The preparations for the fair created some bustle, as during the whole of the previous day, particularly towards evening, canoes continued to arrive from all quarters with articles for sale; and from the inland part of the country numbers of horses came into the village laden with merchandize. As I slept in the canoe, which was moored amidst a number of others, I was awoke early on the morning of the fair, by the noise of a motley multitude of men, women, and children of all colours, from the deep black African, to the scarcely white inhabitants of Brazil. The place where the market is usually held being then under water, the crowd had assembled on an elevated part of the river bank towards the west end of the town, opposite to which all the canoes were made fast alongside each other. As soon as I was dressed, I took a walk through the crowd to observe the kind of goods exposed for sale, and as might be expected I found them extremely various, consisting, principally, of articles of food and dress. Among others of inferior note may be particularized the following as being the most abundant:—Farinha de Mandiocca, dried beef, large fish, mostly sturgeon, from the river, dried in the sun, sugar in large loaves shaped like cheeses, or in smaller ones in the form of bricks, molasses in large leathern bottles, fresh beef, bananas, soap, shoes, English cotton, cloth and prints, ropes made from the fibre of native plants, tobacco, planks and posts for house building, earthen-ware cooking utensils, and water pitchers, brought by the Indians, leather, hides, rum, &c. The great variety in the style of dress adopted by these people, is the first thing to strike the eye of a stranger. The better classes wear either light jackets and trowsers, or shirt and trowsers only, over which they put a long dressing-gown of printed cotton, to which is added during the cool of the morning and evening, a cloak of Scotch tartan. They seldom wear stockings, but have their bare feet thrust into a pair of brown leather slippers. The country people generally wear a broad brimmed hat made of leather, and sometimes a leathern jacket; but most commonly their only covering consists of a pair of thin cotton drawers, which reach a little below the knee, and a shirt of the same stuff hanging loose outside of them. The negroes usually dress in the same manner as the whites, but the women have much more taste than the men, many of whom appear literally in rags, though apparently as happy in this attire, as if they were of the best description. I observed here more of the aboriginal inhabitants of Brazil, than I had seen at one time before; many of them bore evident signs of having a mixture of white, and others of black blood in their veins, but not in sufficient quantity to destroy the peculiar obliquity of the eyes, and the lank black hair of the American race.