CHAPTER II.

"The far ships lifting their sails of white
Like joyful hands; come up with scattered light,
Come gleaming up, true to the wished for day,
And chase the whistling brine, and swirl into the bay."
REMINI. OF LEIGH HUNT.

The approach to Rio Janeiro, so far as God's fair handiwork is
considered, presents a bold, natural, and striking grandeur, and is,
perhaps, unsurpassed by that of any other land on earth. The mountains
spring abruptly from the sea, in massive, well-defined outline, assuming
at different points the most fanciful and grotesque shapes. Those to the
southward make in goodly proportion the figure of a man reclining on his
back, even to feet and eyes, while further inland are seen the narrow
tube-like cones of the Organ Mountains, shooting high up into the sky,
and then lower down, and around, are strewn lesser hills, sweeping and
undulating from vale to vale, in an endless succession of picturesque
beauty.

Passing the strait that opens into the bay, which appears narrower than
it really is, from the steep sides of adjacent heights, the river
expands, and stretching away on either shore, lie graceful curves and
indentations, whose snowy beaches are fringed with pretty dwellings,
half hidden beneath the richest tropical foliage. To the left stands the
city, built amidst a number of elevations, but like Lisbon, it has
neither spire nor dome to relieve the eye along the horizon. Yet this
drawback is in a measure lost sight of in contemplating the frowning
peak of La Gabia, which seems to hang over, and shade the town itself;
but take all in all there are few lovelier scenes the eye can gaze upon,
than Rio.

Just ten years had passed since I sailed from this noble bay, and
although I had been the wide world over, in stirring scenes, quite
sufficient as I indeed supposed to drive all recollections of it out of
my head, into dim obscurity and forgetfulness, yet as we approached the
harbor, every point and islet, fort, tower, reef, grove, and hamlet,
started vividly before me, as all appeared when I was a boy, and the
long years between dwindled away into minutes, and I fancied it but
yesterday since we had parted.

I greeted Lord Hood's nose like an old acquaintance, as it reposed in
gigantic outline, towering above the surrounding mountains; the small
island near the shore with the white tower that was then just begun; the
Su