fruitfulness of the soil more luxuriant and vigorous than in any
other part of the world, and that every one who desires to see the
working of nature in its greatest force and incessant activity, must
come to Brazil; still it must not be thought that all is good and
beautiful, and that there is nothing which will not weaken the
magical effect of the first impression.

Although every one begins by praising the continual verdure and the
uninterrupted splendour of spring met with in this country, he is,
in the end, but too willing to allow, that even this, in time, loses
its charm. A little winter would be preferable, as the reawakening
of nature, the resuscitation of the slumbering plants, the return of
the sweet perfume of spring, enchants us all the more, simply
because during a short period we have been deprived of it.

I found the climate and the air exceedingly oppressive; and the
heat, although at that period hardly above 86 degrees in the shade,
very weakening. During the warm months, which last from the end of
December to May, the heat rises in the shade to 99 degrees, and in
the sun to above 122 degrees. In Egypt, I bore a greater amount of
heat with far greater ease; a circumstance which may perhaps be
accounted for by the fact, that the climate is there drier, while
here there is always an immense degree of moisture. Fogs and mists
are very common; the hills and eminences, nay, even whole tracts of
country, are often enveloped in impenetrable gloom, and the whole
atmosphere loaded with damp vapours.

In the month of November I was seriously indisposed for a
considerable period. I suffered, especially in the town, from an
oppressive feeling of fatigue and weakness; and to the kindness and