good citizens and useful members of society. The German who visits the Port Alegre colonies will find reason to be proud of his countrymen, who form one of the largest and most flourishing communities on this continent. They are also the happiest people on the face of the earth, and you see it depicted on their countenances. Long may they enjoy the Golden Age of their Arcadian simplicity and virtue !

While we were seated at dinner in the hotel, Major Johann Schmidt, commander of the district, came in to pay us a visit accompanied by Mr. Philip Matte, one of the richest colonists; neither of them spoke English, but we got on alternately with German and Portuguese. Mr. Schmidt was born here, but paid a visit to Germany in 1865, and was a spectator of the battle of Skalitz, in Bohemia. He gave me a great deal of information about the colonies, of which more hereafter. A friend of Matte's came in while we were playing billiards; each of these men, I am told, is worth over 20,000l. sterling.

It is a lovely moonlight evening, and a number of children are playing on a heap of shavings in the middle of the street, of which presently they make a bonfire, dancing round it with German

cries and interjections. My bed-room in the upper story is the neatest thing imaginable, and I lie down to dream of Rasselas and the Happy Valley, the villagers of the Rhine-gau, and the sunniest recollections of a life of travel.

The bell which summons the workmen to their labours, from the neighbouring Gothic steeple, awoke me about sunrise. I sallied forth to have a view of the place, and after a stroll on the river's bank, my attention was called to a refrain sung by children's voices in the church already mentioned. It was a Litany which some 80 boys and girls were singing, under the direction of a Jesuit father, who played the organ, just as we may suppose the Psalms and Litanies to have been sung in the Misiones in the last century, before the expulsion of the Jesuits. The children were all Germans, and their morning prayer echoed in the vaulted aisles of the Gothic building, which was supported by 8 pillars, and lighted by stained glass windows. I remarked that each of the children brought a bunch of flowers and left it in the portico of the church. There is a Protestant church at a short distance, and the foundations have been laid for a Municipal Hall.

The saw-mills were busily working, and the

children going to school with books and bottles of milk, when the town clock struck eight, and the heat was already excessive. I saw strange waggons (12 feet by 3) driven by boys, with loads of timber. Here and there I looked into the shops, which seemed well stocked, until the scorching sun drove me for shelter to the hotel.

As soon as the stately palm-trees began to cast their evening shadows athwart the streets the casements are again thrown open, and the little households seem to breathe the cool air with enjoyment. There is a sudden bustle in our street, as a procession of nine or ten couples, the men wearing white gloves, and the women in gala attire, came out of the Evangelical chapel, having just registered the vows of a bride and bridegroom, who lead the procession, and are the observed of all observers. They are young, honest-looking people, just the beau-idéal for colonists, and are followed by old ladies and gentlemen who have probably watched this Paul and Virginia couple from earliest infancy, and now accompany the bride to her new home, wishing her a long career of health and happiness such as has made up their own simple annals. I learn that the harmony between Catholics and Protestants is so great that intermar

riages are frequent, and you will often find the good man of the house a Catholic and his helpmate a Protestant, or vice-versa. In numbers the two persuasions are about equally represented, many of the colonists coming from the Rhenish or other Catholic provinces of Germany.

I have learned a good deal about the colonies from Mr. Curtius, editor of 'Der Bote,' and Mr. Philip Leopold Matte, which will form the subject of a separate chapter.

X.

INAUGURATION OF THE SAN LEOPOLDO

RAILWAY.

Sunday, November 26.

THE little town of San Leopoldo has been all astir since before sunrise, on account of the inauguration, which takes place this afternoon, of the railway works to Porto Alegre. The steamer yesterday brought numbers of people from the capital, who were at some difficulty to find quarters for the night, and sundry merchants and others from Porto Alegre availed themselves of the fine moonlight to make the journey on horseback, a ride of four hours, arriving here in the small hours of daylight and keeping our hostelry in a state of noisy excitement.

By the first streak of dawn you might see the Germans and natives coming in on horseback from the neighbouring hills while the church-bell was ringing for Mass, and the railway people were hurrying about in final preparation for the fêtes.