to me, though, by-the-bye, the system was only
productive of as much good as is compatible with pious fraud!

"What means all this? After reading such incomparable nonsense, should
your countrymen wish to be properly informed concerning the Society of
Jesus, there are in England documents enough to show that the system of
the Jesuits was a system of Christian charity towards their
fellow-creatures, administered in a manner which human prudence judged
best calculated to ensure success; and that the idolatry which you
uncharitably affirm they taught was really and truly the very same faith
which the Catholic Church taught for centuries in England, which she
still teaches to those who wish to hear her, and which she will continue
to teach pure and unspotted, till time shall be no more."

The environs of Pernambuco are very pretty. You see country houses in
all directions, and the appearance of here and there a sugar plantation
enriches the scenery. Palm-trees, cocoa-nut trees, orange and lemon
groves, and all the different fruits peculiar to Brazil, are here in the
greatest abundance.

At Olinda there is a national botanical garden; it wants space, produce,
and improvement. The forests which are several leagues off, abound with
birds, beasts, insects, and serpents. Besides a brilliant plumage, many
of the birds have a very fine song. The troupiale, noted for its rich
colours, sings delightfully in the environs of Pernambuco. The
red-headed finch, larger than the European sparrow, pours forth a sweet
and varied strain, in company with two species of wrens, a little before
daylight. There are also several species of the thrush, which have a
song somewhat different from that of the European thrush; and two species
of the linnet, whose strain is so soft and sweet that it dooms them to
captivity in the houses. A bird, called here _sangre do buey_ (blood of
the ox), cannot fail to engage your attention: he is of the passerine
tribe, and very common about the houses; the wings and tail are black,
and every other part of the body a flaming red. In Guiana there is a
species exactly the same as this in shape, note, and economy, but
differing in colour, its whole body being like black velvet; on its
breast a tinge of red appears through the black. Thus nature has ordered
this little tangara to put on mourning to the north of the line, and
wears scarlet to the south of it.

For three months in the year the environs of Pe