight, one of fifty that I see every day, that you 
 don t often see in England. 
 
 Dec. 26. I did not go after the monkeys. I am come 
 here to explore the Coleoptera, not the Mammalia; and 
 time is precious, though I feel vigorous enough for any 
 thing. No monkeys were seen, and more clothes were 
 spoiled, and more diachylon for scratches called for. 
 
 Christmas day was celebrated by me by a morning s 
 ramble in forests near home, the slaughter of three 
 snakes (one a big beast) and thoughts of you all in Eng 
 land. At three we had a capital Christmas dinner : even in 
 the tropics hot roast beef and hot plum-pudding and cham 
 pagne are welcome on one day in the year to every En 
 glishman so our host Heath asserted, and so we found ; 
 but it was very hot work. After dinner the slaves (who 
 in name are baptized Christians, but in knowledge any- 
 
128 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 thing or nothing, certainly not Christians) came before us 
 as we were all sitting out in the verandah, and had a 
 dance : they soon gave us quite enough ; the whole affair 
 was vulgar, and coarse, and silly. 
 
 Dec. 29. Rain ; nothing but rain ! Since we have been 
 here we have not had a single fine day ; gleams of sunshine 
 make their appearance every now and then, but only 
 sparingly, and this keeps us perforce to the neighbour 
 hood of the house. There is much to see here ; but it is 
 really impossible to get along the roads, or, indeed, to get 
 anywhere on foot. We are proposing to return to Rio in 
 time for the arrival of the English steamer, so as to get 
 our letters, &c., and then when we have answered them 
 to start off to some other locality. 
 
 I have just had experience of one of the peculiarities 
 (the drawbacks) of residence here. An Englishman, one 
 Mr. Fisher, who has been living here for many years and 
 is the owner of a coffee-estate, is dying. He is a Pro 
 testant, and I have been very glad to go and see him as a 
 clergyman of his own Church. The Brazilian laws will 
 not permit a heretic, i. e. one who thinks for himself, to be 
 buried in their consecrated grounds ! What a puny feeble 
 attempt to offer insult to the most advanced and intel 
 lectual part of humanity by treating with indignity a dead 
 body ! nay, they will not allow a Protestant to be buried 
 anywhere without leave, except in the Protestant burial- 
 ground at Rio. For myself and, I should think, for most 
 people, it is a matter of perfect indifference how one s 
 body after death is treated : but then we are not under 
 the wholesome discipline of " the Church ;" and to us 
 purgatory is a myth, and priests curses a profane joke. 
 
CONSTANCIA. 129 
 
 Heath, a friend of his, has asked leave (at the poor 
 man s request) for his body to be buried in the forest 
 on Heath s estate, and has asked as to remain a day or 
 two longer that I may perform the Burial Service. We 
 have promised to do so ; the poor fellow can t last many 
 hours. 
 
 We have had no service here on Sunday owing to a 
 misapprehension ; it was half arranged, but some blunder 
 prevented it. I dont fancy there is much religious feeling 
 here. The Brazilians all spend Sunday as a day of 
 special amusement : the English are very quiet and re 
 served ; and as for the blacks, no one seems to know or 
 to care what their religion is, or whether they have any 
 at all. Their ordinary evening salutation of respect is 
 curious ; as soon as they have finished their day s work, 
 each of them comes and roves about the premises till he 
 has found f< Signer Kicardo," their master Heath ; and 
 wherever he is, or whatever he is doing, they stand in 
 front of him and take off their caps, and say, " Blessed be 
 the name of our Lord Jesus ! " To which Signer Bicardo 
 replies, never looking up for a moment or in the least 
 disturbed in his occupation, whatever it may be, " Sempre " 
 (for ever) : this is their " good night." As for Sun 
 days with them, it is a holiday as far as plantation work 
 goes : in the morning they are idle, basking in the sun 
 or lounging about, or perhaps working in their own gar 
 dens ; in the afternoon they dress themselves in their fine 
 clothes, and in the evening they have a dance. But you 
 should see the fine clothes of the women blacks ! white 
 muslins, with scarlet or yellow sashes, or all scarlet, the 
 louder the contrast, the more becoming the effect; on 
 
130 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 their thick black fingers they have gilt and silver rings, 
 and always in their short thick woolly crop of hair is 
 stuck up behind a vast comb as big as a small plate ! So 
 much for fashion ! 
 
 New Year s Day, 1857. 
 
 A happy new year to you and all of you ! This was my 
 first thought this morning, wondering what you all were 
 doing at Harmston ; and you have been much in my me 
 mory all day. At half-past seven this morning I read the 
 English Burial Service over poor Fisher, who lies, as he 
 requested, on this estate; all his own blacks, as well as 
 Heath s, attended the funeral, and most of the Brazilians 
 in the neighbourhood. The blacks I am sure could not 
 comprehend a word that was said, but were most attentive 
 and serious; at last came something they could under 
 stand, as they thought : at the proper time in the service 
 Heath scattered a little mould on the coffin; here was 
 something, at all events, in which they could join, each of 
 them must get up a handful of clay and throw it into the 
 grave : of course I could not go on till all had satisfied 
 their imitative propensities : no one seems to have ex 
 pected it; they are as impulsive as children, and are 
 children, that accounts for it quite. 
 
 We return shortly to Mrs. Johnson^ at Botofogo, wait 
 there the arrival of the mail packet, and then leave again 
 for some other part of the mountains. The weather here is 
 horrible ; roads are absolutely villanous, mules hardly can 
 get along ; so you see that in this state of things tra 
 velling to any distance is quite out of the question. The 
 weather here is like a rainy, very rainy English summer, 
 almost chilly sometimes at nights, and hot downpours 
 
CONSTANCIA. 131 
 
 during the day. There are two objections that I have to 
 the country, the snakes and the ants : as to the snakes 
 they are abundant as to examples and of many different 
 species, and of some the bite is dangerous or deadly ; I 
 always kill them when I see them perhaps a cruel and 
 useless mode of getting out of their way ; but I hate them 
 for their scowling low-browed head, the type of everything 
 that is mean and treacherous. I generally kill two or 
 three a day, for they lie in just the very places that insects 
 delight in, the outsides of forests, clearings, plantations, 
 mule-tracks, wherever they can get a little warm sun. I 
 always have half an eye on the look-out for them, for the 
 common bad one in this neighbourhood, a short heavy 
 black beast, will hardly move till he is actually trodden on, 
 and then he turns and fights, and perhaps half kills. 
 
 The ants abound ! Brazil is one great ants nest ! they 
 are of all sizes and dispositions : some are a plague to us 
 in the house, for they will come at nights and prey on the 
 insects in our store-boxes ; some are a plague to us in the 
 forests, they get inside one s clothes and bite and sting ; 
 others are a more serious evil still, vegetable-feeders, 
 which will take a fancy to the leaves of some tree, and 
 strip every leaf off in one night ! I could not imagine 
 why Heath had a broad deep ugly ditch running all round 
 his vegetable-garden, when a neat rail would keep out 
 mules quite as well, until he explained to me that it was 
 in the somewhat vain hope of keeping the ants out of the 
 garden; he confessed that it had hardly any effect at all. 
 There is one species celebrated for its mining-propensities ; 
 not only does it live underground, but it delights in making 
 tunnels leading in every direction to nowhere at all, two 
 
 K 2 
 
132 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 or three feet below the surface : a few years ago they took 
 possession of a cleared hill near the house, and prospered 
 so that last year Heath and his slaves made vast efforts to 
 reduce the nuisance ; they got gunpowder and brimstone 
 and other slow-burning nastinesses, and tried to smoke 
 them out : the means were effective enough" in one 
 sense, for all up and down the hill-side, fifty or a hundred 
 yards from the great orifices, little threads of white smoke 
 kept rising up, showing that the whole slope was tunnelled : 
 this year the ants are worse than ever. The only effective 
 remedy, as it seemed to me, would be to let- in small 
 streams of water from the top towards the base, in 
 stead of currents of smells from the base towards the 
 top ; but of course springs of water are rarely found 
 near the tops of hills, and so they escape death by 
 drowning. 
 
 There are some long-jawed fellows that attack you by 
 a jump, not by spring of their legs, but of their backbone 
 (only they have none) ; they can fling themselves about a 
 foot, and live under fallen timber and such places : they 
 are not so cruel as the little ones. The small species are 
 my terror; their stings are like red-hot needles, and they 
 do it with such a savage will ! First they get firm hold 
 with their jaws, then they get other purchases with their 
 feet, and then like lightning they arch back their bodies 
 and drive, with all the powers of body and legs, their 
 stings in up to the very hilt ! and so cunning and hostile 
 are they, that they do not, like some others, keep hold 
 with their mouths, thus making only one red mark on the 
 skin, till they are picked off; much less do they run off 
 having done their duty, but they go, say just two inches 
 
BOTOFOGO. 133 
 
 * 
 
 forward, and then go through the stabbing-process again. 
 On one occasion I was in very great trouble, inadvertently 
 I stood still for a moment examining the contents of my 
 net just in the midst of their run a forage- expedition of 
 the whole tribe. I did not see them, nor indeed did I 
 look, so intent was I on my precious beetles ; when all at 
 once I felt their stings over a great part my body ; the 
 whole legion had walked up my boots ! the pain was really 
 dreadful ! But happily when I had changed my quarters, 
 and thrown off in desperation half my clothes, a slave 
 youth came by, who helped me to pick the wretches off my 
 body and clothes, and to get in order again : since that 
 adventure I have always been careful not to interrupt the 
 social migrations of ants. 
 
 Johnson s Hotel, Botofogo, Jan. 6, 1857. 
 
 We arrived here in safety after a pleasant journey : the 
 weather is fine, and the temperature materially hotter than 
 in the mountains. I have nothing really to tell you except 
 this ; but I like to write a line or two every few days. 
 We propose to give up our journey to the Minas district, 
 the arrangements will require much time ; our stay in the 
 country must necessarily be short, and the shocking weather 
 makes travelling specially difficult. 
 
 #.#####* 
 
 People all around us, both English and Brazilians, are 
 very courteous and polite ; they beg that we will " com 
 mand their service," that their " houses are at our dis 
 posal ; " in words, at all events, they are capital, and happily 
 we do not require anything but words. The expenses 
 here are very great ; the salary of the English chaplain is 
 
134 BOTOFOGO. 
 
 * 
 
 reported to me as 800 per annum, and as being equal to 
 about 300 in England : a curate at Lome with 150, 
 his lodgings, and a chop would be far the richer man of 
 the two. 
 
 The thermometer to-day is in the very coolest shade 86 
 to 88, in the sun 110 to 114 ; rather warm work walking, 
 with all contrivances of protection ! 
 
 Last night I dined with our Minister at Rio, and spent 
 a pleasant and warm evening. Why in such a climate is 
 a black dress suit a sine qua non for a formal dinner-party ? 
 If I were a big man, a very big man, here, I would soon 
 effect an alteration, and make my house the most popular 
 evening resort in Rio. My rule should be, that no colour 
 but white should be received, for gentlemen as for ladies : 
 fancy how exquisitely cool and comfortable ! No one in 
 lounging chairs in the verandahs of the drawing-room 
 would ever have to employ their whole time in keeping 
 streams of perspiration from their necks, if dressed in white 
 instead of in black ; and there would be a refreshing sense 
 of enjoyment, and not of imbecile self-sacrifice to the great 
 god Custom. I went to call on the clergyman here one 
 Sunday evening ; I found him appropriately dressed in a 
 very thin flannel white suit. I could not help saying 
 how much more sensible such a colour was, and we mourned 
 together over the duty of clerical perspiration. 
 
 When I was in Rio the other day (I go there as seldom 
 as possible) one of the merchants took me to a Brazilian 
 auction, corresponding to the sales of an English broker ; 
 the firm, whose monthly or quarterly sale this was, sold off 
 calicos &c. to the value of about 20,000. The auctioneer 
 makes more in a day than a curate does in a year, and 
 
BOTOFOGO. 135 
 
 only by his power of telling lies. This man had a repute 
 as being a choice adept in his art : he has say twenty lots 
 to sell of the same material ; he begins with the first as 
 " a single lot, of which there is no counterpart/" the second 
 is " positively the only other/ the third is, " on his word 
 of honour, the last/ and so on. I have not the power to 
 follow him as he rings his changes on the several lots, 
 pledging everything that he holds most sacred, calling 
 spirits from above and below to attest his truthfulness, 
 inventing on the spur of the moment wild extravagances of 
 emphasis ; while in front of him are a mob of buyers, as 
 full of practical jokes as children, and making a scene of 
 confusion and dismay to the uninitiated which far sur 
 passes even Liverpool Exchange after a fall of snow ! 
 Bales of cloth drove hats well over the eyes, hats took 
 leaps across the room, sample bales occasionally followed 
 them ; it was a mad and noisy scene, very Brazilian, but 
 perhaps worth seeing just for once. 
 
 Your very affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
136 TIJUCA. 
 
 Tijuca, Jan. 12, 1857. 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 We are here staying with Mr. Bennett, who keeps an 
 hotel and also a private boarding-house, in which latter 
 we both are; the hotel is full of Brazilians. In the 
 boarding-house with us are the captain of the Mada 
 gascar frigate and his wife, an English architect, a Bra 
 zilian counsellor (equal to a member of the House of 
 Lords with us), and the Secretary of State for the Home 
 Department, the second officer in the Empire (the first 
 being the Prime Minister). Titles here do not seem to 
 be much valued, not so much as they are in England ; 
 many of those who possess them have simply paid a cer 
 tain price for them ; it has been a question of gross 
 money,, not of worth, or intellect, or services. I was told 
 that the vast lunatic asylum built on the shores of Boto- 
 fogo Bay cost about j100,000, and that this large sum 
 of money was all obtained by the open sale of decorations 
 and titles ! 
 
 This place, Tijuca, is very pretty; it lies about 1000 
 feet above the sea. We rode up in omnibusses about half 
 the way and then on mules; carriages are never seen 
 here. Since we have been here there have been torrents 
 of incessant rain, so that we have been hardly able to stir 
 abroad : the gardens belonging to the house are beau 
 tiful, full of choice shrubs and masses of flowers. This 
 morning I got a bruise in the bath : the stream was very 
 swollen, so that I could not bathe at the usual place ; but 
 
fc H 
 
 -1 > ; f* 
 
TIJUCA. 137 
 
 I saw another place where the water seemed more quiet 
 (it was the ladies bathing-place) ; I went and undressed 
 there, for the rain made it necessary to get a shelter for 
 one s clothes, and jumped in. The stream was very 
 strong and tossed me from one side to the other, bruising 
 my shoulder considerably : there I was holding on on 
 one side, and all my clothes on the other ; then a biggish 
 crab, no doubt banged about as much as myself, laid 
 fierce hold of my leg. I in my innocence put down my 
 hand to pull the gentleman off, when with its other claw 
 it laid hold of my hand ! rejoicing, no doubt, that it had 
 got such a firm double anchorage ; but the anchorage of 
 the crab sent me adrift. By some means or other I 
 floundered to the opposite margin, and worked my way 
 up again to my clothes : two men were standing by them, 
 each come for a bathe ; but after they had witnessed my 
 exploits, they retired without undressing they had seen 
 enough. 
 
138 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 Constancia, Organ Mountains, 
 
 Christmas Day,, 1856. 
 MY DEAR POWER, 
 
 I give the evening to you and friends in London. 
 It is a strange Christmas Day; instead of our English 
 frost or raw fogs, the heat is so great that in the forest 
 coat and waistcoat are simply encumbrances. The scenery 
 is magnificent; I cannot tell you the beauties that sur 
 round us. We have been here several days, and are begin 
 ning to get a little more familiar with our work. What 
 shall I begin with ? Beetles : they are scarce, that is they 
 require looking for ; the uninterrupted downpours of rain 
 drive everything to shelter : we find ourselves among 
 small insects principally. During the short time that we 
 have had of real hard entomological work we have taken 
 about five hundred species of Coleoptera (besides many 
 of other orders) ; this is under rather than over the 
 mark. Water-beetles are at present most scarce, or in 
 deed impossible ; we are in the midst of the rainy sea 
 son, and violent rains, sometimes all day or all night long, 
 have so deluged everything that lies low, that I cannot 
 get at the pools and brooks for the water ! I have spent a 
 good deal of time with my water-net, and I have not cer 
 tainly a dozen species, Dytiscida and Hydrophilida put 
 together. 
 
 That which is most remarkable in the general character 
 of the Coleoptera is the wonderful exuberance of species 
 and the real scarcity of individuals ; most of our species 
 are represented only by a single specimen. We go out 
 
CONSTANCIA. 139 
 
 three or four days consecutively along the same walk, visit 
 the same shrubs and trees, and yet each day s captures are 
 different from the preceding. We both work along the 
 same track, pretty nearly at the same time, and yet each 
 will bring home many species that the other has not seen ; 
 and with this abundant variety of species there is an abso 
 lute dearth of individuals. I have taken at Deal, or the 
 Chesil Bank, or in many English localities, six or ten 
 times as many insects as I have ever captured here in any 
 given number of hours. At present insects don t come 
 to us by any means ; we have to go to them at their own 
 homes. Geodephaga are at this altitude, 3000 feet, very 
 scarce indeed, except the leaf-loving arboreal Geodephaga, 
 the lovely genera Lebia, Agra, and their allies. Bupres- 
 tidcB are rare too ; Elaterida, Curculionida, and Galerucidce 
 are the dominant groups for the moment : perhaps in 
 Longicornes we take eight species every day, and of course 
 single examples : of Elaterida and Curculionidce I have 
 often taken enough in an hour to occupy the whole of the 
 next morning, if I were to set them out after the fashion 
 of precise order-loving symmetrical entomologists in 
 England. Let me here unburden my mind by a frank 
 confession : I do not set out my insects at all ; I want all 
 my time in which to search for the little beauties them 
 selves : the possession of their forms is to me of greater 
 moment far than the neat symmetrical disposition of each 
 limb on cardboard ; and so, just as my object in the woods 
 is to bottle as many as possible, my object at my work- 
 table is to pin and gum down as many as possible, every 
 thing that I have. 
 
 The Ants here are interesting beyond anything that I 
 
140 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 could have imagined. I am getting a few together for 
 Mr. Frederic Smith ; they have all sorts of devices for 
 getting through life pleasantly to themselves, and for 
 making themselves disagreeable to their enemies. How 
 they hate me ! Whenever they have a chance they bite, 
 or else they sting. There are two wee atoms of species, 
 in colour pale flavous, not thicker than a pin, whose mis 
 sion in life it is to persecute me; they are devoted to 
 their self-imposed task : on face, or hands, or neck, they 
 fasten like a vice, and don t draw blood, but suggest pins 
 and needles. Every bush almost has scores on its leaves ; 
 so every examination of the contents of my net or inverted 
 umbrella reveals scores of small angry, bustling, retaliating 
 creatures, who often compel me to lay my net down for a 
 moment on the path till they all have cleared themselves 
 off: there must be an immense number of species. I 
 have found two nests of what I suppose may be a species 
 ofEciton; but though I have poked them well up and 
 got well bitten or stung for my pains, I cannot get any 
 of their winged maternities to show themselves ; they are 
 not nests, but runs and small accumulations of rubbish 
 under old trees. Wasps and Bees are at present rare ; I 
 see very few, not one-sixth of what I met with in Spain. 
 Twice I have been well stung, the natural consequence 
 of beating and smashing up pendant nests into cloth or 
 umbrella. I have no doubt but if Mr. Smith had been in 
 my place he would have rejoiced in his opportunity, and 
 sat down happy in being the focus of attraction, and 
 tranquilly picking the specimens out of his neck and 
 whiskers transferred them to his bottles ! Such things 
 are too great for me ; I am a very ordinary mortal, and so 
 
CONSTANCIA. 141 
 
 I put down my net and ran away. I shall have a good 
 set of Ants, but very few Bees for him or for the British 
 Museum. 
 
 There is one grand Brazilian species of Beetle, of which 
 only three examples, I believe, are known Hypocephalus 
 armatus, or Anglice " the Mole Cricket Beetle/ from its 
 quaint resemblance to a Mole Cricket. Well I had some 
 drawings of this creature made from the figure Mr. Smith 
 gave me, and distributed them among some lively looking 
 slaves here, with the promise of three milreis (about six 
 or seven shillings) for every specimen they would bring 
 me ; but these negroes have such exuberant imaginations ! 
 Yes, they all had seen it, had seen it often, knew it well : 
 one had found it under rotten wood, another had seen it 
 frequently in his plantation, a third had seen it in the 
 path only the other day ; but all this is only talk (three 
 milreis would be a fortune to any of them), and no Hypo 
 cephalus has ever made its appearance. 
 
 The Forficulae (Earwigs) are interesting : I find some 
 very pretty species here, chiefly under bark ; one a grand 
 fellow very large, others minute and very flat. Of 
 course the Lepidoptera are something per se ; I never saw 
 such rare colours or beautiful forms. I take great credit 
 to myself that I am not as yet ensnared by them and that 
 I have not taken a single specimen, although often I have 
 been sorely tempted to do so, when I have watched them 
 in brilliant groups of twenty or thirty together sucking at 
 dirty puddles in the forest-paths. I can easily believe 
 many of the smaller species at least to be well worth 
 taking, for their delicate beauty is beyond compare, and 
 such an animal as a " bug-hunter," as we are called, has 
 
142 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 never in the memory of any one here been seen or heard of 
 in any part of these Organ Mountains. We are rar& aves 
 as to our vocation as entomologists, and I fear also as 
 to costume, on my part at least. I astonish the eyes of 
 our British minister at Rio (who is staying here) by hunt 
 ing about for invisible objects, such a figure as he, poor 
 man, certainly never has seen before ; for my clothes are 
 all worn out, and it is too hot to wear clothes : put these 
 two facts together and you may get some idea of my turn 
 out into the forest every morning. Gray is always re 
 spectable, and as every man " noscitur a sociis" I shelter 
 myself behind his respectability and am tranquil. 
 
 I have had one or two expeditions lately into the virgin 
 forests , they are not the places, as a rule, for entomo 
 logists : insects congregate rather on the outsides, in 
 clearings, or by the sides of paths, or anywhere where 
 they can get air and sunshine ; but the forests are worth 
 seeing over and over again, if not for their insects, at all 
 events for themselves. They impress one with the sense 
 of vastness and silence and solemnity, and teach me (as I 
 can conceive nothing else could teach, except perhaps a 
 bed of sea- weed on a tropical shore) the marvellous exuber 
 ance of Nature s powers : ferns and mosses intertwined 
 with parasitical orchids giant trees, climbing plants, 
 each or many with their special flowers, darken the air 
 that they perfume : the air is full of life ; you can hear, 
 but you can see nothing. I suspect there is a great world 
 of insects high up above in the thick bushy tops of the 
 trees that can bask in the sunlight. You hear the deep 
 distant hum as of thousands of insects, occasionally the 
 note of a bird, sometimes perhaps the fall of a branch, or, 
 
CONSTANCIA. 143 
 
 it may be, a strange sound that is inexplicable ; but no 
 thing can you see but the vegetable world, and this arrests 
 the whole of you ! sight and smell, as well as hearing, 
 make you pause with charmed surprise at every step ; al 
 ways there is something to wonder at or to examine : thus, 
 if we use our own sense of observation at all, progress is 
 often very slow, or perhaps nil. It is with the greatest 
 difficulty I confine myself not only to the collection of 
 Coleoptera, but even of insects ; it requires some resolu 
 tion to abstain from gathering botanical specimens. 
 
 I am not surprised now to know that Gardner, the 
 great botanist, here travelled with twenty-four baggage- 
 mules, all carrying his precious collections of botany ; and 
 even he, with his wealth of carrying power, must often 
 have felt himself sadly restricted. If you want to collect 
 all, you will just have to walk off with half the forest. 
 
 We are enjoying ourselves entirely : every day is one of 
 fresh excitements and new acquisitions of knowledge; 
 there is no sort of drawback that is worth mentioning. I 
 should often certainly like to see an English newspaper or 
 magazine in the evening, or to have the power of running 
 over to Burton Crescent ; but then, on the other hand, I 
 am never dull, nor the victim of ennui; I don^t know 
 what it means. My evenings are short, for I get to bed 
 as soon as I can ; and my days are very cheerful, for they 
 are brimful of new discoveries and spent in the forests. 
 The secret of a happy life is here (in. Brazil), just the same 
 as in England, health and occupation for both mind and 
 body. As to health, there are two secrets worth knowing 
 for English living near the tropics, always wear flannel 
 next the skin, and never or very rarely touch wine or 
 
144 CONSTANCIA. 
 
 spirits. These with common prudence will make life as 
 enjoyable here, or even more so, than in dear old England 
 itself ! We have two grievances, and only two, first, the 
 DAMP ; this is a great trouble ; it ruins everything, papers, 
 clothes, insects, everything ! Nothing will keep dry ; 
 clothes get mildewed, then they rot and are worthless ; as 
 for insects, many and many a specimen have I lost from 
 the decay and the mould that are inseparable in weather 
 like this. Secondly, the COCKROACHES ; they are as big as 
 mice, and clear off a large setting-board full of insects in 
 a night, leaving nothing behind them but a desert-like 
 array of empty pins, with here and there a bit of a ticket ! 
 The evening before that setting-board offered a sight that 
 would rejoice the eyes of any Coleopterist ; but it was 
 alas ! forgotten, and after a few hours of darkness pre 
 sents .nothing to delight us with but metal pins and a 
 score or two of odd antennae and wings ! 
 
 With regard to fleas, &c., they are a matter of course : 
 they cease to worry, except in a moderate degree, after a 
 short time, and they (like mosquitos and snakes) can 
 always be fought with and conquered. As for snakes, 
 I have said nothing about them ; but I can sum them up 
 in a line they are the only really bad things in all Brazil 
 except yellow fever. Combine your ideas of an incarna 
 tion of treachery, of malice, of cunning, of cruelty, of 
 ugliness, of everything that is mean and grovelling and 
 wicked : you have the combination in perfection in one 
 supreme effort of nature, a snake s head. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Always sincerely yours, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
TIJUCA. 145 
 
 Tijuca, Jan. 20, 1857, 
 MY DEAR FATHER, 
 
 It is a week since I sent off my last letters to you, 
 and, strange to say, I have not yet begun another; but 
 indeed these days are so completely the counterpart of 
 each other, and jump away into the past so quickly, that 
 the contents of my journal from day to day would be 
 rather monotonous. On Thursday, as a sort of change, I 
 was slightly unwell, rather feverish with headache; I 
 summoned Gray and our host Mr. Bennett to my aid, and 
 we had a solemn consultation, with pulse -feeling, &c. : the 
 prescription was a slight emetic, bed all morning, a pill, 
 with rancid castor-oil about noon, and a light dinner or 
 supper at night. Nothing could have been more success 
 ful; in the afternoon I was clear and fresh, with head 
 ache all gone, and an enormous appetite. 
 
 We have had four days of incessant rain, and now fine 
 scorching heat ; yesterday the thermometer in the shade 
 in my bedroom was 89, arid yet I felt no ill effects 
 from being out of doors and at pretty hard work all day 
 long ; a special reason certainly is that, regardless of ap 
 pearances, I clothe myself when I go out as much as 
 possible in white. Yesterday my dress was white shirt 
 and light-coloured trousers, and I felt no evil in the sun- 
 blaze ; but these black clothes are terrible, they quadruple 
 one s sense of the heat at once. I have been badly bitten 
 since I have been here by a little pest of a fly which 
 abounds near the house; it raises small swellings or 
 blisters about the size of a small pea, which are most 
 
 L 
 
146 TIJUCA. 
 
 irritating, and, if scratched, speedily turn into sores. The 
 backs of my hands and knuckles are so swollen that I 
 cannot close my left hand at all : every one suffers, but I 
 far worse than any one else. At last I discovered the 
 reason, it is only because I wear black clothes, and every 
 one else avoids black. An engineer said to me the other 
 night, I always like to sit next to you in the verandah." 
 I began to feel flattered, and to give my neighbour much 
 more credit for discernment than I had supposed ; clearly 
 his was an appreciating mind, who could understand and 
 value respectable society. "And Fll tell you why, sir, 
 because then I am never bitten by these beggars of flies ; 
 the heat of your clerical black clothes draws together all 
 the Borrachudos in the place. Yes, sir, you are a public 
 benefactor, they will never hurt any one in white as long 
 as you are dressed in black " I am doomed to be a bene 
 factor I fear (for my wardrobe will supply little but 
 black) , and to be bitten for my improvidence before I left 
 England ! May all men sing my praises as they ought ! 
 
 Our company here consists of two or three ministers of 
 state, a young American from the American Embassy, 
 and a very few English. We always meet at meals ex 
 cept when I have lost my way and my dinner, and I see 
 every morning from my window the men and the women 
 at intervals coming from or going to their respective 
 baths ; but I know very little of them, though they seem 
 to hold " Signor Padre," as they call me, in some respect 
 and consideration. People here can t conceive why we 
 have come out to Brazil ; they will not accept the real 
 attractive power of their own country ; they cannot com 
 prehend the beauty of an insect, nor even many of them 
 
TIJUCA. 147 
 
 the beauty of a flower or of a landscape. As for Ento 
 mology, the idea is quite a novel one to most of them. I 
 have inquired of those who ought to know : no one has 
 ever heard of a Brazilian ever giving any attention to the 
 wonderful forms of insect-life at his very doors. 
 
 My health is again most excellent. I am up often 
 before the sun, have a thoroughly good bath every morn 
 ing, and am always in bed before ten. Gray, too, is well, 
 much better than he was in England. Since we have 
 been here we have visited on mules or on foot most of the 
 neighbouring valleys, the different waterfalls, special points 
 of view for sweep of landscape, the Botanical Gardens, and 
 the virgin forest. I cannot attempt to describe the views, 
 my stock of expletives is all exhausted; but the scenery 
 alone is well worth all the journey to Brazil and back 
 again; indeed it is I believe acknowledged by all who 
 have had the opportunities of comparison that it is among 
 the first and most beautiful, not of course the grandest, in 
 all the world *. 
 
 * " It is quite impossible to express the feelings which arise in the 
 mind while the eye surveys the beautifully varied scenery which is 
 disclosed on entering the harbour, scenery which is perhaps un 
 equalled on the face of the earth, and on the production of which 
 nature seems to have exerted all her energies. Since then I have 
 visited many places celebrated for their beauty and their grandeur, but 
 none of them have left a like impression on my mind. As far up the 
 Bay as the eye could reach, lovely little verdant and palm-clad islands 
 were to be seen rising out of its dark bosom, while the hills and lofty 
 mountains which surround it on all sides, gilded by the rays of the 
 
 setting sun, formed a befitting frame for such a picture Ceylon 
 
 has been celebrated by voyagers for its spicy odours ; but I have twice 
 made its shores without experiencing anything half so sweet as those 
 which greeted my arrival at Rio." Gardner s Travels in Brazil, p. 3. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 PRESIDENCY A. 
 
 I wish the people came up to their country : the nation 
 is advancing in civilization, and this is the beginning, the 
 infancy of their national life, so it will not do to measure 
 them by the standards of nations that are the most ad 
 vanced. The Emperor and his family are, as I hear from 
 every one, far beyond most of their countrymen ; nothing 
 that deserves encouragement is passed over at the Palace ; 
 and if bribery and corruption among officials exist, Brazil 
 is not unique in this respect, and it can show many illus 
 trious examples of patriotism and innate nobility of cha 
 racter. 
 
 Jan. 27, Presidencia, Organ Mountains. 
 
 I have just come from the bath ; it is the grey morning, 
 everything is calm and cool and delicious. Our luggage 
 has not come, and so I can do nothing with insects ; I 
 have discovered pens and ink, and so till the sun gets into 
 the garden and I can enjoy its warmth I give half an hour 
 to you. 
 
 Yesterday a long day s journey brought us here, the 
 weather being fine enough to permit us to enjoy the mag 
 nificent scenery through which we passed. From Tijuca 
 it took us two hours to get to the city ; there w r e did 
 some shopping, and called at our old hotel at Botofogo. 
 At 2 P.M. a little steamer took us about twenty miles up 
 the bay ; then we had fifteen -miles by railroad, in all its 
 details English even to its engine-drivers ; then carriages 
 took us another ten miles to Petropolis, and horses brought 
 us on here. We are quite in the country, just as we were 
 at Const ancia, only in quite a different part of the moun 
 tain- range. The house is full I hear of ladies, all 
 Jewesses, from Rio, whose husbands come up to see them 
 
I 
 
PRESIDENCY A. 149 
 
 every Sunday ; the house is quite full, and we have to be 
 accommodated as we can. My present " bedroom " is a 
 recess papered off with a screen six or seven feet high 
 from a passage which is certainly a chief rendezvous of 
 many infants and their nurses ; so I have had but little 
 sleep last night. 
 
 Jan. 30.- 1 have just returned from Petropolis, where I 
 have been to look up Gray ; there was not room here for 
 us both,, and so we arranged that I should stay here and 
 he would go to Petropolis, a small town which contains 
 the Emperor s mountain palace, and try and find accom 
 modation there. He is in a respectable Brazilian hotel, 
 with capital rooms, far better than most of those at Presi- 
 dencia; but there is no one on the premises who can 
 speak a word of Latin, French, or English. He takes it 
 all very philosophically, says he gets everything he wants 
 without trouble, and has found out some pretty and pro 
 ductive footpaths among the hills : so we stay where we 
 each are for about a week, and then join company again. 
 
 As for me at Presidencia I am the only gentleman in a 
 house containing six or ten ladies. I do not get every 
 thing I want without trouble, although every one speaks 
 more or less of English ; but the walks round the house 
 make amends for everything, even in rain I can under an 
 umbrella pick up several curious insects. 
 
 This is a pleasant boarding-house in the very midst of 
 the wood, with virgin forest on all sides of us, and plenty 
 of insects even in the rainy season. I have been out two 
 or three evenings, hardly with the expectation of getting 
 anything, but for the sake of seeing the fireflies. It is no 
 figure of speech to say that on still evenings, especially 
 
150 
 
 FRESIDENCIA. 
 
 after a rainy afternoon, they eclipse the stars ; their lights 
 are of all sizes and magnitudes, and more than one colour. 
 The large Elaterid<E of the genus Pyrophorus have a 
 brilliant, steady, and very bright light : these are difficult to 
 catch, inasmuch as they sail slowly round the tops of the 
 high trees, looking exactly like wandering planets; others, 
 smaller but of brilliant lustre, fly hither and thither 
 among the brushwood (also Pyrophori perhaps, at all 
 events Elaterid*, and not Lampyrida like our English 
 glow-worm) quite within reach of one s net ; only to rush 
 after their lanterns in the dark would incur the risk of 
 broken bones ; all I can do is to admire. There are other 
 species also, more nearly represented by our English glow 
 worm, that haunt especially damp situations : on one side 
 of the road leading to the house is a deep gully, conduct 
 ing a little stream to a small lake of water ; this road, on 
 such evenings, presents a marvellous sight the whole of 
 the gully is lighted up with thousands of sparks. I am 
 not romancing, they are in thousands ; and the wonderful 
 part of the sight is, that while many of these rank and 
 file evidently wander only according to their individual 
 will, there are others, and these the majority, which keep 
 perfect time and sway in their flashings one with another ! 
 Eor perhaps twenty yards you see every light (of this second 
 set of lights) evenly and slowly flying in one direction ; 
 then all at once in a moment every light will vanish ; in 
 the next moment every light flashes forth again, and pro 
 gresses in another direction : it is impossible to resist the 
 conviction that all are acting in harmony and conjunction 
 with each other, and that the impulse of forward progres 
 sion, and then of a momentary obscuration of light, and 
 
PRESIDEXCIA. 151 
 
 then, again, of a brilliant simultaneous flash and another 
 onward movement at another angle, is felt by each indi 
 vidual and directed by one, the leader of the brilliant well- 
 drilled band. The sight (when one remembers that these 
 are insects, and not birds or beasts) is quite startling, so 
 complete is the precision of united action, and so con 
 tinuous ! going on, for anything that I know, all the even 
 ing or all night long ; I can call to mind no parallel to it, 
 not even an actual parallel in birds or fishes *. 
 
 My night excursions have supplied to me a fine series 
 of two not uncommon but handsome and characteristic 
 Brazilian species, one of the Cetoniada and one of the 
 Lucanida. There is a little clump of dwarf bushes by the 
 side of the rivulet on which, by accident, I threw my 
 bulFs-eye light : I saw a couple of fine beetles, somewhat 
 allied to our stag-beetle, which had just alighted on an 
 
 * Since my return to England I have made inquiry at one of the 
 meetings of the Entomological Society (May 1, 186-5, see Proceed 
 ings) as to whether any members of the Society who had visited 
 tropical countries (and there were several present) had ever witnessed 
 a similar scene; it seemed to be entirely new to all of them. As it 
 must have been observed by any entomologist who had ever spent 
 a few days in the Organ Mountains, I applied to my friend Mr. Alex 
 ander Fry, who, in knowledge of the Coleoptera of the southern 
 region of the Brazils and in the practical experience of their habits, 
 which he had gained by careful examination of them during several 
 years residence in Eio Janeiro, is among European entomologists 
 facile princeps ; and he entirely corroborated the observation noted 
 above. He replied (see Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. voL ii. part 5, p. 100), 
 I can confirm your observation that the fireflies of the genus Aspi- 
 soma of Castlenau flit at night in great numbers over low-lying 
 damp fields, chiefly near water, emitting light by short flashes at 
 intervals of three or four seconds, the majority keeping time tcith each 
 other as if in obedience to the baton of a leader." 
 
152 PRESIDENCIA. 
 
 outside twig, obviously with some distinct intention. I 
 let them alone, and watched them ; they travelled quickly 
 along the twig, down the branch, down the stem, till they 
 got nearly to the ground, and then I discovered their 
 object; the little stem was bleeding, giving forth gummy 
 sap from some cracks in the bark : round this were col 
 lected three or four specimens of beetles and a few moths ; 
 the former I carefully secured ; and by marking the bush 
 and searching during daylight for others like it, and then 
 examining each occasionally when the weather invited an 
 evening stroll, I managed to get a fine series of examples. 
 I think I never mentioned to you one of the interesting 
 sights that we always took care to inspect whenever we 
 ascended the aqueduct road from Botofogo. There was 
 near the road-side a large tree standing by itself in the 
 sunshine, towards the top of it a branch had been torn 
 off by the wind, and the wound gave forth a stream of 
 dark resinous sap which ran nearly down to the ground ; 
 this resinous sap was a very favourite haunt of Lepidoptera 
 and Coleoptera, and indeed of all Orders. The butterflies 
 were the most showy visitors, of course ; they were not the 
 smaller weakly winged species that haunt the footpath, but 
 magnificent fellows, with wings almost as strong as a bird s, 
 that swept down from the heights above and condescended 
 to approach the earth only to visit some hospitable tree 
 like this, which is keeping open house to all the insect 
 world. Of the beetles, the most prominent were splendid 
 large species of the longicorn genera Trachyderes, Lis- 
 sonotus, &c., very common but very handsome; besides 
 these were dangerous -looking giants of Ichneumons and 
 smaller Diptera, &c., without end : but alas ! though the 
 
PRESIDENCIA. 153 
 
 visitors to the tree were so abundant, they were unavailable 
 for us ; the sap was unfortunately in the blazing sunshine, 
 and this made every creature so alert (and withal many 
 were so high up the trunk) that we soon found that to 
 capture them was hopeless. But I always made a point of 
 visiting the tree : by creeping up slowly and keeping as 
 much in shade as possible I could watch the revellers 
 without causing much alarm; the tree was manifestly a 
 well known luncheon-room for all insects whose morning 
 duties led them into that part of the forest ; they kept 
 coming in from all quarters and going away in all direc 
 tions : the big butterflies were fussy and unneighbourly, 
 running up and down in the sunshine and disturbing all 
 around them; the beetles, though lively enough on oc 
 casion, were more demure, and sedulously attended to the 
 main object of their visit. I wonder what all those 
 creatures think of each other ; they do not gossip together 
 like ants, but they make way for each other, and the 
 manifestation of alarm by one is at once accepted by all in 
 his neighbourhood. The Ichneumons are unpopular among 
 the insect tribes, everybody gives one of them a wide berth, 
 and interchange of civilities, as between butterflies, are of 
 the curtest ; one big black or steel-coloured gentleman is 
 so obnoxious that as soon as he alights every one in that 
 neighbourhood departs. What a vast deal there is for us 
 to learn ! these creatures, I suppose, have their traditions, 
 or if not traditions (by these I mean, of course, the natural 
 tendencies that they derive from their parents), their own 
 personal experiences. / know they are right about those 
 Ichneumons, perfectly right ; but how do they know it ? 
 How do those little creatures know that the steel-coloured 
 
154 PEESIDENCIA. 
 
 Ichneumon would as soon have a luncheon off them as off 
 the gum, perhaps prefer them ! or indeed that he in Ms 
 experience of life visits this tree in the full expectation 
 of being able to get a wholesome meal off one or two flies ? 
 or do they know it at all ? and why, when they cannot 
 endure the shadow of a carnivorous fly, will they permit 
 without difficulty the blundering swing of the antennae of 
 a Trachyderes right across their bodies, or let a big Papilio 
 almost walk over them ? There is a degree of discrimina 
 tion in all these actions that is quite superior to the in 
 stinct of, we will say, a Chlamys, which on the approach of 
 danger makes itself in an instant exactly like a bit of 
 caterpillar s dung ! That is inexplicable enough, but that 
 is simple and uniform : the rule of life among the Chla- 
 mydce is, " if ever you are in the least frightened, roll 
 yourself up as tightly as you can;" it is their misfortune 
 or their good fortune that the result is that the sight of 
 them would turn the stomach of any respectable bird on 
 the hunt for food. To this rule there is no exception; 
 a harmless butterfly accidentally touching them would 
 metamorphose them into an unpleasant-looking cylinder 
 just as soon as the touch of my very dangerous finger and 
 thumb. But here, on this gummy tree, the rendezvous of 
 insects, you find something very superior to this ; there is 
 a discriminating power which is always exercised aright, 
 and which seems very much like the result of memory and 
 of experience : certainly the absence of any such discrimi 
 nating power might be in a moment fatal, putting an end 
 to all experiences ; it is the quick-witted who live, it is the 
 dullards who are food for Ichneumons ; although whence 
 they got their wits I can tell as little as I can tell why the 
 
PEESIDENCIA. 155 
 
 old hen partridge makes her brood cower down in the 
 stubble at the sight of a distant hawk, while she cares 
 nothing at all for fifty crows or gulls : all that is evident 
 is, that such knowledge is essential to preservation of life, 
 and that such knowledge has been imparted to them by 
 their Creator. 
 
 Feb. 9. For the last day or two we have been busy 
 making arrangements for a visit to the Paraihyba, or 
 beyond the river into the Minas country. The ladies here 
 are all so good as to say that they will miss us much when 
 we are gone (certainly we have pleasure in carving for 
 them and attending to their wants at meals ; and, more 
 over, since we have been here, impelled I suppose by a 
 sight of our insect-boxes, all the ladies have turned ento 
 mologists) : we on our part are giving up very pleasant 
 quarters and society for what I fear may be in most respects 
 the reverse. I shall miss my morning bath much ; but we 
 have had towels put up, and I hope occasionally to get a 
 good dip. A bath in the morning seems to give one new 
 life, and an amount of vigour more than the day s work 
 requires ; nothing in a hot climate is so refreshing. 
 
 We have got four mules, two riding-mules for ourselves, 
 one for guide, and one for luggage; blankets, sheets (I 
 have more than a suspicion of the entomology of ordinary 
 sleeping-rooms such as we shall meet with) , knives, bis 
 cuits, brandy, towels, a change of clothes, and insect-ap 
 paratus. We propose to travel slowly, so as to have time 
 every day for some collecting. 
 
 Feb. 13, 1857, Paraihyba. 
 I try to keep up the custom of writing a few lines to 
 
156 PAEA1HYBA. 
 
 you from day to day; a three days journey has brought 
 us to this place. I am stiff in muscles of legs but tho 
 roughly well ; this mode of travelling has much to recom 
 mend it; if time is no object and money and health all 
 right it is capital : there ought to be no trouble (we have 
 had a good deal), there is a perfect freedom from restraint 
 and care : we are in all respects our own masters ; we halt 
 when and where we like, and travel each day as long as 
 we like. But the Presidencia people have not been careful 
 in their selection of a guide and muleteer for us ; we have 
 one who is much more of a mule than his beasts of burden : 
 we amuse ourselves by doing his work, grooming, drying 
 saddles, &c. ; and he amuses himself by doing our work, 
 looking about him : a good horse-whipping would exactly 
 suit his malady ; but I don t feel able to administer it, as 
 we cannot speak Portuguese. 
 
 At four or five o clock in the morning I am generally up, 
 and rouse out Gray and our idle Antonio; then the animals 
 want feeding and grooming ; then breakfast (coffee and 
 bread) has to be looked after : we strap up and generally 
 are in the saddle by six o clock. We travel till about noon, 
 and then look out for some decent-looking place where we 
 can get food (black beans and farhina) for ourselves and 
 milho for our cattle ; as soon as the latter are rubbed down 
 and turned out to pasture, and we have had something to 
 eat, we set forth on our wanderings until dusk, and then 
 the work of Antonio, our lazy attendant, has to be seen 
 to, for he never sees to it himself: the mules have to be 
 gathered in and tied up for the night, with plenty of food 
 and bedding ; after all is done, we are ready to turn in our 
 selves. Respecting the sleeping-accommodation, the less 
 
FARAIHYBA. 157 
 
 we say about it the better perhaps ; with the help of our 
 own supply of blankets and sheets as a covering over every 
 thing, and our " flea-bags/ and also plenty of active 
 exercise during the day., we sleep through everything 
 well and soundly. The common food of the country is 
 of course common fare, but wholesome enough, and to 
 good appetites acceptable. There is no difficulty at all in 
 travelling like this, if only you can get a good, active, 
 and responsible guide; almost everything depends on 
 this. 
 
 A word about these negroes, whom I meet in crowds 
 everywhere ; one cannot help noticing them, especially a 
 new arrival from England like myself, they are so utterly 
 black and ugly of feature, many of them however being 
 stately in form and splendidly limbed ! Who they are and 
 what their origin I cannot tell, no one can tell ; but their 
 present condition, and their position among other human 
 ities, is a much more practical question. Of course we all 
 admit that slavery in theory is an abomination j and, espe 
 cially if we look at it from the peaceful unworldly English- 
 parsonage point of view, it deserves some very bad names 
 indeed. We should be untrue to ourselves and to the 
 noble efforts our fathers made to clear the fair fame of the 
 English nation from all taint of slavery, if we were any 
 thing else than fierce theoretical denunciators of man- 
 traffickers and man-owners. All this I felt, and feel now, 
 when, for the first time in my life, I have an opportunity 
 of seeing with my own eyes ; but now that I begin to use 
 my eyes and to ask questions of, and to talk freely with, 
 others to whom the subject has been tested by the experi 
 ence of many years, I have somehow a conviction that the 
 
158 PARAIHYBA. 
 
 question of slavery is not so thoroughly simple as it once 
 appeared to me : theory and practice are two very different 
 things ; not only do they often disagree, but it would seem 
 as if it were seldom the case that they could by any possi 
 bility harmonize. It would be hardly fair to judge of the 
 symmetry or the truth of an abstract theory by arraigning 
 it before the bar of men s actions or habits ; so, on the 
 other hand, it would scarcely be necessarily a conclusive 
 settlement of the question if in dealing practically with a 
 practical matter we subject it only to the conclusions of 
 abstract theory. Now of all questions slavery is one of the 
 most practical it deals with the lives and happiness of 
 multitudes of black people, and with the actions of thou 
 sands of whites ; it has to deal with customs and habits 
 which are wellnigh stereotyped; it has to consider the innate 
 character, the ability, the different degrees of development 
 of mind manifested by the black when in a state of freedom 
 when in Africa, and when in a state of slavery as here. 
 Some conclusions I have no difficulty in arriving at in my 
 own mind, the opinions, as far as I can hear them, of all 
 unprejudiced men here who have given any attention to 
 the subject : 
 
 That negroes, if left to themselves, never can raise 
 themselves in the scale of humanity ; they never have 
 done so, and never can. Their children seem to be bright 
 enough (as clever as ordinary European children) till the 
 age of eleven or twelve; but then, when the body de- 
 velopes, the growth of the intellect stops, and they are 
 in mind to the end of their lives not much better than 
 children. 
 
 That negroes when subject to the influence of white 
 
PARAIHYBA. 159 
 
 men, as in slavery, are really somewhat improved by the 
 process of discipline, and in no ways deteriorated. 
 
 That the physical condition of slaves in Brazil is one 
 on the whole of comfort and enjoyment, and not over- work; 
 it is only the English who are hard task-masters. 
 
 That it is inconceivable how any community of whites 
 or of blacks could prosper and advance in civilization if 
 negro blood had any control of affairs. 
 
 That, with few exceptions, the negro slave who is cared 
 for by his master is better off than the freed slave who is 
 his own master : both are, as it were, indolent and impro 
 vident children ; the one does a little work and is well 
 looked after, the other works only by fits and starts or is 
 idle altogether and starves. 
 
 Well, I give you the difficulty as I find it, believing that 
 you with me will see that it is a difficulty. Slavery is not 
 a subject that theories can defend ; but then I hardly think 
 it is one that theories (except those that are very one-sided) 
 can fairly attack. I suppose the sale of another man s 
 body for money may pretty well be ranked with the sale of 
 indulgences in the Roman Catholic Church, or in our 
 Church, in the receipt of fees for the Sacrament of Baptism 
 which was sometimes heard of twenty years ago, or with 
 our payment for the occupation of pews in church. Of 
 all these, one seems about as morally righteous as the 
 others ; perhaps of the two (inasmuch as one deals only 
 with the body primarily and the spiritual interests second 
 arily, and the other with the spiritual interests primarily 
 and the body secondarily) the English customs which once 
 existed, or which now exist having not yet been abolished 
 for ever as slavery has, are the worse ! 
 
160 PARAIHYBA. 
 
 Nay, indeed, we need not go far to find in free England 
 the absolute counterpart to slavery ; Mayhew s ( London 
 Labour and London Poor/ Dickens s Oliver Twist/ 
 Hood s ( Song of the Shirt/ and many other revelations 
 tell of a grinding flinty-hearted despotism over overworked 
 English white slaves that the Brazilian slave-owners never 
 can approach. Mind, I do not for a moment suppose that 
 all these parallel cases in the least tend to prove that slavery 
 is right theoretically ; all that they show is, that theory, 
 if accepted as the sole guide in matters essentially practical, 
 is very unsafe. 
 
 Now where does all this land us ? not in the acceptation 
 of slavery as a thing that ought necessarily to be, because 
 it is, but in a conviction that an empire like Brazil which 
 permits slavery has to deal with a very difficult question, 
 of which it is not at once obvious that our solution of it, 
 the total and unconditional manumission of all slaves, was 
 necessarily the wisest or the most humane. 
 
 I had a conversation the other day on this subject with 
 a thoroughly good conscientious Englishman, a new comer 
 like myself, which interested me much ; he took the usual 
 humanitarian view, and talked well and earnestly; but 
 somehow he failed to convince me that the matter lay in a 
 nutshell, as he would have it. He argued thus, that they, 
 the negroes, were like us descended from the loins of 
 Adam (I did not interrupt him at this stage), that they 
 were our brothers and sisters after the flesh, that blood- 
 relationship involved not only reciprocal duties but an 
 equality of rights, that just as much and no more could 
 be said in favour of the white man dominating over the 
 black, as of the black man reducing to subjection the 
 
PARAIIIYBA. 1C1 
 
 white, and this entirely without any reference to com 
 parative moral condition or state of civilization ; my com 
 panion would decide the whole subject by the one simple 
 fact, as it seemed to him (simple theory, as it appeared to 
 me), that an absolutely perfect equality existed between 
 man and man through the length and breadth of the 
 globe. 
 
 I reminded him that he would hardly like to push this 
 theory of his to its legitimate consequences ; and then 
 asked him whether in his parish at home he considered that 
 the day-labourers or the workhouse paupers were as well 
 qualified to care of him as he to take some oversight over 
 them ; as, for instance, at Quarter Sessions, or in the 
 Board Boom of the Guardians of the Poor. No, by no 
 means ; they were incapable of judging for themselves, were 
 specially liable to be influenced by narrow motives : he for 
 one would be very sorry to see such a set of men having 
 anything to do with the law but to obey it. But for the 
 life of me I could not make him see that this was just the 
 principle that underlay the whole question of slavery : if 
 his dependents at home have no rights as to self-govern 
 ment, then these dependents here may have no rights also ; 
 if the more uncivilized of English are unfit to take charge 
 of themselves, a fortiori surely the grown up children of 
 Africa, whose intellect is an utter blank, may be presumed 
 to be unfit also. If you allow this, I do not say you allow 
 slavery, but you allow that something may be fairly urged 
 in defence of slavery ; for after all it is not the institution 
 itself, but the mode of regulating it and administering 
 it, and qualifying or intensifying it, which is the practical 
 question. Slavery is but a name ; the thing exists in many 
 
 M 
 
162 PETROPOLIS. 
 
 many cases where the word is unknown : the institution 
 itself may have full force, and yet every one under its in 
 fluence enjoy as much happiness as falls to the lot of 
 many freemen*. 
 
 Carpenter s Hotel, Petropolis, 
 
 Feb. 21. 
 
 We are staying for a few days in a second-rate sort of 
 lodging-house or hotel, the only recommendation of which 
 is, that the master is an Englishman. We got safe back 
 from our Paraihyba expedition ; the weather is so bad that 
 we are glad to get to any shelter at all. I saw the other 
 day a really large specimen of a snake ; we were riding 
 along very early in the morning by moonlight to avoid the 
 midday heat, when between my mule and the side of the 
 
 * Humboldt,in his Cosmos/ writes on this point a By maintain 
 ing the unity of the human species we at the same time repel the 
 cheerless assumption of superior and inferior races of men. There are 
 families of nations more readily susceptible of culture, more highly 
 civilized, more ennobled by mental cultivation than others ; but not 
 in themselves more noble. All are alike designed for freedom. * * * 
 1 If/ in the words of Wilhelm von Humboldt, we would point to an 
 idea which all history throughout its course discloses as ever esta 
 blishing more firmly and extending more widely its salutary empire 
 if there is one idea which contributes more than any other to the 
 often contested, but still more often misunderstood, perfectibility of 
 the whole human species it is the idea of our common humanity, 
 tending to remove the hostile barriers which prejudices and partial 
 views of every kind have raised between men, and to cause all man 
 kind, without distinction of religion, nation, or colour, to be regarded 
 as one great fraternity, aspiring towards one common aim, the free de 
 velopment of their moral faculties. " HUMBOLDT, Cosmos, Sabine s 
 edition, vol. i. p. 355. There are few that will not agree with most 
 of this ; it points to the ultimate goal, not to the practical efforts which 
 we in our generation may wisely make in order that the goal may 
 some day be reached. 
 
FKTROPOLIS. 163 
 
 road under a bank I was conscious of a body on the ground 
 moving past me ; it was quite light enough to see that our 
 mules had hedged in between themselves and the bank a 
 large snake, I should think about twelve or fifteen feet 
 long. The beast had no difficulty in getting ahead of us and 
 disappearing on the other side of the road ; it seemed about 
 as thick as one s knee-joint, and to progress, not as I had 
 supposed by a wriggling eel sort of movement, but as if 
 impelled by some inner machinery, almost without wrig 
 gling its body at all ; it was an ugly sight to see in the 
 cold moonlight, and I was as glad as the beast was to part 
 company. 
 
 The roads are truly abominable ; they are in parts one 
 continued mass of churned-up clay : the only guides that 
 we have as to how deep the slough is, whether inches or 
 feet, is an occasional branch of a tree stuck upright in the 
 middle of the road ; that means that the quagmire is so 
 deep there that it is dangerous for man or mule, so we all 
 give the branch a wide berth. We passed on our journey 
 dead bodies of mules killed by the badness of the roads, 
 as well as hundreds upon hundreds of living mules, each 
 with their two bags of coffee or other produce. It is 
 curious to see how clever the mules are ; of course every 
 now and then one comes full tilt with one s knee against 
 their load, but generally the old experienced mules know 
 to an inch the breadth of space that the burden on their 
 back requires, and if left alone they take care that there is 
 space enough to pass. No one, except on compulsion, 
 travels in the rainy season, and so there is small wonder 
 that we meet only mules and their drivers ; but at the 
 best of times the road, as being the great highway from 
 
 Al2 
 
164 PETROPOLIS. 
 
 the capital to the richest province of the interior, is very 
 bad and discreditable. No real progress can be made by 
 the nation in wealth or in civilization till the means of in 
 tercommunication are infinitely improved. 
 
 The views round Petropolis are as fine as any that I have 
 seen, and the walks by the forest-clearings are productive 
 of many insect spoils. We are rather troubled out of doors 
 by a species of tick, Carapatas the natives call them ; they 
 abound in the grass and on the shrubs, and if they have 
 a chance, as they often have with me, they fasten them 
 selves on the skin; every time I beat bushes into my 
 umbrella I get scores of them. 
 
 The frogs and toads here are numerous : one huge fellow I 
 met taking a walk the other evening; he would just about 
 fill my wide-awake : he was not at all perturbed at meeting 
 me; we quietly contemplated each other, and then went our 
 several ways. The noises that some of them make at night 
 are wonderful, as you may imagine when you remember 
 what our little frogs in England can do, and compare their 
 size with that of the species here. There is one large 
 species called " the Blacksmith/ from the peculiar clang 
 or ring of his note ; the effect when a couple of them are 
 giving utterance is exactly that of an anvil being rapidly 
 struck by a blacksmith or two in full work : the sound 
 may be heard at a considerable distance, and stands out 
 from all other forest night cries. 
 
 I have been much interested in watching a small colony 
 of soft-bodied ants which I discovered near this place; 
 they live only under the surface of things (whether it is 
 their manner of life that gives character to their bodies, 
 or the soft unarmed nature of their bodies that determines 
 
PETROPOLIS. 165 
 
 their mode of life, I cannot tell) ; they travel about, but 
 wherever they go they construct little tunnels, or arched 
 concealed roadways for themselves, and never permit 
 themselves to see the light of day. One small colony of 
 these ants was bent upon climbing the trunk of a certain 
 tree in this neighbourhood, and was building up an arched 
 road with substance that looked much like mortar, about 
 the thickness of a cedar pencil ; I could trace this tunnel 
 for some yards along the ground, but failed in discovering 
 any nest or special headquarters of the colony. The little 
 ants constructed at the rate of three to six inches every 
 twenty-four hours : they work from the inside of course, 
 and I could see generally two pairs of little jaws with fore 
 legs hard at work just in the inside ; the same jaws were 
 at work for several minutes, and thus I presume had stores 
 of building- material brought to them by others within the 
 tube. If I broke an inch or two away in the tube, the 
 little workers always had it made good the next day. On 
 one occasion I put two pins, firmly fixed in the tree, across 
 the open orifice ; they built right up to and between these, 
 but finding that they could not get beyond them, they 
 actually took down a little bit of the side wall and made 
 a bend in the direction of the tunnel, working round the 
 obstruction, and then continuing upwards again. 
 
 What a comfort it is to hear sometimes of a sensible 
 man, who has both opportunities and refined tastes with 
 which to avail himself of opportunities ! I have heard 
 much of an Englishman, Mr. Alexander Fry, a Bio mer 
 chant, who has been in the country for many years, and 
 who spends his spare time and holidays in the study of 
 natural history ; they tell me, what is likely enough, that 
 
166 PETROPOLIS. 
 
 he knows the insect world of this province better than any 
 other man living, and that his collections are wonderful. 
 I have no doubt but that the pursuit of these simple tastes 
 has added much, not only to his collections, but to his 
 happiness and health, and certainly infinitely to his use 
 fulness in his day and generation. 
 
 Mr. Fry has relatives who have a house in Petropolis, 
 to which they come in the hot season ; I have been happy 
 in making their acquaintance, and hope to obtain through 
 them an introduction to Mr. Fry ; he is now living near 
 London. -., 
 
 We have had a case of yellow fever in this house. An 
 English lady came up from Rio three or four days ago not 
 quite well, in fact she was then sickening with the fever : 
 at 6 yesterday evening she was just unwell enough not to 
 come into the saloon for tea; at 10 P.M. the doctor was 
 sent for ; at 3 A.M. this morning the crisis was over, and 
 she is out of danger ; but six hours only have so reduced 
 her that she can hardly speak, and the effects of the attack 
 will last for weeks. As to infection, it seems to be nothing 
 at all at this height above the sea ; no one here catches it 
 from others (at least this is the assurance with which every 
 one consoles his neighbours) ; persons may bring it up from 
 Rio with them, and be taken with it here, and die, as indeed 
 they often do, but no one here catches it from another. 
 This evening two French women are dead who were well 
 in the morning; they, too, have just come from Rio, and 
 
 brought death up with them. 
 
 #*###**** 
 
 I am your affectionate Son, 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
PETEOPOLIS. 167 
 
 To the Editor of the Zoologist *. 
 
 Petropolis, February 18, 1857. 
 
 When my friend Mr. Gray and myself were making 
 arrangements in England for an entomological visit to the 
 province of Rio Janeiro, we experienced difficulty in 
 obtaining information with regard to our proposed col 
 lecting-ground : it is true several works of travels in the 
 Brazils have been published, one or two of them valuable ; 
 but none of them, except that of Brulle and that of 
 Perty, so far as I know, refer to entomology : a com 
 plete or a general work on the entomology of Brazil 
 is still a desideratum : in the absence, however, of more 
 extended details and larger experience, perhaps a few notes 
 and memoranda as to our localities and the degree of our 
 success may, if you can find space for them, be of service 
 to future entomologists visiting this beautiful country. 
 
 We arrived in Rio early in December, being the com 
 mencement of the rainy as well as hot season ; this period 
 of the year was purposely chosen by us, as being by all 
 accounts most favourable to insect life. We have now 
 been several weeks examining the entomology of different 
 localities in the province, and are able to form some 
 opinion with regard to the climate and insect productions 
 of the country : and first, let me say a few words as to its 
 apparent salubrity. When in England we heard much of 
 the ravages of yellow fever, and since we have been here 
 
 * Reprinted from the Zoologist/ May, 1857, p. 5561. 
 
168 PETEOPOLIS. 
 
 this fearful disease has been more prevalent than during 
 any previous season since that of its first appearance ; its 
 ravages, however, are confined to the unhealthy parts of 
 the city, and especially perhaps to the shipping ; it is on 
 this account real cause for anxiety to permanent residents 
 in Rio ; and hence fresh comers should at once for a time 
 leave the lowlands near the shores of the bay, where little 
 can be done entomologically ; but to persons residing in 
 the country or in the Organ Mountains there is as little 
 cause for alarm as if they were in England. In all other 
 respects the country still deserves the character it had 
 before the introduction of yellow fever, that of being one 
 of the most healthy climates in the world. Let the 
 traveller use only ordinary common sense, let him not 
 expose himself unnecessarily to the rays of the sun, be 
 careful to avoid excessive fatigue, and abstain from ardent 
 spirits, then he will, humanly speaking, enjoy as vigorous 
 health here as he has done at any portion of his life. 
 
 The following are localities at present visited by us, 
 which deserve notice as entomological stations : the 
 Corcovardo Mountain, Tijuca, Const ancia, Presidencia 
 and Paraihiba : the two first are immediately above Rio, 
 Constancia and Presidencia are in the Organ Mountains, 
 and Paraihiba on the river of that name. An hour s 
 walk from Botofogo, a suburb of Rio, where there are 
 excellent hotels, is sufficient to reach the foot of Corco 
 vardo, a well-known mountain some 2,200 feet high ; its 
 collecting-ground consists of a broad walk at the side of 
 the famous aqueduct three miles long, which runs for a 
 considerable portion of its extent through virgin forest. 
 Coleoptera are captured here as elsewhere by beating 
 
PETROPOLIS. 169 
 
 bushes, or, when flying, by means of an ordinary ring-net ; 
 although several new species each day were the result of 
 our collecting here, the locality was not so interesting as 
 others,, inasmuch as from its propinquity to the city it has 
 been more carefully examined, and the species taken were 
 better known : on every day that we visited it we met 
 collectors, principally blacks, employed by dealers in Rio ; 
 these blacks without any superfluous clothing carried in 
 one hand a ring gauze-net on a thin bamboo pole 20 or 
 30 feet long, in the other hand a strip of some soft wood 
 stuck over with rude pins ; this was all their apparatus ; 
 when they discovered any " bicho" either Lepidopterous or 
 Coleopterous, above the ordinary size or brilliant in colours, 
 they gave chase, and if successful skewered their capture 
 to their slip of wood or to the outside of their cap : many 
 of such collectors we met, but not a single entomologist. 
 Entomology, as a science, is hardly known ; with the one 
 exception of Mr. Alexander Fry, whose splendid collections 
 are still spoken of by every one here who knows what 
 entomology means, we have heard of no one who either 
 himself or by others is seeking in any degree to become 
 acquainted with the Fauna of the country. Notwith 
 standing, however, the number of collectors who are to be 
 met with along the aqueduct, this locality well deserves 
 the careful attention of the entomologist; granted that 
 the larger species may be known, and may be found in 
 European cabinets, there remain countless minute species 
 disregarded utterly by those whose only object is to make 
 up show-cases for the drawing-room, many of which 
 doubtless will prove altogether new to science, and very 
 interesting. 
 
170 PETROPOLIS. 
 
 Tijuca is a scattered hamlet situated at a height of about 
 1000 feet on a spur of the Corcovardo range, facing the 
 sea, at a distance of ten or twelve miles from Rio : as an 
 entomological locality it disappointed us : the hills sur 
 rounding it are generally cleared of forest and converted 
 into coffee-plantations ; owing either to this or to some 
 other cause, insects of all orders are scarce, or in truth for 
 the most part entirely absent. The labour of several days 
 here failed in securing as many species as could have been 
 collected in the same time in the poorest district in Eng 
 land. There is, however, one locality, within an hour s 
 walk of Mr. Bennett s hotel at Tijuca, which is a decided 
 exception : a road from Tijuca to the Botanical Gardens 
 near Bio passes through coffee-plantations for three miles 
 up to the head of the valley, and then descends through 
 virgin forest towards the sea-coast to the gardens. The 
 part of this road that runs through the forest is so full of 
 insect-life, that of itself it will well repay a visit to Tijuca ; 
 and this suggests one rule which, so far as our experience 
 goes, universally obtains, roads through, or the open 
 sides of, virgin forest are always good collecting-ground ; 
 cleared country, milho- or coffee-plantations, even the 
 second growth of timber, are seldom profitable, often 
 absolutely barren : we have found everywhere that this 
 distinction holds good. In England fine green luxuriant 
 bushes by the road-side, coppices of wood fifteen or twenty 
 years old, are excellent localities ; here such contain next 
 to nothing, compared with what may be found at the 
 margins of virgin forests, places where the original growth 
 has never been touched by man. 
 
 It is however in the Organ Mountains, richest in vegc- 
 
PETROPOLIS. 171 
 
 tation, most lovely in scenery, most healthy in climate, 
 that we have found the best stations for the entomologist : 
 such stations may of course be multiplied indefinitely ; I 
 notice two, both most excellent, accessible, and, so far as 
 we can learn, both up to this time almost unexplored : 
 Constancia is an excellent English boarding-house, kept 
 by Mr. Heath, in the heart of the Organ Mountains, two 
 days journey from the city in a northerly direction; and 
 Presidencia as comfortable a home for the English tra 
 veller, kept by Mr. Land, thirteen leagues from the city 
 in a north-west direction (three miles from the German 
 colony Petropolis, where the Emperor has his summer 
 palace) ; both these, at altitudes of about 3000 feet, are in 
 the midst of primeval forest, and would require for their 
 examination years instead of months : I notice these two, 
 not to the exclusion of other equally profitable localities, 
 but because I know how much remains still to be dis 
 covered in each, and at the same time that the traveller 
 will in them be sure to meet with English comforts and 
 an English welcome. 
 
 Paraihiba is a city three days journey from Rio, on the 
 Minas road ; it is healthy, although its situation is low 
 and the heat intense. The immediate neighbourhood is 
 covered with large coffee- and also rice-plantations, and 
 consequently an entomological desert. At the time of our 
 visit the fine river was swollen with the recent rains ; but 
 doubtless its banks during the dry season would well 
 repay research. There are two tolerable hotels : the 
 Hotel Universal, kept by a respectable Englishwoman, is 
 the best, but of course with only Brazilian accommodation; 
 and some time might profitably be spent here in making 
 
172 PETEOPOLIS. 
 
 excursions in different directions into the country on either 
 side of the river. 
 
 Although every locality seems (as is to be expected) 
 to have its peculiar character of insects, yet generally, 
 through our entire excursion during this the rainy season, 
 we have found some orders everywhere abundant some 
 strangely scarce. Diurnal Lepidoptera abound, and are 
 indescribably beautiful ; it has been hard indeed to devote 
 one s exclusive attention to any other group, when these 
 exquisite insects are flitting around in the not more 
 brilliant sunshine. I hardly know how far the Papilionidse 
 of the Organ Mountains have already received attention ; 
 but I am sure that if some of our English Lepidopterists 
 could have seen them, in sunshine, in shade (in masses 
 of tens and twenties by the margins of forest streams) 
 they could not have been satisfied with simple admiration : 
 words are wanting to convey any impression of their fresh 
 beauty. Moths, especially minute species, are common 
 by beating, and during the short twilight of evening : a 
 little experience that we have had of sugaring by night 
 proved that it was as effectual here as in England. He- 
 miptera are by no means abundant ; Diptera appear to be 
 almost confined to those abominations, sandflies, musquitos, 
 and " Borrachudos" a very insignificant-looking atom, 
 which swarms at Tijuca and elsewhere, but which by its 
 bite raises painful inflammations on the face and backs of 
 hands/ Hymenoptera are decidedly rare : of bees, although 
 we have been at pains to capture all that we have met 
 with, I do not believe that a dozen species can be found in 
 our united collections : this is perhaps to be attributed to 
 the unprecedented amount of rain that has lately fallen. 
 
PETROPOLIS. 173 
 
 The ants are very numerous and most interesting : some 
 species construct covered galleries among the branches of 
 trees ; others burrow, for miles, six or ten feet below the 
 surface of the ground ; some are carnivorous, and seem 
 to live principally on insects ; others are vegetarians ; one 
 species in this neighbourhood is welcomed as a friend to 
 the housekeeper, for when it marches through a house not 
 a single cockroach or spider is left behind it alive ; at 
 Constancia and other localities there is a species which, in 
 a single night, will strip a large tree of every leaf. In 
 the forests on the Corcovardo range, we heard of (but 
 could not see) an ant which constructs its nest above 
 ground five or eight feet high ; the sides of these nests are 
 constructed of clay, worked up by mastication, so that 
 after a few years they obtain the consistency of porous 
 stone : in this state they have a commercial value ; they 
 are cut up into slabs or blocks, and used for the purpose 
 of lining ovens. 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
174 R[0 JANEIRO. 
 
 To the Editor of the Zoologist *. 
 
 Rio Janeiro, March 14, 1857. 
 
 In my last communication (posted on February 25th) I 
 pointed out the localities around Rio that we had visited. 
 I will now notice the modes of collecting Coleoptera that 
 we found profitable, and one or two other points that to a 
 future tourist may be useful. 
 
 Modes of collecting Coleoptera. 
 
 It would be impossible for any one, without much 
 larger opportunities than we have had, to speak with 
 decision as to the best modes of obtaining species ; dif 
 ferent localities and different seasons of the year would 
 demand doubtless different treatment : the following are, 
 however, generally the results of our collecting experience 
 during the hot season through the different Serras. 
 
 The herbage and undergrowth of plants in tropical 
 countries are, as might be expected, entirely different from 
 what we see in England : there grass and vegetation are 
 short, easily commanded by a sweeping net ; here we find 
 it rank and luxuriant and gigantic, so that a sweeping net 
 has as little power in obtaining species from it as it would 
 have among branches of oak or pine at home : some larger 
 substitute must be found. I used at Constancia, and 
 with some success, a large sheet with two poles for 
 beating ; but this was heavy and cumbrous, and required 
 
 * Reprinted from the Zoologist, July 1857, p. 5040. 
 
RIO JANEIRO. 175 
 
 one or two assistants. The best instrument was an 
 umbrella inverted; this is light and portable, of easy 
 application, and on the whole the best instrument for 
 collecting. Three well-made, steel-ribbed alpacas will 
 with care suffice for an expedition of three or four months; 
 the seams well stitched, and handles curved (for pulling 
 down branches) , and of the same wood as the stem. 
 
 Sugaring by night is certainly very profitable for Lepi- 
 doptera, ants, and cockroaches, probably also for Coleoptera. 
 Mr. Fry was very successful in attracting insects by the light 
 of a strong lamp ; and the species that we have taken by 
 this means are a sufficient proof of its value, although if 
 a coleopterist has his days for collecting he will find it 
 better to spend his nights in rest. Decaying timber is of 
 course valuable ; many species of the fine genus Brenthus 
 are found under the bark of felled " Canella Batella " (a 
 species of tree remarkable for its hard and heavy wood) ; 
 the diamond beetles on the leaves of, and on the ground 
 under, a wild orange-tree, " Larangeira do Mato," easily 
 recognized by the sharp spurs on its bark ; and on the 
 leaves of some tree allied to the orange are found several 
 species of Cassidae. 
 
 Milho, if in the sunshine, deserves examination for the 
 insects that bask on its broad leaves, and that lie hid 
 between the young sprouting shoots. Coffee produces 
 nothing, and seems to permit nothing even in its neigh 
 bourhood. Felled trees often harbour on their underside 
 shaded from the glare of the sun several species ; but logs 
 of wood and stones on the ground are generally unproduc 
 tive, probably not affording sufficient protection from the 
 fierce heat of midday. Of water-insects I much regret 
 
176 RIO JANEIRO. 
 
 to say I know nothing, assuming (which I do not believe) 
 that species are abundant here. To collect them is at 
 present impossible ; the torrents of rain have turned each 
 brook into a formidable stream, and every valley into a 
 quagmire. I have hardly seen a pond or a ditch since I 
 left England. 
 
 Travelling Apparatus. 
 
 All insects must be kept in tin cases, as the only means 
 of protection from their three formidable enemies, 
 " barratas " or cockroaches, ants, and damp. It will add 
 much to the convenience of travelling if these cases are 
 made in pairs (about 2J by 1| x 1| feet, or to hold sets of 
 Downie s middle-sized boxes), one pair to be the cargo of 
 each mule. Two pairs of these will contain boxes, cases 
 of card-frames, bottles of gum, chloroform, spirits of wine, 
 &c., sufficient for a single coleopterist for a journey of four 
 or five months, for a lepidopterist for three. Each ento 
 mologist can best tell what details of apparatus he will 
 require ; he should, however, certainly possess an etna for 
 killing insects by hot water (ours, that we obtained from 
 Messrs. Adams, Haymarket, are strong and serviceable), 
 a couple of short, stout chisels for bark and decaying 
 wood, and a small tin box for keeping insects relaxed and 
 damp, and at the same time secure from cockroaches. 
 Whatever he will be likely to want must be brought from 
 England : nothing, not even gum tragacanth, can be ob 
 tained here except at a vast outlay of patience. 
 
 As to other matters, he will have to walk over all sorts 
 of ground, with a temperature of from 90 to 120 or even 
 more; therefore stout shoes (or boots, as a protection 
 
K10 JANEIRO. 177 
 
 against snakes, which abound) and light dress will be 
 appreciated. 
 
 Should the entomologist be disposed to travel into the 
 interior, he should if possible obtain and follow the advice 
 of some friend who knows the country. Travelling is 
 perfectly safe ; it supplies a never-failing fund of objects 
 of interest ; it presents no serious inconveniences : let him 
 satisfy himself that he can live upon the fare of the 
 country black beans, farhino, and came secca or jerked 
 beef, with occasionally, as a treat, bacon or an old hen ; 
 then he will require only time, patience, and money to 
 make his expedition both profitable and delightful. 
 
 Assuming that the two former are not wanting, I will 
 notice the third : I suppose that two entomologists are 
 fellow travellers ; they will require six mules two saddle- 
 mules for themselves, one for their black servant and 
 guide who attends to the mules *, and three cargo-mules, 
 one carrying their second suits of clothes, boots, blankets, 
 stock of tea, small supply of brandy, and other personal 
 requisites, the two others entomological boxes and stores. 
 These mules must be bought, at prices ranging, according 
 to the locality and demand, from 150 to 300 milreis. I 
 say they must be bought ; for if hired (as they may be) 
 the amount of hire for a journey of only three weeks will 
 
 * The choice of a proper person as servant will be the only serious 
 difficulty likely to present itself ; as a general rule it will be better to 
 have a freed black and not a slave, inasmuch as the latter at a distance 
 from his master may turn indolent and refractory. However, the 
 traveller should obtain the advice and aid of some resident English 
 man. Mr. Bennett, of Tijuca, the proprietor of the boarding-house 
 there, would be well competent and, I doubt not, willing to render any 
 assistance. 
 
178 RIO JANEIRO. 
 
 exceed the amount of purchase-money ; but when bought 
 they will fetch at the end of the journey, however long, 
 supposing that they have been tolerably cared for, at least 
 two-thirds of the sums that were originally paid for them. 
 With the mules must be bought also bridles, saddles, 
 and knee-boots (if not brought out from England) , also 
 pack-saddles, hide-coverings and halters for the cargo- 
 mules. The outlay account then will stand as follows : 
 
 Milreis. 
 
 2 saddle-mules, at 250 milreis 500 
 
 1 saddle-mule, at 180 ditto 180 
 
 3 cargo-mules, at 200 ditto 600 
 
 Mule furniture 100 
 
 1380 
 
 making a total of 1380 milreis, or say about 150: of 
 this at least 100 will be repaid at the end of the journey 
 by the sale of the animals, leaving 50 as the total ex 
 penditure and loss on the purchase account. The daily 
 
 expenses will be on the average 
 
 Milreis. 
 
 Food, milho and grass, for mules 6 
 
 Dinner, supper, and bed for two 6 
 
 Black s food and bed 1 
 
 13 
 
 Of this, which is a high estimate, the expenses of personal 
 board and lodging may with ease be saved, if any sort of 
 introduction is carried to the proverbially hospitable Bra 
 zilians of the interior. I have been assured by many that 
 often they have found it impossible to spend any money 
 
 at all. 
 
 HAMLET CLARK. 
 
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