open area—glaring emblem of the brilliant exploits of the
Portugueze nation in earlier times !
In accomplishing a plan for affording a convenient and
ample supply of-water to every part of the town, an article of
the first necessity in all situations, but more especially so in a
warm climate, the government has shewn a laudable attention
; and the name of Vasconcellas, the Viceroy under whose
administration the works were constructed, is very properly
recorded in an appropriate Latin inscription, engraven on one
of the sides o f the obelisk in the great square. All the fountains
derive their supply of water from a large reservoir,
which is constructed on the summit of a hill just above the
town. This reservoir is fed by means of an aqueduct, raised
on arches across a deep valley, on the opposite side of which
the water is received into it from a succession of stone
troughs, laid under an arched covering of brick-work to the
spring-heads in the mountains. That part of this great work
which crosses the valley, and communicates immediately with
the reservoir, seems to be as unnecessary as it must have been
expensive; it is supported on a double tier of lofty arches,
consisting of more than forty in each row, and is no incon-
sideihble ornament to the city, as will readily be perceived by
the annexed view. A series o f pipes laid along or under the
surface would unquestionably have answered the purpose of
conducting the water equally well; but, as Sir George
Staunton has justly observed, “ shew and magnificence,
as well as utility, are sometimes the objects of public
“ works,”