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stantly displaced by jolting, and the stumbling of the beasts over the rough road. As these attentions to the load grew frequent, I began to fear for the bodies of the mules, and ventured to mention my apprehensions.

'Never fear, senhor,' replied the tropeiro; 'the tighter a mule’s girths, the surer his step.'

At the first halt I thought I saw something like the thread of a screw marked upon the leather of my trunks; the next day the covering gave way, and had it not been for the assistance of a fazendciro, who placed his canastras at my disposal, I should have been obliged to return, leaving my baggage on the road.

As in all cities distant from their political centre, the inhabitants of Pernambuco have been for a long time bent upon a fixed idea—separation from the central government. This city is in fact almost as far, practically, from Rio Janeiro as from Lisbon. Before the establishment of regular steam communication, several months sometimes passed by without any news from the capital, The central government scarcely made itself felt except in levying duties, and the Pernambucans indulged in bitter reflections on this subject. On the other hand, their adventurous character impelled them to bold enterprises. Whether it was that the Dutch, who long made war in that region, had left some germs of their independent nature, or that relations with the continent had revived the old Portuguese blood, it is certainly true that it is in this city that one finds the most liberal aspirations. Hence, within about half a century, the inhabitants of Pernambuco have at various times attempted to shake off the yoke of the metropolis and realize their double dream of a republic and independence. Though several of these insurrections were serious, I do not think the desire to be emancipated, of which they were the evidence, can ever be gratified, The province of Rio Grande de Sul, situated at the other extremity of the empire, and which, for analogous reasons, attempted to constitute itself a separate State, likewise failed, and yet the Brazilians had to deal with men knowing the worth of liberty, inured to fatigue, and reputed the best horsemen of South-America. Let us add that these secession tendencies are every day diminishing. The constitutional government of the Emperor no longer gives rise to political recriminations, The steamers that constantly plough the Atlantic render the hand of power more impressive, and constantly destroy the old isolation by facilitating communications, and thus make known to Pernambuco that she is at once too weak and too strongly impregnated with the Portuguese spirit to form a separate State like Montevideo.

We have seen in Pernambuco a city in which the influence of capital is counteracted by many opposite influences. If we desire to become acquainted with a city that more exactly represents Portuguese civilization in Brazil, we must go to Bahia. Of all the cities of the coast, there is none more charming. True, the lower part, which borders upon the shore, is tainted, like the rest, with fever and the negroes; but there is nothing more charming than the esplanade that overlooks the roadstead, and to which the breeze constantly brings the pure, fresh air of the ocean. Those hills that I before saluted at Pernambuco as an apparition of the promised land, I again found at Bahia, and later at Rio Janeiro, always flooded with light and perfume. It is like one garland of flowers stretching along the coast for more than a thousand leagues, bending occasionally before the impetuous course of a wave, and instantly rising again more brilliant than ever, as if to fascinate the eye of the navigator. Nothing can be more majestic than this