[73] The negroes of the Cru nation come to Sierra Leone from a great distance, and hire themselves out for any kind of labour, for six, eight, or ten months, sometimes for a year or two. They have then earned enough to go home and live like idle gentlemen, for at least twice that time, and then return to work. When their engagements on board men of war are fulfilled, they receive regular discharges and certificates.
[74] Mr. Pennell accordingly wrote to Mr. Perreira, stating the circumstance and also that the prisoner was taken. The magistrate assured him that he had laid his communication before the provisional government, and that the punishment directed by law should be inflicted, and the greatest sorrow was expressed by the junta for the accident. Colonel Madera, commanding the active military police, also assured Mr.—— the lieutenant of the Doris, on his honour, that the assassin should be brought to trial. But it was not done while we remained in Brazil, and it is probable not at all. The political state of Bahia shortly afterwards would scarcely leave leisure for such a matter.
[75] One of the two parishes of the lower town.
[76] In 1804 it contained 1088 hearths.
[77] See Introduction, p. 15.
[78] This was no longer the case at my second visit to Rio, and every thing eatable was much improved.
[79] Dedicated to St. John Baptist. I am not sure whether this or N.S. da Cabeça is the mother church; the same clergyman officiates in both.
[80] The nickname of the inhabitants of Rio is Carioca, from this fountain.
[81] It is 1713 feet square.
[82] Count Hogendorp died while I was in Chile. Napoleon had left him by his will five thousand pounds sterling, but the old man did not live to know this proof of the recollection of his old master. As he approached his end, the Emperor Don Pedro sent to him such assistance, and paid him such attention as his state required or admitted of, and had given orders concerning his funeral; but it was found at his death that he was a protestant, and one of the protestant consuls therefore caused him to be properly interred in the English burial-ground. On undressing him after death, his body was found to be tattooed like those of the natives of the eastern islands. I never saw the count after the 1st of January.