"On arriving safe in port they paid for a mass, and a few days afterwards went to the saint's quarters in procession, barefoot, bearing the sail through the streets, with the captain at their head. The offering was deposited in front of the church. A fair value was put upon it in presence of the priest; the captain laid down the money, and was handed a receipt stating the amount which the pious commander, Antonia Martinez Bezerra, had paid into the treasury of the saint—the value of his mainsail—in fulfilment of a vow made at the approach of a storm (naming the day), as an acknowledgment of the saint's miraculous interposition in behalf of himself, his ship, and his crew."
The same writer says that auctions of ships' sails which have been vowed to the saints for interposition are not yet obsolete. The captains always buy them in, and frequently the priests have some one to run them up to prevent their going too cheaply.
Our friends visited one of the hospitals, accompanied by a doctor to whom they had been introduced. Dr. Bronson was greatly pleased with the appearance of the place, and commended the excellence of its arrangements, its perfect cleanliness, and the evidence of careful training on the part of the physicians and nurses. Their escort told them that the cases most often under treatment in Rio were diseases of the respiratory organs, caused by the dampness of the climate and the prevailing heat. The mean annual temperature is 82° Fahrenheit, and the annual rainfall averages about forty-six inches. There is hardly a year without yellow fever; it is not usually fatal, but in some seasons there is great mortality from it. People from Europe and the northern cities of the United States suffer greatly from the heat for months after their arrival, and many of them flee to the mountains at the first opportunity.
From the hospital they drove to the Paseo Publico, a pretty garden within the city limits, and much resorted to as a promenade. There are gravelled walks shaded by tall palms and other tropical trees, and on the water front is a marble pavement, which is crowded on pleasant evenings by groups of well-dressed people, listening to the music, and indulging in conversation, which is never boisterous.
Hospitals, asylums, theatres, colleges, academies, schools, and similar institutions appropriate to a great city are not lacking in Rio, and their abundance and good management speak well for the administration of the government. Beyond the Botofago suburb is the Botanic Garden, which no visitor should neglect; it contains an avenue of palms not surpassed in any similar garden in the world, and there are other stately trees which tell of the tropical situation. The place is on the plan of the Experimental Gardens of the English colonies, or the Jardins d'Essai of the French, and forcibly reminded our young friends of what they had seen in Ceylon, Singapore, Algiers, and other places or countries on the other side of the world.
Most of the trees and plants of the continent of South America are cultivated in the Botanic Garden, and there are rare exotics from all parts of the globe. Frank espied a grove of cinnamon and clove trees at the same moment that Fred called his attention to a collection of tea-plants from China and Japan; Dr. Bronson pointed out a bread-fruit tree side by side with cacao and camphor trees, while not far off were maples and pines that seemed like old friends from the home of their boyhood. Many trees from tropical Asia have found a home in Brazil through the instrumentality of the Botanic Garden, which has demonstrated their fitness for the climate of South America.
THE AQUEDUCT.