Some new passengers have come for the south, one coffee-merchant, from Boston, you are told; the others all Brazilian. You have never met people more courteous than this Brazilian Senator and his wife, but their manners are very conservative compared with their countrymen, who are now taking leave of each other after a champagne party given down in the dining-saloon by those about to sail. The men literally embrace each other, in true Brazilian style, patting each other’s shoulder-blades, and their kissing is on both cheeks. A criticism I once heard there of an average gentleman of the United States was, “He had no manners whatever. Why, he did not even know enough to shake hands.” So from now on you must have your hand ready, and soon learn _bom dia_, good-day, to say to every one you really meet. [Illustration: DR. MANOEL FERRAZ DE CAMPOS SALLES PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL] [Illustration: DONA ANNA GABRIELLA DE CAMPOS SALLES. WIFE OF THE PRESIDENT.] A little over two days and you are about to enter the famous harbor of Rio de Janeiro. Deeply serrated mountains form the coast, with varying altitudes from one to four thousand feet, and the city of four hundred thousand people is so crowded by these precipitous heights that it must wind its way up several valleys and over the lesser hills with at least two cog-wheel railroads to the upper levels. These items have been told you by some new friends you have made on the ship, who are generous with all they know; and one man even brings you a paragraph he has copied from the _Encyclopedia Britannica_, which says: “The Bay of Rio de Janeiro has been the subject of poetic panegyric ever since it was discovered; and the traveler who comes to it after a voyage round the world seems as susceptible to its charm as if it were his first tropical experience. This bay is the very gate to a tropical paradise. There is nowhere so bold a coast, such a picturesque cluster of mountains, such a maze of inlets and outlets, such a burst of all-pervading vegetation. The actual entrance between Fort São João and Fort Santa Cruz is 1700 yards wide. Within there are fifty square miles of anchorage, or even more for vessels of light draught, the bay having a width varying from two to seven miles, and stretching inland from the sea for sixteen miles. Its coast line, neglecting minor indentations, measures sixty miles. Such a sheet of water would be beautiful anywhere; but, when on all sides it is surrounded by hills of the most varied contour, the beauty is enhanced a thousandfold. Its surface is broken by a large number of islands from Governor’s Island, six miles long, down to the little clusters.” This man, by the way, started from England for the round trip of the “Nile,” making altogether a two months’ voyage. He has a large state-room, with books, mostly of science and reference.