- In the afternoon we stood out to sea, with
the intention of making a direct course to the Cape de Verd
Islands. Unfavourable winds, however, delayed us, and on
the 12th we ran into Pernambuco, - a large city on the
coast of Brazil, in latitude 8 degs. south. We anchored outside
the reef; but in a short time a pilot came on board and
took us into the inner harbour, where we lay close to the
town.
Pernambuco is built on some narrow and low sand-banks,
which are separated from each other by shoal channels of
salt water. The three parts of the town are connected together
by two long bridges built on wooden piles. The town is in
all parts disgusting, the streets being narrow, ill-paved,
and filthy; the houses, tall and gloomy. The season
of heavy rains had hardly come to an end, and hence the
surrounding country, which is scarcely raised above the
level of the sea, was flooded with water; and I failed in
all my attempts to take walks.
The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands is surrounded,
at the distance of a few miles, by a semicircle of
low hills, or rather by the edge of a country elevated perhaps
two hundred feet above the sea. The old city of
Olinda stands on one extremity of this range. One day I
took a canoe, and proceeded up one of the channels to visit
it; I found the old town from its situation both sweeter and
cleaner than that of Pernambuco.
