Having thus given an outline of the place at which I had arrived, I may now leave my quarters on board the brig and be allowed to land, which I accomplished on the morning subsequent to that of our entrance into the harbour. I was received upon the quay by my friend, a young Portugueze with whom I had been intimate in England and at Pernambuco. He told me it was necessary to go to the palace, for the purpose of presenting my passport, as the regulations of the port had for some time been most strictly followed, and several indeed had been lately added. I then, for the first time, recollected that I had no passport, having forgotten to obtain one, owing to the haste with which I left Pernambuco. This produced a demur, as my friend was afraid that I should be imprisoned, the governor not being friendly to Englishmen; however I determined to call myself the supercargo of the brig. We proceeded to the palace, the entrance to which was guarded by two sentinels, and we passed several others in going up the stairs into the anti-chamber, where we were received by a gentlemanlike officer, who heard what I had to say, asked no questions, and soon dismissed us. I thought I had seen the great man himself, but was undeceived, and heard that he seldom honoured any one with an audience. The officer to whom we had spoken was the lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of regular infantry. The guard at the palace consisted of one company; the muskets were piled in front of the chief entrance and appeared to be in good order. I soon discovered that St. Luiz was ruled with most despotic sway; the people were afraid of speaking, as no man knew how soon it might be his fate to be arrested, from some trifling expression which he might allow to escape him. The governor was so tenacious of the honours due to his situation, that he required every person who crossed the area in front of the palace to remain uncovered until he had entirely passed the whole building. Not that the governor was himself always in view, but this adoration was thought necessary even to the building within which he dwelt. The distinction, until then reserved, by the Romish church for its highest dignitaries, was however not thought by His Excellency too exalted for himself; the bells of the cathedral rang every time he went out in his carriage. Persons, even of the first rank in the place, were to stop, if in their carriages or on horseback, when they met him, and were to allow him to pass before they were again to move forwards.