She narrates that a peasant once killed a big anaconda, and that the other, or chum snake, followed the man several miles to the house where he had taken the dead one, got in by the window, and crushed the destroyer of his friend to death.

I expect that some salt is necessary to swallow this tale, but such is the statement Mrs.B---- makes.
The most lovely birds and butterflies are found near Rio, and the finest collections in the world are made there.

The white people are Portuguese by origin--not a nice lot to my fancy, though the ladies are as usual always nice, especially when young; they get old very soon through eating sweets and not taking exercise.

There is very little poverty except among the free blacks, who are lazy and idle and somewhat vicious.

I always have believed that the black man is an inferior animal--in fact, that the dark races are meant to be drawers of water and hewers of wood.