“. . . . . The English, when strangers here, are so
suspicious of the natives as to be very rash in misinterpreting them. A young
man, whom I knew, fired at the watch one night when they accosted him: the ball
passed through the watchman’s hat; he was seized and confined, and it
required interest and money to excuse him for what was inexcusable. My
uncle, walking one night with a
midshipman, was stopt by persons bearing a young man who had been run through
the body by a lieutenant; they
| 66 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 26. |
“As yet we have not done receiving all our visits of ceremony. We are going, the first night we are at liberty, to the Portuguese play. The court have shown a strange caprice about the Opera: they permitted them to have a few female singers, and the proprietors of the Opera sent to Italy for more and better ones. They came. No! they would not license any more; the present women might act, but not the new comers. You must not expect me to give you any reason for this inconsistency; ’tis the sheer whim of authority; but an odd reason was assigned for permitting two, who still act—one because she is very religious, the other because she is Portuguese and of a certain age.
“On Sunday a princess was christened. In the evening the
guns fired a signal for all persons to illuminate. It was a pleasing sight from
our window: the town all starred, and the moving lights of the shipping. . . .
. But the river, seen by moonlight from hence, is a far finer spectacle than
art can make. It lies like a plain of light under the heaven, the trees and
houses now forming a dark and distinct foreground, and now undistinguishable in
shade as the moon moves on her way;—Almada stretching its black isthmus
into the waters, that shine like mid-
| Ætat. 26. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 67 |
“They have a singular mode of fishing at Costa, a sort
of wigwam village on the sands south of the bar. The gang of fishermen to each
net is about fifty, all paid and fed by the captain regularly,—not
according to their success. Half hold one end of a rope, the other is carried
off in the boat; the rope is about half a mile in length, the net in the
middle. A high surf breaks on the shore; the men then thrust off the boat,
themselves breast-deep, and stooping under every wave that meets them; the
others row round to shore, and then they all haul in. This place is about nine
miles only from Lisbon, and yet criminals run away there and are safe.
Sometimes a magistrate goes down, but they always know that he is coming, and
away to the woods for
| 68 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 26. |
“Lord Somerville went by the last packet. I did not see him; he would have called one evening, but my uncle, knowing him pressed for time, begged him to waive the ceremony. I have been very industrious, and continue so—rise early, and never waste a minute. If I am at home without visitors, I go from book to book; and change is more relief than idleness. The American minister called on me after supper on Tuesday; this was somewhat familiar, and, I apprehend, was meant as civility. God bless you.
