better dressed, and are now employed in regular turn of duty
with the royal troops, who are going over to the patriots daily.

Calling at the palace this forenoon, we learned that a hundred Indians
are expected in the town, by way of assistance to the garrison. They
wear their aboriginal dress, and are armed with slings, bows, and
arrows. We are told their ideas of government consist in believing that
implicit obedience is due both to king and priests. Brandy is the bribe
for which they will do any thing; a dram of that liquor and a handful of
mandioc flour being all the food they require when they come down to the
port.

This evening, as there are no horses to be hired here, we borrowed some
from our English and French friends, and rode to Olinda by the long
sandy isthmus, which connects it with Recife. This is the isthmus
fortified with a palisade, by Sir John Lancaster, during his stay at
Recife, which he plundered.[48] The beach is defended by two castles,
sufficiently strong when their situation is considered; on one side a
furious surf breaking at their base, on the other a deep estuary and
flat ground beyond, so that they cannot be commanded. The sand is
partially covered by shrubs; one is very splendid with thick leaves and
purple bell-shaped flowers; many are like those of the eastern world;
many are quite new to me. I was surprised at the extreme beauty of
Olinda, or rather of its remains, for it is now in a melancholy state of
ruin. All the richer inhabitants have long settled in the lower town.
The revenues of the bishopric being now claimed by the crown, and the
monasteries suppressed for the most part, even the factitious splendour
caused by the ecclesiastical courts and inhabitants is no more. The very
college where the youths received some sort of education, however
imperfect, is nearly ruined[49], and there is scarcely a house of any
size standing.

[Note 48: See Introduction, p. 20.]

[Note 49: This was the Jesuits' college founded under the
administration of the admirable father Nobrega, and his companion De
Gram. Here at eighteen years' old the celebrated Viera read lectures on
rhetoric, and composed those commentaries on some of the classics, which
were unfortunately lost in the course of the civil wars.]

Olinda is placed on a few small hills, whose sides are in some
directions broken down, so as to present the most abrupt and picturesque
rock-scenery. These are embosomed in dark woods that se