A small row of houses
already formed a street, and on a large space that had been cleared
away stood the wooden carcase of a larger building--the Imperial
Villa, which, however, would have some difficulty in presenting
anything like an imperial appearance, on account of the low doors
that contrasted strangely with the broad, lofty windows. The town
is to be built around the villa, though several detached houses are
situated at some distance away in the woods. One portion of the
colonists, such as mechanics, shop-keepers, etc., had been presented
with small plots of ground for building upon, near the villa; the
cultivators of the soil had received larger patches, although not
more than two or three yokes. What misery must not these poor
people have suffered in their native country to have sought another
hemisphere for the sake of a few yokes of land!
We here found the good old woman who had been our fellow passenger
from Germany to Rio Janeiro, in company with her son. Her joy at
being once more able to share in the toils and labours of her
favourite had, in this short space of time, made her several years
younger.
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