The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-06-04

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To those who read French it is useless to say that
we had for dinner bread, butter, ale, st. Julien
claIet, soup, fish, outlets potatoes, abaca custard,
cOf1ee and segars.
To some Of your readers who have not been in
the tropics, the abaca or abacate-Englsh, alliga-
tor pear-may require explanation. 1t Is fruit in
size and shape resembling very large pear, grow
ing on tree not unlike the pear tree having, how
ever instead Of seeds, large pit in the centre. In
consistence when ripe, 1t resembles hard custard,
If custard can be called hard; in flavor it resem-
bes nut more than anything else can liken 1t to.
1t is eaten salad, with oil and vinegar, or as
dessert, with wine and sugar. 1t is delicious, and
quite wholesome.
The dinner was well enough. You would eat just
the same at any French restaurant, from Paris TO
Australia, all except the abacat4; but the curious
feature is the figures-eleven thousand, two hum
dred-something of startling amount for din
The Brazilian currency Is the oldest, and to stran-
gers the most perplexng, in the world. 1t is deci-
NAL. and the unit s an imaginary coin called rea-
Portuguese for ring rea Is rather more
q little more than Q cent. Our dinner, therefore,
costs II 200 reas or, cyphered out, some seven or
eight dollars. thousand reas make silver coin
CALLED mrae, about the size Of our half dollar.
There 10 no silver coin ofess value than the milrae
then you come to copper. Forty reas make copper
coin Of the size Of silver dollar, most clumsy, un-
wieldy coin. The old Spartan iron money must have
been q fool to it. One day in Rio, stepped into
WORTH presented milrae. Conceive my disn,ay
when the market woman gave me for change q
double handful of these copper coins called dumps
by the English sailors. l tried to explain that I
wanted some silver but the old negress only grnned.
Locking for some portable article in which to invest
my four five pounds Of copper, spied Fran
cscan ,riar begging. with bowl in his hand, in
which to receive the aims Seized with sudden fit
OF charity, dumped the whole load into his bowl.
He was literally overwhelmed, and showered know
not how many bencdictiops on me.
But to retarn to the hotel Fharoux: Dinner over,
pretty French woman who presided as dame du
n,'-nir. made out the bill copy Of which have
u;ven Won Cha had the prettien little hands in the
world. (except one p..ir.) and received the money
with smile, glance Of the we. and "Merc, Mon,
sier," all with agrace only FrencH "0p''n = 'a'ai
to.
We set out to view the town. In Rio was ~ree
ably disappointed. had some how connected with
it something Of the ete, WORKOUT aspect Of Panama
and the other Spanish American towns. / found
everything directly opPosite:-An the signs of
Of life and activity; streets thronged with people;
heavily laden carts, drawn always by mules driving
in every direction; gangs Of negroes trot merrily
through the streets, singing as they go, bearing
upon their heads sacks Of coffee an other mer-
chandise. Numerous carriages pass to and fro
coaches carts barouches, omnibuses. Houses mostly
one or two stories OF brick stone succeed rooted
with heavy semicylindrical tiles Streets very mar
row, scarcely more than fifteen feet; narrow side.
walks and cutters in the centre. There is scarce
room for vehicles to pass even by going on the side
walks. This inconvenience is obviated by regula-
ton requiring them to pass up certain streets and
down others. A hand or finger at the corner points
the direction. The narrow streets have the advan-
tagc Of giving you always shade on one side or the
other-not small one, under tropical sun.
Climbing Telegraph Hill, on the right of the town,
the whole city lay stretched before me like map
dense mass Of brick and mortar looking for all the
world as If 1t had been built up solid and then va
rious passages hewn through FOR streets. The pub
lie buildings are very ordinary. The palace is
poor afIair-a low, three story building Of white
stucco; IL seems better adapted for barracks Some
very elegant shops we saw, though generally small
The prettiest was one ALLIED entirely With feather