ression of his countenance
serious: his sparkling, lively eyes, concealed by overhanging eyebrows,
are generally fixed on the ground, and seldom even raised to the person
he is addressing. His lady forms a striking contrast with him: she is
young, handsome, lively in conversation, extremely amiable, and so
devotedly attached to him, that she exposes her life to the greatest
danger rather than leave his side, and has remained in his ship during
all his battles in the South American service.

Cochrane frequently expressed to me a wish to enter the Russian service,
in order to assist the Greeks, and fight the Turks. This object he has
since attained by other means. War appears to be an indispensable
necessity to his nature; and a dangerous struggle in a just cause is
his highest enjoyment. How this enthusiasm can be united to the great
love of money of which he is accused, it is not easy to imagine.

My short residence in Brazil passed rapidly and agreeably in my
necessary occupations, and the enjoyment of the charming environs of my
country-house. The effect which so total a change of climate and scenery
produces on European spirits, even when not experienced for the first
time, is really astonishing. The eye can fix on no one object which is
not directly the reverse of any thing to which it has been accustomed.
The birds, insects, trees, flowers, all wear a foreign aspect, even to
the blades of grass. By its strange forms and colourings, but especially
by its overflowing abundance, all nature here demands attention.
Throughout the day, myriads of the most beautiful butterflies, beetles,
and humming-birds, display their various colours in the sun, which has
scarcely set, before innumerable swarms of fire-flies illuminate the
scene. I had seldom time for excursions; therefore, as it usually
happens to sailors, I can say little of the interior.

Botafogo, where, on account of the salubrity of the air, the richest
and most distinguished of the inhabitants of Rio Janeiro have fixed
their country-houses, is the most attractive spot in the immediate
environs of the capital. Among the mountains which form the background
of the view from the Bay, is one solid rock, very remarkable from the
resemblance of its figure to an enormous church-steeple; it rises,
according to a geometrical admeasurement of our scientific companion
Lenz, to the height of fifteen hundred and eighty feet above the level
of the sea. With infinite pains, a