Following the conquistadores Author:John Augustine Zahm Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III BRAZIL'S OLDEST CAPITAL In a letter to his friend, Piero Goderini Gonfaloniere of Florence, the famous navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, tells us how,... more » during his fourth voyage to the New World, he discovered a harbor which he called the Bahia de Todos los Santos. Like many other names of places in South America, the original appellation of the harbor—Bay of All Saints—has been abbreviated and, for a long time, has been known simply as Bahia, the Spanish and Portuguese word for bay. The town which was subsequently founded on this bay was at first called by the Portuguese Sao Salvador da Bahia de Todos Os Santos. But the town, like the harbor and the state in which it is situated, is now also known as Bahia. Considering the size and beauty of the harbor and the perfect shelter it affords to shipping, its name Bahia—as if it meant a bay par excellence—is not altogether unjustified. For, with the exception of the matchless harbor of Eio de Janeiro, it is probably the best and most attractive bay in the Southern Continent. Our first view of this famous haven was on a beautiful morning in October, just a fortnight, almost to the hour, after we had left New York. Everyone was on deck as our steamer glided from the ocean into the bay, and few there were who could suppress exclamations of surprise and delight when the magnificent panorama composed of city and harbor burst on their enchanted vision. The bay is nearly thirty miles long and from ten to twenty in width. It is dotted with a number of charming islets and surrounded by a coastline clothed with tropical verdure. The city—thethird largest in Brazil—is divided into the "lower" and the "upper" town, and, as seen from the steamer, presents a picture of rarest beauty. The lower town consists of but a single narrow street ...« less