The ladies are carried in palanquins, and each received at the street
entrance by the master of the house--or if there be more than one lady,
by some gentlemen deputed for that purpose--who takes her hand, and so
ushers her up stairs. There is much of this elaborate gallantry
observable in the manner of the Portuguese towards the sex. Thus, a man
never passes a lady in the street, or in her balcony, without taking off
his hat, and this whether he be acquainted with her or not. We
understand they used to offer a similar mark of respect to the English
ladies, but desisted on finding that our gentlemen did not reciprocate
in the same homage towards the fair _Portuguezas_. I don't think that
this difference in the manners of the two people does us credit. Not
that all that kind of homage means much. In this, as in a more serious
concern, our southern neighbours may seem to have the advantage in the
practices of external devotion; but it would be a mistake to infer from
thence, that there is with us less of that service of the heart, which,
after all, is the one thing needful. The party was large, probably two
hundred, including most of the native rank and fashion of the island. We
found the ladies all seated together in one room, and the effect of this
concentration was sufficiently dazzling. Some people deny that there is
any standard of female beauty; and, at any rate, there is no doubt but
that habits and associations, as well as complexional and sentimental
considerations, interfere more with our perceptions in respect to this
than any other object of taste. It is not immediately that we enter into
the merits of a style of beauty very different from that which we have
been accustomed to. Perhaps it is owing to this circumstance that I was
not struck by so many instances of individual attractiveness as might
have been expected in so crowded a galaxy. The traits that first strike
a stranger in a Portuguese belle, are the tendency to _embonpoint_ in
the figure, and to darkness--I had almost said swarthiness, in
complexion. This last character, however, is not particularly obvious by
candle-light; and it is always relieved by the most raven hair, and eyes
such as one seldom sees elsewhere, so large and black; if their fire
were softened by a longer lash, and their expression less fixed, there
would be no resisting them. I fancy, too, that their effect would be
rather greater in a _tête-à-tête_ than in a circle like this, where,
looking round, one sees on all sides the same eyes--and which all (it is
everywhere the reproach of black eyes) say always the same thing. Their
dress was perfectly in the English fashion; and, in general, there was
something not un-English in their _mise_ and _tournure_. The superiority
of French women in these matters is incontestable. Perhaps we may
account for it something on the principle by which Dr. Johnson explained
the excellence of our neighbours in cookery, when he suspected that the
inferiority of their meats rendered indispensable some extraordinary
skill in dressing it. The general arrangement and progress of the
evening was very English too. They dance remarkably well, the men as
well as the women. Indeed, it is, I believe, the great end and
occupation of the earlier part of their existence. We came away at two
o'clock; few of the English staid later; but among the Portuguese, the
more ardent spirits kept up the dance till long after day-break, when it
is customary to serve up _caldo_, a sort of chicken-broth, for their
refreshment.--_Ibid_.
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