dress-regimentals
hastened to their various places of rendezvous; and the negroes,
released from labour, formed a part of the cheerful throng. At eleven
o'clock, the Emperor and Empress, in a magnificent carriage drawn by
eight horses, and escorted by a troop of guards in handsome uniforms,
arrived at the principal church. A number of carriages, containing the
suite of the Imperial pair, followed, all at a slow pace, that the
people might have more time to enjoy the spectacle.

At some distance from the door, the Emperor and Empress alighted, and
entered the church in procession, surrounded by the Knights of the
Southern Cross; they were met by the Bishop and the whole body of the
clergy, and conducted with great pomp to a throne erected at the right
side of the altar, which the Emperor ascended, while his consort took
her place in a pew on the left. After the service, performed by a good
choir to excellent music, the Bishop came forward and delivered a very
long discourse, descriptive of the various virtues of the Emperor,
comparing him to Peter the Great of Russia, and pointing out how he
ought to administer the government for the good of his subjects. The
comparison he was pleased to institute between the monarch and his
illustrious namesake is only so far just, as, in the uncultivated state
of the two nations, both have had similar materials to work upon.
Whether Don Pedro, with much greater means, will effect as much as our
immortal Peter, time will show. One of the hopes of Brazil is already
extinguished by the death of the Empress, who in a short time had done
much for science and the arts. When the sermon was over, their Majesties
returned to the Palace, amidst an uninterrupted firing of cannon. They
then received the congratulations of the court, and at four o'clock the
Emperor reviewed in the great market-place, where a temple was erected
for the imperial family, a body of four thousand five hundred troops,
formed in a half circle round the temple. In their venerable commander,
Don Jose de Currado, a field-marshal, of eighty years of age, I joyfully
recognised the former governor of St. Katharine's, who, on my first
voyage round the world, under the command of the present Admiral
Krusenstein, received me so hospitably. The observations I had an
opportunity of making upon the soldiers, before the arrival of the
Emperor, were not altogether unfavourable; though, it must be confessed,
the good people seemed to ha