26

N^o 18

Rio de Janeiro.

31st Aug. 1890

My dear Mother,

I wrote you a few lines the other day from the office. This will be the last letter that I shall date from Rio & before it leaves for England I hope to be in Bahia. I have had to stay here longer than I anticipated, but I don’t think Bahia will detain me & once in Pernambuco I shall fix my steamer & go with it, leaving the untaken orders for somebody else.

I have been very quiet this week, spending most of the evgs. in the hotel, writing or reading. I dined once more with Mr Lucius, & after dinner the young Englishmen boarding at the same house entertained us with a varied vocal & instrumental concert, ranging from Wagner to Gilbert & Sullivan, – very pleasant it was; I had not heard any music for a long time.

Last night I called at Gottos & found Mr & Mrs G. deep in stamps & albums. But what is interesting Mr G most just now is a picture, said to be a genuine Murillo, which he is trying to buy from an old native. They say the picture represents some saint or other, & the old gentleman is unwilling to part with it, not because he likes it, but because he has a vague idea that it is a valuable picture. He said to Mr Gotto “They say it’s by some fellow called Murillo, or something like that, but I don’t know; – I like the landscapes better.”

I hope to have a look at it tomorrow.

S.S. “Finance” 5th Sept.

Northward bound once more! I left Rio on the 3rd, having had altogether a very pleasant stay there; still I was glad to say goodbye to it & to make for Bahia, my last port but one.

On Monday evg. I dined for the last time at Gottos’ who crowned their many kindnesses by giving me an excellent farewell dinner. They have a first rate cook – no small blessing in a place like Rio where it is extremely difficult to find good servants, & having found them, to keep them. Mrs Gotto complains that as soon as she has trained a servant to orderly & clean ways, the servant takes another place, for preference & higher wages are always given to those who have been in English houses. The last maid they had was a “breaker”, & one day Mr G had to beseech her “by the love of all the saints” to leave – to leave at once, & by the back door, for if she were to go by the front door, she would break something on the way!

The next day I met Mr Gotto by appointment & we went to see the celebrated Murillo. I must say I was not very much surprised to find that the picture was a copy, – a good copy, of a well-known Murillo: it represents a dirty little beggar boy looking inside his shirt for – well perhaps for a lost stud.

The old gentleman – a “Commendador” – maintained that the picture was a genuine Murillo, & Mr Gotto let him down gently by suggesting that perhaps this was the original & the other one the copy.

From Rio to Bahia is a three days’ sail. Yesterday we had a head wind & the vessel pitched rather, & as I could not write, nor walk, nor sit comfortably, I lay in my bunk & read Ruskin on the Relation of Art to Morals, & was much edified thereby. A little Ruskin at a time is conducive to meditation, & I can always meditate best with my eyes closed, as Addie used to do over the preparation of his lessons.

Bahia  8th Sept   Have just recvd. pleasant letters from Father –  the last of 18th Aug. before starting for Russia – but yours have gone to Pernambuco. In future I must give you a copying-press or books specially prepared with carbon paper, so that you may send me duplicates of your letters to different places. We might screw the copying-press on the top of your Davenport.^[1]

I have not seen anyone here yet except the agent. Today is a holiday & I shall employ it in advancing a stage further my never-ending correspondence.

If I can manage it I shall write you a few lines again by the “Clyde” Royal Mail, due in 2/3 days.

With best love

Jack