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the end of it, was hung upon her wrist, and appeared to receive her devout attention. Having repeatedly passed this interesting group, and fancying that they noticed me with some emotion, I ventured to compliment them en pasant, which courtesy they returned with evident pleasure; and every succeeding salutation produced a longer dialogue than the preceding; till at length the old lady one evening invited me to eater, and sit down; but not on the floor, for they had chairs, as well as other furniture, of an elegant but simple kind. These good ladies put several questions to me respecting the English Governor (as they styled him) my situation in his family, name, &c. I informed them, as fully as I could find words for; and telling them my name in Portuguese, they ever afterwards called me Senor Jacobe, it not being their custom to use surnames. I had the pleasure to find that we understood each other tolerably well, and gathered from them, that the old lady was called Senora Donna Joaquima Roza de Lacè; (as the Vicar of Wakefield says, I love to give the name at full length;) she was the widow of a military officer in the Portuguese service, and enjoyed a pension from the government, upon which, and the earnings of her accomplished daughters, she lived in a private, but genteel manner: the latter were named Donna Anna Precioza, Donna Joaquima, and Donna Joanina. The mother was a most agreeable woman, courteous and affable to a
