At some distance from the door, the Emperor and Empress alighted, and entered the church in procession, surrounded by the Knights of the Southern Cross; they were met by the Bishop and the whole body of the clergy, and conducted with great pomp to a throne erected at the right side of the altar, which the Emperor ascended, while his consort took her place in a pew on the left. After the service, performed by a good choir to excellent music, the Bishop came forward and delivered a very long discourse, descriptive of the various virtues of the Emperor, comparing him to Peter the Great of Russia, and pointing out how he ought to administer the government for the good of his subjects. The comparison he was pleased to institute between the monarch and his illustrious namesake is only so far just, as, in the uncultivated state of the two nations, both have had similar materials to work upon. Whether Don Pedro, with much greater means, will effect as much as our immortal Peter, time will show. One of the hopes of Brazil is already extinguished by the death of the Empress, who in a short time had done much for science and the arts. When the sermon was over, their Majesties returned to the Palace, amidst an uninterrupted firing of cannon. They then received the congratulations of the court, and at four o'clock the Emperor reviewed in the great market-place, where a temple was erected for the imperial family, a body of four thousand five hundred troops, formed in a half circle round the temple. In their venerable commander, Don José de Currado, a field-marshal, of eighty years of age, I joyfully recognised the former governor of St. Katharine's, who, on my first voyage round the world, under the command of the present Admiral Krusenstein, received me so hospitably. The observations I had an opportunity of making upon the soldiers, before the arrival of the Emperor, were not altogether unfavourable; though, it must be confessed, the good people seemed to have no very high notion of discipline; smoking, and all kinds of irregularities, being permitted even in the front ranks. Their uniform was handsome and suitable; that of the musicians chiefly attracted my attention. Every colonel of a regiment has the right of dressing his band according to his fancy; and as tastes are very various, so of course are these costumes, though the Asiatic predominates; some being attired as Turks, others as Indians. In one regiment, indeed, a quantity of coloured feathers, worn on the head and round the body, formed the only covering.