156 MARTIN RATTLER.

for which purpose the canoe was unloaded, and the
bales were opened out for his inspection. Most of
these planters were Brazilians, a few were Yankee
adventurers, and one or two were Scotch and English ;
but nearly all had married Brazilian ladies, who, with
their daughters, proved good customers to the old
trader. Some of these ladies were extremely “ purty
craturs,” as Barney expressed it; but most of them
were totally uneducated and very ignorant—not
knowing half so much as a child of seven or eight
years old in more favoured lands. They were very
fond of fine dresses and ornaments, of which consider-
able supplies were sent to them from Europe and the
United States, in exchange for the valuable produce
of their country. But, although their dresses were
fine and themselves elegant, their houses were gener-
ally very poor affairs—made: of wood and thatched
with broad leaves; and it was no uncommon thing to
see a lady, who seemed from her gay dress to be
fitted for a drawing-room, seated on an earthen floor.
But there were all sorts of extremes in this strange
land; for at the next place they came to, perhaps,
they found a population of Negroes and Indians, and
most of the grown-up people were half naked, while
all the children were entirely so.

At one plantation, where they resolved to spend a