Of the many European merchants established here, who for the most part are English, few reside in the city, most of them having country houses in the suburbs. One of the most fashionable resorts is a lovely spot about two miles out, called Botafogo. There the houses are built along the semicircular shore of a quiet bay, which is nearly surrounded by high hills. Immediately behind the houses, and almost overhanging them, stands a very remarkable mountain called the Corcovado, which rises to upwards of two thousand feet above the level of the sea, about two-thirds of its eastern face being a perpendicular precipice. Many other European residences are situated in Catete and on the Praia de Flamengo, between Botafogo and the city; and in the Larenjeiras valley, which stretches up from Catete towards the mountains; others exist at the opposite extremity of the city, in the district of Engenho Velho.

There is one thing wanting in the neighbourhood of Rio which no large city should be without—a public drive. This, I find in India, is a point particularly attended to, whenever, even a few, Europeans are located together. At Rio, those who wish to take a morning or an evening drive, can only do so on the public roads, which are only fit for carriages to run on for a few miles out of the city. There is, indeed, quite close to it what is called the Passeio Publico, a large garden with shady walks, but it is only intended for those who walk. Of an evening, when the weather is fine, it is much frequented by the citizens. The Botanic Garden, which is about eight miles distant from the city, is a place of great resort.

On landing, I took up my residence at an Italian hotel, in one of the principal streets, but as this was not a place fitted to my pursuits, as soon as all my luggage was landed, I removed to the boarding-house of an old English lady, who had then been about thirty years in the country. It was about three or four miles from the city, situated in a beautiful valley which stretches from the suburb of Engenho Velho towards the Corcovado mountain, and called Rio Comprido, from a small stream so named which runs through it. Here I had my head-quarters for about five months, and during that period my excursions extended in all directions round the city. Frequent visits were made to the mountains, which are all covered with dense virgin forests—to the humid valleys—to the swampy tracts which lie to the north of the city—to the sea-shores—and to the islands in the bay. From these rambles there resulted a rich botanical harvest, besides numerous specimens belonging to other branches of natural history. But as an eternal spring and summer reign in this happy climate, and as almost every plant has its own season for the production of its flowers, every month is characterized by a different flora. It is, then, scarcely to be expected that a residence of but a few months can afford more than a very partial knowledge of its vegetable riches.

The whole of the country around Rio is essentially granitic, all the rocks being of that nature to which the name of Gneiss-granite has been applied, from their possessing decided marks of stratification. The mountains generally run in chains having no particular direction, and are of all sizes, from slight eminences to mountains which rise from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. The loftier of these mountains, such as the Peak of Tejuca, the Corcovado, and the Gavea, have their south-east sides bare and precipitous, while those to the northward have a gradual ascent, and are wooded to their summit. Notwithstanding the enormous length of time which the sides of these mountains have been covered with their mighty forests, the alluvial layer of soil which rests on them is very thin. This, however, may be accounted for by the heavy rains washing it, as well as the materials from which it is formed, down into the valleys, where the alluvium is often found to be many feet deep. Hence it is that the deep valleys which intersect the mountain ranges are the principal seats of agricultural industry; and some of them, particularly in the vicinity of the city, are thickly studded with habitations, surrounded with plantations of Coffee, Oranges, Bananas, and Mandioca. Many of the lower hills near the city are now also cleared and planted with Coffee, but the plantations were too young when I left to form any idea of their success at so low a level. Beneath the alluvium there is a bed of reddish-coloured clay, which is very tenacious when wet. It is often from thirty to forty feet in thickness, and is not peculiar to the province, as I have met with it in every part of Brazil where I have travelled. It frequently contains numerous boulders, consisting of rounded, as well as angular, fragments of Gneiss, Granite, and Quartz, and is often inter-stratified with various beds of sand and gravel. It is obvious then from these observations, that the soil around Rio itself is not generally rich. Indeed, the first thing which strikes a stranger on his arrival, is the apparent poverty of the soil contrasted with the richness of the vegetation. But for the humidity of the atmosphere, the heavy dews of the dry season, and the rains of the wet, combined with the heat of a tropical sun, the greater part of the country immediately surrounding Rio would not be worthy of cultivation. The very small quantity of soil which suffices for some plants is quite astonishing to a European. Rocks, on which scarcely a trace of earth is to be observed, are covered with Vellozias, Tillandsias, Melastomaceæ, Cacti, Orchideæ, and Ferns, and all in the vigour of life.

The climate of Rio has been very much modified by the clearing away of the forests in the neighbourhood. Previous to this, the seasons could scarcely be divided into wet and dry as they are at present. Then rains fell nearly all the year round, and thunder-storms were not only more frequent, but more violent. So much has the moisture been reduced, that the supply of water for the city has been considerably diminished, and the government has, in consequence, forbidden the further destruction of the forests on the Corcovado range, towards the sources of the aqueduct. During the months of May, June, July, August, and September, the climate is usually delightful, being the dry as well as the cool season. The mean temperature of the year is 72°. Although frequent showers fall during the dry season, yet they are not to be compared with the continued rains of the other, which generally commence in October. The rainy season sets in with heavy thunder-storms, which are of most frequent occurrence in the afternoon.

The population of Rio consists principally of Portuguese and their descendants, both white and coloured; those only born in the country are styled Brazilians; and ever since its independence as an empire in 1820, a very bad feeling has existed between them and those who are natives of Portugal. But this feeling is less common among the higher than the lower orders, and is, perhaps, more strongly marked in the inner provinces than on the coast. Wherever any riot, or any attempt to revolt takes place in the interior—and such occurrences are now, unfortunately, but too common—the poor Portuguese are the first to fall victims, being butchered without mercy, and robbed of all they possess. Notwithstanding the ill usage they receive, hundreds of them arrive yearly to push their fortune in the country, which, at one time, formed the richest gem in the crown of Portugal. Many of those who call themselves white in Brazil, scarcely deserve the title, as few of those families who have been long in the country, have preserved the purity of the original stock. The inhabitants of Rio are in general short and slightly made, and form a great contrast to the tall and handsome inhabitants of the Provinces of San Paulo and Minas Geräes, and even those of several of the northern provinces. The Brazilian wherever he is met with is always polite, and but very seldom inhospitable, especially in the less frequented parts of the country. He is much more temperate in his drinking than in his eating, and much more addicted to snuff-taking as well as to smoking: hence the prevalence of dyspeptic and nervous complaints among them. Marriage is less common in Brazil than in Europe, a fact which accounts for the greater laxity of morals which exists here among both sexes. The women are generally short, and when young are pretty agreeable, but as they increase in years they mostly get very corpulent, from their living well and taking but little exercise. In Rio and the other large towns, they always make their appearance when strangers call, but such is not the case in most parts of the interior; there they still remain shy, but with an abundance of curiosity. I have lived for a week at a time in houses where I was well aware there were ladies, without ever seeing more of them than their dark eyes peering through the chinks about the doors of the inner apartments. In the distant province of Goyaz, Matto-Grosso, and Piauhy, nearly all classes of them are as much addicted to the use of the pipe as the men. It is but very seldom that native Indians are to be seen in Rio; I was several months in the country before I saw one. The brown boatmen, in the harbour, who have been taken for Indians, are, as Spix and Martius have already observed, mulattoes of various shades of colour.

Much has been written on slavery as it exists in Brazil. It is a subject of great importance, and demands a much greater amount of observation than has generally occurred to those who have written on it at greatest length. Those have mostly been voyagers, en passant, who have derived their knowledge from others, and not from personal observation. The most ridiculous stories are told by the European residents to strangers on their arrival, as I well know from personal experience. One of the more recent works on Brazil, which on its appearance was the most accredited in Europe, is, perhaps, the least to be depended on. I have good authority for stating that the author noted down every statement that was made to him, however extraordinary, without the slightest examination as to its truth. More than one individual has informed me, that at dinner parties, they have heard persons present, who were more famed for their wit than their veracity, cramming him with information about Brazil, which, in truth, was worse than no information at all; but everything seemed to be acceptable, and was immediately entered in his note-book.

In the year 1825, Humboldt estimated the entire population of Brazil at about 4,000,000; of this number he calculated that 920,000 were whites, 1,960,000 negroes, and 1,120,000 mixed races and native Indians. Here the proportion of the coloured races to the white is about three to one. Later estimates give an entire population of 5,000,000; and the proportion of the coloured race to the whites stands as four to one. It was supposed at the time when the law was passed to render illegal the introduction of new slaves, that the proportional number would speedily decline. Had this law been strictly observed, such would, no doubt, have been the case, as it is well known that the number of births falls far short of the deaths among the slave population in Brazil. This does not arise from their ill usage, as some writers have supposed, but from the well-known fact that a greater proportion of males than of females has at all times been introduced to the country. On some estates in the interior the proportion of females to males is often as low as one to ten. In the Diamond District, in particular, females are very scarce. The law, however, has not been attended to, and the consequence of incessant introduction is, that the number of slaves in the country has not declined. During the five years which I spent in Brazil, I have good reason for believing that the supply was always nearly equal to the demand, even in the most distant parts of the empire.

Notwithstanding the vigilance of the cruisers both on the coast of Brazil and that of Africa, it was well known to every one in Rio, that cargoes of slaves were regularly landed even within a few miles of the city; and during several voyages which I have made in canoes and other small craft along the shores of the northern provinces, I have repeatedly seen cargoes of from one to three hundred slaves landed, and have heard of others. There are many favourite landing-places between Bahia and Pernambuco, particularly near the mouth of the Rio San Francisco. Again and again, while travelling in the interior, I have seen troops of new slaves of both sexes, who could not speak a single word of Portuguese, varying from twenty to one hundred individuals, marched inland for sale, or already belonging to proprietors of plantations. These bands are always under the escort of armed men, and those who have already been bought, are not unfrequently made to carry a small load, usually of agricultural implements. There is no secrecy made of their movements, nay, magistrates themselves are very often the purchasers of them. It is likewise well known that the magistrates of those districts where slaves are landed, receive a certain per-centage on them as a bribe to secrecy. The high price which they bring in the market, is a very great temptation to incur the risk of importing them. It is said that if only one cargo be saved out of three, that one will cover the whole expenses, and leave a handsome profit besides.