em coeval with
the land itself: tufts of slender palms, here and there the broad head
of an ancient mango, or the gigantic arms of the wide spreading
silk-cotton tree, rise from out the rest in the near ground, and break
the line of forest: amidst these, the convents, the cathedral, the
bishop's palace, and the churches of noble, though not elegant
architecture, are placed in stations which a Claude or a Poussin might
have chosen for them; some stand on the steep sides of rocks, some on
lawns that slope gently to the sea-shore: their colour is grey or pale
yellow, with reddish tiles, except here and there where a dome is
adorned with porcelain tiles of white and blue. Just as we reached the
highest point of the town, looking across the woody bason round which
the hills are grouped, the smoke from one of the out-posts caught our
sight. The soldiers were standing or lying around, and their arms piled
by them: they were just shadowed by tall trees behind, between whose
trunks the scattered rays of the setting sun shed such a partial light
as Salvator Rosa himself would not have disdained. These same soldiers,
however, circumscribed our ride: we had intended to return by the inland
road, but were not allowed to pass into it, as part, at least, lies
without the posts, therefore we were obliged to return by the way we
came.

At the spot where the present guard is placed, and where indeed a strong
guard is peculiarly necessary, the river Bibiriba falls into the
aestuary, which was formerly the port of Olinda. A dam is built across
with flood-gates which are occasionally opened; and on the dam there is
a very pretty open arcade, where the neighbouring inhabitants were
accustomed in peaceable times to go in the evening, and eat, drink, and
dance. It is from this dam that all the good water used in Recife is
daily conveyed in water-canoes, which come under the dam called the
Varadouro, and are filled from twenty-three pipes, led so as to fill the
canoes at once, without farther trouble. We saw seven-and-twenty of
these little boats laden, paddle down the creek with the tide towards
the town. A single oar used rather as rudder than paddle guides the tank
to the middle of the stream, where it floats to its destination.

The sun was low, long before we reached even the first of the two
castles on our way back to the fort. The dogs had already begun their
work of abomination. I saw one drag the arm of a negro from beneath the
few i