"It is an easy step from the market to the theatre, and it may surprise you to know that this city of fifty thousand inhabitants has one of the finest theatres on the American continent. The interior reminds us of the Scala at Milan, or the San Carlo at Naples; it has five tiers of boxes, and each box has a little anteroom where the occupants receive and entertain their friends between the acts. And if no friends are calling, the ladies and gentlemen promenade in the corridors and through a large ball-room which fills the front of the building. Everybody likes this part of the entertainment better than the performance on the stage, and in order to accommodate them the waits between the acts are very long.
"The outside of the theatre has deep alcoves on three sides supported by massive pillars, affording shelter from the rain and furnishing a delightful promenade. When performances are given the square in front of the theatre is crowded with people and carriages, and the lights flashing from the interior illumine the scene with a brilliant glow. The building was erected just after the close of the war with Paraguay; to commemorate that event it was named "The Theatre of Our Lady of The Peace." That the city can afford such a theatre and support it is an indication of the commercial prosperity of Para.
THE GOVERNMENT PALACE AT PARA.
"There are six large churches in Para, and there are a post-office and a custom-house, together with the other public buildings of a first-class seaport. The government palace would do honor to any city in the world, and it has a marble staircase which is the perfection of architectural beauty. Then comes the Portuguese Hospital, which has few superiors anywhere; Dr. Bronson says it is a model of neatness and order, and bears every indication that it is admirably managed. A student of skin diseases would find a good field for observation in Para. The hot and damp air of the Amazon causes numerous sores, and they are very difficult to heal; the hospital is full of cases of this kind, and they tax to the utmost the skill of the physicians in charge.
"So much for Para, and now for its environs.
"Para is at the edge of a swamp, and so luxuriant is the vegetation in the rear of the city that it is said to be necessary to keep a sergeant and a squad of police constantly on guard to prevent encroachments. We are seventy-five miles from the sea, and the way thither is through the great estuary, or Para River, which is so wide that both banks are not visible at the same time.
"Para is on the southern side of this estuary; opposite is the island of Marajo, one hundred and fifty miles in length, and about one hundred miles wide in its broadest part. Half of it is covered with forest, and the other, the northeastern half, with an extensive campos or prairie, dotted here and there with clumps of trees. The forests are the haunt of rubber collectors, as the rubber-trees are abundant; the campos is an immense grazing land, with a curious history, which is told in this wise:
"The advantages of the island for raising cattle and horses were recognized by the early settlers, who founded estancias, or ranches, there, some of them of immense extent. At the end of the last century there were a million horses, and half as many oxen and cows, on the island; the horses were nearly or quite wild, and drove the cattle to the swamps where many of them died. About the year 1825, the settlers complained so much about the ravages of the horses that the government gave licenses permitting enterprising men to slaughter these animals for their hides, and the work of destruction went on rapidly. In a few years hundreds of thousands of horses had been killed off; the bodies were left to rot on the ground, and bred a pestilence which destroyed most of the remaining horses and cattle. Its effects still continue, and the farmers have sought the assistance of government to protect the remaining animals, and stop the ravages of the disease.