CHAPTER VII
IN THE CAPITAL
A week after they had left home, the children saw for the first time the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, the Icamiaba entering the beautiful bay between the Sugar Loaf Mountain and the Fortress of Santa Cruz, in all the glory of a Brazilian sunset.
"THE CHILDREN SAW FOR THE FIRST TIME THE HARBOUR OF RIO DE JANEIRO."
At the left was the curious mountain called Seria dos Orgaos, so named from its resemblance to a church organ. Charming islets dotted the bay, and orange trees, bananas, always green and loaded with fruit, and flowers everywhere met the eye.
Mountains seemed to rise from the sea; the cliffs are nearly perpendicular with scarce a yard of greensward at the water's edge, and they guard jealously the most beautiful harbour in the world. Scarcely two ships can enter between the islands marking the entrance of the bay, which is so narrow that the discoverer thought it a river and named it "Rio." Within, however, the sheet of water widens until it is a glorious inner sea, called by the Indians, "Nictheroy"—Hidden Waters.
The houses of the city, walled in stucco, are of a deep canary yellow with roofs tiled in deep red, turning to fire beneath the sun's departing rays.
"How beautiful it is," said the Senhora. "It seems to me my old home never looked so fair!"
"It is one of the most beautiful places in the world," said her husband. "See those large buildings, children. That is the Sailors' Hospital on Ilha da Governador,[11] which was once used as a hunting preserve by the royal family. It is a beautiful island and many strange things have happened there. One was the death of the founder of the city, Estacio de Sa. He was a famous Indian fighter, and here received a fatal wound from an arrow."