Together with all these provisions for bodily comfort, Freycinet took with him a stock of the best scientific instruments, together with minute instructions from the Institute intended to direct his researches, and to suggest the experiments best adapted to promote the progress of science. The _Uranie_ reached Rio de Janeiro on the 6th of December, having put in at Gibraltar, and made a short stay at Teneriffe, one of the Canaries, which, as Freycinet wittily observes, were not Fortunate Islands for his crew, all communication with the land being forbidden by the governors. During their stay at Rio de Janeiro the officers took a great many magnetical observations and made experiments with the pendulum, whilst the naturalists scoured the country for new specimens and curiosities, making large and important collections. The original records of the voyage contain a long narrative of the discovery and colonization of Brazil, and detailed information on the customs and manners of the people, on the temperature and the climate, as well as a minute description of the principal buildings and the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro itself. The most curious part of this account is that which touches upon the gipsies, who, at that time, were to be met with at Rio de Janeiro. "Worthy descendants of the Pariahs of India, whence these gipsies without doubt originally came," says Freycinet, "they are noted like their ancestors for every vicious practice and criminal propensity. Most of them, possessing immense wealth, make a great display in dress and in horses, especially at their weddings, which are celebrated with much expense; and they find their chief pleasure either in riotous debauchery or in sheer idleness. Knaves and liars, they cheat as much as they can in trade, and are also clever smugglers. Here, as elsewhere, these detestable people intermarry only among their own race. They speak a jargon of their own with a peculiar accent. The government most unaccountably tolerates the nuisance of their presence, and goes so far as to appropriate to their exclusive use two streets in the neighbourhood of the Campo de Santa Anna." A little further on the traveller remarks,-- "Any one who saw Rio de Janeiro only by day would come to the conclusion that the population consisted entirely of negroes. The respectable classes never go out except in the evening, unless compelled by some pressing circumstance or for the performance of religious duties; and it is in the evening that the ladies especially show themselves. During the day all remain indoors, and pass the time between their couches and their looking-glasses. The only places where a man can enjoy the society of the ladies are the theatres and the churches."