needless, and quite as inconvenient, as that of the Chinese:
Previous to the landing of the Ambassador, Dr. G. and myself
went on shore, and on stepping out of the boat we were accosted
by the officer on guard, who requested we would
follow him to the palace. “ Pray, gentlemen, what is the
object of your landing?” wffs the first question that was
p ut to us. We replied, “ To catch butterflies SI which was
really the case. To convince them, however, that we were
in earnest, and to avoid the appearance of levity or imper-
rnence, we unfolded our gauze nets, forcipes, and chip-
oxes, with the rest of the apparatus necessary for fly-catch-
f S Comprehending the nature of this occupation better
han the transit ot Venus, which we are told by Captain
Cooke the Viceroy conceived to be-the passing of the north
star through the south pole, they seemed to be satisfied in
this respect, and next inquired as to the situations we held in
the embassy, which having alsd ascertained to their satisfac-
. tion, an officer was immediately appointed to accompany us.
We proceeded to the skirts of the town, where myriads of
beautiful insects were fluttering in the air. Such swarms of
utterflies, particularly one species marked with black and
yellow bars, were hovering about the tops of the trees and '
the tall shrubbery, that in certain places they filled the air
like the flights of locusts in Southern Africa. Our pursuit
continued so long, that the officer, having no relish for the
chace, took an opportunity of slipping away and, to our
great satisfaction, leaving us at full liberty to follow our •
amusement. I t was pretended that the only reason for placing
a guard on every stranger was to protect him from being 1
robbed or insulted by the blagks or vagrants that might be
lurking about the skirts of the town; but on its being signified,
after the suite of the Ambassador had landed, that we
should very willingly dispense with such protection, we had
the pleasure to find that the spies on our conduct were
withdrawn.
The house provided for the Ambassador was sufficiently
large, but not very clean : and although it was represented as
b e i n g completely furnished,, there was, in reality, little in it
beside some clumsy old fashioned chairs of heavy wood, a
few tables, and wooden frames with cane bottoms, intended
for bedsteads, but without either posts or curtains. Fortunately
we took on shore our own bedding, by doing which
we soon discovered that we had lost nothing in point of comfort,
the Portugueze not being over nice in this respect.
Behind our dwelling-house was a long strip of ground, which
had formerly been a garden, but which was now in a state of
total neglect, and entirely 'overrun with weeds. To most of
the better sort of houses in St. Sebastian are annexed pieces
of ground, planted with fruits, flowers, and fragrant shrubs.
We had little reason to complain of the; climate of Rio
during our stay. Though the sun was just on the southern
tropic, a n d consequently nearly vertical, during our residence
here, yet we seldom suffered any inconvenience from heat,
or were prevented from taking our usual quantity of exercise.
The general temperature of the4 air in the day was from 76°
to 84° of Fahrenheit. The nights were by far the most disagreeable.
If we attempted to walk in the open air, the bats
or the fire flies (Lampyrus) were every moment threaten