Vianna and Santa Cruz are two islands lying in the north-west corner of the bay, about an hour’s run from the Caes Pharoux, the picturesque landing-stage and promenade of Rio. The journey across the bay is full of interest; indeed there is not a nook, corner, or islet of the great harbour that does not call forth some expression of admiration, surprise, or pleasure. The surrounding hills are ever changing in expression, and give a sense of security and protection to the shipping, large and small, that can never crowd the vast waters. Past the Islas de Cobras, with its naval barracks perched high up on a rocky base of grass-grown rock, the town grows smaller and smaller, until its wharves and buildings are lost in the distant haze. When the island of Vianna is reached, further surprise is in store for the visitor. Its owner, Senr. Antonio Lage, is the descendant of a French family, and calls himself a Brazilian, but he is really a cosmopolitan who can speak perfectly at least three languages, and who has relationships with distinguished foreigners in many lands. His life story is a Brazilian romance. His grandfather bought the island of Vianna in the harbour in 1856, to obtain the stone to build up warehouses on another island, Enxadas, which he had acquired in 1836 from the friars, whose convent still exists upon the island. In the warehouses he built, his son carried on the business of bonded warehouseman. Owing to the failure of a banking firm in 1864 the warehouse business was involved, and but for the intervention of an English house, Stephen Busk and Co., the Lages’ business must have ceased. [Illustration: END OF SANTA CRUZ.]