I Must Here Commemorate
What Happened For The First Time During Our Nearly Five
Years' Wandering, Namely, Having Met With
A want of politeness.
I was refused in a sullen manner at two different
houses, and obtained with difficulty from
A third, permission
to pass through their gardens to an uncultivated hill,
for the purpose of viewing the country. I feel glad that
this happened in the land of the Brazilians, for I bear
them no good will - a land also of slavery, and therefore
of moral debasement. A Spaniard would have felt ashamed
at the very thought of refusing such a request, or of
behaving to a stranger with rudeness. The channel by which
we went to and returned from Olinda, was bordered on each
side by mangroves, which sprang like a miniature forest out
of the greasy mud-banks. The bright green colour of these
bushes always reminded me of the rank grass in a church-yard:
both are nourished by putrid exhalations; the one speaks of
death past, and the other too often of death to come.
The most curious object which I saw in this neighbourhood,
was the reef that forms the harbour. I doubt whether
in the whole world any other natural structure has so artificial
an appearance. [6] It runs for a length of several miles in
an absolutely straight line, parallel to, and not far distant
from, the shore. It varies in width from thirty to sixty
yards, and its surface is level and smooth; it is composed of
obscurely stratified hard sandstone.
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