At our feet lay the wide extent of city,—
gardens green with the giant foliage of the
bananas, and where the cocoa-palm lifted
aloft its feathery head interspersed amongst
red roofs and airy spires. On one side the
mountains rose grandly, the noble aqueduct
spanning the valley betwixt them and the
town. On the other lay the bay, the whole
circuit of whieh embracing an extent of a
hundred miles, was visible from this spot, with
the villages and country houses on its
shores. Nothing can exceed the courteousness
of the people of Rio to strangers, and
we had here a particular instance of it. The
keeper of the telegraph station, as we were
wandering round, came out and most politely
invited us to walk into his garden, and whatever
plant or flower we particularly admired, he
broke off a blossoming twig and presented it
to us with the most graceful bow and smile.
Amongst these were flowers of the tiglia, the
pimento, and the pomegranate. But he
observed us noticing a cluster of mormohn
apples, or, as Dampier styles them, mummy-
apples. These cluster around the top of the
stem, which appears like that of a tall,
slender palm which has had its head cut off
and only an odd straggling leaf or two left.
These apples, as they are called, are much
larger than real apples, of the yellow colour,
and with something of the flavour of
the melon.  Our courteous telegraph-officer
no sooner saw our eyes fixed on this singular
fruit, than, hastening for a long pole, he
climbed up an adjacent tree and poked some
of them down for us, presenting them with
all the grace of a nobleman. We could not
help querying whether a group of foreigners
would have met with such an official in our
own country.

And yet we soon found some of our own
countrymen as eager to oblige us. We
found ourselves in the Passeio Publico—
the public gardens—or promenade. This lies
at once close to the city, at the feet of
beautiful hills, and one side open to the bay. It
is planted with tropical trees of great variety,
and next to the bay is a noble promenade, to
which you ascend by a flight of steps. It thus
commands a full view of the gardens, and of
the bay, the waves of which come dashing up
splendidly against its outer wall. It is paved
with alternating black and white marble; at
each end stands a beautiful pavilion, and at
intervals, along the parapet-walls, stand tasteful
gaslights.

It is a spot admirably adapted to all the
purposes of public crjoyment, fêtes, concerts,
galas, and promenades. The emperor was
having the whole of the gardens fitted up
with gas; and seeing two workmen engaged
in laying down the pipes, we at once set them
down for countrymen.

They told us they were Scotchmen from
Glasgow, and finding that we were English
strangers, at once quitted their work to show
us the place. They pointed out such of the
trees as they had learned the names of, and
amongst, them the custard apple. There was
ripe fruit upon the trees, and the young
Scotchmen said, "Pelt away at them—
anybody does that here." As we declined to
"pelt away," however, in a public garden, they
themselves gathered sticks and stones and
sent them into the trees in good earnest.
But the trees were tall, and they
did not succeed. " Off with your shoes,
Sandy, and up and throw some down,"  said
one to the other. No sooner said than done.
Sandy ascended a tree with the agility of a
monkey, and soon sent down stores of fruit.
We did not, however, find these custard
apples much to boast of. They resemble an
orange in size and form, but are, when ripe,
nearly black. Their rind is tough, and the
interior is filled with a muddy-looking pulp—
rather insipid— in which are abundance of
seeds of the size of small beans of a spicy
flavour, which the people eat with the pulp.
Our Scotchmen informed us that when they
had completed their contract, they meant to
proceed to Australia.

Quitting them we made an excursion in
the opposite direction to see the emperor's
palace, near San Christovao. An omnibus
conducted us to the spot, proceeding over a
green where hundreds of negresses were busy
washing and spreading their linen on the
grass, while black babies lay and kicked up
their heels in the sun at their sides, and troops
of bigger sable children tumbled about on the
green sward. Our way then led through
extensive suburbs and past pleasant villas,
over a level country for four miles. We
found the palace situated in a beautiful country,
amongst quiet hills, with fine ranges of
mountains on either hand. We passed through
a handsome gateway at the commencement
of the demesne, but unconnected with any
fence, the whole seeming to lie quite open to
the public. Over the gateway were placed
vases with living aloes and pine-apples in
them. The gates were of gilt-bronze, and
beautiful, with the royal arms in the centre.
A paved road led up a gentle ascent, through
an avenue of fine mangueira-trees, dark and
rich of foliage. The house consists of two large
square masses of building tinted of a pale
salmon colour, ornamented with Doric
pilasters, and surmounted by a balcony, on a
level with the second story; the roof flat,
and enclosed by a stone balustrade. These
two buildings are united by a lower one of a
different character. A fine Roman gateway
in front appeared never to have been used,
but to be falling into disorder, the drive
from the palace to the highway, passing not
through it, but by it.

As we approached, the emperor and
empress in a carriage drawn by four handsome
mules, and attended by a number of
guards in blue uniform, mounted, passed us.
Their imperial highnesses returning our hat-
homage, as George Fox would call it, with