The only ornament of this square is a fountain, and I almost think I should prefer it if the fountain were, in this case, taken away; for, as soft water is not very abundant in Rio Janeiro, the washerwoman's noble art pitches its tent wherever it finds any, and most willingly of all when, at the same time, it meets with a good drying ground.
The consequence is, that in the Largo St.Anna there is always such an amount of washing and drying, of squalling and screaming, that you are glad to get away as quickly as possible.
There is nothing remarkable in the appearance of the churches, either inside or out.

The Church and Cloister of St.Bento and the Church of St.Candelaria are the most deceptive; from a distance they have a very imposing look.
The houses are built in the European fashion, but are small and insignificant; most of them have only a ground-floor or single story,--two stories are rarely met with.

Neither are there any terraces and verandahs adorned with elegant trellis-work and flowers, as there are in other warm countries.

Ugly little balconies hang from the walls, while clumsy wooden shutters close up the windows, and prevent the smallest sunbeam from penetrating into the rooms, where everything is enveloped in almost perfect darkness.
This, however, is a matter of the greatest indifference to the Brazilian ladies, who certainly never over-fatigue themselves with reading or working.
The town offers, therefore, very little in the way of squares, streets, and buildings, which, for a stranger, can prove in the least attractive; while the people that he meets are truly shocking-- nearly all being negroes and negresses, with flat, ugly noses, thick lips, and short woolly hair.

They are, too, generally half naked, with only a few miserable rags on their backs, or else they are thrust into the worn-out European-cut clothes of their masters.
To every four or five blacks may be reckoned a mulatto, and it is only here and there that a white man is to be seen.
This horrible picture is rendered still more revolting by the frequent bodily infirmities which everywhere meet the eye: among these elephantiasis, causing horrible club-feet, is especially conspicuous; there is, too, no scarcity of persons afflicted with blindness and other ills.