A history of the Brazil : $b comprising its geography, commerce, colonization, aboriginal inhabitants, &c. &c. &c.Henderson, James
History
A history of the Brazil : $b comprising its geography, commerce, colonization, aboriginal inhabitants, &c. &c. &c.
Henderson, James
Brazil; Brazil -- History -- To 1822
I was in the habit of frequenting it,
and as is the custom at the national library in Paris, the librarian
attends, immediately brings any book that may be required, and places
it upon a small reading desk on the table, with which each person is
accommodated. The very small number who attended consisted generally
of priests and friars. Manufactories have yet acquired no footing in
this city; there is however, one of sail-cloth, and another of silk
stockings; also, a few miles distant, at Andrahi, there are works for
printing cottons upon a small scale, and conducted by a person who has
been in England. Coarse cottons are manufactured in the interior of
Brazil, and they pass the shuttle with the hand, according to the mode
used in England formerly.
The only place of amusement in Rio is the theatre, erected within
the last few years, and which, in point of external appearance, is
beyond mediocrity. It contains four tiers of boxes on each side of the
house, thirteen in each tier, making, in the whole, one hundred and
four boxes, which are extremely gloomy, being shut in at the sides.
The royal box occupies the whole of the space fronting the stage,
above which there is a small gallery; and the pit contains about four
hundred persons. The orchestra is esteemed very tolerable; but the
performances are indifferent. Two French dancers and their wives are at
present the magnets of attraction; and there is great emulation between
them for the palm of superiority. The Campo St. Anna contains a large
building, erected for the purpose of bull-baiting; but the Brazilian
bull not possessing the fire and fury of this animal in Europe, was the
reason of its falling into disuse, and creditable would it be if so
irrational and cruel an amusement was discontinued. Within the last two
years, this building was the scene of the various feats in horsemanship
of Mr. Southby and his troop, for which it is well adapted. The clown,
soon acquiring some of the local peculiarities of the people, produced
amongst them a fund of merriment they had been little accustomed to;
and they expressed themselves more highly astonished and pleased
with those performances, and the wonderful display of agility by
Mrs. Southby on the tight rope, than any thing they had ever before
witnessed.
The city of Rio de Janeiro was taken by the French, in the year 1711,
under M. Duguay Truin, and afterwards recovered by the people. In the
preceding year, M. du Clerc had entered the town, conducted by two
fugitive negroes, from Ilha Grande.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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