epcao_, is
very handsome, but the smell within is disgusting; the flooring is laid
in squares with stone, and within each square there is a panelling of
wood of about nine feet by six; under each panel is a vault, into which
the dead are thrown naked, until they reach a certain number, when with
a little quick-lime thrown in, the wood is fastened down, and then
another square is opened, and so on in rotation. From that church,
passing the arsenal gate, we went along the low street, and found it
widen considerably at three quarters of a mile beyond: there are the
markets, which seem to be admirably supplied, especially with fish.
There also is the slave market, a sight I have not yet learned to see
without shame and indignation[66]: beyond are a set of arcades, where
goldsmiths, jewellers, and haberdashers display their small wares, and
there are the best-looking shops; but there is a want of neatness, of
that art of making things look well, that invites a buyer in England and
France. One bookseller's shop, where books are extravagantly dear,
exists in the low town, and one other in the ascent to the upper.

[Note 66: Frezier says of Bahia, "Who would believe it? there are
shops full of those poor wretches, who are exposed there stark naked and
bought like cattle, over whom the buyers have the same power; so that
upon slight disgust they may kill them, almost without fear of
punishment, or at least treat them as cruelly as they please. I know not
how such barbarity can be reconciled to the maxims of religion, which
makes them members of the same body with the whites, when they have been
baptized, and raises them to the dignity of the sons of God--_all sons
of the Most High_.

"I here make this comparison, because the Portuguese are Christians who
make a great outward show of religion."--_Voyage to the South Sea_.]

The upper town is most beautifully situated on the ridge between the sea
and the fresh water lake, and from its height, and the great slope of
most of the streets, it is incomparably cleaner than the port. The
cathedral dedicated to St. Salvador is a handsome building, and stands
on one side of a square, where the palace, prison, and other public
buildings are placed. The finest of these, the Jesuits' college, the
marble columns of which came from Europe ready cut, is now converted
into a barrack. The most useful is the hospital of Nossa Senhora da
Misericordia[67], founded by Juan de Matinhos, whose statue